Chapter 53: Opening the Storage Bags (Seeking first subscription! ! ! )
Chapter 53: Opening the Storage Bags (Seeking first subscription! ! ! )
“I need to reflect. This time, when I saw my enemy, I couldn't hold back. ”
Fang Xi laid out two storage bags, one exquisite and one crude, secretly reminding himself.
Killing and seizing treasures felt great, but becoming the one killed and robbed was hardly beautiful.
Sitting on a mountain of treasures, Fang Xi had no desire to end up in such a predicament.
After calming his mind, he first picked up the crude storage bag.
This storage bag belonged to Ying Song. That person's magic power was low, and coupled with Fang Xi already being at the mid-stage Qi Refinement realm, he managed to unlock it in about the time it took to steep a cup of tea.
Inside the storage bag was indeed a space about the same size as Fang Xi's own previous storage bag, containing two stacks of talismans, over ten Spirit Stones, and some clothes and miscellaneous items.
In fact, Fang Xi suspected that such a large number of talismans might not even belong to Ying Song himself, but were life-saving items given to him by Qi Liu.
In addition, the flying artifact that Ying Song had controlled, named "Black Cloud Pouch," also became Fang Xi's spoils of war.
“All in all, it’s not bad. ”
“However, the real big haul still belongs to that Kou family expert. . . ”
Fang Xi picked up the Kou family's third brother's storage bag. This bag was noticeably much more exquisite.
Not only was it exquisite, but the magical power imprint on it was also very strong.
Fang Xi spent a full five or six hours just to barely wear it down and unlock it. . .
Upon opening it, even with some mental preparation, his eyes couldn’t help but narrow slightly.
Spirit Stones!
The first thing that caught his eye was a pile of over a hundred Spirit Stones in the corner!
“I’ve struck it rich, truly rich this time. . . ”
Fang Xi murmured, then looked at the other gains, feeling a jolt.
The capacity of this storage bag clearly surpassed the previous two, being about three cubic meters in size. Inside were some blood-stained artifacts, materials, pills, and even jade slips and packages. . . most of them were quite scattered, seemingly packed in a hurry.
‘This Kou family's third brother must have plundered quite a few people in the market and collected a good deal of wealth. . . ’
However, at this moment, Fang Xi unceremoniously accepted this accumulated wealth with a smile.
He discarded his original storage bag and directly upgraded to the Kou family's third brother's three-cubic-meter storage bag, immediately feeling much more spacious.
He didn't plan to leave the remaining two storage bags empty, intending to use them specifically for transporting monster beast materials.
For a two-world transporter, the more storage bags, the better.
Fang Xi could already imagine the day he would advance to an eight-bag disciple of the Beggar Sect, or even a nine-bag elder. . .
...
Night fell.
“Thanks for the generous gift, Kou Brothers! ”
Fang Xi had thoroughly identified and cleaned out the miscellaneous items, now holding the fruits of his labor.
A golden longsword artifact!
This artifact was two feet three inches long and one inch wide, entirely golden, with delicate scale patterns on its surface. Its hilt was adorned with a dragon's head, and its blade continuously emanated a chill, making anyone who saw it feel a shiver down their spine.
This was none other than a superior-grade artifact—the Golden Flood Dragon Sword!
‘In the market, even the cheapest superior-grade artifact costs at least a hundred low-grade Spirit Stones! ’
‘Too bad, this is stolen goods, it can’t see the light of day. ’
Thinking of the third brother's two older siblings, both late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators, Fang Xi felt a tingling in his scalp.
In reality, according to the cultivation world's rule of "whoever defeats the enemy claims the spoils," this Kou family's third brother's storage bag should have belonged to Situ Qing Qing.
However, that female cultivator hadn't mentioned it, clearly tacitly agreeing.
Fang Xi also felt that saving her life made it perfectly acceptable to take some spoils of war.
At this moment, he could only accept the ensuing trouble.
In addition, from the Kou family's third brother's storage bag, he also found a mid-grade artifact-level 'Profound Iron Shield', which Fang Xi took out and carefully refined as a defensive artifact.
As for the flying shuttle he had used, it had been destroyed by the Yin Thunder and was long unusable.
“Thus, adding the Black Cloud Pouch for travel, I now have a complete set of artifacts for attack, defense, and travel. . . Is killing and seizing treasures really the fastest way to get rich? ”
Fang Xi muttered to himself.
Aside from artifacts, among the large pile of plundered goods, he also found many jade bottles containing pills, including even a bottle of 'Wood Essence Pills', which was a truly unexpected surprise.
Unfortunately, the most valuable item was a bottle of 'Golden Grain Pills', which were pills used by late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators who practiced gold-attribute cultivation methods to enhance their magic power. They were likely for the Kou family's third brother himself.
Fang Xi couldn't use them, so he could only put them away for now.There were also some healing and detoxifying pills, as well as a large quantity of grain-replacing pills, which he sorted one by one and stored by category. They would surely be useful someday.
As for the jade slips, they contained a hodgepodge of information.
There was even the full text of the 'Fire Essence Art' and half of the 'Golden Wind Art'. . .
Unfortunately, these were common cultivation methods like the 'Evergreen Art', and Fang Xi had no intention of changing his main cultivation method.
He was a cultivator with a wood-biased spiritual root; would he really cultivate gold and earth methods if he never wanted to reach Foundation Establishment?
However, some miscellaneous knowledge, travelogues, and cultural notes recorded in the jade slips did broaden Fang Xi's horizons. He planned to read them when he had free time.
“Finally, there’s this. ”
Fang Xi picked up the last jade slip.
This jade slip was not only much thicker than the others, but its texture was also quite different, similar to mortal suet white jade—warm and lustrous, with faint golden threads within.
One look was enough to tell it was a high-grade jade slip.
When Fang Xi first got it, it even had specks of bloodstains on it, suggesting that many cultivators had likely died fighting for it.
And when Fang Xi's Divine Consciousness probed it, countless dense pieces of information immediately appeared, led by a line of golden characters—
[Preliminary Introduction to Array Dao (Upper Scroll)]!
This was unexpectedly a first-order Array Master inheritance!
The four arts of cultivation were arrays, pills, artifacts, and talismans!
Even the Talisman Masters, who ranked last among them, could live incredibly comfortably, not to mention Array Masters, who were at the very top of the hierarchy!
Fang Xi had previously thought about specializing in an art to bolster his strength.
However, he had originally planned to study the Dao of Talismans, and for this, he had intentionally built good relations with some Talisman Masters, such as Talisman Master Zong and Chen Ping. . . but fate had its twists and turns.
Now, Talisman Master Zong was dead, and Chen Ping was not worth mentioning.
He never expected an array formation inheritance to land in his hands!
Fang Xi had already roughly perused it. This array formation inheritance was truly just an introduction, suitable for array novices. The most powerful array within it was only a first-order superior-grade array!
But this was already enough; if sold, it could fetch at least several hundred Spirit Stones!
As for why an array Dao inheritance had roughly the same value as Talisman Master Zong's talisman Dao notes. . .
“Damn it, array formations are too difficult! ”
Fang Xi stared at the first sentence of the array Dao introduction, instantly feeling a bit dumbfounded:
“Array formations gather the changes of heaven and earth, thoroughly exploring the mysteries of creation’s multiplication and division. Cultivators are best advised to observe with Divine Consciousness; entry will yield twice the results with half the effort. . . ”
Divine Consciousness!
This was an exclusive ability only possessed by Foundation Establishment cultivators!
Divine Consciousness could exit the body, probing an area of tens or even hundreds of feet, giving a huge advantage in combat.
Moreover, with Divine Consciousness, there were more conveniences in talisman crafting, pill refining, and artifact forging.
Thus, those Foundation Establishment cultivators would often diligently study one of the four cultivation arts, using Divine Consciousness to assist, and with their extended lifespans for study, most could achieve some success.
And Fang Xi finally understood why Array Masters were at the top of the hierarchy!
Other Pill Refiners and Artifact Refiners could at least begin their studies at the Qi Refinement stage, while Array Masters were best off starting only at the Foundation Establishment stage!
But then again, with Divine Consciousness, there were numerous conveniences for studying restrictions, mapping mountains and rivers, precisely setting up arrays, and even observing the subsequent evolution of arrays!
“But the crucial point is that Qi Refinement cultivators have no Divine Consciousness at all, only spiritual sense capable of inner sight. . . ”
Fang Xi really wanted to complain.
When he read further and saw that studying array formations required specialized venues and large quantities of Spirit Stones to create array disks and array flags, he was even more bewildered. . .
Actually, these resources were fine. For an Array Master to truly get started, the key was aptitude, meaning their comprehension of array formations!
For the other three arts, like pill refining or talisman crafting, one could accumulate experience and skills by piling up resources and failing numerous times, thereby slowly improving.
In other words, as long as one wasn't afraid of wasting resources, progress was always possible.
But for the Dao of Array Formations, if you couldn't comprehend it, you just couldn't!
No matter how many times you tried, it would still be a failure!
This was one of the reasons why other Foundation Establishment cultivators mostly focused on pills, artifacts, and talismans, with Array Masters being extremely rare.
“Talismans for wealth, pills and artifacts for ruin; advising someone to learn arrays means they'll be struck by lightning! ”
Looking at the annotation in the jade slip, clearly added by a junior, Fang Xi’s mouth twitched slightly.
But upon careful reflection, among rogue cultivators, Talisman Masters were the most numerous, while Pill Refiners and Artifact Refiners were extremely rare, and their skills were often inferior to those from major factions. As for Array Masters, they were exceedingly rare. . . It seemed quite fitting indeed. . .
“Too bad. . . I don’t have any other inheritances on hand. ”
“Forget it, I’ll take a look first. It’s hard to cultivate much in Da Liang anyway, so why not spend some time confirming my talent in the Dao of Arrays. . . ”
Fang Xi composed himself and continued to study the Preliminary Introduction to Array Dao.
“An array formation consists of several important parts: the array source, array patterns, restrictions, and the array eye. . . ”
The array source was the power source of the array. Some legendary Array Masters could even use the stars of heaven and earth as their array, wielding world-shattering power.
Of course, most cultivators nowadays used spiritual veins as their array source, at most supplementing them with Spirit Stones.
For example, the Sky-Blue Water Array of Green Bamboo Mountain Market!
This array was a second-order array, but Green Bamboo Mountain only had a first-order spiritual vein, unable to support the full operation of a second-order array.
This was partly why the Sky-Blue Water Array usually operated at its lowest consumption.
During wartime, however, large quantities of Spirit Stones could naturally be poured into the array source without regard for cost, so as to fully unleash the entire power of this array formation!
After the array source, came the array patterns!
This was where countless Array Masters poured their heart and soul!
Comprehending array patterns primarily relied on one's insight!
Different arrays required the arrangement of different array patterns. These patterns then combined to form restrictions, which could be said to be the most fundamental part. If array patterns conflicted, the array could absolutely not succeed!
Fang Xi looked at the array patterns for an introductory array. The densely packed runes instantly made him feel dizzy, like a programmer from his previous life seeing terrifying error code. . .
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