Chapter 769 - 544: Gains and Rewards

Chapter 769: Chapter 544: Gains and Rewards

Summer night, the starry river stretched across the sky, Wangshu hung high, its brilliant radiance dazzling to the eyes.

On Minglong Mountain, lights were ablaze and voices rose and fell, transforming the once quiet Immortal Mountain into a bustling construction site. All kinds of talismans and magic technique lights flickered continuously, escape light and magical artifacts shuttled through the air, and even the Void-Soaring and Distant-Guarding Divine Ship temporarily served as a transport vessel, conveying large piles of materials and debris between the mountain’s peaks.

Everyone was striving to give their best effort for the Yunshan Sect’s Pill Formation Ceremony, racing to complete their assigned tasks, and striving to present the best face of the mountain gate to the forthcoming guests.

In the Sect Leader’s courtyard, Lu Qian sat shoulder to shoulder with Jiang Qingfeng, browsing through the spoils from Lanshan Island and the rewards conferred by the Miaomiao Profound Monarch of the Xuanwei Sect.

With Minglong Mountain under heavy construction, there was no room for leisure, so Lu Qian had sent Hai Shuangyao to Nocturnal City, where she would enjoy playing for a few days before directly attending the Pill Formation Ceremony on Minglong Mountain.

To ensure good companionship, Lu Qian naturally dispatched his general, Jiang Baitao.

Baitao’s injuries were mild and not a concern. Upon seeing Hai Shuangyao, she was overjoyed, never expecting to meet this congenial Golden Core Master again after twenty years, even in such a vast world.

For Hai Shuangyao, it felt as though she had been sealed in an Ice Coffin and meditated for twenty years, with no real concept of time, as if she hadn’t seen her for just a month, and Jiang Baitao had already succeeded in Foundation Establishment; she too was pleasantly surprised.

"Wow! This is a cat transformed by the Star Spirit! Your Dao Pattern is so amusing."

She laughed and teased Beiluo Shimen for a while and then shared some secretive talks with Jiang Baitao. The two Fairies who could connect so well, holding hands and chatting enthusiastically, ran off together.

Watching them from behind, Lu Qian suddenly felt a bit sentimental.

Baitao maintained the appearance of a twenty-year-old, while Hai Shuangyao seemed akin to a young girl in her early teens. But neither Baitao nor Hai Shuangyao were actually young maidens anymore.

Jiang Baitao was born in the year 357 Jia Shen and is now forty-nine years old. Meanwhile, Master Hanmu, Hai Shuangyao is over two hundred and thirty years old.

Yet nearing the end of their lifespan, time barely leaves a trace on the cultivators. Cultivators often decide their appearance according to their mindset.

Even Lu Qian himself, though soon to be sixty-four in a few months, still maintained the vigor of a youth not yet thirty.

Perpetual appearance, eternal youth, abundant energy, immunity to disease—perhaps one of the many reasons why the cultivation path is so perilous yet incredibly alluring.

Now, as Lu Qian browsed the list, he allocated a bit of attention to the golden branches within his dantian.

His small courtyard was adjacent to the Spirit Vein, and opening the window revealed the head-sized Spirit Vein Treasure Pearl, glowing with dazzling light wrapped in thick spiritual mist.

When he stepped into the long-missed courtyard, or rather, approached the Spirit Vein of Minglong Mountain, the golden branch trembled slightly, conveying a hint of urgency and desire.

Lu Qian was overjoyed; this most likely indicated that the phenomenon wasn’t unique to the Spirit Vein on Lanshan Island. The golden branch might exhibit the same mysterious change near other Spirit Veins!

However, Minglong Mountain is the Yunshan Sect’s mountain gate, and this third-level high-tier Spirit Vein holds great significance. It’s not a place for experimentation and can only be temporarily suppressed until after the Pill Formation Ceremony, then secretly explore the Spirit Vein further.

Thus, Lu Qian directed a thread of divine sense to soothe the golden branch’s restlessness, his gaze then swept over a short list.

The gains from Lanshan Island were rather pitiful. With the Pearl Spirit ransacking from top to bottom, only about a hundred Spirit Crystals were found. Without other resources, the cost of the Cloud-Stepping Flowing Clouds Chariot would barely be covered.

Other Pill Talisman Artifacts and the like were hardly noteworthy; it can only be said that they were better than a Foundation Establishment Sect, somewhat more advanced.

The larger gain was the acquisition of a set of Golden Core level Ten Extremes Ten Directions Grand Array Base and Array Map.

Lu Qian is now a genuine Golden Core Array Cultivator. During his late-stage Foundation Establishment, he could manipulate Golden Core Level array transformations using the power of Consciousness Collection and personally laid down the Five Elements Grand Array as the Mountain Protection Array on Minglong Mountain.

Years of practice, combined with his insights into the Five Elements Dao, had reached an extremely profound level under the impetus of the Immortal Technique: Great Dao Dream Butterfly Celestial Book. The transformations of the Five Elements Grand Array have achieved perfection, and it’s time to cultivate other arrays as well.

In the Profound Monarch’s Collection, apart from Five Elements, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Eight Trigrams, and Ten Extremes, there are also the Nine Luminaries Star God Array, Twelve Heavenly Sumeru Grand Array, Eighteen Spirit Generals Soul Capturing Array, Thirty-Three Layers of Heaven Punishment Array, among others.

The essence of arrays is complete, and with Lu Qian’s robust Consciousness Collection, cultivating other arrays was a matter of progressing by leaps and bounds.

So, this set of Golden Core level Ten Extremes Ten Directions Grand Array is no longer a rarity.

Yet, its value remains considerable. To support Golden Core level array transformations, the Array Base and Array Map must be of at least the Spiritual Artifact Level. An empty Mid-Tier Spiritual Artifact Level Array Base and Array Map costs around fifty to sixty thousand Spirit Stones, with the high-tier level being over one hundred thousand.

And to commission an Array Cultivator to inscribe Golden Core Level array transformations would cost over one hundred thousand Spirit Stones; this is at a friendship price.