Chapter 238 - 213 Martial Pill_1

The grandmasters present said nothing.

The big world was too much for them; they only wanted to safeguard their current holdings.

After a moment of silence, Yuchi Zhong continued, "We will take the bodies of these spirit communicators for inspection. You have all done a good job in killing the martial spirits. The Mansion of King Ming will send rewards after the check is completed."

"In addition, to prevent the martial spirits from seeking revenge, we will have people stationed at the gateway of Moling Mountain."

The bodyguards for King Ming, swift and efficient in their duties, left with the bodies of the spirit communicators after giving instructions. However, they did not mention anything about the feudal lords, such as the Qiu Family and Ouyang Family, infiltrated by the Martial Spirits.

This relieved the grandmasters of the feudal lords.

After the guards of King Ming left, Lu Yan’s life returned to normal. He practiced martial arts daily or guided his disciples.

Three months later, rewards from the Mansion of King Ming arrived.

All were given to Guan Shan first, who would then distribute them based on merit.

Although the Qiu Family, Ouyang Family, and Gao Family were envious, they had no share in the rewards and naturally no one would disgrace themselves.

Upon hearing the news, Lu Yan hurried to Kunwu Mountain.

Then, looking at an iron box filled with round balls the size of longan fruits, he was slightly dazed.

"Senior, what are these?" Lu Yan asked.

"These are martial pills. These are really valuable, far more valuable than martial foods of the same level."

"This box holds a hundred third-level martial pills, worth more than three million pieces of silver."

Guan Shan replied.

"Martial pills?" Lu Yan was surprised.

Seeing that Lu Yan was not aware of what they were, Guan Shan explained, "Martial food is a basic way to use alien beast meat and spiritual medicine. Although the food tastes excellent, it wastes a lot of essence."

"Martial pills are a perfect blend of alien beast meat and spiritual medicine, removing the impurities and concentrating the essence. One tiny martial pill is as effective as a hundred catties of martial food."

"However, preparing this martial pill is extremely difficult and beyond the capacity of even a martial chef grandmaster. Only an honorable-level martial chef can manage it."

Guan Shan explained.

"One pill is equivalent to a hundred catties of martial food?"

Lu Yan was stunned.

Martial food requires digestion, and the stomach can digest only so much in a day, which limits the speed of improvement.

If he had enough martial pills, wouldn’t his cultivation pace speed up significantly?

"Martial pills are precious, three thousand silver pieces each. How many people can afford them?"

Guan Shan seemingly perceived Lu Yan’s thoughts and struck them down with a single comment.

Lu Yan gave an awkward smile.

"I’ll take twenty martial pills and you can have the rest," Guan Shan said.

"I can have all the rest? What about the Zhao Clan and the Ding family?"

"Just give them some third-level martial food. They don’t know what rewards King Ming’s Mansion has given."

Guan Shan smiled.

In his heart, Lu Yan gave him a big thumbs-up and collected the rewards without hesitation.

Back in Li’an City, Lu Yan couldn’t wait to swallow a martial pill and start cultivating his Divine Jiao Gold Body.

As Lu Yan cultivated, warmth spread from his abdomen, and rich energy flowed from there throughout his body, eventually transforming into qi-blood. The qi-blood passed through his bones and blood vessels, entered his internal organs, and turned into inner strength.

Lu Yan could visibly feel his inner strength increasing.

It took him a whole day and night to digest the martial pill. He could evidently feel an increase in inner strength, equivalent to having a hundred catties of third-level martial food.

"Its effects are indeed astonishing. These martial pills remind me of the elixirs in the novels from my previous life," Lu Yan thought to himself.

If he took one of these martial pills daily, his cultivation level would soon reach the second rank of the grandmaster.

It was a lot harder to rise in rank at the grandmaster level than at the Martial Marquis level.

A typical grandmaster required at least a few decades to advance one rank, even with plentiful supplies of martial food.

Given that Lu Yan had to control eleven jalans of qi-blood, he needed eleven times the resources than average people.

However, with the assistance of his top martial arts techniques that unified man and martial arts, he could convert martial food more efficiently than average cultivators and so required fewer resources.

For instance, the effect he obtained from consuming one jin of martial food equaled to what others obtained from consuming three, four, or even five jin of martial food.

Lu Yan’s speedy advancement was partly due to sufficient martial food but more importantly due to the high conversion rate granted by his martial arts.

The next day, Lu Yan swallowed another martial pill and continued his cultivation.

In the blink of an eye, three months had passed.

All eighty martial pills were consumed.

Lu Yan’s cultivation level had improved significantly, and he was now close to the peak of the first rank of a grandmaster.

That seemed reasonable, after all.

The eighty martial pills were worth 2.4 million silver pieces.

With the high conversion rate from his two "Unity of Man and Martial Arts" techniques, Lu Yan’s consumption was equivalent to others consuming hundreds of martial pills.

...

"My lord, it’s suspected that a demon has appeared near Yunfeng City. It has slaughtered several villages; the scene is too gruesome to bear."

Li Quan hurried to report the news.

"A demon?"

Lu Yan’s eyes chilled.

Could it be the remnants of the Spirit Sect?

"Yes, our spies reported that. Several of them have died because of this," Li Quan replied.

"Did the Qiu family of Yunfeng City deploy any masters to eliminate it?" Lu Yan asked.

"According to the spies, they did once, but it seems they’ve suffered losses and haven’t deployed anyone since, focusing instead on defense," Li Quan replied.

"The Qiu family, huh... it’s time," Lu Yan said with a hint of killing intent in his eyes. "I’ll check it out personally."

After giving Li Quan some instructions, Lu Yan rode the Blood Slaughter towards Yunfeng City.

Soon, the Blood Slaughter arrived near Yunfeng City, hovering in the sky.

"Blood Slaughter, let’s go down," instructed Lu Yan.

Lu Yan pointed in a direction.

The Blood Slaughter swooped down.

Below was a village.

In the village, hundreds of bodies lay scattered haphazardly.

All were villagers.

Lu Yan carefully inspected and found that these villagers had all been disemboweled, their organs gouged out, their deaths utterly horrific.

"As expected, the work of a Martial Spirit."

Lu Yan thought to himself.

Naturally, ordinary Spirit Communicators who follow the path of the Martial Spirit would not act this way. However, those on the brink of malign transformation, or even those who have been demonized, would act in such a manner.

The Martial Spirit of Changfeng City had been like this in the past.

Having observed for a while, Lu Yan continued to circle on Blood Slaughter. Then, he discovered several more villages in the same condition.

"Malign transformed Martial Spirits, or demons, generally act at night. Let’s see again at night."

Lu Yan found a place to rest and quietly awaited nightfall.

Night fell, the stars twinkled, and the moonlight poured down like mercury onto the vast earth.

Blood Slaughter soared silently hundreds of meters into the sky.

To avoid significant hindrance to his vision at night, Lu Yan didn’t let Blood Slaughter fly too high.

In the silent night, insects chirped continuously, and beastly roars echoed from time to time.

"Why is it so silent in that stretch of forest? The quiet is unusually eerie."

After hovering in the sky for a while, Lu Yan noticed that a certain forest was frightfully quiet, without even the sound of insects chirping.

Lu Yan instructed Blood Slaughter to lower its altitude and head towards the forest.

Roar! Roar!

At that moment, Lu Yan heard a deep roar coming from somewhere in the valley.

As Blood Slaughter flew over the valley, Lu Yan saw a... monster.

More precisely, it was a giant mantis, several times larger than a human. Its entire body was pitch black, but on the head of the mantis, there lingered a human face in agonizing and painful twists.

On both sides of the mantis’s body, two desiccated arms hung like withered branches.

"Qiu Cao."

Lu Yan’s pupils contracted slightly.

That face still vaguely resembled Qiu Cao.

"This Qiu Cao should have completely lost control of his malign transformation. It seems he might have gone through the Demonizing Ceremony. I just don’t know how many times he’s undergone it. Given that he still has human characteristics, it should be fewer than three times."

Lu Yan speculated.

When a Martial Spirit undergoes a malign transformation and demonizes, regardless of their cultivation level, they have to go through the Demonizing Ceremony.

With each ceremony, the demon’s characteristics become more evident, and the human characteristics recede.

After the third Demonizing Ceremony, the human features completely disappear, and one fully transforms into a Spirit Demon.

Seeing Qiu Cao, Lu Yan already knew that these recent calamities must have been his doing.

It’s no wonder the Qiu Family didn’t dare to act.

Not only was Qiu Cao their ancestor, but his cultivation level had also reached the second-rank Master before his malign transformation. After the transformation into a demon, his strength would only become more terrifying.

Even if the whole Qiu Family fought him together, they’d simply be delivering themselves to be slaughtered.

"If they can’t resist him yet they don’t seek help from other Feudal Lords, what are they planning to do? Are they afraid Qiu Cao’s current appearance will be recognized? Are they waiting for Qiu Cao to fully transform into a demon, so that his features are completely lost and he can’t be recognized?"

Lu Yan conjectured in his heart.

Whoosh!

The bow was pulled to a full moon, and the arrow shot out like a shooting star, tearing through the night sky and aiming towards Qiu Cao.

After Qiu Cao’s demonization, his spiritual perception was extremely acute. He immediately sensed the danger and leaped with his six legs like a spring, avoiding Lu Yan’s arrow.

However, the next moment, arrows rained down like a downpour.

Lu Yan released eight arrows in one breath.

Qiu Cao could no longer evade and could only swing his two scythe-like front claws to defend.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The front claws, which were much harder than gold or iron, exploded into dust after blocking several of the arrows.

Greatly alarmed, Qiu Cao sprang away towards the distance. His body was filled with black fog, and his crushed front claws were regenerating.

However, he could not move faster than Blood Slaughter.

Whoosh!

Another arrow struck Qiu Cao...No, he should no longer be called Qiu Cao, but a demon, a Mantis Demon.

The arrow hit the Mantis Demon’s body, blasting a large hole in it.

The terrible top-tier Inner Strength continuously destroyed the life force of the Mantis Demon.

The Mantis Demon scrambled furiously towards the outskirts of the forest.

"Is that... the direction of Yunfeng City?"

A thought suddenly occurred to Lu Yan. He didn’t strike the killing blow for the time being and just followed the Mantis Demon.

After fleeing a distance, seeing Lu Yan didn’t attack, the Mantis Demon tried to change its direction but was forced back by an arrow from Lu Yan. It could only continue to head towards Yunfeng City.

When they neared Yunfeng City, Lu Yan shot a stream of arrows, herding the Mantis Demon towards the Qiu Family’s Blood Land Vein.

This was Lu Yan’s real objective.

The Mantis Demon had nowhere else to run and could only charge headfirst into the Qiu Family’s Blood Land Vein.

The Qiu Family’s martial soldiers immediately spotted it.

"What’s that?"

"It’s a demon, that demon, send out a signal quickly."

The soldiers guarding the mountain were terrified. They dared not obstruct it. After releasing their signaling arrows, they immediately ran for their lives in both directions.

The Mantis Demon charged straight towards the fortress on the Blood Land Vein.

The Qiu Family’s Blood Land Vein was in utter chaos.

Quickly, Lu Yan saw two figures rushing out from within the Qiu Family’s fortress. These were the two Masters of the Qiu family.

"Fire the arrows, quickly fire the arrows, stop that demon!"

A Master bellowed.

A dense rain of arrows shot towards the Mantis Demon.

But these ordinary Armor-Piercing Crossbows or arrows fired by Limit Breaking Warriors and Martial Marquis posed no damage to the Mantis Demon at all.