novelraw Chapter 113 - 110: Demonic Dao Means
Chapter 113 - 110: Demonic Dao Means
Fang Qingyuan hurried back to his small courtyard. Once there, he entered his Quiet Chamber, and his consciousness immediately slipped into the Immortal Mansion.
The aura of life in the Immortal Mansion was much weaker now than it had been a few days ago, the reason being that over a thousand Scorpion-tailed Poison Bees had become mere carcasses.
Fang Qingyuan buried these bees under the roots of the Spirit Plants. Within half a month, their carcasses were completely absorbed by the black soil of the Immortal Mansion, leaving not a single trace behind.
In fact, the Spirit Plants grew even more luxuriantly. The swarm now had only about a thousand bees remaining. After the last battle, Fang Qingyuan had discovered that cultivating more of these poison bees was more effective than any Magical Artifact.
The only factor currently limiting the number of Scorpion-tailed Bees was food. Previously, Fang Qingyuan would occasionally take Flower Nectar from the Bee Queen for Jinbao to eat. Now, far from taking any, he was constantly sending more in.
The current Bee Queen was already enveloped in Golden Jade Flower Honey, trapped in a cycle of bliss and distress.
This was because Fang Qingyuan had ordered the Bee Queen to produce another five thousand Scorpion-tailed Poison Bees within half a year.
The limited space of the Immortal Mansion would certainly be unable to support so many Scorpion-tailed Bees. Therefore, Fang Qingyuan decided to raise some of the swarms outside and bring them all back into the Immortal Mansion when he needed them.
After the last battle, Fang Qingyuan had lost nearly half of his Scorpion-tailed Bees, but the Bee Queen inside the Immortal Mansion hadn’t noticed anything amiss.
Aside from the Bee Queen’s low intelligence, Fang Qingyuan figured that from her perspective, the life and death of the swarms were of no concern to her.
The hierarchy within the swarm was strict. In nature, the Bee Queen would be paramount, but in the Immortal Mansion, as Fang Qingyuan’s tamed beast, her understanding of her own position was crystal clear: she was not responsible for the life and death of the swarms.
These days, the Bee Queen only cared about two things: whether there was enough Flower Nectar to eat, and whether she could lay fewer pupae today. Fang Qingyuan would worry about everything else, so she couldn’t be bothered to think about it.
The Bee Queen figured that sleeping a little longer was a better use of her time than pondering such trivial matters.
Perhaps when the Bee Queen advanced to a second or third-tier Spirit Insect, she would finally notice something was wrong. But for now, her pitiful little brain couldn’t hold anything other than thoughts of Flower Nectar.
The hundred pounds of Golden Jade Flower Honey that Fang Qingyuan had promised her last time had all been delivered, along with an extra hundred pounds. This Flower Nectar would be enough for the Bee Queen to feast on for many days to come.
After checking on the Bee Queen, Fang Qingyuan found that many pupae had already formed in the hive. He figured it wouldn’t be long before these pupae turned into Scorpion-tailed Poison Bees.
’When the time comes, a swarm of five or six thousand Scorpion-tailed Poison Bees would make even a Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s blood run cold.’
After indulging in this pleasant thought, Fang Qingyuan went to the silkworm room. Three or four months had passed, and the first batch of silkworms had already formed cocoons. Fang Qingyuan planned to wait until they were more mature before taking them out to sell.
He didn’t plan to reel the silk from these cocoons himself. He couldn’t even offload the tens of thousands of Low-grade Spirit Stones’ worth of spiritual materials he already had; where would he find the energy to deal with this?
Besides the cocoons, Fang Qingyuan also obtained a good amount of silkworm droppings. This was also a type of spiritual material. Although it was just the droppings the silkworms produced after eating mulberry leaves, some alchemical recipes required it as a catalyst.
Fang Qingyuan collected a fair amount of the droppings. Selling it all could fetch several dozen Spirit Stones. It didn’t seem like much, but it was pure extra income.
After leaving the silkworm room, Fang Qingyuan went to the spot where he had buried the snake-faced and chicken-faced cultivators. He sent his Divine Sense down to investigate and found that it was completely empty beneath the black soil; not even a bone fragment remained.
The absorption and decomposition ability of this black soil was simply heaven-defying. A cultivator’s corpse was naturally much more resistant to decay than a mortal’s, yet in this black soil, it hadn’t even lasted a month.
Moreover, after the soil had absorbed the two corpses, Fang Qingyuan could clearly feel his Spirit Root talent surge.
At the time, Fang Qingyuan had simply wanted to save a Fiery Flame Talisman. He never expected to discover, only after burying the bodies in the Immortal Mansion, that the corpse of a Late-stage Qi Refining Cultivator improved his Spirit Root by an amount second only to the Golden Spirit Power Origin from that Nascent Soul Giant Beast.
Only after testing his Spirit Root talent again did Fang Qingyuan discover that his Five Elements Spirit Root had, without him realizing, improved significantly.
His current talent levels were: Wood Spirit Root at twenty-nine, Earth at twenty-three, Water at eighteen, Fire at fifteen, and Gold at twenty-seven.
Among them, his Wood Spirit Root, after all this time, had finally reached the peak of Middle Grade Spirit Root Talent, just shy of becoming a Top-grade Spirit Root.
His other Spirit Root talents had also risen by two or three points each, but Fang Qingyuan knew full well he hadn’t invested any resources into the earth, water, or fire elements.
Connecting this to the two Late-stage Qi Refining Cultivator corpses he had buried earlier, Fang Qingyuan had to admit that cultivators themselves were far better ’material’ than any Spirit Wood or spiritual ingredients.
This conclusion, however, filled Fang Qingyuan with unease, even chilling him to the bone. He wasn’t opposed to using the corpses of his enemies for his own benefit, but he worried that if he became addicted to it, he would sink into an abyss of desire.
His methods felt more demonic than the Demonic Dao itself. From what he could tell, even the conversion efficiency of Demonic Cultivators couldn’t match that of his Immortal Mansion.
If Fang Qingyuan couldn’t resist the temptation of rapidly improving his Spirit Root and chose to take desperate risks to capture other cultivators, then he would not be far from his own doom.
However, letting such an effective method go to waste was not something he was willing to do. That was partly why he had decided to go to Yuanling Mountain with Jiang Kui—he intended to leverage her combat strength.
’The area around Yuanling Mountain isn’t very safe, but as long as we stay on the mountain, we should be secure. Then, Jiang Kui can go down and ’harvest’ a few clueless Qi Cultivation Cultivators, and I’ll be in charge of the cleanup. Our teamwork would be perfect.’
It was with this idea in mind that Fang Qingyuan had chosen to follow Jiang Kui to develop the place. If not for this factor, he most likely would have chosen to stay on Celestial Gate Mountain, slowly selling off spiritual materials and Magical Artifacts while living a peaceful life.
Perhaps buying the corpses of Qi Cultivation Cultivators from the Black Market was another option, but Fang Qingyuan was cautious by nature. He was afraid that if he were discovered, he wouldn’t be able to explain himself, and it would all be over.
Based on his experience from his previous life, these kinds of black markets were actually backed by major powers, like the Vast Collection Pavilion. Otherwise, without protection, they would have been eradicated by the Great Zhou Academy long ago.
The true identity of every cultivator who frequented the Black Market could not be hidden from the eyes of these major powers. It was a matter of luck if they decided not to bother you, but if they ever took an interest, regret would be useless.
Having considered these matters, Fang Qingyuan’s consciousness slipped out of the Immortal Mansion and returned to the outside world. He patiently packed up his little den, stowing many of his belongings in his storage bags. He had recently obtained two ten-cubic-meter storage bags, which was just enough space.
Half a day later, Fang Qingyuan stood at the entrance to his small courtyard and put away the Small Five Elements Inversion Illusion Array set. Then he took one last look at the courtyard, stepped onto Yinbao’s back with Jinbao in tow, and, with a trace of regret, flew far away.
...
「Three days later, on Yuanling Mountain」
Fang Qingyuan watched as Jiang Kui finished the handover with the Beast Taming Sect disciple who had been stationed there, then said, "Looks like that ten percent share wasn’t given away for nothing. At least they didn’t swap out Yuanling Mountain’s Protection Array for a first-tier one on you."
Jiang Kui toyed with the Mountain Protection Array’s Array Disc in her hand and chuckled.
"I suppose they have some face to save. As a peak master, Zhao Liangde can’t afford that kind of embarrassment."
Fang Qingyuan nodded, then asked, "What are your plans for these mortals? Yuanling Mountain is spacious, but we need to plan ahead and reserve living quarters for future cultivators. If you factor that in, these mortals will inevitably have to be moved off the mountain."
Jiang Kui’s brow furrowed. After a moment’s thought, she said, "We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, let’s move the mortals onto the mountain. With this second-tier, middle-grade Heavy Earth Primordial Array protecting them, I’ll feel more at ease. Otherwise, if some random beast wanders out of the wilderness and we can’t get to them in time, they’ll suffer heavy casualties."
"It’s your call. Right now, the mortal families combined number less than a thousand, but as time passes, more cultivators will surely join. Add to that the mortals procreating, and Yuanling Mountain will sooner or later be unable to support them all. You should make plans early."
Hearing this, Jiang Kui sighed, indicating she understood. Then she perked up and said, "Let’s go take a look at this place. For the next hundred years, we’ll probably be living here."
With that, Jiang Kui rose into the air and began to circle Yuanling Mountain. Seeing this, Fang Qingyuan also guided Yinbao to follow behind her.
Yuanling Mountain was quite large. The front and back of the mountain combined covered an area of at least a dozen square kilometers. It seemed vast, but only a few patches of land were actually habitable.
Moreover, the mountain was short on water, and even more so on arable land for growing crops. It would be manageable for Jiang Kui to settle a small number of mortals here, but if the population exceeded four or five thousand, they would have to start buying grain from elsewhere.
Jiang Kui and Fang Qingyuan circled a few times before finally stopping at the summit. Looking at the dilapidated buildings on the mountain, Fang Qingyuan could only offer some reassurance. "This place is quite close to the Wilderness Forest, and the sect hasn’t invested much in it over the years. If it weren’t for the decent Spirit Land Grade here, the sect wouldn’t have held onto it."
"But it’s for that very reason that this place has potential for future development. Our first priority is to get the mortals settled, and then we can get the mine sorted out. Once that’s done, we’ll be on the right track."
Hearing Fang Qingyuan’s reassurance, Jiang Kui’s expression softened. She gave him a slight nod, and a few strands of her hair, stirred by the gentle breeze, revealed a fair earlobe.
After a moment, Jiang Kui spoke. "I’m so glad you’re here this time. The thought of having to handle all these tedious affairs by myself is just dreadful."
’Some thanks,’ Fang Qingyuan complained internally. ’All talk and no action. Couldn’t she at least give me a few Spirit Stones?’
Of course, what Fang Qingyuan actually said was far more polite: "You’re too kind, Senior Sister. I’m sure you would have managed fine without me. In any case, we shouldn’t delay. Let’s go down and get those mortals settled."
Jiang Kui nodded. This time, she didn’t opt for Sword Flight. Instead, with a quick movement, she landed on Yinbao’s back as well, standing close to Fang Qingyuan.
"It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden a humpback ray," she said. "With Yinbao here on Yuanling Mountain, traveling to other places will be so much more convenient."
Fang Qingyuan’s brow furrowed at her words, and he blurted out, "Senior Sister, Yinbao is my private property. If other junior brothers want a ride, they’ll have to pay."
"Hmph! Who said I wouldn’t pay? Don’t worry, you won’t be short-changed. Now get flying."
’Only after getting Jiang Kui’s assurance did Fang Qingyuan relax. From her tone just now, it sounded like she wanted to turn Yinbao into public transportation for Yuanling Mountain. That was unacceptable. People could ride, but they had to pay.’
’This was a matter of principle; no exceptions for anyone.’ With that thought, Fang Qingyuan signaled Yinbao to depart. And so, the enormous humpback ray, carrying the man and woman on its back, flew slowly onward.