Translator: AnubisTL
Upon returning to Nanyang Spirit Peak, Li Qing immediately began cataloging his gains from the journey.
After setting up a restriction around his cave abode to ensure privacy, he retrieved the two storage pouches belonging to Crimson Hair Immortal.
As a core formation realm cultivator with mastery of artifact refinement, Crimson Hair Immortal's wealth was astonishingly vast.
The first pouch overflowed with spirit stones of every grade, nearly blinding Li Qing with their dazzling array.
It contained over fifty mid-grade spirit stones, while the low-grade stones were piled into a small mountain, totaling roughly eight thousand!
But that wasn't all. Deep within the pouch, two high-grade spirit stones lay separately, meticulously arranged.
In total, the three grades of spirit stones amounted to over thirty-four thousand.
This was an immense fortune, even for a core formation realm cultivator. Amassing such wealth required mastery of exceptionally advanced cultivation techniques.
The mere sight of these spirit stones made Li Qing's heart race slightly. Although spirit stones were rarely useful to cultivators after core formation, they still represented a substantial fortune.
Li Qing didn't consider himself greedy, but even he couldn't help but swallow hard at the sight of such a massive pile of spirit stones.
"A horse fattens on night grass, and a man prospers on windfall wealth."
"This is truly a stroke of good fortune!"
He frowned, considering how to use these spirit stones. His first thought was to feed his three little golden silkworms.
These silkworms needed to devour an astronomical variety of spirit gold to mature—true gold-devouring insects.
Even with these thirty thousand spirit stones, purchasing enough types of spirit gold would likely fall far short of evolving the silkworms into the Six-Winged Golden Moth, an ancient and rare insect.
Li Qing continued rummaging through the storage pouch, soon discovering another delightful treasure:
Spiritual materials for artifact refinement!
As an artifact refiner, the Crimson Hair Immortal would naturally possess a vast quantity of spiritual materials.
A dazzling array of spiritual materials and precious ores lay piled together, including not only demon beast materials but also numerous rare and precious spirit golds!
"This piece of Wisteria Wood must be nearly a thousand years old. Incredible! If properly refined, it could be used to forge a wood-attribute flying sword artifact."
"Crimson Origin Iron? A pity it's just scraps, probably leftovers from Crimson Hair Immortal's artifact refinement projects. It'll do nicely to feed the Golden Silk Silkworms, though."
"Hiss... Deep Sea Azure Gold. This spirit gold is only found in the deepest, most remote parts of the ocean. Even cultivators skilled in the water dao might never obtain it!"
"Huh? What's this handful of yellow earth? The aura emanating from it is strange, as if dao resonance flows within."
Li Qing inventoried the spoils of war from his storage pouch, discovering spiritual materials he couldn't even identify.
Crimson Hair Immortal's collection was truly staggering, almost overwhelming to behold.
"Good. At least I won't have to worry about feeding the three Golden Silk Silkworms for a while," Li Qing muttered to himself. Though many of the materials were scraps from artifact refinement, the little golden silkworms didn't care about quantity—variety was what mattered.
Once they consumed enough types of spirit gold and accumulated sufficient energy, they would begin their metamorphosis.
At that time, the Golden Silkworm would spin a cocoon of even finer silk, nurturing within it its evolved form: the Six-Winged Golden Moth!
The first storage pouch contained a wealth of rare spiritual materials and spirit stones, along with a handful of spirit herbs.
"The spirit herbs are of average value, but these three Spirit-Corroding Fruits might be useful," Li Qing remarked, retrieving three dark green fruits from the pouch. Each fruit was about the size of an infant's fist, with a smooth, dark green skin that emanated a peculiar aura. Li Qing quickly identified them as Spirit-Corroding Fruits.
His memory was sharp; he vividly recalled a pill formula he had obtained from the Blood Lotus Sect's book pavilion in the World of Eternal Night. This formula required Spirit-Corroding Fruits for refining.
"The essence of these Spirit-Corroding Fruits is a supplementary ingredient for the Spirit Nourishing Pill. I'll keep them for now and see if I can gather the rest later."
After cataloging the pouch's contents, Li Qing stored it in a corner of his cave abode and retrieved the second storage pouch.
This pouch was slightly smaller, but its contents filled Li Qing with even greater delight.
The first thing that caught his eye was a small stack of talismans—all of them second-tier!
Scattered beside these second-tier talismans were several third-tier ones.
Among them was the Thunderfire Talisman Crimson Hair Immortal had used to attack Li Qing earlier. There was also a single remaining copy of the defensive third-tier talisman the immortal had used first.
"Primal Shield Talisman," Li Qing murmured, "a mid-grade third-tier defensive talisman. Judging by the brushstrokes, these talismans seem to be the work of the same talisman master."
As he spoke, Li Qing unceremoniously transferred the talismans into his own storage pouch.
It was clear that this storage pouch primarily contained combat-related items.
"The Primal Shield Talisman's defensive capabilities are quite impressive. And this Thunderfire Talisman... they must both be the work of a talisman master named Fu Xuan."
He recalled Crimson Hair Immortal's words from earlier. When the immortal had used the Thunderfire Talisman, he had mentioned Fu Xuan.
"These talismans are the work of that old ghost Fu Xuan," the immortal had said. "Effective, yes, but outrageously expensive."
After stowing away the talismans, Li Qing continued his search.
Soon, he unearthed a black jade gourd from the storage pouch.
He had an identical gourd, obtained as half a portion of dragon marrow for forging treasures for the Ghost Sword Sect!
"Another half portion of dragon marrow!"
Li Qing's eyes burned with excitement. After retrieving the gourd, he carefully examined it, confirming it was indeed dragon marrow.
With this half portion, he now possessed a full portion of dragon marrow!
This quantity was even sufficient for him to advance a stage in the core formation realm.
If utilized properly, reaching the mid Core Formation Realm was not impossible.
Such dragon marrow could only form through the accumulation of pure spiritual energy within underground dragon veins over millennia.
Each portion was priceless, an unparalleled treasure for cultivators in the core formation realm.
"I must use this wisely. With the Crimson Blaze Heaven-Burning Art enhanced by my two heavenly spirit fires, and a full portion of dragon marrow, advancing to the mid Core Formation Realm shouldn't take too long."
With these words, Li Qing carefully stored the half portion of dragon marrow.
Aside from the dragon marrow, there was one other item in the storage pouch that particularly caught Li Qing's attention.
It was the oval Stone Embryo that Crimson Hair Immortal had retrieved from the Ghost Sword Sect's treasure vault!
The Stone Embryo appeared utterly unremarkable, radiating barely any spiritual energy. It looked no different from an ordinary roadside pebble.
If Li Qing hadn't learned from Crimson Hair Immortal himself that this object could rival even a fragment of the Earth Spirit Pearl, he would have suspected the old man had misjudged its value.
However, that seemed unlikely. To Crimson Hair Immortal, this Stone Embryo was clearly far more precious than a fragment of the Earth Spirit Pearl!
What exactly is this thing? Why would Crimson Hair Immortal choose this bizarre Stone Embryo over a fragment of the Earth Spirit Pearl?
Unfortunately, Li Qing couldn't pry the Stone Embryo's purpose from Crimson Hair Immortal.
Not that he expected the old man to generously reveal such secrets. Unraveling the Stone Embryo's mysteries would have to wait for another day.
Li Qing shook his head, patted the Stone Embryo, and stored it in his storage pouch.
The remaining items consisted of ancient texts, records, and a few jade slips.
It's worth noting that while the collection included Crimson Hair Immortal's cultivation manual, there was no inheritance related to his artifact refinement technique.
Li Qing considered this briefly but didn't dwell on it. He himself had no intention of recording and passing down his own artifact refinement techniques.
"Generally speaking, unless one knows their great limit is approaching, they wouldn't easily pass on everything they've learned," Li Qing murmured, shaking his head. He idly skimmed through the jade slips and Ancient Texts and Records before losing interest.
Soon, he arrived at the two magical treasures that had most captured his attention during this expedition!
One was the Fire-Repelling Treasure Robe, which was severely damaged.
It was precisely this peculiar robe that had made Li Qing's battle against the Crimson Hair Immortal so arduous.
"Fire-Repelling Treasure Robe... repelling all fires under heaven. Could such a miraculous artifact truly exist?"
"This thing is practically the ultimate nemesis of all Fire Dao cultivators!" Li Qing muttered to himself, then picked up the severely damaged Fire-Repelling Treasure Robe and began examining its extraordinary features in detail.
The dao patterns on the robe were ancient, clearly not from this era, radiating an aura of a distant past.
Though the treasure robe was impressive, it was now severely damaged.
"After taking another hammer blow from me, the robe is even more damaged. Still, its resistance to flames remains remarkably strong."
"Even though I already have the Golden Jade Garment and don't really need this, it's worth keeping. I might gain some insights from studying the dao patterns later."
The second item that truly caught his attention was a drum!
The drum's frame was blood-red, and its surface was crafted from the skin of some demon beast through refining.
This sonic-based offensive artifact could influence an immortal cultivator's mind, providing a significant advantage in battle.
In fact, if Li Qing hadn't urgently summoned the Black Furnace that day, the outcome of the battle would have been far from certain.
Thump!
Li Qing struck the drum's surface, listening to the muffled sound that resonated within. His emotions stirred instantly.
"With proper refinement and spiritual energy activation, this drumbeat could prove to be quite potent in the future."
(End of the Chapter)
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