Ch152 Demon Loot

The destroyed patch of forest becomes much more quiet all of a sudden.

There are faint noises of crackling azure lightning left behind in dense dirt, leftover wisps of blood demon vibrations from my dagger’s release stirring up loose rocks, and flickering yellow flames burning away fallen trees.

I walk forward to the patch of blood mist where the last demon tried to ambush me and pick up his low-grade tier 2 storage ring, along with the clear crystal dagger.

I re-imprint the unique weapon and find it doesn’t allow me to absorb any energy from the most recent kill.

There must be some condition that needs to be met, killing a target while the dagger is still bound. It settles back into my sea of consciousness, and I swallow a heavenly-grade healing elixir to be safe.

No bones are broken, nor is my soul or physique strained too badly, but being in the presence of foundational auras for moments in between defensive talismans still does a toll on my meridians and physical body.

The soreness and fatigue begin to heal on their own as I walk over to Lan Xin’s side of the chaotic battle.

She’s picking up the long bamboo staff from the illusory demon’s dead body, but white mist floods out of it, leaving it to be only a slightly fractured low grade tier 2 staff made from a mixture of soul metal and dark black iron.

She twirls it around a few times but lets out a dissatisfied sigh.

When I get close enough, she tosses it my way. “Payback for breaking your daggers…”

I catch the staff and nod, twirling it around myself a few times before stowing it away beside the heavy silver club I looted earlier.

She bends down to pull the ring off what’s left of the charred old demon’s finger, then looks over her shoulders a few times, wincing in pain from the bruises and small soul fractures she received during this battle.

I reflexively do the same, scoping out the torn-up wilderness to try and sense if any more illusory demons are nearby.

However, that last 3rd-level foundation establishment demon was practiced enough to even hide his aura from my senses. There wasn’t even a single stir in my inferior version of the illusory demon’s concealment art that could pick up on his perfected physique.

I walk closer and put out a hand. “Come on, we’ll go to my hidden realm to heal. I have no idea if there are any more following us…”

–

Both of us sit in the center of the five-element cultivation array for over an hour.

I toss Lan Xin a heavenly grade healing elixir, it is more than enough to heal her physical injuries.

Meimei leisurely trots over to help mend her strained soul, but it doesn’t take long.

This battle was stressful and extremely fast, but it was far from life threatening. Neither of us were pushed to our limits or injured too badly.

I’m far more focused on the two spatial rings I got off these illusory demons’ bodies.

The first one, belonging to the demon I killed with azure lightning, breaks open in less than 15 minutes.

After my practice from the wedding, and now with a far stronger soul and an extra level of qi cultivation, breaking the imprint on this ring is not as physically taxing.

Inside, I’m met with a far more interesting collection of items than I thought I would.

A dense black booklet with a white pattern on its cover, labeled Illusory Demon Physique, is the first item I see.

Beside it, there is a massive pile of soul metal shards, but these aren’t too rare. They don’t draw my attention as much as the large chunk of white jade that takes up most of the space in this ring.

It is extremely hot, filled with fragmented soul wisps, all compacted and held together by the pressure of an illusory demon.

The chunk of jade is a similar size and energy density to the blood jade still in my storage I looted off the Jiang Family, but the auras are completely different.

There’s a much smaller white and grey talisman by this jade, labeled Soul Explosion on its front side.

I recall Lan Xin being hit by a blast of pure white and grey energy mid-battle and understand that this demon never got its chance to use its trump card on me.

At the bottom of this first ring, there is a pile of spirit stones stacking over 100,000 and a smaller pile of foundational crystals stacking up to 90 pristine white shards.

It is a massive amount of wealth, more than even the patriarchs of the Mu or Wang Family would keep on them at once.

The final interesting thing I see is a small copper coin. It feels even more dense with qi than a foundational crystal, and has the same characters for the Ye Clan printed on its front and back.

The coin is impossible to imprint, and my spiritual senses don’t push all the way to its center.

I stow it away into my storage with a shrug, and don’t bother sifting through the miscellaneous common low, mid, and high grade tier 1 pills and talismans inside.

Instead, I focus on cracking open the second ring.

It has nearly identical contents inside; over a hundred thousand spirit stones, and 132 foundational crystals, random common tier 1 goods, used-up soul metal, an equally massive chunk of illusory soul jade, an illusory demon booklet, and two bright unused low-grade tier 2 soul explosion talismans.

My attention lands on over 50 pristine silver needles stacked together next.

There is a single thin rectangular piece of light green aged jade beside them, with a marking on its front reading: Advanced Meridian and Acupoint Alignment Chart.

It glows with a pure aura of white qi, reminding me of some of the higher-quality techniques of transferring information back at the Quest Hall in the sect. Instead of booklets, sometimes to share a more concise idea that cannot be misinterpreted, jade slips like this are used.

This one in particular looks fragile, like it can only be activated once more before it might crumble to pieces.

Lastly, an almost identical copper coin with the Ye Clan’s characters on its front and back is left inside.

I turn my head when I hear Lan Xin whispering “Not bad, almost a hundred foundational crystals…” to herself.

She has a tier 2 ring in her hand now too.

All of her minor soul bruises from that staff are healed. Meimei has nuzzled up to me, using this time to refine the energy she’s gained with the feedback from my cultivation technique.

Lan Xin stows away the ring but lifts a third small copper coin in between us.

“The Ye Clan…” she mutters.

I take it from her hand and pull out the two I found.

The mental catalog of minor foundational clans she’s told me about doing business with these past few weeks come to mind, but I don’t recall her ever mentioning this name.”

“You’ve heard of them before? Who are they?”

Her heart beat rises before she even answers, “They’re one of the big three clans in the Hidden Mist County… Right beside the Sun and Han Clans.”

I try to recall any faces or system scans from the wedding, and even some late stage qi refiners from the beast mastery peak, but none of them come to mind with the Ye surname.

Lan Xin sees my confusion and replies, “The master of the Combat Peak… He’s an elder of their Ye Branch Clan, they control a massive stronghold referred to as Copper City further east, closer to the Spirit Herb and Array Formation Outer Sect Peaks.”

“So they’re a late stage foundational clan? Like the Jiang Family was hoping to become?”

Her eyes dart around, then she stands up to start pacing and thinking outloud, “No. The Jiang Clan didn’t have anywhere near their power. The Ye Clan doesn't bother sending their young to be stewards or common outer sect disciples, they just pay their tribute penalties in spirit stones. They only send cultivators to the sect to fill named disciple positions or even peak elders from their older generations. They’re far more influential than any Mu or Wang, or Jiang Clan combined who only hold power in a small place like Lingshi City.”

Distress starts to twist about in her soul as she continues, “We just killed three of their elders… What did they want with us? What could we have done to get on the Ye Clan’s bad side? Should we even return to the sect? What if they’re against us too?”

I tighten my gaze with skepticism and stand to my feet too.

Meimei senses the tension and hops back to her metal portion of the array.

“Tell me more about them. How could they be such a respected clan allied to the Azure cloud Sect when three of their elders were Illusory Demons?”

Lan Xin shakes her head, “No… no. The Ye family isn't a demonic clan, I’ve never heard reports of them practicing this technique. That is why none of this makes sense. They own the rights to a few large scale tier 2 mines around the outer sect, each run by a branch family in this county that have grown wealth for centuries. They have deep ties reaching into the Inner Sect. I even saw some of these disciples at the spirit herb auction last week.”

I think for a while, then pose another question, “You said they’re part of this Big three? Where do the Lin and Wei Clans stack up against them? Why didn;t you include them in this ranking?”

Lan Xin looks at me again, with a slightly strained expression, “I don’t know much about the capital… but I do know that is where the Lin and Wei Clan’s hold influence over this entire Prefecture. They could carry on even if the Azure Cloud Sect fell. The Ye Clan is far more reliant on the Sect as their only claims of resources lie in the hidden mist.”

I recall the system scanned secrets all these demons had, and slowly piece more of this conundrum together.

It must be tied to whatever the Jiang family was planning with the Blood Sword Sect. This major Clan wishes to grow more, and must be receiving orders from a similar backing.

“I think I get it… They were only after me. If they wanted to target you directly, they could have done so way sooner. This is about what happened at the wedding. The Ye Clan had an interest in the Jiang Clan’s success. Luckily, they did not care about any of the elders you killed. They’re only concerned with the one I did.”

Lan Xin stops, “Why…? How’d they find out? Do you think the Mu or Wang Patriarchs told them?

“I doubt it. They also didn't want me dead… They wanted to paralyze me like they did to you, and soul search us to find something.”

There’s over a minute of silence that follows.

I think about what they could be after.

Maybe it is the crystal dagger Jiang Duo left behind, or possibly some cultivators witnessed my golden sword slaughter formation from afar and this is what they’re after.

It could be something else entirely, so I don’t voice any of these thoughts.

Neither of us know why exactly they attacked, nor do we know if there are other demons outside waiting to finish the job.

We begin to strategize what to do next.

Lan Xin maps out how far away from the sect and Lingshi City we are.

It would take up to a week on foot to travel. If we wanted to go extremely fast, Lan Xin would be capable of using a flying sword, but only in short spurts a kilometer or two at a time. Overall, it would not be much faster.

I charge up my Azure Lightning Attack Talisman, Perception-Expanding Jade, and my Emerald Swallow in the meantime.

The little green bird is a safe bet. I could send it back to Lingshi City to Wang Ruze or Mu Zhiheng to ask for transportation; however, neither of them would stand a chance against one of these Illusory Demons if they were ambushed. Their only capable foundational force, Wang Yang, is essential to keeping order in the city. He cannot leave while the Mu Patriarch is away.

Contacting them now would be pointless.

I quickly come to the next best option, one that will be a bit more risky, but it may also open up new opportunities for me.

A thick communication talisman falls from my storage into my hand, the one leading straight to Kang Yelang, our vice peak master.

“If he really wants to become a closer ally, I might as well give him a chance. I’m going to get the Azure Cloud Sect involved.”