Eternal Life by Daily Divination

Chapter 72: Chapter 72: The Demon Beast’s Mockery

After resting for a moment, Li Chang’an picked up Zhu Gang’s Spirit Beast Bag.

’This Spirit Beast Bag has much more space than mine.’

He gave it a cursory scan.

Inside, he found over thirty Spirit Beasts.

There were nearly twenty Tier One Early Stage Spirit Beasts and ten Tier One Middle Stage Spirit Beasts.

The remaining five.

Were all Tier One Late Stage Spirit Beasts.

One of them, a Fire Patterned Lion, had impressively reached Tier One Peak, comparable to a Human Race Cultivator at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.

’These Spirit Beasts are all bound to Zhu Gang by a strict Spirit Contract. Once Zhu Gang dies, they will die too.’

Li Chang’an looked at the Spirit Beasts and pondered for a moment.

He had to kill Zhu Gang.

As for these Spirit Beasts…

If he could break their Spirit Contracts, they would survive and could provide him with a long-term supply of Essence Blood.

But the problem was, Li Chang’an simply didn’t have the energy to raise so many Spirit Beasts.

Furthermore, these Spirit Beasts had almost all been raised by Zhu Gang since they were young and were extremely loyal to him.

Even if Li Chang’an forced them to sign a Spirit Contract with him, it was highly likely they would turn on him in the future.

’To be safe, I’d better just kill them all!’

Li Chang’an didn’t hesitate for long before making his decision.

With a thought, he moved the Fire Patterned Lion out of the Spirit Beast Bag.

ROAR—!

The Fire Patterned Lion was indeed loyal. It roared in fury upon seeing Zhu Gang’s miserable state, its fierce eyes filled with killing intent as it lunged at Li Chang’an.

But in the next instant, it was suppressed by the Array!

“Beast!”

Li Chang’an snorted coldly.

He immediately used Magic to extract the Fire Patterned Lion’s Essence Blood.

After just a dozen breaths, the Fire Patterned Lion’s aura weakened.

Its eyes were still full of ferocity. It bared its teeth at Li Chang’an as if it wanted to swallow him whole.

A moment later, it finally realized death was approaching.

It hastily retracted all its ferocity and lowered its head to Li Chang’an, seemingly in surrender.

“You want to live?”

Li Chang’an’s expression was indifferent. Showing no mercy, he continued to extract its Essence Blood.

Under normal circumstances, one shouldn’t extract too much Essence Blood at once, or it would cause irreversible damage to the Spirit Beast.

At best, it would lower the Spirit Beast’s potential. At worst, it would kill it!

But Li Chang’an had no such scruples.

After another dozen breaths, the Fire Patterned Lion’s head drooped completely, its aura steadily diminishing.

After letting out one last roar of fury and indignation at Li Chang’an, its aura vanished completely.

’The Essence Blood is useful for my Body Refinement. The remaining Spiritual Flesh can be eaten with Spirit Rice for daily meals. The bones can be used to make Puppets, and the hide can be sold for a good price…’

Li Chang’an calculated in his mind.

Afterward, he did the same, disposing of all the Spirit Beasts in the Spirit Beast Bag.

’From now on, I’ll let Dahuang and the Profound Water Turtle live in this Spirit Beast Bag. The space is larger, so they’ll be more comfortable.’

After doing all this, Li Chang’an looked at Zhu Gang again.

At this moment, although Zhu Gang wasn’t dead yet, he was on his last breath.

“Chang’an, don’t kill me! I’m still useful. Don’t you need Demon Beast Essence Blood? I can help you raise Demon Beasts.”

His voice was weak as he pleaded his value.

Li Chang’an shook his head slightly.

“No need, Elder Zhu. You should go on your way in peace.”

“Wait… Chang’an…”

Zhu Gang barely managed to draw a breath, his voice growing more urgent.

He was frantic.

“Chang’an, I can also help you deal with Zheng Lingfeng! As long as you pretend to be under my control, you can get close to Zheng Lingfeng and attack him when he least expects it. Then…”

CRACK!

Before he could finish, a streak of Sword Qi severed his neck.

Zhu Gang’s mouth hung open and his eyes were wide as his head rolled off his shoulders.

“Elder Zhu, have a safe journey.”

Li Chang’an slapped a Talisman on him.

Soon, flames erupted, consuming Zhu Gang’s body.

The method Zhu Gang had just proposed seemed useful, but in reality, it was extremely dangerous.

Li Chang’an wouldn’t even consider it.

He did want to kill Zheng Lingfeng, but he needed a foolproof plan.

…

「Several months later.」

Li Chang’an made several trips to the Black Market to sell the large number of Treasures he had accumulated.

Some of these Treasures he had obtained from Tribulation Cultivators, while others had been given to him by Zheng Jinbao and Zhu Gang.

During this time, Li Chang’an finished modifying the two Top Grade Puppets.

He upgraded their Tier to High-quality.

At this point, Li Chang’an’s Skills in puppetry had also reached the limit of Tier One.

As for the subsequent inheritance, he had already asked Xu Fugui to inquire about it for him.

However, even in Yellow Crane Immortal City, a Tier Two inheritance was not so easy to obtain.

After all, a single Tier Two inheritance was enough to support a Foundation Establishment Family!

“Brother Li, I just received news that Huang He Master is taking on disciples. Cultivators with sufficient talent have a chance to study under him. Once you successfully become his disciple, you can choose a Skills inheritance from the Yellow Crane Immortal City’s Treasure Vault.”

This was the content of the letter Xu Fugui had just sent.

Li Chang’an felt a sense of helplessness as he read it.

’Talent?’

’A Low Grade Spirit Root like mine is a dime a dozen. No one wants it.’

’Forget becoming a Golden Core’s disciple; even becoming a Foundation Establishment’s disciple is difficult.’

The only reason Xu Fugui had succeeded in becoming a disciple was because that elder named Wang Fu’an had simply taken a liking to him.

’Oh well, I can’t force it. I’ll take it slow.’

Li Chang’an had a good mentality.

His current Skills were mostly sufficient for now.

In his spare time from cultivation, he would study the Spirit Plant and Beast Taming inheritances he possessed, slowly deepening his understanding of these two Skills.

「A few days later.」

The Fifth Stage of Body Refinement was officially complete.

’My current physique can withstand an attack from a Qi Refining Fifth Layer Cultivator.’

Li Chang’an slowly clenched his fists, feeling a terrifying power coursing through his body.

If it came to close-quarters combat, he could even tear an ordinary Cultivator to shreds with his bare hands!

’Still, unless absolutely necessary, I should stick to sneak attacks. I must not engage in close combat.’

Li Chang’an mused.

Body Refinement was his final trump card, not to be used lightly.

Afterward, he began preparations for the Sixth Stage of Body Refinement.

He had already traded for a sufficient amount of the required Spirit Medicine at several small trade fairs.

As for the Demon Beast Essence Blood, he had also prepared most of it.

Only a very few types of Essence Blood, such as that of the Mountain-moving Ape, were still missing.

’The remaining few Demon Beasts are all recorded in Zhu Gang’s little booklet. It shouldn’t be difficult to get their Essence Blood.’

Li Chang’an planned to go out and hunt.

But he didn’t act immediately. Instead, he waited a night.

Only after receiving an “Auspicious Trigram” did he feel at ease.

…

「The next day.」

Li Chang’an went out to hunt Demons.

Just as the Divination had shown, it went very smoothly.

In just two days, he had obtained the Essence Blood of five types of Demon Beasts, with only one left.

’I just need the Essence Blood of the Shadowless Finch, and I’ll have everything for the Sixth Stage of Body Refinement.’

Li Chang’an thought to himself.

This last one was also the most difficult.

This was because the Shadowless Finch was a powerful Top Grade Bloodline Demon Beast with the extremely rare Wind attribute, which was not among the Five Elements.

Its innate Speed was astonishingly fast.

An ordinary Cultivator couldn’t possibly catch it!

Fortunately, Li Chang’an possessed a Top Grade Escape Technique that was nearing Great Success, not much inferior to Wei Sen’s back then.

About four hours later, Li Chang’an used his Escape Technique to quietly arrive in the Shadowless Finch’s territory.

Before long, a shadowy figure flew past in front of him.

WHOOSH!

In the blink of an eye, the shadow vanished, as if what had flown past was just an illusion.

’It really is the Shadowless Finch.’

Li Chang’an’s eyes lit up, and he immediately gave chase.

The Shadowless Finch quickly noticed his pursuit. With a flap of its wings, its Speed surged, and a mocking laugh came from its beak.

“CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP…”

It seemed to be mocking Li Chang’an for overestimating his own abilities.

But… soon, it could no longer laugh.

One pursued while the other fled. The distance between them didn’t increase; instead, it gradually closed.

The Shadowless Finch changed direction several times, its figure like a phantom, using every trick it knew, but it could not shake Li Chang’an.

Finally, it had no other choice and dove headfirst into a cave residence.

Immediately after, a faint halo of light appeared at the cave’s entrance.

’Huh? A former cultivator’s cave residence?’

Li Chang’an halted, stopping outside the cave residence.

Through the hazy glow, he saw a skeleton sitting cross-legged inside the cave.

’This Shadowless Finch is clever, knowing how to activate the Guardian Array in the cave residence.’

Li Chang’an observed it for a moment.

There were still quite a few Spirit Stones powering the Array. If he were to slowly wear it down, it would likely take more than half a month.

But he didn’t have the time to spare.

’Good thing I kept the Small Forbidden Array.’