bestfiction Chapter 190: Survive at all costs.
Chapter 190: Survive at all costs.
"Understood?" Gray Rope was somewhat pleased; this kid wasn't stupid.
Zhong Ming looked on incredulously, "You want to enter the Ten Thousand Soul Banner?"
"Of course, after countless years, the alternative Great Dao here has turned our 'body' materials, which are full of Dao charm, into mortal objects. That is equivalent to your physical bodies rotting, how can your souls survive? We have spent countless years sleeping, but we are inevitably weakened by the lack of nourishment from the Great Dao. We have no choice but to fight hard."
The gray rope spoke so pitifully that even Zhong Ming was moved.
But this somber atmosphere was immediately interrupted by the jade belt's untimely voice.
"Calling it the 'Ten Thousand Souls Banner' isn't quite right. How about we call it the 'Spirit Retirement Home'?"
Gray Rope: '??? You're already naming it before we've even finished refining it? I'm trying to persuade you, can you please shut up?'
The jade belt, with a carefree air, flicked its "tail" and asked Zhong Ming, "Boy, if you agree, we'll just hand it over to you once it's finished. Wouldn't it be great to get such a great spiritual treasure for free? If you're willing to find us a new place to live, I won't mention other artifact spirits, but I can serve you until I find my master."
Zhong Ming was also puzzled, "Are you so sure you can successfully refine it?"
"Of course, I was there the day Master forged the Ten Thousand Souls Banner. It was forged in the old furnace. The old furnace? Go and wake up the old furnace. Let it do the work, and I will give the instructions. It will definitely succeed."
You ask why it was there? It's a belt, so why was it there? Did Master Wanbao hold up his pants while refining weapons?
Zhong Ming had one last question, one that concerned his life: "This is just a seed. To nurture it to maturity, let alone whether we can catch sea monsters to nourish it, this secret realm is only open for a month. Now, more than ten days have probably passed. If we don't set off to return immediately, we may not be able to make it back in time for the secret realm to close."
"Don't panic, don't panic. You underestimate our abilities. We don't need you to take action. Just watch from the sidelines."
Yu Dai seized the opportunity and pounced. He dodged Zhong Ming's wrist, but he was aiming for Zhong Ming's arm.
After the jade belt, more than two inches thick, wrapped around Zhong Ming's arm muscles, it pressed down hard on one muscle, and Zhong Ming's hand naturally opened.
Using the gray rope and jade belt, he took the seed of the Myriad Souls Blood Jade Flower and flicked it backward, the seed landing precisely in a tattered cloth bag.
"Old bag, it's up to you."
"Alright, little guy, plenty of flesh and blood, and the Bagua plate, come here."
The Bagua plate also struggled to fly up and entered the cloth bag along with it.
"Years ago, this bag was bored. I spent my days looking out from the island's edge and only saw aquatic monsters, so I collected quite a few. Back then, it was still early, and everyone had plenty of spiritual energy, so we didn't know how to cherish it..."
Gray Rope dragged a prayer mat out of the garbage heap and threw it behind Zhong Ming.
"The spirit of the old brother's body is dead. Please sit wherever you like." Gray Rope's voice was neither happy nor sad, revealing no emotion.
"The Eight Trigrams Plate can stir up the waters of time to a certain extent, forming a small vortex that makes the flow of time extremely fast in a certain area... Wait, it's too early to tell you this. You just need to know that after a few hours, the Myriad Souls Blood Jade Flower will mature. The Great Dao is incomplete here, so the Eight Trigrams Plate has great power. It won't have such great power outside."
As they were chatting and laughing, a "thump thump thump" sound came from outside.
Behind the massive "broadsword" that resembled a door panel, the Immortal Rat Taoist was forcefully striking it.
"Kid, I know you're hiding in there. Come out now, I'm going to settle this with you today! You coward, you real turtle in a turtle shell, come out if you dare! If you don't come out, I'll strangle your red heron!"
The banging outside was deafening, and Zhong Ming looked worried.
"What are you afraid of? As long as you don't go out, your Red Heron will be fine. I heard it all clearly in the cave. He also came for this Myriad Souls Blood Jade Flower. If he had killed the Red Heron, you would have known you had no hope of leaving this place and would have just stayed there, preventing him from leaving as well. So, the Red Heron that can still fly is the key to getting you out."
Gray Rope analyzed things in great detail, but the painful cries of the red heron coming from outside were like a slap in the face to Gray Rope's mouth.
"Kid, if you don't come out soon, I'll bleed your little mount so it can't fly back. Hehe, guess who has any pills to replenish a demon beast's qi and blood? Hehehe~~"
A strange laugh came from outside, and Gray Rope said helplessly, "This guy has gone mad."
“He’s not crazy,” Kuojian suddenly said, showing disdain for the two brilliant strategists.
Damn it, you guys are blocked from seeing me, but do you think I can't see you?
"He's trying to tame the red heron, wow! That's really brutal..." Broadsword watched with a spectator's air, also curious about how much the methods of cultivators had changed over the years.
The Taoist Immortal Rat's shouts grew increasingly arrogant, sometimes saying he would pluck the red egret's feathers, sometimes saying he would break its bones.
However, the broadsword kept sending messages, mostly about forcibly prying open its mouth to feed it pills, taking a bell to hang around its neck, and putting a chain on its leg.
In short, it is a fairly standard method of beast taming, but the technique is unprecedented. It seems that humans have developed many new methods in recent years.
While reminiscing, Kuojian recalled the old days. There weren't so many problems back then. Which of those great demon beasts wasn't directly defeated and subdued? If they were subdued, they became mounts; if they weren't, they were killed, roasted, and eaten. Kuojian was used as a weapon, a meat cleaver, and a barbecue grill. It was quite a hard job.
Several hours later, a piece of rosy jade fell out of the tattered bag and was flung into a pile of garbage by a gray rope.
Instantly, flames shot into the sky, garbage was scattered all over the ground, and a large furnace appeared in front of Zhong Ming.
It was a three-foot-shaped, double-eared, tiger-patterned, red-gold censer, now covered in rust and bronze. But the moment the flames rose, the rust on the entire censer disappeared, and it trembled violently.
"Hey, old furnace, you seem to be in good spirits today? You're showing some of your former glory." Jade Belt exclaimed, then began to boss around the other artifacts.
"You, go and throw Brother Stick in there."
"Hey you....."
"Hurry up, Brother Gun has been dead for years, hurry up."
"Very good, quick, pull the stick out again, just take the little bit of Geng metal at the end, the rest are impurities."
.....
Zhong Ming witnessed firsthand how the spirits mercilessly threw the remains of their dead friends into the furnace, refining them into a means to survive.
So composed, so ruthless, so resolute.
We march toward the future, stepping over the corpses of our fallen comrades.
It's easy to die for them, but difficult to live for them.
As Zhong Ming witnessed all of this, even though there was no one around, he personally experienced such a cruel scene and truly understood the words Xueyan had once taught them.
"If I die in battle, do not hesitate to use my body as cover, as bait, as food, and live on at all costs."