Chapter 169: Wumiao Rewards, Swallowing Heaven Pill Devouring

"Two of you, it's about time to come out."

At the entrance of the Wumiao, a middle-aged man in ordinary cloth robes slowly stood still and spoke softly to remind them.

"Apologies, we are leaving immediately." Jiang Chengyun bowed very politely to the man, then led Shen Yi out.

Once they left the Wumiao, he introduced softly, "These people are the finest talents selected from the great prefectures, including Jingcheng; there are even imperial relatives and nobles among them. But regardless of status, once they enter this place, they are considered disciples of the Wumiao."

Having spoken, he pointed to both sides of the Wumiao.

Compared to the towering main hall, the offices on both sides were like the ears of the Wumiao.

"On the left are the Demon Hunters, on the right is the Zhen Mo Si."

As he spoke, many had already noticed Shen Yi's attire and turned their gaze toward his youthful face.

Soon, several men dressed as personal attendants and deputy generals in front of the Zhen Mo Si office made way: "General, please go first."

The Demon Hunters on the left all laughed; such a young Zhen Mo Great General coming to Jingcheng was most likely here for the Wumiao's refinement. These deputy generals had quite a wait ahead—just queue up slowly.

Just then, Shen Yi shook his head slightly: "No need."

Then, under everyone's gaze, he turned and walked into the Demon Hunters' office.

The group all froze, then several personal attendants and deputy generals curled their lips: "Keep laughing."

"..." The Demon Hunters pouted: "Your status over there doesn't work here."

The Zhen Mo Great General on the right would definitely be prioritized for refinement; the Demon Hunters wouldn't buy that. Whoever had the higher merit goes first.

Before the words finished, a surprised voice suddenly came from inside the office.

"Ten times?"

Several Demon Hunters' faces changed slightly; they could no longer argue with the Zhen Mo Si and hurriedly squeezed inside.

Jiang Chengyun placed the prepared gilded document on the table. The woman standing opposite silently looked at the name that had taken an entire page to record the merits.

"Are all the other Demon Hunters from Outside Qingzhou retired now?"

"Ten Wumiao refinements..." she sighed and shook her head.

Having their guess confirmed by the woman's words, several Demon Hunters showed shock.

They didn't even know how many years it took to accumulate one time.

The other party came straight with ten times? Was this for refinement, or for a bath?

"Understood, I will arrange it as soon as possible." The woman nodded slightly.

"Wait, first get a copy of the Tiannan Dan Shi method for General Shen." Jiang Chengyun called out to stop her.

Hearing this, the woman, who had just calmed her mind, suddenly fell silent again. Her fingertip moved to the handwriting recording the slaying of the Embracing Elixir Realm Bai Lu Demon Lord, then she looked at Shen Yi waiting quietly beside her.

It was hard for her to connect this black armor and the merits recorded in the document with a Nascent Core cultivation method.

"Are all Jade Liquid Realm practitioners in Outside Qingzhou this strong now?"

The woman rubbed her temples. If not for the worm-like handwriting coming from a familiar hand, she would really suspect Outside Qingzhou had gone mad with poverty and was deceiving the imperial court here for rewards.

After checking the demon blood and qi in the silver bell, she turned and went to the back.

It was hard to find a place safer than beside the Wumiao in the entire Great Qian Dynasty, so most martial arts techniques, as well as pills and treasures, were stored here, which saved a lot of time.

The other onlooker Demon Hunters, upon learning that this young Zhen Mo Great General also needed to study the Nascent Core method, all breathed a sigh of relief. But before that sigh finished, they realized something was wrong.

Then they fell into the same contemplation as the woman.

Shen Yi ignored the ghost-like expressions of the crowd around him. The low cultivation but high combat power brought by the Nine Molts of Immortals and Demons often could not hide himself; instead, because it was too abrupt, it inexplicably attracted more scrutiny.

Fortunately, once he obtained the Nascent Core method, this situation would never happen again.

Moments later, the woman came out again, placing the thick martial arts copy on the table: "General Shen, please stay at the Wumiao for some time. When you are ready, I will arrange the Wumiao refinement for you at any time."

"Thank you."

Shen Yi took the Nascent Core method and did not immediately use the panel.

Having just arrived in Jingcheng, with unknown eerie existences still inside the nearby hall, acting too shocking was not a good thing.

At least wait five days.

Back then, the Four-Combination True Qi and the Interception Meridian Dragon-Catching took about the same time, which also matched others' view of him.

It was said he was staying at the Wumiao.

Actually, the accommodation arranged by the Demon Hunters' office was behind the Wumiao.

In the courtyard in the very middle, people could occasionally be seen coming and going. Although their attire was not as uniform and orderly as the tailors, they were all simple, all wearing long robes and cloth shoes.

Probably because they were within the Imperial City, this group did not suppress their aura.

Shen Yi roughly sensed it; there were no particularly powerful existences, almost all were Nascent Core Realm martial artists, just slightly more numerous than in Outside Qingzhou.

"That is the residence of the Wumiao disciples; ours is over here."

Jiang Chengyun led him to the left. The conditions here were obviously worse than next door. It wasn't that the furnishings had changed; mainly, it seemed no one had lived here for a while, showing a dusty appearance.

"Make do. After all, those who come to Jingcheng to claim rewards are always few; most leave immediately after claiming. Only those needing to wait for the Wumiao refinement will stay for a few days."

"You just became the Zhen Mo Great General; it's not good to appear too luxurious, or you'll give people grounds to criticize."

Jiang Chengyun mobilized his qi and cleared out two rooms.

"It's fine, I'm not picky."

Shen Yi didn't care much about these things.

When he first transmigrated, the side room he lived in was even worse; if not for Lin Baiwei helping to clean, it was completely a dirty, messy dog kennel.

He walked into the room, sat by the table, and looked at the thick Nascent Core method with great satisfaction.

It had to be said, the Zhen Mo Si did this point perfectly, leaving nothing to criticize. The previous Wind-Thunder Molten Sun Classic was the same; not only was the record detailed, but it was also filled with annotations, far better than those old Daoist Priests at Bai Yun Temple who pretended to be profound.

As he slowly turned the first page, looking at the obscure text above.

The ease on Shen Yi's face suddenly froze...

It turned out it wasn't written in detail; it was simply that the content was very large, and every page was no less than the golden pages recording the True Meaning of Two Instruments.

He looked toward the door: "The Core Condensing method you practiced back then—was it this thick too?"

"What are you talking about." Jiang Chengyun raised a brow, envious: "I saved up merits for a long time back then, and in the end only managed to trade for one mid-grade Core Condensing method—less than ten pages in total. You think everyone is as gifted as you and Lord Jiang, daring to practice the number-one Core Condensing method of the Great Qian Dynasty?"

Hearing this, Shen Yi turned his gaze back to this copy of the Heaven-Devouring Tiannan Dan Shi Method.

Oh no… he'd been swindled.

Jiang Qiulan's casual manner back then had led Shen Yi to mistake it for an ordinary Core Condensing method.

He gritted his teeth and flipped page by page toward the back.

Dense swarms of tiny characters—each word he recognized, but strung together they read like a heavenly script.

Only after turning the very last page did an extra line of text finally appear on the panel.

【Core Condensing (Rare). Heaven-Devouring Tiannan Dan Shi Method: Not Yet Initiated】

It was yet another martial art with the word "Rare" appended—and compared to the Immortal-Demon Nine Transformations, which was a Body Tempering method, this was a proper martial arts internal art.

Shen Yi sighed and apologized to himself in his heart: "Brother, sorry about this."

With a slight shift of his spirit, the vast lifespan of demons and monsters poured into this cultivation method.

(End of Chapter)