I Accumulate Spirit Roots for My Next Life

Chapter 298: Chapter 178: Enemy Attack (2)

Looking up, Master Yan Yan stood with his arms crossed, eyes closed, in front of the protective formation’s core, while Liu Hongling sat cross-legged behind him.

Li Jizhou couldn’t help but smile bitterly; he merely passed by this area, not entering the core of the protective formation.

It clearly showed Master Yan Yan’s prejudice against him.

“I’m going to the front courtyard!” he said flatly, ignoring Master Yan Yan.

“Yan here says, idle persons stop!” Surprisingly, Master Yan Yan’s voice turned cold, and at the same time, the puppet behind him instantly blocked Li Jizhou’s path.

Li Jizhou raised an eyebrow slightly and turned to look at Master Yan Yan, who still stood with arms crossed, squinting his eyes.

“Master Yan Yan!” Seeing the atmosphere turn cold, Liu Hongling behind frowned and called out.

Upon hearing, Master Yan Yan’s face showed a smile, and he turned to Liu Hongling: “Celestial Master Liu, Yan here has promised to ensure your safety. Therefore, I will show no mercy to any suspicious person.”

“Master Yan Yan is dutiful and admirable, making me feel at ease, but Young Master Li is Sister An’s benefactor, there’s no need to be like this,” Liu Hongling spoke to mediate.

Upon hearing this, Master Yan Yan’s eyes narrowed slightly, and his gaze towards Li Jizhou grew colder.

“Hmph!” Finally, with a cold snort, he turned away, with his puppet instantly returning as well.

“Young Master Li, if there’s nothing important, it’s best to minimize movement. There’s a risk of an enemy attack at any time, and no one might be able to ensure your safety then!” Liu Hongling said calmly to Li Jizhou.

“Thank you, Celestial Master Liu.” Li Jizhou nodded and no longer paid them any mind, continuing onward.

Upon reaching the front courtyard, he happened to see An Liuli watering the flowers casually.

“Ji Zhou, sorry, the formation needs to gather Spiritual Qi these two days, has it affected your cultivation?” An Liuli saw Li Jizhou from afar, smiling warmly.

“Fairy Liuli is exaggerating, this just gives me a chance to relax and comprehend nature.” Li Jizhou couldn’t help but admire An Liuli again for her demeanor and actions, as compared to An Ruoxi, An Liuli, as the elder sister, indeed had the makings of accomplishing great things.

“That’s good to hear. This won’t last long, it should be over soon!” An Liuli smiled slightly, exhibiting strong confidence.

This reassured Li Jizhou a lot more.

After some casual conversation, An Liuli remained unhurried, showing no signs of tension typical before a great battle.

That kind of inner tranquility and confidence can’t be faked.

This made Li Jizhou suspect that An Liuli, through her connections within the Cangming Dynasty and with Guzhu City, had a high degree of control over this matter.

After bidding farewell to An Liuli, Li Jizhou felt reassured and returned to his room.

Activating the Tier Three Advanced Level shielding, Li Jizhou finally released Guagua.

Guagua, with its colorful skin and multi-colored pupils coated with gold dust, looked quite unconventional at the moment.

Earlier today, when ambushing True Lord Withered Disc in the wilderness, Li Jizhou had no time for detailed communication with Guagua.

Now, finally, there was some free time.

Before Li Jizhou could speak with Guagua, Bai Yi couldn’t wait and flew out.

As soon as Bai Yi came out, it hopped excitedly to Guagua’s side, swaying its Spirit Fire, showing extreme enthusiasm.

Guagua, however, had matured quite a bit, gently stroking Bai Yi’s head with a paw.

Seeing this, Li Jizhou didn’t rush, giving them time to communicate first.

After a while, Bai Yi finally felt satisfied, jumping onto Guagua’s head, staying still.

That was when it was Li Jizhou’s turn to ask questions.

The general situation had been understood through a Divine Sense communication earlier, and this time Li Jizhou mainly asked about the situation around the Ten Thousand Poison Sect in the northwest direction.

Guagua immediately became indignant, saying that it had been besieged and captured by many cultivators over the years there.

They viewed it as a poison beast.

Moreover, there was a period when, to evade those poison-wielding cultivators, it was constantly on the run, in peril time and again.

It was once even poisoned, barely escaping an explosion to its death.

It wasn’t until it reached the edge of the area that it could finally rest.

However, it also said that it encountered a similar Frog Demon at the edge, which could transform into human form.

It felt the Frog Demon’s aura and bloodline, and it was female, but the other was very dismissive of it.

Scorned as a low-grade demon beast, just an animal, not of the same kind as the Demon Race.

Guagua was very angry but couldn’t defeat her, eventually leaving dejectedly.

“Demon Race!” Looking west, Li Jizhou felt some anticipation in his heart.

Coming to this Profound Celestial Continent for two lifetimes, he had only read about the Demon Race in ancient texts, never seeing them in person!

Guagua also mentioned that besides the first female Frog Demon it met, it encountered another Demon Race with demonic aura but didn’t know its true form, always in human form.

That Demon Race even fed it and taught it a cultivation technique, saying that once it cultivated to a certain level, it could also transform into human form.

Li Jizhou couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow upon hearing this.

According to his observations from ancient records, the demon beasts in this realm are all ancient, desolate beasts that lost their spiritual intelligence, having only basic wisdom, retaining very thin bloodlines compared to ordinary beasts, with an extra share of bloodline and innate Divine Abilities.

In contrast, the Demon Race are ancient beasts that preserved their spiritual intelligence through evolution, with even purer bloodlines, having wisdom akin to humans, born capable of existing in human form among all things.

The Demon Race can exist in human form naturally, but demon beasts can never transform into human form.

Moreover, demon beasts can only evolve through bloodlines and there was never known to be any kind of cultivation method for them.

Driven by curiosity, Li Jizhou asked Guagua to recite the cultivation technique taught by that Demon Race.

After a while, Li Jizhou pondered over the cultivation technique passed down by the Demon Race, feeling a sense of strangeness.

This technique remarkably resembled the body refining method he acquired in his previous life from the Sacred Land of Body Refining in the Central Domain.

“Could it be that the Human Race’s body refining methods were derived from the Demon Race’s cultivation techniques?” Momentarily setting aside this speculation, Li Jizhou encouraged Guagua to cultivate diligently.

Afterwards, once Guagua answered all of Li Jizhou’s questions, it spat out a hundred treasure pouch from its belly.

Upon opening the pouch, Li Jizhou’s face lit up with joy.

The way he looked at Guagua became a hundred times more benevolent.

A full hundred kinds of various precious materials.

Spirit Medicines, Divine Woods, Red Gold, Purple Star Copper…

Almost everything Li Jizhou had taught it before was there.

However, the quality wasn’t very satisfactory, mostly Tier Two, few Tier Three, and almost no Tier Four,

Only that half piece of Qiaoyang Wood, although it was unfortunate, the Tier Four Qiaoyang Wood had been soaked in the swamp’s black water for too long, with its divinity deteriorated, making it difficult to use as Tier Four material.

Overall, for Guagua to even think of bringing things back for him was already very satisfactory.

Li Jizhou was confident that after teaching it to identify more high-tier materials and Spirit Medicines, it would surely yield greater results.

As a reward, Li Jizhou gave it the broken First Grade Spiritual Treasure from True Lord Withered Disc’s storage pouch as a reward.

That Spiritual Treasure was supposedly True Lord Withered Disc’s close-fitting robe, merely a stomach wrap, but severely damaged beyond repair, functional only for a few more uses before its spiritual nature completely dissipated.

Li Jizhou did not expect it to protect Guagua, but intended for its miraculous property of concealing aura.

This would be of great use to Guagua, who often needs to venture into the wild to search for treasures.

“Boom~”

Just as Li Jizhou was categorizing and organizing the materials Guagua brought back, there was a loud noise from outside.

“Enemy attack! Everyone, stay alert!” Immediately, a voice filled with Magical Power reverberated through the area.

Li Jizhou’s Divine Sense immediately burst out from his room’s shielding array, only to see a battle raging outside the courtyard.

Ten people advanced from the east toward the courtyard, ten from the south, ten from the west, and ten from the north.

The leaders of the four teams were all in the Late Stage of Core Formation, with even a hint of peak Magical Power aura.

The others were all in the Middle Stage of Core Formation or higher.

Additionally, high above, someone was watching the battle, presumably the overall commander of this operation, with their Magical Power steadily at the Golden Core Peak!

This made Li Jizhou raise his eyebrows slightly, as the opponents’ numbers and cultivation were evidently superior to An Liuli’s arrangements.

Why had she always been so confident?

Was it a mistake in intelligence, or did she have an ace up her sleeve?

Li Jizhou leaned towards the latter.

Considering this, Li Jizhou remained in his room, merely observing with his Divine Sense.

As anticipated, despite the commotion, no cultivators from the City Lord’s Mansion were drawn in.

Even in this area, a large formation slowly rose, just enough to cover the place, isolating it from external observation.

Guzhu City truly intended to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this.