Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 317: Plunder

Within the Langya Blessed Land, Tang Jie sat on a small slope, roasting a large Ghostface Ginseng on a spit.

This Ghostface Ginseng was as large as a human thigh and was probably six to seven hundred years old. It had a mind of its own and was extremely wary, so Tang Jie had wasted a lot of time trying to catch it. Now tied to a spit with the golden thread, it occasionally shrieked, the face on the ginseng twisting in pain.

Tang Jie was unmoved, constantly turning the ginseng on the spit. The Ghostface Ginseng’s cries began to fade, upon which he suddenly reached out and twisted the root, squeezing out a golden drop of liquid.

Tang Jie used his mouth to receive it, upon which a thunderous rumbling came from his belly that took some time to calm down. Tang Jie nodded in satisfaction. He saw that the Ghostface Ginseng had shriveled up, so he threw it away.

The liquid he had squeezed out just now could be considered the condensation of all the Ghostface Ginseng’s essence. It was called Golden Jade Liquid, and one drop was worth one hundred drops of spiritual liquid, several dozen days of cultivation, or a bottle of Essence-Refining Pills.

Tang Jie’s ginseng was six to seven hundred years old, and while he was still only able to get one drop, it was very energy-dense, one drop able to expand his Spiritual Space by more than 130 drops of spiritual liquid, comparable to more than half a bottle of True Essence Pills. If he could get seven or eight of them, Tang Jie could easily reach the peak of Spirit Sea, but even the Langya Blessed Land probably didn’t have that many Ghostface Ginsengs of this level.

But Tang Jie was in no rush. This Langya Blessed Land had plenty of nice things. Even if there were no more Ghostface Ginsengs, there were other things. The large amount of information He Chong had provided him had resolved Tang Jie into plundering the Wandering Palace.

He didn’t know that the Wandering Palace and the six major sects were all watching him, and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t care. He only wanted to use this chance to quickly ascend to Mortal Shedding so that he could contend against the others.

Meanwhile, outside, the crowd was in an uproar.

The middle-aged beauty presiding for the Wandering Palace pointed at Tang Jie’s image and said, “Headmaster Xie, please give an explanation from your Basking Moon Sect on this matter.”

“That’s right!” Heng Wudi of the Beast Refining Gate stood up and roared. “Why does that kid know the secret extraction method for Ghostface Ginseng? All knowledge on raw extraction of herbs is not to be taught to students. This is a law that has been upheld for one thousand years!”

Xie Fengtang frowned and loudly replied, “Elder Heng, please calm yourself. Basking Moon Academy has never broken this rule and has never taught that which should not be taught. If you don’t believe me, you can look at the other students of Basking Moon Academy. Have any of them used this secret method?”

Everyone looked, and sure enough, none of the other Basking Moon Academy students were using similar secret processing methods.

Xie Fengtang went on, “Basking Moon Academy has never illegally taught these methods. As for how Tang Jie managed to learn it, I am also very curious. When this matter is concluded, I will definitely ask him about it.”

Heng Wudi unhappily replied, “It will be too late by then! This guy is using the resources of the blessed land to improve himself! This isn’t fair!”

“Right, right!” people in the crowd shouted in agreement.

Ming Yekong lazily replied, “Nothing is unfair. Everyone has their own fortune, and so long as Basking Moon Academy did not break the rule and teach the method, it is not the fault of my Basking Moon Academy, but something arising from that Tang Jie’s own ability. Moreover… even if we taught it, it would not be that big of a deal.”

Heng Wudi angrily glared at Ming Yekong. “Ming Yekong, what do you mean by this?”

Ming Yekong didn’t even raise his eyelids, simply raising a finger and replying, “The secret extraction method for raw herbs isn’t taught to students in order to protect sealed lands and prevent students from using these methods to inflict severe damage and pointlessly waste resources. Once students graduate, the secret extraction methods are no longer kept hidden. Thus, this rule simply exists to protect our own sects and has nothing to do with other sects.”

Everyone was rendered silent by these words.

Ming Yekong was right. The major sects had this rule primarily to prevent students from scouring the land in their training and consuming everything. Once they had joined their respective sects and started traveling the world, they would be plundering the lands of other people, so it was naturally up to them to do the best they could. Thus, there was little reason to keep the methods hidden.

Thus, whether this knowledge was passed down or not was each sect’s own business and truly had nothing to do with others.

Even if Basking Moon Academy did teach this, it wasn’t anyone else’s business.

Heng Wudi grunted, “The problem is that this is the territory of the Wandering Palace!”

Ming Yekong didn’t even frown. “The Basking Moon Sect will simply pay the appropriate price.”

“Then the unfairness that results from the increase in strength?”

“As was already said, this was his own good luck,” Xie Fengtang replied. “This Xie can swear on the ancestors of the Basking Moon Sect that no secret methods were taught for the sake of victory!”

Since Xie Fengtang had sworn on the ancestors, it was difficult for anyone else to say anything.

The gorgeous woman from the Thousand Passions Sect said, “It’s only a Ghostface Ginseng. Is there a need for Elder Heng to be so troubled about it?”

“Indeed. It’s only a Ghostface Ginseng. There’s truly no need to quibble over it.”

“It was that Tang Jie’s fortune to obtain this secret method. Since he was this lucky, we can let him have this.”

Other people chimed in to agree.

Heng Wudi had planned to argue his case more, but after hearing everyone say this, he ultimately grunted and fell silent.

But they would quickly realize how much of a joke “only a Ghostface Ginseng” was.

In the Langya Blessed Land, Tang Jie was picking a large swath of ripe Red Tear Mushrooms. He was using a golden needle to carefully remove the red dots on the caps and then throwing them in a pot to boil. Besides Red Tear Mushrooms, there was also Congealed Jade Incense and Heavenly Aroma Grass, which had already been processed. These were all treasures that could increase spiritual energy, and Tang Jie had also placed in the fiend pellet from the white snake and the meat of several other fiend beasts he had hunted.

Slowly boiled by a gentle fire, a pot of aromatic liquid gradually formed. Tang Jie flicked a bamboo tube made from Verdant Jade Bamboo into the pot, which had been filled with thoroughly cooked Thousand Bell Grass. He then began to chow down on the spiritual medicine in the pot.

As he devoured the medicine, he could feel his spiritual energy growing more abundant, so he began to meditate, a large white cloud beginning to circle over his head.

This was a manifestation of abundant spiritual energy.

The Langya Blessed Land was a gathering ground of spiritual energy, so even if Tang Jie hadn’t eaten all these spiritual plants, just cultivating here normally for a day would have the effect of three to five days on the outside. After taking such a large supplement, he reaped an even greater harvest. Tang Jie’s Spiritual Space rapidly expanded, the spiritual liquid gathering within, and what was once the tide of a lake gradually began to strengthen into the tide of a sea.

But this was only the beginning. He was still some distance from actually reaching greater attainment in Spirit Sea. Tang Jie was in no rush. After a single Major Circuit Heaven to stabilize his spiritual energy, he got up and headed back down the mountain.

“Thousand Bell Grass, Congealed Jade Incense, Heavenly Aroma Grass, Red Tear Mushroom… Look, look, all of it! He knows how to use all of it! You still want to say he came across these methods by luck?” Heng Wudi’s expression had turned nastier and nastier.

The members from the other major sects had also frowned, and even Xie Fengtang asked in shock, “Just who taught him all this?”

But Ming Yekong’s reaction was different. His eyes brightened as he sat up and looked at the mess Tang Jie had left behind. “No! Cooking Congealed Jade Incense, Heavenly Aroma Grass, and Red Tear Mushrooms together is one thing, but what is with the white snake’s fiend pellet and the fiend meat?”

The six major sects actually had slightly different methods for handling herbs.

Cooking Congealed Jade Incense, Heavenly Aroma Grass, and Red Tear Mushrooms together was a traditional method, but adding a fiend snake pellet and fiend meat was extremely unusual.

This required a deep understanding of fiend beasts and their uses so as to not cause medicinal conflict that would ruin everything. And in this aspect, nobody could outdo the Beast Refining Gate.

The Beast Refining Gate had always been masters of mixing in fiend beast meat and pellets into their herbal concoctions, and no one was more familiar with the special attributes of fiends.

Ming Yekong’s words prompted the other representatives of the six major sects to turn to Heng Wudi.

Heng Wudi panicked. “What are you all looking at me for? You really think this matter has to do with me?”

Ming Yekong replied, “At least when it comes to adding in a white snake’s fiend pellet and fiend meat, this Ming Yekong knows nothing.”

But considering how Tang Jie had cursed out Heng Wudi, they simultaneously rejected the idea. No spy would dare to do such a thing.

For this reason, the origin of Tang Jie’s methods became a point of suspicion, but nobody could think of where he could have gotten them.

Heng Wudi, after a brief stupor, suddenly cried out in realization, “Gu Changqing! Shit! I get it! It must have been Godhead Palace who taught him! It must have been that Gu Changqing!”

The Beast Refining Gate and Godhead Palace were closely connected, and Godhead Palace knew some of the secret methods of the Beast Refining Gate.

Many people knew that Gu Changqing had kidnapped Tang Jie, and Tang Jie had accompanied Gu Changqing in his flight around the country. For him to have picked up some special knowledge in this time wouldn’t be strange.

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Heng Wudi had unwittingly helped Tang Jie find an answer.

Xie Fengtang grunted, “So it was a present my friends at Godhead Palace gifted to my Basking Moon Sect. No wonder this kid knows these tricks.”

Godhead Palace was already very angry at the Beast Refining Gate over the death of Shu Mingyang. They had even gone and questioned the Beast Refining Gate over this, but Helian Hu denied responsibility, admitting that while he had sought out Shu Mingyang and caused him trouble, he had never killed him.

In order to avoid the charge of accidental killing, he had even denied making the fatal wound on Shu Mingyang’s chest.

While he had strenuously denied, because he didn’t totally deny responsibility, he became the target of suspicion. Moreover, when he was confronted, he was clearly looking around and speaking insincerely—the signs of a liar—making Godhead Palace even more suspicious.

Most infuriating of all was that Helian Hu admitted that he knew Shu Mingyang was a spy.

This made them so suspicious of Helian Hu that they wanted to bring him back for questioning, but the Beast Refining Gate refused to comply.

As the two sects needed to cooperate, the golden-robed elder of Godhead Palace had stomached his anger, but he was extremely unhappy about Heng Wudi. He hadn’t expected Heng Wudi to act out again today, pushing the responsibility onto them. He cried out, “Just as Brother Ming said, so long as the sect did not teach it, then it was gained by fortune. Since it was good fortune that brought it about, who cares about him? Just let him be!”

“Old Ke, aren’t you being too selfish?” Heng Wudi angrily glared at the golden-robed elder.

The elder replied, “I just don’t want too much trouble. The Immortal Fortune contest has only just begun, and the students are all vying against each other, so why are we paying attention to some kid who hasn’t even reached Mortal Shedding? Even if he has all this fortune and plunders the blessed land, how far can he get…? The struggle over the ten treasures has already begun.”

A rainbow light shot up from the Langya Blessed Land.

In the seventh hour after entry into the blessed land, the first treasure had emerged!