Chapter 32: Shadow Demon Kingdom, Bloodline of Xiang Liu (Requesting Monthly Passes

Heaven does not drop pies without reason.

The combined value of the two demon corpses is 1.2 million; now giving me 400,000 is practically a giveaway.

Seeing Ningning's shocked reaction, speechless and hesitant, she probably hasn't seen such a situation either.

When something goes against the norm, there must be a demon behind it!

"Don't be nervous."

Old Man Chu stroked his beard and said cheerfully:

"My request is simply to borrow the bracelet you are wearing for a closer look."

Jiang Yan glanced at the Sanskrit Sword Buddha Armor, frowned slightly, and said nothing.

"If I am not mistaken, you must be an apprentice of some Grand Master of the Refinement Dao. Buying these cheap demon corpses is just for practice.

You are very sharp, your acting is good; you know not to rush to ask the price when you see something you want, circling around before finally choosing it. But you overlooked one point: you clearly preferred the Dou Ding before, yet now you chose the Hook Snake. Does this not prove it has greater value?"

"Unfortunately, you cannot hide from my old eyes. This trick is one I played to death when I was young. Do not worry; even if it is gold, if I do not know its use, then it is trash."

Watching Old Man Chu deduce with full confidence,

Jiang Yan fell silent for a moment, then let out a long sigh and praised:

"Jiang... the old are indeed spicy!"

If you say so, then so be it!

You've imagined the whole thing so completely, saving me the trouble of explaining!

Old Man Chu smiled proudly: "Do not worry that I will keep your bracelet. It is merely an ordinary Extraordinary artifact; I can refine it myself. I just recently hit a bottleneck and wanted to observe another Grand Master's craftsmanship for some inspiration. How about it?"

"Of course."

Since the matter had been spoken to this extent, Jiang Yan took off the bracelet formed by the Sanskrit Sword Buddha Armor and handed it over.

The other party's strength far exceeded his, and he was a Grand Master of the Refinement Dao; he would not be greedy enough to steal an Extraordinary-grade artifact.

Moreover, what was important was never the artifact, but the offspring.

They are alive!

With just a thought from Jiang Yan, they could be summoned back; without his permission, others could not use them and would instead suffer backlash several times over.

"You act without hesitation; you young man are quite to my liking."

Old Man Chu smiled, took the bracelet to examine it, and muttered:

"This is some kind of antler from a corpse-reanimated deer, following the path of Tibetan Buddhism, soaked in corpse oil from a mass grave for forty-nine days, with many war puppets and living corpses sacrificed. It should be related to the Wang Ting of Corpse Release. No wonder you needed similar materials. Wait!"

"How is there a forged sword weapon hidden within? The spiritual nature is perfectly unified; I almost didn't discover it. These two items were not forged as one. How is that possible?"

Yet the more he looked, the more Old Man Chu dropped his casual attitude. His expression grew increasingly Solemn, and the shock in his eyes nearly overflowed. He found it hard to believe, saying:

"Why can I not detect a single trace of smelting? It seems as if it was formed naturally. Strange, too strange. It is merely an Extraordinary-grade artifact, yet it possesses such profound spiritual nature, not inferior at all to an Old Talisman grade. Truly... a masterpiece of craftsmanship."

Old Man Chu scratched his head and ears, suddenly realizing that all his life's learning seemed so ridiculous in the face of this seemingly simple Extraordinary-grade artifact.

From this small bracelet alone, one could see that behind Jiang Yan must be a Forging Grandmaster, or even a Supreme Grandmaster, whose skill was nearly akin to the Dao.

After a long while, he reluctantly returned the bracelet, rubbed his hands together, and asked with an expectant Expression Phase:

"Um... young man, may I have the honor of visiting your teacher?"

His gaze was devout, like that of a disciple.

"It is inconvenient; he does not like seeing people."

Jiang Yan politely declined, though he was also surprised in his heart.

This old man was indeed a Grand Master of the Refinement Dao; with just a few glances, he had deduced most of the origins of the Sanskrit Sword Buddha Armor.

However, he still failed to discover the true nature of the offspring, thinking only that the treasure was so excellent that it had given birth to spiritual nature.

As for Old Man Chu's request, Jiang Yan certainly could not agree.

After all, behind him stood no Grand Master of the Refinement Dao, only a Demon God Embryo.

The only ones who could see it were dead materials.

But Old Man Chu was wrong about one thing.

The ability of the Demon God Embryo to nurture offspring is a Creator-level technique; compared to that, even a Grand Master of the Refinement Dao is weak beyond compare.

How can effort compare to cheating?

"True. The number of people wanting to meet a Grandmaster is countless; he certainly dislikes being disturbed."

Old Man Chu was greatly disappointed.

He did as he said, directly giving the Hook Snake and the Dou Ding fragments to Jiang Yan.

As for payment, one could go to the notary office to transfer the money to a public account; the funds would only be transferred to the merchant after the customer confirmed the transaction.

But most people would not use this function, as it was easy to trace.

Especially for dark organizations; having been screwed over by the Historical Correction Bureau so many times, their accounts were frozen every time they took something, leaving them with psychological trauma.

Therefore, gold was generally used, a rare material born only from planetary explosions, which could also be used for rituals, sacrifices, and refining weapons or pills in daily life.

Its uses were widespread.

Jiang Yan also chose to pay with gold.

Once the transaction ended, Old Man Chu immediately kicked them out:

"Today I learned that there is always someone better, and that one should never slack off. One hundred years old is precisely the age to strive. You may go; do not disturb my exploration of the craft."

Having spoken, he directly booted Jiang Yan and Ningning out.

His actions were swift and decisive.

"This time, I owe you a debt."

Jiang Yan had previously said he would pay Ningning one thousand, but without her help, he truly could not have snagged this bargain.

So he simply handed over the remaining cash, totaling 3,100 yuan.

However, Ning Ning only took out one thousand and accepted it, saying with a smile:

"Thank you, big brother, but I only need my own reward; if you need me again next time, just find me!"

After speaking, Ning Ning picked up two cups of tea and walked out; Jiang Yan followed out of the alley and saw her give the water to the Inner Market guards.

Indeed,

everyone likes a sensible child.

Jiang Yan did not rush to leave; instead, he rented a separate partition in the Inner Market, checked several times to confirm there were no surveillance methods, and then ordered Coffin Spirit to stay alert around the surroundings.

Boom!

Immediately after, with a thought, gray mist filled his vision, his consciousness entered the boundless Sea of Chaos, and he transformed into the Dark World Tree.

Boom!

Gently swaying, it shook the Chaos, generated earth, fire, water, and wind, opened up billions of worlds, and then destroyed them in an instant.

Countless dark roots spread out, turning 【the Ding's Ears of the Dou Ding】 and the 【Hooked Snake】 into nourishment together, rapidly hatching two offspring.

The Dark World Mother Tree swayed gently; one black fruit fell from it, and a pitch-black, ink-dark Hooked Snake with two tails and two heads, composed entirely of shadows, crawled out, held up by the chaotic mist.

"Hiss! Hiss!"

Its two heads searched everywhere, sensed the aura of the Great Creator, flicked its snake tongue, and conveyed feelings of closeness.

Jiang Yan watched this scene silently, and related information floated up in his eyes.

【Two-Headed Shadow-Poison Hooked Snake (Faint Xiangliu Bloodline)】

【Avatar-type Offspring】

【Quality: Excellent (Common, Excellent, Perfect, Epic, Legendary, Mythic)】

【Description: In ancient times there was Xiangliu, a snake body with nine heads, also known as Xiangyao; it devoured countless people, and wherever it passed, everything turned into a marshland.

One body, multiple souls; the nine heads each possessed different abilities. Severing one head alone could not kill it; only severing all heads simultaneously could strangle it, possessing immortality.

It was once severed by ■■■, its shadow-attribute snake head cut off; its blood polluted the earth, and its unwillingness and resentment spread through the river of history, giving rise to a vast diseased domain—the Shadow Demon Kingdom.

Washed by the river of history, it differentiated into many small snake diseased domains, flowing into different depths.

One of them gave birth to the Hooked Snake ancestor; since all were of the snake attribute, a faint bloodline was born, mastering the ability to activate shadows.

Its descendant, the Shadow-Poison Hooked Snake, inherited and successfully excavated the bloodline, growing the rudiment of a second head; because the nourishment required for its complete formation was too great, its intake fell far short of its consumption, leading to a deficit that instead drained its own flesh and blood, causing it to enter a period of weakness and be slain by humans.

By merging it into its own shadow, an avatar was born—the Two-Headed Shadow-Poison Hooked Snake—which could activate shadows, attach shadow toxins that corrode flesh to attack opponents, and after death, pay a certain price to revive it.

Continuously excavating the bloodline and collecting historical relics related to Xiangliu's path can elevate its essence, promote it to a Lesser Bloodline, and unlock the Bloodline Atavism quest.】

【Why! Why did you kill me?】

"It is actually..."

"A rare External Avatar-type skill!"

PS: A small detail in the previous text was modified: the quality of offspring is divided into 【Common, Excellent, Perfect, Epic, Legendary, Mythic】, representing potential; otherwise, it is difficult to distinguish the gaps between different offspring, and readers would find it hard to intuitively feel the growth.

Even Evil God's favorites have gaps between Lower, Upper, and Divine Children; let alone the pet babies in the game, where one can immediately tell whether they are strong or weak.

Only this was changed; it has no impact on the plot, so everyone does not need to flip back specifically; I will just note it: Coffin Spirit is Excellent, the Ash Lamp Spell Spirit is Perfect, the Sanskrit Sword Buddha Armor is Excellent, and the rest are Common.

The protagonist's offspring can mutually fuse to upgrade quality, but the attributes must meet the fusion conditions; if they are too conflicting, there is a probability of exploding into a rare variant, and it is also easy to lower the quality.

Like Coffin Spirit, it can bury enemies to upgrade quality; the Ash Lamp is a skill-type offspring, upgrading quality by increasing skill proficiency, or by collecting other fragments of the Burning Lamp.

Even a common skill, cultivated to the point of transcending the mundane and entering sainthood, is equivalent to touching the rules; it would be strange if there were no improvement.

For skills I have already written, I generally will not repeat large chapters of introduction, as that would be watered-down content; but I will mention their functions when writing the plot to prevent readers from getting tired, unless it is for fusion and upgrade, in which case I will write in detail. Thank you all; this chapter is closer to six thousand characters; continuing to ask for monthly votes.

Continuing to ask for monthly votes! Asking for follow-reads! Asking for recommendation votes!

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(End of Chapter)