“Miss Qin, I had no choice but to do this to you. Please forgive me for the offense.”
Jiang Li symbolically bowed to the other party before waving his hand to separate the clay statue again.
After coming out of the cracked clay statue, the injuries that had been caused by the Anti-Demon Golden Skin had basically recovered. She returned to her cold and charming appearance.
Qin Shuman no longer had the determination she showed when she rejected Jiang Li. She bowed towards Jiang Li, her face revealing a complicated expression of compromise.
She was originally a rich girl and had grown up in a secluded courtyard. Unfortunately, she had loved to read books about love and paintings since she was young and had been completely poisoned by the “noble love” that was fabricated by a poor scholar.
In the end, she was tricked by a fake scholar and ran off with great expectations. She was sold to Seven Roads Town and became that pitiful Deity of Blessing.
She could believe anything except the words of men. Therefore, when he had asked her to join him, Qin Shuman had rejected without hesitation.
Now, she had been planted by Jiang Li’s seed and had stayed in the Yin Burial Coffin for such a long time. Everything that she saw in her eyes made her unable to think of any possibility of escape.
From the time she was killed until she was captured by Jiang Li, she had never left Seven Roads Town and had never seen many cultivators. She did not know much about the situation in the cultivation world.
In the beginning, she claimed to be the king of this region and thought that she was already very formidable. Who would have thought that calamity would suddenly descend from nowhere and she would encounter Jiang Li?
He had such overwhelming strength and power, and this space had such a dense amount of yin qi that it made her infatuated.
After two weeks here, she had no idea what to do when she got out. She could not put up any resistance anymore.
Right now, Qin Shuman was thinking that as long as she did not continue to be that cursed Deity of Blessing, she could accept anything else.
“Since things have come to this, I have no other request. I only hope that young master will not let me down in the future.”
Through the seed in the other party’s body, Jiang Li did not sense any obvious hostility, which surprised him a little. He had prepared several excuses, but they were all useless now.
“Don’t worry, I don’t have a habit of lying. What I said that time still holds true. These guys above are all yours to manage.”
“Really… really?”
After Jiang Li finished speaking, Qin Shuman excitedly covered her mouth. Her heart, which had stopped beating for nearly a hundred years, seemed to tremble at this moment.
Looking at the countless ghosts in the sky, this happiness came too suddenly.
In the past, she only had slightly more than 3,000 subordinates.
This was equivalent to going from a village head to a county head. It was unbelievable.
“Come with me. I’ll introduce you.”
“There’s a batch of craftsmen in your Ghost Market, right? These are all basic yin attribute materials. I need you to expand your manpower and make them into yin attribute weapons.”
Of the three thousand ghost soldiers in this ghost city, more than half were equipped with standard weapons. Although they were far inferior to artifacts, they were definitely several times stronger than mortal sabers.
“Then, you can choose and arm the elite ghost soldier army with these yin attribute items. The number can be between 50,000 and 100,000.”
Jiang Li pointed at a large pile of ore materials that he had bought from the Foreign Affairs Hall.
“The other ghosts need to be armed as soon as possible. These are the two methods to create Ghost Weapon Talismans and Ghost Armor Talismans respectively. Before you learn them, you can use these two molds to make a copy first.”
He handed over two books and two long wooden boxes.
The two manuals were copied from the black talisman booklet of that Foundation Establishment cultivator. They were not of a high grade, but they were still practical and easy to learn.
On the other hand, the two long wooden boxes were talisman paper printouts personally drawn by Jiang Li.
This was also the reason why talisman papers in the cultivation world were so cheap. By using this kind of grinding tool to make a copy, as long as there was enough spiritual qi, it would be produced by assembly lines.
Jiang Li used the Spirit Surging Technique on both of the molds. With this, he did not even need to personally infuse spiritual qi into them. Even mortals could use them.
Although the talisman paper that was copied from tools was definitely not as good as being personally drawn by him, with Jiang Li’s level of drawing, the patterns on these two sets of molds were naturally drawn in one stroke. The talisman paper that was copied from this was also stronger than ordinary beginner products.
“The Yellow Grain Paper and Black Corpse Ink have been prepared. You can use the yin qi and spiritual qi in this space as you wish. This is only a basic black talisman. After you finish copying it, you can use a ghost weapon to nurture it. It’s very easy to get started, so I’ll temporarily set the quantity to one million.”
Jiang Li casually set a small goal.
“One million…”
The Ghost City Lord, Qin Shuman, could not help but cry out. In the mortal world, where education was not widespread, very few people had any concept of what a million was.
Although Qin Shuman was once a well-educated young lady, after so many years, she had already forgotten many things.
Hmm… how many zeros were there?
She only knew that it was a very, very large number.
“Also, I’ve brought back all of your ghost market ghosts. You need to start reconstruction and expansion. Also, you can’t engage in small-scale fights like before. You need to put in more effort to train them.”
“Follow this list I gave you and let them familiarize themselves with the prices. I’ll be able to use them later.”
For free labor like this, the more there were, the better.
One had to know that as long as there were 100,000 free laborers, sending them to work at an electronics factory for a month would generate at least 80 million dollars in value.
The fellows flying above Jiang Li were already over 400,000 in number, and they were still increasing. How could he easily give up on their remaining value?
“If there’s anything else you need after this, you can tell me. I’ll try my best to satisfy you. Also, this is a gift from me.”
Jiang Li handed her another jade slip. It was a cultivation method, the ‘Illusory Art Life Record’, that the sword cultivator clone had secretly learned from the various legacies of the Shu Mountain Five Elements Peak.
Qin Shuman’s talent in illusions was extremely shocking. With her own strength, she could create a bustling town that could pass off as the real thing. Furthermore, it was under the circumstances that she did not rely on any array formations or artifacts.
Later on, Jiang Li specially learned that such a level of illusion technique was quite extraordinary.
As a rogue cultivator, this female ghost did what most Foundation Establishment cultivators could not.
Since the other party was already his subordinate, Jiang Li was naturally willing to nurture and support her.
Qin Shuman clearly did not know what the jade slip was. Under Jiang Li’s guidance, she read the contents of the jade slip with a curious expression.
After comprehending the mysterious spell technique that surged into her mind, the female ghost’s expression gradually filled with shock again.
“This… this… Young Master, you’ve done me a great favor! Shuman can’t thank you enough. I’ll definitely repay your kindness in the future.”
How could an inheritance from the Shu Mountain be simple?
Although Qin Shuman did not have the ability to appraise the level of the cultivation method, she could understand the special introduction written in the jade slip. Jiang Li had praised this secret technique as being incomparably powerful.
Coupled with the fact that the cultivation world wanted to treasure everything for themselves and that she had not obtained any inheritance after so many years, she was naturally extremely touched that Jiang Li had suddenly given her such a precious technique.
Jiang Li looked at the Ghost City Lord who bowed down again and wondered if she would still be grateful if he let her know that he not only planted a seed in her soul but also took away a trace of her soul origin while she was unconscious.
As they walked in the space inside the coffin, Jiang Li introduced different functional areas and some useful things to her.
Other people might not understand why an eight-hour scripture token was used to exchange for so many useless things, and most would feel that he had wasted it.
However, to Jiang Li, he could already use such cheap supplies to build a small force.
“Eh? What’s in these big barrels over here?”
Qin Shuman walked to a corner and pointed at the hundreds of wooden barrels in the corner.
Beside the wooden barrel, there was a small pool surrounded by oval stones.
“This is also something I want to tell you about.”
Jiang Li walked to the side and picked up a wooden barrel from the pile of wooden barrels. The sound of liquid moving could seemingly be heard from within.
He removed the lid of the wooden barrel and flipped it over, pouring out the red liquid inside.
This was blood, demon beast blood.
Some of them were Jiang Li’s collection after hunting demon beasts, some were bought from the Outer Sect Hall, and some were free kitchen supplies after slaughtering demon beasts in the sect’s kitchen.
The blood of the demon beasts poured into the pool of stones. The bottom of the pool was not covered by soil or moss. The blood directly touched the wooden base of the coffin space.
One had to know that the main material of this coffin was Bloodsucking Wood, which was even more sinister and strange than the ghostwood tree.
When Jiang Li refined the Yin Burial Coffin back then, his blood was almost sucked dry by this thing, so this was naturally still fresh in his mind.
In order to allow an artifact to advance, the basic materials used to construct it could not be ignored.
If it were any other material, Jiang Li would have long given up on the idea.
However, if it was Bloodsucking Wood, it might not be impossible.
This was because the Bloodsucking Wood was an extremely sinister thing. Its vitality was unbelievable. Even if it was made into an artifact, Jiang Li could still be sure that these few wooden planks were still alive.
Because the moment it touched blood, the coffin would suck it dry. Because of its characteristics, it gave the coffin a chance to take another step forward.
As long as it absorbed enough powerful blood, this magical wood would continuously grow.
Jiang Li was temporarily unable to supply the coffin with overly high-grade blood. The few drops of dragon blood in his body were not enough for him, so he was temporarily unwilling to share them with the coffin. Therefore, he planned to succeed by quantity.
“In the future, as long as the blood in this pool dries up, open a bucket and fill it up. I will continue to supply the beast blood, you don’t have to worry.”
Jiang Li handed this laborious task to Qin Shuman, because only she could do it in this coffin.
One had to know that even an ordinary black dog’s blood could scatter ordinary ghosts.
The beast blood originated from either strong or weak demon beasts. Their baneful aura was even more shocking. Just the smell of blood from afar was enough to make those ghosts, spirits, and zombies tumble, let alone move them at close range.
Even Qin Shuman had to carefully control a portion of the beast blood from a Foundation Establishment demon beast.
After doing this, Jiang Li rewarded his Spiritual Root Branch with another Sword Heart Slash as usual before leaving the coffin.
…
Jiang Li walked out of the room. The flying ship had already accelerated to an extremely fast speed, but there were still many people standing on the deck outside.
To cultivators at the Foundation Establishment realm or above, this bit of wind pressure was nothing.
“Junior Brother Jiang Li, are you alright?”
Jiang Li’s abnormal behavior earlier was naturally noticed by many people. As the trump card of the Qi Refinement realm in this competition, he absolutely could not have any problems.
However, when Jiang Li entered the room, he was full of worries. When he came out, he was full of smiles. Many people heaved a sigh of relief.
“Junior Brother Jiang Li, don’t slack off. Let’s compete again after we return from the competition this time. This time, I’ll definitely let you experience the might of Senior Sister’s Earth Dust Scripture.”
It was Shen Ruoshi who spoke. It was said that after the sect martial arts competition ended, she had been cultivating under the guidance of the Valley Master. Now, it seemed that she had a big breakthrough.
Jiang Li contributed to this matter.
As the saying went, there was no creation without destruction. There was a reason for this saying.
In the past, when Shen Ruoshi was cultivating the Earth Dust Scripture, she had been pursuing the quantity of turbid air heavy earth. As a result, her cultivation of the Earth Dust Scripture had gradually become bloated.
During the battle with Jiang Li earlier, she had lost a large portion of the turbid air heavy earth. This allowed her to calm down and properly comprehend her grasp of the Earth Dust Scripture. Now, she had already made quite good progress.
For example, if she were to condense the earth spike again, Jiang Li would definitely be unable to dodge it as easily as before since her control had been greatly improved.
“Thank you for your concern, Senior Sister and Senior Brothers. I was only troubled by a bottleneck previously. Now that I’ve broken through, I’m fine.”
In that short period of time, the Ghost Wood Art had already reached the limit of the seventh level. Currently, it had already reached the eighth level.
Shen Ruoshi’s expression stiffened as she became silent, unable to speak further.
Indeed, the joy of humans could not be interlinked. She suddenly felt that there was no meaning in talking to this junior brother.
He had broken through again just like that? It seemed like Jiang Li had only been at the mid-stage Qi Refinement realm when he had participated in the sect competition. After that, he had broken through to the late-stage Qi Refinement realm during the competition. How long had it been since then?
Troubled by a bottleneck? Did he really understand what a “bottleneck” was?
Jiang Li scratched his head in embarrassment.
Moreover, he was vexed about another thing. If the duration of this competition was a little longer, and he succeeded in establishing his foundation, then which competition venue should he go to?
“Miss Qin, I had no choice but to do this to you. Please forgive me for the offense.”
Jiang Li symbolically bowed to the other party before waving his hand to separate the clay statue again.
After coming out of the cracked clay statue, the injuries that had been caused by the Anti-Demon Golden Skin had basically recovered. She returned to her cold and charming appearance.
Qin Shuman no longer had the determination she showed when she rejected Jiang Li. She bowed towards Jiang Li, her face revealing a complicated expression of compromise.
She was originally a rich girl and had grown up in a secluded courtyard. Unfortunately, she had loved to read books about love and paintings since she was young and had been completely poisoned by the “noble love” that was fabricated by a poor scholar.
In the end, she was tricked by a fake scholar and ran off with great expectations. She was sold to Seven Roads Town and became that pitiful Deity of Blessing.
She could believe anything except the words of men. Therefore, when he had asked her to join him, Qin Shuman had rejected without hesitation.
Now, she had been planted by Jiang Li’s seed and had stayed in the Yin Burial Coffin for such a long time. Everything that she saw in her eyes made her unable to think of any possibility of escape.
From the time she was killed until she was captured by Jiang Li, she had never left Seven Roads Town and had never seen many cultivators. She did not know much about the situation in the cultivation world.
In the beginning, she claimed to be the king of this region and thought that she was already very formidable. Who would have thought that calamity would suddenly descend from nowhere and she would encounter Jiang Li?
He had such overwhelming strength and power, and this space had such a dense amount of yin qi that it made her infatuated.
After two weeks here, she had no idea what to do when she got out. She could not put up any resistance anymore.
Right now, Qin Shuman was thinking that as long as she did not continue to be that cursed Deity of Blessing, she could accept anything else.
“Since things have come to this, I have no other request. I only hope that young master will not let me down in the future.”
Through the seed in the other party’s body, Jiang Li did not sense any obvious hostility, which surprised him a little. He had prepared several excuses, but they were all useless now.
“Don’t worry, I don’t have a habit of lying. What I said that time still holds true. These guys above are all yours to manage.”
“Really… really?”
After Jiang Li finished speaking, Qin Shuman excitedly covered her mouth. Her heart, which had stopped beating for nearly a hundred years, seemed to tremble at this moment.
Looking at the countless ghosts in the sky, this happiness came too suddenly.
In the past, she only had slightly more than 3,000 subordinates.
This was equivalent to going from a village head to a county head. It was unbelievable.
“Come with me. I’ll introduce you.”
“There’s a batch of craftsmen in your Ghost Market, right? These are all basic yin attribute materials. I need you to expand your manpower and make them into yin attribute weapons.”
Of the three thousand ghost soldiers in this ghost city, more than half were equipped with standard weapons. Although they were far inferior to artifacts, they were definitely several times stronger than mortal sabers.
“Then, you can choose and arm the elite ghost soldier army with these yin attribute items. The number can be between 50,000 and 100,000.”
Jiang Li pointed at a large pile of ore materials that he had bought from the Foreign Affairs Hall.
“The other ghosts need to be armed as soon as possible. These are the two methods to create Ghost Weapon Talismans and Ghost Armor Talismans respectively. Before you learn them, you can use these two molds to make a copy first.”
He handed over two books and two long wooden boxes.
The two manuals were copied from the black talisman booklet of that Foundation Establishment cultivator. They were not of a high grade, but they were still practical and easy to learn.
On the other hand, the two long wooden boxes were talisman paper printouts personally drawn by Jiang Li.
This was also the reason why talisman papers in the cultivation world were so cheap. By using this kind of grinding tool to make a copy, as long as there was enough spiritual qi, it would be produced by assembly lines.
Jiang Li used the Spirit Surging Technique on both of the molds. With this, he did not even need to personally infuse spiritual qi into them. Even mortals could use them.
Although the talisman paper that was copied from tools was definitely not as good as being personally drawn by him, with Jiang Li’s level of drawing, the patterns on these two sets of molds were naturally drawn in one stroke. The talisman paper that was copied from this was also stronger than ordinary beginner products.
“The Yellow Grain Paper and Black Corpse Ink have been prepared. You can use the yin qi and spiritual qi in this space as you wish. This is only a basic black talisman. After you finish copying it, you can use a ghost weapon to nurture it. It’s very easy to get started, so I’ll temporarily set the quantity to one million.”
Jiang Li casually set a small goal.
“One million…”
The Ghost City Lord, Qin Shuman, could not help but cry out. In the mortal world, where education was not widespread, very few people had any concept of what a million was.
Although Qin Shuman was once a well-educated young lady, after so many years, she had already forgotten many things.
Hmm… how many zeros were there?
She only knew that it was a very, very large number.
“Also, I’ve brought back all of your ghost market ghosts. You need to start reconstruction and expansion. Also, you can’t engage in small-scale fights like before. You need to put in more effort to train them.”
“Follow this list I gave you and let them familiarize themselves with the prices. I’ll be able to use them later.”
For free labor like this, the more there were, the better.
One had to know that as long as there were 100,000 free laborers, sending them to work at an electronics factory for a month would generate at least 80 million dollars in value.
The fellows flying above Jiang Li were already over 400,000 in number, and they were still increasing. How could he easily give up on their remaining value?
“If there’s anything else you need after this, you can tell me. I’ll try my best to satisfy you. Also, this is a gift from me.”
Jiang Li handed her another jade slip. It was a cultivation method, the ‘Illusory Art Life Record’, that the sword cultivator clone had secretly learned from the various legacies of the Shu Mountain Five Elements Peak.
Qin Shuman’s talent in illusions was extremely shocking. With her own strength, she could create a bustling town that could pass off as the real thing. Furthermore, it was under the circumstances that she did not rely on any array formations or artifacts.
Later on, Jiang Li specially learned that such a level of illusion technique was quite extraordinary.
As a rogue cultivator, this female ghost did what most Foundation Establishment cultivators could not.
Since the other party was already his subordinate, Jiang Li was naturally willing to nurture and support her.
Qin Shuman clearly did not know what the jade slip was. Under Jiang Li’s guidance, she read the contents of the jade slip with a curious expression.
After comprehending the mysterious spell technique that surged into her mind, the female ghost’s expression gradually filled with shock again.
“This… this… Young Master, you’ve done me a great favor! Shuman can’t thank you enough. I’ll definitely repay your kindness in the future.”
How could an inheritance from the Shu Mountain be simple?
Although Qin Shuman did not have the ability to appraise the level of the cultivation method, she could understand the special introduction written in the jade slip. Jiang Li had praised this secret technique as being incomparably powerful.
Coupled with the fact that the cultivation world wanted to treasure everything for themselves and that she had not obtained any inheritance after so many years, she was naturally extremely touched that Jiang Li had suddenly given her such a precious technique.
Jiang Li looked at the Ghost City Lord who bowed down again and wondered if she would still be grateful if he let her know that he not only planted a seed in her soul but also took away a trace of her soul origin while she was unconscious.
As they walked in the space inside the coffin, Jiang Li introduced different functional areas and some useful things to her.
Other people might not understand why an eight-hour scripture token was used to exchange for so many useless things, and most would feel that he had wasted it.
However, to Jiang Li, he could already use such cheap supplies to build a small force.
“Eh? What’s in these big barrels over here?”
Qin Shuman walked to a corner and pointed at the hundreds of wooden barrels in the corner.
Beside the wooden barrel, there was a small pool surrounded by oval stones.
“This is also something I want to tell you about.”
Jiang Li walked to the side and picked up a wooden barrel from the pile of wooden barrels. The sound of liquid moving could seemingly be heard from within.
He removed the lid of the wooden barrel and flipped it over, pouring out the red liquid inside.
This was blood, demon beast blood.
Some of them were Jiang Li’s collection after hunting demon beasts, some were bought from the Outer Sect Hall, and some were free kitchen supplies after slaughtering demon beasts in the sect’s kitchen.
The blood of the demon beasts poured into the pool of stones. The bottom of the pool was not covered by soil or moss. The blood directly touched the wooden base of the coffin space.
One had to know that the main material of this coffin was Bloodsucking Wood, which was even more sinister and strange than the ghostwood tree.
When Jiang Li refined the Yin Burial Coffin back then, his blood was almost sucked dry by this thing, so this was naturally still fresh in his mind.
In order to allow an artifact to advance, the basic materials used to construct it could not be ignored.
If it were any other material, Jiang Li would have long given up on the idea.
However, if it was Bloodsucking Wood, it might not be impossible.
This was because the Bloodsucking Wood was an extremely sinister thing. Its vitality was unbelievable. Even if it was made into an artifact, Jiang Li could still be sure that these few wooden planks were still alive.
Because the moment it touched blood, the coffin would suck it dry. Because of its characteristics, it gave the coffin a chance to take another step forward.
As long as it absorbed enough powerful blood, this magical wood would continuously grow.
Jiang Li was temporarily unable to supply the coffin with overly high-grade blood. The few drops of dragon blood in his body were not enough for him, so he was temporarily unwilling to share them with the coffin. Therefore, he planned to succeed by quantity.
“In the future, as long as the blood in this pool dries up, open a bucket and fill it up. I will continue to supply the beast blood, you don’t have to worry.”
Jiang Li handed this laborious task to Qin Shuman, because only she could do it in this coffin.
One had to know that even an ordinary black dog’s blood could scatter ordinary ghosts.
The beast blood originated from either strong or weak demon beasts. Their baneful aura was even more shocking. Just the smell of blood from afar was enough to make those ghosts, spirits, and zombies tumble, let alone move them at close range.
Even Qin Shuman had to carefully control a portion of the beast blood from a Foundation Establishment demon beast.
After doing this, Jiang Li rewarded his Spiritual Root Branch with another Sword Heart Slash as usual before leaving the coffin.
…
Jiang Li walked out of the room. The flying ship had already accelerated to an extremely fast speed, but there were still many people standing on the deck outside.
To cultivators at the Foundation Establishment realm or above, this bit of wind pressure was nothing.
“Junior Brother Jiang Li, are you alright?”
Jiang Li’s abnormal behavior earlier was naturally noticed by many people. As the trump card of the Qi Refinement realm in this competition, he absolutely could not have any problems.
However, when Jiang Li entered the room, he was full of worries. When he came out, he was full of smiles. Many people heaved a sigh of relief.
“Junior Brother Jiang Li, don’t slack off. Let’s compete again after we return from the competition this time. This time, I’ll definitely let you experience the might of Senior Sister’s Earth Dust Scripture.”
It was Shen Ruoshi who spoke. It was said that after the sect martial arts competition ended, she had been cultivating under the guidance of the Valley Master. Now, it seemed that she had a big breakthrough.
Jiang Li contributed to this matter.
As the saying went, there was no creation without destruction. There was a reason for this saying.
In the past, when Shen Ruoshi was cultivating the Earth Dust Scripture, she had been pursuing the quantity of turbid air heavy earth. As a result, her cultivation of the Earth Dust Scripture had gradually become bloated.
During the battle with Jiang Li earlier, she had lost a large portion of the turbid air heavy earth. This allowed her to calm down and properly comprehend her grasp of the Earth Dust Scripture. Now, she had already made quite good progress.
For example, if she were to condense the earth spike again, Jiang Li would definitely be unable to dodge it as easily as before since her control had been greatly improved.
“Thank you for your concern, Senior Sister and Senior Brothers. I was only troubled by a bottleneck previously. Now that I’ve broken through, I’m fine.”
In that short period of time, the Ghost Wood Art had already reached the limit of the seventh level. Currently, it had already reached the eighth level.
Shen Ruoshi’s expression stiffened as she became silent, unable to speak further.
Indeed, the joy of humans could not be interlinked. She suddenly felt that there was no meaning in talking to this junior brother.
He had broken through again just like that? It seemed like Jiang Li had only been at the mid-stage Qi Refinement realm when he had participated in the sect competition. After that, he had broken through to the late-stage Qi Refinement realm during the competition. How long had it been since then?
Troubled by a bottleneck? Did he really understand what a “bottleneck” was?
Jiang Li scratched his head in embarrassment.
Moreover, he was vexed about another thing. If the duration of this competition was a little longer, and he succeeded in establishing his foundation, then which competition venue should he go to?
