Wasted Spiritual Root to Embark on Demonic Cultivation

Chapter 224

The loyal Jade Spirit cultivators welcomed their city lord, Wang Yu.

As expected, most of the City Lord’s Mansion had already collapsed. The destruction was caused by that late-stage Core Formation cultivator who had been sealed within the formation. All the dozens of guards stationed there had also perished violently.

Wang Yu felt a slight pang of regret.

Outside the ruins of the central district, many cultivators stood waiting. The moment they saw Wang Yu and his group returning, they all straightened up and shouted in unison, their voices resounding with spiritual vigor.

“Congratulations to the City Lord for returning safely!”

Wang Yu remained silent for a moment.

Elder Xuan Yan, standing beside him, chuckled lightly.

“Young friend, it seems your prestige within the city is not small.”

Wang Yu gave a bitter smile.

“Senior Xuan Yan, you overestimate this junior. They are simply terrified.”Indeed, the sudden appearance of a late-stage Core Formation cultivator teleported from the City Lord’s Manor had terrified everyone. Dozens had died right before their eyes. Who could remain calm after that?

This entire incident had been a forced sacrifice. No one even had time to react.

Still, most of those with scattered hearts were rogue cultivators. Among the first group of young cultivators Wang Yu had recruited, all were locals who had grown up in this region. By now, they had become a strong and reliable force.

It was time to begin selection, discard the weak and cultivate the elite—to truly build a cultivator army belonging to Jade Spirit City.

Now was the perfect opportunity. It would also drive away the idle parasites and allow capable people to rise.

Once everyone ascended the steps and entered the mansion, Wang Yu immediately saw three familiar faces. Their limbs were bound by stone that had grown from the ground itself. Their auras were extremely weak, and no trace of spiritual power could be sensed.

Late-stage Core Formation. Early-stage Core Formation. Early-stage Core Formation.

“Senior Xuan Yan, how do you plan to deal with these three?”

“How to deal with them?”

Elder Xuan Yan paused, as if suddenly recalling something.

“This time, I came to Jade Spirit alone. You should send a messenger to Secluded Prefecture City and inform Yellow Spring Monastery to dispatch people here. This is my personal command.

“For the time being, I will be stationed in Jade Spirit. More of my fellow sect members from Cloud Ridge City will arrive soon. Just see to their accommodations and let me handle all negotiations and matters.”

“This junior understands.”

Wang Yu summoned Xu Ruzhou and instructed him to immediately lead people to rebuild the City Lord’s Mansion, starting with a new residence for Elder Xuan Yan.

Cultivators’ working efficiency was beyond compare. With the aid of various spells, reconstruction was simple. Only tasks like engraving murals or carving coiling dragons would take longer.

In emergencies, immediate measures were enough. They could rebuild overnight and refine details later.

“Oh right, Xu Ruzhou,” Wang Yu added. “Record the ruins of the City Lord’s Mansion and the current state of the central district with Memory Stones. Make several copies and hand one to Senior Xuan Yan.

“And… Qingyang, come here. Write down every healing pill you used after getting injured and give the list to Xu Ruzhou.”

Qingyang hesitated. “City Lord, is it appropriate to record the healing pills used for cultivation injuries?”

“Hahaha, as long as I say it’s appropriate, it is. Report it at five times the amount. Any more than that and they’ll refuse to pay compensation.”

Everyone was speechless.

Xu Ruzhou quickly took notes. No wonder the City Lord often called him dull—he had never realized how shameless one could be. Wasn’t the central district’s destruction caused by Grandmaster Tianshui from Golden Abundance Tower anyway?

Suddenly, Wang Yu turned back.

“I remember that many mortals and a few cultivators died in the central district—around ten thousand, right? Report them all to Senior Xuan Yan. Change the mortals to cultivators, and cultivators to mortals.”

“...Yes, sir.”

“Yes!”

He left no detail unattended, worried his foolish subordinates might waste the chance to earn spirit stones. He was completely broke right now. That one million-spirit-stone sect offering could be claimed soon, though.

He had even gathered his allied factions to fill the gap. Could he perhaps swallow it all for himself?

Unfortunately, no.

Because the matter still had follow-up consequences. The retrieval of the sect offering could not be hidden from the allied factions. Better to return it and owe them a favor. It would be easier to command them later.

Walking alone among the ruins of the City Lord’s Manor, Wang Yu unfolded a scroll and began sketching the plans for the reconstruction.

“Here, build a row of alchemy rooms. Over there, a garden with spirit stones and spirit trees. Three palace halls here. And there…”

All reconstruction expenses would be covered by Yellow Spring Monastery.

Perfectly reasonable.

When he reached the site of the old main hall, he quickly stepped forward and used the Mysterious Yin Hand to clear out the entrance to the hidden chamber.

Fortunately, the underground cultivation chamber and the second level made of Killing-intent Stones had not suffered much damage. Otherwise, he would have demanded even more compensation from Yellow Spring Monastery.

Without lingering further, Wang Yu entered the chamber, sat cross-legged, and began refining pills to recover his injuries while maintaining his cultivation.

To his surprise, after experiencing a life-and-death battle, his cultivation progress had accelerated significantly. Though temporary, the improvement brought him great satisfaction.

Thus, one month later...

In the 25th year and 9th month of Wang Yu’s career as a Deacon, the reconstruction of the City Lord’s Mansion was temporarily completed. Although the work was rather rough, at least it was now habitable.

Next came the rebuilding of the central district. The once-proud City Guards had been turned, quite literally, into a renovation team.

From Cloud Ridge Prefecture City, a large number of cultivators also arrived—more than twenty at the Core Formation stage, several hundred at the Foundation Establishment stage, and another Nascent Soul cultivator.

That Nascent Soul cultivator had been drawn here by the presence of Elder Xuan Yan.

He was none other than the Nascent Soul cultivator of the Second Peak of the Blood Reversal Sect’s Heavenly Corpse Peak—Lord Lei Hou (Thunder Howl).

It was said that this person cultivated a strange technique that refined his body into a zombie, later evolving into the rare “Thunder Howl,” possessing the potential to break through to the Spirit Transformation stage.

He was only over eight hundred years old yet had already reached the seventh layer of the Nascent Soul Realm. He ranked second on Heavenly Corpse Peak, beneath only the Three Corpse Daoist. As for the so-called Heavenly Corpse Old Demon mentioned by Elder Xuan Yan, he was in fact the master of Heavenly Corpse Mountain Peak, whose cultivation was only at the third layer of the Nascent Soul Realm, equal to Xuan Yan’s.

When Lord Lei Hou heard news of the Thunder Spirit Corpse, he rushed over immediately. To him, that Thunder Spirit Corpse was practically of the same kind—an incredibly bizarre situation indeed.

It was strange to the extreme.

Facing such a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, Elder Xuan Yan had no choice but to agree to his requests. In truth, he was willing to offer the Thunder Spirit Corpse to Lord Lei Hou, knowing it would earn him considerable rewards.

The difference between an early-stage and late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator was immeasurable. The former might still survive by having their Nascent Soul escape their body, but in a life-and-death battle, they would be subdued within ten moves.

Such was cultivation, the further one advanced, the greater the difference became. Sometimes a single minor realm could create an insurmountable gap.

Wang Yu had the fortune of meeting Lord Lei Hou in person.

The other party handed him a token engraved with the character “Lei.” Compared to Elder Xuan Yan’s gifts, this was far more sincere—it meant that should Wang Yu ever be in trouble, he could use this token to save his life.

He carefully stored it within his Sea Heart Ring.

As for the negotiations with Yellow Springs Monastery, Wang Yu’s cultivation was far too low to be of use beyond providing intelligence. He was not even qualified to sit at the negotiation table, leaving all discussions to Elder Xuan Yan.

Yellow Springs Monastery also sent a Nascent Soul cultivator, accompanied by the main culprit, Elder Dizang. Their confidence came not only from strength but also from the support of one of Yellow Springs Monastery’s great internal branches.

The talks were at a standstill.

Because both dominant sects had gathered Nascent Soul cultivators in the region of Jade Spirit City, the area became unusually peaceful. Even the usual robberies and ambushes ceased entirely.

As for Lord Lei Hou, after obtaining the Thunder Spirit Corpse, he immediately returned to the Blood Reversal Sect’s mountain gate, having no intention of taking part in the negotiations.

Had there been a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator overseeing matters, the discussions would have been settled easily, for such an existence could represent an entire sect.

Every word and action from such a person carried great weight, especially before outsiders.

The negotiations dragged on, breaking into quarrels every ten days or half a month—sometimes about unreasonable compensation demands concerning Wang Yu, other times about falsified loss reports.

They even used the captured three cultivators as scapegoats, pushing all blame onto them.

Elder Xuan Yan’s stance remained firm.

He repeatedly brought up the honor of the Blood Reversal Sect, insisting that Yellow Springs Monastery provide an explanation. A few million spirit stones were not enough—he wanted a written apology and a public declaration to the entire world.

But this was precisely what Yellow Springs Monastery could not accept.

Thus, the dispute dragged on. Three full years passed—spring to winter, the seasons turned thrice and now, midway through the fourth year, no agreement had yet been reached.

However, much of the compensation had already been determined.

Wang Yu continued with his own life, unaffected by the negotiations, doing what needed to be done.

This rare period of calm, with powerful cultivators stationed nearby, allowed many of his city policies to progress smoothly. Ever since the failure of the Fragrance Gathering, he had planned to establish a cultivator marketplace within the city. The ruined central district was ideal for it.

He invited cultivators from various regions to settle in Jade Spirit and also developed a new cave estate rental business.

After all, Jade Spirit City possessed a third-rank mid-grade spiritual vein, an environment that itinerant cultivators could only dream of. Since he and Qingyang could not use up all the spiritual energy themselves, he decided to allocate part of it for rental cave estates.

For a cultivator to break through to the Core Formation stage, a third-rank spiritual vein was essential. A second-rank spiritual vein simply could not provide the vast amount of spiritual energy required for the condensation of a Golden Core and the metamorphosis of life.

Even Wang Yu could not bypass this rule.

The Idle Slot could not instantly supply him with the massive amount of spiritual energy needed for a breakthrough. Back in the Black Mountain Demonic Lands, he had relied on spirit stones as a substitute.

Such operational strategies were minor affairs.

In the 30th year and first month of his Deacon career, Wang Yu used the power of the Two-Pattern Condensing Essence Pill to successfully advance to the seventh layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm, officially entering the late Foundation Establishment stage.

This differed somewhat from his original two-year plan, he had overestimated his cultivation speed. During this time, he also refined two supreme-grade Ice Spirit Pills, increasing his true essence by a total of 552 drops. Through his own cultivation, he gained an additional 82 drops, reaching his highest record yet.

Now, the lake of true essence within his body had become denser, and his recovery speed had increased several times over. His true essence limit reached 2018 drops, and he needed to accumulate 4000 drops to reach the peak of the seventh layer.

His total power had effectively doubled. Having already consumed seven Ice Spirit Pills, he now needed to seek a new cultivation-enhancing pill formula, as the old one was beginning to form a pill barrier.

The breakthrough refreshed Wang Yu’s spirit, giving him renewed vigor in all matters.

That day, Elder Xuan Yan sent him an urgent summons, and Wang Yu immediately hurried to the Xuanyan Hall, built specifically for him.

“Wang Yu, pays respect to Elder Xuan Yan.”

“No need for formalities. Do you still remember what I told you before, about compensation?”