The Journey of Immortal Cultivation-Chapter 708 - 398: Quick Money (Additional - )_2

And after being nourished by the Soul Nourishing Wood, the Earth Yin Child can advance to become an Earth Yin Messenger, with their underground travel speed increased by about twenty percent. Do not underestimate this twenty percent; time is money, and information is life. If a valuable business message or a report from the Northern Front can reach its master at a faster speed, then one can make more money or save more lives. Once the function of the Soul Nourishing Wood was discovered, the Heavenly Master no longer had any fate with it. Due to its excessive use and scarcity—it can only be grown at the bottom of deep seas—it quickly became a hot commodity at trade meetings.

Ning Xiaoxian had developed a good habit: Whenever she acquired precious plants, she would bring them to the Fifth Floor for the soil to try. As soon as these pieces of Soul Nourishing Wood were sent over, there was immediate feedback from the soil. It turned out that the other pieces of Soul Nourishing Wood had all died, except for one piece in the very center of the core, which still harbored a sliver of life!

She was so excited she almost jumped up: The Fifth Floor was already home to plenty of great items. However, Spiritual Tea and Jade Paste were not goods that could be exposed to light, and the herbs of hundreds of thousands of years were to be saved for her own use. Until now, the only commercially viable treasures cultivated on that floor were scarce, with only Miao Xiang Flowers and such. In contrast, the cost of cultivating Soul Nourishing Wood was very low, consuming almost none of the soil’s Spiritual Power, with high demand, light weight, and small size, all of which made long-distance transport convenient. For her, currently worried about a source of goods, it was a timely downpour.

Without delay, she carefully dissected the piece of Soul Nourishing Wood, removing its lifeless outer bark, and indeed saw a hint of moisture inside. She picked out the tender core and placed it on the soil. Following that, the wood began to take root and sprout. The appearance of the Soul Nourishing Wood was rather strange—it naturally resembled a tree struck by lightning, its entirety charred black with branches but no leaves. Changtian explained to her that this was because Soul Nourishing Wood only grew in the depths of the sea.

"No photosynthesis needed, so they don’t grow leaves? How peculiar," she thought. Immediately, she instructed the soil to hurry up and produce a batch of Soul Nourishing Wood. In a few days’ time, she would release another demon from the God Demon Prison and send the Soul Nourishing Wood to Pian State Bank as merchandise, entrusting Ning Yu with its sale.

Among Duanmu Yan’s inheritance, another item was particularly noteworthy. It was several faint red crystals, their color so pale as to be almost pink. But upon closer inspection, you could see faint red threads in the midst of the crystals. These threads were probably one-tenth the diameter of human hair, and without the abnormal vision of a Cultivator, one might need a microscope to observe them. Thus, when she casually picked up a piece of crystal to fiddle with, she felt warmth and softness—these crystals were actually soft. "What is this?"

"This is Red Soul," Changtian replied, "It is a crystal refined through an ancient secret technique that extracts Human Life Force. The Red Soul in your hand has probably condensed the Life Force of thousands of people."

Her actions paused: "These are crystals of Life Force? What happens to those from whom Life Force is extracted?"

"Death," he said indifferently, "You have seen Huang Zhong refining Lifespan Extension Pills on Kunlong Mountain; the fate of mortals from whom Life Span is drawn is as such."

If this was a year ago, Ning Xiaoxian would have been repulsed enough to immediately throw away what was in her hand. However, as her experiences grew, she realized that many things were not inherently good or bad, but depended on how they were used. Thus, she still kept her discomfort at bay and lifted the crystal, examining it closely, deep in thought: "This is used to replenish Life Force, right? But why didn’t I see Duanmu Yan use it in the recent battle?"

A flicker of admiration crossed Changtian’s eyes: "Correct. During Ancient Times, Alchemy Dao was not as prosperous as now, so this secret technique was developed to extract others’ Life Force and condense it into crystals, to replenish one’s own loss during battle. However, this thing has to be held in the hand when used, and it takes effect very slowly; it takes about three two-hour periods before it can fully function. The battle before was too fierce, and Duanmu Yan had no time to use it."

He continued, "It is rare to find a body that satisfies a Soul Cultivator like Yin Jiu You; therefore, Duanmu Yan’s body must be carefully maintained as an avatar. Once ’Storm’ is used, it must be followed by replenishing with Blood Essence. I have witnessed a battle in Ancient Times where an entire tribe of Barbarians was defeated. All the captives, around five thousand in number, regardless of gender or age, had their Life Force extracted to refine into Blood Essence. The Life Force of Barbarians is much stronger than that of Humans, so that piece of Blood Essence was so red it almost turned purple, equivalent to the Blood Life of fifty thousand Humans."

"These pieces of Blood Essence in your hand have probably condensed the Life Force of at least tens of thousands of people. Things are right or wrong based on their use; keep these pieces of Blood Essence safely," Changtian instructed her, "Yin Jiu You has his reasons for employing such an ancient secret technique. Blood Essence has a slow effect, but the advantage is that it doesn’t have side effects, unlike elixirs which leave Elixir Poison inside the body after consumption. If you suffer injuries in future battles, you can use it to recover."

She acknowledged with a sound and carefully stored away the several pieces of Blood Essence.

After all this fuss, the battle between Tusk and Demon Skull was also reaching its end. She didn’t know whether Changtian had secretly intervened in the end, but it looked like Demon Skull was losing. The original three feet of Qing edge was now less than half left, lying silently on the ground, dull and no longer emitting redness, while the rest had turned into silver fluid, absorbed by Tusk. Seeing this, she let out a long sigh of relief, having been worried that Tusk might be damaged. Now it seemed that Changtian understood the weapon better; he always believed that Tusk was born to assimilate, and if it couldn’t even absorb Demon Skull, then as she faced increasingly fierce enemies, Tusk would eventually be replaced. (To be continued. If you like this book, please come to QiDian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation ticket, Monthly Ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)