苏州哪里有站小巷的

Inside the bamboo hut, on the bed, Xu Yang sat cross-legged, still cultivating.

Spiritual energy surged in like a tide, continuously infusing into the cultivator’s body, transforming into the mana of the five elements and Five Elements Spiritual Roots.

It went on like this, until after an indeterminate length of time, the tide of the Yuan Spirit finally calmed, Xu Yang’s breath steadied, and his eyes slowly opened, while he exhaled a wisp of dark flow visibly from his mouth.

“Qi Refinement Ninth Tier, late-stage realm!”

“Worthy of being a Five Elements Spiritual Root!”

Feeling the mana of the Yuan Spirit inside his body, Xu Yang couldn’t help but admire again.

A month ago, he had gone to the market to purchase a batch of materials, then returned to the island and transformed into a construction demon.

Constructing houses, cultivating fields, arranging the Gathering Spirit Array, building cages, and collecting fish species…

There was much to do, and he was busy with work.

But in his hands, everything was methodically managed; even as the construction and development proceeded, his cultivation did not fall behind.

Thus, with a month of arduous cultivation, he had broken through several barriers, and now he had reached the ninth layer of Qi Cultivation in the late stage.

Given such development, a hundred-day foundation establishment was also within reason, not out of reach.

This rapid progress was, firstly, due to the marvelous power of the Five Elements Spiritual Root and, secondly, due to the results of Xu Yang’s accrued potentiality.

Zhuanzhou Mengdie, several generations of reincarnations, the struggles on the path of cultivation had been countless, along with the creation of the Martial Arts Scripture, the extrapolation at Wandao School…

In the early stages of cultivation, Xu Yang did not dare to say that he had achieved perfection, but he was close to the limit of human effort, nearly flawless.

With such a re-cultivation, he naturally made rapid advances, without facing any bottlenecks or difficulties.

Unfortunately, the Five Elements Spiritual Root and accrued potentiality could only solve the issues of mana cultivation.

The spiritual objects required for the Five Spirits True Jue foundation establishment, he had not been able to obtain a single one of them yet.

Although it was possible to advance to foundation establishment without the Five Elements spiritual objects, doing so would be akin to wasting an opportunity for purifying the Spiritual Root and enhancing one’s aptitude. Unless absolutely necessary, Xu Yang really did not want to give up.

“At the Qi Refinement ninth layer, I already have a certain level of strength. It’s time to explore the surroundings and gather the Five Elements spiritual objects in preparation for foundation establishment.”

“But before that…”

Xu Yang muttered to himself, then closed his eyes, circulated his mana, and catalyzed thunder.

“Crack!”

Thunder flickered, electricity roamed like a dragon, subtly mixed with five colors of the Five Elements, green, yellow, red, white, and black, rotating in turn, seeping into Xu Yang’s body, passing through his flesh and blood, penetrating between his bones, encompassing every limb and bone, without exception.

Thunder Commanding Power!

Heavenly Thunder Tempering Technique!

In one month’s time, he had progressed from the early stages to the late stages of Qi Refinement ninth tier, thanks to the Five Elements Spiritual Root.

However, within the Yuan Spirit was demonic Qi, and the more he absorbed, the heavier the demonic nature. Although the Qi and Blood Furnace could refine it, it placed a severe burden on the physical body, so Xu Yang had to move his body training plan up the schedule.

For this, he had searched Wuzhe Lake for several days, hoping to catch some electric eels to train with.

But he realized that this method was unworkable.

It wasn’t that Wuzhe Lake had no electric eels; rather…

Anyway, electric eels were not an option.

Xu Yang could only expend his own mana to cast Thunderbolt Daoist Skill to temper his body while refining the demonic Qi.

“Thunder methods, able to refine demonic Qi!”

“Not just thunder methods, all things, including living beings, after absorbing demonic Qi, can neutralize a part of their demonic nature.”

“Cultivators in this world should have mana points that can refine demonic Qi, reducing the impact of the demonic nature. After all, discussing toxicity without considering dosage is a rather unreasonable thing to do.”

“But no matter how much it’s reduced, it’s just treating the symptoms, not the root cause. Unless one can completely eliminate the effect of the demonic nature, one will still fall into the Demon Path after reaching a certain level of cultivation, degenerating into the kind of demons and monsters.”

“Therefore, what state are the high-tier cultivators of this world in, and why do human dynasties still peacefully exist under their rule?”

“There must be secrets!”

“Having achieved a little success, concentrated thought urges action. It’s time to go out and walk around!”

With his thoughts swirling in his mind, his ideas became certain.

Xu Yang stood up, walked out of the bamboo hut, and came to a pool in the center of the small island.

The pool, newly built by him, was located in the center of the island, with fields all around.

Calling it a pool, it was actually bottomless, more like a deep water cavern.

Xu Yang approached the edge of the pool, removed his clothes, revealing his robust body, and plunged into the water with a dive.

A moment later…

“Splash!”

“Bang!!!”

The water exploded, lightning flashed, and a figure flew out. It was none other than Xu Yang.

In Xu Yang’s hand was an object, clearly a thick, long eel, pitch-black all over.

The eel, gripped by its head and neck by him, had its thick body coiled around his arm, setting off golden currents of electricity with snapping sounds.

However, Xu Yang was indifferent. He landed, picked up a sharp knife, and with a thrust, penetrated the eel’s head. He then pinned it to a nearby rock, tossed a wooden basin to collect the blood, and let it struggle.

The electric eel hung on the rock wall, wriggling violently for quite a while before finally going still, its life force extinguished.

Only then did Xu Yang approach, tear off the eel’s pitch-black scales, clean the innards, and then pulled out a long tendon from its back.

Finally, he threw the electric eels as thick as his wrist onto the cutting board, and with a few “thunk, thunk” sounds, he chopped them into chunks with a thick and heavy cleaver.

Xu Yang put down the cleaver, picked up a large basin full of fish meat, and turned to walk into the kitchen.

Before long, smoke spiraled upwards from the stove, carrying with it the drifting scent of delicious cooking.

One dish was stir-fried, another steamed, there was also a soup, a congee base, and another…

In short, every part was used, nothing wasted.

Though he was particular about what he ate, Xu Yang was not a glutton, indeed he did not even wish to indulge his appetite in such a manner.

But alas… these electric eels were uncooperative!

Wuzhe Lake, truly worthy of a lake formed by the convergence of the five Wuzhes, teemed with a multitude of fish species, including some rare alien beasts.

Xu Yang had searched the lake for several days and successfully found a group of electric eels, which he captured and brought back for fish farming.

Under normal circumstances, he would have cultivated these electric eels into alien beasts, then awakened their Spirit Wisdom to become spirit monsters, and ultimately, they would cultivate the “Supreme Yin Body Training Skill” to transform into human forms, becoming his most loyal subordinates.

However, things were unusual now; his current incarnation had not yet mastered the beast-taming skills nor held the power of the Earth Deity God Monarch, incapable of awakening beasts or enlightening spirit monsters. He could only use ordinary methods to farm spirit beasts and then control them.

This led to problems.

Ordinary farming methods meant feeding Yuan Spirit as nourishment in cultivation, but in this world, everything carried demonic qi. Under the pollution of demonic qi, what came out of cultivation… could it still be called a spirit beast?

Experience proved that it could not.

After farming for over a month, these demonic qi-contaminated electric eels still could not be tamed. They would go berserk upon seeing him, relentlessly, until death. They were utterly unusable for training, and if kept in net cages, they would attack other ordinary fish species. In the end, he had to dig out a pond connected to the underground water veins for their solitary confinement.

Xu Yang was helpless about this.

This was the influence of demonic qi. If the electric eels were like this, then the other fish species would likely be no exception.

Xu Yang currently had no solution to this problem unless he was willing to spend time and consume mana, day and night, cleansing the bodies of alien beasts, helping them refine the demonic qi.

But that was clearly impractical.

Xu Yang estimated that unless he re-cultivated the skills of “Beast Taming” and “Earth Deities” and brought forth various traits, this problem could not be effectively solved.

Being unable to breed spirit beasts would become an issue in the development of his power due to the lack of loyal subordinates.

As for replacing them with other people…

Demonic qi was entangled everywhere; wouldn’t humans be affected?

Demonic qi, demonic qi!

It had to be said, the existence of demonic qi posed a significant obstacle for Xu Yang.

But it was just an obstacle, not an insurmountable chasm.

Over at the Wandao School, led by the “Taoism Origin Body,” they were using the demonic qi extracted earlier to conduct research and overcome difficulties, striving to develop a method that could thoroughly remove or significantly refine the demonic nature.

If the Origin Body worked so hard, the incarnation naturally had to make an effort too.

So…

“This porridge is good, the fish even better, next time I can catch a couple more.”

Having satiated himself with wine and food, Xu Yang left his home, steering the black-canopied boat toward the fish market.

Although he was a cultivator in the late stage of Qi Refinement and could fly even without a magic artifact, he was still unfamiliar with this world and preferred to stay as inconspicuous as possible.

The black-canopied boat glided gently, soon reaching the Fish Market Pier. He paid the docking fee using the identity of Scarface and then went ashore to the market.

It was deep autumn just a month before, but now it had turned even colder.

Although located in the south, where snow did not fall, the penetrating bone-chilling dampness was more than ordinary people could endure.

Nevertheless, the business in the fish market did not decrease due to the weather but instead burgeoned, since autumn fish eaten in winter were highly sought after for their rich fattiness, which was popular among the buyers.

On the sellers’ side, although the weather was cold, life was crueler. Many fishermen still went to sea even in winter, bringing back a good number of fatty autumn fish in the hope of fetching a high price and having a comfortable new year.

People bustled about, hurrying and scurrying for their daily bread.

Xu Yang did not set up a stall but instead went to a tavern to order some food and drink, observing the myriad faces of life and the worldly tumult.

“Did you hear? Old Li has passed away.”

“Oh? That’s news, what happened?”

“What else could’ve happened, it was his time.”

“Fifty-eight, not bad at all!”

“Us who make a living on boats, coming in rain and going in wind, to live as long as he did, what more could we ask for?”

“He lived a fortunate life. His wife bore him three stout boys, all grown and raised, and three households of people saw him off. He left with dignity to meet his ancestors.”

“What are you talking about? Those three families came to fight over the inheritance. I heard Old Li was once a member of the Flying Tiger Gang. After he got injured, he came back to fishing. It’s said he left behind a Martial Arts Scripture; because of that, the Li brothers nearly knocked each other’s brains out.”

“The Flying Tiger Gang, that’s one of the three biggest gangs in Jiangning Mansion. How great would it be if I could join them?”

“Keep dreaming; look at Third Master, he’s just an external affairs manager for the Flying Tiger Gang. Do you think you could do better than him?”

The drinking crowd chattered on, sharing local gossip and the latest news, yet most conversations could not stray far from Jiangning Mansion.

In a feudal dynasty, many people never left their counties their entire lives; affairs of the state capital were already the biggest topics after meals.

Although their chatter held little value, Xu Yang was not annoyed.

Suddenly, his gaze swept outside the tavern, catching sight of two figures.