77 It Isn't Done by a Native Cultivator

Fang Jinyu flipped through the Tianling Sect's manuals and found out that the City of Liches was a stone city. It was as if it had been forged naturally by the heavens and earth, and even a Nascent Soul stage cultivator would find it difficult to damage it. Furthermore, it was divided into two parts, which were the inner city and the outer city.

Currently, the Liches are only living in the outer city of the City of Liches.

In the past, a sect's Nascent Soul stage Grandmaster had once joined forces with a Nascent Soul stage Lich from the City of Liches to explore the inner city of the stone city. However, both of them had mysteriously disappeared.

Soon, the remains of the two Nascent Soul stage cultivators were discovered.

However, the strange thing was that the remains had a terrifying corrosive power. Any Lich that came into contact with it would turn into deviated Liches. The most shocking thing was that things became easier for deviated Liches to cultivate, but they were also stronger than their peers!

An ordinary Foundation Establishment stage deviated Lich could fight against a sword cultivator who ranked 9 in the Foundation Establishment stage.

Moreover, the devil's realm was far from what was described in the strange book.

According to the Tianling Sect's manuals, the devil's realm wasn't united. Instead, it was separated into different forces. Some of the devil's realm was only the size of a village, while others were the size of two or three immortal cities.

The devil's realm would invade the Nine Desolations from time to time. However, the devil's realm that appeared in the Nine Desolations was only village-sized. There were only a few wisps of devil's energy inside, so no one noticed it.

Just like the inner city of the City of Liches, the devil's realm had also hidden an ancient secret!

Some devil's realms would be overflown with blood flow just like living things. There were even records that cultivators of the Nine Desolations had once heard heartbeats from the devil's realms.

Moreover, many places of the devil's realm would have stone tablets that looked like tombstones. However, it recorded how to resurrect a dead person.

Although some cultivators from the Nine Desolations had tried, no one knew what the results were.

It only recorded that the cultivators who tried the resurrect method on the stone tablets would disappear with their sect.

Compared to the strange happenings in the City of Liches and the devil's realm, the desolate forbidden land didn't seem as scary anymore. Most of the desolate forbidden lands had become less mysterious after generations of exploration by the cultivators of the Nine Desolations. The death rate of those who went in to explore was low.

As long as one could find the corresponding method, even Qi Condensation stage cultivators could walk out of the desolate forbidden land safely.

However, there were still some desolate forbidden lands that were terrifying.

There was a desolate forbidden land that looked like a tomb, so it was called the "Immortal Ancient Desolate Tomb." It was recorded that only a few cultivators who ranked 9 in the Foundation Establishment stage who went inside to explore were lucky enough to come out alive. The rest, even the Nascent Soul stage cultivators, didn't come out again.

However, cultivators would be fine as long as they avoided the Immortal Ancient Desolate Tomb.

The strangest and most dangerous place was the mountain forest-like desolate forbidden land. It would take the initiative to lure people in. There was once a Nascent Soul stage Grandmaster who barged into it for the sake of his descendants. However, he escaped with serious injuries and left behind a few extremely strange words before his death.

As for the apocalypse, the Tianling Sect's manuals didn't give information about it.

Aside from what Fang Jinyu already knew, the apocalypse wasn't a land of absolute death. Although it looked like a place for the deaths, there were chances to live. People who obtained the chance could lead to eternal life.

The book did mention that the so-called eternal life was most likely becoming a part of the group of Nascent Soul stage cultivators who had abandoned the Nine Desolations immortal path.

However, Fang Jinyu wasn't sure about it.

It was because there was a problem with the "eternal life" of those Nascent Soul stage cultivators who had abandoned the immortal path.

Fang Jinyu was still flipping through all sorts of books.

It was also one of the rewards of the competition. The participants could come to "Mount Diancang" to read some of the books for free. They could also make an exception and rent the books out, but they had to return them within half a month.

Due to this benefit, many of the Tianling Sect's disciples participated in the competition.

It was because of "Mount Diancang" restrictions. The only people permitted to enter and read the books inside were late-stage Foundation Establishment stage cultivators with higher cultivation bases. Furthermore, even late-stage Foundation Establishment stage cultivators had to spend merit points to come here.

However, while Fang Jinyu was happily reading on "Mount Diancang", someone else wasn't happy because she had been stood up by him again.

Hence, after she had completed her third round of competition, Xin Qianqian came to "Mount Diancang" to look for Fang Jinyu.

"Senior brother, did you forget something?"

Xin Qianqian poured Fang Jinyu a cup of tea with a smile.

"Junior sister, you had something to tell me..." Only then did Fang Jinyu remember that after he had participated in the third round of the competition, Xin Qianqian had asked him to go to Mount Goddess to find her.

However, Fang Jinyu was so engrossed in reading that he forgot about it.

Fang Jinyu felt a little awkward when he thought about it.

It was because the situation was different from the last time. Fang Jinyu didn't mean to stand Xin Qianqian up, so he wasn't as confident as he was the last time.

Xin Qianqian rested her chin on one of her hands and said, tilting her head, "It's not convenient to talk about it here."

Fang Jinyu nodded and said, "Then let me rent a few manuals first." Although he didn't have countless merit points, he had a few thousand in case he needed them.

After all, many things in the Tianling Sect couldn't be bought with spirit stones.

The two of them returned to Mount Xiaohe together.

Then, Fang Jinyu turned around and found that much of the furniture in his immortal estate was made of magic.

Fang Jinyu was just about to say that he couldn't do it when a certain woman pounced on him and pushed him onto the bed.

…

They melted each other's souls like a hot knife in butter.

…

Fang Jinyu was being pushed away as usual, and he watched as her beautiful figure went to get dressed and wash up. He then simply put on a robe and picked up the book he had rented and continued reading.

Soon, the graceful figure came over with a faint fragrance.

She remained quiet but leaned on Fang Jinyu's shoulder for a while before asking softly, "Senior brother, these books only have descriptions of some ordinary spirit herbs. Are you looking for something?"

Fang Jinyu pointed to the three spirit herbs in the other book and said, "I'm looking for ordinary spirit herbs that have similar medicinal properties to these three spirit herbs but don't conflict with each other."

Although the medicinal properties of these three spirit herbs were similar to those of the Foundation Establishment Fruit, they all lacked a crucial medicinal property. However, if they could complement one another, Fang Jinyu could use his special "frugal" alchemy technique to refine a Foundation Establishment Elixir.

But before that, there was still a difficult problem.

If these three ingredients were used together, the final product wouldn't be a Foundation Establishment Elixir but a poison elixir that could poison a Qi Condensation stage cultivator to death.

It was because the medicinal properties of these three spirit herbs conflicted.

"Then I'll help you."

Xin Qianqian also picked up a book.

About two hours later, Fang Jinyu finally finished reading the book in his hands. He was regretful that he couldn't find it, so he wanted to ask Xin Qianqian if she had found it.

"How is it?"

"It's quite comfortable."

Fang Jinyu was speechless.

Fang Jinyu thought, "What's her brain filled with?"

Xin Qianqian's face turned slightly red as she leaned into Fang Jinyu's arms. She was no longer in the mood to read the book in her hands, so she subconsciously blurted out what she had just felt.

Fang Jinyu saw her glare and picked up a book.

Fang Jinyu pretended not to hear her.

"Senior brother, I have something important to tell you." As Fang Jinyu smelt a sweet scent, a certain woman approached him again.

"Go ahead. I'm listening."

Fang Jinyu couldn't help but look at Xin Qianqian. He was suspicious that the two of them had different understandings of the meaning of "important."

"The problem of the Foundation Establishment Fruit tress this time is very likely man-made."

Fang Jinyu looked at Xin Qianqian in surprise. Then, he saw her continue to speak in a serious tone, "It isn't done by a native Nine Desolations cultivator."