Chapter 134: The Spiritual Treasure Achieves Merit, the Capriciousness of Fate, and the Hidden Trouble in the Northern Sea!

This is his internal storage space.

Where else could the two spiritual treasures possibly run off to?

With just a single thought.

The two glowing, light-emitting objects were instantly bound in place, unable to move a muscle.

Lu Wufei immediately raised his hand, and the two rays of spiritual light were swiftly controlled and pulled backward until they floated right in front of his eyes.

One emitted a faint, translucent, jade-white glow, shaped like a small pouch.

The other radiated a rich, intense golden light, shaped like a long spear—unmistakably a weapon.

The two balls of light hovered before him.

The jade-white little pouch remained quite quiet, completely motionless.

The little spear, enveloped in golden light, was exceptionally restless. Despite being bound, it was still struggling mightily, shaking and quivering incessantly.

Looking at the two treasures.

The more Lu Wufei looked at them, the more delighted he felt in his heart.

Treasures are exceedingly rare.

And spiritual treasures, the most precious among all treasures, are even harder to come by.

Lu Wufei had been in this world for fifty years, his cultivation reaching the Human Immortal realm.

Until now, he possessed only a single spiritual treasure—the protective leaf-shaped treasure his teacher had given him when he first achieved the Golden Elixir realm and prepared to descend the mountain.

Nothing else.

As for magical artifacts below the rank of spiritual treasures.

Lu Wufei hadn't possessed many of those either, previously.

Aside from the middle-grade magical artifact "Azure Wind Blade" borrowed from Senior Brother Qingfeng, he had only snatched a middle-grade magical artifact, the Golden Light Staff, from the golden-haired monkey demon in Wind and Cloud Ridge thirty years ago. Apart from these, he had no other magical artifacts in his possession.

There were quite a few ritual tools below the rank of magical artifacts.

However, given his current realm of cultivation, encountering enemies meant ordinary ritual tools had far too limited utility.

The Golden Light Staff was a middle-grade magical artifact.

Before advancing to the Human Immortal realm.

Lu Wufei had found it very suitable to use.

Even with his current realm, it remained quite appropriate for him.

Ever since that time thirty years ago when he successively slew four demon general commanders and coincidentally snatched a middle-grade magical artifact staff from that golden-haired monkey demon, all his other seized weapons had been mere ritual tools, without a single magical artifact among them. This showed just how difficult it was to acquire magical artifacts.

Yet ever since becoming a disciple at Wuzhuang Temple, having been bestowed a spiritual treasure by his teacher from the start, Lu Wufei's vision and ambitions had naturally soared.

He had been pondering where he might acquire another spiritual treasure weapon.

And now, these spiritual treasure divine arms had suddenly appeared right before his eyes.

This was truly a pleasant surprise.

"To kill and pillage brings the golden belt."

This saying was simply too fitting and accurate.

Without dwelling on it further.

Lu Wufei's divine sense stirred slightly, instantly extending a wisp of spiritual awareness to make contact with the jade-white pouch.

Yet, the moment it drew close.

The jade-white pouch immediately dodged to the side, though its evasion range was limited due to being bound.

His spiritual sense quickly tracked it down.

But immediately afterward.

The jade-white pouch closed its opening, refusing contact and giving Lu Wufei's spiritual sense the cold shoulder.

As mentioned earlier.

What defines a spiritual treasure? Any treasure that has birthed self-awareness can be called a spiritual treasure.

Having self-awareness also meant having its own likes and dislikes.

The first spiritual treasure Lu Wufei had encountered was the green leaf bestowed by his teacher; that leaf had never had a master before, making Lu Wufei its very first owner.

Even so.

Lu Wufei had interacted with it back and forth several times before the green leaf finally accepted him and recognized him as its master.

As for this jade-white pouch obtained from the monkey demon.

If Lu Wufei wished to successfully subdue this pouch, it would clearly require some effort.

He was in no rush, however.

He extended his spiritual sense once more, beginning to make contact with the jade-white pouch.

The pouch's reaction remained unchanged.

Lu Wufei pondered for a brief moment, his divine sense shifting again.

He lifted the restraints binding both the jade-white pouch and the golden little spear.

At once.

The golden little spear bolted upward toward the high reaches of the bounded space without a moment's hesitation.

The jade-white pouch, on the other hand, spun around in a circle and flew back in front of Lu Wufei.

Yet the moment Lu Wufei extended his spiritual sense.

It rapidly dodged away once more.

After tossing and turning like this several times, it felt almost as if the pouch was teasing Lu Wufei.

Lu Wufei felt helpless.

Now he truly understood how difficult it was to tame these spiritual treasures.

Looking at the golden little spear that had fled far away.

He figured it would likely be even harder to subjugate.

At this moment, a thought suddenly struck Lu Wufei.

He seemed to recall that during his intense battle with the monkey demon earlier, he had never seen the opponent use a long spear.

While the jade-white pouch might have been useless against his four-hundred-zhang-giant form at the time.

That long spear, however, was a weapon—and a spiritual treasure at that.

Spiritual treasures were entirely different from ordinary magical artifacts.

Growing or shrinking by a hundred zhang in length was hardly a problem for them.

Yet he had never once seen the old demon use it from start to finish. Could it be that the opponent had failed to tame it yet?

After all, he could think of no other reason.

After brief consideration.

Lu Wufei put the thought aside; once he subdued that little spear, everything would naturally become clear.

Still, he knew that taming both the jade pouch and the golden spear would require a considerable amount of effort.

Of course, should he encounter a spiritual treasure utterly unwilling to submit.

Subduing it by force was also an option.

The price to pay was simply a bit steep, as it required erasing the spiritual sentience of the conquered treasure.

Should that happen, stripped of its sentience, the spiritual treasure would cease to be a spiritual treasure and degrade into a mere magical artifact.

Birtthing sentience anew thereafter would be exceedingly difficult.

However, subduing spiritual treasures did not strictly require clashing with them head-on.

After all, their sentience was far simpler than that of humans or demons.

Moreover, judging by the two treasures before him, their level of sentience was basically on par with Lu Wufei's green leaf.

With that thought in mind.

Lu Wufei's divine sense stirred.

A streak of green light swiftly flew in from the outside into the bounded space, coming to a halt right in front of Lu Wufei.

Looking at the glowing green leaf radiating a soft emerald light before him.

Lu Wufei softly instructed it with a few words, then said, "Go on, I'm counting on you."

The green leaf acknowledged the command by happily spinning a circle in front of Lu Wufei's spiritual avatar, then flew off toward the distant corner where the two spiritual treasures were located.

Having dispatched the green leaf.

Lu Wufei no longer paid attention to the two spiritual treasures, turning his gaze instead to the pitch-black storage bag radiating rich spiritual light in his hand.

Without opening it immediately.

Lu Wufei cast his gaze around the massive demon corpses of the golden-eyed crow and the black dog demon, and two more items appeared in his hand: one was another storage bag emitting dense spiritual light, whose grade was clearly not low, at least at the high-grade magical artifact level.

The other item was a glowing storage ring.

The boss had yielded two spiritual treasures.

Surely the second and third in command wouldn't be too shabby either, he assumed.

Lu Wufei's divine sense moved again.

This time, he opened the storage ring first.

No ray of spiritual light flew out; undoubtedly, this ring contained no spiritual treasure.

Lu Wufei felt no disappointment—spiritual treasures being rare was no mere saying.

Catching his breath.

Lu Wufei opened the remaining storage bag that was exuding a rich spiritual glow.

This time.

Once again, no spiritual light flew out.

Very well.

Neither of the remaining two demon kings possessed a single spiritual treasure.

Lu Wufei felt neither surprise nor disappointment.

To have acquired two spiritual treasures from that old demon already made him immensely fortunate.

If the remaining two had possessed them as well, Lu Wufei would have been genuinely surprised.

Without dwelling on it further.

Lu Wufei projected his spiritual sense to inspect the storage bags left behind by the three demon kings.

Before long.

Four treasures emitting various spiritual glows were floating before Lu Wufei.

A long saber weapon with flames coursing through its entire body—Grade: Middle-grade magical artifact, originating from the golden-eyed crow, which Lu Wufei still remembered.

A small, exquisite green mirror—Grade: Middle-grade magical artifact, from the giant ape old demon's storage bag.

A triangular steel fork weapon—Grade: Middle-grade magical artifact, from the third master, White-Face.

The final item was a white handkerchief—Grade: Low-grade magical artifact, also originating from the third master, White-Face.

These four items constituted all the magical artifacts Lu Wufei found within the three demon kings' storage bags.

Aside from the two weapons.

The green mirror and the white handkerchief were both auxiliary treasures.

The green mirror possessed the ability to retrace time; although subject to certain temporal limits, its utility was remarkably powerful and practical.

As for the white handkerchief.

Lu Wufei was quite familiar with it.

Ever since his transmigration to Langlang Mountain, he had watched General Black use this very handkerchief.

At the time, witnessing its capabilities for the first time had left him utterly astonished.

Later, he had watched with his own eyes as General Black offered the handkerchief to the third master, White-Face, to preserve his life.

Now, the third master had been slain by his own hands.

And this handkerchief, after all its twists and turns, had actually ended up in his possession.

Truly, events in the world were unpredictable.

It prompted Lu Wufei to sigh at the impermanence of fate.

Now, he finally understood the true utility of this handkerchief: it was an auxiliary treasure capable of storing and transporting living beings.

Two weapons, two auxiliary treasures.

Not a single defensive magical artifact among them.

Lu Wufei didn't mind; he was somewhat used to it by now.

Although there were only four magical artifacts.

The various magical items and treasures found within the three demon kings' storage bags were quite numerous.

Types of all kinds were present, including defensive ritual tools.

As for ritual tools, Lu Wufei basically had no use for them anymore.

Using them to reward the horde of subordinates below would be just right.

Once matters in Taiping Mountain settled down.

He decided he would generously reward his followers.

Putting the treasures away.

Lu Wufei raised his head to look into the distance.

He noticed that his green leaf had ignored his instructions to play with the jade-white pouch, choosing instead to chase back and forth through the air with the erratic, fiery golden little spear.

The jade-white pouch, meanwhile, remained nestled quietly in a distant corner.

Lu Wufei felt a surge of joy.

Regardless of which spiritual treasure the green leaf chose to play with, as long as it worked, that was all that mattered.

Without lingering on it.

Lu Wufei flew toward a massive, round, elongated serpentine corpse not far away, measuring some sixty to seventy meters in length.

The corpse before him naturally belonged to the subordinate of the third master.

The true form of General Earth Dragon.

Having been swept into the Sleeve-Caving Universe along with the others, he had been directly dispatched by Lu Wufei.

Soon enough.

Flying before the gargantuan carcass, he noticed that General Earth Dragon's body lacked the usual foul-smelling, smooth, slimy secretions typically associated with earthworms.

Instead, it was covered in an extremely thick, brownish-black cuticular layer.

It looked somewhat akin to a snake demon.

Snake demon meat was something Lu Wufei didn't mind eating.

Yet when it came to the creature before him, consuming it would require a certain degree of courage.

After all, General Earth Dragon's appearance as an earthworm in its youth had been utterly revolting in shape and form.

And it was just as revolting now.

It resembled an immensely bloated, oversized maggot covered in brownish-black crusts.

Lu Wufei inwardly grumbled, casually summoning a faintly glowing storage bag into his hand.

Before long.

He thoroughly inspected General Earth Dragon's storage bag.

No magical artifact.

The best treasure inside was a high-grade magical artifact wolf-toothed club.

Though for a demon general commander level entity, possessing a high-grade magical artifact weapon was already considered quite impressive.

At that moment.

In the vast skies of the bounded space, the spiritual green leaf was swiftly flying toward Lu Wufei, trailing that brilliant streak of golden light—the little spear.

"This is..."

Watching the green leaf joyfully dance around him, Lu Wufei turned his gaze to the golden little spear hovering before his eyes, a realization instantly dawning in his mind, and a wave of delight washed over him.

He hadn't doubted his command to—

And so.

He immediately extended his spiritual sense, beginning to make contact with the golden little spear before him.

As he approached the golden spear, it showed clear tremors of resistance and refusal.

At that instant.

The green leaf rapidly spun a circle around the golden little spear.

Lu Wufei could distinctly feel the resistance of the golden spear drastically diminish.

With the golden spear's tacit permission, Lu Wufei's spiritual sense penetrated deep into the spear body, leaving behind his own personal imprint.

The moment that imprint was left.

Lu Wufei could perceive the wave of joy emanating from the golden little spear, accompanied by a vast influx of related information.

Ignoring the spiritual spear and the green leaf, which had resumed chasing each other in flight, Lu Wufei now knew that the little spear actually had a name: "Gold-Breaking Spear," and its previous master had been a rat demon.

Yet the old demon who had died by his own hands was clearly a giant ape, whose body lay not far away.

Lu Wufei did not know how long that old demon had possessed the Gold-Breaking Spear.

However, according to the information conveyed by the spear's sentience, it was clear that the old demon had never managed to truly subdue it.

While this came as quite a surprise to Lu Wufei, it successfully explained why the old demon hadn't been able to wield this spiritual treasure during their battle.

Otherwise, dealing with that old demon would have cost Lu Wufei considerably more effort.

Watching the green leaf and the Gold-Breaking Spear playing together once more, Lu Wufei withdrew his divine sense.

The hot water in the bath was still steaming.

Xiaobai was having a wonderful time splashing around in the water.

As long as he didn't stand up, the busy little demons below would keep tending to him—far more relaxing than soaking in an ordinary mortal inn.

Picking up the wine cup filled by the mortal maid Lingshan, he drained it in a single gulp.

Lu Wufei placed a hot towel over his face, lying back in the steaming bath to close his eyes and rest.

For a time.

Aside from the sound of boiling water in the bath, there was not a single other noise.

Though peaceful, it felt somewhat monotonous.

Lu Wufei couldn't help thinking that once things settled down, he ought to invite some musicians and dancers from the mortal realm to liven things up.

In his increasingly distant memories of Earth, he had always quite fancied the lyrical singing styles of the Jiangnan region.

Now that he had the conditions, he naturally wanted to bring such comforts here to properly enjoy them.

While Lu Wufei was soaking in the scalding hot spring and resting with his eyes closed.

Outside the palace.

As night deepened.

The plaza outside grew increasingly lively, crowded with more and more demon general commanders flying in from all directions.

Time slowly drifted by.

Who knew precisely how long had passed.

When the eastern sky began to pale with white morning mist.

And a brilliant streak of golden clouds rose from the distant horizon.

Outside the bath chamber.

The sound of footsteps echoed once more.

Lu Wufei removed the towel from his face, opened his eyes to glance at Xiaobai, who was curled up on the water's surface fast asleep, and turned his gaze toward the doorway.

He saw Wandashan appearing at the entrance once again.

Noticing his father had opened his eyes, Wandashan's face lit up with joy as he immediately reported, "Father, the administrative stewards from the other two great kings have all arrived..."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Lu Wufei turned his head. From the semi-open-air bath, Taiping Peak pierced straight into the clouds, making it an exceptional vantage point for viewing the sunrise. Watching the gorgeously brilliant rays of dawn rising across the eastern sky, Lu Wufei finally rose from the bath.

A green robe automatically draped itself over his body.

Stepping out of the bath and entering the main hall, Bai Yunxiao, who had been conversing with several demons, immediately hurried forward.

"Great King, these are all the administrative stewards from the second and third great kings' domains."

Following Bai Yunxiao's introduction.

The seven demon commanders immediately knelt and bowed in unison, proclaiming, "Greetings, Great King..."

"Not bad."

Lu Wufei looked at the seven demons and nodded, recognizing a few he had seen before. "You know how to read the room, so naturally you will be trusted with important responsibilities in the future. Rise."

He spoke the truth; after all, literate demons were scarce, and demons who understood bookkeeping and management were rarer still.

"Thank you for your immense grace, Great King!"

Overjoyed at the words, the seven demons stood up with visibly excited expressions.

Lu Wufei turned to Bai Yunxiao and asked, "What about those demon general commanders? Have they all arrived?"

Bai Yunxiao quickly replied, "Reporting to the Great King, with just a few exceptions, nearly all of them have arrived."

Hearing this, Lu Wufei's expression remained calm as he instructed, "Make a note of those who didn't show."

"Let them all enter."

With that, Lu Wufei turned and seated himself upon the throne of the main hall.

"Understood."

Bai Yunxiao bowed and promptly turned to walk outside.

In the plaza.

The crowd of demon general commanders, who had been growing increasingly restless while waiting for their audience, fell instantly into a more spirited chatter upon receiving Bai Yunxiao's notice.

Yet stepping into the grand hall.

Every single one of them kept their mouths firmly shut, displaying the utmost obedience.

Before long.

The hall was packed tightly. Nearly forty demon general commanders knelt upon the ground, shouting in unison: "Greetings to the Great King!"

Meanwhile.

To the west of the Great Wilderness Mountains.

On the shores of the West Sea, a tall woman was leading a young child, shouting toward the rolling waves: "I am the daughter of the North Sea's General Clam. I beg my kin of the West Sea to lend their aid..."

Before long.

A troop of shrimp soldiers and crab generals emerged from the ocean.

The woman stepped forward, and after a brief exchange.

The marine troop immediately escorted the mother and child, heading straight toward the North Sea.

The woman cast one final look in the direction of the Great Wilderness Mountains, her eyes filled with bitter hatred: "White-Face, my husband, just you wait! I, Meiji, will surely avenge you!"

* * *

*(Author's Note: First, an apology. I am a chef-dog, meaning holidays only make me busier. May Day was overwhelmingly hectic, and coming home exhausted left my condition rather poor, but I will adjust as quickly as possible! In this new month of May, I will certainly strive harder. Thank you all for your monthly votes, recommendation votes, and your unwavering support. Thank you~~)*

*(End of Chapter)*