Being a Late Bloomer in the Cultivation World

"How could this be?" Qir Changdao was stunned. He couldn’t imagine that opening the array would lead to this.

But before he could make sense of it, his vision went black, and he breathed his last.

"The Three Mountains Golden Saber Formation?" With a wave of his sleeve, Wei Tu used his Magical Power to pull the pale green Array Plate from Qir Changdao’s hand. He glanced at it briefly before putting it into his Storage Bag.

The Three Mountains Golden Saber Formation integrated both offense and defense. Just because he was inside the Array didn’t mean he was safe.

On the contrary, he was actually in several times more danger inside the Array than he was outside of it.

Therefore, for his own safety, Wei Tu couldn’t let Qir Changdao live, not while he could still control the Xuanhou Qir Family’s Clan Protection Array.

As for honor...

There was no need for honor when dealing with a Cultivator like Qir Changdao. Besides, he had never promised Qir Changdao anything before the man opened the Array.

Forcing Qir Changdao to open the Array had been his tactic all along.

"Qir Changdao was a traitor who betrayed his own family. For the sake of his own Cultivation Resources, he forged debts with the Jiuyun Commerce Association and sold off the Qir Family’s Female Cultivators... I have slain him here today. I hope you Fellow Daoists can understand."

After slaying Qir Changdao, Wei Tu extended an olive branch to the Qir Family’s Cultivators.

—He didn’t actually know if the Qir Family’s supposed debts were real. But he knew that no matter how dire a family’s situation, they wouldn’t resort to selling their own women to pay them off—let alone the Clan Leader’s own daughter.

For that reason alone, he believed Qir Changdao deserved to die.

Executing the ringleader was not uncommon in the power struggles between influential families.

In a way, Wei Tu’s actions had also set things right for Qir Feng, the Clan Leader’s daughter.

Thus, upon hearing Wei Tu’s words, the Qir Family Cultivators finally breathed a collective sigh of relief.

After all, with Wei Tu’s level of Cultivation, slaughtering the entire Xuanhou Qir Family would be a simple matter. There was no need for him to feign benevolence at a time like this.

...

「Half a day later.」

Wei Tu and Qir Feng arrived at the Forbidden Land within the Qir Family Territory.

The Forbidden Land was a stone forest several miles across, filled with gray stone pillars of varying heights. Numerous Low-Tier Spirit Grasses grew between them.

In the center of the stone forest was a clearing, where a magnificent, resplendent hall had been built.

"Although that hall is the family treasury, where our clan’s Magical Artifacts, Spirit Medicines, and other items are stored, in truth... the hall is just a decoy set up by the Ancestor."

"The true foundation of our clan isn’t in that hall, but within the stone forest itself."

As she spoke, Qir Feng walked to the seventh stone pillar on the left side of the forest.

Qir Feng channeled several streams of Magical Power into a corner of the pillar, which immediately began to glow with the pale white light of a Restriction.

Then, her lips parted slightly, and she produced a black, longan-sized pearl from within her body, pressing it into the stone pillar.

CRACK! CRACK!

The base of the pillar split apart, revealing a long, narrow opening. It was only about half a foot wide, just enough for one person to squeeze through.

Wei Tu shot Kou Hongying a look, signaling her to keep an eye on Qir Feng. Then, using Instant Body, he slipped into the crevice.

"Fellow Daoist Qir, please wait here for a moment. You can enter after Uncle Wei has finished scouting," Kou Hongying said, understanding his unspoken command. She used her Magical Power to temporarily immobilize Qir Feng.

...

Upon entering the crevice, he found himself in a long underground tunnel that stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Go!" Wei Tu slapped his Storage Bag, releasing several fist-sized Spider Puppets to scout the path ahead for him.

These Spider Puppets were little trinkets he had purchased on the side when he bought the Swordsman Puppet from Yu Kui Master.

Spider Puppets were only Low-Level Puppets. They couldn’t be used for combat and were only suitable for scouting.

’No danger.’ Seeing that all the Spider Puppets had survived and encountered no traps along the way, Wei Tu breathed a sigh of relief.

He followed the Spider Puppets to the end of the underground tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, he saw a White Jade Square Platform, several yards long and wide.

On the White Jade Square Platform sat a pale yellow Jade Scroll and a gray meditation cushion.

’What exactly is this clan foundation Qir Feng spoke of?’ Wei Tu frowned. With a lift of his hand, he pulled the pale yellow Jade Scroll into his palm and began to patiently examine it.

「A quarter of an hour later.」

Wei Tu put down the Jade Scroll and began to scan every inch of the White Jade Platform with his Guardian Map Divine Sense and Geomagnetic Primordial Light, searching for hidden mechanisms.

The contents of the Jade Scroll were brief, only describing the refining method for a Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure called "Immortal Spirit Dew."

’This Immortal Spirit Dew must be the foundation of the Xuanhou Qir Family,’ Wei Tu guessed.

Time ticked by.

Wei Tu found a mechanism under the meditation cushion. He pressed it lightly.

The White Jade Platform immediately sank downwards. In its center, a fist-sized, cyan-colored infant carving was revealed. The wooden infant was seated cross-legged, its eyes tightly shut, and its hands formed a peculiar seal.

And in the wooden infant’s mouth was a thin, finger-long Pill Bottle.

’Is the Immortal Spirit Dew inside this Pill Bottle?’ Wei Tu wondered, shocked and uncertain.

It was his first time seeing such a bizarre Spiritual Object in the Cultivation Realm.

After a long moment, Wei Tu finally confirmed it. The so-called "foundation" of the Xuanhou Qir Family was the "Immortal Spirit Dew" that seeped from the mouth of this "infant carving."

But what baffled Wei Tu was that this "infant carving" seemed to be made of neither metal nor wood. It wasn’t like a Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure; instead, it resembled some kind of man-made Blood and Flesh Magical Artifact.

Just like the "One Qi Pouch."

Moving the "infant carving," Wei Tu discovered a Jade Scroll under its rear, identical in make to the one that recorded the "Immortal Spirit Dew" formula.

The contents recorded within described the research conducted by generations of Qir Family ancestors on this "infant carving."

From it, Wei Tu learned the name of the "infant carving": the "Ten Thousand Spirits Demon Infant." It had a profound connection to the Ten Thousand Spirits Sect.

The Qir Family’s ancestor had even made a bold conjecture: the "Ten Thousand Spirits Demon Infant" held the secret for a member of the Ten Thousand Spirits Sect to break through from the Golden Core to the Nascent Soul realm.

’I wonder how the Qir Family even obtained this Ten Thousand Spirits Demon Infant.’ Wei Tu shook his head after reading the contents of the Jade Scroll.

The Qir Family had been established for a thousand years, yet it was still just a Foundation Establishment Family. In its entire history, a Golden Core True Monarch had never once appeared.

And this "Ten Thousand Spirits Demon Infant" was clearly not something a Foundation Establishment Cultivator could possess.

’Immortal Spirit Dew can raise a Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s Cultivation. If the Qir Family had such a Treasure, why didn’t they ever produce a Golden Core True Monarch?’ This sudden thought gave Wei Tu mixed feelings of joy and apprehension.