The Quest for Immortality

At the gates of Refining Demon Mountain.

Xun Ziyou and another elder dressed in a maple-colored robe were sipping tea.

That elder took a sip of tea, then suddenly frowned and remarked in surprise, ”Recently, the Cangmu Wolves in the mountain seem to have decreased significantly compared to when I was on duty before...”

Xun Ziyou choked on his tea and coughed lightly.

The elder in the maple-colored robe gave Xun Ziyou a suspicious glance, ”Elder Xun, do you happen to know something?”

Xun Ziyou’s expression turned complicated, thinking to himself, how could I not know...

A ”little senior brother” from our Taixu Sect, along with his group of junior disciples, has been specifically hunting the Cangmu Wolves in Refining Demon Mountain.

Custom formation arrays, specialized spiritual tools, standardized processes, unified strategies—it’s like they’ve turned into Taoist Soldiers...

How could any monster beast withstand that?

The Cangmu Wolves in Refining Demon Mountain must’ve been plagued with misfortune for eight lifetimes.

Xun Ziyou coughed again, vaguely murmuring, ”I wouldn’t know... Sect disciples hunting monsters—what they hunt is all the same, a little more, a little less, it doesn’t really matter.”

”True enough...” the other elder muttered in thought.

Xun Ziyou glanced at him, silently poured him another cup of tea, and said softly:

”As elders, our job is just to maintain order. There are so many disciples from various sects—we can’t monitor them all. Let them play as they wish, as long as no major troubles arise...”

”Besides, with the situation in the Southern Wilderness intensifying, who knows when we’ll have to traverse mountains and rivers, toiling away. How much longer can we enjoy leisure like this, sipping tea while watching the mountains...”

The elder in the maple-colored robe was stunned, then nodded in agreement, ”Elder Xun makes a valid point.”

With that, the two of them picked up their teacups and continued to drink leisurely.

But deep down, Xun Ziyou couldn’t quite relax.

That troublesome Mo Hua better not push the Cangmu Wolves in Refining Demon Mountain to extinction...

Fortunately, it seemed Mo Hua got the message from Elder Xun and stopped exclusively targeting the Cangmu Wolves.

He decided to turn his attention to other monster beasts.

The Cangmu Wolves in the mountains, after all, only had limited numbers.

A team of five focusing on hunting Cangmu Wolves was still manageable.

But now, his ”underlings”—junior brothers and sisters—had grown in number, forming squad after squad, dressed in Yimu armor and armed with sharp Golden-series spiritual weapons, all going after the Cangmu Wolves.

The population of Cangmu Wolves began to noticeably decline.

With more cultivators hunting wolves and fewer wolves to hunt,

Some disciples would spend an entire day wandering the Refining Demon Mountain only to return empty-handed, wasting merit points on entrance fees.

To maintain the balance of the ecosystem and prevent the disciples from leaving empty-handed, Mo Hua personally took action, summarizing his experiences and creating another monster hunting ”guide.”

This time, the guide targeted a type of monster called the Tianqing Snake.

The Tianqing Snake, being a Wood-series Snake Demon, was similar to the Cangmu Wolf in that it was a Wood-series monster, but it naturally carried venom.

The armor and spiritual weapons used to hunt Cangmu Wolves worked equally well on the Tianqing Snakes.

However, the Tianqing Snakes were more sinister, camouflaging themselves in bushes and blending into their surroundings. Their demonic power mixed with the aura of vegetation, making them harder to detect.

To address this, Mo Hua specially crafted a Wood Spirit Array Plate.

This array plate could identify the general composition of Wood-series spiritual power within a ten-zhang radius.

It could differentiate between natural vegetation aura, cultivator spiritual power, or Wood Poison demonic power.

Though not extremely precise, it was sufficient for locating monsters.

Aside from being inherently venomous, harder to detect, and more challenging to hunt, the Tianqing Snakes weren’t particularly powerful.

Moreover, Tianqing Snakes had snake gall, which sold for a higher price and earned more merit points.

Before long, the Tianqing Snakes started sharing the burden previously borne by the Cangmu Wolves.

The Cangmu Wolves were no longer the only monster beasts being ”targeted” by Taixu Sect’s ”little senior brother” Mo Hua and his group of junior disciples.

After the Tianqing Snakes, Mo Hua devised hunting ”guides” for several other types of monster beasts.

The scope of these guides expanded even further.

Beyond Wood-series monsters, they included Golden-series Golden-patterned Leopards, Earth-series Grey-spotted Pythons, Fire-series Crimson Flame Hyenas, and others.

These monster beasts all made it onto Mo Hua’s ”monster hunting guide list.”

In conjunction with these guides, Mo Hua also designed refinement array maps for customized spiritual tools, which he handed over to Master Gu for refinement and subsequent sale in the Gu Family’s stores.

The quantity of these spiritual tools was astonishing.

The spiritual tools required for monster hunting already exceeded those used for bounties or apprehending Sin Cultivators.

Additionally, hunting monsters was far more efficient than bounty hunting.

After all, Sin Cultivators roamed far and wide, making them difficult to track, while monsters mostly stayed within Refining Demon Mountain and could be found easily upon entering the mountain.

Because of this, Master Gu’s Gushan Refining Workshop had its furnaces burning around the clock, bustling with activity.

The customized spiritual tools’ array diagrams had been standardized by Master Gu and passed on to his numerous apprentices.

If it had been just one or two pieces to customize, mass production wouldn’t have been possible.

But now, with Mo Hua’s guides, the spiritual tools required for Taixu Sect disciples to hunt monsters had become standardized, reaching a certain scale of artifact refinement.

These customized spiritual tools could now be produced in bulk as needed.

Meanwhile, the store business flourished more than ever...

As for these developments, Mo Hua wasn’t particularly concerned.

During his days off, he would still immerse himself in Refining Demon Mountain, though now he no longer needed to hunt personally.

He had crafted monster hunting guides and promoted them widely.

Over time, more and more Taixu Sect disciples would visit his assembly point, acknowledging him as ”little senior brother,” receiving a guide, and heading to Refining Demon Mountain.

Of the over a thousand sect disciples, while most had called him ”little senior brother” on the surface,

Only a small minority truly regarded him as their senior brother at heart.

They were all Heaven’s Chosen Sons—none would easily submit to another.

Some, gifted and proud, would only nod to Mo Hua in passing, never uttering the words ”little senior brother.”