Turned Up a Good Thing

A big discovery? Lin Yi was stunned. What did that mean? The materials from the Golden-Eyed Crimson-Scale Beasts were valuable, but there was nothing particularly novel about them—if the hunt succeeded, you could always find the corresponding parts. But Su Qing’s tone sounded as though she had found something momentous… Surely those big eyeballs over there weren’t about to jinx things, were they? So Lin Yi set aside the materials he had already found and brought only a pair of Pupil Hubs to Su Qing and the others, asking: “Zhao Ping, Su Qing, what’s wrong?” Su Qing glanced at her senior brother upon hearing this, and Zhao Ping immediately handed over an object: “Master, take a look at this.” Lin Yi took it and held it in his palm to examine it. It was a brown ball somewhat like a billiard ball from Earth, about five or six centimeters in diameter, slightly heavy in the hand, with an unusually smooth surface, faint traces of luster wandering across it. Lin Yi examined it for a moment, then suddenly realized something, unable to keep a soft “Huh?” from escaping his lips: “Huh? This is…” Saying this, he glanced at his two disciples and sent a thread of spiritual power probing into the ball. The next second. Whoosh— The brown ball suddenly blazed with light, and as if repelled, it bounced up from Lin Yi’s palm, hovering about a foot above his hand. At the same time. A mottled aura, completely opposite to spiritual power, also emanated from the ball. But soon. As Lin Yi stopped channeling spiritual power, the brown ball fell back into his palm. “…” Lin Yi gently touched the ball, his brow furrowing: “Sure enough, it’s a demon core…” “Master,” Su Qing hurriedly asked, “is it really a demon core?” Lin Yi nodded, his tone unusually certain: “Indeed.” Just as when cultivators advanced to profound realms, their bodies and even their consciousness would undergo all manner of wondrous changes. A demon beast’s body structure would also change—or rather, evolve—as its rank increased. The demon core was one such thing. It was a special organ that had a chance of appearing after a demon beast tempered and compressed demonic energy over many years, able to greatly purify and store demonic energy. Demon beasts with a demon core were incredibly formidable in both combat and endurance; in nature, they were somewhat like the backup hidden energy sources in certain anime Lin Yi remembered from before his transmigration, belonging to the absolute power core of a demon beast. And for cultivators, a demon core was likewise extremely valuable. It could be used to refine high-grade pills or poured into artifact forging to increase power. If a cultivator raised demon beasts, it could also rapidly raise a demon beast’s rank. A single demon core sold for at least a hundred times the price of a Golden-Eyed Crimson-Scale Beast’s Pupil Hubs. In remote regions like where the Guihua Sect was located, demon cores were often available but unobtainable even at a price. So discovering a demon core should have been good news, but the problem was… A demon core was different from the golden core that cultivators formed at the third realm; it was a structure that only stably emerged from fourth-rank mid-tier demon beasts. Occasionally, an extremely lucky or heaven-defying demon beast might produce one at third-rank perfection at most. At least in Lin Yi’s seventy-plus years of cultivation, he had never heard of or seen rumors of a second-rank demon beast producing a demon core. Admittedly. The Tianling Realm was vast and boundless; just the territory Lin Yi already knew of far exceeded the Earth from before his transmigration. And he was merely a mid-Foundation Establishment rookie, so it was entirely reasonable that many strange tales and secrets were beyond his reach. Perhaps at the farthest reaches, even a first-rank demon beast might give birth to a demon core. But one thing was the existence of such a probability, and another was it happening to him. Adding to that, these two Golden-Eyed Crimson-Scale Beasts had appeared extremely suddenly, and their origins were still unknown… Thinking this. Lin Yi pondered briefly, then took out from his sleeve an object resembling a compass. It was one of the basic magical tools essential to cultivators of the Tianling Realm, called the Demon-Seeking Compass. Its function was exactly as its name implied: it could sense demonic energy to search for or reconstruct a demon beast’s movements. However, Lin Yi’s Demon-Seeking Compass was the cheapest kind, with mediocre tracking ability, only able to locate the area a demon beast had passed through within half a day to a day. Swish— He cast an incantation. The pointer in the compass trembled left and right a few times, finally pointing toward a certain direction. “The northwest…” Lin Yi looked thoughtful, turned around, and handed the Demon-Seeking Compass to Zhao Ping: “Zhao Ping, take this Demon-Seeking Compass and follow the demonic trail to have a look, see if you can find some clues.” “Pay attention to safety along the way; don’t insist on results. If you fail, just come back.” Zhao Ping immediately replied: “Understood, Master.” He then took the Demon-Seeking Compass from Lin Yi’s hand and flew rapidly into the distance. “Su Qing,” after Zhao Ping left, Lin Yi looked at his junior disciple, “Continue inventorying the scene with me; try to sort out all the materials before your senior brother returns.” Su Qing bowed: “Understood, Master.” As she spoke, the girl’s gaze lingered on Lin Yi for a moment. Lin Yi noticed his disciple’s gaze: “What is it?” “It’s nothing important,” Su Qing hesitated, “just feel like you’ve become a bit different from before…” Lin Yi raised an eyebrow: “Different?” “…I can’t quite put it into specific words,” Su Qing puffed her cheeks and scratched her head, “just feel like your whole person seems more open-minded… or carefree than before, not so burdened with worries…” Lin Yi was startled upon hearing this. But soon, he lowered his eyelids and said lightly: “Oh… perhaps because the Great Calamity has been resolved, and the Guihua Sect has been preserved.” “Isn’t it only natural that one’s state of mind changes when facing life and death?” Su Qing nodded as if understanding but not quite: “I suppose…” Lin Yi turned his head and smiled softly from an angle Su Qing couldn’t see. This young girl’s perception was pretty sharp. Actually, he had given only a partial reason. That the Guihua Sect had survived the Great Calamity was certainly worth celebrating, but what truly made Lin Yi feel open and released was that he had found home… …… Su Qing’s confusion was just a minor incident. Soon after. Lin Yi brought her to sort through the materials. Although this female disciple was normally reclusive and timid, hardly ever fighting other cultivators. When handling demon beast carcasses, she still demonstrated the standard expected of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. In no more than two shichen. The well-preserved valuable parts from the two demon beasts were inventoried and sorted into three portions by value. Listed separately and highest in value were naturally the two pairs of Golden-Eyed Crimson-Scale Beast Pupil Hubs—although the demon core-bearing beast had almost everything above its lower jaw severed, the Pupil Hubs and part of the skull remained intact, and Lin Yi successfully found them in a grassy spot several hundred meters away. The remaining two portions consisted of some bones and organs of acceptable quality and crimson scales, plus separately categorized flesh-and-blood samples, etc. As the sect’s highest Grand Elder, Lin Yi would handle all these materials himself. Meanwhile. China. The capital. Not long after ending his call with Lin Yi, Zhou Jianmin, led by a man who looked like a secretary, arrived at… the doorway of an office.