Chapter 157 Mysterious Black Shadow, Spiritual Plant Becomes Spirit

The righteous Yuanying came to visit, and Chen An took this opportunity to meet him.

He ordered Chen Qing to lead everyone into the hall on the top of the mountain. After the greetings, the host and the guests took their seats.

There were no less than ten people coming, the weakest of whom was a high-level cultivator at the seventh level of the Nascent Soul, and the leader among them was Li Xiuxuan, who had reached the perfect Nascent Soul stage.

"Your battle was earth-shattering, and I am truly impressed." Li Xiuxuan sat down on the first seat, bowed, and praised.

Chen An was able to kill the demon god at the sixth level of Nascent Soul with his cultivation. Even though he was only at the first level of Nascent Soul, in the world of immortal cultivation where strength is respected, his status was much higher than his.

"It's just a small trick."

Chen An smiled softly and didn't care. Showing off in this small Dongzhou was nothing. He had more ambitious goals.

"The Qingluan clan is really ignorant and dares to provoke Fellow Daoist Chen."

Li Xiuxuan's eyes turned and he said with a smile: "Since you have such strength, why don't you join us in attacking the monster tribe of Beizhou, completely destroying their bird tribe, and dividing their power equally!"

The Qingluan and Jinwu tribes joined forces to attack Dongzhou to demand the whereabouts of the Golden Crow. The righteous sects were under great pressure, and since Chen An was so powerful, it was natural that they wanted to win him over.

Chen An sneered and said, "They are here to inquire about the whereabouts of the Golden Crow Demon God. What does it have to do with me?"

Naturally, he would not agree to be asked to interfere in this matter for no reason.

"This"

Li Xiuxuan looked embarrassed. Chen An was not afraid of the Qingluan clan, but with two righteous gods, one was in seclusion and the other was facing him alone. It was hard to say that he was a match for the Qingluan incarnation.

"However, this matter concerns the survival of the righteous path, so we cannot ignore it. However, I was injured in the previous battle and I urgently need the Langya Gold and Jade. If you can find it, I am not against helping you."

Chen An found a random excuse to turn the topic to the Langya gold and jade. He would certainly not miss the opportunity to search for spiritual materials.

The amount of Langya gold and jade obtained from the palace-dressed woman of the Qingluan clan was too little. Although this spiritual object was quite heavy, a small string weighed several kilograms, it was far from enough to build a teleportation array.

After saying this, Chen An quietly transmitted the message and asked, "Do you have the Divine Golden Crow in your hands?"

Li Xiuxuan was startled, and seeing that there was a turn for the better, he hurriedly said, "Don't worry, fellow Daoist, we will find the Langya Gold and Jade and help you recover your peak strength."

At the same time, he sent a voice message back: "I really don't know about this matter."

The two chatted, one openly and one secretly, and soon, an hour had passed.

Seeing that the time was almost up and things had been discussed, the group, led by Li Xiuxuan, stood up and said goodbye.

Chen An waved his hand and asked Chen Qing to see the guest off.

Just as the few people left the hall, Chen Kebao led Fairy Haoyue and the other two to the top of the mountain.

Several people walked opposite Li Xiuxuan.

Li Xiuxuan and Fairy Haoyue glanced at each other imperceptibly, and the expressions between their eyebrows were somewhat ambiguous.

Chen An watched this scene, his expression changed slightly, and he looked thoughtful, as if he had guessed something.

Take Fairy Haoyue, for example. She is a Nascent Soul cultivator. Unlike True Lord Qinglong and True Lord Juejian, why is she willing to become a casual cultivator?

It turns out that she has an unspeakable relationship with Li Xiuxuan.

"Haoyue greets Fellow Daoist Chen. Thank you for saving my life last time!"

Fairy Haoyue, True Lord Qinglong and True Lord Juejian bowed and expressed their gratitude.

"It's just a small matter."

Chen An waved his hand and said.

After a few pleasantries, Chen An took the opportunity to sip tea and asked through telepathy, "Fairy, do you know Li Xiuxuan?"

Fairy Haoyue's body trembled noticeably. She glanced at Chen An intentionally or unintentionally, and then quietly replied, "I'm familiar with him."

"Fairy, are you familiar with the Lihuo Patriarch of the Lihuo Palace?" Chen An said with a playful look in his face, transmitting the message again.

Upon hearing this, Fairy Haoyue turned pale and looked at Chen An in horror: "How do you know this?"

Chen An's face was filled with pride. It seemed that this woman was Li Xiuxuan's woman, the concubine who had an affair with the Lihuo Patriarch.

Although the specific reasons are unknown, we can make some guesses. Since Patriarch Lihuo was cuckolded, Li Xiuxuan might not be willing to drive away Fairy Haoyue. However, the high-level officials of Taixu Sect, who are concerned about the reputation of the sect, might not be so willing to keep her.

In desperation, Li Xiuxuan could only let him leave Taixu Sect temporarily and maintain private contact.

"Don't worry about how I know this. I want to ask you, was the Divine Golden Crow killed by the two Divines from Taixuan Mountain and Taixu Sect working together?"

"I do not know!"

"Then tell me how Li Ruoxue cultivated the Great Sun Golden Flame!"

Chen An narrowed his eyes and looked at Fairy Haoyue.

There are many ways to practice the Great Sun Golden Flame. You can use some spiritual materials whose fire contains the essence of the sun, such as the Golden Crow Grass.

But Li Ruoxue's Great Sun Golden Flame was extremely pure, and it clearly had the shadow of the Golden Crow. Perhaps she had obtained a few drops of Golden Crow's blood from Li Xiuxuan and then resold it to Li Ruoxue.

Sure enough, under Chen An's questioning, Fairy Haoyue confessed everything helplessly.

It turned out that the last time the God of Transformation Golden Crow left Kuxiu Mountain, he wanted to escape back to Beizhou, but two Gods of Transformation of the righteous path were waiting for him near Beizhou.

She had just given birth and her strength had greatly decreased, so the two men captured her effortlessly.

As for the purpose, it is to use the flesh and blood of the Golden Crow to refine the Golden Crow Pill!
This is a recipe for an elixir passed down from ancient times, a magical elixir that can be refined to improve one’s spiritual cultivation!
In Dongzhou, which is poor in spiritual energy and resources, this is one of the few means to improve one's cultivation.

Chen An resolved the doubts in his mind and naturally did not make things difficult for the other party. The conversation just now was all transmitted through telepathy, so he was not afraid of Qinglong Zhenjun and the other two knowing it.

After a long time, before the three of them left, Chen An's consciousness quietly reminded Master Juejian: "Fellow Daoist Juejian, if you don't want to die, stay away from Fairy Haoyue."

True Lord Juejian was stunned and looked at Chen An in fear. He thought that Chen An wanted to compete with him for Fairy Haoyue, but his strength was far inferior to the other party, so he had to swallow his anger.

Chen Anyi had said all he wanted, and it all depended on whether the other party would follow his lead.

Somewhere in the ruins of an ancient sect underground in Dongzhou.

After Qinglong Zhenjun and others broke through several layers of formations here, the entire ruins were completely exposed.

Deep in the ruins, there is a dilapidated black tower with a plaque hanging on it, which reads: Demon-Suppressing Tower!
The tower is so shaky that it looks as if it will collapse if the wind blows.

"boom!"

After an unknown amount of time, a loud roar was heard from under the tower, and the entire tower swayed from side to side a few times, and finally collapsed under the weight.

A moment later, a figure shrouded in black air rushed out of the tower. The underground, where there was no sunlight, was completely plunged into darkness under the cover of this huge shadow.

"Hahaha! After so many years, I'm finally out!"

"It's a pity that the sect has become so dilapidated that we can't take revenge."

The black figure couldn't help but feel annoyed, but he knew that his strength had declined greatly, and now he didn't know the situation outside, so he couldn't go out rashly.

He pondered for a moment, then waved his hand and grabbed a few pieces of fourth-level spiritual materials that had been decayed and dilapidated over the years. After countless years of grinding, these originally valuable fourth-level spiritual materials had now lost their spirituality and were like scrap metal.

The black shadow chuckled twice, and black air surged around his body, wrapping up several pieces of rotten spiritual materials. After calcining them for a few times, he actually turned the waste into treasure and refined them into a pile of second and third level spiritual materials!
"This trick can barely work. Let's lure a few idiots in first and restore my strength. I don't need too much. As long as I can restore my Nascent Soul strength, I can go to all four continents!"

He laughed wildly twice, pushed the spiritual material and threw it at the entrance of the cave.

Then, the black shadow found a hidden place, hid there, and waited quietly for the fish to take the bait.

Ascetic mountain.

The light curtain of light of the formation was shrouded in red, locking in the rich spiritual energy on the mountain and nourishing the grass and trees on the surface, making them lush and green.

After many years, houses of varying sizes have sprung up on the mountain, including palaces and huts. The caves opened up by the tribesmen are also spread over most places like beehives.

The Chen family has hardly suffered any serious disasters in these years. Not only has the family's average cultivation level been rising steadily, but the population of cultivators has also increased sharply.

Even for the lowest-level Dongshan Spiritual Land, the entry threshold has been raised again and again, and now it has been raised to the point where only cultivators at the sixth level of Qi training can enter. This has barely stopped the skyrocketing population trend.

Unlike East Mountain, West Mountain, which is second only to North Mountain, is extremely lively at this time with the sound of chickens crowing and dogs barking.

"quack!"

"Boy, if you don't have any other skills, I, the Bird Master, will win!"

The Golden Crow Bird slashed out a long rainbow sword energy from its wings and feathers. The sword energy was so captivating that Chen Kebao on the opposite side could only passively defend and looked very embarrassed.

"Wang!"

"Hurry up and fight back. Where is the Five Thunder Curse that the master taught you?"

The black-haired beast not far away was so angry when he saw Chen Kebao's messy fight.

The difference in cultivation between the man and the bird was not too great. Even though the Golden Crow Bird was gifted and blessed with the Golden Crow bloodline, if it had practiced the Five Thunder Curse diligently on a daily basis, even if Chen Kebao was defeated, he would not have collapsed after only nine rounds of fighting.

The cultivators here were all at the Jindan level. They looked at the Golden Crow bird that was fighting with Chen Kebao on the field and exclaimed in amazement: "Even the dog and bird at the farming elder's house have reached the Jindan level!"

"Even the strongest Chen Kebao has been defeated. Do we still have hope?"

"Defeat this bird? You're dreaming. This is the famous Golden Crow bird!"

After defeating Chen Kebao with a ruthless move, the Golden Crow Bird raised its head and said proudly, "As long as you defeat me, you can enter Beishan to practice. Is there anyone else coming?"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Except for Chen Kebao and Chen Long, the others had only recently reached the stage of Dan formation and their strength was still low. It was impossible for them to defeat the powerful Golden Crow Bird.

The black-haired beast added, "But considering your low strength, as long as you fight ten times under our hands, you can go to Beishan to practice for a year!"

Suddenly, the Jindan cultivators below were excited. Practicing in the North Mountain for a year was equivalent to several years of hard practice in the West Mountain!
No one wants to miss such an opportunity.

Chen Kebao's face was gloomy. He snorted coldly and turned back to the cave. He was almost able to reach the standard, so he planned to practice hard and start over again.

Not long after, Chen An in the Beishan Cave Mansion listened to the report from the dog and the bird, and said with a smile: "The people of Kuxiu Mountain are still too comfortable. You should mess with them first. When the teleportation array is built in the future, they will have something to do."

Before building the ultra-long-distance teleportation array, Chen An planned to improve the strength of high-end cultivators as much as possible, so that by then he would not have only two beasts and a puppet available, which would be too late.

However, Chen Shuang has made good progress in his cultivation in recent years.

Chen Shuang now has reached the seventh level of Jindan cultivation, making him the person with the highest cultivation level in the Chen family besides Chen An.

As long as another hundred or eighty years pass, advancing to the Nascent Soul stage should not be a difficult task.

Chen An immediately left the cave and went to the spiritual field to check on the spiritual plants as per his usual habit.

Under the stimulation of the Soul-stealing Technique, most of the spiritual plants grew normally.

The only thing is that the fifth-level immortal wood grows slowly, and without a large number of high-level spiritual plants as raw materials to ripen it, the third-level Golden Crow grass alone cannot ripen it quickly when it reaches the late Nascent Soul stage.

It seems that advancing to the God Transformation stage is not as easy as before, where one can quickly cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage perfection.

There are very few Dongzhou cultivators who can threaten him, so there is no need to rush. Just take it slow. The worst that can happen is that it will just take a few more years.

After checking the condition of the spiritual plants, Chen An came to the pond.

The pond in front of me is full of heavy water lilies, which are full of vitality, and the lotus flowers are filled with fragrance.

[Heavy Water Lotus, a third-level spiritual plant, has reached a medicinal age of ten thousand years, and has already given birth to a faint spiritual consciousness]

Chen An was stunned and slightly dazed. Was his spiritual consciousness born?

He couldn't help but look at the oldest heavy water lotus. The pink lotus was gorgeous and looked like a blooming girl of sixteen or seventeen years old. In the middle was a green lotus platform, exuding seemingly endless vitality.

Over the years, Chen An harvested extra heavy water lilies and used them all to ripen this one. After so many years, he has cultivated it to be ten thousand years old.

It was a stroke of luck that spiritual consciousness was unexpectedly born.

However, the spiritual plants and plants that have just been born are very weak. Once any accident happens, they will easily dissipate and return to being ordinary spiritual plants.

Chen An immediately released his spiritual sense and probed into the lotus platform.

As soon as he explored it, a weak spiritual consciousness came to meet him, happily circling around him, flying up and down.

Today's heavy water lotus is like a newborn baby, dependent on its parents.

But its spiritual consciousness was still weak and could not communicate. Chen An used his own spiritual consciousness to nourish it for a few times to ensure that this spiritual consciousness would not be easily extinguished, and then he withdrew and left.

From spiritual consciousness to mental awareness, and then to transformation, it is a long process and does not happen overnight.

Ever since the battle with the incarnation of Qingluan, Chen An became completely famous, and the Black Wind Market also became famous, attracting many independent cultivators to settle here.

Originally this was a good thing, but with too many cultivators, the Black Wind Mountains were over-exploited, causing several demon kings in the mountains to suffer terribly.

One day, the giant crocodile came to Chen An about this matter.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, can you ask the cultivators in the city to be more restrained and not try to catch as many fish as possible? At least move some of them to the mountains in the north to ease the pressure on us."

The giant crocodile said with a bitter face that after countless cultivators had continuously mined, not only were the spiritual plants and minerals on the mountains constantly consumed, but even the number of monsters was also decreasing.

Chen An opened his mouth and was about to say something when Chen Qing beside him spoke up: "That's not right. The number of cultivators in Black Wind City has stopped increasing in recent years. How could it be over-mined?"

"Since the Qingluan incident, the population did surge, but within a year, it stopped growing, and recently it has even shown a decreasing trend."

Seeing that the two were arguing, Chen An waved his hand and said, "Friend Crocodile, I will arrange this matter properly when I return, and try to satisfy both the human and demon races. Don't worry, it will not benefit us to fish in a dry pond."

"Of course I trust you, fellow Taoist."

After receiving a satisfactory answer, the giant crocodile said goodbye and left.

There is no way. When you are under someone's roof, you have to bow your head. In terms of strength, he is far inferior to Chen An.

After instructing Chen Qing to handle the matter, Chen An no longer cared about it.

But a few days later, Chen Qing came to report in shock:
"I went back to check. There are more cultivators coming here through the Qinglong City teleportation array than leaving. However, the population of Black Wind City is actually decreasing. It's really strange!"

(End of this chapter)