Stealthily cultivating in the chaotic world of demons and martial artists
Chapter 283 - 282: Plotting (Congratulating the Silver Alliance)_1

Chapter 283: Chapter 282: Plotting (Congratulating the Silver Alliance)_1

The Ancestral Demon Tree had fallen!

It fell under the bizarre dual-colored thunder tribulation!

’He’ stared blankly at this scene, waiting for the lightning to dissipate, before immediately rushing forward, frantically searching for the corpse of the Ancestral Demon Tree.

Ashes, desolation...

All that met the eye was a scorched expanse.

Fang Xi looked on with great interest, as if watching an immersive virtual reality movie.

Then, ’he’ pulled out from the deepest part of the ground, from within the numerous ashes, a fist-sized, gray-black ’seed’ with traces of blood-colored lines on its surface...

Fang Xi’s divine consciousness stirred, and then he withdrew from Zhang Mingding’s sea of consciousness.

"The Ancestral Demon Tree actually left behind a seed?"

His figure flashed, arriving at Zhang Mingding’s bedroom.

Then, the carved bed split into pieces in an instant, revealing a hidden box underneath.

In the void, as if by an invisible hand, the box was opened, and the gray-black, fist-sized seed was taken out.

No sooner had he laid eyes on the object than the Monster Tree Tattoo on Fang Xi’s back began to agitate, and even showed a trace of... fear?

"A seed of the Ancestral Demon Tree?!"

Grasping the seed, Fang Xi couldn’t help but burst into hearty laughter.

He hadn’t expected everything to go so smoothly!

"Mr. Mu..."

Zhang Mingding followed in after, and upon seeing his shattered bed and the secret passage, his facial muscles couldn’t help but twitch: "I had intended to report this earlier, and wished to offer this item to sir..."

"Enough, you’ve done very well, extremely well!"

Fang Xi carefully wrapped the seed in Yi Wood Divine Light and sealed it inside the Jade Grease Box, then stuck seventeen or eighteen spirit talismans on it in one breath.

It was only after he placed the item into his storage ring that he finally took a breath of relief.

With this object in hand, everything was worth it!

He looked over at Zhang Mingding, who was still deeply bowing, and suddenly laughed: "What reward do you desire?"

"I dare not ask for rewards for serving you, sir... However, since the death of Envoy Liu, some of her supporters have formed the ’NiShen Association’ and have been making trouble for the Martial God Sect in the shadows..."

Zhang Mingding replied.

If the warriors of the NiShen Association dared appear before him, then without question, they’d be facing a flurry of punches ending with them as little friends.

Unfortunately... the NiShen Association never engaged him in direct combat.

Instead, they lurked, assassinated, and picked times when he was absent to cause trouble.

This was truly troubling.

"The NiShen Association..."

Fang Xi looked at Zhang Mingding, somewhat sentimental.

This ’Qi and Blood Death Pill’ was not at all the same as the Immortal Path Golden Pill, and was even less effective than the Divine Skills of those who take the Jia Dan.

And he was unaware of many Immortal Cultivator techniques.

Through his memories, Fang Xi had also glimpsed other matters, knowing that in his quest for the Qi Blood Holding Pill, this person had done many cruel things, and during his research into Demons, he had other strange encounters.

He had known something about this while doing his public opinion surveys, but considering his effective governance, he had set a life and death test, which if passed, would offset everything; moreover, compared to the Ancestral Demon Tree, these were minor matters.

"I’ll teach you a few minor spells; once mastered, finding the tails of those rats won’t be a difficult task..."

Fang Xi smiled faintly, took out a jade slip, imprinted it with several spells with his divine consciousness, and casually tossed it to Zhang Mingding.

"Thank you, sir!"

Zhang Mingding was overjoyed.

"I plan to continue researching ’Demons’; don’t bother me unless it’s necessary. That Han Yue, on the other hand, is not bad and worth promoting..."

Fang Xi smiled faintly, and his figure dissolved like a mirage.

Zhang Mingding, acting on Fang Xi’s instructions, placed the jade slip against his forehead, his eyes widening in surprise: "This... what is this...?"

...

In the Southern Wilderness Cultivation Realm.

Inside a deserted island dongfu.

Fang Xi sat cross-legged, a medium-grade Spirit Stone in his hand flickering with spiritual light, gradually dimming, until finally turning to ash.

"Restoring core formation magic power is a challenge indeed..."

"Without a Spiritual Vein Land, meditating and cultivating is so slow it’s unbearable, and I can only rely on Spirit Stones for replenishment..."

Although there were still some top-grade Spirit Stones in his storage bag, Fang Xi was reluctant to waste them here.

He thought for a moment, slapped his storage bag, and two boxes appeared.

One of them, covered with seventeen or eighteen flashing spirit talismans, contained the ’Ancestral Demon Tree seed’!

"With this seed... I’ll still need high-level Spiritual Vein..."

"Let’s talk about this in the future. I don’t want to be trapped in one place for hundreds or thousands of years again..."

Fang Xi sighed, and securely put away the box.

Since obtaining the ’Ancestral Demon Tree seed,’ he had researched several other ’Demons’ in Great Liang, obtained Zhang Mingding’s information, and then returned to the Cultivation World.

For him, this was the root of his Cultivation!

"And there’s this..."

Fang Xi opened another box, which contained the Immortal Martial Path as compiled by Zhang Mingding.

"Martial Immortal..."

"It’s like a defective version of Golden Core body cultivation... Lacking bodily divine skills, it only counts as third-tier strength... That’s why it was so easily defeated by my Yi Wood Divine Light..."

"But it’s decent, at least suitable for rapid development, and requires fewer resources... Using a world as a trial ground for cultivation techniques, after a hundred years of nurturing, it has finally borne good fruits."

Fang Xi contemplated the pros and cons of the Immortal Martial Path.

Having recently pledged himself to the Immortal Path, he was reluctant to brand any chaotic and miscellaneous Taoist ways onto his original body.

If these were to cause hindrances to his future path, that would be quite troublesome.

Fortunately, Immortal Cultivators had numerous methods at their disposal, and even if he did not practice the Immortal Martial Path himself, he could still make full use of it.

Perhaps it was a good choice to extensively cultivate potential third-rank Qi and Blood body cultivators, or to try cultivating Puppets into incarnations once he was capable of doing so?

"But these are not the most pressing matters..."

"The most pressing is that I’m still lacking a third-stage Spiritual Vein for cultivation... or at least, a high-quality second-stage one? However, doing so, the speed of Magic Power advancement would also be quite touching..."

"It seems... Can my previous plan now be implemented?"

Fang Xi thought for a moment, then took out a pearl shrouded in wisps of mist from his Storage Ring.

It was the Mirage Bead!

He chanted a few incantations and cast a Magic Spell on the Mirage Bead.

The Mirage Bead burst forth with strands of mirage qi, enveloping his entire being.

In the blink of an eye, Fang Xi’s appearance drastically changed, transforming into the likeness of Liu Sanqi.

After some thought, he used the concealment Secret Skill from the Kuyong Skills to lower his Magic Power fluctuations from the early stages of Core Formation down to the level of Foundation Establishment.

Next, Fang Xi, unhurried, opened the door of the closed-door cultivation room and stepped out.

"Gugu..."

The circling Daqing turned its head and saw Liu Sanqi. Its dead fish eyes suddenly bulged, about to spew a jet of water in attack.

After all, this ’Liu Sanqi’ not only had the same magic aura but also the same Divine Consciousness as the real deal.

But in the next moment, it felt something was off.

From this ’Liu Sanqi’ emanated the fluctuations of a Master-Servant Contract!

This was the most significant evidence for a Spiritual Beast to recognize its master!

All these factors confused Daqing, and its dead fish eyes seemed to spin with coils like mosquito coils.

"Not bad... Even the Spiritual Beast almost failed to recognize me."

Fang Xi laughed heartily, then pinched another incantation, instantly transforming into an average-looking young man in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. With a slap on his Spirit Beast Bag, he packed away the Azure horn Fish Dragon, turned into a cyan rainbow, and in an instant, flew away from the desolate island.

...

Wood Kingdom.

This kingdom was situated to the southeast of Yue Country, separated by the Ten Thousand Beast Mountain Range.

Passing through Baize Immortal City or several border markets was quite easy for the present Fang Xi to navigate.

"Baize Immortal City, huh..."

Recalling the scenes he casually observed while passing by the fairy city, a complex expression surfaced on Fang Xi’s face from within the azure rainbow.

The fairy city had now fully transformed into a war fortress, devoid of its former trace of the free market or the air of a city for Individual Cultivators.

Disciples from the Green Wood Sect and Mysterious Heaven Sect were stationed there, using a third-stage Array and Spiritual Vein to form the frontline defense against Yiling Valley.

’If it were still a city for Individual Cultivators, it would have been a fine place to cultivate...’

Fang Xi weighed his options and decided he still needed to join a Golden Core power to take advantage of a third-stage Spiritual Vein.

Of course, under a different identity...

At first glance, this seemed worse than accepting Lu Qing’s offer, but in reality, it was fundamentally different.

One was an overt target, the other could comfortably watch events unfold from the shadows... and slip away gracefully at the first sign of trouble!

"The three targets I’ve prepared for are Mysterious Heaven Sect, Yiling Valley, and Green Wood Sect..."

Fang Xi’s eyes shone with keen light.

Indeed, Yiling Valley was one of his targets.

But considering Yiling Valley’s profound heritage, as well as its relationship with the Mixed Origin Sect, it’s possible that the first high-level Cultivator to arrive would be from this sect, making it rather troublesome, hence he skipped it...

As for the second target, Mysterious Heaven Sect had the advantage of having Elder Zhang — Zhang Zhusheng — who could hold out for another two hundred years, ensuring stability.

But there was also an old ghost!

Fang Xi was cautious about this individual, as he didn’t know the depth of his capabilities, which could potentially harbor Secret Skills to uncover his disguise.

’Considering the traces I found on Jade Island last time, this old ghost’s background is not simple at all... Lucky I didn’t rashly take action against him then, and instead, I established some connection.’

’All things considered, that leaves the Green Wood Sect...’

’Lu Qing won’t last more than two years... Even though there’s a third-stage Great Array, who could confine me?’

Fang Xi was somewhat tempted by what Lu Qing had mentioned last time.

The Green Wood Sect began with the Wooden Element cultivation techniques, indeed they may possess some artifacts and Secret Skills that could be useful to him!

’Of course... While I can’t enjoy the Core Dongfu of the third-stage Spiritual Vein, skimming a bit from the periphery wouldn’t be bad...’

After all, he had even considered cultivating bitterly on a second-stage Spiritual Vein for hundreds of years.

’If I were to be assigned to defend Baize Immortal City, that would be quite acceptable...’

The cyan rainbow flashed continuously, and the young Foundation Establishment Cultivator that Fang Xi transformed into entered the territory of Wood Kingdom.

The biggest difference between this country and Yue Country was probably its lush vegetation; verdant forests could be seen everywhere.

Moreover, even the homes of ordinary people liked to have flowers and plants in their yards or at their doorsteps. A sweep of the eyes over the greenery made Fang Xi feel refreshed and at ease.

Green Pot Market.

This market was established by a Foundation Establishment noble family from Wood Kingdom. Surviving through hundred years without decline, it had built up a good reputation in the vicinity, and business was fairly good.

One day, Fang Xi landed his Escape Light from afar, reined in his aura once more, transformed into a Qi Refining Cultivator, and calmly paid the entrance fee to enter the market.

’Next... is to find a Qi Refining Cultivator of full circle, use sacrificial refining to create a Wooden Puppet to acquire memories, and then disguise myself as this individual... Finally, go into seclusion, and announce the successful self-conducted Foundation Establishment.’

’With my current disguise, even Lu Qing would struggle to see through it if we were face to face...’