Chapter 192 - 167: A Bright Future

Chapter 192: Chapter 167: A Bright Future

But he hadn’t expected that accelerating the Concentration Flower’s maturation to two months would still feel a bit too quick.

Li Changsheng shook his head, casting aside the distracting thoughts.

The words were already out. There was no taking them back. It was useless to dwell on it.

He returned to his wooden house.

Li Changsheng sat down on a chair, closed his eyes, and centered his mind.

In a disorienting flash, he opened his eyes to find himself in a chaotic, formless space.

Li Changsheng’s gaze fixed on the largest star. He shifted his consciousness before it and reached out to touch it.

The next moment, two streams of thought and emotion flooded into his mind.

One of them radiated a faint resistance, preventing his consciousness from merging with it.

’Senluo Flower...’

Li Changsheng frowned.

Ever since Xiaohai and its symbiotic Senluo Flower had advanced to the Late-Demon Realm, Xiaohai itself hadn’t changed much. It was just as it had always been, with no impulse to resist his commands, only a stronger yearning for the forests of the outside world.

The Senluo Flower, however, had always been resistant. His Magical Spirit Contract was also damaged, so while he could issue forceful commands, he couldn’t control it with the ease he desired.

Just like now—he couldn’t even immerse himself in its perspective.

A thought flashed through Li Changsheng’s mind, and he immediately relayed the location of the insect swarm in the Ten Thousand Poison Forest to Xiaohai, instructing it to hunt them down and bring them back.

’I asked Ma Rong for the swarm’s location because I coveted the thousands of spirit insects he described. Better to feed them to Little Wooden Head and the Insect Mother than let them go to waste...’

With that, he exited the Spirit Contract Space.

Li Changsheng took out a Second-Order Lower Grade Water Rhythm Spirit Pill, swallowed it, closed his eyes to focus, and began to circulate his Cultivation Technique to refine it.

Over the past few days, by continuously refining Water Rhythm Spirit Pills, his Spiritual Power had already reached the Qi Cultivation Twelfth Layer. He just had to wait for his Spiritual Power to be completely full, polish it for a while longer, and then he could use an Anomalous Spirit Catalyst to break through to the Vein Condensation Realm.

’I wonder if Senior Brother Lan has found a suitable Anomalous Spirit Catalyst for me... and what kind it will be...’ Li Changsheng mused.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, nearly half a year had passed since Lan Cai Shen left the Spiritual Land, but there was still no news.

He wasn’t worried that Lan Cai Shen would break his promise, but after so long, he couldn’t help but feel a little anxious. Besides, there was no guarantee that the Anomalous Spirit Catalyst would even be compatible with him.

And just as he was mulling this over...

「Tens of thousands of miles from the Ring Mountain Spiritual Land.」

In a cold, damp region bordering the Mist Marsh, a field of trampled mud was strewn with corpses and severed limbs, broken swords and shattered blades. A sickening stench permeated the air, attracting all sorts of carrion birds and beasts to circle high above.

But they seemed to fear something, circling in mid-air, refusing to descend.

Outside the Mire Marsh.

Flagpoles bearing different emblems stood tall in all directions. Beneath each banner was a crude military encampment.

It was now Noon.

Inside the camps, large chunks of bloody meat boiled in a dozen or so tripod cauldrons.

Men of all builds—tall and short, fat and thin—gathered around the large cauldrons in silence. Once the meat was cooked, they plunged their hands directly into the boiling pots, snatched out large hunks, and began to devour them.

Once sated, they would grab their battered armor and weapons, find a corner to hole up in, and soon, the sound of snoring would fill the air.

This continued until afternoon.

WHOOOOOM...

A low horn blast echoed out.

The soldiers in the camp hastily donned their armor. With no semblance of formation, they simply gathered in small groups of three to five sworn brothers and marched out.

The reason for this disarray was simple: their leaders were either dead or had taken hefty sums of Silver Coins and returned to the cities to live as lords among men.

The vast majority of them were here because they had seen other soldiers return, turn their lives around overnight, buy new mansions, and take beautiful wives. Green with envy, they had come to trade their own lives for Silver Coins.

Viewed from above.

The soldiers emerging from each camp were different.

Some wore leather armor, carrying steel sabers and wooden shields.

Some wore steel armor, holding Long Spears.

Others had mismatched armor, and their weapons were a motley collection of sabers, spears, swords, and halberds.

When they reached the center of the battlefield, they paid no heed to the dense carpet of corpses underfoot. Their eyes were only on the men surrounding them.

"KILL! KILL! KILL!"

BOOM! Piercing roars erupted. Their eyes turned bloodshot, as if they had lost their sanity, and they charged toward the men on the other side.

SHIIINK...

The instant blades met, dozens of men collapsed. The jarring crimson and the acrid stench of blood drove the survivors into a greater frenzy. They swung their weapons wildly, no longer distinguishing friend from foe.

In the sky, above a thick layer of clouds.

A Glowing White Jade Ship floated silently upon it.

Tan Hu retracted his Technique, and the scarlet glow in his eyes slowly faded. He gazed down at the slaughter, now impossible to stop, and nodded in satisfaction.

Then, his eyes shimmered with spiritual light as he peered downward.

He saw a vast, thousand-meter-wide area of the mire enveloped by a massive net woven from faint golden threads. It looked like a great overturned bowl. Inside, a black-red mist churned and billowed, and within it, one could faintly discern dark, mangled figures drifting about unconsciously.

The spiritual light in Tan Hu’s eyes faded. "Tsk, tsk," he muttered. "To think we actually drew out the baleful qi of an ancient battlefield. If this spiritual catalyst is successfully nurtured, it will undoubtedly be of the absolute highest grade."

’Kill... just keep killing...’

A slow grin spread across Tan Hu’s face. "Carve out a grand future for my Junior Brother Li! Hahaha..."

His unrestrained laughter echoed across the plains, but it failed to attract the attention of the many soldiers fighting below.

But the Cyan Yang Sect disciples monitoring the perimeter heard this wild laughter, and expressions of great joy appeared on their faces.

The happier Tan Hu was, the better they had done their job, and the more generous their rewards would naturally be.

After all, this was not a man known for being stingy.

「Meanwhile, in a country neighboring Nanfeng.」

In the heartland of Qingyuan Country, within a massive mountain hollow.

The piercing sounds of battle echoed endlessly.

Looking down from the sky, inside the massive hollow, troops in different armor fought and killed each other. A rough estimate put the number of combatants at no less than tens of thousands.

Among them, three armies, each about twenty thousand strong, were the most formidable. Amidst the tens of thousands fighting, their formations constantly shifted, like great pythons devouring the surrounding soldiers bite by bite.

Here, human life was cheaper than paper.

And within a vast palace situated atop a dark, gloomy cloud in the sky.

At the head seat sat an old man with an amiable face. Standing beside him were a cold-faced young man and a woman with a smile as radiant as a flower.

Below, a dozen or so luxuriously dressed men and women sat behind their respective tables, their eyes glued to the Square Prism in the center of the hall.

These were the Princes and Princesses of Qingyuan Country, all vying for the throne. They stared at the scene in the prism, some looking nervous and uneasy, some appearing calm, and others with excited expressions.

And in the prism was reflected the scene of the soldiers battling in the valley.

When the soldiers wearing bright white armor imprinted with a hornless dragon beast were completely wiped out.

One of the Princes, about thirty years of age, suddenly paled. He turned his head to look at the head seat, about to say something, but his eyes suddenly went blank.

"Heh..." The woman at the head seat chuckled lightly and waved her hand. "Your soldiers are no more. You should follow them. Go on."

"Yes, I should follow them..."

The Prince responded blankly, then turned and ran out of the palace.

Perhaps it was due to the woman’s twisted sense of humor.

The figure of that Prince actually appeared in the Square Prism.

The many Princes and Princesses watched him run out of the palace, watched him leap from the clouds, watched him struggle in despair in mid-air, and watched him turn into a pile of bloody mush...