Chapter 243: Unexpected Harvest

Inside the stone chamber.

Qin Ming opened each of these bottles one by one to inspect them.

He discovered that the first few bottles contained nothing but medicinal pills.

Among them, one bottle even held Fu Yuan Pills, capable of enhancing the magic power of those in the late Foundation Establishment stage, sharing a similar effect with the Yu Xuan Dan refined by Qin Ming.

Immediately after, Qin Ming opened another porcelain bottle, only to find it contained some spiritual seeds.

He promptly poured out the spiritual seeds to carefully identify them for a while, his face revealing an expression of great surprise and delight.

Seeing him so happy, the Shi Tian Shu beside him couldn't help but ask, "Master, what are these spiritual seeds?"

"They are several rare, top-grade second-tier spiritual plant seeds," Qin Ming replied.

After storing the spiritual seeds away, he picked up a jade bottle, preparing to open it.

Yet no matter how hard Qin Ming tried, using all his strength, he found he could not open this jade bottle, which left him puzzled.

If he were to break it open by brute force, he feared damaging the contents inside.

"Master, let me try!" the Shi Tian Shu beside him said, spotting an opportunity to merit praise.

Qin Ming immediately handed the jade bottle over to the Shi Tian Shu.

The Shi Tian Shu took the strange jade bottle, spat out a beam of pitch-black mysterious light to begin breaking the seal, and after a full incense stick's worth of time passed.

The seal above was finally removed.

"What exactly is inside here? To actually be sealed with a top-grade third-tier restriction," the Shi Tian Shu exclaimed in wonder.

"A top-grade third-tier restriction?" Upon hearing this, Qin Ming grew even more astonished.

He then took the jade bottle back from the Shi Tian Shu, gently lifted the stopper, and instantly a strong bloody qi and evil aura rushed into his nose.

Both Qin Ming and the Shi Tian Shu simultaneously perked up, gazing into the bottle.

Inside, they saw it half-filled with golden blood, emitting a terrifying pressure different from that of ordinary demonic beasts.

"It's actually the essence blood of a high-tier demonic beast!" Qin Ming exclaimed with pleasant surprise.

"No! This aura..."

The Shi Tian Shu merely sensed it slightly before stammering, "Not only that, but it is also the bloodline of a Wang Zu among the demon races..."

"Oh? Do you recognize this essence blood?" Qin Ming asked immediately upon hearing this.

The Shi Tian Shu nodded, "I can sense the beast soul within the essence blood; it belongs to the Mountain-Mount Giant Ape, one of the Wang Zu of demonic beasts."

Upon hearing this, Qin Ming couldn't help but freeze, his expression filled with disbelief.

"Mountain-Mount Giant Ape..."

This reminded him of the thousand-zhang giant ape that appeared when he cultivated the Hundred Beasts Contemplation Diagram, which also originated from the lineage of the Mountain-Mount Giant Ape.

"A second-tier perfect realm Mountain-Mount Giant Ape; such a terrifying existence would make even the Double-Pupil Demon Ape appear inferior by comparison."

"How did the essence blood of such an unparalleled ferocious beast end up in the hands of the Zhao family's Laozu?" Qin Ming asked, perplexed.

The Shi Tian Shu observed the jade bottle for a while before speaking, "Judging by this bottle, its history spans at least several thousand years; it likely wasn't obtained by Zhao Wuyang through killing."

"Perhaps it is a relic left behind in this stone chamber; that would make sense," Qin Ming nodded, his heart subsequently surging with excitement.

He hadn't expected to obtain such a harvest here.

With this essence blood of a second-tier perfect realm Mountain-Mount Giant Ape, he would be able to fully cultivate the third transformation of True Gang Form Change!

'It seems that choosing the Mountain-Mount Giant Ape from the Hundred Beasts Contemplation Diagram back then, and now obtaining its essence blood at the final step of the Foundation Establishment chapter of the 'Heavenly Demon Body Refining Strategy', appears to be the will of heaven working in mysterious ways.'

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Qin Ming carefully stored this bottle of essence blood away.

He then inspected the other jade bottles, finding several more containing second-tier demonic beast essence blood, though all were below the mid second-tier stage, their value far inferior to the previous bottle.

"The greatest harvest of this trip turns out to be here instead."

After searching once more to confirm nothing was missed, Qin Ming cast a spell to burn those few rotten demon seeds along with Zhao Wuyang's corpse in a single fire.

Having done this.

Qin Ming left the stone chamber, then retrieved the Heavenly Corpse Pearl from the groove.

Boom-crack!

The stone door fell once again, sealing the chamber completely. Qin Ming returned to his original spot and stuffed the Heavenly Corpse Pearl back into Mo Lingwei's hand; anyway, this item of the demonic path was of no use to him.

Afterwards, he took the Shi Tian Shu and quickly departed the demon cave.

Half an hour later.

Inside the demon cave, Mo Lingwei slowly regained consciousness; the first thing she did upon waking was hurriedly check her entire body, and only after discovering she was Yu Wanhao did she breathe a sigh of relief.

Subsequently, she woke up Mo Lao, who was not far away.

"Cough! Clan Leader, it seems that Senior Long had no intention of making things difficult for us."

"But why would he do such a thing?"

"Hmm, Senior Long must have had his own reasons; counting the previous incident, I now owe him another favor."

"If not for Senior Long, we would likely have been unable to escape disaster this time."

"I also didn't expect that Yuan Feng actually possessed his master's Soul-Summoning Banner."

"Mo Lao, how are you? Are you alright?"

"It's nothing serious; just an old set of bones, I won't die that easily."

"Family Head, what do we do next?"

"Return to Ten Thousand Souls Valley."

Lingxi Archipelago.

Qin Ming stored the Shi Tian Shu inside his spirit beast bag, restored his original appearance, and flew through the air, preparing to return to Moon Gazing Island.

However, just as he flew halfway, he encountered several huge dharma ships of the San Alliance, leading a group of law enforcement teams, sailing directly toward him.

"Eh?! It's actually Fellow Daoist Qin!"

As a deep and vigorous voice arrived, a Bai Guang flew out from the San Alliance's dharma boat and landed before Qin Ming.

"Hehe! Alliance Leader Li, long time no see." Qin Ming cupped his hands to greet the other party.

The newcomer was Li Yuanqing, the Alliance Leader of the San Alliance, whose hair was now half white.

"Fellow Daoist Qin, long time no see."

Li Yuanqing gazed at Qin Ming, whose appearance had not diminished since those years; he resembled an evergreen tree, exuding an aura of indifference like water.

Compared to when he first arrived at the spiritual energy Archipelago back then, there was almost not the slightest change.

Comparing himself to that, he immediately sighed with endless emotion.

Qin Ming spoke first, asking, "I wonder, Alliance Leader Li, with such a large formation, has something happened again?"

"Fellow Daoist Qin, please come inside the boat for a chat."

Li Yuanqing invited Qin Ming into the dharma boat, poured him some spiritual tea, and only then said, "Sigh! Fellow Daoist Qin, don't mention it; truly, one wave has not settled before another rises!"

"Our Ben Alliance received intelligence from True Person Canghai of Yunze Xiancheng; the demonic cultivators of the Modaoliu Sect have recently begun to stir restlessly."

"For some unknown reason, they have appeared and are active near the spiritual energy Archipelago."

"I am preparing to dispatch people to several key passes to increase manpower stationed there for patrol and defense, to prevent demonic cultivators from roaming into the range of the spiritual energy Archipelago to cause chaos."

"Fellow Daoist Qin, when traveling recently, you must still prioritize safety."

Upon hearing this, Qin Ming immediately felt speechless in his heart.

These demonic cultivators had already infiltrated long ago, but all had been eliminated by him. "So that's how it is; thank you, Fellow Daoist Li, for informing me."

Li Yuanqing smiled slightly and continued, "It is rare to meet Fellow Daoist Qin; I happened to want to purchase a batch of pills from you."

"If the situation changes in the coming days, the consumption will likely be huge, so we have to stockpile more in advance."

"That is no problem; I happen to have some leftover."

Taking this opportunity,

Qin Ming sold all the pills taken from the dozen or so tribulation cultivators at Fangcun Mountain Market to Li Yuanqing, making another modest fortune.

(End of Chapter)