The herb garden could wait for later. The scar-faced man's belongings were the primary spoils of this harvest.
With just a cursory sweep, Qin Sang discovered quite a few items that stirred his heart.
He produced some medicinal pills that restored true essence, shared them with his incarnation, and began to carefully examine the scar-faced man's mustard seed bag while recuperating.
There were not many external treasures like magic treasures, spirit pills, or talismans inside—scant few, in fact, scarcely befitting a cultivator of his caliber.
Over the years, the scar-faced man had devoted himself entirely to breeding the Gu King, mastering poison arts, and resolving the virulent poison within his body. Later, once the Gu King reached maturity, he acquired the ancient red mystery tree, cultivated the Postcelestial Wooden Monument, and prepared for opening the Wuxiang Immortal Sect's heritage site. He simply had no spare energy to attend to anything else.
*Whoosh!*
Triggered by Qin Sang's divine consciousness, several streaks of light flew out of the mustard seed bag. Reaching out, he caught one of the wooden boxes.
When the box opened, a cluster of green light rested inside. As his divine consciousness swept across it, the crafting method for the Heavenly Linglong was imprinted into Qin Sang's sea of consciousness. This closely guarded secret of the Wood Phase Hall was finally in his hands.
The crafting method was remarkably complete, including insights and reflections left by successive hall masters of the Wood Phase Hall.
Only upon seeing it for himself did Qin Sang realize that forging the Heavenly Linglong was nowhere near as simple as the scar-faced man had claimed.
The artificer first required profound attainments in the dao of artifact refinement, and their cultivation could be no lower than the late Nascent Soul stage.
This treasure aided in Deity Transformation, so its immense value was self-evident. Yet if someone wished to craft a Heavenly Linglong to trade away, they would still have to carefully weigh the gains against the losses—a testament to just how arduous crafting this treasure truly was.
Refining the Heavenly Linglong was no work of a day and night, and every single required spirit material was a rare heavenly treasure. Even Qin Sang, who could well be called a master of artifact refinement, failed to recognize several of the materials listed.
The other streaks of light held jade slips, a portion of which contained the Wood Phase Hall's artifact-refinement heritage.
In the heyday of the Wuxiang Immortal Sect, the Wood Phase Hall was renowned for artifact refinement. These inheritances would undoubtedly be of tremendous aid to Qin Sang. In the future, once he had the leisure to immerse himself in artifact-refining arts, his skill was bound to progress by leaps and bounds—an unexpected boon.
To think that both the alchemy and artifact-refining lineages of the Wuxiang Immortal Sect had now fallen into his hands.
Cross-referencing the jade slips, Qin Sang found descriptions of those unfamiliar materials. Some could still be discovered in the world with patient searching, but for the rest, one could only rely on luck.
In particular, a spiritual substance called Laurel Immortal Dew was the rarest of all. It was produced exclusively in the Fairy Laurel Secret Realm of Tiantong Hall, which could only be entered once every few centuries.
The scar-faced man had failed to find any Laurel Immortal Dew in the Wood Phase Hall.
Now that the Immortal Palace had ascended and the Fairy Laurel Secret Realm was inaccessible, where could one even look?
The method for crafting the Heavenly Linglong contained none of this background information; the scar-faced man had deliberately excised it, or Cave Master Qiling would never have been so optimistic.
There were exceptions, of course: a Nascent Soul cultivator of the Wuxiang Immortal Sect had once obtained a small vial while roaming the periphery of the storm belt, when he stumbled upon the cave estate of an ancient cultivator.
Perhaps there was more left in this realm, hidden in some unknown ancient abode.
Qin Sang possessed all five elemental spiritual roots, making the Heavenly Linglong useless to him, yet seeing this still brought a pang of disappointment. Without gathering all the materials, the secret technique's value was drastically diminished. Figuring out how to extract the maximum benefit from it would require some contemplation.
Nor were these the only things the scar-faced man had concealed from Cave Master Qiling.
Qin Sang shifted his gaze to the final streak of light and beckoned softly.
The light settled into his grasp as a translucent jade sphere. The size of an infant's fist, it emanated a pure emerald glow, radiant and lustrous like a night-luminescent pearl.
The jade sphere was none other than the Heavenly Linglong!
Only, this Heavenly Linglong was an unfinished spirit embryo.
Qin Sang focused his gaze, looking through the green light to discern flaws within the emerald jade.
The surface was not smooth; instead, it was riddled with countless minute cavities—cavities so tiny they went unnoticed unless examined with meticulous care.
Within every cavity were engraved innumerable restrictions. Their intricacy was unlike anything Qin Sang had ever witnessed; scarcely any treasure in this realm could rival it. And this was merely the sphere's first layer.
The Heavenly Linglong could be seen as five jade spheres nested one inside another.
All five layers were equally intricate.
When the Heavenly Linglong reached completion, all five layers had to be fused into one, their qi mechanics harmonized in a perfect balance without any internal dissonance.
Observing it even more closely, Qin Sang realized the Heavenly Linglong was not entirely physical; it hovered between the real and the ethereal, capable of merging with any kind of natal magic treasure.
In the past, the Hall Master of the Wood Phase Hall had crafted this spirit embryo and placed it in the artifact chamber, nourishing it with the hall's unique refining array. When the great war erupted, the hall master perished, leaving the treasure behind in the Wood Phase Hall—a pearl gathering dust, forgotten by all.
The scar-faced man had been ecstatic upon discovering it. Though the spirit embryo was still far from completion, at least he no longer needed to worry about the Laurel Immortal Dew.
Let alone having only one, even if he had possessed several, he would never have parted with them to Cave Master Qiling so easily.
The Wood Phase Hall's artifact-refining lineage and the Heavenly Linglong spirit embryo alone made it well worth the consumption of a Boiling Snow Pill, not to mention that Qin Sang had paid almost no price at all.
Marveling at his good fortune, Qin Sang stowed the treasures away one by one. With another tug of divine sense on the mustard seed bag, three more clusters of precious light flew out.
A token, a suit of wooden armor, and a remnant tree.
The token was the Wood Phase Token.
Soul-searching Cave Master Qiling had revealed that the Five Phase Tokens seemed to play a significant role on Dishou Mountain. Not knowing the specifics, Qin Sang could only put it away for now to see how things unfolded later.
The wooden armor had been frozen by the Ice Soul Divine Light and had fallen into Qin Sang's hands after the scar-faced man's death.
This was undoubtedly a powerful defensive relic, but the scar-faced man's aura needed to be erased and the armor painstakingly refined before it could be used, so Qin Sang set it aside alongside the remnant tree.
The remnant tree was the ancient red mystery tree.
When the scar-faced man detonated his spirit wood body, the spirit tree had shattered. Its origin remained, and a portion survived, but because the scar-faced man had refined it with secret arts for so many years, it was thoroughly steeped in his aura. In the future, it could only serve as crafting material.
What Qin Sang was truly interested in were the scar-faced man's divine abilities: the spirit wood body and the poison needles.
Continuing his search, he finally pulled a piece of withered wood from the mustard seed bag.
Less than a foot long and as thick as a wrist, it was pitch-black throughout—plainly a chunk of thoroughly rotted wood, revealing nothing abnormal to a sweep of divine consciousness.
Anywhere else, Qin Sang would not have spared it a second glance.
Yet when he probed carefully with his divine consciousness and touched a barely perceptible speck of light at its core, he realized there was a whole world hidden inside!
Recorded within the rotten wood were several inheritances of the Wood Phase Hall, likely left by its descendants.
These included the scar-faced man's foundational cultivation method, the *Wood Emperor Strategy*, and its corresponding divine abilities, as well as the text Qin Sang had been yearning for: the *Postcelestial Wooden Monument*!
To cultivate this divine ability, one had to find a spirit tree and refine a spirit wood body, which granted immense strength comparable to that of a body cultivator, just like the scar-faced man.
When situated in a forest rich in wood spirit energy, one's body became like a divine monument, taking root there. Connecting one's qi to the surrounding flora and drawing in wood spirit energy granted an all-around enhancement, vastly boosting both combat strength and recovery speed.
*No wonder,* Qin Sang mused, *the scar-faced man was so difficult to deal with after his transformation.*
And the scar-faced man had only attained minor mastery; at grand completion, the technique held countless incredible abilities, though reaching that level during the Nascent Soul stage was exceedingly difficult.
Furthermore, the boost granted by the Postcelestial Wooden Monument depended on the quality of the spirit wood.
Having finished reading, Qin Sang glanced subconsciously at his incarnation.
Back then, the Dao Manifestation Tree had caused Bai to lose his composure. What spirit tree could possibly hold a higher rank than that?
Yet if he refined the Dao Manifestation Tree into a spirit wood body and absorbed it into himself, he would have to restore the tree to its original state and forfeit his external incarnation. Such a trade-off was difficult to make.
The *Postcelestial Wooden Monument* possessed immense potential and bolstered his own self, but the external incarnation boasted the ability to substitute death for life, and it had already cost him an enormous amount of effort and resources.
Refining a spirit wood body was no simple feat either.
The external incarnation was on the verge of breaking through to the late Nascent Soul stage; its potential was by no means inferior to that of a spirit wood body, and death substitution was a grand ability he could ill afford to discard.
Though Qin Sang possessed late Nascent Soul cultivation, he still dared not claim invincibility.
Sighing softly, he put these taxing dilemmas out of mind for now. He stowed away the withered wood and retrieved another jade slip.
The jade slip was Myriad Poison Mountain's *Gu Classic*, and complete at that.
The latter half of the classic contained no records on breeding the Gu King, but from the descriptions within, it was evident that the Gu King shared the exact same lineage as the text.
The Gu King was surely a core secret of Myriad Poison Mountain. Who knew how the scar-faced man had managed to get his hands on it and make off with a portion of their heritage in one fell swoop?
Small wonder Myriad Poison Mountain harbored such bone-deep hatred for him.
At the end of the *Gu Classic* were recorded several poison dao divine abilities, the *Heavenly Absolute Soul-Shaking Needle* being the most formidable among them.
Its name derived from the notion that once the poison needle flew forth, it would annihilate every living creature and ghost in heaven and earth. The name carried immense grandeur, and its power truly lived up to it.
Cultivating this divine ability required an extremely virulent poison as a primer. Yet in refining the poison, one had to avoid acting in haste; otherwise, if the toxin invaded the internal organs before the technique was mastered, one would perish on the spot.
The scar-faced man had undoubtedly utilized the Gu King to practice this technique.
Qin Sang shifted his gaze away from the classic toward the demonic fire floating within the cave abode, his face thoughtful.
After devouring its master, the blood-red tint on the Gu King had gradually faded, nearly returning to its original jade-white color. However, its ferocious temperament had not waned in the slightest; if anything, it showed signs of escalating.
Not knowing how to tame the Gu King, he had kept the demonic fire formed into a cage to imprison it. Even after perusing the *Gu Classic* and the scar-faced man's collection, he had found no method for subduing it.
With a shift of thought, Qin Sang understood.
Myriad Poison Mountain had dared disclose this information to him precisely because they were certain that even if he killed the scar-faced man, he could never tame the Gu King, leaving him no choice but to obediently make a deal with them.
The Gu King's toxic light was extraordinary, and its intrinsic rank was exceptionally high; its value was immeasurable.
*What will Myriad Poison Mountain offer in exchange?*
Qin Sang pondered, though he did not harbor high expectations.
If possible, he would rather tame the Gu King himself and wield this deadly weapon. At the very least, he would wait until he consulted Ghost Mother before considering any transaction.
Yet he had to enter Dishou Mountain; keeping it like this was not a long-term solution.
Qin Sang stared at the Gu King for a moment, an idea dawning in his mind.
The fat silkworm's poison bead could counter the Heavenly Absolute Soul-Shaking Needle, so could it be used to suppress the Gu King's ferocity? For the duration of his stay in the Wuxiang Immortal Sect, merely keeping it docile and obedient would suffice.
No sooner thought than done.
Qin Sang sank his mind into his sea of qi and stirred the poison bead.
From his dantian, seven-colored rosy light burst forth. The poison bead drifted out slowly and floated toward the Gu King.
Sensing the aura of the poison bead, the sound of the Gu King beating its wings abruptly ceased. It wheeled around, its blood-red eyes glaring fixedly at the poison bead as if facing a formidable enemy, before letting out an even more urgent and piercing drone.
"Good, at least it elicits a reaction..."
Qin Sang's eyes brightened. With a brief thought, he directed the poison bead straight through the demonic fire to appear before the Gu King.
*Swish!*
A streak of toxic light spat forth immediately.
Qin Sang did not dare be too careless after all, controlling the poison bead to evade slightly so that only the edge of the toxic light grazed it.
Suddenly, the poison bead dissolved into rosy mist, and the toxic light passed straight through it.
Immediately afterward, the poison bead coalesced once more, completely unscathed.
Having checked it over, Qin Sang felt reassured and steered the bead toward the Gu King.
The Gu King's wings vibrated frantically as it spewed toxic light in a frenzy, but it could not hit Qin Sang nor destroy the poison bead. Instead, the demonic fire steadily shrank its maneuvering space, allowing the poison bead to close in.
Soon, the poison bead drifted right above the Gu King's head.
*Whoosh!*
The poison bead transformed into a sweep of poison-repelling rosy light, moving as if to engulf the Gu King.
In the next instant, the Gu King was encircled within the light, the ethereal silhouette of a bead still visible through the glow.
However, once the rosy light drew within a certain distance of the Gu King, it could advance no further. Spreading its wings, the Gu King radiated a faint blood-colored hue, forming a protective toxic barrier, and flashed out of the light in an escape.
Though the attempt failed, there was no frustration on Qin Sang's face, only astonishment, as if he had stumbled upon something unexpected.
He continued to control the poison bead, repeating the maneuver.
He tried dozens of times in succession, all ending in failure.
Yet the strange glint in Qin Sang's eyes grew ever more pronounced; he had made a startling discovery.
Every time the poison bead enveloped the Gu King, Qin Sang felt that the bead's power harbored an intense craving for the Gu King, intending to devour it!
After so many attempts, Qin Sang was certain this sensation was no illusion.
He still remembered that after the fat silkworm underwent its fourth transformation, it could directly devour gu bugs; he had even bred some for it to feast upon, and the method for rearing the Gu King was similar to those gu bugs.
The poison bead stripped from its body had also inherited this capacity to devour!
*If I let the poison bead devour the Gu King, can it advance further?*
The moment this possibility occurred to him, Qin Sang's gaze burned with fervor.
While the poison-repelling divine ability had a somewhat narrow utility, whenever it came into play, it proved extraordinarily effective.
Qin Sang had always held that external items were inferior to one's own cultivation. The poison bead was closely linked to him, effectively part of his own body; if it continued devouring venomous entities, what kind of metamorphosis might it undergo in the future?
The Gu King possessed rudimentary intelligence; in terms of potential, it was clearly inferior to the poison bead.
The conundrum lay in the fact that the poison bead could not suppress the Gu King. How could he make the Gu King submit obediently to being devoured?
Qin Sang pondered for a long time, recalling various ancient texts and studying the *Gu Classic* once more, yet even as his true essence neared full recovery and the time to depart arrived, he had still reached no conclusion.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck, and he clapped his hands hard.
If the dao of insect-controlling offered no point of entry, why not start with its master?
What methods the scar-faced man had used to suppress the Gu King on ordinary days, Qin Sang did not know. But he knew that the scar-faced man's foundational cultivation method was the *Wood Emperor Strategy*, which aligned with the Great Dao of the Wood Phase.
Having accompanied the scar-faced man constantly, the Gu King might well fear that aura.
However, before letting his incarnation make an attempt, Qin Sang drew his mind back into his purple palace and returned to his nascent soul.
The Yunyou Sword, which had never been deployed since fusing with the true spirit of Yunyouzi's charred wood, was brought out for the very first time!
A flash shone between his brows.
A sword light of dark azure instantly illuminated the entire cave abode!
"Old friend, it's up to you..."
Full of emotion and tinged with a thread of melancholy, Qin Sang pointed a finger toward the Gu King.
Having integrated with Ten Great Divine Woods, the Yunyou Sword was truly a supreme treasure of the wood phase.
Qin Sang was not using the Yunyou Sword to slay the Gu King, so there was no fear of harming the true spirit; instead, he catalyzed the sword intent, using this purest of wood-phase supreme treasures merged with overwhelming sword intent to intimidate and awe the Gu King.
If this succeeded, he could draw the poison bead, the Gu King, and the Yunyou Sword back into his body, maintaining this state continuously until the poison bead finished devouring the Gu King!
Chapter 1641