Talisman Emperor
chapter-38

Bang!

A sword light that was cold like snow flashed past, and the head of the baleful beast that Chen Xi struck down was instantly penetrated with a thumb-size hole.

The baleful beast let out a miserable howl before crashing onto the ground.

“These baleful beasts are all condensed from baleful qi, and one may say that they’re immortal. A baleful beast will only lose its combat ability when its head is shattered and the baleful pearl contained within is removed. Then, it will transform into baleful qi and dissipate.” Du Qingxi walked forward from the side, and she explained as she extracted a pigeon egg sized black colored pearl from the head of the baleful beast’s corpse.

“Oh, look. This thing is of no use to me, you keep it. You can exchange them for some spirit stones once we go out of here.” Du Qingxi casually tossed the baleful pearl in her hand to Chen Xi.

Chen Xi received the baleful pearl and couldn’t help but be stunned. He noticed that Du Qingxi attitude towards him seemed to have changed greatly, and it had an extra trace of faintly discernible care.

“Let’s go. We can’t fly within the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain. Our destination is still extremely far. If we can’t reach there within a month, then we would have wasted this opportunity that was difficult to come by.”

Du Qingxi didn’t wait for Chen Xi to carefully appreciate the reason for this care and walked towards the distance.

“Jinx, follow us well. Be sure not to lag behind.” Duanmu Ze glanced at Chen Xi as if he was gazing at a clown, then laughed in ridicule before leaping forward, and his sleeves moved gracefully as he flashed forward in an elegant manner.

“Oh, we have to hurry on with our journey.” Song Lin was still in a drowsy state, and his figure fluttered like a drunken monkey, seeming to be slow but he miraculously followed closely behind the group.

Chen Xi didn’t dare hesitate and he executed his Heavenly Dragon’s Eight Steps that had attained the advanced-stage. The point of his foot lightly touched the ground, and before the dirt splashed up, his body had already flashed out 30 over meters like a willow seed that rode the air. His movements couldn’t be said to be pleasing to the eye, but they were simple and agile and saved extremely on True Essence and physical strength.

The sky of the Southern Barbaric Nether Domain was always lead gray in color, combined with the dirt that suffused in the air; when a violent wind whistled past, the entire heaven and earth was covered in a layer of mist that was impossible to remove, and it was extremely easy to get lost while travelling here.

However, Du Qingxi had a small and exquisite silver colored compass in her possession and the four of them swiftly moved forward according to the direction the compass pointed at, saving the time for them to identify the direction.

Travelling in a hurry was extremely dull and dry, and baleful beasts would scurry out from the dense mist from time to time. Although they were unable to harm Chen Xi’s group of four, they still affected the pace of their journey.

For the sake of making the best use of their time, everyone besides Chen Xi had all drawn their weapons.

Du Qingxi had a forked-tail dagger that was suffused with a dim-green luster in her hand, and on the upper part of the dagger was a lifelike azure lotus. The lotus petals bloomed gracefully and gloriously. Its name was Unity Azurelotus Dagger, and it was a graded Magic Treasure.

The sword in Duanmu Ze’s hand was 0.3m long and two fingers wide; the blade was like an expanse of autumn water. There were seven stars that were suffused with rainbow colored lights carved on the sword, and spots of chilly starlight flickered gracefully, making it seem full of spirit. Its name was Sevenstar Rainbow Sword, and it was similarly a graded Magic Treasure.

As for Song Lin, he held an umbrella shaped weapon. The frame of the umbrella was a glossy black color and was inscribed with countless dense runes; the umbrellas surface was instead made up of 1,008 sharp hooks that were connected together, and it was suffused with a ghastly and murderous aura. Its name was Skynet Thousandhook Umbrella and it was undoubtedly a graded Magic Treasure as well.

Moreover, for the sake of protecting themselves well, besides the weapons in their hands, the three of them all wore various equipment that flickered with bright lights, such as armor, shoulder guards, bracers, and a belt… Even the shoes on their feet were of extraordinary quality with profound functions. It caused Chen Xi eyes to be dazzled by all this and he was full of yearning. He had to admit that just the various Magic Treasures in the possession of these disciples from great clans weren’t something that any ordinary person was able to possess.

Although because of the Essenceseal pill, the strength of Du Qingxi’s group of three that was fully equipped was maintained at the perfection-stage of the Congenital Realm, the formidability of their battle strength far surpassed an ordinary cultivator with the same cultivation. At the instant they noticed a baleful beast approaching, one of the three of them would beat the others to attack it, and they were all one hit kills that absolutely didn’t allow a chance of survival.

Chen Xi held a sword in his hand, this sword was fully light azure with a sharp edge, and its name was Azurebolt Sword. It was the sword he entrusted to Pei Pei to buy while he was in close door training within the Quiet Room and coupled with that Chaotic Windsplit Sword Technique, it cost him an entire 2,000 plus spirit crystals. If it wasn’t for him killing that two-headed Violet Rhino greater demon and unexpectedly obtaining 3,000 spirit crystals, he would have been unable to afford this Azurebolt Sword that had attained the standard of a high-grade mortal weapon.

Comparisons were indeed odious!

However, Chen Xi was already content with being able to possess his Azurebolt Sword. After all, his circumstances and resources were utterly incapable of comparing with those disciples from great clans that were born with a golden spoon. Rather than being envious and jealous, it was better to think of how to obtain these things in the future through his own effort. That was the matter that was truly important.

All along the way, Chen Xi practically didn’t have the opportunity to fight because of the presence of Du Qingxi’s group of three. He would only run up when the baleful beasts were killed to dig out the baleful pearl within its head. In a short time of not even two hours, he actually collected an entire 300 over baleful pearls which could be considered as an unexpected sum of wealth.

I wonder how many spirit stones these baleful pearls can sell for. I heard that there are people purchasing it only at the capital of Darchu Dynasty, Silken City. If it’s like this, it’s going to be slightly difficult for me to exchange the baleful pearls into spirit stones. Chen Xi thought inwardly.

The capital of Darchu Dynasty, Silken City, was an entire 500,000 km away from the southern territory. He would only be able to control a Magic Treasure and fly over when he advanced into the Violet Palace Realm. But even then, it was difficult to travel there without spending 10 to 15 days.

“Why sell them? According to my observation, this tiny pearl contains a tiny bit of an extremely rare Netherezim Baleful Qi. When your cultivation attains the Rebirth Realm, the marvelousness of its effect when used to condense a Rebirth Wheel would absolutely exceed your imagination.” Ji Yu’s voice suddenly sounded out within Chen Xi’s heart, causing his body to freeze for a moment before returning to normal. He’d long since become used to the various unfathomable abilities of this unconventional spirit of the Manor.

Nevertheless, this was the first time he was communicating with Ji Yu via his soul after all, and he couldn’t help but ask curiously, “You’re able to perceive my thoughts?”

“No, but I saw you holding the baleful pearl and thinking hard with a frown. It was easy to guess,” replied Ji Yu.

Chen Xi came to a sudden understanding, and he unconsciously heaved a sigh of relief in his heart. The secrets and thoughts of one’s own heart being easily spied on and understood by another was something that anyone would be absolutely unable to tolerate.

“Right, you said this baleful pearl contains a tiny bit of Netherezim Baleful Qi?” After putting down the worries in his heart, Chen Xi suddenly realized the meaning of Ji Yu’s words, and his heart couldn’t help but tremble.

Various unimaginable baleful qis were contained within the heaven and the earth, and they were divided into three ranks. These ranks were the heaven-rank, earth-rank, and mortal-rank; these ranks were further divided into three grades, namely high-grade, intermediate-grade, and low-grade. In short, there were three ranks and nine grades.

The common Soulsmelt Baleful Qi and Icesoul Baleful Qi both belonged to the lowest low-grade mortal-rank baleful qi. Whereas baleful qis that had attained the earth-rank belonged to the ranks of rare baleful qis. Baleful qi that had attained the heaven-rank were rare treasures that could only be encountered by luck and not sought after.

Netherezim Baleful Qi was a type of heaven-rank baleful qi, as for which grade within the heaven-rank it pertained to, even Chen Xi didn’t know, clearly due paying very little attention to information in this aspect.

But even then, just by the two words, heaven-rank, Chen Xi dared to affirm that so long as he dared say that he had Netherezim Baleful Qi in his possession, it would absolutely attract the coveting of countless great cultivators!

The reason for this was that when a cultivator wanted to break through to the Rebirth Realm, the cultivator must use baleful qi to condense a Rebirth Wheel within the Dantian.

There were seven temperings in the Rebirth Realm, one Rebirth Wheel per tempering. Moreover, besides sufficient True Essence, when one wanted to condense a Rebirth Wheel, baleful qi was the crux of the process!

The formidability of a Rebirth Realm cultivator’s strength was closely related to the rank and grade of the baleful qi used to condense the Rebirth Wheel. The cultivation of a cultivator that used mortal-rank baleful qi to condense his Rebirth Wheel would inherently lose tremendously to a cultivator that used heaven-rank baleful qi to condense his Rebirth Wheel.

It was easily imaginable how excited Chen Xi was now when he found out that this tiny baleful pearl actually contained a type of heaven-rank baleful qi.

“Exactly. However, the Netherezim Baleful Qi within the baleful pearl is extremely scarce. You’ll have to gather over 10,000 baleful pearls, you’ll more or less be able to extract a palm-sized ball of Netherezim Baleful Qi.” Ji Yu sighed and said, “If you’re willing to take the trouble, I can pass on the extraction technique to you.”

Although the Rebirth Realm was an extremely distant goal to Chen Xi, being able to gather Netherezim Baleful Qi now was much better than spending the time to gather it in the future, after all.

Most importantly, Netherezim Baleful Qi was a heaven-rank baleful qi that could only be encountered by luck and not sought after. How could Chen Xi miss this extremely great opportunity? So, he agreed right away without the slightest hesitation.

Ji Yu was forthright, and at the moment before Chen Xi could even react, a piece of concise technique appeared within his mind.

The technique’s name was Extraction Arts and it was a technique that specialized in extracting baleful qi. Its concept was extremely ingenious and wasn’t difficult to cultivate.

In next to no time, Chen Xi had already mastered this technique, but due to pushing on their journey currently, he wasn’t able to take a baleful pearl and try the technique.

Chen Xi wasn’t anxious as he knew that the cultivation of any technique was absolutely not something that could be done in a short amount of time. Just like talisman crafting and culinary arts, unless one cultivated diligently and bitterly, it was absolutely impossible to attain the level of being skilled in it.

Because of finding out of the secret of the Netherezim Baleful Qi, Chen Xi gathered the baleful pearls along the way even more diligently. This change instantly attracted contempt from Duanmu Ze, and he even generously directed ridicule and cutting remarks at Chen Xi.

Like ‘a bumpkin that hasn’t seen the world,’ ‘insatiably greedy and shameless person,’ ‘jinx that’s greedily gathering wealth like a madman’… These cutting remarks ceaselessly flew out of Duanmu Ze’s mouth with varying tones. Compared to Chen Xi who was concentrated on gathering baleful pearls, the current Duanmu Ze was akin to a widow that had been lonely for a long time, forever possessing things to nag about.

In the end, Du Qingxi was truly unable to stand by and watch any longer, so she turned around and glanced coldly. Only then did Duanmu Ze reluctantly shut his mouth.

Song Lin didn’t let the opportunity slip by and muttered, “Oh, Little Zeze that doesn’t care about poise is actually quite cute…”

Little Zeze?

Duanmu Ze’s pupils abruptly went wide, his feet staggered and he nearly fell down.

Dammit! So disgusting!

Duanmu Ze’s mouth gaped but he didn’t know where to begin talking from because he woefully noticed that before that damnable fellow, Chen Xi, he seemed to have never been his normal self…