Chapter 1048: Relations Eased

Chapter 1048: Chapter 1048: Relations Eased

Shen Mo spent five days and finished reading the Instrument Tao manuals within Celestial Feather Sect!

If one wishes to fully avoid revealing traces of existing forging techniques when refining high-class magic artifacts, one must dedicate even more effort.

Originally, he was concerned about the safety of Ming Cang and others, but shortly after returning to the mountain gate of Celestial Feather Sect, he heard that the Battle Hall members had halted their campaign against "Forbidden Area 905", and had stationed some forces in Crying Bamboo Ridge while redeploying most of their elite forces, including the Divine Bridge Immortal Master, to "Forbidden Area 873".

The so-called "Forbidden Area 873", Shen Mo had heard of as well; it is a vast poisonous marsh that surpasses even the Heaven Patrolling Zone, filled with multicolored toxic mists where peculiar creatures fatten themselves on the poisonous miasma and Gu insects. These creatures are known as Ze Wang and are genuine demons; during the cataclysmic changes in the Primordial Realm, forbidden lands of Ze Wang also descended upon the Southern Poison Zone!

However, the Ze Wang clan that fell into the Demonic Realm clearly did not arrive by themselves. It’s highly likely that a Ze Wang habitat in the Immortal Realm or a world in the Lower Realm was enveloped in darkness, just like the outer mountain gate of Red Flame Sect in Shen Mo’s Feather Realm. Within the Demonic Realm, it formed a forbidden zone.

The Ze Wang forbidden zone has existed for over eighty years, and Celestial Feather Realm has campaigned against it over a hundred times, yet till now it hasn’t been thoroughly eradicated!

The strength of the Ze Wang clan within this forbidden zone isn’t considered powerful, as there are only three Class V Ze Wang, and they have managed to survive until now due to several reasons... Firstly, the poisonous marsh is too vast, and the Ze Wang demons are incredibly adept at concealing themselves, making it difficult to find them once they dive into the toxic mist; secondly, the Battle Hall members find it difficult to perform at full strength in such a land covered with poisonous miasma and Gu insects, requiring the consumption of large amounts of Poison Avoiding Pills and talismans; and thirdly, in this Demonic Realm, other forbidden zones occasionally "descend", splitting forces to battle other Outer Zone demons.

Thus, Celestial Feather Sect has attacked and paused intermittently, allowing the Ze Wang forbidden zone to persist to this day, whereas the forbidden zones between "Forbidden Area 873" and "Forbidden Area 905" have all been eradicated!

Besides attacking forbidden zones, Celestial Feather Sect actively targets, refines forbidden lands, and conducts raids and plundering missions in other Withering Realms, yet these Withering Realms likely are not true Withering Realms, possibly resembling places like Zuoli Country facing demonic invasions.

Regardless, it is indeed a great thing that Celestial Feather Sect has ceased the campaign against the disciples of Red Flame Gate.

Soon, a batch of brand-new jade slips was brought into the Sutra Pavilion.

Shen Mo looked through them and found that they contained the manuals documenting the Hundred Arts of Cultivation from the Red Flame Sect. Evidently, Ming Cang and others took his advice and offered relevant techniques in exchange for Celestial Feather Sect’s cessation of hostilities!

"This makes things much easier for me. Even if I inadvertently reveal unique Instrument Tao skills, I have an excuse and can attribute it to these manuals." Shen Mo pondered as he held a jade slip.

Since the disciples of Red Flame Gate were temporarily safe, Shen Mo settled down to continue studying the other manuals apart from Instrument Tao in the Sutra Pavilion.

Honestly speaking, putting aside personal feelings and purely calculating benefits, the Hundred Arts of Cultivation manuals of Celestial Feather Sect are much more valuable compared to the disciples of Ming Cang trapped within the demonic invasion... Whether for Shen Mo personally or for the entire Red Flame Sect, related skills will significantly advance.

Fortunately, right now there is leisure.

Outside the demonic invasion, Shen Mo’s real body continuously inscribed the contents of the Hundred Arts on to blank jade slips. Besides Instrument Tao manuals, he only skimmed through other areas without deep exploration, thus speeding up considerably.

Two months passed again, the disciples of Red Flame Gate had been caught in the demonic invasion for half a year, equating to over three months in external time. During this period, Shen Mo was consistently researching the Instrument Tao skills of Celestial Feather Realm, inscribing other skill manuals, resulting in more than thirteen hundred jade slips being added to the Hundred Arts Hall of the Red Flame Sect.

"Just about done!"

Shen Mo greeted the Elder guarding the Sutra Pavilion, afterward returning to his somewhat simple cultivation mansion.

"Elder Yang, this paper crane message was sent by Elder Qi Fang from Corpse Refining Hall. I dared not view it without permission." Maid Liu Yiyi handed a paper crane to Shen Mo, then hurried off to prepare the meal.

Over five months ago, Liu Yiyi’s service on the bedside was gently refused, but Shen Mo generously helped her refine a Grade III Elixir, and thus her cultivation had now broken through to Layer IV of the Body Tempering Realm. During this period, her attitude subtly changed, occasionally showing a trace of resentment, yet she became even more diligent in her work.

However, in Shen Mo’s eyes, Liu Yiyi also belonged to the "evil creature", regardless of what she was thinking, ultimately she would become a dreamlike illusion, hence he didn’t plan to spend much effort cultivating her but would occasionally reward her with pills when he had extra ones on hand.

After all, the elixirs distributed by Celestial Feather Sect were of little use to him aside from exchanging them for Spirit Stones; rewarding them to Liu Yiyi allowed her to focus on tasks, saving a lot of trouble!

Just like this time when the message from Elder Qi Fang at the Corpse Refining Hall was received by her; in the past six months Shen Mo was either in the Treasure Refining Room or the Sutra Pavilion, while he entrusted the task of fostering Elder Yang’s former connections and probing Celestial Feather Sect’s internal movements almost entirely to Liu Yiyi, whom had been attentive. ℴ

Afterward, Shen Mo unfolded the paper crane and scanned the content using his sense.

Celestial Feather Sect strictly regulates all spiritual item resources; even members at Spirit Sea Realm Elder level do not have high-class transmission talismans, let alone transmission magic treasures. For communication, either sense transmission or low-class talisman paper folded into paper cranes for messaging is used.

"Thunder Corpse Master was invited to Corpse Refining Hall? Seems Ming Cang and others have further gained the trust of Celestial Feather Sect."

Qi Fang was merely a Spirit Sea Realm Elder, naturally uninformed about the identity of the "Outer Zone demon" who entered Corpse Refining Hall. The message merely mentioned that a corpse Tao expert from "Forbidden Area 905" had been invited to Corpse Refining Hall, exchanging insights on corpse Tao with the hall master and other high-ranking figures, thoroughly enjoying the conversation!

From his description, Shen Mo discerned that the one entering Corpse Refining Hall was Thunder Corpse Master, the Ghost Corpse Peak Master from the Red Flame Sect.

This person was originally a Supreme Elder of Ghost Corpse School, which is one of the Four Great Sects in Red Flame Country, mastering the refining and manipulation of Ghouls; Thunder Corpse Master had even unearthed the corpse of a Thunder Body Golden Core cultivator from somewhere, refining it into a Class IV Thunder Corpse, wielding thunder magic that was even more formidable than Lu Ming’s!

Following Shen Mo’s consolidation of the Red Flame Cultivation World into the Red Flame Sect, Thunder Corpse Master became the Ghost Corpse Peak Master as a matter of course. Due to the Thunder Body Ghoul relation, his relationship with Lu Ming is extremely poor, with mutual animosity reaching a precarious level.

More than a hundred years ago, under the protection of the cave paradise and Shen Mo, he successfully erected the Divine Bridge, and even refined the Thunder Body Ghoul to Class V, one of the five Divine Bridge beings caught in the demonic invasion this time.