When the unadorned white jade cloud platform appeared before Qian Chen once more, time seemed to stand still within the Reincarnation Lands, leaving everything completely unchanged from before.
All told, although this trial mission had lasted only seven days, it felt as though dozens of chapters had passed.
The moment Qian Chen returned to the Reincarnation Lands, he let loose and cursed furiously, "You knockoff Lord God, you screwed me over again! How were those two optional quests? That was clearly a single quest split and issued twice! Help the Twelve Yuan Chen kill Hong Sihai... He was the damn Dragon Head of the Twelve Yuan Chen! No wonder the reward for slaying the Dragon Head was the same as any other Yuan Chen—the real bounty was tucked into the first quest all along!"
Qian Chen clutched his chest... Heartache!
It felt as if he had lost a hundred million...
"And what's more, Hong Sihai had clearly broken through and touched the threshold of the Golden Elixir, yet he still only counted as a great grandmaster!"
Qian Chen calculated in his mind: 'The first main quest was worth only ten Merit. The side quests for killing two great grandmasters and eight grandmasters yielded a total of two hundred and eighty Merit. As for the second main quest, I only took on half of it...'
'The ones completed are: Mist-Riding Lord (slain), Gladiatorial God-Lord (slain), Ghost-Devouring Lord (slain), Flying Yellow Lord (assist), Medicine-Pounding Lord (slain), Dawn-Crowing Lord (slain), Sun-Chasing Lord (slain), Dragon Head (slain)... A total of seven Twelve Yuan Chen slain and one assist.'
'Earning three thousand seven hundred Merit.'
'Totaling one Moral Point and nine hundred and ninety Merit.'
Remembering the few kill credits that had been snatched away, Qian Chen felt a dull pang of regret. Of course, the greatest loss was giving up the first optional main quest. But after feeling slightly depressed for a moment, he let it go. Rather than genuine heartache, it was more that Qian Chen simply wanted to indulge in the sensation of being aggrieved.
Unless he had seen through Hong Sihai's true face before accepting the quest, there was simply no way he could have claimed that reward.
Thinking back on this mission from the Lord of Reincarnation, there truly were pitfalls aplenty.
The most miserable would be those who tried to play both sides. The moment they turned hostile, Hong Sihai—who hid his depth completely, trusted no one, and was even more wary of Reincarnators—would strike back, making it virtually impossible for them to survive.
The safest path was to take Quest Two, focus entirely on rooting out the Twelve Yuan Chen, and then, regardless of how many were slain, hold out until reinforcements arrived the following day to return safely with their rewards. There was almost no chance Hong Sihai would have made a move then; after all, his schemes were so profound that he no longer needed to dirty his own hands.
Furthermore, once they survived that night, Hong Sihai's prior arrangements would have made eliminating four of the Yuan Chen rather straightforward.
That was the optimal choice for safely clearing the trial with almost no difficulty.
Next were the opportunists who, while completing Quest Two, might notice something amiss with Hong Sihai and backstab him at the end... Yet Hong Sihai's abilities vastly exceeded the standard for this mission, making death far more likely. If they did succeed, however, they could pocket the bounty on Hong Sihai—a thousand Merit.
Somewhat better off than the most miserable were those like Qian Chen, who held to their principles and refused to accept the second quest, only to discover Hong Sihai's identity and strike anyway despite taking a loss.
A cat weeping tears...
"Reincarnator has completed the hidden quest: Retrieve the otherworldly strange stone. Reward: Twenty Moral Points!"
The voice of the Lord of Reincarnation rang out abruptly: "Reincarnator has completed the trial mission. Evaluation concluded. Mission evaluation: Grade A-Superior. Reward: Two thousand Merit..."
Qian Chen had no mind to analyze the prompts that followed. Scrambling to his feet in a roll, he blurted out, "The otherworldly strange stone is worth that much?" After pondering for a moment, the realization dawned on him: "It seems the true objective of the Lord of Reincarnation for this mission was to retrieve this otherworldly strange stone. I returned in such a rush that I haven't even examined the Demonic Cult's secret vault taken from Hong Sihai!"
With that thought, Qian Chen drew out a pair of bronze tablets. They were an eccentric divine weapon known as the Two Realms Bronze Tablets.
The so-called secret vault of the Demonic Cult was hidden within them.
This divine weapon was a grotto-heaven treasure containing a space roughly the size of a small hilltop. However, devoid of the light of the sun and moon, it could hardly sustain living things. As a result, the demonic path had used it to store their hoards of divine weapons, secret manuals, and various natural treasures. Before the Demonic Cult was exterminated, one tablet was carried by the cult master, while the other was taken along with those escorting the cult master's family.
Only by joining both tablets could the grotto-heaven be opened.
This object was the true secret and key to the vault.
Who could have guessed that none of those precautions would work, and both Two Realms Bronze Tablets would end up in Hong Sihai's hands anyway?
The grotto-heaven space of the Two Realms held the millennium-long accumulation of the demonic path, and Hong Sihai had also stashed the finest treasures collected over half his lifetime inside. Consequently, it contained boundless wealth. Gold, silver, and jewels lay strewn everywhere, cheap as dirt. There were also piles of weapons and iron armor, showing clearly that Hong Sihai harbored ambitions toward the imperial court's realm... But all of this was trivial.
What was truly valuable to Qian Chen were the divine weapons collected by the Demonic Cult and Hong Sihai, as well as the natural treasures used to forge divine weapons.
This was undeniably the essence of an entire world, a staggering fortune even in the Central Lands... The Demonic Cult alone had left behind thirteen divine weapons. With a little refining, these divine weapons would make excellent embryos for magical implements. Unfortunately, Qian Chen already had more divine weapons than he could use, so why would he expend effort to re-refine them?
He was not like those impoverished cultivators in the Central Lands who clung to a single magical implement as their very lifeblood, agonizing over every scratch.
Having inherited two successive fortunes from Miaokong and Hong Sihai, Qian Chen could truly be called a Treasure-Laden Boy among cultivators of his realm. If one factored in his true form, the Taishang Dao Dust Pearl, even a Primal Spirit True Person would turn green with envy, and many Dao Lords could hardly compare.
'The Demonic Cult left behind thirteen divine weapons, and Hong Sihai only five, in addition to those left behind by the deceased Twelve Yuan Chen—Gladiatorial God-Lord's Armor-Breaking Hammer; Ghost-Devouring Lord's Wind God Howl and Ghost-God Weep; the Ice Soul True Qi left by Medicine-Pounding Lord, Shen Wanjun—namely the Ice Soul Cold Light Gang; Dragon Head's Azure Heaven Golden Wheel; Mist-Riding Lord's Azure Phosphor Five Poisons; Flying Yellow Lord's Fading Sun Spear; Dawn-Crowing Lord's Flying Thunder Cloak; and Sun-Chasing Lord's Earth-Tunnelling Hoe.'
Qian Chen tallied up his assets in detail and realized that the divine weapons and magical implement embryos in his possession were enough to equip an entire minor sect!
And that was even after Beard Lord's Five-Colored Stone had been returned to Righteous Qi Manor, and Big-Bellied Lord's Huntian Bag had been returned to Shaolin by Qian Chen.
Of course, none of these was Qian Chen's most valuable harvest this time. From the Two Realms Bronze Tablets, Qian Chen brought out a man-sized profound iron meteorite... This meteorite was the otherworldly strange stone the Demonic Cult Master had claimed held the secret of supreme martial arts. In all likelihood, the Northern Pole Cold Plains and the Heaven-Connecting Divine Peak served as the portal to this world.
Objects from beyond the heavens, arriving from the Myriad Realms Sea, often crashed into this world, striking the Heaven-Connecting Divine Peak.
The ten-thousand-year glacial essence containing the Ice Soul Cold Light Gang that Shen Wanjun had obtained, as well as this otherworldly strange stone acquired by the Demonic Cult, both shared this origin.
Qian Chen looked at the palm print covering more than half of the man-sized meteorite.
Suddenly, he threw his head back and sighed deeply. "What supreme martial arts essence? This is clearly an exceptionally hard chunk of profound iron blasted out of the void by someone using the Innate Primordial Qi Great Capture..."
"I finally understand where Hong Sihai's Heavenly Unity Pure Gang came from. While hurtling through the void sea between realms, this profound iron was caught in the aftershocks of a battle between two mighty figures.
"One of them condensed Heavenly Unity Pure Gang to unleash the Innate Primordial Qi Great Capture, striking out wildly, and happened to hit this chunk of profound iron.
"That blow sent the meteorite flying and imprinted this palm print. As the meteorite drifted through the void sea, it gradually attracted primordial qi of the same nature as the residual Heavenly Unity Pure Gang lingering in the print, condensing a wisp of pure astral gang on the impression. Eventually, the meteorite crashed into this realm and continued to nurture it.
"Countless years later, it was discovered by the Demonic Cult, who mistook it for an otherworldly strange stone holding the secret to supreme martial arts!
"When Hong Sihai saw this stone in the Demonic Cult Master's hands, his own gang qi happened to match the nature of Heavenly Unity Pure Gang, allowing him to perceive the path ahead for his martial arts and comprehend a method to condense astral gang from the palm print. He immediately steeled his heart, slaughtered the entire Demonic Cult, seized the stone, and went into secluded cultivation to condense his astral gang."
Qian Chen beat his chest and stomped his feet. "This is a supreme treasure that could refine a qi elixir, condense divine abilities, or even be merged with one's own true qi to enhance the quality of true qi and magical power! And it was wasted just like that... If I had obtained this pure Heavenly Unity Pure Gang, found a type of Earthly Kun Baleful Qi essence, and combined them through the Taishang Dao's secret Nine-Turn Golden Elixir art to forge a Primordial Qi Elixir...
"That would be an outer elixir comparable in quality to a first-grade Golden Elixir!"
"Bah, bah... With these two types of astral gang and baleful primordial qi, wouldn't it be better to refine them into my own inner elixir to achieve a superior Golden Elixir? This is the finest external catalyst for elixir formation in the entire universe! Where else under the heavens could one find such a heaven-defying opportunity—an imprint of a divine ability left behind by a Primal Spirit immortal, tempered in the void for countless years until every trace of the immortal's aura was washed clean, leaving behind only the purest wisp of astral gang?"
"And Hong Sihai actually used it to cultivate martial gang qi! If only it had been given to me! Refining a qi-path outer elixir—anyone who absorbed that elixir would instantly be the equal of a righteous true transmission disciple who formed a superior elixir... With such a wonderful treasure, wouldn't a first-grade outer elixir be glorious? With it, why would I ever fear Miaokong? In the next Reincarnation mission, I could crush him with my pinky finger!"
"Even if I couldn't immediately find a baleful qi to combine with the Heavenly Unity Pure Gang, refining it into the primordial qi giant hand of the Innate Primordial Qi Great Capture to master a supreme divine ability would have been magnificent as well!"
This time, Qian Chen truly felt a heartache that left him breathless, not merely to temper his mind or experience long-forgotten emotions.
"That was a great divine ability practiced by a powerhouse of at least the Primal Spirit stage... With this palm print right here, comprehending it through the Taishang Dao Dust Pearl wouldn't be difficult at all!"
Qian Chen opened the Lord of Reincarnation's exchange list and took a look, nearly fainting away:
"Innate Primordial Qi Great Capture, secret great divine ability of Taishang Dao. Exchange price: Thirty thousand Moral Points.
"Heavenly Unity Pure Gang, one of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Astral Gangs and Nine Heavens Pure Gangs. Exchange price: Three thousand Moral Points per sheng."
"Hong Sihai condensed at least twenty sheng! That's sixty thousand Moral Points..." Qian Chen was once again plunged into unbearable agony. Once Hong Sihai refined it with his internal gang, the Heavenly Unity Pure Gang became tainted with the essence of his martial gang. It was no longer pure, making it impossible to use for refining a qi elixir or condensing divine abilities, let alone serving as an external catalyst for elixir formation.
"Its value has plummeted... A crushing loss!"
Qian Chen pulled out the Heavenly Unity Pure Gang extracted from Hong Sihai. "Now it can only be refined into magical implements to enhance their defense. Although it's still a top-tier material for magical implements, compared to what it was before..."
The corners of Qian Chen's mouth twitched.
"Lord God, purchase and lock the Daoist Scriptures of Geng Yuanzi." Calming his mind, Qian Chen bought the legacy of Geng Yuanzi he had selected long ago. A flash of white light rippled across the void above the cloud platform, condensing into a Daoist scripture that fell before Qian Chen. At the same time, ten Moral Points were deducted under his name.
On the Lord of Reincarnation's exchange list, the entry for the Daoist Scriptures of Geng Yuanzi slowly faded away.
From this point on, Qian Chen had a legitimate, aboveboard origin. Moreover, the notes left behind by Geng Yuanzi contained numerous applications of cultivation attainment, which would greatly compensate for Qian Chen's lack of worldly experience and his shortcomings in spells and divine abilities meant for protecting the Dao.
Chapter 36