Chapter 399 - 259: Spirit Clam’s Breakthrough, Crystal Scorpion Demon Blood
Chapter 399: Chapter 259: Spirit Clam’s Breakthrough, Crystal Scorpion Demon Blood
To his surprise, he couldn’t see through the old Taoist’s true Cultivation...
Lin Changheng felt a surge of relief. ’Good thing I didn’t try anything. If we had fought, that old Taoist would have been a formidable opponent.’
But then he recalled the old Taoist’s earlier words: "West..."
At the far western edge of the Bixiao Sect’s territory was the Floating Immortal City.
’Could a Demon Cultivator have hidden in the Immortal City?’
Lin Changheng stroked his chin and began to ponder.
Suddenly, he remembered something else that had occurred around the same time as the slaughter of the Demon Cultivators...
It was his new neighbor from back at the Outer Lake Cave Mansion. The man had been a recluse who never stepped outside, yet Lin Changheng had spotted him leaving quietly in the dead of night on one occasion. He had also moved in around the same time as the incident.
’It can’t be, can it? What a coincidence.’
The timing lined up, and the neighbor’s behavior had been strange. It was hard for Lin Changheng not to connect the dots.
This confirmed that he’d been right not to follow rashly that night. Among that group of Demon Cultivators, a Fake Core Demon Cultivator was still alive.
And back then, with ten fewer years of accumulated power, he would have been no match for a Fake Core Cultivator.
’Forget it.’
Lin Changheng immediately abandoned any thought of snatching the Vajra Bodhi Wood.
He also felt that his decision to move had been the right one, and his timing had been perfect.
Otherwise, with such a mysterious person—or rather, a Demon Cultivator—hiding nearby, it was only a matter of time before disaster struck.
Getting swept up in that vortex would be a disaster.
...
「Early the next morning.」
Lin Changheng found a shop that bought used goods, planning to complete his transaction and leave immediately.
At the very least, he wouldn’t be back for a while.
After some haggling, he finally sold the Low Grade Spiritual Artifacts obtained from the Qiu Family Ancestor and the Three Cultivators near Jade Belt Lake for a barely acceptable sixty-five percent of their value.
There were five artifacts in total, netting him a little over twenty-three thousand Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
As Lin Changheng walked out of the shop, he recalled the Shopkeeper’s dazed expression.
’The man looked like he was about to pass out from sheer joy...’
He then flew directly out of the Marketplace.
He wouldn’t have minded if the shop had ill intentions, sending a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to rob him of the Spirit Stones. It would just give him another opportunity to profit.
Unfortunately for him, there was no tail.
In reality, the Shopkeeper had initially harbored such a plan, but the array of Spiritual Artifacts before him, glittering with Spiritual Light, had served as a reminder.
’This man is likely a killer.’
’No sense in getting myself killed.’
And so, he suppressed his wicked thoughts.
...
Over the next few days, Lin Changheng consulted his map of the Bixiao Sect region and visited two more secondhand shops.
He sold off a few Middle Grade Spiritual Artifacts he no longer needed, then flew back toward Jade Belt Lake, satisfied.
He held onto the Tier Two Upper Grade Ghost Head Saber Spiritual Artifact for the time being. He figured bartering it for something else in the future would be more valuable than simply selling it for Spirit Stones.
He also kept the Lower Grade Jade Bracelet Spiritual Artifact, leaving it in his Storage Bag.
A glance inside his Storage Bag revealed that he now had considerably more Spirit Stones than when he had first set out.
His haul of resources was bountiful.
...
「More than half a year later.」
Lin Changheng was ninety-six years old.
Moonrest Island seemed exceptionally quiet.
A tense, anxious energy hung in the air.
The source of this tension was not the waters surrounding the island, but the Inner Lake on Moonrest Island itself.
Right now, the waters of the Inner Lake were in turmoil.
The lake water churned violently, as if boiling. Huge bubbles gurgled to the surface. A mixture of pure Water Spiritual Qi and an ever-intensifying Demon Qi erupted from the lakebed like a tidal wave, forming visible Spiritual Qi Vortexes on the surface.
At the center of the vortexes, a massive, shadowy form radiating a hazy white light could be seen faintly, slowly ascending.
Lin Changheng had already activated the island’s Arrays to their full power. The clouds of the Flowing Clouds Covering Moon Formation were so thick they were nearly impossible to disperse. The Jade Wave Sea Curtain Array, meanwhile, had drawn upon the surrounding lake to create a heavy wall of water, completely sealing the island off from outside presences and prying eyes.
Yan Mingyi stood in a pavilion far from the water’s edge, gazing nervously at the churning waters as she unconsciously twisted the corners of her robes.
She knew this was the moment: Xiaobai was attempting to break through the bottleneck to become a Tier Two Middle Stage Spirit Beast!
If successful, the Spirit Clam’s power would surge, and the Talent Ability it had been cultivating would also transform.
However, a Spirit Beast’s breakthrough was incredibly dangerous for the beast itself. It also caused violent fluctuations in the surrounding nature’s spiritual energy and Demon Qi, easily attracting the greedy attention of other powerful Demon Beasts or Cultivators.
With Lin Changheng personally overseeing things from within the Array, the latter threat was of little concern. But as for breaking through the Realm, Xiaobai was on its own.
But Lin Changheng had also prepared a Realm-Breaking Medicinal Powder to give it a boost.
Tidal Water Element Powder!
...
A deep, muffled RUMBLE echoed from the bottom of the lake, as if something had exploded.
Immediately after, a thick pillar of white light, so condensed it seemed solid, erupted from the center of the vortex. It pierced through the water and shot straight into the sky!
Beneath the pillar of light, the shadow of a giant clam with its shell wide open flashed for an instant before vanishing!
An incredibly pure mixture of Demon Qi and Spiritual Qi exploded outward, sending violent ripples through the ambient Spiritual Qi and the lake itself!
’Is it going to succeed?’ Yan Mingyi’s heart leaped into her throat.
Having spent decades with the Deep Lake Spirit Clam, she was naturally worried.
By now, Lin Changheng’s formidable Divine Sense had long since enveloped the Inner Lake like an invisible web. Every minute change in the Spirit Clam on the lakebed was reflected clearly in his Heart Mirror.
Sensing that Xiaobai’s Demonic Power had reached its peak but that its push to break the bottleneck, while steady, was starting to falter, Lin Changheng made his move.