“Meng Qi, just how many spiritual materials did you prepare?” Yan Xuan finally couldn’t help but ask.
Meng Qi continued her refining and thought for a moment. Well, how should she describe it? Simply put, even if she were to refine nonstop for three days and nights, she would still have plenty of leftover materials in her storage pouch. You see, before going to the Starfallen Sea, she had already purchased a large batch of spiritual herbs and other ingredients she deemed necessary. After leaving the Starfallen Sea, she restocked a considerable amount.
“I think it’s about two hundred profound-grade spirit stones’ worth of herbs,” Meng Qi estimated after some thought. Nowadays, she did her purchasing with profound-grade spirit stones, and aside from the extremely rare ones, ordinary spiritual materials could be bought in massive abundance with just a single profound-grade spirit stone.
“Uh…” Even Yan Xuan, the young master of Jingyuetian, was stunned by this number. Of course, he had seen that many profound-grade spirit stones before—after all, Jingyuetian was the number one spell cultivation sect in the Three Thousand Worlds. But for Meng Qi, merely a Nascent Soul cultivator, to carry medicinal ingredients worth two hundred profound-grade spirit stones…to put it simply, it was beyond astounding!
“…plus spiritual flowers and fruits, also worth about two hundred profound-grade spirit stones,” and yet, Meng Qi hadn’t finished.
“And two hundred profound-grade spirit stones’ worth of medicinal materials taken from beasts,” she added. These kinds of medicinal materials were usually bodily parts of mutant beasts that could be used to refine medicine.
Yan Xuan: “…”
Qin Xiumo: “…”
Even Ling Ji was also stunned.
All of them came from major sects, and none were medical cultivators. If Xue Chengxuan were here, he would probably have been even more astounded. Even he wouldn’t carry so many spiritual materials on him. It wasn’t a matter of whether he could fit them or not — storage space items used by cultivators, especially the more expensive ones, could hold a great deal. The real issue was that very few people would ever possess that many spirit stones.
Even Xue Chengxuan, the titular leader of the current generation of disciples from the number one medical sect in Three Thousand World, only brought a hundred profound-grade spirit stones to Ten Absolutes Mountain. His father had also prepared a storage pouch for him and his younger sister, filled with some ready-made pills and common spiritual materials, including a few rarer ones, which altogether wouldn’t exceed the value of ten profound-grade spirit stones.
For Meng Qi, a young Nascent Soul cultivator, to have so many profound-grade spirit stones was utterly inconceivable. Qin Xiumo, who spent a lot of time with her, knew Meng Qi must be quite wealthy, but had no idea she could possess so many profound-grade spirit stones.
At this moment, silence engulfed the group. Ling Ji’s sword continued to clash against the city wall’s defensive barrier, and Qin Xiumo’s sword also flew over to assist.
“They won’t be able to do much about this defensive barrier in a short time,” the cultivators on the city wall observed for a while and then burst into cheers. No matter how formidable Ling Ji’s sword was, his current cultivation was capped at the peak of the Spirit Severing stage. Although he could eliminate two of their ranks in the blink of an eye, he still couldn’t break through the city wall’s defense array activated by four cultivators working together.
The cultivators of the Earthly Camp felt slightly relieved. If even Ling Ji couldn’t do it, the others certainly stood no chance. They rallied once again, their natal weapons lined up in a drive, making an impressive spectacle on the city wall.
“Junior Brother Yan,” the Jingyuetian disciple called out, “your group might as well retreat for now. In just over twenty hours, it’ll be your turn to defend, and you should have more of an advantage then.”
No one responded to him; Yan Xuan acted as if he hadn’t heard at all.
“It’s enough,” Yun Qingyan suddenly spoke up.
“Yes,” Meng Qi nodded, just as she sent the last batch of green medicinal liquid into the fog.
“Although there are various paths of cultivation—sword cultivators, spell cultivators, medical cultivators, array cultivators…” Yun Qingyan began, “Ultimately, they all rely on aura.” He opened his palm, revealing a small spirit stone lying quietly there.
Although the stone was small, it shone brilliantly, with a crystal-clear appearance, and looked exquisitely beautiful. Yan Xuan and the others were drawn to it, glancing inadvertently. Then they all froze. Was this… a heaven-grade spirit stone?!
Heaven-grade spirit stones were the highest known level of spirit stones. A thousand profound-grade spirit stones could be exchanged for one earth-grade spirit stone and a thousand earth-grade spirit stones for one heaven-grade spirit stone. Even the leading figures from major sects didn’t see that much sum often. Such a heaven-grade spirit stone was roughly equivalent to the combined wealth of many sects.
And…
The rest of the group looked at Yun Qingyan and then at Meng Qi. Why did it seem like the two were… having a lecture?! Yun Qingyan had mentioned before that he had personally taught Meng Qi, but no one had really considered how he taught her. Until just now, they heard Yun Qingyan, after only a glance, thoroughly analyze the city wall’s defense array and even explain it to Meng Qi.
Qin Xiumo and Yan Xuan, not being array cultivators, couldn’t understand the technical details. However, Meng Qi was thoroughly engrossed in Yun Qingyan’s explanation, nodding from time to time and even asking a few questions.
One explaining and the other listening. Then Meng Qi began refining something, while Yun Qingyan signaled everyone to slow down their attacks. He told them not to break through the city wall’s defensive array just yet, letting Meng Qi try her hand first.
Qin Xiumo naturally had no objections. Ling Ji was unlikely to oppose either. Yan Xuan was curious, but he also wouldn’t object. They were all aware of the movement on the city wall. The defenders, unaware of the situation below, thought that the array had stopped Ling Ji, but in reality, they had just paused, waiting for Meng Qi to make her move.
Moreover, from the beginning to the end, the master of arrays, Yun Qingyan, hadn’t made a move yet.
“This city wall’s defensive array requires four people to activate it,” Yun Qingyan continued. “The flow of aura is continuous and naturally integrates with the array, and cannot be interrupted for even a moment. Poison can attack cultivators through their blood and meridians, and similarly, it can follow the flow of spiritual aura.”
“I understand,” Meng Qi nodded like an obedient student, then immediately asked, “What if they don’t activate the array with cultivators but use spirit stones instead?”
“Hmm,” Yun Qingyan nodded, praising her, “Good question. If that’s the case, it would be more troublesome.”
“…but they won’t,” Qin Xiumo suddenly said.
“Right! They won’t use spirit stones to activate such a large-scale array,” Yan Xuan added.
“Huh?” Meng Qi looked at them, puzzled.
“Such a large array requires four Spirit Severing cultivators to continuously supply aura. If they were to use spirit stones instead, it would require four profound-grade spirit stones, and the duration they could maintain it wouldn’t be very long,” Ling Ji explained. Duankong Sect was known for its sword arrays, and apart from Yun Qingyan and Meng Qi, he was probably the only person here with some knowledge about arrays.
“Correct.” Yan Xuan nodded, “I don’t think they can afford the consumption rate with spirit stones.”
Meng Qi looked at Yan Xuan and nodded, “I see.” She now was quite wealthy, but she still remembered the days when she couldn’t afford a single plant of jackdaw grass, which cost merely twenty eighth-grade spirit stones.
“So, they must be relying on people to supply aura, not spirit stones. Otherwise, they would have consumed more than a dozen profound-grade spirit stones by now.” Yan Xuan added.
“Right,” Meng Qi nodded. No longer hesitated, she waved her hand. The Five Spirits Cauldron emitted a muffled sound as it completely merged into the dark green fog. “Make your move!” Meng Qi signaled Yan Xuan.
The mass of dark green fog beneath the crescent moon had been stationary for too long. It had almost not moved since it appeared. Initially, the cultivators on the city wall paid some attention to the fog, but gradually they shifted their focus to the sword attacks. However, the color of the fog was so deep that once it moved, everyone immediately took notice.
“It’s moving!”
“The fog is moving!”
“What’s it going to do?! If even Ling Ji couldn’t break through the aura, does Yan Xuan have a way?!”
“Don’t you think that color looks a bit eerie? Could there be something more with it?”
“Is this also Jingyuetian’s spell?”
While the cultivators were keeping an eye on Ling Ji and Qin Xiumo’s swords, they were also paying attention to the mass of green fog.
“Hahaha, look at that!” Suddenly, one of the cultivators pointed ahead and shouted. Everyone looked in the direction and saw the mass of green fog settling softly against the barrier created by the array, completely blocked from entering.
The barrier’s completely impenetrable! The defenders silently rejoiced.
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