Chapter 640: Xuanhuo Ling

He Pingsheng returned to Tianweidicheng!

He immediately teleported to his small courtyard.

The courtyard was perfectly quiet!

He glanced over: Qiao Huizhu was in seclusion, while Hao Cang was in another side hall, also in seclusion.

He Pingsheng did not disturb them, but walked up to the second floor of the main hall, separating himself from Qiao Huizhu's seclusion.

After laying down layer upon layer of arrays, He Pingsheng waved his hand and pulled out several rings.

He killed five people!

He obtained seven rings in total.

These people were all metallurgists, and all were at the peak of Soul Transformation—far from poor, they were dripping with wealth.

So He Pingsheng had high expectations for these seven rings.

Whoosh!

He dumped out everything inside the seven rings at once.

A mountain of items nearly filled the entire second floor of the main hall.

The most abundant were spirit stones!

Dense and countless, piled into a small hill.

They could almost be described as innumerable.

Even so, nine-tenths of the spirit stones remained inside the rings, not yet spilled out.

Because if all were spilled out, the second floor simply couldn't hold them.

Forget it!

Set the spirit stones aside for now!

Whoosh!

He Pingsheng pulled out a green ring, specifically designed to store spirit stones, and collected all the spirit stones into it.

Once the spirit stones were removed, the "hill" on the second floor instantly shrank considerably.

Among the remaining items, the most numerous were metallurgical materials.

No surprise—four of the five he killed were metallurgists.

He Pingsheng was not skilled in metallurgy, so he didn't recognize many of these materials.

As for their grade?

Anything stored in a Soul Transformation cultivator's storage ring would certainly not be low—minimum grade three.

As for the highest?

Probably not much higher.

Earlier, during the Jiaoyi Society, He Pingsheng had encountered a limp, flaccid material that made his Hongmeng Purple Gold Rod tremble with excitement, greedily craving to devour it.

Now, these materials failed to stir even the slightest interest from the Hongmeng Purple Gold Rod.

That meant these materials weren't advanced enough.

But it didn't matter.

What surprised He Pingsheng was that among their materials, he found Fire Glowing Tiger Blood Stone.

And not just one piece.

"Hehehe…"

He Pingsheng burst into delight: "Perfect… now I have enough material to forge a substitute-dummy!"

He Pingsheng sorted the metallurgical materials and stored them in one of the rings.

Then came the various alchemical materials.

He Pingsheng picked out the sixth- and fifth-grade heavenly treasures and placed them in another ring.

The magic treasures were pitiful—except for one black spherical bead, a lower-grade magic treasure with twenty-one seals, the rest were barely worth a glance.

He had seen this bead before.

During the previous battle, an old man with white hair on his right had thrown it at him; when activated, it expanded to hundreds of zhang in size, like a planet, and if used properly, its power was immense.

Hmm…

"Strengthen!"

He Pingsheng waved his hand and tossed the black bead into the Treasure Gathering Basin.

Then he continued examining the jade slips.

The jade slips were numerous!

Eventually, He Pingsheng found one jade slip containing a metal-elemental divine art.

"This is good… I'll strengthen it later and give it to Old Servant Hao Cang!"

Hao Cang was at Soul Transformation eighth layer, but his spiritual sense was already perfected; during his battle with Bing Yi, he proved extremely useful.

With proper cultivation, Hao Cang will become a capable assistant.

He Pingsheng secretly slipped the jade slip into the Treasure Gathering Basin!

After organizing all the items, He Pingsheng discovered something odd.

A token!

The token looked strange, golden in color, about one chi long, glowing with golden light.

On its front were three characters: Xuanhuo Ling!

On its back was engraved a map.

No…

Better to say, half a map.

The map was incomplete.

But it seemed to point toward a certain direction.

"Dang dang dang…"

He Pingsheng tapped the token several times but found nothing unusual.

What is this thing?

Is the map on the back some kind of treasure map?

He Pingsheng puzzled over it endlessly, then clattered the token into one of the rings.

Besides these, there were five or six fifth-grade 【Principle Origins】.

These can be used for alchemy or breaking Dao barriers!

Ignore them for now—I'll deal with them later!

…

One night later, the black bead was strengthened into two.

One golden!

One blue!

The golden bead was 【metal-elemental】, with twenty-four seals, now a supreme-grade magic treasure.

The blue bead was water-elemental, also with twenty-four seals, a supreme-grade magic treasure.

This bead combined offense and defense.

When activated with magic power, it could expand to hundreds or even a thousand zhang in size, usable both to attack enemies and to defend against their assaults.

Excellent, very good!

"Huh…" He Pingsheng picked up both beads, murmuring to himself: "The water bead can go to Sister Qiao; the metal one suits Hao Cang perfectly!"

Another day passed!

The metal-elemental divine art jade slip was also strengthened into two copies.

One was a metal-elemental offensive divine art.

Name: Jiemie Huangquan Finger.

Grade: Heaven Grade.

Effect: After cultivation, it forms a colossal finger that stirs the Yellow Springs of heaven and earth, killing from afar.

The second was a metal-elemental defensive divine art.

Name: Nine-Zhang Golden Body.

Grade: Heaven Grade.

Effect: After cultivation, the user transforms into a nine-zhang-tall golden body with invincible defense.

One offensive, one defensive—both metal-elemental divine arts.

Perfect—give them both to Hao Cang!

But since these were both metal-elemental arts, before giving them to Hao Cang, He Pingsheng first made two copies.

Keep them—maybe I'll cultivate them myself later.

He Pingsheng summoned Hao Cang.

"Master…" Hao Cang bowed respectfully.

He Pingsheng nodded: "I went out a few days ago and took out a few fools who didn't know their place—I got some treasures!"

"Here, take this—the one I gave you before!"

He Pingsheng waved his hand and handed Hao Cang the golden bead.

Hao Cang carefully took the golden pearl, then scanned it with his spiritual sense—and immediately his legs went weak; he fell to his knees with a thud: "Young Master… Lord… Master… this… this… this is a spiritual treasure!"

"And it's a top-grade spiritual treasure!"

"What merit do this old servant have to receive such a top-grade spiritual treasure from the Master?"

"I dare not… this old servant dares not accept it!"

Thud! Thud! Thud…

Hao Cang hurriedly banged his head on the ground in fear.

Spiritual treasure… top-grade spiritual treasure…

These were things he had never dared to dream of.

He Pingsheng smiled and handed over two jade slips: "Here are two sets of golden-elemental divine arts—one offensive, one defensive!"

"Take them and study them as well!"

"I give you these things so you can strengthen yourself and offer me greater aid in the future—not so you can cower like this, trembling with needless fear!"

Hearing He Pingsheng say this, Hao Cang finally collected all the items.