Chapter 195: Treasure Hunting?
Editor: Atlas Studios
“Peak Master Wei, the four people on the first level have returned. The four disciples on the second level are rushing to the exit.”
“There are a total of three disciples who are continuing to enter the third level. However, they seem to have encountered some trouble.”
An elder looked at the golden projection of the Demon Subduing Pagoda and said to Peak Master Wei.
On the third level of the Demon Subduing Pagoda, three red dots seemed to have run in the wrong direction. Then, the red dots suddenly stopped in a dead end. Two of the red dots even flickered quickly, and the light became darker and darker.
If the red dot completely dimmed, it meant that this disciple had already fainted and lost consciousness. At that time, an elder would have to step out to save him.
Wei Wangxuan nodded. He did not say much about this, as if he had already expected this.
“Hmm, the demons on the third level are indeed slightly stronger than the demons on the second level, but it’s not much higher. The difficulty of the third level lies in that place.”
Wei Wangxuan pointed at the three red dots and clearly knew about the situation there.
“The talent of those few demons is not simple. Every year, because of them, there are quite a few disciples who fall midway.”
“I wonder if they can pass in the end.”
Among the three of them, Jiang Li was the strongest, but he was a body cultivator. Chang Wanzhou was second, but his Sword Heart had been awakened for a long time.
Although Shenshan Qiuhua was too young and her foundation was shallow, with the inheritance of the Shenshan Clan and Elder Mu, there should be no lack of backup plans.
The result would be up to their fate.
…
After absorbing the Earth Vein Spirit Essence on the second level, only three people intended to go further, Jiang Li, Chang Wanzhou, and Shenshan Qiuhua.
After all, there were already so many problems on this level. If they continued down, they, who had yet to awaken their Sword Heart, would really not be able to get anything out of it.
After opening a passageway behind the pagoda monument, Jiang Li and the other two jumped in successively.
Compared to the second level, the pressure on the third level clearly increased again.
Even Chang Wanzhou slowly arched his back under the heavy pressure.
Coupled with the expenditure from before, they had already exhausted their Sword Heart. It was already very difficult for them to endure the following test.
Charge through with speed!
The three of them quickly walked forward without saying a word. The two of them rode their swords at a low altitude while Jiang Li walked on the air. He only made a slight sound of friction against the air as he tried to keep a low profile and directly pass through the prison area.
The demon beasts on this level seemed to be the quiet type.
Among these demons, some had clearly discovered them, but they did not shout crazily like the demon beasts on the second floor.
They were also filled with malice towards the three of them, but other than the stronger pressure from their auras, they did not seem to want to pay attention to them.
“This way.”
Chang Wanzhou spoke, and then he suddenly turned around and flew towards a small passageway with Jiang Li and the others.
Jiang Li frowned. Why had the other party suddenly spoken? Didn’t they say that the demons here were all dishonest and could not speak in front of them?
Moreover, there seemed to be something wrong with this path.
“Wait! Senior Brother Chang!”
After following Chang Wanzhou into the small path, Jiang Li felt that something was amiss.
After observing the first two levels, he could confirm that the locations of the cells in the Demon Subduing Pagoda were arranged according to a set of Nine Palace Eight Trigrams Formation.
This array technique was very ancient, so Jiang Li did not know much about it.
However, the principles behind this were all interlinked. With his array formation standards, he could basically confirm that the small path Chang Wanzhou had turned into was a dead end!
As expected, after a few steps, several medium-sized cages appeared at the end of the road ahead.
However, even so, Chang Wanzhou seemed to not see it as he directly collided with one of the cages.
Slam!
Jiang Li pressed down on the other party’s shoulder and forcefully stopped him. He stopped a few centimeters away from the cage.
Only then did Chang Wanzhou suddenly wake up. In his eyes, what was ahead was clearly a huge road.
In the cell in front of them, an old fox demon appeared. In the other cells around them, there were also foxes locked up.
“Not bad. You actually woke up so quickly. However, this is all you can do.”
These fox demons looked human. They were lying or sitting, and their expressions were graceful and peaceful.
On the other hand, the old fox that Jiang Li and the others were talking about was still walking slowly in the cage like a human old man with his hands behind his back.
Although he had a collar around his neck and was tied to the ground, his action looked rather dignified.
It seemed that they had affected Chang Wanzhou just now, causing him to walk right into their trap.
This group of fox demons actually had talent in illusions.
“Since you’re here, don’t leave. Today is a good day. Why don’t you become my son-in-laws?”
In the next moment, the surrounding environment changed instantly. From a sinister and terrifying cell, it became a brightly lit courtyard.
The surrounding fox demons had all transformed into peerless beauties in thin clothes.
“Lord Immortals, here are 1,000 spirit pills and 50 kilograms of spirit stones. I have a presumptuous request. I hope that you can marry my daughters tonight.”
The old fox demon with his hands behind his back transformed into a benevolent old man. His cell also became an extremely luxurious hall.
The old fox demon pointed at the pile of spirit pills and spirit stones on the ground and made a slightly absurd request.
As soon as he finished speaking, alluring sounds came from the surrounding rooms.
“Young Master, the night in the bridal room is short. I have already taken off my dress and am alone in the tent. Come and spend the night with me.”
“Young Master, my daughter is only 16 years old and wants to choose a good person to serve. I only want to serve you. Young Master, are you willing to accept my daughter?”
“Young Master, Young Master! I can’t take it anymore. Quick, come and join me.”
The surrounding cages turned into the rooms of young girls. Three girls with completely different styles faced them in an extremely alluring manner.
Jiang Li was young and had never seen such a posture. He secretly took a few more glances.
Unfortunately, with Jiang Li’s multiple mental resistances, the illusion in front of him was only a faint layer of light and shadow. It could be broken with a slight push.
Needless to say, the goal of these fox demons was clearly to tempt Jiang Li to open the prison door for them.
Shenshan Qiuhua, who was standing beside Jiang Li, seemed to have seen an illusion, but her face was also extremely red.
Sword Heart! Break!
This illusion technique was indeed very real and tempting, but a cultivator with the Sword Heart could still resist.
Three Sword Hearts erupted at the same time.
This charming scene was instantly torn apart.
In the cage, three fox demons shook and suffered the backlash of their illusion being broken.
Among them, the one who was originally mainly trying to affect Jiang Li even more so had drops of blood flowing out from his eyes. His body suddenly went soft, looking like he suffered quite a few injuries.
Using illusions in front of the Sword Heart talent was actually very risky, especially when they were imprisoned for a long time and were in bad condition.
However, while these fox demons suffered a backlash, Chang Wanzhou and Shenshan Qiuhua were similarly not feeling well.
They had originally relied on their Sword Heart to withstand the pressure. After this explosion, their Sword Heart completely weakened. The two of them lost the protection of the Sharp Sword Aura Field and could no longer endure it. Their bodies and minds became extremely weak.
“Damn kid, how dare you hurt my child! I’ll make you regret it for the rest of your life!”
When the old fox saw that a small fox’s eyes were bleeding, it looked very angry. A strange light flickered in its eyes, and powerful spell fluctuations erupted again.
In this illusion, the surrounding prison doors suddenly opened. Two fierce fox demons rushed out and wanted to tear them into pieces.
However, it was a joint illusion technique earlier, and now, it was only this old fox that was executing the illusion technique by itself. It was naturally obvious who was stronger and weaker. In Jiang Li’s eyes, the illusion technique was dim to the point he was almost unable to see clearly.
The location of the two fox demons completely overlapped with Chang Wanzhou and Shenshan Qiuhua.
This old fox even tried to use illusions and words to influence him. He wanted to make him regret for the rest of his life after killing the two people beside him.
Although this illusion spell series could not directly cause damage, it was a terrifying ability that was impossible to guard against.
If Jiang Li was really only a pure body cultivator and did not have such mental resistance, he might really have fallen into its trap.
At this moment, a golden light suddenly slashed towards Jiang Li. It was Chang Wanzhou who had suddenly erupted and attacked him.
He casually pushed aside the golden sword.
Looking at Chang Wanzhou again, his eyes were blurry and unfocused. The sword technique in his hand was also terrible to the point of being of no standard. Clearly, he was affected by the illusion technique.
The methods of these fox demons were really terrifying.
Jiang Li hit Chang Wanzhou on the neck as he fainted. Shenshan Qiuhua, on the other hand, held two flying swords and was resisting something in the illusion.
He simply hugged Shenshan Qiuhua and stopped her from moving.
Jiang Li waved his hand and struck out another dozen Blood Withered Vines, causing these sinful fox demons to be sucked dry of their blood before being put down.
After that, he did not stop and grabbed the two of them. Wind arose beneath Jiang Li’s feet, and he disregarded the demons that were staring covetously at him. Soon, he found the pagoda monument on the third level.
In the vicinity, due to the influence of the pagoda monument’s power, the aura of those demons could not envelop this place. Here, they could finally have a breather.
Without the heavy mental pressure, Shenshan Qiuhua and Chang Wanzhou slowly woke up a moment later.
“I… What happened?”
After Shenshan Qiuhua’s Sword Heart was exhausted, she still had the support of the peach blossom mark. It was still alright, and she basically still remembered what had happened.
Chang Wanzhou’s mind was severely injured. At this moment, his head hurt so much that it felt like it was splitting apart. He stood up and swayed from side to side, looking extremely sorry.
“You were under an illusion technique. After using Sword Heart to break it, you were shocked by the aura of the demons and your minds were damaged.”
“But it should be fine. I’ll be fine after resting for a while.”
They returned to their senses for a long time before recalling what had just happened.
They were even more fearful after this.
It was no wonder that only a few could reach the third level of the pagoda despite having so many talented senior brothers and sisters in Shu Mountain. It turned out that it was so difficult to pass through the Demon Subduing Pagoda.
However, it was fortunate that Jiang Li was present. They arrived without any mishaps. Looking at the third pagoda monument, they could not help but feel a little excited. This was an opportunity that many Shu Mountain disciples could not envy.
As they sighed, a whistling sound came from behind.
“So you’re here. I’ve been looking for you.”
The person was a Shu Mountain Elder. At their level, they could already completely ignore the demons on the first few levels of the Demon Subduing Pagoda. They could move freely inside. The ones trembling were the demons in the prison.
“I’m here to bring you out. You’ve done well. After burning the incense quickly, I’ll bring you out to recuperate.”
It turned out that Chang Wanzhou had already been discovered by the outside world after he lost consciousness. This elder had come in to help after seeing a dark red dot.
However, he did not expect Chang Wanzhou to wake up after being brought here by Jiang Li.
The three of them burned incense one after another. After obtaining the Earth Vein Spirit Essence, that elder wanted to bring them back.
Shenshan Qiuhua and Chang Wanzhou naturally had no objections, but Jiang Li chose to refuse. To him, the third level was not even an appetizer.
Jiang Li’s decision shocked Chang Wanzhou and Shenshan Qiuhua. Then, they recalled that although Jiang Li was also at the Qi Refinement realm, he was actually on a completely different level from them.
As the most outstanding Shu Mountain disciples of the current generation, they had suffered repeated setbacks in front of Jiang Li. Now, they even sadly realized that they were already used to such setbacks.
That elder knew that Jiang Li still had a token, so he was not too surprised. After saying that he would do his best, he left.
A moment later, he was the only human left on the third level.
Only then did Jiang Li have the time to look at his appearance.
[Absorbed the Earth Vein Spirit Essence of the Five Elements Peak. Added Status: Earth Vein Spirit Essence (Torso)]
[Earth Vein Spirit Essence (Torso): Slowly supplements the connate deficiencies and postnatal losses. Harmonizes the five elements and increases the success rate of Foundation Establishment. Small increase in the strength of the Dao Foundation when establishing it. Duration: 30 days] (− +)
This time, the Earth Vein Spirit Essence had turned into the torso.
Furthermore, the status information of the Earth Vein Spirit Essence (Torso) was clearly stronger than the description of the previous two Earth Vein statuses. There was also an additional effect of harmonizing the five elements.
Harmonizing the five elements?
Jiang Li thought for a moment before condensing wood-attribute spiritual qi and fire-attribute spiritual qi in his palm. After controlling the two to slowly rotate and fuse, this ball of spiritual qi did not ignite immediately.
Jiang Li threw out that ball of spiritual qi again. Only when it was five meters away from him did this ball of spiritual qi suddenly explode, exploding into a ball of surging spiritual qi.
This status seemed to be able to help him control the merging of the five elements spiritual qi. When the spiritual qi of different attributes interacted, they could also be controlled and the difficulty would not be high.
From the name of the status, he had both feet and a torso. If he continued going down, wouldn’t he be able to create a complete person?
He was really looking forward to what would happen then.
However, it was not time to go to the fourth level yet.
Red light slowly emerged from Jiang Li’s sleeve. His Blood Withered Vine was still unable to endure the thirst.
Also, there was this thing.
He took out a round pearl the size of a grape from his storage bag.
This was the turtle treasure of the Eighth King.
[Name: Turtle Treasure]
[Type: Demon Molting]
[Formation: Turtle Demon Symbiosis]
[Description: Treasure Hunting]
When Jiang Li was still an outer sect disciple, he had seen the turtle treasure’s description in a book in the Scripture Storage Valley.
This thing could barely be considered a treasure, but to cultivators, it was really not a big deal.
It was because even mortals could use it, and under normal circumstances, only mortals had such needs.
The most precious thing about it was the lack of quantity, hence giving it rarity.
The probability of this turtle treasure appearing was really too low. It was a rare item. Even in the cultivation world, it did not appear often.
As for its effect, it did sound very powerful.
To be able to hunt for treasures, including those buried three feet underground. What kind of heaven-defying ability was this?
However, in fact, this ability was not as useful as one could imagine. Instead, it was extremely pointless.
This was because to ordinary turtles, gold, silver, and antiques were also considered treasures.
To mortals, this was naturally correct.
However, for cultivators, imagine standing on the streets of Nightless City after using the turtle treasure.
From the floor tiles to the wooden planks, pots, bowls, ladles, pots, food, wine, and the clothes of all the cultivators, everything emitted a dazzling treasure light…
Other than inflicting blindness, the effect was useless.
Even if one ran into the wilderness, this situation would not change much. When one discovered that there was a treasure underground, after excavating for a long time, they would only obtain a few taels of silver. That kind of dejectedness was the root reason why the turtle treasure was considered useless.
However, the turtle treasure in Jiang Li’s hand might be different.
