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Chapter 328: Baiting and Fishing

“I… What happened?”

Shenshan Qiuhua’s eyelashes shook, and she slowly opened her eyes.

“Senior Brother… Jiang Li.”

As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Jiang Li who she had not seen for a long time. Her face habitually reddened, but it quickly returned to being pale.

After waking up from her coma, she still did not understand what had happened.

“Don’t move. Calm your breathing. If you’re tired, sleep first.”

Shenshan Qiuhua wanted to think, but the intense headache and exhaustion made her close her eyes and curl up in Jiang Li’s arms.

Jiang Li hugged Shenshan Qiuhua as pure wood-attribute spiritual qi was continuously transferred into her body.

If not for his spiritual qi, Shenshan Qiuhua would have spat blood if she spoke now.

Previously, Jiang Li had dozens of healing spells and medicinal pill statuses on his body. Later on, he consumed an Earth-rank medicinal pill, the Body Repairing Golden Wyrm Pill.

With the enhancement of these statuses, even if he was heavily injured and on the verge of death, he could recover mostly in ten breaths.

After a long period of research, he discovered that although he could not directly mobilize the hidden energy of these healing statuses, if he used wood-attribute spiritual qi to execute a healing spell technique alone, he could also bring out a portion of the energy.

Therefore, although Jiang Li had only casually learned a basic “Rejuvenation Technique”, the effect that he could achieve was comparable to a professional medical team.

When the Shu Mountain sword cultivator’s Intrinsic Flying Sword was injured, it usually injured them severely.

Shenshan Qiuhua happened to have two Intrinsic Flying Swords. They had been forcefully refined these few days and had been heavily injured twice. If not for the special energy in her body protecting the core’s origin,

she might have died in that wine jar long ago.

However, this energy did not feel like the effect of an artifact to Jiang Li.

He still remembered that back then, under the Shu Mountain Five Elements Peak’s Demon Subduing Pagoda, an old turtle had relied on his turtle treasure to discover the special characteristics of Shenshan Qiuhua.

The last time he saw the other party, Shenshan Qiuhua’s body also showed some abnormalities. This energy might have appeared from that time.

Jiang Li could only sense that the quality of that force was very high, but he could not recognize the exact reason.

While he was healing Shenshan Qiuhua, he waved his hand and summoned a large number of Wood Demons.

A portion of the Wood Demons sent the group of helpless children home, while the rest went to rescue the others who were trapped in the jar.

The few cultivators of the Great Mountain Alliance were also found in the broken jar.

Their injuries were not serious as they were directly subdued by someone with absolute strength.

After consuming a few medicinal pills, it was not a problem to adjust his breathing.

Then, while checking their storage bags, Jiang Li discovered many boxes with the effect of preserving freshness.

After opening it, he discovered that there were thousands of heads inside.

Why exactly did these guys do this?

The heads of these mortal children were not spiritual materials or spiritual objects. At most, they could only be used as unorthodox methods to create a few low-grade Yellow-rank artifacts that were not even high-grade Yellow-rank.

Amongst these six people, there was even a Nascent Soul cultivator. This little bit of profit should not be enough for them.

What were they after? Who needed the head of such mortals?

After the few cultivators of the Great Mountain Alliance who were the least injured woke up from their meditation, Jiang Li learned about the incident.

It was Shenshan Qiuhua, who had awakened her special talent, who had heard the cries of countless children.

Only then did they descend to the ground to check the situation. In the end, they happened to encounter the convoy led by the six people.

Unfortunately, their strength was too weak, and they were unable to act chivalrously. In a single exchange, they were captured and even thrown into a wine jar.

They did not even have time to send out a distress signal.

It had to be said that Shenshan Qiuhua had to take the blame.

With the personality of other old foxes, it was impossible for them to specially stop and meddle in other people’s business. It was probably because of the status of the little princess of the Shenshan Family that they had no choice but to violate the rules.

“You’ve worked hard. Get up quickly. Rest well for a period of time after you return. I’ll compensate you personally for the lost artifacts and medicinal pills.”

A few cultivators who were kneeling on the ground to apologize were helped up by the Wood Demon soldiers and placed beside them.

Soon, Elder Mu and the others who received the news rushed over.

She thanked Jiang Li repeatedly. If not for Jiang Li, this kind of thing would have been more dangerous the longer it took, and the chances of finding it back would have been lower.

The reason why he could find them this time was firstly because of the large-scale spreading of spiritual root seeds, and secondly, a certain level of luck.

Under the continuous nourishment of Jiang Li’s spiritual qi, the injuries on Shenshan Qiuhua’s body finally stabilized.

However, it was not so easy to heal the damage to the soul.

Even if he used the spider lily to make tea every day and the carefree grass to make porridge, she would have to recuperate for at least a month.

The matter was resolved without any mishaps. After roughly tidying up the battlefield, the group rode the flying ship back to the encampment.

However, to Jiang Li, this was far from the end.

After leaving Shenshan Qiuhua, Jiang Li walked into the coffin alone.

Inside, the few rogue cultivators who had been dragged in were hanging on the trees like dried meat.

Their bodies were not dead, and their souls were dragged out. They were fried in a pot of oil.

Jiang Li used a technique similar to that in the Fengdu dungeon, making it not so easy for their souls to dissipate even if it suffered excessive torture. They could endure pain repeatedly.

These guys’ cultivation levels were not low. After enduring a day of torture, they could still maintain their rationality.

When they saw Jiang Li enter, they hurriedly begged for mercy.

“Senior! Spare me! Spare me! They instructed me! I won’t dare to do it again!”

“We have parents and children in our family! Please give us another chance!”

“We… we’ll give all our savings to you, Lord. We really don’t dare to do this anymore!”

They struggled and shouted in the oil pot, looking quite energetic.

With a wave of his hand, six branches stretched out and hooked out one of the five living souls in the pot.

After the six crisp souls left the pot, it was as if they had obtained new life. They hurriedly promised Jiang Li that they would repay his kindness of not killing them even if they had to work hard in their next life.

“Tell me, who are you working for? What is the use of those children’s heads?”

“This… Senior, we’re only a few rogue cultivators. No one instructed us. We… Ah!”

The person who spoke was thrown into the pot of oil again.

“Next, who wants to try and lie to me?”

Jiang Li had originally thought that rogue cultivators had always been some without morals, but he never expected that these fellows would actually be able to persist in being stubborn after their souls had been drawn out.

“Lord, all our savings are in Phoenix Sun City’s Cloud Inn.”

“We really don’t know anything else, please…”

Then, he was also thrown into the pot.

The others had just been fried for a day, and they did not want to go back anymore. They hurriedly explained.

“Lord, we really can’t say it. If we do, we’ll die! Our family and children will all be killed.”

Then, all of them followed suit.

Jiang Li frowned. He could have used the spiritual root seed to directly control them, but these fellows were too disgusting. Jiang Li did not want to give them a chance to ‘turn over a new leaf’.

However, there might be something strange about their firm attitude.

The Nine Nether Wood reached into the soul search attempt to forcefully obtain some useful information.

However, the soul search had just begun when he discovered a restriction. Then, before he could react, his entire soul suddenly exploded, causing hot oil to splash all over the ground.

What a powerful restriction!

It was no wonder they did not say anything.

This restriction was very sensitive. As long as their souls were detected and modified, or if they tried to tell the truth, they would immediately explode without any room to recover.

If one ate the spiritual root seed, they would also parasitize and modify the low-level soul in the host body. Under such circumstances, they would probably explode after eating it.

That faction would only recruit rogue cultivators with families and children. Every rogue cultivator could only carry out a mission once or twice, and they would act once every few years. They would wander around all over the world and carry out new missions.

They had something that cultivators could not escape from and set up such a restriction.

Using such a meticulous method to keep it a secret, the situation here was probably very deep.

Since he could not get an answer directly, he could only hook the bait and fish slowly.

…

A few days later, a convoy slowly drove under the night sky.

They looked like an ordinary mortal caravan, but the direction they were traveling in was gradually far from the gathering place of humans.

Even when a lake appeared at the end of the road, they did not stop.

When the convoy reached the lake, the calm lake water suddenly rippled.

The river water in front of them separated from the middle, revealing a path downwards.

After the convoy drove in, the lake water closed again, leaving no traces on the surface.

Following the passage under the lake, a stone door marked with strange runes appeared ahead.

“1, 9, 3, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10.”

A Nascent Soul cultivator got down from the carriage and spat out a string of scrambled codes.

This was the secret signal they had agreed on. A moment later, the stone door in front of him opened automatically.

Inside was a dark and empty underground cave.

“You’re late.”

After the convoy entered, they could see familiar wine jars and boxes everywhere.

It was obvious what was inside.

This convoy was not alone. There were many other scums helping them.

A group of people surrounded them to unload the goods. A cultivator with a ledger came up to count the quantity.

“Sorry, Lord Registrar, something happened and we were delayed.”

A few rogue cultivators hurried forward to explain.

“There are still too few of them. What about the mortal executioners you brought? You can only reap a few by yourselves.”

“Oh? I remember that there should be six of you. Where’s the last guy?”

The registrar shook his head, clearly dissatisfied with their work.

“Forget it. It’s you who can’t seize the opportunity.”

“What do you want to do next time?”

The head of a child was worth five spirit stones, and a seedling with a spiritual root was worth a hundred spirit stones.

If it was a cultivator with cultivation, they could also sell a considerable number of spirit stones according to their cultivation talent.

This price was simply subverting the understanding of the cultivation world.

In any town, there could be more than a thousand mortal children.

After this trip, each of them easily earned tens of thousands of spirit stones.

This was something that they usually had to risk their lives to obtain.

However, now, all they had to do was ride the carriage around and keep it a secret.

With the conscience of a group of rogue cultivators, it was one thing to sell a few hundred spirit stones, let alone tens of thousands.

The registrar paid the spirit stones very directly and used a spell technique to change the restriction in their minds.

After leaving this place, all the memories related to this place would disappear within a few days.

Only those who were prepared to do it a second time could retain a portion of their memories.

A few years later, they would be notified to carry out another mission.

The five of them left the cave under the lake and immediately dispersed.

According to the rules, they could not fly in a radius of 50 kilometers. After leaving, they could not meet privately for at least a few months.

However, under the night sky, a few black and white fox demons secretly followed them.

Under the envelopment of the brilliant talent illusion technique, they unknowingly lost their direction and finally met up in a forest dozens of miles away.

They did not see each other at all and crashed into a coffin one after another.

Jiang Li could not directly break through the restriction, but he could modify the memories of these five people outside the restriction.

After the torture caused their minds to collapse, with Qin Shuman’s Shu Mountain Illusory Art Life Record and the Mountain Fox Demon’s illusion talent, he erased the memories of the five people after they met him.

Only the Nascent Soul leader was a troublesome one.

However, taking out the finger bone of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox Daji, he still easily broke through the other party’s will.

He used an illusion technique to weave some reasonable experiences for them, and then he let these people bring the original “goods” and some of Jiang Li’s puppets to hand over the goods.

After leaving the delivery location, the fox demon controlled them to walk into the trap.

As long as they did not discover the trick of planting puppets, it was equivalent to bringing a locating device.

Jiang Li wanted to see what these guys wanted to do.

…

At the front line of the Mechanism City, they were attacked by the sea beast tide again.

Densely packed fins crowded in the murky seawater.

The countless mechanisms and traps of the Mechanism City were constantly strangling the flesh and blood, dying a large area red.

With the Thousand Mechanisms Sphere as the core, the entire city could unleash several times its previous power.

The Giant Sea Floating Wood Forest around the city also displayed a huge effect, resisting tens of thousands of sea beasts.

Coupled with the top combat strength of the Great Mountain Region, the Great Mountain Alliance could barely resist.

Jiang Li, who was standing on the city wall, released a vast amount of spiritual qi to sustain the range of the Nine Nether Tree Realm.

He used the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra to investigate the Armored Trolls hidden in the beast tide. Once they were discovered, the Soul Formation cultivator standing beside him would kill the troll with lightning speed.

“This Armored Troll attack feels a little intentional.”

Jiang Li raised his hand, and a smooth tree branch slowly grew out from his wrist.

The tree branch pointed behind him at first, but now it was moving forward at a moderate speed.