Chapter 1602 - 988: Red Cloud and Red Soul
Chapter 1602: Chapter 988: Red Cloud and Red Soul
After he found the Elixir Recipe for the Nine Tripod Divine Pill, Yang Zhenshan continued tallying up the rest of the gains.
There was still a lot left, mainly ores and Magical Treasures.
Especially Magical Treasures—aside from the three hundred sets of Armor they got from the palace ruins’ warehouse, there were also several hundred assorted, miscellaneous Magical Treasures.
With so many Magical Treasures, Yang Zhenshan definitely couldn’t use them all, so he simply handed them all over to Ziwei Tower to deal with.
He had Ziwei Tower’s Merit Hall record them in a ledger, then set prices according to grade and function. In the future, if anyone took a fancy to a certain Magical Treasure, they could go to the Merit Hall and use Merit Points to exchange for it themselves.
After he finished tallying all the spoils, Yang Zhenshan invited Hong Fuxiu and Kou Ta over.
Xuanzhen followed along as well.
"Why didn’t you let me go?"
They had just arrived at the Spiritual Spring Mountain Plateau when Xuanzhen stared at Yang Zhenshan with a face full of grievance and asked.
Just now he’d chatted a lot with Hong Fuxiu and Kou Ta, including their experiences and gains from entering the Sun Cave Heaven this time.
Xuanzhen was so envious it hurt.
Magical Treasures, Spiritual Artifacts, ores, Spirit Plants, as well as Jie Dan Spirit Objects and Nine Tripod Divine Pills.
So many gains, yet not a share for him—just thinking about it made him miserable.
"..."
Yang Zhenshan looked at Xuanzhen, a bit speechless. "We almost didn’t make it back!"
"If they can make it back, I definitely can too!" Xuanzhen said discontentedly.
"Heh, alright, just say what you want directly, I’ll give it to you!" Yang Zhenshan said, half annoyed.
Hearing this, Xuanzhen’s eyes lit up. "I heard you got a lot of complete sets of Armor!"
"Yeah, what do you want that stuff for?"
"For my Divine Generals!"
Xuanzhen currently had twelve Golden Armor Divine Generals. These Divine Generals also had weapons and Armor, but their weapons and Armor were all formed by the Golden Light Divine Spell; they weren’t true Magical Treasures.
If all twelve Golden Armor Divine Generals were equipped with Magical Treasure–grade weapons and Armor, their strength would naturally leap up by a big margin.
"I already threw all that into the Merit Hall. If you want it, go exchange it yourself!" Yang Zhenshan said.
"Exchanging from the Merit Hall needs Merit. I don’t have any!" Xuanzhen said shamelessly.
Yang Zhenshan really didn’t know what to say.
"Rules are rules!"
"Then lend me some Merit!" Xuanzhen said without the slightest blush.
Yang Zhenshan was helpless and could only say, "Fine, I’ll lend you two hundred thousand Merit!"
The Merit system was jointly set up by Taiwei Tower and Ziwei Tower. The main aim was to distribute resources more fairly, so everyone in the Spirit Source Land would have a chance to obtain high-grade resources.
Although Yang Zhenshan was the master of the Spirit Source Land, he couldn’t casually break the rules of the Spirit Source Land.
So he also had to follow the Spirit Source Land’s salary system and Merit system; he too had cultivation salary and position salary.
Of course, he had a lot of Merit Points, because he was also an Alchemist. Refining a Furnace of Elixir and tossing it to the Merit Hall could be exchanged for a large amount of Merit Points.
And the Merit Hall couldn’t give him too many resources, so his Merit Points ended up being only incoming and not outgoing. By now, he’d already accumulated more than two million Merit Points.
"Now that’s more like it!" Xuanzhen chuckled.
Yang Zhenshan couldn’t be bothered with him and instead had Hong Fuxiu and Kou Ta sit down in the hall.
"I’ve more or less finished tallying the items. Some things are hard to divide, so I converted them into Merit Points for you. Whatever you need, you can go to the Merit Hall and exchange for it yourselves!"
"First are the Spiritual Artifacts. This treasure mirror is all yours!"
Yang Zhenshan handed the Spiritual Artifact treasure mirror to Hong Fuxiu.
The four of them had entered the Sun Cave Heaven, but the profits couldn’t be split evenly four ways.
Because their strengths were different, and the effort they put in within the Sun Cave Heaven was also different.
As the leader, Yang Zhenshan naturally had to take the bigger share—especially since he’d ensured the safety of Hong Fuxiu and Kou Ta this time—so it was perfectly reasonable for him to take two Spiritual Artifacts.
Hong Fuxiu received the treasure mirror, overjoyed, and thanked him, "Many thanks, Tower Master!"
"Mm, next are the Nine-striped Bodhi Seeds. You each get two!" Yang Zhenshan took out four Porcelain Bottles and handed them to Kou Ta.
Kou Ta grinned so wide his gapped teeth showed. "Subordinate thanks Tower Master for the bestowal!"
Yang Zhenshan waved his hand. "This isn’t a bestowal. It’s what you’re supposed to get!"
"Also, about those eight Spirit Pines—I won’t hide it from you—the eight Spirit Pines can be refined into a potion similar to Forget River Dew. It’s also a kind of Jie Dan Spirit Object!"
"I’ll refine the potion from them, but I’m not sure exactly how much I can get. Once I’ve refined it, I’ll give you some."
He naturally wouldn’t kill those eight Spirit Pines; he was still counting on them to grow strong in the Spirit Source Land.
But refining potion from Spirit Pine didn’t require killing them; he just needed to cut some branches and leaves.
Yang Zhenshan didn’t need too much of that potion; three portions would be enough—one for each of the three of them.
If they needed more in the future, they could just cut more branches and leaves from the Spirit Pine Tree to refine.
"Alright, we’ll follow Tower Master’s arrangements!" Kou Ta said honestly.
He wasn’t stupid. This time, the fact that they could enter the Sun Cave Heaven and come out in one piece was entirely thanks to Yang Zhenshan’s protection.
Now Yang Zhenshan had given them one Spiritual Artifact and four Nine-striped Bodhi Seeds—they’d already made a huge profit, far beyond what they’d expected.
"There’s also the Heart Burning Fruit; you each get one as well!" Yang Zhenshan handed them another jade box.
The effect of the Heart Burning Fruit was similar to Forget River Dew, and probably not much different from the potion refined from Spirit Pine.
However, different Spiritual Objects had different properties. The main effect of Forget River Dew was to see through obsessions; the main effect of the Heart Burning Fruit was to temper the mind; the main effect of Spirit Pine was to restrain Heart Demons.
The medicinal properties of the three are very similar, but each has a different emphasis.
Yang Zhenshan kept one Heart Burning Fruit, planning ahead just in case.
As for Yun Xiao, he had already swallowed the Nine Tripod Divine Pill, so there was no need for Yang Zhenshan to give him any other Spiritual Objects.
A single Nine Tripod Divine Pill is worth at least six portions of Core Formation Spirit Objects.
Yun Xiao had already taken a huge advantage.
"As for those Magical Treasures and ores, I’ll convert them into two million Merit Points for you. Whatever you need, go to the Merit Hall and exchange it yourselves!"
As he spoke, Yang Zhenshan took out two Jade Tokens and handed them over.
If all those Magical Treasures and ores were converted into Spirit Stones, the amount would deliberately reach into the hundreds of millions.
Magical Treasures, under normal circumstances, are all priced between tens of thousands to several hundred thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones.
Just the three hundred sets of armor Magical Treasures alone were worth fifty million Low-grade Spirit Stones.
Giving them two million Merit Points was not much from Yang Zhenshan’s perspective, but it wasn’t little either.
In the Spirit Source Land, those two million Merit Points could already be considered a large sum.
After the distribution was over, Kou Ta and Hong Fuxiu were both very satisfied and thanked Yang Zhenshan once again.
Yang Zhenshan waved his hand repeatedly and said, "Alright, we’re all one family here, no need to keep thanking each other!"
"From now on you can just stay here in the Spirit Source Land with peace of mind. First choose a spot and build a cave dwelling, then focus on cultivating properly for a while!"
"Later I’ll pull in some more people to join the Spirit Source Land. When the time comes, there will probably be many things I’ll need you two to handle!"
Kou Ta said sincerely, "Tower Master, just give your orders!"
After that, they chatted idly for a while longer before Yang Zhenshan finally saw them out.
Once they had left, Yang Zhenshan began to get busy.
He first cut some branches and leaves from the Spirit Pine Tree, then threw them into the Golden Crow Eight Trigrams Furnace to refine.
The refining process wasn’t difficult, so he simply handed it over to Zhang Hexuan to take charge of.
Then Yang Zhenshan called over Ning Yun and entrusted Lin Daoyuan and Yue E to her, asking her to send the two back.
At this time Lin Daoyuan and Yue E were still lying in ice coffins. They weren’t dead, but they were badly injured; their Seas of Consciousness were damaged, and there was no way they could recover in a short time. Even if they did recover, there would definitely be sequelae.
Yang Zhenshan estimated that the two of them would never be able to advance their cultivation again, and their Divine Souls and Seas of Consciousness would become their fatal weak points.
To put it simply, the two of them were half crippled.
But for them, this was already the best possible outcome.
After handing the two of them over to Ning Yun, Yang Zhenshan spent a few more days teaching the Yellow Springs Refining Nerve Scripture to Red Cloud.
Now Red Cloud’s Divine Soul was not weak. Nurtured within the Seven Treasures Soul Suppressing Tower, its Divine Soul had already reached the standard of a Yin Soul Ghost Cultivator.
However, because it had no Cultivation Technique, its consciousness could only remain in a muddled, ignorant state.
After Yang Zhenshan taught it the Yellow Springs Refining Nerve Scripture, its consciousness quickly awoke from that chaotic state.
Only, the ghost-cultivating Red Cloud did not possess Red Cloud’s memories; it was like a naïve child—pure and ignorant.
When a person becomes a ghost, although the Divine Soul remains the same, in reality their self-awareness is no longer identical.
After becoming a ghost, it is almost equivalent to becoming a new life.
Most Yin Ghosts, due to their environment, have self-awareness that leans toward brutality and viciousness, while a small portion of Yin Souls will become roaming spirits—namely Divine Generals—whose self-awareness leans toward calmness.
Yang Zhenshan knew that Red Cloud was already dead, but he still couldn’t bear to let Red Cloud leave this world completely.
So he kept Red Cloud’s Divine Soul as Red Cloud’s continuation in this world.
He raised the ghost-cultivating Red Cloud as if raising a child—a child called Red Cloud.
A few days later, in the main hall of the Spiritual Spring courtyard.
A jujube-red horse was floating non-stop around Yang Zhenshan.
It was only palm-sized, its body like a cluster of jujube-red mist, barely maintaining a horse’s shape, though its outline wasn’t very distinct.
The tiny horse frolicked about, flying back and forth around Yang Zhenshan.
It wasn’t like a horse; it was more like a butterfly.
In the hall, Yu Qingyi, Red Cloud, and Qingxia all watched this little thing with curiosity written on their faces.
"Is this Red Cloud?" Yu Qingyi asked.
"It’s not Red Cloud!" Yang Zhenshan extended his palm, and the little thing landed on it with great affection, even letting out a soundless neigh.
"It doesn’t have Red Cloud’s memories, only some of the habits Red Cloud left behind!"
"From now on, it’ll be called Red Soul."
Red Soul was extremely close to Yang Zhenshan and also showed a friendly attitude toward Yu Qingyi and the others.
This was because it possessed the habits Red Cloud had left behind—equine habits, Red Cloud’s habits.
"It’s still very weak right now. Red Cloud, you’ll be the one to look after it from now on!" Yang Zhenshan looked at Red Cloud, a mischievous smile appearing on his face.
Red Cloud reached out to take Red Soul. "Master finally can’t bear not to change its name anymore!"
"Hehe~~" Yang Zhenshan chuckled softly and then looked gently at the tiny Red Soul.
Red Cloud was his partner—the partner who had charged into battle by his side, the partner who had accompanied him for nearly a hundred years.
He really couldn’t bear to part with Red Cloud.
As for the name, having a person and a horse both share one name—Red Cloud had had opinions about that in the past as well. But Yang Zhenshan had first had the horse Red Cloud, and only later met Yu Qingyi.
So even though Red Cloud had opinions, Yang Zhenshan had never changed Red Cloud’s name.
Later, Red Cloud let it go and no longer minded it.