Chapter 113: The Kunshan Mountain Spirit Talisman of the Zhongming Realm

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According to Yan Wu, his people lived in Ming Prefecture, one of the four prefectures of the Southern Frontier.

The region was dominated by endless mountains and ranges, teeming with countless ferocious beasts and venomous creatures. Monsters such as mountain demons and mountain spirits appeared there from time to time as well.

Their ancestral lands lay near Sun Valley, south of Ming Prefecture.

Sun Valley stretched for a hundred li. It was a barren wasteland where no living thing could survive, and earthfire burned there year-round. Ordinary people could not enter it at all.

According to the ancient records of his clan, this place had once been where the Golden Crow had shone upon the earth, leaving all life within ten thousand li devastated.

Later, an ancient immortal arrived carrying a bow and shot the Golden Crow, after which the two vanished without a trace.

Sun Valley itself had come into being at that time. It was said to have been formed from drops of the Golden Crow’s essence-blood.

In later generations, Yan Wu’s ancestors carved that scene into a totem and passed it down through the clan.

They had also imitated the ancient immortal’s divine bow, using a golden feather that had fallen from the Golden Crow to forge a Sunset Divine Bow, which became the clan’s hereditary treasure.

Because their ancestors had received an immense kindness from the ancient immortal and had no idea how to repay it, they simply brought their people to settle near Sun Valley, guarding it from generation to generation.

In recent years, however, strange phenomena had occurred repeatedly within Sun Valley. Fearing that some change had taken place, Yan Wu’s father had taken the Sunset Bow and gone to investigate with five of the clan’s strongest warriors.

To their surprise, they discovered what seemed to be a Golden Crow taking shape within the fiery pool at the heart of Sun Valley, churning the surrounding waves of flame.

Yan Wu’s father had never expected that a Golden Crow would truly exist in that place.

Yet it had only just been born and was still weak. He therefore decided to strike first, using the Sunset Bow to imitate the ancient sage’s feat of shooting down the sun and kill the Golden Crow outright.

What he had not expected was that the arrow would fail to slay the Golden Crow. It merely inflicted severe wounds and tore away several feathers.

When the Golden Crow counterattacked, three of them were burned to ashes on the spot. His father and the other two barely managed to flee back to their ancestral lands, while the Sunset Bow was lost within Sun Valley.

After returning to their homeland, the three survivors were gravely wounded, their vital essence almost completely exhausted.

With no other choice, they had Yan Wu take the Golden Crow’s tail feather away in the hope that he might find an immortal alchemist and exchange it for several spirit pills to keep them alive.

As it happened, the Otherworlder Alliance announced that it was seeking Five-Elemental spirit objects. Yan Wu therefore brought the feather to the fellow cultivators’ grand market in Jin Prefecture to try his luck. By coincidence, Lin You was holding an Alchemical Origin Assembly at the time, and through a twist of fate Yan Wu arrived at Red Pine Mountain first.

After hearing his account, Lin You once again examined the golden feather in his hand. It was indeed an extraordinary treasure. He simply had no idea what the so-called Golden Crow truly was.

After pondering for a moment, he said to Yan Wu, “This poor Daoist currently has no spirit pills on hand. If you are willing to wait a few days, however, that will not be a problem. For this tail feather, I will offer two bottles of spirit pills and three jars of spirit spring water. How does that sound?”

Spirit spring water gathered vital energy and might have miraculous effects in treating injuries.

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Upon hearing this, Yan Wu nodded and agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Daoist Hu Sheng was dead, and Lin You was now the only alchemist he knew. Even if Yan Wu wished to find another alchemist, doing so would be extremely difficult.

Moreover, he had witnessed Lin You’s character and strength with his own eyes. Even if Daoist Hu Sheng could somehow be resurrected, Yan Wu would still choose not to trade with him.

…

After filling several jars with Netherworld Water, Lord Tiger Mountain bid farewell to Lin You and departed, intending to travel to a land of extreme yin to capture a Yin Ganoderma Horse.

The others temporarily settled down at Red Pine Temple.

Before the assembly, Lin You had arranged for the other disciples of the Dao Palace to leave for various places so that they would not be caught up in the aftermath. As for the two elders, Jade Serenity and Jade Embryo, they had received a letter from Elder Jade Virtue and were on their way to Kun Prefecture under the escort of Riverflow Year.

Thus, the vast temple grounds had suddenly become deserted.

Lin You remained in his quiet chamber and began taking stock of what he had gained this time.

At the Alchemical Origin Assembly, the three cultivation manuals that had initially gone unsold were later offered at reduced prices. Lin You had therefore acquired all of them at a cost of three spirit pills each.

From that single exchange gathering, he had obtained no fewer than eleven immortal cultivation manuals.

Besides those, there were four spirit treasures, a fragment suspected to be the remains of a spirit root, several ordinary spirit medicines, and a Yellow Sprout Pill formula.

One of the four spirit treasures had already been drained of its Dao essence by the little tree during the battle just now, becoming a blue-gray Dao seed that hung from one of its branches.

That left three spirit treasures whose Dao essence had yet to be absorbed: a banner, a painting brush, and a small imperial seal.

In addition, Lin You had obtained another spirit treasure—the long spirit sword that had belonged to Ling Xu.

The sword had not been destroyed by the Starfall Tribulation Light, but it had nevertheless suffered considerable damage. Repairing it would likely require a heavy price.

Lin You had no interest in repairing the sword. He directly fed its Dao essence to the Sword Dao seed instead.

After devouring that essence, the Sword Dao seed had indeed matured considerably. It seemed that one more spirit sword of the same kind would be enough.

Naturally, Lin You could also use other forms of Dao essence to ripen the seed, but the loss would be considerable, and the effect would be only half that of essence sharing the same origin. Such a course would inevitably be wasteful.

He first examined the other spirit treasures.

The small banner was called the Rain-Praying Spirit Banner. It contained a Rain Dao seed and could summon clouds and rain. Aside from that, it possessed no particularly remarkable power.

The painting-brush spirit treasure was rather similar to the Golden Silk Jade Shears in Riverflow Year’s possession. It could bring drawings to life, and it could also create illusions that trapped people within a painting.

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The final treasure, however—the imperial seal—caused Lin You to crease his brow.

This seal seemed different from the other spirit treasures. From it, he sensed a divine aura that did not belong to this world.

It also contained a divine register known as the Divine Register of the Mountain God of Kun Mountain in the Central Illumination Realm.

The Central Illumination Realm? Could it be some minor hidden paradise? Curiosity stirred in Lin You’s heart.

The little tree seemed intensely interested in the seal and eager to devour it. After some thought, Lin You decided to feed it to the tree after all.

He also wanted to see what sort of surprises this spirit treasure, which seemed to have come from beyond the heavens, might bring him.

With a thought, the little tree’s roots plunged directly into the seal and swallowed the core of the divine register.

A formidable divine power still seemed to linger within the seal, but without its divine master, that remnant strength could no longer accomplish anything.

In an instant, the imperial seal transformed into flying ash.

After devouring the divine register, the little tree condensed an identical register upon one of its branches. Its aura was exactly the same.

Lin You sank his mind into it, exploring the mysteries hidden within.

He discovered that through the divine register, he seemed able to sense another world. Yet the sensation was indistinct and vague, shrouded in utter chaos.

It appeared that his soul force was simply too weak. Even with the little tree’s assistance, he still could not communicate with another world.

At this realization, Lin You could not help feeling somewhat disappointed.

That feeling, however, was soon cast aside, because he discovered another function of the divine register: the Investiture of Gods.

This Investiture of Gods was nothing like Xuan Shuang’s path of becoming divine through incense and the power of prayer. Instead, the jade-green little tree could directly appoint deities.

The authority and strength of deities appointed by the little tree came entirely from what Lin You bestowed upon them. Their divine rank would not decline merely because the incense sustaining them was cut off.

In theory, the more Dao essence Lin You expended, the stronger the deity he appointed would be. Yet its highest possible rank could never exceed that of the Mountain God of Kun Mountain.

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