Volume 1, Chapter 234 – Demonic Qi

The silent chambers inside the Battle Merit Hall looked no more than about a zhang wide from the outside, but within they contained a world of their own, stretching over ten zhang in both length and width, like a side hall.

The moment Shi Lan entered the chamber, she saw an enormous halberd suspended in midair.

The halberd was three zhang four chi long. Its shaft was entirely black, faintly wound with embossed patterns of mountains, rivers, and earth. Its blade was a deep crimson, like blood, wrapped in a layer of flowing light, as though fresh blood were slowly running across it. A bloody aura of slaughter rushed straight at her.

Shi Lan’s mind tightened slightly. This Tianhuang Halberd had surely drunk the blood of many powerful beings, or else that bloody aura could not possess such force.

Not far from the Tianhuang Halberd stood a wooden rack. On it were several dozen jade bottles, as well as a blue-green jade slip.

The final return for several million battle merits lay there in a single glance.

Shi Lan walked to the rack, picked up the jade slip, and focused her mind on sensing it.

One passage after another, detailing the circulation routes for moving blood and qi and consolidating one’s foundation, poured into her mind.

After a while, the jade slip in Shi Lan’s hand shattered. The Nine Spirits Foundation-Casting Art had already been branded deep into her mind.

Shi Lan slowly opened her eyes, astonishment filling them. The profundity of the Nine Spirits Foundation-Casting Art had exceeded her expectations.

In the Vast Land of Shenzhou, the classification of cultivation aptitude had never been particularly clear. Even certain major powers only possessed methods to estimate it roughly.

Humans were different from the demon and devil races. For demons and devils, the iron rule for judging talent was the purity of their bloodline. But differences in human talent did not stem from bloodline alone.

What the Demon-Suppressing Army used was a stone slab refined from spirit-sensing stone. This was the most accurate method currently known in the Lingyang Realm.

When spirit-sensing stone came into contact with a person, it would emit lights of different colors according to the quality of that person’s aptitude. After refinement, this perception became even sharper.

However, spirit-sensing stone also had its drawbacks. First, its accuracy was unstable, and there was always a chance of error. Second, the more people it was used to test, the duller its sensitivity became, until eventually it failed altogether.

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Moreover, spirit-sensing stone was extremely rare. Aside from the Imperial Court, few forces were willing to use such an expensive consumable.

Besides, it was hardly uncommon for those of poor aptitude to soar to the heavens through fortunate opportunities.

Thus, in the Vast Land of Shenzhou, there had never been a fixed, explicit ranking of human aptitudes.

In the Vast Land of Shenzhou, the most intuitive way to perceive a person’s aptitude was only through cultivation speed.

In the Body Tempering Realm, one was merely tempering flesh and bone. As long as one was willing to work hard and exert ten or a hundred times the effort of others, the gap in talent could still be narrowed.

But the Innate Realm was entirely different. For those of mediocre aptitude, even cultivating without pause for all twelve double-hours might not increase their true qi as much as a talented person could by circulating a cultivation method for just a few cycles.

Some things simply could not be achieved through willpower alone.

Yet this Nine Spirits Foundation-Casting Art sought an entirely different path. At the moment a martial artist entered the Innate Realm, it used the blood of powerful beings to recast the foundation inside the body.

Across the nine levels of the Innate Realm, one used the blood of nine powerful beings to build a nine-layer heavenly foundation and thus set foot on the martial path. That was even more terrifying than being reborn anew.

But although this method possessed the miraculous power to turn decay into wonder, its drawbacks were equally obvious. If the blood of the beings used to cast the foundation was not strong enough, then a person’s aptitude would also be limited by it. Their upper limit would effectively be sealed shut, leaving no possibility of going further.

And once one suffered a grievous injury, if this ninefold foundation collapsed, a lifetime of cultivation would very likely vanish like smoke, with no hope of recovery.

As Shi Lan savored the subtleties of the Nine Spirits Foundation-Casting Art, she began weighing things in her heart.

If she truly wanted her two younger brothers to cultivate the Nine Spirits Foundation-Casting Art, then the nine powerful beings used to cast their foundations would have to be chosen with extreme care.

With a flick of her sleeve, Shi Lan stored the jade bottles on the rack into the Qiankun Bracelet. Then, facing the Tianhuang Halberd suspended in the air, she circulated her true qi and made a grasping motion from afar.

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The Tianhuang Halberd, more than three zhang long, slowly shrank to a little over one zhang and dropped from the air into Shi Lan’s palm.

The Tianhuang Halberd weighed no less than several thousand jin. Shi Lan had not paid it much attention, and her wrist sank slightly when it landed in her hand. The shaft brought with it a warm, mellow sensation, slightly slick to the touch.

Acupoints within Shi Lan’s body opened one after another, and Earth Fiend true qi gushed forth. A faint red glow flickered across the Tianhuang Halberd, and the embossed patterns of mountains, rivers, and earth upon it suddenly lit up. The bloody aura of slaughter surged at once, sweeping in all directions.

Crack—

The wooden rack beside her shattered instantly and scattered across the floor.

“If you wish to test the weapon, leave this place.”

A voice transmission suddenly rang beside Shi Lan’s ear.

Clearly, the Battle Merit Hall was being monitored at all times.

The Tianhuang Halberd dimmed. After calming the blood and qi in her body, which had grown somewhat restless under the halberd’s slaughter aura, Shi Lan put the Tianhuang Halberd away and turned to leave the silent chamber.

A faint trace of demonic qi still lingered in the air. The aura of that transformed Demon King from earlier had not yet fully dispersed.

Shi Lan felt a slight trace of doubt, but on second thought, it was not her concern. Since the Battle Merit Hall was under constant watch, then if there truly were a problem, that transformed Demon King would never be able to leave alive.

And besides, even a Demon King likely could not stir up much trouble in the current Xianwu City.

Thinking of that, Shi Lan shook her head slightly, and her doubts faded.

…

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Above the third floor of the Battle Merit Hall was yet another pavilion level.

Within the pavilion were several figures, some standing, some seated. Some wore battle armor, while others were dressed in martial robes. Their auras were as deep as abyssal seas.

“Earlier, I was still wondering. These beasts always travel with attendants crowding all around them, followers like clouds. Yet this little demon was all alone. Now it seems it was indeed captured on purpose,” said a burly man in a black robe in a deep voice.

“The presence of demon spies in Xianwu City was already within expectations. As for what exactly their aim is, that still requires further observation,” said a scholar in a Confucian robe beside him, shaking his head slightly.

“I am not interested in that fox demon. The one I find interesting is someone else from just now,” said a middle-aged man seated cross-legged on the floor. In his eyes flashed an eerie blue light like lightning.

“Who?” asked the scholar in the Confucian robe, somewhat curious.

“A woman from the Demon-Suppressing Army.” The middle-aged man looked toward a man in dark armor leaning off to one side, a faintly playful look on his face.

At the waist of the man in dark armor hung a purple Demon-Suppressing Token. He was clearly a Demon-Suppressing Marshal.

“If you have something to say, say it.”

“That woman is carrying demonic qi.”

“You’re making a fuss over nothing. It is perfectly normal for someone from the Demon-Suppressing Army to be tainted by demonic qi,” the burly man in the black robe sneered.

“I can still tell the difference between the deathly aura on a demon corpse and the demonic qi of a living demon,” the middle-aged man said, glancing at the burly man, his face darkening slightly before he continued. “The demonic qi on that woman is extremely faint, but it is exceptionally pure. It can rival that of a transformed Demon King.”

“Brother Yu’s Piercing Delusion Eye has already reached the absolute pinnacle. He should not have seen wrongly.”

“Then does that woman truly have a problem?”

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The others nearby exchanged glances.

“Was she beguiled by the demon race? Or does she have a demon spirit attached to her?”

“From top to bottom, the Demon-Suppressing Army is all under the surveillance of the Human Race Chronicle. Whatever their character, at the very least their hearts are with our human race. There is absolutely no problem. Drop the matter.”

The Demon-Suppressing Marshal leaning at the side threw down that sentence and turned to leave the pavilion.

The people behind him all wore different expressions.

…

Shi Lan returned to the second floor. Wu Lingkong was leaning against a platform, glancing about in every direction, looking rather bored.

When she saw Shi Lan come down, Wu Lingkong’s eyes lit up slightly, and she went forward to meet her.

“Is there nothing you need?” Shi Lan asked in some confusion.

“I haven’t accumulated that much battle merit. And if I return to the Central Heaven Domain, battle merits will not be so easy to come by anymore, so I might as well keep them in reserve.”

Wu Lingkong shook her head, full of interest, and said,

“It’s rare to have free time. Come stroll through the markets of Xianwu City with me.”