Chapter 140: An Unexpected Windfall: The Tyrannical Dragon Art

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After handing over the twelve drops of Spirit Liquid, Murong Chao stepped to the side. He looked at Qin Haoxuan, who was standing far behind him in line, and a kind smile touched his eyes. With his one hundred and fifty Contribution Points, he could exchange them for fifteen hundred low-grade spirit stones. With that kind of wealth, he could buy better seeds, purchase cultivation-assisting pills, and before long, he would be able to leave Qin Haoxuan far behind, thus winning more of Xu Yu’s affection.

What Murong Chao didn’t notice was that, not far away, Zhang Yang was glaring at him with the eyes of a venomous scorpion.

Originally, Zhang Yang’s contribution of four drops of Spirit Liquid had stunned everyone. But then Murong Chao had produced twelve drops, a full three times his amount. The people who had just been discussing him had now all turned their attention to Murong Chao. This was more humiliating than being slapped in public; he felt he had lost all face.

“They’re both Gray Seeds. I heard that Murong Chao used to be no match for Zhang Yang, but now his luck has turned, and he’s actually managed to surpass him, finding twelve drops of Spirit Liquid. How good must his luck be!”

“Well, I could never find it. Finding even one drop is as hard as ascending to heaven, let alone twelve!” another disciple said, rolling his eyes. “And this is just the two Gray Seeds. When the three Purple Seed disciples show their treasures, don’t let your jaw drop. Look at you now, you’ve already lost your composure!”

“I don’t think so. It’s not like the Aqueous Manor gives better things to those with better aptitude!”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Better aptitude means greater ability, which means you’re more valued by the sect elders and have a more powerful Guiding Senior Brother. Therefore, the things they find will naturally be better. In other words, it’s not just the heavens looking after them; the sect elders are also helping them, both openly and in secret.”

Hearing this, some of the other disciples nodded in agreement. They all knew there was a huge difference between being valued by the sect and not. If an elder gave you a few powerful spiritual talismans, you wouldn’t be stuck unable to retrieve a warded treasure. Some disciples had indeed found such treasures but had been unable to break the wards, forced to watch until the manor closed, only for the treasure to have teleported away by the next year.

Not long after, it was Li Jing’s turn to submit his gains. He walked up quickly and took out the pill he had found, along with five drops of Spirit Liquid.

The moment the pill appeared, the medicinal qi that wafted from it stunned the entire crowd. The appraising elders were dumbfounded, and the Ninth Elder, who had been standing motionlessly, strode over and took the pill from their hands. He began to study it, and from the gravity of his expression, one could guess that this was no ordinary pill.

“Damn! An Unsurpassed Purple Seed is an Unsurpassed Purple Seed! Their abilities are truly on another level! To be able to find such a powerful pill, just from the qi it’s emitting, you can tell it’s extraordinary!”

“A treasure like that must have been protected by a powerful ward. I wonder how he broke it!”

“Do you even need to think about it? The Unsurpassed Purple Seeds are highly valued by the elders. It’s perfectly normal for them to be secretly taught some powerful arts!” a disciple said with a hint of jealousy.

“Zhang Yang had four drops, Murong Chao had twelve, and Li Jing has five… Tsk tsk, in previous years, all the disciples combined would only find twenty or thirty drops. These three alone have found nearly twenty. This is just absurd!”

Qin Haoxuan watched Li Jing silently. He saw him hand over the Spirit Liquid and the pill, but he did not hand over the Tyrannical True Dragon Art. The two inspecting elders performed their routine check but found nothing else on him.

Did he destroy the scroll? Qin Haoxuan was secretly shocked. That ancient scroll had an extraordinary aura and was made of a very unusual material. It would have been impossible to hide. In order to keep the sect from getting it, he actually destroyed it. Such a ruthless, royal style. But thankfully, when he was cultivating it, I memorized the entire art through the Thousand-Mile Mirror. I just don’t know if I can cultivate it.

The Ninth Elder took the pill and infused a small amount of his spiritual energy into it. The pill, which had looked like a simple bronze bead, suddenly vibrated and began to spin rapidly in his palm. A dragon’s roar, like a clap of thunder, erupted from within it. A golden pill-qi, which transformed into a yellow lightning spear, shot into the sky as if to pierce the heavens. The qi then swirled into the shape of a mist-dragon, which circled nine times, swallowing the spiritual energy of the heavens and the earth, before diving back into the pill, causing it to shine with a blinding light.

The onlookers were stunned. Many of the disciples who had not yet sprouted a leaf were so shaken by the dragon’s roar that they coughed up blood; some even fainted on the spot.

The Ninth Elder himself was also in a daze. He had cultivated for many years and had long known that spiritual pills could have a soul, but he had never expected one to reach such a level.

“Let it be so…” the Ninth Elder said after a dry cough. “This pill is extremely potent, precious, and rare. But it is an auxiliary pill, meant for a specific cultivation art. Do you have that art?” he asked, staring at Li Jing.

Li Jing’s expression was calm. He bowed and said, “Reporting to the Ninth Elder, besides this pill and a few drops of Spirit Liquid, this disciple found nothing else in the Aqueous Manor.”

So be it. If he does not wish to hand it over, then let him keep it. The Ninth Elder sighed inwardly. Why offend a future pillar of the sect?

After a moment, the Ninth Elder nodded. “Mm. Although this pill is rare, it is of no use to the sect. Since it is your fated encounter, then it shall be returned to you.”

An appraising elder respectfully took the pill from the Ninth Elder and reluctantly handed it back to Li Jing.

After receiving the pill, Li Jing was awarded fifty Contribution Points for his five drops of Spirit Liquid, with an additional bonus of twenty points.

The senior disciples sighed with envy. “As expected of a Purple Seed. If it were one of us, the sect would have definitely taken such a precious pill.”

After Li Jing, a treasure-hunting team composed entirely of senior, Twentieth-Leaf disciples submitted their haul: a large Blood Coral, a Snow Toad Pill, and eleven drops of Spirit Liquid. In total, they received one hundred and fifty Contribution Points, which the five members split evenly.

The haul drew envious looks from the crowd, but it was not entirely unexpected. Such powerful and experienced teams rarely came back empty-handed.

When Zhang Kuang, his entire body radiating a gloomy, cold aura, took out the Spirit Liquid he had obtained, he once again detonated the crowd.

It was a full bottle of Spirit Liquid, at least half a bowl’s worth. Moreover, he did not conceal his aura; he had already cultivated to the Fifteenth-Leaf of the Spirit Sprout Realm. He stood there like a sharp, unsheathed sword, his piercing aura tinged with a murderous intent that made no one dare to approach him.

“This… this… this…” The appraising elder was so shocked he could barely breathe. The Ninth Elder shot over in a single step, took the bottle of Spirit Liquid, and his face lit up with ecstatic disbelief.

“The heavens have blessed us! Is our Taichu Sect about to rise to greatness?” He looked up at the sky, his perpetually grim face, which had only shown brief smiles for the other disciples, now completely overwhelmed with excitement. “With so much Spirit Liquid, how can our Taichu Sect not prosper? With an Unsurpassed Purple Seed of such incredible aptitude and fortune, how can we not become a supreme great sect?”

Not only the Ninth Elder, but the other appraisers were also trembling, at a loss for words. The documenting elder’s hand shook so much he could barely write. It took him more than ten tries on fresh sheets of paper to solemnly write down Zhang Kuang’s name.

But when he recorded “Zhang Kuang, one hundred and fifty drops of Spirit Liquid,” his hand began to tremble again. The entire sect’s haul for the last five years combined did not amount to this much.

After a long while, the Ninth Elder’s excitement finally began to subside. With trembling hands, he carefully put the bottle away. He said to the documenting elder, “Zhang Kuang is awarded one thousand five hundred Contribution Points. With an additional bonus of three hundred… no, an additional bonus of five hundred Contribution Points!”