Chapter 118: Liveliness and Tranquility

After everything was arranged, the five True Monarchs summoned all the large and small Immortal Sects and rogue cultivators to hold an Immortal Alliance Assembly to evaluate merits and distribute rewards for this joint operation.

Any cultivator who died would be compensated through their sect or family; if a rogue cultivator's family had no successors left, the various Immortal Sects would conduct a Spirit Root test on their descendants according to the region they belonged to, and as long as they barely met the cultivation requirements, they would be absorbed into the various Immortal Sects for training.

For injured cultivators, the goal was to provide as much medical aid as possible, with Spirit Pills and Magic Treasures provided as compensation.

All large and small cultivators who participated in maintaining the Array and exterminating Soul Beasts were rewarded with large quantities of Spirit Pills, Magic Treasures, and more, in accordance with the previously established incentive measures.

Finally, there was the exchange of Soul Beads.

Although the participating cultivators suffered heavy casualties this time, the harvest was equally unprecedented; according to a rough tally over several days, all cultivators had slaughtered over twenty thousand Soul Beasts and obtained over fifteen thousand Soul Beads.

Currently, only True Monarchs at or above the Spirit Transformation Realm could use their Nascent Soul to refine and directly absorb the Soul Power from Soul Beads, but everyone hoped to be able to absorb it through alchemy or cultivation techniques to nourish their Soul; therefore, a large number of cultivators had actually been trying to find ways to utilize them, but unfortunately, in just a few days of exchange, no one had succeeded.

A group of Danyuan Realm Elders, Sect Leaders, and the five True Monarchs were also constantly pondering and considering this matter.

At present, although Yuqing Hall had found a method to incorporate Soul Power into pills and had verified that it could indeed repair and nourish the Soul, this method clearly had no possibility of large-scale promotion; the requirements were too high, the conditions too harsh, and the cost too great, so it could only be used as an emergency measure, and only when the five True Monarchs felt it was truly worth taking action.

As for the thousands of cultivators across the Great Song, those who could truly catch their eyes were likely only the Danyuan Realm cultivators and the personal or Core Disciples of the various Immortal Sects who were worthy of enjoying it.

It was impossible for the vast number of small and medium-sized Immortal Sects and civilian rogue cultivators to obtain it.

Even if such Soul-Entering Pills could be traded, the price would certainly be astronomical, and no one could afford it.

Since alchemy would not work, the only path left was absorption through cultivation techniques.

However, everyone was extremely unfamiliar with Soul Beads, and there was no ready-made technique that could directly absorb Soul Power; therefore, the five True Monarchs indicated that they would conduct some experimental innovations in cultivation techniques for refining Soul Beads later, and if successful, they would publish them for free so that all Great Song cultivators could benefit.

Once this news broke, the entire Taiyuan Sect erupted in cheers; all the cultivators were running around the mountains like wild monkeys, beginning to pass on this incredibly surprising good news to one another.

The five True Monarchs and all the large and medium-sized Immortal Sects naturally would not give up this good opportunity to hoard Soul Beads, so according to the previous agreement, they each raised large amounts of Spirit Stones, Spirit Pills, Spirit Medicines, Spirit Materials, Magic Treasures, and other treasures, and began to purchase the Soul Beads in the hands of all the cultivators.

Although Soul Beasts were still emerging in a steady stream from the two gaps in the Array, their numbers were no longer comparable to the beginning; even if Soul Beads were obtained in the future, it would only be a slow and steady process, and it would certainly not be like this time when the Array gaps were opened, allowing for such a large quantity of Soul Beads to be harvested at once.

The conditions for the Soul Bead exchange were very generous and very simple: the Soul Beads were uniformly divided into five grades according to their size.

The lowest grade consisted of those with a diameter of less than one fen, and one could be exchanged for five Spirit Stones.

In reality, the Soul Beasts that produced these Soul Beads only had the strength of a First-Tier beast, making them effortless to kill; for all the cultivators participating in this activity, it was almost like a free gift or an opportunity to pick up money.

Moreover, in the later stages, these Soul Beasts were almost all killed by those small, unknown sects or rogue cultivators, and the large and medium-sized Immortal Sects did not even bother to look at them.

Especially the two leading sects, Yuqing Hall and Longmen Mountain; the True Monarchs had long since seen that the value of the Soul Beads was heaven-defying, so while ordering their sects to participate in this activity with all their might, they also instructed them to try their best to obtain large Soul Beads. For cultivators at the True Monarch level, one hundred of the worst Soul Beads were far less valuable than one Soul Bead with double the diameter.

This was the same as the difference between taking a first-grade pill and a second-grade pill for replenishing Qi; the refining process was the same, but the effect was worlds apart.

The second grade of Soul Beads, those with a diameter of one to two fen, could be exchanged for fifteen Spirit Stones each; the exchange price had tripled, equivalent to the price of an ordinary Second-Tier beast.

This grade of Soul Bead was only produced within the bodies of Soul Beasts with the strength of a mid-to-late First-Tier beast; their numbers had greatly decreased, accounting for only about one-fifth of all Soul Beads, and only those cultivators with cultivation at the late Kaiyuan Realm or even the Zhenyuan Realm could obtain them.

The third grade of Soul Beads, with a diameter of two to three fen, were even fewer in number; the Soul Beasts had the strength of an early Second-Tier beast, and naturally, only cultivators who had reached the Zhenyuan Realm or above could deal with them. The quantity of these Soul Beads was about one-tenth of the total, and the exchange price was fifty Spirit Stones.

The fourth grade of Soul Beads, with a diameter of three to four fen, were about the size of a pigeon egg; both their Soul Power aura and appearance had undergone tremendous changes, and if an ordinary cultivator looked at them with their Divine Sense, they would almost feel as if their Soul were freezing. Their quantity was only one percent of the total Soul Beads, and the exchange price was two hundred Spirit Stones.

The strength of these Soul Beasts was such that only those cultivators at the mid-to-late Zhenyuan Realm could deal with them, and they often needed several people to join forces, otherwise the danger factor would increase greatly.

Most of the Zhenyuan Realm cultivators who suffered casualties this time were attacked by these types of Soul Beasts.

The fifth grade of Soul Beads were evaluated and exchanged individually according to their size, with no cap on the price; they were inspected and traded by the Sect Leaders and Elders of each sect personally. Naturally, they were even rarer, with the chance of them appearing being few and far between, totaling no more than one hundred pieces.

The exchange location was set on the plaza in front of the main hall of the Taiyuan Sect.

Hundreds of cultivators were like people celebrating the New Year, carrying bags of all sizes and shuttling back and forth in front of the various sect stalls; large piles of Soul Beads were quickly exchanged for large piles of crystal-clear Spirit Stones.

If they did not want Spirit Stones, they could exchange them at an equivalent value for all the Spirit Pills, Magic Treasures, Spirit Materials, Spirit Medicines, Spirit Talismans, and even some cultivation techniques and powerful Magic Spells they desired.

It could be said that in order to collect all these Soul Beads, the eight great Immortal Sects of the Great Song almost opened their doors wide, collecting everything they could, not wanting to let a single one slip by.

After all, once this village was passed, there would be no such shop.

Moreover, this was also the best opportunity to improve the strength of the various Immortal Sects; once the method of incorporating Soul Power into pills or refining techniques was successfully developed, these Soul Beads would become the best way for every Immortal Sect and even a group of great cultivators to make rapid progress in their cultivation.

In addition, in view of the large-scale appearance of Black Wind in the Great Song and the surrounding countries, all cultivators with cultivation at or above the Danyuan Realm felt a sense of urgency and pressure that a great catastrophe was imminent, and they urgently needed to rapidly improve their own strength and that of their entire sect, so as to be able to cope with all the unpredictable worst-case scenarios that would follow.

Especially after Chixia Zhenjun had previously inferred that the turmoil of heaven and earth was intensifying and a great catastrophe was imminent, this feeling became even more tense and urgent.

Of course, these were only messages circulating among the upper echelons; for the low-to-mid-level cultivators of the Kaiyuan Realm and Zhenyuan Realm, no matter how powerful and precious the Soul Beads were, they were not as good as the benefits they could see right in front of them. Exchanging these Soul Beads, which were completely useless to them at the moment, for the urgently needed Spirit Stones, Spirit Pills, cultivation techniques, and Magic Treasures was the best choice.

Escape Lights rose and fell on the top of Zhaoyang Peak, and the noise was deafening, as lively as a vegetable market in the mortal world.

Xu Chen, however, sat cross-legged alone on a stone in front of his small wooden hut, with various tools, Magic Treasures, Spirit Materials, and some new and old Jade Slips scattered around him, holding a Jade Locust Stone and examining it carefully, turning it over and over.

He had been bored these past few days and had been studying artifact refining.

At this moment, the mountain flowers were in full bloom and the spring scenery was boundless; Xiao Huli was jumping and pouncing on a few bees and butterflies in the surrounding grass, playing happily, and occasionally, when it pounced on a butterfly, it would trot over and carry it to Xu Chen to show off.

Xu Chen would rub its head a few times and then continue to study the Jade Locust Stone.

One person and one pet, living in solitude amidst this clamor and noise, possessed a sense of leisure and contentment that complemented the nature of heaven and earth, carrying a bit of mountain-wild charm.

Two streaks of Escape Light rose from the south side of Zhaoyang Peak and arrived in front of the small hut in an instant; two young women, one in green and one in black, put away their Flying Swords and landed.

"Thirteenth Senior Sister, Daoist Lan, you aren't enjoying the excitement at the mountain top, so why did you run to my shabby place?" Xu Chen stood up with a smile to welcome them.

Zhao Xuan had a slightly grumpy expression as she said, "Daoist Lan said she wanted to come and thank you for saving her life, and begged me to bring her over."

A flush appeared on Lan You's thin, pale face, completely devoid of her usual indifference and coldness; she lowered her head and bowed, saying, "Lan You encountered danger in the Great Array this time. If it weren't for Daoist Xu arriving in time, not only would I have perished, but Third Elder and Seventh Senior Brother would also have met with misfortune. Such great kindness and virtue cannot be repaid; I could only beg Immortal Xu to bring me here, as I wanted to thank you in person."

Xu Chen hurriedly waved his hands and smiled, "That matter has already passed, and the seniors of Yuqing Hall have already thanked me. Daoist Lan need not be so polite. Protecting the Array and rescuing those in danger is the duty of all of us cultivators; how could I dare to have even the slightest delay or slackness!"

Lan You said softly, "Even so, my life is my own. If I do not express my thanks for the grace of saving my life, how would I have the face to see you again in the future?"

Xu Chen could only nod and say, "Since Immortal Lan says so, I will accept this gratitude. However, my place is old and simple, and I fear I cannot entertain you well. You and Senior Sister sit for a moment, and I will go boil some water to brew a pot of tea."

As Xu Chen prepared to turn and enter the hut to boil water, Zhao Xuan grabbed him and chided, "Alright, a guest has come to visit, so you just chat with Immortal Lan; I, this girl, will go boil the water."

Xu Chen rubbed the back of his head and laughed sheepishly, "How can I be so embarrassed?"

Zhao Xuan rolled her eyes at him and then went into the hut.

(End of chapter)