Chapter Eighty-One: Hidden Resentment in the Imperial Treasury

  Originally, the most basic material for refining the Wan Gui calabaza was the thousand-year-old calabaza. Without the thousand-year-old calabaza, no matter how exquisite his technique was, he couldn't refine a treasure.

  Since the Wan Gui Hu Lu cannot be refined, he has now put his mind on the Chi Tong Sha. However, this time he does not plan to simply use simple copper ingots for refining like before, but plans to take advantage of the newly established imperial dynasty to collect better materials and refine higher-quality Chi Tong Sha.

  "Lord of the Infinite Heavens!" With a plan in mind, he immediately summoned the servants from the manor to come over. These servants were arranged by the Earth-Shattering Daoist for him, and if there was anything he needed, he would directly tell them, and as long as it was something that existed within this new empire, they would definitely find someone to deliver it over.

  He ordered his attendants to bring him some copper ingots, then he drove away the female servants around him and took out eighteen iron flags to set up an array.

  This formation is still the formation of absorbing Western Xingjin Golden Energy. After arranging the formation, Wang Guang ordered his servants to bring copper ingots and throw them into the flag array in a lump.

  He was originally a servant of a wealthy family, so he knew how to handle many things. Although he was terrified by the array of flags in front of him, he still forced himself to calm down and agreed, lest he be swallowed up alive by these moody cultivators.

  After preparing the preliminary means of refining the red copper sand, Wang Guang was about to go to the imperial palace treasure house to borrow some treasures from Liedi Dao people. But before he could get up, a Qi Gong practitioner suddenly came over.

  "Wang Dao, where are you going? Do you have some free time to gather with us?" The Taoist priest was short and small in stature, although his hair was all white, his body was hunched over, but his face was smooth and unlined, like a seven or eight year old child.

  "Vast Heaven Venerable! So it's actually Spiritual Child Daoist." Wang Guang recognized this daoist, so he didn't want to leave either. With a flick of his hand, the dust settled and he said in a low voice: "I don't know what matter you're looking for me about? If it's just to drink wine and have fun, I'll go with you later. But if there's something else important, then I'll follow you now."

  This immortal Taoist had been to Wang Guang several times, each time was for eating and drinking, if it were other times, Wang Guang would definitely go over to eat and drink, but today he had a plan and also had other important things to do, so he didn't want to waste his time on eating and drinking.

  That Ling Tong Daoist also knew that Wang Guang had a bad temper, and now he seemed to be speaking in a calm and collected manner, but in the blink of an eye, he would turn his face and not recognize people. Last time at the banquet, he even quarreled with a Qi Gong master, and if it weren't for everyone's restraint, the two would have already started fighting. The reason was that the Qi Gong master had used a songstress to mock Wang Guang in private during the banquet.

  "Wang Dao, today everyone is gathering, but there are some things to discuss. However, the specific discussion time will have to wait until tonight. I hope you can arrive on time tonight." The Ling Tong Dao person said this in a crisp and clear voice. "I still need to inform others, so I won't bother you anymore."

  "Alright!" Wang Guang nodded and said, "Don't worry, fellow Taoist, I'll definitely go over later." He was actually quite polite to this Ling Tong Dao person, because every time they met, the Daoist would personally come over to inform him, unlike those Qi practitioners in the past who simply lit incense as a notification.

  After sending off the Lingtong Daoist, Wang Guang flew towards the back of the imperial palace, where there was a treasure trove guarded by the heart of the Lidi Daoist. This time he went to select some things from inside.

  "I don't know what Ling Tong Dao Ren is talking about, could it be related to the imperial treasure of this dynasty?" After some random thinking, Wang Guang suddenly remembered the imperial treasure.

  According to the Cracked Earth Sect's doctrine, as long as something exists within the imperial dynasty, everyone can take it freely. However, after a group of Qi-refining warriors gathered all five imperial treasuries and prepared to take what they needed, contradictions arose.

  To know that the things that can be sent into the royal treasury are all carefully selected and accumulated over thousands of years by various dynasties, any one of which is extremely precious. Like materials like Wudengsha, every grain is very precious for Wang Guang and other solo practitioners, but the treasury has stored Wudengsha as high as one foot.

  There are cultivators who want to take away all the black dust and sand at once, while others need the black dust and sand to refine magic treasures. At this time, no one is willing to give in, so they start arguing.

  Moreover, some practitioners originally didn't need such materials, but seeing how precious they were, they became greedy and wanted to stuff all sorts of precious materials into their own pockets.

  Sometimes two or more practitioners would eye the same material and want to get it into their own pockets, leading to disputes that eventually escalated into physical fights. In one case, a practitioner even nearly lost his life over this.

  When such a situation occurs, how can the people of Lidi Road still dare to let everyone freely choose materials from it? Therefore, they hastily formulated a series of rules and dispatched trusted personnel to guard the treasure house. Only by meeting the conditions can one enter the treasure house to take away items. Moreover, the people of Lidi Road also divided various precious materials into grades, and the better the material, the more requirements for Qi practitioners.

  It's precisely because of this change that many practitioners think that the Earth Crack Path doesn't keep its promises. It should be known that among the remaining hundred or so practitioners, not all are under the control of the Earth Crack Path. Many owe favors to the Earth Crack Path and therefore help him out in his quest for power in the secular world. Moreover, some practitioners who have fallen behind in their struggles with others will either seek help from their sects or go elsewhere to find helpers. And these helpers don't really put the Earth Crack Path in their hearts.

  So some hot-tempered practitioners shouted to open the treasure house, allowing people to take things at will. However, without a leader, the crowd just shouted and did not really gather together to take action.

  As he pondered, he had already arrived above the treasury. The green smoke dispersed, and Wang Guang fell in front of the treasury. This treasury was rebuilt by the people from the original treasury of the Tianyu Imperial Court, not only using the mechanisms and secret passages of the mortal world, but also adding countless forbidden arrays. If a true Qi cultivator rashly rushed in, unless he was an alchemist, one would enter and one would die, never having a living soul.

  "Boundless Heaven Venerable! I am Wang Guang, today I have come to the treasure trove to collect some materials to refine a magical artifact. I hope fellow daoists will guide me." He took out the red token given by Lidi Daoist and handed it over to one of them, letting them verify whether he was qualified to enter and select materials.

  "It was actually Wang Daoyou, you can follow me in, but your token is only of a lower rank, and you can only choose materials of one to three grades. No matter how precious they are, you still can't choose them." The leading Qi-refining cultivator carefully examined the object on Wang Guang's body, then activated the mechanism to open the treasure trove.

  He made a gesture of invitation, and Wang Guang, too lazy for small talk, followed him in directly.

  The first floor of the treasury covers an area of over ten mu, and what is piled up inside are all kinds of crystal stones of various grades. The second floor covers an area of seven or eight mu, and what is placed inside are some low-grade magic treasures and various low-grade refining materials.

  The cultivator saw that Wang Guang had no intention of staying on this floor and activated the law to open the third layer of the treasure trove.

  After following the other party into the third layer of the treasure house, Wang Guang stopped. It wasn't that he didn't want to continue walking down, but the token given by the Earth Crack Path's person could only reach the third layer. To go further down, he had to help the Earth Crack Path's person do things and then upgrade his token level. However, after repaying the Earth Crack Path's lifesaving favor, although Wang Guang admired him, he was too lazy to continue doing tasks for him. As a result, the token level hadn't been upgraded since it was issued. The other cultivators only had a small portion who didn't do the tasks assigned by the Earth Crack Path, and they could be considered as exceptions.

  In the three-layered treasury, there were all sorts of materials that Wang Guang wanted. There were: crimson copper that emitted a thin layer of flames; Wudeng sand that weighed a thousand catties per grain; natural iron essence; and bottles upon bottles of Xuanyin heavy water, totaling hundreds of precious materials, including various rare medicinal herbs, who knows how those mundane emperors managed to collect them.

  "These three layers already have such materials, if it's four layers down, I'm afraid the things inside will be three to five times more precious than this layer." Wang Guang took a deep breath, and for an instant he almost thought that all the precious materials here belonged to him. Fortunately, the leading cultivator spoke up, which didn't let him continue to indulge in his fantasy.

  "What is it that you need?" The cultivator urged Wang Guang in a low voice.

  "Go with the red copper!" He looked at the over one foot high dark sand and then looked at the large pile of red copper next to it, and he made his choice after a moment of internal struggle. In fact, in terms of quality, the dark sand was about one or two times better than the red copper, but Wang Guang had previously infused dark sand into his magic treasure, so the amount of material infused was less, and the boost to his red copper sand's power was not great. If he had infused more, he didn't have that many materials, so after weighing his options, he chose the red copper from the magma as the main material for his magic treasure.

  "Good!" A nearby cultivator looked at Wang Guang with some surprise. It's worth noting that most cultivators who come here to select materials will pick up valuable things, and those like Wang Guang are still relatively rare.

  The law was broken, and the seal that had been imposed on the red copper was suddenly lifted. As soon as the seal was lifted, a wave of heat rushed forward. The red copper, now free from its seal, burst into flames that were more than twice as intense as before, and continued to grow in intensity with each passing moment.

  "There are plenty of these, fellow practitioner can take away a thousand pieces." A Taoist beside him pointed to those infant fist-sized red copper and said in a low voice: "If the fellow practitioner takes enough red copper, next time you need it five years later, or after helping the Lidi Taoist do some things, you can continue to enter the third layer to select materials. Otherwise, you can only choose from the first two layers."

  "I understand, no need for you to remind me." Wang Guang slightly furrowed his brow. To be honest, he was also somewhat dissatisfied with the rules set by the Lidi Dao people. However, since they had helped him multiple times, it wasn't good for him to get angry. But now that he mentioned it, his words were a bit impolite.