Chapter 96 - 93: Evil Qi Body Refining
Chapter 96: Chapter 93: Evil Qi Body Refining
The next morning, Li Yuan pushed open his door to find people already busy in the mining camp.
Three miners were heading toward the mine entrance, carrying their excavation tools. Old Zhou, the processing Cultivator, was squatting under a wooden shed, starting a fire to boil water.
Steward Liu was leaning against a support post of the shed, gnawing on half a piece of dry rations. When he saw Li Yuan emerge, he nodded at him.
Li Yuan walked over and sat down on a nearby wooden stump.
"Those sounds last night, what were they?"
Steward Liu chewed a couple of times and swallowed.
"Demon Beasts from the mountains. Probably a Gray Ridge Flood Dragon Lizard or an Iron-maned Wolf. There are quite a few in these mountains."
"Will they come over here?"
"Not usually." Steward Liu dusted the ration crumbs from his hands. "Demon Beasts aren’t stupid. Cultivators are active here year-round, so they can smell the aura of Spiritual Power. Sure, they might eat a Cultivator, but Demon Beasts fear death too. A single Tier One Middle Grade beast charging in would just get ganged up on and killed by a few people. It’s not worth it for them."
He gestured with his chin toward a mountain pass to the northeast.
"Unless they’ve gone berserk or been driven over by something, they’ll just roar a couple of times from a few miles away. You get used to it and stop paying it any mind."
Li Yuan grunted in acknowledgment.
Just as he spoke, a low BUZZ came from the direction of the Investigation Array.
The cultivator with the surname Lu, who was on duty, poked his head out of a low-slung hut and shouted toward the wooden shed.
"Someone’s approaching. Three Cultivators."
Steward Liu wasn’t nervous. He stood up, took a few steps toward a gap in the earthen wall, and peered outside.
"They’re here to collect the ore."
On the distant gravel path, three people were walking toward the mining camp. The leader was a lean man in his thirties, carrying a bulging storage bag on his back and walking at a brisk pace. Two younger men followed him. One had his left arm in a sling made from a cloth strip, while the other’s robes were torn at the right shoulder, the fabric around the wound stained dark red with blood.
After the three entered the mining camp, the lean man in the lead cupped his hands in a salute to Steward Liu.
"Steward Liu, we’re here for this month’s collection."
Steward Liu glanced at the injuries on the two men behind him and frowned.
"What happened?"
The lean man set the storage bag from his back on the ground and let out a breath.
"We ran into some people from the Li family on the way. Three of them, around the fourth or fifth level of Qi Refining."
He gestured toward the two men behind him.
"We got into a fight. One of them got away, but we drove the other two off. Little Chen’s arm has a broken bone from the impact, and Old Zhao took a Wind Blade to the shoulder."
Steward Liu scoffed. "The Li family’s people have made their way out here?"
The lean man gestured again.
"There was one at the Qi Refining Fourth Level. I hit him square in the chest with a Wind Blade, but it only broke the skin. Didn’t injure him internally. It was like his flesh was wrapped in a layer of iron underneath."
"Body Refining Techniques?" Steward Liu’s gaze shifted.
"Most likely." The lean man nodded. "I’d heard before that some of the Li family’s outer circle cultivated Body Refining Techniques, but I’d never seen it myself. Now that I’ve run into it, they’re really tough to deal with."
Li Yuan listened from the side without interjecting.
Steward Liu and the lean man exchanged a few more words about the road conditions outside the mine. Then, Old Zhou brought out several crates of the month’s quarried ore. The sorted Cyan Wood Stone, Profound Iron Shards, and a small amount of Red Earth Sand were loaded into the storage bag.
After the lean man finished his count, he shouldered the storage bag and left the mining camp with his two injured companions.
After the trio’s figures disappeared at the end of the gravel path, Li Yuan turned and walked toward the mine shaft.
The air deep within the mine was the same as yesterday: dense with Spiritual Qi, with that faint wisp of Evil Qi continuously seeping from the cracks in the rock.
The Gathering Evil Bowl was still in the corner where he had left it yesterday.
Li Yuan crouched down and picked up the bowl.
The Spirit Patterns on the bowl’s surface were a bit dimmer than yesterday. At the bottom rested a very thin layer of grayish-black mist, condensed and unmoving, like half a bowl of undispersed ink.
The amount collected overnight wasn’t much, but it was something.
Li Yuan placed the bowl in his storage bag and retreated into a secluded side tunnel deep within the mine.
The side tunnel ended in a dead wall with no other exit, and there were no signs of mining nearby. The light from the fluorspar didn’t reach this far. The surroundings were pitch-black, with only the Spiritual Qi and Evil Qi seeping from the rock strata flowing slowly through the air.
Li Yuan sat down cross-legged and took out the Gathering Evil Bowl again, placing it in front of him.
With a thought, he unequipped the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill.
Equip Gathering Evil Bowl.
[Evil Qi Body Tempering (White) has been equipped]
The bowl dissolved into a streak of gray light and entered his body.
Immediately after, the layer of Evil Qi that had accumulated in the bowl began to spread throughout his body along his meridians.
It was a dull, oppressive sensation with a corrosive edge, originating from his Dantian and pushing out toward his limbs along the main meridians. Wherever the Evil Qi went, the muscles there tightened slightly, as if being squeezed inward by an invisible hand.
It didn’t hurt, but he could clearly feel the Evil Qi seeping into his muscles and fascia.
Li Yuan didn’t resist, allowing the Evil Qi to flow freely through his body.
The amount of Evil Qi collected in the bowl wasn’t large. The first round of tempering lasted only about a quarter of an hour before it was completely consumed.
Li Yuan moved his arm.
The change in his body wasn’t obvious, but he could feel the muscles beneath his skin were a sliver tighter than before.
’It’s working.’
Li Yuan slowly stopped his cultivation, unequipped the Gathering Evil Bowl, and equipped the Nourishing Essence Skill.
He placed the Gathering Evil Bowl back in the corner of the tunnel to continue collecting Evil Qi.
By the time he left the mine, it was already past noon.
Li Yuan returned to his hut, cleaned his desk, and laid out talisman paper.
He knew the Spirit Pattern for the Fireball Talisman by heart. From initial stroke to laying the pattern, layering, and final convergence—he did it all in one fluid motion.
After reaching mastery, his success rate was consistently over sixty percent, occasionally reaching seventy percent.
He drew twelve in the afternoon and succeeded with eight.
Li Yuan stacked the finished products on the corner of his desk. Looking at the small pile of Talismans, he took stock of his inventory.
He had accumulated quite a few Fireball Talismans, and also had some Cleaning Talismans and Exorcism Talismans. He still had enough materials to make another batch, but his production was increasing. The few people at the mining camp were not nearly enough to buy them all.
’I need to find a place to sell these.’
In the evening, Li Yuan found Steward Liu under the wooden shed.
Steward Liu was squatting on the ground, fiddling with a piece of quarried Cyan Wood Stone. He looked up when he heard Li Yuan’s footsteps.
"Are there any channels for trade around here?" Li Yuan asked.
Steward Liu flipped the Cyan Wood Stone over and thought for a moment.
"There is one."
He stood up and dusted the ore powder from his hands.
"The Loose Cultivators in this area set up a trade meet. It’s not big, just a gathering of Loose Cultivators from the nearby mines and villages. They hold it every so often."
"When is it?"
"The day after tomorrow." Steward Liu held up two fingers. "If you want to go, I can have a word with the people there and recommend you for entry."
He paused, then added another sentence.
"But I have to warn you, that place isn’t necessarily reliable. It’s all Loose Cultivators with no one to vouch for them. Sometimes counterfeit goods show up—adulterated pills, dyed ores, that sort of thing. You have to keep your own eyes open."
Li Yuan nodded.
"Alright, please put in a word for me."
Steward Liu grunted in assent and said no more.
After returning to his hut, Li Yuan continued making talismans.
Talisman paper spread out, Spiritual Ink loaded onto the brush, the tip descended.
He alternated between drawing Fireball Talismans, Cleaning Talismans, and Exorcism Talismans, stacking the finished products one by one on the corner of his desk.
In between, he cultivated. The Spirit-Introducing Skill and the Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill operated in alternation, pushing the Spiritual Power in his Dantian forward little by little.
After nightfall, a few low roars from Demon Beasts echoed again from the distant mountain pass. Just like last night, they were intermittent and came from several miles away.
Li Yuan paid them no mind. He finished drawing the last talisman paper and put away his brush.
Another stack of finished products had been added to the corner of his desk.