Chapter 125 - 113: Suspicion
When the exchange meet ended, Lü Zhong took his leave.
After taking a few steps, he casually cast a Malice Detection Magic Skill, but there was no response.
Apparently, the cliché scenario of being tracked down and robbed of his treasures didn’t happen to him.
This was to be expected. Leng Cui was a prominent figure in Yongling City. The cultivators she invited to the exchange meet were not just any riff-raff, so there was no chance for petty thieves to sneak in.
Walking through the curtain of rain, Lü Zhong noticed it was falling harder and harder.
It had already been a downpour when he arrived, but now it was as if a great river were being poured from the sky.
If he hadn’t activated his Water Pattern Shield, he would have been drenched to the bone.
...
He soon returned to the West River Courtyard.
Thanks to the White Cloud Array, the courtyard remained dry, unlike the dampness outside.
The courtyard was quiet. The Printing Machine wasn’t running, and dozens of thin volumes were stacked beside it. Evidently, the two women had finished their task and returned to their rooms to practice their Cultivation Techniques.
As for the Spirit-Seeking Rat, it was sleeping in its burrow in the corner of the yard, just as usual.
Crossing the courtyard, Lü Zhong entered the Quiet Chamber.
Having set up Arrays many times before, he quickly arranged the Spirit Gathering Array.
He placed a Spirit Stone onto the Spirit-Gathering Array Disc. The Spirit Gathering Array immediately began to operate with a HUM. The highly impure Spiritual Qi within the Spirit Stone was converted, its purity now no less than that of nature’s spiritual energy—in fact, it even seemed a touch superior.
He tried absorbing and refining it; the speed was three times that of his usual arduous cultivation.
Although the rate of his cultivation growth wasn’t as fast as taking a Jade Solidification Pill, it was still about half as effective.
Lü Zhong was overjoyed. ’I really made the right choice buying this Spirit Gathering Array,’ he thought.
Without further hesitation, he placed another eight Spirit Stones on the Spirit-Gathering Array Disc, pushing its conversion speed to the maximum.
The Spirit Stones were continuously consumed, and his cultivation rose rapidly.
Lü Zhong only stopped at nightfall, still wanting more.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t continue cultivating. Rather, the number of times one could circulate their energy each day was limited. Even though he had practiced the Spiritual Universe Dharma Body and his meridians were stronger than before, this limit had only increased slightly. Cultivating at full power would quickly bring him to that limit.
To improve the efficiency of his cultivation gains, it was best to save some of his capacity for refining Pills.
...
In the time that followed, Lü Zhong spent his days in secluded cultivation.
In his spare time, he would also give some guidance to the two women.
’Although my goal is to raise them as my tools, even tools need the ability to protect themselves. Otherwise, if they died from a moment of carelessness, wouldn’t all my effort have been for nothing?’
Meanwhile, the war between the Three Sects entered a white-hot stage.
The Cold Mountain front had long since devolved into a chaotic mess. Jufeng Pass and Cyan Pine Dao, in particular, were fiercely contested territories that had been blasted into scorched earth by both sides. The number of cultivators who died there was unknown, but it was certainly not a small amount.
As for Yongling City, the turmoil continued unabated.
To achieve the Heling Sect’s goal of destroying their enemy’s war potential, the major workshops were constantly targeted. The two sides clashed fiercely more than once for their respective objectives.
「Time passed, and soon it was late autumn.」
Perhaps because the war between the Three Sects had reached a stalemate, Yongling City suddenly grew quiet.
Not only were there no new battle reports from the outside, but the unrest within the city also subsided. Rumors began to circulate in the streets that the two sides were about to negotiate for peace, and they were told as if they were well-reasoned, factual accounts.
Lü Zhong walked through the streets, and devastation met his eyes everywhere.
Amidst the rubble and ruins, one could still see skeletal remains that hadn’t been cleared away. Some were already rotting and infested with maggots, others were a bruised, whitish-purple. The air was thick with the stench of death.
Yongling City had long since lost the prosperity it had when he first arrived.
Suddenly, a fast horse galloped over from the distance, accompanied by the CLANG of a gong.
"Good news! The war is over!"
The crowd, who had been numbly picking through the ruins, showed a change in expression upon hearing this news.
"The war... is over?"
A mortal in ragged clothes had hot tears welling up in his eyes.
But it was not joy, but irrepressible grief.
His parents, his children, and everything he had struggled half his life to build had all been destroyed by this war.
Even if the war was over, it meant nothing to him.
"CLIPPITY-CLOP..."
The fast horse stopped in front of Lü Zhong. A young man in a cloth shirt dismounted and bowed respectfully to him.
"Immortal Master, the war is over."
"At the fortress city of Jufeng Pass, the Three Sects have signed a truce."
A truce.
Upon hearing this, Lü Zhong thought, ’Isn’t that just a worthless piece of paper?’
’The war must have reached a stalemate. Neither side wants to shed any more blood needlessly, so they’ve chosen a temporary peace.’
’As for the future, I’m afraid there’s still more fighting to come.’
’After all, the conflict that started the war—the Heling Sect using Yongling City’s size advantage to constantly leech off the territories of the Golden Rainbow Sect and the Luoyun Sect—has yet to be resolved.’
"A truce is good. If the fighting continued, I’m afraid I wouldn’t even be able to buy Pills anymore."
Lü Zhong produced five sheets of Talisman Paper as a reward for the young man.
...
Arriving at a Magic Shop, Lü Zhong prepared to select a few more Attack Magic Skills.
As the saying goes, you can never have too many skills. The extra Magic Skills he learned might not be used often, but they would at least diversify his offensive options, saving him from always relying on the Qingyang Fire Rain Technique and the Late Sun Sword Skill.
It wasn’t that the power of these two Magic Skills couldn’t keep up with his cultivation level, but that they were too easily countered.
Take the Qingyang Fire Rain Technique, for example. If an opponent prepared a Water-attribute Defensive Magical Artifact, they could use the principle of water overcoming fire to nullify a significant amount of its power, greatly diminishing the technique’s effectiveness.
For another example, if someone could get their hands on the legendary Spirit Treasure, the "Fireproof Shield," they could render the Qingyang Fire Rain Technique completely useless.
Of course, it was unlikely anyone would use a Spirit Treasure to deal with an ant-like Loose Cultivator.
But no matter how small the chance, it still existed.