Translator: AnubisTL
"I'll ask you again: Where did you store those cultivation manuals and Magic Artifacts?"
Li Qing playfully gestured with the silver Wandering Dragon Dagger in his hand, his tone turning icy cold. Old Man Xiang had no doubt that if he didn't cooperate, Li Qing would slit his throat with the dagger without hesitation.
"In... in a storage pouch," Xiang Fa gritted out.
Storage pouch?
Hearing those words, Li Qing's heart stirred slightly. He instinctively glanced at the strange pouch hanging from the old man's waist.
"Hmm? Is it this thing?" Li Qing snatched the fist-sized pouch from Xiang Fa's waist.
The material felt peculiar to the touch—like a blend of silk fabric and leather. He tried to force the pouch open with brute strength.
To Li Qing's surprise, even with his extraordinary strength, he couldn't pry the storage pouch open!
Old Man Xiang, lying on the ground, panicked. His aged voice trembled with urgency. "Don't force it open! If you try to force it open, everything inside will be destroyed!"
While it was nearly impossible for ordinary people to force open a storage pouch, Old Man Xiang didn't consider the young man before him—who resembled a ferocious tiger—to be ordinary.
His strength was astonishing, almost rivaling that of some Mid Qi Refining Realm body cultivators.
"Is that it? Then tell me, how do we open it?!"
In truth, Li Qing had already realized that the pouch likely needed mana to activate.
Having just begun his cultivation journey, he hadn't fully embraced his new role and habitually overlooked the small wisp of mana he had cultivated within his body.
"It requires a cultivator's mana to activate. Give me your storage pouch, and I'll open it for you," Old Man Xiang said, his voice tinged with urgency.
But Li Qing wasn't a naive youth. He sneered and squeezed a wisp of spiritual energy from his dantian qi sea.
Instantly, the storage pouch that had resisted his earlier brute force yielded with ease, its opening widening.
Seeing this, Li Qing's eyes burned with renewed fervor.
Though small in size, the pouch's interior held a volume equivalent to a large water tank.
Xiang Fa's storage pouch contained few items: two withered, lifeless herbs; various bottles and jars; a dozen dull, strange stones; several jade slips; and a crimson iron umbrella!
Of course, Li Qing unconsciously overlooked the few Daoist Robes inside.
Li Qing's examination of his storage pouch naturally caught Xiang Fa's eye. He froze, his voice trembling as he stammered, "You... you're also a cultivator?"
Li Qing didn't deny it, instead smiling brightly. "Yes, Senior. But my cultivation is no match for yours. By the way, what Cultivation Realm are you? Have you reached Foundation Establishment yet?"
Hearing this, Xiang Fa instinctively replied, "I've only been cultivating for nine years, and then the End of Dao Era struck. My cultivation is only at the Mid Qi Refining Realm. I wouldn't dare dream of Foundation Establishment."
So he was at the Mid Qi Refining Realm. That was still significantly stronger than Li Qing.
Based on his own estimation, it would take Li Qing at least nine years to reach the Qi Refining Realm's third layer. Breaking through to the Mid Qi Refining Realm required overcoming a minor bottleneck.
"Senior, do you know what Tianliang Mountain is?" Li Qing asked, his voice laced with genuine concern.
Tian Long had spent considerable effort trying to uncover the mountain's secrets, but ultimately failed to find any concrete information.
Xiang Fa's answer finally resolved a long-standing mystery for Li Qing. "Tianliang Mountain? Isn't that a small Daoist temple founded by a Foundation Establishment Great Cultivator?"
"After all these years, Daoist Liang Tian must have passed away, right?"
From the Foundation Establishment Great Cultivator's respectful tone, Li Qing realized this was someone he absolutely could not offend at this stage.
"By the way," Li Qing asked, raising an eyebrow, "why aren't there many cultivation manuals in your storage pouch?"
"Those few jade slips are all there is. You young whippersnapper, you don't understand anything," Xiang Fa tried to put on the airs of a senior cultivator.
Unfortunately, Li Qing wasn't buying it. He pressed on, "What connection is there between the End of Dao Era and the disappearance of the Sun?"
"There is. It's been almost sixty years now. The day the Sun set, it never rose again. Spiritual energy in the world withered with it. Within months, even the spirit stones mined from spirit mines turned into empty rocks, devoid of a trace of spiritual energy."
"The entire cultivation world plunged into panic. Without spiritual energy, the very source of the Dao was severed."
"No one knows why. Perhaps only Core Formation or Nascent Soul cultivators could understand a fraction of it."
Xiang Fa spoke despondently, then suddenly felt something was wrong. Something didn't add up.
"Wait... that's not right. Spiritual energy has been depleted for over sixty years. How could someone as young as you possibly exist?"
Swish!
In response to Old Man Xiang's words, a flash of silver-white blade light arced through the air. The Wandering Dragon Dagger sliced cleanly through his throat, and a fountain of blood erupted.
"Ah, they say the old become cunning, and it seems that's no exaggeration," Li Qing sighed, adding, "Now there's no way to let you live. Why did you have to be so clever?"
Indeed, considering Li Qing's age, he was no more than twenty or thirty years old. In this End of Dao Era, which had lasted over sixty years, a cultivator of his age was the least likely to appear.
To avoid exposing his secret of traveling between realms, Li Qing had no choice but to kill him.
Even in death, Old Man Xiang's eyes still held a look of shock mixed with a hint of resentment.
Li Qing paid him no further attention, instead eagerly turning his attention to cleaning up his spoils.
"These must be the so-called spirit stones, the stones that contain spiritual energy," Li Qing mused, pulling out a dozen or so dull, strange stones from the storage pouch. He squeezed one gently, and it crumbled into powder—definitely not suitable for artifact refinement.
Of course, what truly piqued Li Qing's interest were the three jade slips and the crimson iron umbrella.
As for the various bottles and jars, it was obvious they contained pills. But after so many years, Old Man Xiang had probably consumed all the useful ones.
Li Qing took out the bottles and examined them. As expected, most were empty porcelain vials. Only a few still contained a few dark red, peanut-sized pills.
If he wasn't mistaken, these must be the Vital Blood Pills the Red Fish Merchant Guild had once given to other gangs as payment.
Ignoring the mostly useless pills, Li Qing turned his attention to the crimson iron umbrella.
Clang!
Li Qing twisted the switch on the umbrella, and a crisp sound rang out. The entire umbrella snapped open, revealing its full form.
The umbrella was entirely crimson. The ends of its ribs were tipped with sharp iron spikes, and its craftsmanship was exquisite, far surpassing the durability of even the so-called Magical weapons.
Moreover, faint, mysterious patterns were subtly woven across the umbrella's surface. One might easily miss them without careful scrutiny.
"This must be a Magic Artifact," Li Qing thought, his eyes burning with excitement. He grasped the crimson iron umbrella with one hand and channeled a small amount of mana into it.
Buzz!
In an instant, Li Qing's mana was nearly depleted, barely managing to activate the iron umbrella.
The umbrella's surface began to spin rapidly, its sharp iron ribs leaving afterimages in the air. The speed was so great that even a glance sent a shiver down Li Qing's spine.
Incredibly sharp! Even his physical body wouldn't stand a chance against such a blade!
As it spun, a crimson spiritual light flickered across the umbrella's surface, seemingly for defensive purposes.
"Too bad it consumes so much spiritual energy," Li Qing exclaimed in surprise. Just a moment of activation had drained over half his spiritual energy, leaving him nearly depleted.
Compared to the mana required to open his storage pouch, this crimson iron umbrella was a true mana hog. With his current cultivation level, he couldn't sustain its activation for long.
"No wonder Old Man Xiang didn't immediately use this umbrella in battle. He probably didn't have much spiritual energy left either," Li Qing mused. "Otherwise, today's victory might not have been so easy."
As Li Qing finished speaking, he deeply understood how much a Magic Artifact could boost a cultivator's combat power—it was like comparing clouds to mud.
For example, if Old Man Xiang had simply opened the umbrella to defend, Li Qing might not have been able to threaten him.
"Let's call this umbrella the Crimson Shadow Umbrella!" Li Qing named it and then, satisfied, put it back into his storage bag. He then took out three jade slips.
As expected, since these were items for cultivators, they naturally had to be activated with mana.
Li Qing infused a wisp of mana into one of the jade slips. Soon, something miraculous happened: information he had never seen before materialized in his mind!
"Directly imprinted into the mind—truly remarkable! Cultivators are truly extraordinary!"
The mortal realm's so-called photographic memory paled in comparison to this mystical ability of cultivators.
Li Qing quickly cleared his mind of distractions, and his surprise soon turned into delight!
This was actually a complete cultivation manual for the Qi Refining Realm!
(End of the Chapter)
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