The black-robed monk in the sky stared down, and from his slightly raised sleeves, a finger as thin and long as a bamboo joint slowly stretched out...
When all the villagers below saw what happened, they were immediately frightened out of their wits.
They actually forced their mouths open under the extreme coldness emitted by the other party, shivering and begging for mercy.
Amidst the cries for mercy, Wu Lei also shouted urgently.
"My Lord... My Lord, please spare my life, please spare my life... I really don't know when the talisman was activated!
We are willing to dedicate all of this year's harvest of 'Soul Crystal Buds' to you, sir. We... we really didn't issue a 'bounty token', really didn't!"
In a hurry, he spoke a little more fluently.
The black-robed man in the air was unmoved by the pleas of the people below. Just as he was about to click his finger, he heard Wu Lei's topic again, and his movements immediately slowed down.
"My Lord, my Lord, all the 'Soul Crystal Buds' here are given to you, all are given to you! We really didn't mean to send out the 'bounty token', it was unintentional!
Reporting such a lie will only lead to death for us, and there is no benefit at all. Please understand, my lord, please understand..."
Seeing the black-robed man hesitate, Wu Lei immediately pleaded again with tears streaming down his face.
The black-robed man's face was still as gloomy as water, but his voice was heard again.
"Oh? Is it the 'Soul Crystal Bud' that will mature in twenty years?"
"Yes, Master Immortal, it was actually ready for harvest four days ago, but we wanted to let it grow for a while longer. This is our apology."
The man in black robe is already a cultivator in the middle stage of the Golden Core Realm. To him, the "Soul Crystal Buds" of this age are actually not a good thing.
However, the "Soul Crystal Buds" that have reached the minimum maturity period are still useful to his disciples and successors. The daily consumption of his faction is also very huge.
During your daily practice, don’t buy anything, as there are things to spend money on everywhere.
In order to get mortals to work for them, the upper sect also provides them with great protection. There are also various strict rules for the monks to purchase the "Soul Crystal Buds" grown by mortals.
If anyone dares to force a purchase, no matter what your level of cultivation is, you will be severely punished without mercy.
Only with such harsh measures can these mortals be willing to take risks and come to some sparsely populated places to look for the special "Crystal Smoke Land".
Then, after planting the "Soul Crystal Buds", they would exchange them for the elixir of immortality they needed.
No matter how many pills these mortals swallow, they will eventually die at around 400 years old because they are unable to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth on their own. But who doesn't want to live longer
However, the elixirs that are usually sold to mortals are not the kind that can extend lifespan by a decade or even hundreds of years at a time, but rather the kind that can only extend lifespan by five or ten years or so at a time.
This is the only way to allow them to work until they are at least two or three hundred years old, and then they can retire with peace of mind.
This practice is to make mortals work more, and there is another reason, that is, the higher the grade of the elixir, the more powerful the medicinal power contained in it.
If a mortal wants to grow fifty or a hundred years longer, he may end up dying from eating too much!
The man in black robe had previously guessed that the group of young and strong mortals who appeared here might be here to plant "Soul Crystal Buds".
But he was concerned about the foreign monk, who was his big target.
Moreover, he didn't know whether the "Soul Crystal Buds" here were mature, and he didn't dare to lower the price to force the purchase.
Even when he had the intention to kill just now, he did not think of taking the "Soul Crystal Bud" here after killing him.
If the person who planted the "Soul Crystal Bud" was killed, someone would definitely investigate the reason. If one is not careful, one might end up losing more than one thing.
Now that he heard that the other party was giving it to him for free, the man in black robe was of course happy, as this way he could save some spirit stones.
"Take me to see it!!"
The man in black robe didn't say much. He wanted to see how many "Soul Bud Crystals" the other party had planted here.
"Then Master Immortal, please follow me!"
After Wu Lei and others heard the other party's words, it was like hearing the sound of nature, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
But after surviving the disaster, their hearts began to contract and they even felt their brains were filled with blood.
All intelligent creatures are like this. When death approaches, they are willing to exchange anything they can for something else. However, as soon as the crisis is resolved, they will remember the price they paid and feel heartbroken.
Wu Lei took a deep breath, then stood up and walked towards the village behind him. The rest of the villagers dared to stay where they were and wait.
The man in black robe also moved with him, like a floating ghost in the night, following Wu Lei silently.
But what he didn't realize was that there was a figure that he could not detect at all. He had been standing here before and left just after he finished talking to Wu Lei.
Wu Lei led the way in front, with a grateful look on his face all the time.
There are several rows of uneven houses in the village. These houses are basically built with huge bluestones, but at this time the entire village is empty.
After the two walked for a while in the village, Wu Lei finally stopped in front of an inconspicuous house.
From the outside, the house was only about 20 to 30 meters in size. It had only one door and one window, and the window was right next to the door, but both were tightly closed.
The door is big enough for two people to pass through side by side. It is made of black oily wood, giving it a very sturdy feeling.
"Sir, this is it! Be careful, it's a little uneven in there!"
When Wu Lei looked up, a flattering smile appeared on his face. He knew that these immortals would not care about the brightness of the light, but he still spoke in a flattering manner.
In fact, his heart was bleeding. He had said before that he would provide all the "Soul Crystal Buds" to the other party, but after having a chance to survive, he changed his mind.
In Wu Lei's heart, he felt that the man in black robe was really greedy. He actually wanted to come to the field to take a look. This showed that he was worried about him and was going to take the blame along with him.
This immortal master didn't ask himself to bring anyone else with him. If they followed the normal harvesting speed, it would probably take three or four days for everyone here to harvest this piece of land.
Now it is obvious that the other party wants to reap the harvest himself, leaving nothing for himself.
Fortunately, there are three "crystal smoke fields" in this village, and this one is the largest. There are two smaller ones, but he will not take the other party there.
For his own interests, Wu Lei is fighting hard at this moment, but he also has a backup plan.
Among these three "Crystal Smoke Lands", except for the "Soul Bud Crystal" here which has already matured, the other two lands were discovered one after another, and the years of cultivating "Soul Bud Crystal" are seventeen and nineteen years respectively.
I just said that I would give all of them to the other party. As long as the other party knows the real situation here, then in the next few years, all of these things must be given away.
Now he began to pretend to be confused. It would be best if the other party didn't know. If he knew, he would say that he must have given maturity first.
After Wu Lei gave an instruction, he immediately opened the door and walked in first.
The room was completely empty, with nothing in it, but there was a passage in the middle leading to the underground. After the two entered the room, they walked directly down the passage.
The passage is an inclined ramp with stairs extending downwards all the way.
There was no candlelight below, but there was some soft white light shining upwards from the ground below, making it seem not too dark here.
After the two walked down about ten feet, the stairs ended here.
Looking around here, there is a space of five acres under the ground, which has been plowed into ridges, very neatly, like a field.
However, what was planted here were not any agricultural products. Instead, on the originally pitch-black ground, every one foot there would be a strip of bluish-white glowing object standing on the soil.
It is these bluish-white glowing objects that make this place and the stairs above appear not dark.
Each of the bluish-white strips is about seven or eight inches in size and as thick as two fingers. It is shaped like a crystal ice cone and contains a night pearl that emits a soft light.
Below these long bluish-white objects, there are black rhizomes rooted in the soil, surrounded by dark thin leaves, which cluster each long bluish-white object in the middle.
On the surface of these five acres of land, there is a layer of crystals scattered on the soil that look like broken ice.
They do not emit light themselves, but with the help of the light from those long bluish-white objects, they also reflect a faint light.
At the same time, there were tiny streams of mist flowing on these broken ice-like crystals, which made a thin layer of fog appear on the entire ground.
"My Lord, these 'Soul Crystal Buds' are pretty good, right?!"
After Wu Lei stood still, he quickly turned sideways, bowed slightly, and spoke to the man in black robe who was looking at a large area of "Soul Crystal Buds" that were flashing with light.
"Yeah, not bad! They have grown to about seven to eight inches in size, which means they are mature!"
The man in black robe nodded slightly.
The "Soul Crystal Bud" matures at six inches, and it is best to grow to thirteen inches, but after ten inches, the growth rate will drop sharply.
At that time, even if Wu Lei encountered a situation like today, he probably wouldn't be willing to give it all away for free.
Moreover, the growth time after ten inches is measured in hundreds of years, and the lifespan of a mortal generation cannot last that long.
Therefore, when ordinary people plant "Soul Crystal Buds", they will basically use 60% of them as a crop that is harvested once every twenty years.
The remaining 40% is to continue to cultivate, and wait until the "Soul Crystal Bud" grows to ten inches before selling it, which will be a crazy fortune. Similarly, they will also keep some "Soul Crystal Bud" for their descendants to collect.
In this way, as long as it is not a newly opened "Crystal Smoke Land", there will generally be some "Soul Crystal Buds" that are more than sixty years old.
A seven or eight-inch "Soul Crystal Bud" is quite good if used for making pills and medicines.
The man in black robe did not want to waste time here. Since these were all mature "Soul Crystal Buds", there was no need for him to be polite.
He immediately raised both hands and waved them forward at the same time. The "soul crystal buds" on the ground shook and fell off their roots one after another.
The next moment, like shooting stars chasing the moon, they all gathered towards the man in black robe.
These "soul crystal buds" that were shining with bluish-white light disappeared one after another as soon as they touched the black-robed man's cuffs.
Seeing all this in front of him, Wu Lei felt that his whole condition was not good.
Although he was mentally prepared, he watched the ground below grow darker and darker, and one "soul crystal bud" after another entered the "pocket" of the man in black robe.
Wu Lei felt that he was becoming increasingly exhausted, and his heart seemed to be bleeding.
These were all cultivated bit by bit over countless days and nights, but in just a moment, they became someone else's property.
Fortunately, this process did not last long. It took them several days to harvest the five acres of land, but in the hands of the black-robed man, all the "soul crystal buds" on the land disappeared in just a few breaths.
This made Wu Lei feel less dizzy and reduced the long-term psychological torture.
After collecting the "Soul Crystal Buds", the man in black robe immediately turned around and left, ignoring Wu Lei.
But when he had just stepped a few steps onto the stairs, he suddenly felt dizzy and was startled.
Although he didn't know what was happening, he immediately circulated the magic power in his body, but he was shocked to find that his magic power had become extremely slow.
All his strength seemed to be drained away in this short period of time, and even using his soul power became extremely difficult.
He barely held onto the wall. He felt dizzy and his eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. His strength was rapidly draining away and the scene in front of him was already a little blurry.
"poisoned!"
This was a thought that arose in his mind, and then he turned his head with all his strength and looked at Wu Lei with murderous eyes.
"How dare you, you lowly bastard, plot against your Immortal Master..."
A low growl came out of his mouth, but then he stopped talking.
In the dim light, he saw that the mortal village chief had fallen to the ground, and he didn't know whether he was dead or alive.
But beside him, another vague figure appeared.
The man in black robe was also an experienced person. The moment he saw the blurry figure, he did not hesitate, his eyes suddenly focused, and an invisible attack was directly launched at the other party.
After launching this attack, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength, and slowly fell down against the wall.
The dark shadow below was also looking at the man in black robe above.
Suddenly, he dodged to the side as if something was happening to him. An invisible attack brushed past his body, flew backwards, and then disappeared into the void.
"Hmm? Soul attack, this... this is soul... soul cultivation!"
The man felt a turbulence in his soul, and although he was not attacked, he was still affected.
At the same time, his soul naturally developed a sense of danger, and he couldn't help but whisper to himself in surprise.
Listening to the voice, it was Li Yan!!
He controlled Wu Lei and others in order to make the other side relax their vigilance so as to set an ambush.
After being surprised, Li Yan immediately walked towards the black-robed man who had fallen on the stairs. He had a pale face and looked at Li Yan with somewhat dazed eyes.
"Evil... evil spirit monk, as expected... indeed he has a vicious mind, he also did something to... to mortals..."
Li Yan looked at the other person's face, he no longer hesitated, and with the magic power in his hands, he didn't care about consuming his spiritual consciousness.
The purpose of setting up this trap was to lure the monk in and see if he could capture him alive, and then search his soul, so that he could get more information.
Just as the magic power in Li Yan's hands surged, his face suddenly changed, the magic formula in his hand changed, and a gust of wind hit the man in black robe.
But the next moment, Li Yan's face became extremely ugly.
His seal was still a little too late. A stream of black blood flowed from the black-robed monk's mouth and his head drooped heavily to one side.
Although Li Yan's poison made the opponent unable to use his magic power, he did not expect that the opponent could still use his soul power in such a weak state.
However, Li Yan's speed was actually fast enough. He only needed to dodge to the side of the other person before the man chose to commit suicide.
This is not Li Yan's fault. He really didn't know that his own poison had injured the man in black robe to such an extent, but he could still use other powers.
This was his first time truly facing a soul cultivator, and his previous experience in facing the enemy was flawed at this moment.
Li Yan pressed his palm directly on the opponent's head, and a stream of magic power instantly entered his body...
After a moment, Li Yan withdrew his hand expressionlessly.
The opponent's soul and spirit were completely destroyed, and even the golden elixir shattered in his body, turning into a gray bead. Li Yan didn't know whether he could still enter the reincarnation after his soul disappeared. This person was really hateful enough to attack him.
Li Yan immediately began to check the other person. He had seen in secret before that the man in black robe seemed to be able to communicate with the storage magic weapon easily.
At such a long distance, he collected all the "Soul Crystal Buds" into his big sleeves.
After inspection, Li Yan found a black jade bracelet on the black-robed man's wrist, which was obviously an immortal item.
Li Yan did not find anything else on the black-robed man, so this black jade bracelet seemed special. After he took it off, he immediately used his spiritual sense.
But even if Li Yan used all his spiritual power, he was unable to communicate with it at all.
"Does this require the use of soul power?"
Li Yan guessed the reason after just one attempt.
However, he felt relieved because if he could really use his spiritual sense to open or sense that there was something wrong with the bracelet, then Li Yan would be somewhat afraid of this place.
He is unable to use his spiritual sense, but others here can move freely, so his death is only a matter of time.
“Judging from the remaining mana in this person’s body, he is only a cultivator at the Golden Core stage. Calculate the time of his arrival and his approximate flying speed.
The sect he belongs to should be at least 7,000 miles away from here. His death will soon arouse suspicion from the sect he belongs to, so he must leave now."
Li Yan had this thought in mind, and he casually shot out two fireballs. The two people on the ground were instantly covered in flames, and in a flash, they completely disappeared from this world.
Afterwards, Li Yan immediately left here and quietly appeared in the open space in front of the village.
After he fired out fireballs one after another, the remaining villagers in the village were whispering, waiting for the appearance of Wu Lei and the man in black.
Unfortunately, they disappeared between heaven and earth without even uttering a scream.
Even when Li Yan killed the three remaining good-looking women, he didn't even frown.
The hallucination spells that were cast on these people when he was questioning them were removed as soon as he finished questioning them, to prevent the flaws from being discovered by later cultivators.
Then, Li Yan planted slave marks in their bodies. As long as the people who came with this slave mark could not use their spiritual sense, it would be difficult to detect the problem.
Therefore, everyone in the village had no choice but to speak after seeing the man in black robe.
They would not feel the slightest bit of aversion or resistance towards Li Yan's orders, and they would regard Li Yan as their god in everything.
Now that the man in black is dead, Li Yan can only kill everyone in the village. He doesn't want to waste any more time, as he would have to put these people into the "Earth Spot" and then modify their memories.
This method of eliminating traces is the most thorough!
After Li Yan identified the direction, he decided to continue flying in the direction he had originally planned. Since he wanted to find out the news here, it would be best to find a place where living creatures gathered.
But just from the information obtained from these mortals, we already know that foreign monks are hated here.
Moreover, although other cultivators will come here later, they will come with caution.
So, Li Yan immediately used his invisibility ability and quickly merged into the void...
Shortly after Li Yan left the village, two cultivators in black robes suddenly arrived. Both of them were cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage.
After they stayed in the village for half a cup of tea, the two of them split up and rushed away!