After putting away the baleful corpses, Qin Sang brought out the three men's mustard seed bags.
The haul was fairly good. Combined, the three mustard seed bags contained over seven hundred low-grade spirit stones as well as several decent magic tools. In particular, the black-robed elder's bag held two top-grade magic tools.
One was a black longsword. The black-robed elder had fought desperately with it before his death. Its power was extraordinary, and its quality was certainly superior to the Yanli Sword.
Qin Sang erased the black-robed elder's spiritual sense and gave it a few casual swings. Finding it quite handy, he kept it for his own use to replace the Yanli Sword.
The other was a piece of sheer gauze named the Heavenly Poison Gauze. Once activated, it transformed into a cloud of yin poison miasma—essentially an enhanced version of the yin poison miasma used by the other two men.
This miasma contained a virulent poison. Once an immortal cultivator was afflicted, their internal spiritual power would stagnate. If they failed to neutralize the poison in time, they would be left completely at another's mercy.
The black-robed elder had first fallen into Qin Sang's trap and landed in the Ten Directions Yanluo Array, which was why Qin Sang had slain him before he had any chance to unleash the power of the Heavenly Poison Gauze.
During a previous baiting operation, an opponent had detected the Purple Soul Bell, and an instant of carelessness had allowed a blast of sword qi to strike and damage it. While using the Heavenly Poison Gauze was not as covert or immediate as the Purple Soul Bell, its power was even greater.
The Heavenly Poison Gauze drifted in midair, alternating between a cloud of toxic miasma and its original form. After spending some time refining and claiming it for his own use, an idea struck Qin Sang. He brought out the cloud of yin poison miasma he had collected earlier and tossed it overhead.
Next, the Heavenly Poison Gauze abruptly spread wide, greedily swallowing the yin poison miasma whole without even needing Qin Sang's command. As expected, that cloud of yin poison miasma had originated from the Heavenly Poison Gauze; after the two merged, its power rose by another twenty percent.
Qin Sang nodded inwardly. Among top-grade magic tools, these two could only be considered on the lower end, but for an ordinary cultivator of comparable cultivation to the black-robed elder, having even one was already quite good. Clearly, this sort of business was indeed an immense profit with zero capital.
However, the three had ultimately failed to escape the fate of men dying in pursuit of wealth. Even Qin Sang had encountered formidable foes multiple times during his baiting runs, only avoiding disaster thanks to powerful magic tools like his ebony sword.
Besides these, there were some consumables essential for the Ancient Immortal Battlefield, such as spirit pills and cloud tools. All of them were things Qin Sang needed. After sorting through them, he put them away and destroyed the three men's mustard seed bags.
The cave dwelling was quiet and secluded.
Qin Sang sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, ripples of spiritual power rolling off him. The spiritual energy in the cave dwelling seemed to encounter a colossal suction, continuously being absorbed and circulated by him.
At this moment, Qin Sang was cultivating with undivided attention.
Within his origin soul, upon the emerald blade, a killing talisman glimmered with faint light. Beside this talisman lay another that was already half-inscribed. These one and a half killing talismans actually behaved like Qin Sang's sea of qi: their faint light formed a small vortex, helping him absorb the worldly spiritual energy within the cave dwelling.
Guided by the cultivation method, this spiritual energy entered his origin soul space via the ebony sword and then flowed into his meridians. After circulating through several heavenly circuits in accordance with the method, the impurities were purged, transforming it entirely into Qin Sang's own spiritual power before finally merging into his sea of qi, speeding up his cultivation rate by a perceptible margin.
This was the formidable strength of the Origin Soul Sword-Nurturing Chapter: the ebony sword was equivalent to Qin Sang's second dantian. Limited by natural talent, Qin Sang's original cultivation speed was far inferior to others, but with the aid of the killing talismans, he could narrow the gap.
With few killing talismans at present, this boost was not yet pronounced. As his cultivation advanced and the number of killing talismans grew, Qin Sang's cultivation speed would become ever faster, eventually reaching a level comparable to a true spiritual root.
As for the terrifying cultivation speed of a heavenly spiritual root, Qin Sang did not dare harbor such extravagant hopes—though if the Origin Soul Sword-Nurturing Chapter were not incomplete, it might truly have been possible.
After cultivating for some time, Qin Sang paused the circulation of his technique and focused his entire mind upon the ebony sword. He studied the incomplete killing talisman for a long while before pouring everything he had into inscribing a new stroke upon it.
"Phew!"
Having finally completed this stroke, Qin Sang, drenched in sweat, opened his eyes and let out a long breath. His face was weary; finishing this single stroke was clearly an immense drain on both his mind and spiritual power.
Yet his eyes brimmed with excitement, for he could sense that inscribing this stroke was easier than before. It was only due to the limitations of his cultivation realm that it remained so arduous.
Through twenty years of bitter cultivation and ceaseless slaughter against cloud beasts, his mind had immersed itself in the killing talisman during every battle, contemplating its profound mysteries. By now, he had comprehended more than eighty percent of the second killing talisman. In a little more time, he would be able to grasp it completely, dedicate himself to secluded bitter cultivation in his cave dwelling to raise his cultivation realm, and then inscribe the killing talisman stroke by stroke.
When that time came, as long as the quantity of spiritual power in his body reached the requirement for a breakthrough and was sufficient to sustain the complete inscription of the second killing talisman onto the ebony sword, stepping into the middle stage of Foundation Establishment would follow naturally.
At present, with only one and a half killing talismans on the ebony sword, his cultivation speed was not fast enough, so this process might last for a long time.
Yet compared to other cultivators trapped at bottlenecks, Qin Sang preferred this state far more. At the very least, every bit of progress was clearly visible, and he did not have to worry about making not an inch of progress for ten or even dozens of years.
Qin Sang had experienced that feeling during the Qi Refinement stage; it truly could drive a person mad.
Thereafter, Qin Sang stayed in his cave dwelling for another six months of bitter cultivation before setting out once more and leaving the Tianjing Secret Realm.
He had already committed the distribution of cloud beasts near the Tianjing Secret Realm to memory, knowing how to hunt enough cloud beasts while keeping himself as safe as possible.
Following his familiar route, more than half a month had passed by the time he completed the circuit, bringing Qin Sang back to the mountain with the fire elemental stone vein.
Over half a year had elapsed, so another batch of fire elemental stones had surely accumulated inside the cave. Qin Sang harvested them batch after batch, like cutting chives—a remarkably steady source of wealth.
Spending a few days to lure and kill off all the cloud beasts entrenched above the cave entrance, Qin Sang activated a cloud tool to shield himself, then silently slipped into the cavern.
The interval before this mining excursion was somewhat long, and some cloud beasts in the mineral vein had already completely taken shape. It took Qin Sang two days to clear the cave. With his mustard seed bags packed with the harvest, he returned to the cave entrance, only for his expression to abruptly shift.
Outside, the sky was dim and murky, cloud beasts roared, and sand and stones flew across the air—a celestial phenomenon was imminent!
The sky above was a dense, dark mass blotting out the sun—not storm clouds, but cloud beasts that, increasingly agitated by the celestial phenomenon, were flying out from the depths of the mountain range in droves. Judging by this scene, signs of the celestial phenomenon had likely begun yesterday, but having been deep inside the cave clearing cloud beasts, he had failed to notice.
He absolutely could not remain here; once the celestial phenomenon struck, it would be certain death!
With a darkened expression, Qin Sang decisively brought out a bronze-bell-shaped cloud tool to cover over his head and charged down the mountain without looking back. But the distance was too close; the cloud tool could not completely mask his aura, and cloud beasts immediately caught wind of his tracks!
Chapter 220