Chapter 169: Chapter 168: Attempt (Congratulations to the Silver Alliance!)_1
Black Mountain Tribe.
"Big Shaman, I want to exchange for the ’Fierce Temperature’ spirit mark!"
Ba Ji found the Big Shaman and exchanged for the ’Fierce Temperature’ spirit mark, but to his regret, the Big Shaman didn’t grant him access to the library to comprehend the runes this time; instead, he directly took out a beast skin and gave it to him: "Ba Ji... You’ve done well, to get this far with a half spirit aperture, just keep striving..."
"Thank you, Big Shaman!"
With his mind still on the ’Xun Wind Spirit Pattern’ and ’Metal Spirit Pattern,’ Ba Ji didn’t dare say more and bowed in thanks.
By this time, after several years of growth, he had indeed become an adult.
And, having achieved some accomplishments in practicing the Spirit-opening Script, he finally broke through a minor barrier a few days ago and could inscribe a second spirit mark on his body.
"Soon... brother... revenge is near..."
He returned to his home and muttered to himself.
...
Several days later.
Ba Ji left the tribe to find a suitable place to test the power of the ’Fierce Temperature’ spirit mark.
"The ’Fierce Temperature’ spirit mark can increase the temperature of flames, and when used with the ’flame’ spirit mark, it can make the attacks stronger..."
He mumbled to himself, walking through a wilderness as if searching for an appropriate target.
Whoosh whoosh!
Suddenly, a fierce wind arose from the weeds in the wild fields!
Swoosh swoosh!
Two green Wind Blades followed, extremely fast!
Ba Ji, although on guard, rolled away, but his back was grazed, his beast skin clothes were cut open, and blood gushed forth.
Yet, he gritted his teeth, looking in the direction from which the Wind Blades had come, his eyes full of blood: "Green Wolf!"
A nimble figure jumped out from the bushes, it was Green Wolf!
He had a tall nose, narrow eyes, and a cold demeanor: "I never expected a half spirit aperture trash like you could turn things around, but today you’ll die just like your brother!"
Green Wolf hadn’t paid much attention to Ba Ji until the latter received his second spirit mark!
This pace of progress, among the young shamans of his batch, was already comparable to those with two or three spirit apertures open.
This gave Green Wolf a sense of crisis; it seemed better to eliminate the brother of his enemy sooner rather than later.
And as luck would have it, his target chose to go out today!
"Die for me!"
Ba Ji roared, and a flame burst forth from his mouth.
Boom!
A cluster of grass exploded, and the scattered flames ignited it, causing a huge fire to blaze.
The two young shamans were constantly moving, casting spells on each other.
However, it seemed that Green Wolf, with his deep cultivation, could wield the Wind Blades more flexibly, and gradually gained the upper hand.
For some reason, Ba Ji kept muttering some unintelligible tunes.
"Entanglement Skills!"
Suddenly, he pointed his finger.
At Green Wolf’s feet, strands of weeds intertwined, turning into vines, and bound his legs.
"I did it!"
Ba Ji’s eyes brightened. He had practiced the magic taught by the Treasure Mirror, waiting until he could release it in battle to deliberately go for the second spirit mark, to lure Green Wolf out.
Green Wolf wanted to kill him, but wasn’t Ba Ji just as eager to eliminate this foe?
"Die!"
Ba Ji’s eyes were bloodshot, the ’Fierce Temperature’ spirit mark activated, a fireball emerged on his hand, swelling continuously, and he violently smashed it towards Green Wolf.
Boom!
The intense high temperature and flames engulfed Green Wolf in an instant.
"Haha... Haha..."
Having avenged his great hate, Ba Ji was panting but let out a satisfying laugh.
But the next moment.
Swoosh!
A Wind Blade came flying, grazing his neck.
Ba Ji held his own neck, saw copious blood flowing down.
"Ugh..."
He tried to say something but couldn’t utter a word as his body slumped down.
On the other side, Green Wolf was somewhat charred, awkwardly freeing his legs from their bonds.
In his hand, a peculiar black stone talisman exploded into pieces.
Just now, it was the radiance of this stone talisman that formed a shield, sparing him from the lethal blow!
"It actually destroyed my stone talisman?"
With a trace of fright on his face, he kicked the dead Ba Ji without closing his eyes, finding that he truly had died.
"No, what on earth was that magic just now?"
"And... this Ba Ji must have some secrets."
Green Wolf muttered to himself with a hint of greed, beginning to frisk Ba Ji.
Soon, the beast skin pouch hanging around Ba Ji’s neck was found.
"A piece of bronze mirror fragment?"
Green Wolf put the bronze mirror’s fragment aside and continued the gruesome search, looking at the found flintstones, jerky... but no matter how he looked, still felt the bronze mirror fragment was suspicious, so he held it in his hand and began to carefully examine it.
Fang Xi looked on with Divine Consciousness, not yet intending to reveal his presence.
After all, this mirror fragment is part of the ’Treasures of All Heavens’, so not to mention a minor shaman, even if the Big Shaman or the Witch King were to come, they wouldn’t be able to harm it in the slightest.
He could completely wait and see, then look for the most suitable ’Mirror Holder’.
...
"As a mirror piece, what I’m most afraid of is being thrown into a desolate cliff, or beneath the ground... never to see the light of day again..."
In the Southern Wilderness Cultivation Realm, at the Peach Blossom Pavilion.
Fang Xi walked out, carrying several bottles of Spirit Wine, heading for the Drunk White Pool.
"Haha, Brother Fang, why so courteous on your visit?"
When Luo Gong saw the Spirit Wine, his eyes lit up, and he immediately opened a bottle to drink heartily.
"It’s only right... Luo, your Drunk White Pool has truly become more and more picturesque..."
In the pavilion at the center of the lake, Fang Xi took a sip of Spirit Wine, feeling pure spiritual energy melt like crushed ice between his teeth, enjoying the comfort as it flowed down his throat, he sighed.
"Mhm, recently I am going to take a twenty-seventh concubine, you must come over and drink a wedding toast!"
Luo Gong chuckled and patted his belly.
Ever since his Foundation Establishment, he had come to enjoy life a lot more, taking many concubines.
If it weren’t for his cultivation method that also refined the body, he might not have been able to manage his household.
"Of course..."
Fang Xi silently despised the man’s behavior of taking advantage of marrying concubines to feast guests and receive gifts, but his face still wore a smile.
"As for the Pill Recipe to enhance Divine Consciousness to the second level, that’s really difficult..."
After talking for a while, Luo Gong finally got to the point: "We guest cultivators can exchange a few pills from the White Peak Mountain Pill Pavilion according to our contributions, but exchanging for a Pill Recipe would require a huge sum... and of course, it would certainly be unavailable in the various Pill Pavilions of the Inner City."
"Luo, you’ve troubled yourself."
Although there was no result, Fang Xi still thanked him with a bow.
"However, the black market has recently announced it will open again, the location is at Trifork Mountain not far from Baize Immortal City..."
Luo Gong shared another piece of information.
Upon hearing this, Fang Xi remained impassive.
The two chatted about everything under the sun, talking about the recent big events in the Yue Country Cultivation World.
"Have you heard?"
Luo Gong said with an excited look of leaking secrets: "There’s major trouble at Thousand Island Lake!"
"Oh?" Fang Xi’s grip on his wine cup didn’t move a bit: "What happened?"
"The Song Family is spreading the word everywhere, saying that the remnants of the Situ Family and the Destroy Heaven Alliance were secretly hiding in Thousand Island Lake, and even had a major battle with the cultivators sent by their family to investigate... The Situ Family is a mortal enemy of the Song Family, who had made significant efforts to annihilate them back then."
"Now seeing a resurgence, how could the Song Family stand idly by? They immediately let the young master lead the charge, declaring a crusade against Thousand Island Lake... And the Mysterious Heaven Sect merely gave a token gesture, issuing a ’Demon Subjugation Order’ and sent a few Foundation Establishment cultivators to observe, and that was the end of it... Tsk tsk..."
Fang Xi’s previous scheming with Ruan Xingling was now starting to show initial success.
What the Mysterious Heaven Sect ignored caused deep pain for the Song Family.
The Song Family’s behavior this time seemed somewhat impulsive.
After all, it was indeed the Song Family who had led the massacre of the Situ Family, and they were the ones most entangled in the blood of fellow cultivators.
The Destroy Heaven Alliance had even attacked the Song Family’s markets!
’Fight, by all means... after all, none of them are good stuff... any loss suffered by either side would suit my wishes.’
Fang Xi’s expression was slightly moved: "I didn’t expect that, after only so many years... Yue Country would begin to be in turmoil again."
"Sigh... this is just the beginning."
However, Luo Gong sneered: "Around the time Ancestor Jiang from the Mysterious Heaven Sect was sitting and transforming, things in Yue Country have been restless... Speaking of which, wasn’t Thousand Island Lake where you cultivated before, brother?"
"Yes, luckily I ran fast. Come on... let’s drink more!"
Fang Xi wore a fearful expression, but also showed relief.
...
Half a month later.
Bi Bo Cave.
Ruan Xingling settled in Baize Immortal City and did not accept Fang Xi’s assistance.
She was, after all, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and had her own pride.
Besides, this woman also possessed skilled Talisman forging techniques, having advanced to the second level rapidly after her Foundation Establishment!
In the fire refining room.
Three fire crows constantly spat out flames comparable to the Innate True Fire of Foundation Establishment cultivators, melting chunk after chunk of metallic ore.
Ruan Xingling, seizing the opportunity, added various powders, hammering and transforming the ores.
At last, the rough embryo of a talisman manifested itself.
This talisman appeared to be a long saber in shape, its entire body was jet black, and looked crude.
"The key to Talisman forging lies in the embryo and the inscribing of array patterns..."
Ruan Xingling’s Divine Consciousness swept over the saber inch by inch, a satisfied look appeared on her face, she said to Fang Xi who was observing on the side: "The quality of the embryo mainly depends on the forging skills and raw materials, while the array patterns inscribed thereafter actually share quite a bit in common with the Array Master’s craft! You’ve come to me, is this the reason?"
"Exactly,"
Fang Xi nodded: "I’ve obtained an unorthodox Array Taoist inheritance, which includes some special array patterns that are quite interesting when combined, but they aren’t numerous enough... they can’t form a complete array, so I thought of utilizing them in Talisman forging."
The unorthodox array patterns he mentioned were naturally the runic patterns from the Fragment World!
However, such patterns could not be inscribed onto the bodies of cultivators in the South Wilderness or Great Liang, or they would certainly burst and die.
Fang Xi naturally thought of using inanimate objects to bear the load, and arrays and Talisman forging were the best ways to transform it.
However, because the array patterns he had were too few and disordered, he could only consider Talisman forging.
Even more crucially... Fang Xi had no talent for Talisman forging and had long abandoned this craft, but he had a trustworthy second-level Talisman forger at hand, so naturally, he intended to make full use of her...
"Now, your accomplishments in array patterns have actually reached the second level, showing that you definitely hid your talents on Peach Blossom Island in the past..."
Ruan Xingling gave Fang Xi a sideways glance.
An Array Master is much more sought-after than a Talisman forger and is also much harder to excel in.