Chapter 307: Divine Wood Sword

After returning to Danyuan Peak, Hua Changxi could not calm her mind; thinking of the Southern Elephant City and the twelve cave heavens guarding it that had manifested on the Zhou Tian Star Chart, she flashed into the secret realm and directly teleported to the Lingguang Hall.

Due to cultivators from various regions entering the capital, the Lingguang Hall also welcomed a surge of applicants seeking to join.

Watching the hundreds of figures struggling forward on the square, Hua Changxi felt a stir in her heart, and the "Zhu Que Army Roster" appeared in her hand.

"Over fifteen thousand Zhu Que Army members..."

Hua Changxi had not expected that deploying display spiritual artifacts across various regions would not only solve the problem of recruiting disciples for the Five Great Sacred Lands but also bring the Lingguang Hall into the view of cultivators everywhere, thereby accelerating the recruitment progress of the Zhu Que Army.

This was truly an unexpected joy!

In fact, the influence of the display spiritual artifacts extended far beyond this.

If the shocking battle at Mount Wuzhi marked the moment when the full-scale recovery of spiritual energy entered everyone's vision, then the deployment of the display spiritual artifacts marked the moment when cultivators, previously stuck in their hometowns, began to move and gained the motivation to explore outward.

It could be said that only with the flow and exchange of cultivators did the cultivation era of the Four Spirit Realms truly arrive.

Although the number of Zhu Que Army members had increased, Hua Changxi was not particularly happy.

For no other reason: the more Zhu Que Army members there were, the greater the consumption.

Apart from the techniques on the Transmission Platform, the Lingguang Hall possessed only the advantage of rich fire spiritual energy suitable for cultivation; unlike the Danyuan Secret Realm, it did not provide abundant resources to support her in training apprentices.

In other words, she would have to feed all the Zhu Que Army members herself!

With a hundred thousand Zhu Que Army members, how many resources would that consume?

The more Hua Changxi thought about it, the more headache she felt; ignoring those cultivators on the square who wished to join, she returned directly to the main hall, took out paper and brush, and drew the Southern Elephant City and the twelve cave heavens.

"The twelve cave heavens guard the Southern Elephant City, so does the existence of the twelve cave heavens serve the Southern Elephant City?"

"The Lingguang Hall is the garrison for the Zhu Que Army, so one of the Zhu Que Army's duties must be to maintain the stability of the Southern Elephant City."

"Then could the other cave heavens... be places that provide resources for the Zhu Que Army?"

Writing and drawing on the paper, Hua Changxi felt increasingly convinced that her guess was correct.

But if that were the case, to ensure the resource supply for the Zhu Que Army, wouldn't she have to seize all eleven other cave heavens?

Hua Changxi's head throbbed with pain;不说 the imperial family's various layouts for the Southern Elephant City, even the demon race was involved in it. Seizing one or two cave heavens, she still had confidence, but seizing all eleven cave heavens, she truly lacked that confidence.

"No, no!"

"I'm thinking wrong!"

"Gathering the twelve cave heavens should be the responsibility of the Southern Elephant City's City Lord; since the Lingguang Hall is responsible for maintaining the stability of the Southern Elephant City, we should be asking the City Lord for wages."

Thinking this way, Hua Changxi immediately felt relieved.

As for who would become the City Lord of the Southern Elephant City, that was not up to her to decide, so there was no need to overthink it; thinking about it was useless anyway.

"With over fifteen thousand people in the Zhu Que Army, we can no longer remain a scattered mob like before; we must organize them into squads."

"We need not worry about the Ten-Thousand-Man Commanders yet, but we should start looking for candidates for the Thousand-Man Commanders."

Hua Changxi planned to use the matter of investigating the strange phenomena in the Southern Elephant City as a pretext to mix into the Zhu Que Army and evaluate candidates for the Thousand-Man Commanders.

"Sigh..."

There was still a huge pile of matters awaiting her at Danyuan Peak, she had to go to Pavilion No. 6 in November to teach apprentices alchemy, and now she had to busy herself with affairs at the Lingguang Hall; she realized that some things simply should not be accepted so casually.

"Whether at Danyuan Peak or the Lingguang Hall, I must cultivate more capable assistants!"

Hua Changxi posted an announcement at the Mission Hall stating that the Lingguang Hall would soon select Thousand-Man Commanders, urging those with ambition to prepare, and then teleported back to Danyuan Peak.

Under the moonlight, Danyuan Peak was quiet and peaceful; just as Hua Changxi was about to go to the bamboo hut to extract the essence blood of the snake demon, she suddenly detected spatial fluctuations in the northern direction of Danyuan Peak and immediately flew over.

To the north of Danyuan Peak lay a gray mist, the location of a barrier that prevented anyone from going deeper.

When she had previously explored the surroundings of Danyuan Peak, Hua Changxi had attempted to break through the barrier to investigate inside, but unfortunately, she had failed.

Yet at this moment, she actually saw Du Gu Lie emerging from within the barrier.

In Du Gu Lie's hand was a green wooden sword; with just a gentle slash of that wooden sword, he tore open a gap in the barrier.

"That wooden sword is..."

Hua Changxi's eyes trembled as she recalled what Tong Yao had once told her about the unique token possessed by successors of the Sacred Lands—the Divine Wood Sword!

"Senior Brother Du Gu!"

A voice filled with suppressed anger rang out; following the sound, Hua Changxi saw Wan Feng running toward Du Gu Lie with an annoyed expression.

Wan Feng was furious: "Senior Brother Du Gu, didn't I tell you not to enter or exit the forbidden ground casually? If the Peak Master discovers us, our identities will no longer be concealable."

Du Gu Lie: "...It wasn't intentional; I truly reached a critical point in my breakthrough. If I didn't enter the forbidden ground, my cultivation level would have been exposed anyway."

Hearing this, Wan Feng could not say much more: "Let's leave this area quickly; we must not be seen by others."

"Senior Brother Du Gu, although there were reasons for this incident, next time you wish to enter the forbidden ground, it would be best to tell me first so I can scout out the Peak Master's location beforehand."

"Do not assume that just because the Peak Master usually stays inside the secret realm and rarely comes out, she will not inspect Danyuan Peak."

Du Gu Lie: "Very well; next time I need to enter the forbidden ground, I will definitely tell you in advance."

Only after Wan Feng and Du Gu Lie had walked far away did Hua Changxi descend from the sky, watching their retreating figures: "So they are successors of the Dan Sheng Hall!"

She just could not understand why they were being so secretive and hiding themselves.

Even if their identities were exposed, what harm could come of it?

Compared to other Sacred Lands, the recovery level of the Dan Sheng Hall was definitely leading; if the successors of the Dan Sheng Hall were to appear and take a leading role, they might even be able to end the complicated chaos of the Medical Bureau sooner!

Hua Changxi then realized that if the successors of the Dan Sheng Hall could place people within Danyuan Peak, they could also place people in other locations.

So, were they planning to follow the strategy of "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind"?

Waiting for people like herself and Meng Qingyao, who rushed to the forefront, to fight each other to the death, so they could emerge afterward to reap the benefits?

Thinking this way, Hua Changxi instinctively felt displeasure: "Compared to the successors of other Sacred Lands, the successors of the Dan Sheng Hall are far too lacking in responsibility!"

"If they want to be cowardly turtles, then let them remain turtles forever."

Hua Changxi withdrew her gaze, looked at the barrier, and after failing once again to break through it, she flew back to the bamboo hut at the peak, took out the snake demon's corpse, and began refining its essence blood.

By the time she had successfully sealed the extracted essence blood, the sky had already brightened considerably.

Just then, Apothecary Xu sent a message: "Peak Master, Hall Master Huo has arrived, saying he has brought you beast corpses."

After receiving the message, Hua Changxi went straight to the Personnel Department.

Huo Yunxiao directly placed the corpses of three Demon Beasts at the Nascent Transformation stage at the foot of Danyuan Peak, attracting a crowd of onlookers.

Upon arriving, Hua Changxi waved her hand, storing the Demon Beast corpses in her storage space, then looked at Huo Yunxiao: "What Demon Beast blood do you want?"

Huo Yunxiao leaned close to Hua Changxi: "I don't need the Demon Beast blood; could you answer me one question instead?"

Hua Changxi said: "Speak."

Huo Yunxiao dropped his smile: "Is the body-refining technique cultivated by the Hua clan something you obtained from the Qihuang Hall?"

Hua Changxi glanced at him without speaking.

Huo Yunxiao took her silence as confirmation: "To be honest, the Heaven Division possesses other body-refining techniques, but those methods have major flaws; they either require drinking Demon Beast blood or using it to brew medicinal baths. Do you know the result of using Demon Beast blood?"

Hua Changxi's eyes flickered.

Huo Yunxiao said: "One becomes bloodthirsty, and may even develop demonic features; several such cases have already appeared within the Demon-Suppressing Army."

"We have studied the body-refining technique you gave the Hua clan; among all the body-refining techniques currently known, it is the most suitable for human cultivation."

"As you should know, cultivators with spiritual roots are in the minority; most people lack spiritual roots and can only cultivate by refining their bodies."

"Therefore, the Heaven Division wishes to exchange for the complete body-refining techniques from the Qihuang Hall."

Hua Changxi shook her head: "No exchange is possible; I have not fully comprehended the body-refining techniques within the Qihuang Hall either." Seeing Huo Yunxiao's disbelief, she paused.

"Very well, I will have Yu Fu post the first three chapters of the Qihuang Body-Refining Art at the entrance of the Medical Bureau shortly; if you want them, go copy them. As for the subsequent chapters on body refinement, I truly cannot help with those at present."