Chapter 27: Dharma Assembly

Seven Kill Primordial Spirit True Talisman?

Chen Ci pondered slightly, and soon found a corresponding supernatural ability in his mind from the He Mountain Sect: the Seven Kill Primordial Spirit Method.

One must know that cultivators also have a day when their lifespan ends; without achieving the Primordial Spirit, one cannot attain Longevity.

Qi Refining cultivators have no more than one hundred and twenty years, Dao Foundation cultivators have three hundred years of life, and even Golden Core cultivators have no more than eight hundred years; how difficult it is to attain the Primordial Spirit realm, so naturally, various Life Extension Methods appear among cultivators, ranging from supernatural abilities and Dharma Artifacts to medicinal pills.

The He Mountain Sect's Seven Kill Primordial Spirit Method is one such Life Extension Method; before a Dao Foundation or Golden Core cultivator's lifespan ends, if they can find a long-lived exotic species and use the Seven Kill Primordial Spirit Method to kill its soul and transfer their own soul onto it, they can live for another hundred or thousand years.

But it is said that the success rate is not very high, the hidden dangers are quite significant, and it is not considered a superior method among Life Extension Methods.

After all, not every cultivator is willing to stop being human.

Moreover, this supernatural ability can only be practiced by cultivators who have cultivated Dharma Power; Qi Refining cultivators probably cannot do it, but this Seven Kill Primordial Spirit True Talisman must be a great master condensing the supernatural ability into a talisman seed for Qi Refining cultivators to use, otherwise it would not be brought out to be exchanged for all the Outer Sect Disciples.

However, one thousand merits.

That is one hundred thousand Essence Refining.

Chen Ci inexplicably felt that this thing was just a carrot dangled in front of a donkey; he could only look at it, but could not eat it.

Chen Ci simply flipped through it a few times; from some spells and Dharma Artifacts of the He Mountain Sect to pills for improving cultivation, weapon-refining materials, and even the final Spirit Pearls and Five Elements Divine Sand, the variety was quite complete.

Flipping to the end, two merits could be exchanged for one catty of divine sand, with no limit on quantity.

Whether one catty of Five Elements Divine Sand is worth two hundred drops of Essence Refining is hard to say.

But five hundred catties of Five Elements Divine Sand certainly cannot be exchanged for one Seven Kill Primordial Spirit True Talisman.

"Although refining Essence Refining is not too difficult, if the quantity becomes large, the difficulty increases geometrically. The things in the front are obviously meant to lure those old men; I had better honestly look at the things in the back."

Thoughts turned in Chen Ci's mind, and he quickly excluded the items in the front that were difficult to exchange for.

However, there were a few things in the back that he was quite interested in.

Five Poisons White Bone Sword: sacrificial refining method, worth one hundred and twenty merits.

Hundred Spirits Poison Dragon Sword: sacrificial refining method, worth eighty merits.

Tiger Sha Breaking Aperture Pill: below Fifty Apertures, one pill can break one aperture; below Hundred Apertures, two pills can break one aperture; those who have not polished their muscles and bones must not take it, those with declining Essence Refining must not take it; worth fifty merits per pill, only five pills available. Note: One person can only take three pills.

Two Dharma swords, one type of pill.

These two Dharma swords... cough, he would just take a look.

This Tiger Sha Breaking Aperture Pill, however, was very much to his liking; it looked like a potent, aggressive medicine at first glance.

It was just that the amount of Essence Refining required, while not an astronomical figure, was not something that could be easily scraped together.

If it is one merit per month, a single Tiger Sha Breaking Aperture Pill would take four years of work to exchange for.

Truly outrageous.

"This Hutou Daoren is not as rough as he looks; this golden book of exchanges was definitely put together with care."

Chen Ci pondered: "If one merit is only worth half a catty of divine sand, but fifty merits are worth at least one hundred catties of divine sand, the more merits accumulated, the more the value increases exponentially, hooking everyone into offering more Essence Refining... damn it, is this guy thinking of getting something for nothing?"

Chen Ci gasped.

It shouldn't be that bad; even if the He Mountain Sect is a side-branch sect, it is still a major faction, and it still cares about such face.

At least in his memory, there had never been an incident of defaulting on a disciple's account.

Chen Ci comforted himself a few times and set his mind at ease.

"But I still shouldn't save too many merit points, yet exchanging for divine sand is not worth it... sigh, let me first look at the exchange items around ten merits; if they are okay, then I'll look forward to the Tiger Sha Breaking Aperture Pill."

Chen Ci made up his mind, but immediately, he discovered two hidden pieces of information.

There were no Qi Refining cultivation techniques to exchange for in this golden book.

The Essence Refining required by the Fuhu Altar might be a massive amount, and it requires long-term offerings.

This is troublesome.

"Those who contribute the most will enter the Inner Gate together—this pie is drawn too big; I'm afraid I can't eat it."

Chen Ci muttered a few words; it seems that even in the Fuhu Altar, obtaining a more brilliant Qi Refining cultivation technique is a very difficult thing.

"Everyone, everyone, please listen to me."

Suddenly, a middle-aged cultivator sitting near the front, holding a beautiful maid and raising his wine with one hand, smiled and said: "Although we are all He Mountain Outer Transmission, we are scattered in different places and usually don't have time to gather and communicate. Today, taking advantage of Brother Qinhu's precious land, why don't we hold a Dharma Assembly to exchange what we have? How about it?"

"Like this, each of us takes out one item, either to trade or to bid, and the highest bidder wins."

"Brother Guo, Brother Geng, what do you two think?"

The two, Guo and Geng, were the oldest and deepest in cultivation.

"Agreed!"

At first, Chen Ci was also interested; a Dharma Assembly, what a high-sounding term!

Discussing scriptures, expounding the Dharma, debating the Dao, and displaying treasures.

But immediately, he realized he had thought too much.

He had still overestimated the quality of the He Mountain Sect's Outer Sect Disciples.

Poisoned corpses, collected filth, beauty skins, poisons, aphrodisiacs, wandering ghosts, beauty spring palace paintings that move on their own...

And this moving beauty spring palace painting actually had the highest bid, sold as a curiosity for the high price of two hundred taels of gold.

Chen Ci glanced at that spring palace painting a dozen times and gave a disdainful smile; is this it? It's simply something to fool elementary school students.

Nothing interesting.

There was also an Outer Sect Disciple who took out a piece of Corpse Ganoderma of quite good quality, but no one bid; everyone just laughed, which caused the disciple's face to turn slightly red, and he sat down covering his face.

From this, it seems that although the Small Heavens Qi Absorption Pill Method is widely circulated, there are not many cultivators who really have alchemy skills; at least among the thirty-plus He Mountain Sect cultivators here, he was probably the only one who could be considered a half-baked alchemist.

Tsk tsk.

But soon it was Chen Ci's turn. Chen Ci felt around his body; besides a few Bigu Pills, there were only a few Soul Fixing Talismans that were worth taking out.

As expected, he really was a clear stream.

Chen Ci gave a sheepish smile and took out the thirteen Soul Fixing Talismans he had: "This younger brother has only just established his foundation, so I don't have any treasures on me; I have let you senior brothers see a joke."

"The quality of this Soul Fixing Talisman is decent, give me two."

"I'll take one too."

It was somewhat unexpected; these Soul Fixing Talismans were bought up by eleven He Mountain Sect Apprentices, totaling two hundred and sixty taels of gold, and they actually became the highest-priced items at the gathering.

But if one were to call them in high demand, everyone only bought one or two, and they even kept the price pressed down low.

Yet if one were to say they weren't in demand, not a single one was left.

Chen Ci pondered that it was likely other He Mountain Sect Apprentices were not incapable of the craft of this Soul Fixing Talisman, but the success rate was probably frighteningly low, at least far inferior to his own.

Buying a Soul Fixing Talisman was just for the sake of convenience; wanting to sell them at a high price was simply not possible.

Without a monopoly on the market, it really was not easy to make money.

After one round, the crowd of He Mountain Sect Apprentices had exhausted their revelry; one dissolute fellow even lit a type of incense commonly used in brothels to heighten the mood, and simply began to engage in debauchery right there in the main hall with two beautiful maids, turning what had just been a normal dharma assembly into a den of vice in no time.

This, this, this, cough, would this not be a bit inappropriate?

Fortunately, not all He Mountain Sect Apprentices were into this sort of thing; very quickly, some He Mountain Sect cultivators rose to take their leave and exit the venue, or made arrangements with acquaintances to seek out other places.

Chen Ci flicked his sleeve to disperse the pink smoke, then grabbed the beautiful maid beside him, who was already somewhat dazed, and walked out of the main hall; he pricked her Dazhui acupoint with his True Qi, and after she regained her senses, he asked, "There is a pale, fat man with the surname Ding here; where is he? Lead this master to find him."

(End of this chapter)