Chapter 389: Benefits (III)

Blood Dharma Manual

...

Li Xuanxuan pondered for a moment and vaguely remembered hearing Li Tongya mention this cultivation method before. It seemed to be a method from the Golden Feather Sect, with the first volume marked as Grade Four, containing only the Qi Cultivation Realm section.

"It appears that even among the devil cultivators, they use cultivation methods to control and threaten each other. After all, devil cultivators are selfish. Without such control over their cultivation paths, they would have scattered long ago..."

"It should be more than that." Li Yuanjiao paused slightly and contemplated for a moment. Not all devil cultivators had hopes of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm. There must be other connections or methods of control among these devil cultivators.

"It is not surprising that the three sects and seven gates have devil cultivation methods... But finding a Golden Feather Sect method on a devil cultivator within Azure Pond Sect's territory is interesting. Could it be that Azure Pond's devil cultivators have secretly defected to the Golden Feather Sect?"

Li Xuanxuan was filled with doubt, and he murmured, "Or perhaps... The devil plague was something both the Golden Feather Sect and Azure Pond Sect tacitly approved of or even intentionally facilitated. But if that is the case..."

"What good would that do?" Li Yuanjiao asked.

He was all dressed in black and stared intently at his father, puzzled as he continued, "The clans and rogue cultivators have been supporting Azure Pond for years! To allow them to be slaughtered by devil cultivators just like that doesn't make sense... Azure Pond would have to send people to re-establish control next year, and areas ravaged by the devil plague would be desolate for decades. Small families and rogue cultivators would take nearly a century to grow again... It is like giving away their egg-laying hens for others to enjoy!"

"Maybe... the devil plague has another purpose."

Li Xuanxuan shook his head, shifting his thoughts as he read through several black jade slips one by one.

There were escape techniques like the Sacrificial Blood Escape, likely the blood wind the devil cultivator used to escape, a reincarnation method

Belly Ghost Infant

, and a method to convert from immortal to devil cultivation,

Blood Conversion Scripture

...

In total, there were five techniques. They all required human blood, spiritual energy, resentment qi, and human heads—all of which were not good things. The two only read the summaries to gain a rough understanding of the devil cultivator's secrets.

Devil cultivators also started from the Embryonic Breathing Realm, but instead of immediately progressing to the Qi Cultivation Realm after condensing the six chakras, they combined them into what was known as a

Diverse Mansion

.

Once this

Diverse Mansion

was formed, the Juque Court, Shenyang Mansion, and Qihai Acupoints would be merged, and their body ceased to be the basis of cultivation. Instead, it became something like a boat on a sea of suffering in Buddhism cultivation.

The intricacies of this method were profound and mysterious, seemingly possessing a strange power that tried to draw the reader's spiritual sense into it, compelling them to follow the outlined cultivation path. Fortunately, this power was not strong, and the two quickly regained their senses after a moment of confusion.

Li Xuanxuan, knowing he did not have strong willpower, did not dare delve deeper and quickly released his grip on the jade slips.

"The

Diverse Mansion

... so the term

Diverse Mansion Unified Furnace Technique

refers to this..."

Li Yuanjiao had also heard about it when Mu Rongxia ventured south, mentioning something about nurturing a human head in the belly, though it was slightly different. In any case, cultivation paths varied greatly, making it hard to fully comprehend them.

Just recently, when I went to Cloud Crowned Peak Market, the four Foundation Establishment Realm devil cultivators surrounding it radiated the glow of immortal foundations... What does that mean then?

As Li Yuanjiao was busy pondering these thoughts, Li Xuanxuan silently picked up the black jade slip titled

Blood Conversion Scripture

.

CRACK!

With a squeeze, Li Xuanxuan crushed the jade slip and put away the remaining four. He turned to Li Yuanjiao and instructed, "Store these in a secret chamber. Having these methods as references will ensure our younger generations won't be caught unprepared when facing devil cultivators."

Li Yuanjiao nodded then picked up a jade bottle from the table, examining it carefully. The bottle was slightly larger than a typical pill bottle and was pale blue in color.

Using his spiritual sense to probe inside the bottle, he found it contained clear, cold spirit water with a faint black hue, about half a bottle's worth. It swirled as if it were a single entity, emitting waves of coldness that made Li Yuanjiao shiver.

He murmured softly, "Spirit water of heaven and earth..?"

Li Xuanxuan took it from him hurriedly and shivered from the cold. Though he had seen many spirit items in the market over the years, he had never encountered spirit water of heaven and earth.

"Perhaps it is? Or maybe it is some special kind of spiritual qi of heaven and earth..." he wondered aloud.

Seeing Li Yuanjiao carefully storing it away, he quickly added, "Better place it in the clan's vault just in case."

The remaining pills were scattered and few were usable. There were two blue bottles: one containing blood qi and the other containing resentment qi, roughly the essence of over a thousand people. There were also some heads and organs of Qi Cultivators, used for spellcasting, which they quickly buried.

Not knowing how to handle the two blue bottles, they decided to store them away for now. The thirty-odd Spirit Stones were the real prize, bringing Li Yuanjiao great relief.

The devil cultivator's loot was quite substantial, considering that typical Qi Cultivators carried only five or six Spirit Stones. This one had thirty-five, which was enough to keep the Li Family afloat for the next five years.

"It is a shame we cannot keep the storage pouch... It must be quite valuable with such a large space! The devil cultivator did not seem that powerful, I wonder where he stole it from..." Li Xuanxuan lamented.

Storage pouches were the easiest to tamper with, and even the pouches of the direct Li Family members had traps set within them. Given the urgency of the situation, he had not considered the pouch's quality and did not dare to keep it.

After dividing the spoils, both were in high spirits. Some clan guards arrived, followed by an old monkey about five chi tall, with a face full of wrinkles and intelligent eyes, silently bowing and looking up at Li Xuanxuan gratefully.

The old monkey had healed and was now free of the fire poison. Li Xuanxuan noticed its advanced age now that it was clean and groomed well enough. Washed clean of soot, its fur was snow-white. It was short and only reached up to Li Xuanxuan's chin.

"If I may I ask..." Li Xuanxuan hesitated, unsure whether to address it as a fellow Daoist or senior. He noticed that the monkey's throat seemed damaged, and was only able to make sounds. He asked gently, "What is your name?"

The old monkey shook its head, pointed to Li Xuanxuan, and then to its own forehead. Li Xuanxuan seemed to understand and asked, "Fellow Daoist, would you like to stay with us, the Li Family?"

The old monkey nodded repeatedly. Li Xuanxuan was overjoyed. This monkey, a Qi Cultivator at the fourth heavenly layer who likely understood medicine and spirit plants, was a valuable addition to his family.

"Well then, you shall be part of our family from now on and take our surname," Li Xuanxuan said tentatively.