Chapter 154: One cannot judge a person by their appearance

Wei Yuan now knows that the primordial spirit and soul of a sacrificed Dharma Form can also yield heavenly Qi, and quite a significant amount at that. However, the shadow in the moon seems unimpressed by Great Shamans; Wei Yuan has beheaded two Great Shamans in succession, yet he has not seen the slightest sign of interest from the lunar shadow.

These few strands of pale cyan Qi are clearly also Qi, similar to the most basic black Qi, but where do they come from?

Wei Yuan attempted to touch the cyan Qi with his spiritual sense, intuiting that its usage should be similar to the black Qi, though he was unsure if the specific effects would differ. Yet, he still had no clue as to the origin of these five strands of cyan Qi.

Wei Yuan took a turn through his own Dao Foundation and casually pulled up the withered branch to examine it. Seeing no signs of life gestating, he stuck it back in.

He withdrew from his sea of consciousness and found the group of young masters and misses, urging them to go to Sun Yu for a physical examination to see if they had sustained any hidden injuries during the battle. With Sun Yu present, even minor wounds could be healed on the spot.

By now, the young masters and misses were so impressed by Wei Yuan that they had prostrated themselves in admiration. One by one, they shed their dissolute habits and became very obedient. As soon as Wei Yuan gave the order, they lined up to head toward Sun Yu.

Watching them walk away, Wei Yuan rubbed his face, a hint of exhaustion surfacing.

Bao Yun appeared beside him and said, "You've almost become a Grand Eunuch of the Inner Palace; do you still have to lead them into battle hand-in-hand?"

Wei Yuan sighed and said, "It can't be helped. They were brought here by Brother Cui, so I must take good care of them to give Brother Cui an account. Besides, they have decent talent; as long as they are trained properly, their combat power won't be low."

Bao Yun asked again, "Did you come up with this strategy of leading them to earn military merit yourself?"

Wei Yuan found it somewhat inexplicable and said, "Yes, what about it? Aren't they here for fame? Isn't a ranking in military merit the best kind of fame? If I don't lead them to earn merit, why would they come here?"

Bao Yun clasped her hands behind her back, leaned slightly toward Wei Yuan, and said, "Nothing, it's quite good. Keep it up!"

Watching Bao Yun walk away, Wei Yuan recovered from a momentary trance. It must be said that whenever the eldest Miss Bao got even slightly close, she gave people a sense of oppression akin to facing an Immortal Lord directly.

Wei Yuan summoned the leader of the guards and ordered them to take the protective gear and weapons of the young masters and misses for inspection and maintenance. Any damage was to be repaired immediately, and materials were to be obtained from Yun Feifei. In the recent battle, many of them had been struck several times, and their armor needed patching.

After dealing with a pile of miscellaneous tasks, Wei Yuan went to see Tian Yu.

Tian Yu was placed directly on the mountain peak. This fellow was simply too dangerous; if locked in a cell, he would easily escape, as ordinary cultivators could not keep watch over him. Thus, Wei Yuan simply left him on the peak, where everyone's spiritual sense would scan him from time to time, and Xiang Xiaoyu, who was guarding the base, kept a constant eye on him.

Upon seeing Wei Yuan, Tian Yu immediately became agitated, twisting his body desperately and cursing, "Despicable! Shameless! Filthy! The human race is indeed full of insidious fellows! If you have the ability, let me go, and let's have a real fight with blades and spears!"

Wei Yuan squatted in front of him and reached out to tug at the few strands of hair binding his wrists. These strands were incredibly tough; Tian Yu had clearly struggled, and they had cut into his flesh.

Wei Yuan felt he had truly underestimated those young ladies; it seemed Tian Yu had no possibility of breaking free at all.

Xiang Xiaoyu had been standing nearby clutching his sword; seeing Wei Yuan arrive, he said, "I want some quiet, I'm leaving first."

Xiang Xiaoyu's reaction was somewhat strange, so Wei Yuan asked Tian Yu, "What did you say to him?"

"I just saw that his talent was passable and wanted him to let me go for a fair fight, but he ignored me."

Wei Yuan asked, "Do you think you can beat him?"

Tian Yu turned serious, pondered earnestly, and then said, "I have an eighty percent chance. My Taiyue Giant Ape is naturally spiritual and much stronger than that sword of his. I already told him this, but he insisted his sword wasn't bad either, so I debated with him for a while. This guy is slow-witted and couldn't out-argue me."

"Eighty percent, that's not low. However, he is the weakest among us; winning against him doesn't count for much. You can't even beat me, let alone the others," Wei Yuan said.

Tian Yu was furious: "Who says I can't beat you? If it weren't for..."

Wei Yuan interrupted him: "Can you beat that tower? What about that tree? My teacher beheaded a Great Shaman with only four sword strikes; if he unleashed all seven, what do you think would happen?"

Tian Yu was dumbfounded, and after a moment, said, "Then... I might not necessarily lose."

"Alright, let's talk business. How do you plan to redeem yourself?"

Tian Yu said, "I've said it several times already; this is simple. Just send a message to my tribe, let them send the ransom, and then release me, won't that do?"

Wei Yuan held up two fingers: "I want to add two more conditions. First, add another 500,000 immortal silver or items of equivalent value. Second, the Shaman tribe must retreat and is forbidden from invading for one year." "Don't dream!" Tian Yu refused flatly.

"Do you think you aren't worth this much? There are only one hundred spots on the Shaman Warrior Ranking. Being able to rank in the top hundred among all Shaman warriors, it is only right for me to ask for even more."

Tian Yu just sneered: "Actually, as soon as I entered, I knew that this place of yours is the 'Heaven-Defying Land' from the Heavenly Shaman Edict. Those two trash, Blood Eye and Charm Shadow, couldn't sense it, but I can know the loss of heaven and earth's primordial energy. So, either you let me go back, take your share of the ransom, and I will add a little more at my discretion, or you fight me again. If you lose, you let me go, I'll still pay the ransom, and I'll pretend I don't know about the matters here for now. Anyway, sooner or later someone will discover this Heaven-Defying Land of yours."

Wei Yuan asked curiously, "Don't you think I might just kill you?"

Tian Yu snorted and said, "Most of my soul remains on the Shaman Warrior Ranking. Even if you kill me, I will be resurrected on the ranking; it's just a pity to lose this Dharma body, and it will take time to re-forge it. The ransom is the value of one Dharma body. Why do you think I was willing to fight you in a duel instead of retreating? Because you simply cannot kill me! Heh, do you think we Shaman warriors are truly stupid?"

"So that's how it is." Wei Yuan nodded and summoned Ji Liuli, Bao Yun, and Zhang Sheng.

While waiting, Wei Yuan said, "Whether Shaman warriors are stupid, I don't know, but I do know there are many people smarter than you. Oh, if you can't take it later, it's not too late to redeem yourself; I will listen to your conditions properly."

In the blink of an eye, the people from the Primordial Palace had arrived, and even Cui Yu was present.

Wei Yuan briefly explained Tian Yu's situation and then said, "That's basically how it is. Are there any ways to deal with this?"

Ji Liuli reached out and poked Tian Yu all over, looking particularly interested, and said, "His body is very interesting, much more fun than the previous two wooden shells and the lizard. Oh, his soul is in the Shaman Warrior Ranking, right? Treasures of this type are all very powerful, basically all Immortal Treasures, but they are not rare. Actually, most of his soul should still be inside this body, with a small portion in the Shaman Warrior Ranking. Once this body of his dies, the remnant soul will be summoned away by the Shaman Warrior Ranking on its own, merging into a complete soul. This is the general principle of such Immortal Treasures."

After a pause, Ji Liuli said, "Do you think that under my Demon-Suppressing Tower, his remnant soul can escape?"

!.

As she spoke, a small nine-story tower appeared in Ji Liuli's hand, which she shook several times in front of Tian Yu, letting him truly feel the aura within it.

Tian Yu's complexion changed instantly.

A green fruit appeared at Bao Yun's fingertip, which she then switched for several others, finally settling on a golden-red fruit. She brought the fruit close to Tian Yu, and Tian Yu began to tremble. This was not because he was afraid, but because his body and Dao Foundation were instinctively afraid.

Bao Yun then said, "This seed of mine has the ability to extract primordial yang; if planted on him, it can automatically extract the essence of his physical body and soul, condensing it into a fruit of primordial yang. If the Shaman Warrior Ranking is indeed as he says, then when his original soul is extracted to a certain degree, the soul on the ranking will instead be drawn over by the original body. Although it's impossible to pull it all back, after a long enough time, the bit of soul left in the ranking won't be enough for him to resurrect. Moreover, given his current cultivation, the generated primordial yang fruit should be a great tonic, and it will be of great benefit for breaking through to the Dharma Form."

Cui Yu's eyes lit up as he listened: "A treasure!"

Among the group, he was the only one at the Heaven Foundation stage; the others could be said to have broken through to the Dharma Form naturally, but Cui Yu still had significant variables. Therefore, he was exceptionally sensitive to any treasure that could increase the chances of a breakthrough.

Zhang Sheng revealed a sword light full of the intent of extinction at his fingertip, let Tian Yu see it clearly, and said, "Actually, it doesn't need to be that troublesome. Put him into my sword formation, and I will behead him with a full-strength strike. With his meager cultivation, he won't be able to exhaust all my sword intent, and the remaining sword intent can follow the karma to his other soul parts. Even if it doesn't wipe it out completely, it won't be easy for him to resurrect."

Tian Yu listened, cold sweat rolling down; these people were born extremely well, but their hands were more ruthless than the last. No wonder the human race itself says, one cannot judge a person by their appearance.

By now, all three had finished speaking, leaving only Xiang Xiaoyu who hadn't spoken. Cui Yu was only at the Heaven Foundation stage after all, and the methods he could use were too few; in this situation, he was temporarily unqualified to express an opinion. But Xiang Xiaoyu was also at the Immortal Foundation stage, and Wei Yuan felt it would be very impolite not to let him show something, so he stared at him.

Xiang Xiaoyu cursed very viciously in his heart, but on the surface, his expression was calm, though he really couldn't say anything, so he could only say, "I don't have any special skills, I just have a mouthful of Great Sun True Fire, which can be used to roast him slowly for a few hours every day..."

Tian Yu cursed loudly.

Seeing that the goal was achieved, Wei Yuan threw Tian Yu into a corner of the mountain peak to let him settle down first.

The harvest of supplies this time was quite bountiful; the southern Shaman tribe had brought a total of twenty mud boats, carrying tens of thousands of catties of military rations, as well as tens of thousands of catties of various refined metals and over a thousand sets of armor. After the bodies of the new Shaman warriors were transported back, Wei Yuan clearly felt that the nourishing speed of the Azure Void had improved, finally touching a node.

Strands of profound power permeated from the Azure Void; in Wei Yuan's spiritual sense, the Azure Void became clearer, revealing a small pool inside. Now, the pool was mostly empty, with only a handful of cyan water rippling at the bottom.

In the dark, cyan rain threads were constantly generated, merging into the water at the bottom of the pool. These rain threads were the heaven and earth primordial energy converted from the Shaman corpses. Once the pool of water was full, the Azure Void would advance again. With the changes in the Azure Void, Wei Yuan's Dao Foundation also changed accordingly, the shape of the Yushan changing, gradually becoming seventy or eighty percent similar to the Azure Void.

At this moment, there was more soil on the ground around the Yushan, especially within ten zhang, where the soil was particularly abundant; it could basically be said to be a land covered with pebbles. The three chi around that withered branch were all soil, and the stones had been pushed away at some unknown time.

The speed at which the Ten Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains absorbed spiritual energy had improved again, and now Wei Yuan could finally clearly feel the progress of his cultivation.

And at this time, the first miracle of the Azure Void was finally activated: "All Living Things in an Instant."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 155 =====