Qin Yue's contracted demon beast was a bean-green turtle she had brought out of the Yellow River Secret Realm.
The turtle was three meters long, with a round head, cross-eyes, and a plump, rounded shell that carried a trace of the giant Ao's bloodline.
Although this demon beast only possessed a cultivation of the first-revolution of the demon core, its greatest strength lay in its formidable defense. Its shell was practically indestructible, which happened to complement the 《Small Twelve Bone Forging Method》 that Qin Yue practiced.
Qin Yue had even named the turtle “Tian Xuan,” expressing her hope that it would achieve longevity and immortality like the mythical Black Tortoise.
Tian Xuan was still young; by demon beast standards, it was only a three-year-old child. Naturally, it was a bit lively and mischievous, so even after forming a contract, it remained quite playful.
Though young, Qin Yue had weathered countless storms and possessed a steady temperament, so she mostly relied on patient reasoning with her contracted beast.
“Tian Xuan has been performing great lately. Yesterday, it even helped our coastal fishermen comrades herd schools of fish, so I rewarded it with a drop of dragon blood.”
Qin Yue smiled.
“Just as you taught me, Little Aunt, meditating and circulating spiritual energy on its back really yields twice the result with half the effort.”
Speaking up to this point, she hesitated before continuing:
“Tian Xuan is improving rapidly. At this rate, the piece of dragon meat Master bestowed won't be enough for the two of us.
“I heard that the Demon Suppression Division has a Military Merit Vault where demon suppressors can exchange their merits for treasures. Is that true?”
“Of course it's true, but Senior Sister Ma hasn't agreed to let you into the Demon Suppression Division yet. While exchanging items might be a bit troublesome, it's not entirely without workarounds.”
Nan Zhi took out a thread of meat and fed it to Dajin, prompting a jealous hiss from Xiaojin. Only then did she pat Xiaojin's head and patiently explain:
“Every demon suppressor must personally slay evil demons each month. Once the Demon Suppression Division verifies the kill using the Xiezhi Mirror, they award military merit points as a reward.
“I've only just joined the Demon Suppression Division, so how could I have any military merit points? It was Master who used her own merits to exchange for my cauldron and vine heart fire.
“To dharma-cultivators like us, dragon meat is merely an exotic type of demon beast meat. But for you and Tian Xuan, it is an exceptionally nourishing treasure that tempers blood qi.
“The Demon Suppression Division has a bounty board where one can exchange demon beast cores and corpses for military merits. I had originally hoped to exchange for some pill recipes and spirit herbs, but unfortunately, I don't have enough merits.
“I still have some surplus dragon meat bestowed by Master. If you don't mind, you can trade demon beast cores or demon beast corpses with me for it.”
Although the old Jiao-dragon had survived the heavenly tribulation, it was not yet a true dragon species. Thus, feeding its dragon blood and meat to demon beasts would not injure them from an unbearable surge of bloodline power.
The blood of the Dragon Girl, however, was an entirely different story.
Forget a Qi Refinement cultivator like Qin Yue; even ordinary demon beasts would explode and die within minutes if they swallowed a single drop of her dragon blood.
“Thank you, Little Aunt. That will definitely resolve our immediate crisis.”
Qin Yue's eyes flickered, knowing that Nan Zhi was thinking on her behalf, and she thanked her sincerely:
“I'll have someone deliver the demon beast cores and corpses later. While you were busy refining pills, Little Aunt, I wasn't slacking off—I've slain quite a few demon beasts.”
She had not yet gained formal recognition, so if she wanted dragon meat, her only option was through Nan Zhi.
As for shamelessly asking to bypass Nan Zhi and directly exchange demon beast cores for military merits at the Demon Suppression Division?
She hadn't even entertained the thought.
For Nan Zhi, there was no real difference.
After all, Mu Changsheng was her, and Ma Jiu was also her.
Taking in demon beast cores and corpses was just shifting things from her left pocket to her right.
However... while the banner of the Demon Suppression Division was flying high, there still wasn't a proper base for it in the real world.
She fell into deep thought.
...
The mountain range on Spirit Snake Island stretched out like a lurking giant python. The topography on either side was starkly contrasting: the southern side was steep, filled with towering cliffs, while the northern side was gentle, opening into a vast, empty sandy beach.
Warships patrolled the sea at regular intervals, while military aircraft skimmed across the surface of the water, stirring up ripples of waves.
Since it was New Year's, the base had made dumplings. After eating their fill, Nan Zhi and Qin Yue each took their spirit beasts for a stroll along the shore.
The giant bean-green turtle surfaced from the sea, clutching a two-meter-long fish in its mouth before tossing it onto the beach. Immediately, researchers clad in white lab coats rushed forward to methodically measure and record various readings.
Eyes were watching from both the open and the shadows, filled with curiosity yet completely devoid of malice.
Nan Zhi's identity was no longer a secret.
Had the authorities not strictly prohibited anyone from disturbing her alchemy, the researchers at the base would have worn down the threshold of the alchemy room over the past ten-odd days.
“Little Aunt, I heard that a few days ago, you lent your flying boat to our comrades for research?”
Constrained by confidentiality protocols, Qin Yue could only pick permissible topics to discuss:
“Now the entire world knows that Huaxia's cultivators have the capability to manufacture clean-energy-powered aircraft.
“Several veteran comrades from the research team specifically urged me to pass along their gratitude, thanking you for your contribution to the country.”
She wasn't exaggerating. Ever since the research team received the flying boat, the entire team had gone into a frenzy, practically working around the clock in hopes of immediately uncovering the principles behind how a flying boat could fly solely on spirit stones.
Regrettably, although Huaxia's technological level was at the forefront of the Blue Star, their exploration progress regarding “spiritual energy,” “spirit stones,” and the civilization of cultivation was akin to a blind toddler taking its first steps.
What was a spirit stone?
What was the true nature of spiritual energy?
All of these were questions they needed to explore.
“It's really nothing. After all, I don't have any use for the flying boat right now, so lending it to you for research counts as paying for my room and board.”
Nan Zhi spoke half-jokingly:
“Besides, I'm also very curious whether our existing technology can decipher the essence of cultivation civilization.”
The flying boat was a magical artifact refined by Daoist Qinglong, specifically made for disciples of the Northwest Circuit Demon Suppression Division to travel.
Although its flying speed was slow, it was an artifact that even Qi Refinement practitioners could operate; with just a single spirit stone, it could travel ten thousand li.
Setting aside what Qinglong had done previously, he did possess some genuine talent when it came to artifact crafting.
The operating principle of the flying boat was exceptionally simple: one only needed to engrave a flying spell at the stern of the boat and supplement it with a miniature formation to convert spiritual energy.
Once a spirit stone was inserted, the spiritual energy within it was converted into dharma power by the formation, activating the flying spell and allowing the flying boat to take off.
Though the principle was simple and Nan Zhi had attempted to replicate the formation on the flying boat, all her attempts had ended in failure.
To conserve spiritual energy to the maximum extent, the formation had been designed with extreme precision and subtlety, almost as if it had been engraved onto the cross-section of a strand of hair.
Delineating a formation using divine sense required immense caution, leaving zero margin for error. Furthermore, drawing the formation entirely with spiritual power required the output level of spiritual power to remain completely uniform throughout.
It sounded easy enough, but putting it into practice was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
It was like drawing a single horizontal stroke on paper—unless one was thoroughly practiced, it was difficult to maintain consistent thickness and ink density from start to finish.
After all, humans were not machines.
That was why Nan Zhi had lent out the flying boat: to see if modern technology could perfectly replicate the formation.
Using high-precision intelligent machinery to etch formations could likely resolve the problem of uneven spiritual power output during the drawing process.
Just imagine—one would only need to input fixed parameters and a set spiritual energy value into the machine, and the other end could continuously produce formations.
Tirelessly, with minimal wear and tear.
Industrialized formation production would directly free the hands of Formation Masters.
When encountering enemies, the opponent might throw out various magic treasures to protect themselves and fight with flesh and blood, while her side would possess an entire assembly line endlessly churning out formations.
What kind of cyberpunk cultivation was this?!
Nan Zhi chuckled at her own imagination, but a sudden flash of inspiration struck her mind.
Right! If refining pills through traditional cultivation methods kept failing, why not try leveraging modern science?
Rate on N.U.
