Chapter 177: The Dao Heart Plants a Dragon Demon Body

Looking at their departing backs, Qin Haoxuan also returned to his own room, leaving behind a floor full of envious and jealous disciples of the Spirit Field Valley.

“Aigh, if I had known, I would have gone out catching monkeys every day. It would be great if I could catch a monkey like Little Gold.”

“Keep dreaming. Just for looking at Little Gold, that guy gave away two second-grade spirit stones. You’re not even worth a few of Little Gold’s hairs.”

“Qin Haoxuan is so damn lucky! So lucky! The people from the Gufeng Sect are so rich! With disciples this wealthy, no wonder they can produce Spirit Tree Realm cultivators one after another!”

“Speaking of which, Murong Chao’s luck is really good. I think the Sect Master choosing him out of the two Gray Seeds definitely has something to do with Qin Haoxuan. Think about it, his relationship with Qin Haoxuan is good; they’re de facto allies. But Zhang Yang is all alone; he doesn’t have such a good ally.”

“Makes sense, makes sense!”

After some discussion, these envious and jealous disciples also dispersed. Murong Chao returned to his room. He had to seize the time to cultivate. In nine days, he would “Enter the Mortal World,” and the sect had entrusted him with the great responsibility of being an envoy to the Gufeng Sect. This was an important opportunity to gain more attention from the sect’s higher-ups; he could not let it go to waste. He thought to himself, No matter what, I cannot lose to a weak seed like Qin Haoxuan! You all think the honor of me leading the team is because of him? You are wrong. I will let you all know, and I will let Junior Sister Xu know, that Qin Haoxuan will never be as good as me, never!

Zhang Yang, who had returned to his own room, sat at the window with his chin propped up, gazing in the direction of Qin Haoxuan’s room. His eyes, which glinted with a sharp light from time to time, were venomous and resentful, as if he were plotting some sinister plan.

Qin Haoxuan sat on his bed, casually playing with the two second-grade spirit stones. In front of him were three paper cranes, laid out in a row. He was silently waiting for something.

Before long, Xing arrived.

The moment he came in, he glanced at the two spirit stones in Qin Haoxuan’s hand and swallowed audibly before saying, “The information you wanted me to find out, I’ve found it.”

“Tell me.”

Qin Haoxuan squinted his eyes, looking at Xing with a half-smile, sizing him up and down. Xing had originally wanted to make a gesture of counting spirit stones, but seeing that look, and remembering his stinginess, he dismissed the thought of asking for an information fee. He grumbled to himself, This Qin Haoxuan fellow’s aura is getting stronger and stronger.

But regardless of his thoughts, he still said, “I found out through the uncle of the sworn brother’s younger brother of a cousin of one of Zhang Yang’s die-hard followers. That person is on good terms with one of your Sect Master’s Daoist boys. The news is that these two disciples from the Gufeng Sect have come to your Taichu Sect to pay a formal visit.”

Qin Haoxuan listened for a long time, only to hear a bunch of nonsense. He couldn’t help but interrupt, “Get to the point!”

Xing muttered softly, “You don’t even give me spirit stones, and you want me to get to the point, really… They came to your sect to invite your people to attend a Tree Transformation Banquet hosted by their sect.”

“I know that already!” Qin Haoxuan said. “Get to the point.”

“The Sect Master and the five Hall Masters have decided to have the master of the Summer Cloud Hall, Xia Yunzi, personally lead Murong Chao and a team of disciples who are ‘Entering the Mortal World’ to attend the ceremony,” Xing said, then added irritably, “That’s it!”

Qin Haoxuan nodded slightly. “Once this news spreads, there will surely be many people who want to go to this cultivator’s grand event.”

“I want to go see what a grand event for cultivators is like too,” Xing said with a look of anticipation. He then said to Qin Haoxuan, “Why don’t we find a way to get two spots and go join in the fun?”

Qin Haoxuan shook his head. “It’s more practical to focus on our own training. For a cultivator, improving one’s own cultivation is the most important thing. Besides, if you go to a place like that, aren’t you afraid that some high-level cultivator will see through your identity with a single glance? There will surely be many powerful cultivators at such an event, right?”

Hearing this, Xing nodded repeatedly. “That’s true. It’s better if I don’t join in on such fun, lest I get discovered by some powerful cultivator and killed in an instant. You cultivators are all a cold-blooded and merciless bunch.”

Sensing that Qin Haoxuan’s expression was a bit displeased, he immediately said with great righteousness, “Of course, you are an exception. The moment I saw you, I knew you were a person of great integrity, far from the common crowd…”

Qin Haoxuan raised his hand and rubbed his forehead, speechless. Ever since this Xing had started pretending to be Zhang Yang’s underling, his mouth… the words just flowed out!

Qin Haoxuan touched the Thousand-Mile Talisman he had refined. Its entire body flowed with a brilliant light, and it felt as warm and fragrant as soft jade in his hand, a far cry from ordinary talismans. He was somewhat eager to test its power.

However, in the Spirit Field Valley, it was impossible to find a place with no people. Ye Yiming thought for a moment and said, “Let’s go to the back mountain of Nameless Peak. It’s a desolate place; not even the disciples of our own Nature Hall go there.”

Under Ye Yiming’s guidance, Qin Haoxuan and Xing arrived at the back mountain of Nameless Peak. The place was rarely visited, and even in this thriving spring season, the ground was a stretch of withered yellow, and the tree branches were bare. The cold air was also much more intense than in other places.

“This is indeed a good place to test the Thousand-Mile Talisman,” Qin Haoxuan said, looking around. The terrain was wide and flat. He nodded with satisfaction and took the talisman from his robes. According to The Great Art of Talismans, there was a small space within the talisman that served as its power source, capable of holding one hundred and fifty low-grade spirit stones. Without this energy supply, the talisman could not be activated.

He silently infused the talisman with his spiritual energy, activating the small space. A wine-cup-sized black hole appeared above the talisman, and he poured all one hundred and fifty spirit stones into it. He took a deep breath and, following the method recorded in the art, attempted to activate it. If the talisman was a horse and the stones were fodder, then his spiritual energy was the reins.

After infusing it with his energy, a faint, tranquil azure light appeared on the talisman’s body. A vast spiritual power surged into his body, and he instantly felt lighter. The power was immense, like riding a wild horse completely out of his control. He shot out like a bolt of lightning.

The back mountain of Nameless Peak was very wide, with few obstacles. The nearest one was a man-high rock. At his normal speed, it would have taken him a full incense stick’s worth of time to reach it. But with the Thousand-Mile Talisman, in just ten breaths, he was about to crash into it. He immediately stopped infusing the talisman with energy, but his immense inertia still sent him slamming headfirst into the rock. The rock shattered on impact, and he finally came to a stop. If it had been an ordinary cultivator’s body, the impact would have surely killed him, but Qin Haoxuan was only in pain, not injured.

After climbing up, he looked at the pile of rubble and was secretly dumbfounded. He had guessed the talisman would be fast, but he never expected it to be this fast.

He found an even wider area and started running again. He still felt that the spiritual energy within him was like an untamed horse, running faster and faster, completely beyond his control. As his speed reached a certain point, he could feel an immense wind resistance, like an air wall blocking his path. The feeling of crashing into the air walls was no lighter than hitting an iron plate; it was as if a hundred and eighty iron-clad men were taking turns beating him.

He felt the talisman could go even faster, but the air pressure was already at his limit. If he went any faster, he would be crushed into a meat patty.

How do the disciples of the Heavenly Talisman Sect use these talismans? he wondered. Could it be that they also have a body-tempering cultivation method?

He tried to stop but found that he couldn’t. He was slightly flustered. Just then, the Dao Heart Seed Demon Art he cultivated suddenly began to operate on its own. The way it circulated was different from before; it was following two incantations that he had never been able to comprehend before.

As the art circulated, the spiritual energy in his body was quickly mobilized, seeping from his meridians into his flesh and bones. He could feel his physical body growing stronger. At the same time, he discovered that the wind pressure that had been oppressing him was being absorbed into his body by the circulating art. This air pressure combined with his spiritual energy, forming a special air wall in front of him, like a suit of armor that protected him completely. Crashing into the air walls no longer caused him any pain.

Qin Haoxuan stopped infusing the talisman with spiritual energy. He could feel the protective air wall around him collide with the air, and his steps came to an abrupt halt.

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