Chapter Nineteenth: Dust Settles
Zhou Futong possessed the Jade Symbol, which was somewhat unexpected by Zhou Liang. With the help of the Jade Symbol, he escaped into the Yellow Spring Ghost Realm and did not thoroughly eliminate him, which is a pity. The goal has been achieved, and he has escaped from Zhou Futong's control. The future sky is vast, and even if Zhou Futong returns from the Yellow Spring and finds his way back, it's hard to say who will win or lose.
Zhou Liang gathered his thoughts, swept the battlefield, and first looked at the jade token. The token had become somewhat dull, made from top-grade crystal through special refining and cutting techniques. The material itself was extremely precious, and with the addition of the blood of a Condensing Void cultivator, it formed the powerful abilities of the jade token. The Yellow Springs world and the Nine Provinces were originally two worlds that did not intersect, but the power of the jade token forcibly connected them, showing just how extraordinary the token was.
Holding the jade symbol in his hand, it was dull and damaged in some places, apparently most of its power had been consumed, leaving only a small intact part. Zhou Liang shook his head, such a small range could no longer serve as a reference, he carefully recorded all the patterns and then discarded the jade symbol.
Even if it's a used jade symbol, just the material is valuable, carve it up and it should be worth some crystal stones. However, being worn on the body isn't like carrying a time bomb that would attract the attention of a master who has condensed their skills through blood and sweat. Having money but no life to spend it with, Zhou Liang doesn't dare gamble on whether the other side values Zhou Fu Tong highly or not.
He put down the jade symbol, and Zhou Liang cast his gaze towards the other side of the flag gate. This was absolutely good stuff! Originally placed beside Zhou Fu Tong, the two flag gates that were messed up by Zhou Liang were now in his hands. Fortunately, the two flag gates differed greatly from each other. After a slight investigation, a smile appeared on his face.
These two flag gates are not bad, one is the Liu Ding Liu Jia formation, which borrows 12 flag gates to mobilize the power of the six Ding and six Jia of the Zhou Tian. It is a primary defensive array that only requires 1 low-grade crystal stone to persist for an hour. Within this hour, it can withstand continuous attacks of up to Tong Niao Yi Zhong. However, as the attack increases, the consumption of low-grade crystal stones will gradually increase, and the limit is Tong Niao Liu Zhong. When the attack reaches Tong Niao Liu Zhong, it will directly break through its defense.
Of course, this attack is the limit of inlaying lower-grade crystal stones. If the grade of the inlaid crystal stone is higher, its defensive ability can also be improved. After inlaying high-grade crystal stones, the limit can be increased to Tongqiao Jiuchong, which is a relatively useful formation.
Another one, not simple, is the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation, also defensive in nature, with an effect slightly weaker than the Six Ding Six Jia Formation. Inlaid with top-grade crystal stones, its limit is to open up four levels of acupoints. After examining these two formations, Zhou Liang couldn't help but let out a long sigh. This Zhou Fu Tong was truly afraid of death, setting up so many defensive mechanisms from the Jade Symbol to the Flag Gate, all of which were defensive in nature, not seeking merit but rather avoiding blame. If he hadn't acted decisively and disrupted his flag gate, once it started operating, he would have been left staring blankly. Zhou Fu Tong recovered, and his luck changed for the better.
Two complete flag gates, Zhou Liang only prepared to leave the six Ding six Jia array, this array diagram can be used for a long time, even in the late stage of Tong Qiao, it can still be used, although its effect is not as great as it is now. As for the Eight Gates Golden Lock Array, at most it can only be used during the early stage of Tong Qiao, and by mid-stage it cannot be used anymore, and it's not even better than one's own magical tool defense. However, defensive arrays are valuable in themselves, and selling the Eight Gates Golden Lock Array could fetch several hundred pieces of lower-grade crystal stones, which is a considerable fortune.
He carefully put away the flag, and Zhou Liang searched for it on Zhou Fugui's body. He lifted his collar, and a small pouch about the size of a palm appeared before him. His divine sense scanned it, but couldn't penetrate inside. Zhou Liang raised an eyebrow; his current divine sense had surpassed the third level of Tongguan, ordinary mundane objects couldn't block his invasion. Only a Xiu Zhen object could do so. Among ordinary Xiu Zhen objects, only one type could block his divine sense - a Storage Bag.
With a casual pull, the storage bag was in hand. The storage bag, also known as the void storage bag, is a good thing made of a special space alloy called Kong Jin through a special refining method. The amount of Kong Jin is extremely small, and the number of storage bags in the entire Xiu Zhen realm is very small, with prices above 1 million lower-grade crystal stones. Generally, even high-ranking cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage do not possess one, let alone those at the Core Formation stage, who mostly come from large sects' direct lineages.
This also confirms from another aspect that Zhou Futong is indeed the elite disciple of the Demon Gate. Who would have thought that he had such an identity? In the more than 100 years after completing the Dao Xin Zhong Mo, what happened to him, turning him from a promising Demon Gate elite disciple into a street rat that everyone shouts at? Fate is so wonderful, absorbing his Dao base and improving his talent, but encountering misfortune. This may be the case of "disaster lurking in good fortune" and "good fortune hidden in disaster".
His divine consciousness fell onto the storage bag, at the mouth of the bag, a strong and overbearing spiritual power filled it, this was the spiritual imprint left behind by Zhou Futong. Unfortunately, this spiritual imprint had already lost its foundation, and could be considered as a useless piece of wood. Zhou Liang's divine consciousness was originally stronger than Zhou Futong's, and he didn't have any hidden motives, directly impacting it with a single blow, the imprint scattered, he carefully imprinted his own soul onto it.
Looking at the mysterious runes, a faint flash appeared at the entrance of the storage bag, and a faint light flashed by. Zhou Liang felt a surge of power entering his soul, which was a sign of refinement. He smiled slightly and opened the storage bag.
The storage bag was not large, about one zhang in length, width and height, which means it was roughly a cubic zhang. In this small space, there were quite a few things. The first thing that caught the eye was a black flag with a faint aura of yin energy emanating from its surface. This flag looked extremely familiar to Zhou Liang, as it had been his dwelling place in his past life. The Soul-Capturing Flag was a top-grade artifact, made from exceptional materials and imbued with the power of countless souls that Zhou Futang had absorbed over the years. Four out of the five main souls were already present, all of whom possessed considerable strength. After Zhou Liang's soul was absorbed into the flag and became the strongest central main soul, his pure soul and excellent foundation in the Tao made him the best central main soul under the control of the demonic heart. This artifact had begun to take on the form of a treasure, and over the next few hundred years, Zhou Futang continued to collect various materials until he finally obtained enough after refining his body, transforming the Soul-Capturing Flag into a treasure that became a mid-grade treasure in one move.
In this life, Zhou Liang was not planning to take the demonic or ghostly path. This top-grade artifact had little use, so he put it aside for now and would deal with it later when he had a chance. He might be able to exchange it for crystal stones. Ordinary artifacts in the Cultivation Realm weren't worth much money, but top-grade artifacts that could potentially be upgraded to the level of a treasure were extremely valuable, even more so than the array diagrams from before.
Next to the Soul Flag, there were three or four bottles of Dan medicine. Opening one and taking a sniff, a strong pungent smell wafted out, as if something had gone bad. Zhou Liang's face, however, lit up with joy once again. This was the Demon Path's Demon Marrow Dan, a type of Dan medicine that Demon Path cultivators often used to increase their True Yuan after opening up their meridians. It was on the same level as the Dao Sect's Gathering Marrow Dan.
Zhou Liang is definitely a one-way cultivator, not very useful, but can be exchanged in the market, among the scattered repairs, there are all kinds of learning, the demon gate seems to have no distinction, and the spread is even more extensive, so the price of the magic marrow pill is slightly higher than that of the gathering marrow pill, 2 pieces are about 3 blocks of low-grade crystal stone.
Each of the magic pills was only about the size of a grain of wheat, and there were at least 100 in a bottle. Calculating this way, these magic pills were also worth several hundred crystal stones. Apart from these things, there were some miscellaneous materials and ores that Zhou Futong had collected, which weren't very valuable, just equivalent to a few or dozens of crystal stones. After Zhou Liang took a look, he put them aside, the greatest use of these was to exchange for some crystal stones.
At the very bottom of the storage bag, a batch of crystal stones finally came into view. There were over ten rectangular crystal blocks, all of which were mid-grade crystal stones and each one was of good quality. In addition, there were about 70 or 80 ordinary crystal stones. One mid-grade crystal stone is equivalent to about 100 low-grade crystal stones, which is a considerable fortune. For an average cultivator, having one or two is already considered a lot. Who would have thought that Zhou Futong's family was indeed quite wealthy?
Jing Shi is a commonly used auxiliary item and trading currency among cultivators. Many items are linked to Jing Shi, and Zhou Liang's Jing Shi was spent cleanly on buying talismans last time. With these, there's no need to risk selling stolen goods in the market. After all, the death of an elite disciple of a demonic sect will always be investigated, and being suspected at this time would be too unjust.
He carefully put the storage bag on his body, then put the flag gate into the storage bag. Zhou Liang felt a little relieved, and continued to search for it on Zhou Fugui's body. He was wearing a black, horse-riding-like garment that looked very sturdy. With a slight tug, he could feel the array fluctuations on its surface. This unassuming horse jacket turned out to be an upper-grade artifact with defensive properties.
The horse armor is a high-quality defensive artifact, generally rare and more important for cultivators to defend than attack. The price of this high-quality artifact is almost the same as that of the Soul Capturing Flag, which is an offensive artifact that can also be upgraded to a treasure. However, the demonic sect's artifacts are far inferior compared to general-purpose artifacts.
Apart from this set of clothes, there were only some gold and silver in Zhou Futang's arms, nothing else. Overall, the gains this time were enormous. Such a large sum of wealth would take a long time to accumulate even during the Tongguo period. Now, Zhou Liang suddenly possessed it all. Robbery was indeed the fastest way to accumulate wealth.
After scanning the cave, everything had passed for about an hour or two. They wasted too much time after going up the mountain. It was estimated that when they came down the mountain, it would be late in the day. Yangzhou is considered a relatively rich and fertile area in the Central Plains. Going down the mountain alone at night would not only be shocking but also unsafe. He had strong spiritual awareness but not much self-preservation capital, so he decided to rest for one more night.
