Chapter 121 - 120 Harvest and Choice

Chapter 121: Chapter 120 Harvest and ChoiceThe True Talisman shone brightly. But An Jing didn’t give it another glance, as he quickly gathered up all his equipment and began looting the corpse of the Fengdu Guard. The Fengdu Guard was dead, leaving behind considerable inheritance. The Scarlet Flame Sun Thunder of the self-destructing drones had briefly melted its outer armor, yet the inner skeleton remained sturdy. An Jing pulled the body out of the armor—it was, honestly speaking, not much different from using a toothpick to hook out a snail’s meat. He discovered that the limbs and torso of the one who wore the Fengdu Armor were pitch-black, covered in numerous sprouts and tendrils of Evergreen Wood spores. These sprouts and tendrils were connected to the armor, likely serving as the means of controlling the Fengdu Armor. It would be more accurate to describe the wearer of the Fengdu Guard’s armor as a part of the armor, rather than a cultivator clad in it. Time was of the essence, so An Jing did not meticulously dismantle the Fengdu Armor but followed the Sword Spirit’s guidance to extract two cores from inside the armor. One was a cyan wooden core, the ’Evergreen Wood Heart,’ a second-order material for Foundation Establishment Realm. Although not large, it contained extremely pure ’Life Essence.’ Much like the Life-Healing Talisman from the female cultivator of Mount Xiao Zhe, it was miraculous both for clinging to life and for healing injuries. The regenerative ability and enduring combat capacity of the Fengdu Guard was closely related to this Evergreen Wood Heart. The other was the energy reserve of the Fengdu Armor—a piece of Spirit Jade, housed within an hourglass-shaped device. Unlike the green Spirit Jade An Jing had possessed, the light patterns and core of this one were a magnificent azure color. According to the Sword Spirit, this was a second-order Spirit Stone, brimming with the breath of heaven and earth, its price several dozen or even a hundred times that of a first-order Spirit Stone. However, the Sword Spirit indicated that the energies within this Spirit Stone were not pure, suggesting that it was a ’Recycled Spirit Stone’ that had been recharged after depletion—but even so, the Spirit Qi it contained was genuine. The hourglass-shaped device was likely a specialized Spirit Qi Furnace designed to extract energy from the Spirit Stone. Initially, An Jing would not have been able to remove it, but perhaps due to the previous attack by the Patrol Officer who practiced ghost cultivation, its connection point had become brittle from freezing, and it had ceased functioning, which allowed An Jing to take it out. "Now that I have a new high-grade Spirit Qi Furnace, the Sword Box can fire even more flying swords!" An Jing rejoiced internally. Before, he was concerned about using up all the energy in his Spirit Qi Furnace to kill this Fengdu Guard, wondering what to do when encountering an Evil Born Demon back in Embracing the Void. Now, the problem was completely solved, and his power was even enhanced! It could only be said that the ghost cultivator had been a great help; if the Fengdu Guard had been able to use the Spirit Qi in this Spirit Stone, even with An Jing and Bo Yan risking their lives, they would not have been able to kill him. From another perspective, it took the coordination of two particularly advanced Qi Refinement Nine Layers, along with the attack from An Jing’s various weapons, to defeat a Fengdu Guard caught off guard, revealing just how formidable the Sky Surveillance Bureau’s weapon of slaughter truly was. "But we must also be cautious," said the Sword Spirit. "Such critical devices are always tagged with spirit signals when stolen. Although everything seems normal now, activating it would definitely attract attention." "I won’t activate it in Xuanye City or even the Tianyuan Realm," An Jing nodded slightly. He had already considered this possibility, but after all, he was about to return to Embracing the Void. As long as he endured until he got back, crossing the Sea of Void and Celestial Domain, whatever back-up measures there might be would not matter. Besides that, there were many other small but valuable items. However, since An Jing’s backpack could only hold so much and he needed to move freely, he could only take the most important items with him. To this, the Sword Spirit felt quite regretful. Given enough time and resources, it had confidence in rapidly enhancing An Jing’s strength, at least in the realm of cultivation. If only there had been a Great Void Ring to take all the loot with him. But what couldn’t be taken had to be left behind. Sometimes one just had to let go of greed and leave when it was time. "We’ve already gained a lot," he concluded. Finally, An Jing, carrying the True Talisman and the corpse of Bo Yan, quickly headed towards the ventilation ducts. The pipes were also filled with many corpses, the unidentified ghost cultivator had killed all those who came after the first group that had escaped. An Jing placed Bo Yan’s remains, which had already begun to disintegrate into dust, among the multitude of shattered corpses, then ground them up and mixed them together. By using the wristwatch of a female cultivator from Mount Xiao Zhe, he swept open a hidden door on the side of the ventilation duct. This hidden door was extremely inconspicuous; if it weren’t for a blood handprint pressed on it, it would have been almost impossible to find. With a sweep of the wristwatch’s cloud pattern, the hidden door opened, and the dark passage, filled with shadows, seemed to lead to the depths of hell. A faint stench of decay wafted through the air, along with the slight sound of running water; An Jing knew that ahead lay the underground sewer system of Xuanye City. It meandered and twisted, but where could it eventually lead? Time was of the essence, and An Jing had no time to ponder. Before other Fengdu Guards caught up, he had to leave the sewers as quickly as possible, avoid the Xuanye City Patrol Officers, find a place with food and medicinal herbs, roughly heal his injuries, and restore his spirit Qi, to prepare for the final battle with the Heavenly Demon. Taking a deep breath and without a word, An Jing stepped into the darkness. He transformed into a phantom and disappeared into the waterways. The sewer system of Xuanye City was vast, crisscrossed, and meandered deep beneath the city, like a massive labyrinth located underground. Thanks to the excellent planning, even though it was gloomy and damp, there wasn’t an accumulation of too strong a stench or swamp gas. The sound of water flowing covered An Jing’s faint footsteps as he continuously navigated through the tall, wide, and interconnected labyrinth of sewers. Guiding his way in his hand was the wristwatch of the female cultivator from Mount Xiao Zhe. An Jing, who had been granted access, was now moving quickly according to the holographic map on the watch. Before long, he arrived deep within the sewers, in a place rarely trodden by people. "This should be far enough... even if pursuers are on their way, they won’t arrive for a while." In the pitch-black darkness where one couldn’t see their own hand, An Jing turned off the holographic projection of the wristwatch and switched to illumination mode, squinting his eyes as he surveyed the crossroads before him. It was time to make a decision. "According to the map, if I turn right and then walk for half an hour, I should gradually ascend and emerge from a sewer in an uninhabited area." An Jing said to Sword Spirit in his mind, "But I feel that following this path won’t end well—Ms. Nian from Mount Xiao Zhe was obviously an undercover agent or informant for someone in the Black Market, and although she’s dead, the True Talisman, which is likely linked to her or even supposed to be her contact, is being pursued by the Sky Surveillance Division." "I suspect that if we take this path, we’ll be arrested as soon as we come out." "Indeed," Sword Spirit also agreed with An Jing’s judgment, "but the question is, if we don’t take this path, how will we get out?" "We’ll find a nearby sewer exit and get out." An Jing decisively made a decision, "Right now, the most important thing is to leave this path. There are many uninhabited areas on the edges of Xuanye City, and by nightfall, no one will notice." "What we need to do isn’t to be flawless, but to get out of this dangerous zone and avoid being targeted when we return to the Tianyuan Realm next time." "And I also need to find a secluded place to restore my spirit Qi as quickly as possible."