Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“We were blind and offended Senior! You… you’re a magnanimous person… Please don’t take issue with us!”
That cultivator knelt on the ground and cried bitterly, as if he was extremely regretful of his actions.
Jiang Li found the voice familiar. He looked at his face carefully and realized that he had seen this person not long ago.
“Oh? Aren’t you the one selling carefree grass at the Medicine King Pavilion?”
“What? You didn’t earn a hundred thousand spirit stones so now you’re targeting me?”
“Young rogue cultivators. You have to know that if you keep doing such dangerous acts, you will eventually provoke someone you can’t mess with.”
In the beginning, Jiang Li really thought that some faction wanted to harm them.
However, the strange thing was that anyone with some experience should know that there were most likely powerful guardians around a generous low-level cultivator like Jiang Li.
Such people were not easy to rob.
If it was really a large faction with ulterior motives that targeted the Great Mountain Alliance, then they should not have only sent out a few Core Formation cultivators.
Now, it seemed that it was indeed not the case.
It should be that these guys wanted to make a fortune out of greed.
The six of them had formed a team to explore the dangerous Ghost King Desolate Ground and enter the terrifying Netherworld Illusion only to obtain the reward of 100,000 spirit stones.
A hundred thousand spirit stones was indeed not a small number. The entire wealth left behind by the Scripture Storage Valley’s Elder Duan Shuang was only worth twenty to thirty thousand spirit stones.
The rogue cultivators were naturally poorer.
However, not only did they suffer a huge loss during that adventure, the rocks they took back had nothing to do with the three lifetime stone. The quality of the carefree grass was also extremely poor.
The dream of a hundred thousand spirit stones was naturally ruined.
In the end, the 80 low-grade spirit stones they received could not even pay for a good meal in Phoenix Sun City. It was not even enough to pay for a few trips through the city gate.
It was a huge loss.
However, while he was in the Medicine King Pavilion, he saw Jiang Li, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, spending a fortune.
Over a million spirit stones were spent just like that.
How could a Foundation Establishment cultivator afford the table full of spirit pills and miraculous medicines?
They deserved it more than him!
This rogue cultivator thought so.
Under the influence of jealousy, loss, greed, and other emotions, coupled with the fact that he was only a “weak” Foundation Establishment Cultivator, he could not help but have thoughts.
As soon as he came out, he was conflicted about his companions and blocked the way with the intention of robbing Jiang Li.
“Senior! Senior! We failed to recognize you! We were really wrong!”
He felt that he was wrong because he had messed with a stronger cultivator and had robbed the wrong person. He did not feel that there was anything wrong with this robbery itself.
There was indeed nothing to pity such a person. It was not without reason that sect disciples looked down on rogue cultivators.
“Eat this and I’ll spare your life.”
Jiang Li could not be bothered to waste his breath on this person. He raised his hand and threw a seed over.
The spiritual root landed in the rogue cultivator’s hand. After the other party received it, he had a bitter expression.
It was obvious that whatever he ate under such circumstances would not be good.
“Senior…”
He still wanted to beg for mercy, but Jiang Li’s figure instantly approached and stuffed the spiritual root seed into his mouth.
Then, the Wood Dragon Rayquaza flew over and swallowed him, sending him into the coffin hidden in his stomach.
Jiang Li actually did not kill the five people earlier. He only heavily injured them.
These six people were all at the Core Formation realm and had once entered the Ghost King Desolate Ground’s Netherworld Illusion.
Their experience was still useful to Jiang Li.
“What’s your name? Tell me about your situation.”
At the base of the Great Mountain Alliance, after Jiang Li returned to his quiet room, he let out the only intact Overlord Spear cultivator.
At this moment, the spiritual root seed had already sprouted in his body. As soon as it came out, the other party respectfully knelt on one knee and offered his loyalty to Jiang Li.
“Greetings, Alliance Leader. My name is An Lie. I’m a rogue cultivator from the Eastern Region’s Blackstone City. I cultivate the earth attribute cultivation method, the Tyrant Earth Art. I have an illegitimate son in Blackstone City…”
Jiang Li only asked a question before the rogue cultivator, An Lie, reported all his personal information without any hesitation.
It also included his own attributes, characteristics of cultivation methods, mortal relatives, and other secrets that could not be known to outsiders.
He was already controlled by the spiritual root seed. Even if Jiang Li wanted to extract everything from him and refine it into the Nine Nether Earth Fruit, he would gladly accept it and be proud of it.
This saved the troublesome interrogation process, and the information obtained could be more detailed and accurate.
“Very good. How much do you know about the Netherworld Illusion? What did you encounter inside? Tell me everything in detail.”
This was what Jiang Li was concerned about. The rogue cultivator, An Lie, immediately began to talk.
An Lie’s team originally did not have six people, but a total of 13 Core Formation cultivators.
They often accepted some missions and helped large factions do some chores. They were quite famous in this region.
After the reward of the three lifetime stone was announced, they were tempted like most rogue cultivators.
Although the Ghost King Desolate Ground was dangerous, a single three lifetime stone could be sold for a hundred thousand spirit stones. To them, it was undoubtedly a sky-high price.
Therefore, the team of thirteen people stepped into the desolate ground without any hesitation.
They were very lucky. In their careful exploration, they did not encounter any powerful ghosts. In just three months, they encountered a newly formed illusionary realm.
However, their luck was very bad. At the same time, a Ghost King was attracted by the illusion.
That was a terrifying existence that even Nascent Soul cultivators could only escape from.
In that illusion, they were practically running for their lives the entire time and did not have the mood to explore properly.
In just a few incense sticks of time, seven of his companions had died. The remaining six people could only grab a handful of rocks and spiritual herbs on the ground and escape the Ghost King Desolate Ground in a sorry state.
They could escape not because of anything else, but because that Ghost King had eaten seven Core Formation souls and was temporarily full. It was too lazy to chase after them.
Therefore, their understanding of illusions was quite limited.
However, the fact that the Netherworld Illusion would attract the Ghost King was an important piece of information. It was no wonder that large factions would offer a reward of 100,000 spirit stones and a three lifetime stone. The danger of that place was much higher than he had imagined.
“Wear this mask and you’ll be a member of Green Mountain Residence in the future.”
“There’s only one mission for you. Go to the Ghost King Desolate Ground and continue exploring the illusion realm.”
…
The next day, at the conference.
“What do you think about this proposal to establish the special forces?”
At the meeting, Jiang Li still proposed the plan that he had mentioned to Uncle-Master Dongfang Guangling.
The higher-ups at the table were silent. They were also thinking about the pros and cons of this proposal.
In many large factions and sects, there were more or less such secret troops.
For example, the Medicine Man of the Hundred Tempering Mountain was a typical example.
However, the existence of such an army was not necessarily a good thing.
“Alliance Leader Jiang, if this secret army is established, who should be responsible? How’s the authority? How should we regulate it?”
Soon, someone raised this question. This was the reason why everyone was silent.
According to Jiang Li, this army would be formed by the elites of the various sects, and its strength would definitely be extraordinary in the end. Then, the appearance of this army would definitely cause an imbalance in authority.
They naturally had to worry.
“I think we need to consider this proposal carefully.”
“Why don’t we put this matter aside for now and discuss it with the Great Mountain before making a decision?”
They clearly did not want to make such an important decision easily.
However, Jiang Li did not give up or answer their questions.
Instead, he pushed a list in front of him and handed it to the higher-ups below.
“This is the price of the spiritual materials and medicinal pills we collected in Phoenix Sun City yesterday. Everyone, take a look.”
“The Great Mountain is in our hands now, but we don’t have enough strength to protect ourselves. Everyone should know what this means.”
“Power and authority are good, but everyone must understand that this is not a good time to fight for power.”
“Everyone here knows very well why I, Jiang Li, an insignificant Foundation Establishment disciple, was chosen to be the Great Mountain Alliance Leader.”
“My existence is only to ease the conflict caused by the competition for power.”
Jiang Li spoke about the truth in front of all the higher-ups.
“But that’s only a temporary relief, not a solution.”
“Just the day before yesterday, because the scope of responsibility for repairing and expanding the array formation was different, a conflict erupted in the Rune Department, causing them to be forced to stop work.”
“Uncle-Master Guangling, what do you say?”
Dongfang Guangling, who he had already talked to, immediately nodded and bowed to apologize for his subordinates’ incompetence.
Many of the higher-ups present were ashamed because the participants in the suspension incident were disciples of their sect.
“This happened because of the difference in labor distribution.”
“What the Great Mountain Alliance wants to do next is not only to sweat, we also have to make sacrifices, huge sacrifices!”
“If everyone only wants to protect themselves and preserve their strength, then there’s no need for the Great Mountain Alliance to exist!”
Jiang Li stood up and sternly glanced at the many higher-ups below.
He was clearly only at the Foundation Establishment realm and was clearly only the nominal Alliance Leader, but at this moment, no one dared to look him in the eye.
“The original intention of the Great Mountain Alliance was to maintain the hundred-year peace of the Great Mountain Region!”
“I know that the interests and positions of the sect are not easy to abandon. However, I hope that after putting on the mask, there will be a group of people who can temporarily forget their names and positions to do something for the Great Mountain Region.”
“Of course, you don’t have to worry. This army doesn’t serve anyone. It only recognizes orders and not people. All the orders are only issued from the Great Mountain Conference. However, it is precisely because of this that when they are carrying out missions, the other cultivators of the Great Mountain Alliance need to assist them unconditionally.”
Jiang Li spoke a lot, but perhaps only the last sentence convinced them.
“Alliance Leader Jiang, what’s the name of this army?”
The others looked at Jiang Li. They had already agreed to this suggestion.
“We’ll call this the Rock Army. As long as a piece of rock remains, the Great Mountain will not fall!”
In the end, the proposal had to be approved.
The Great Mountain Alliance’s “Rock Army” was officially established.
…
After a while, Jiang Li found Dongfang Guangling again.
“Uncle-Master Guangling, please forgive me for my earlier offense.”
Just now, in order to claim the moral high ground, he could only make an example out of Uncle-Master Guangling’s Rune Department. In order to cooperate with him, his Uncle-Master had even lost his prestige. Jiang Li felt sorry about this.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. You’re doing this for the sake of the Great Mountain Alliance. If you really feel bad, help Uncle-Master find a main tributary of an earth vein. I have an idea recently and am preparing to give it a try.”
“That’s simple. Uncle-Master, what kind of earth vein do you want? I discovered an earth vein shaped like a White Tiger’s Roar the day before yesterday. Uncle-Master, are you interested?”
“Really? Tell me where the earth vein is.”
After returning from Uncle-Master Guangling’s place, Jiang Li took back Situ Tingxin’s storage bag.
The seal was intact, which meant that the storage bag had not been opened at all.
Opening the storage bag, Jiang Li immediately rummaged through it.
As expected of the Second Elder of the Hundred Tempering Mountain, there was a large number of spirit stones, pills, and artifacts in this storage bag.
He could easily arm 50 high-level cultivators.
However, Jiang Li did not care about this. His gaze flashed past various fancy artifacts before finally landing on an ordinary looking long nail artifact.
It was a coffin nail.
Jiang Li picked up the long nail and probed it with his spiritual qi. He immediately felt a familiar force inside.
Sure enough, it was here!
After subduing Situ Etong and the others from the Hundred Tempering Mountain, Jiang Li obtained some information from them.
The higher-ups of the Hundred Tempering Mountain who had led the team to destroy the graveyard were the Second Elder, Situ Tingxin.
This was the coffin nail that he had seized.
Although it was only a black coffin nail, its grade had also reached high-grade Profound-rank, just like the original Yin Burial Coffin.
With a wave of his hand, he released the Yin Burial Coffin. This coffin nail immediately sensed something and shook slightly in Jiang Li’s hand.
That’s right, this was it.
Jiang Li took out the beast skin again and started to refine this long nail according to the records.
According to the description on the beast skin, the main coffin governed the three souls: Fetus Light, Bright Spirit, and Secret Essence.
The seven nails corresponded to the seven spirits: Corpse Dog, Concealed Arrow, Yin Sparrow, Thief Swallower, Flying Poison, Filth Removal, and Stinking Lung.
The seven long nails were respectively forged from seven types of precious metals and refined by cultivators with their corresponding spirits.
This coffin nail corresponded to the Corpse Dog Spirit.
If not for Jiang Li’s Great Carefree Bodhisattva Heart Sutra that gave him a powerful soul, it would have been difficult for him to do this.
Using blood to draw out the spirit, he spent 24 hours refining the coffin nail.
Jiang Li then entered the coffin and pinned the Corpse Dog into the coffin according to the map on the beast skin.
In the next moment, the Yin Burial spiritual qi in the coffin surged.
In the surrounding environment, the concentration of Yin qi that had stagnated for a long time began to increase again.
The Soul Burial Ghost Soldiers floating above were cheering excitedly. The spider lilies on the ground was becoming more and more beautiful. Even the Nine Nether Wood that took root in the Yin Burial Coffin transmitted feedback of feeling comfortable.
Jiang Li could sense that even though the current Yin Burial Coffin was still at a low-grade Earth-rank, after using this coffin nail as a node, the various attributes of the coffin had increased greatly.
In his estimation, as long as there was another coffin nail, it could directly rise to the medium-grade Earth-rank!