Chapter 324: Missing?
The first few messages were from the Scripture Storage Valley, asking about his safety.
As a true and important figure, Jiang Li naturally left a life token in the sect. Just a while ago, a huge fluctuation appeared in the flames of his life token’s soul lamp, and the flickers almost caused a fire to break out.
The sect thought that something had happened to him, so they hurriedly contacted him. However, he had been breaking through and was not in the mood to pay attention to it.
Jiang Li naturally knew that it was because the process of his breakthrough was too intense that it caused this phenomenon. However, he still felt the sect’s concern.
He replied with a few messages and asked the sect not to worry.
Then, there was news from the headquarters of the Great Mountain Alliance regarding the escape of the cultivators from the Rock Mountain Range to the Great Mountain Region.
From the initial situation to the later misunderstanding, it was all sent to him in real time.
They also said that one of the cultivators took out a token from Jiang Li. They sought verification and asked how they should settle it.
Jiang Li saw that their arrangements were very suitable.
As expected, if he, the Alliance Leader, did not find trouble himself, it did not matter if he was around. The Great Mountain’s Grand Council could deal with everything themselves.
He also replied with a few messages, confirming the situation of Huyan Long’an and the others. As for the other arrangements, there was no need for him to worry.
There were a few more messages, which were the follow-up development report that Jiang Li had proposed.
He had previously proposed to gather the water and wood attribute cultivators of the cultivation world of the Great Mountain Region and choose a group of cultivators with suitable talent. After specialized training, they would form a professional medical troop.
Just like the Hidden Rock cultivators of the Great Mountain Alliance, this was an important new department that had a lot of room for development.
Everyone knew the status of the Hidden Rock cultivators in the Great Mountain Alliance. The new medical troops might be the second chance.
Therefore, the various major forces of the Great Mountain Region placed great importance on this. They sent out all the medical cultivators under them.
In any case, the medical cultivators were at the back, so their safety was guaranteed.
If they could occupy a certain status here, they would be able to obtain a great deal of authority. This was very beneficial to the sects behind them.
Now, the framework of the medical cultivator army had been set up. A large number of medical practitioners selected from the rogue cultivators were also in place and were undergoing training.
They were all waiting for Jiang Li’s inspection.
Jiang Li was still very satisfied with this matter’s efficiency.
When he fought with the Armored Trolls, he discovered that the physique and recovery ability of those monsters were really shocking.
Ordinary human cultivators were at a disadvantage when fighting them.
Therefore, he had the idea of strengthening the medical logistics.
Even if medical cultivators were unable to directly assist on the battlefield in a short period of time, they could still accelerate the recovery of the injured and reduce the mortality rate.
This was very helpful to the front line cultivators who needed to fight for a long time.
After replying to a few messages, Jiang Li saw the last message.
It had only been sent three days ago.
He frowned. It was not good news.
A small team transporting supplies from the Mechanism City to the transit station in Phoenix Sun City suddenly disappeared.
The supplies did not disappear, only the people were missing.
Among them was Shenshan Qiuhua.
After all, this little princess of the Shenshan Clan was only at the Foundation Establishment realm and could not fight in the Mechanism City. Therefore, she joined the relatively safe transportation team.
He did not expect something like this to happen.
Moreover, from the looks of it, they were not targeting supplies, but people.
Were they deliberately targeting the Great Mountain Alliance? Or was it just a simple encounter?
It was Little Four who sent this.
She, Shenshan Qiuhua, Senior Sister Qi Yu, Yan Hong, and the others all had Jiang Li’s deputy token and could contact him directly.
The others in the Great Mountain Alliance might feel that people would die at the front line every day, but the disappearance of a supplies team did not need to be reported to Jiang Li.
However, after a few failed attempts by the people of the Great Mountain Alliance and Shu Mountain, Little Four finally sent him the news.
Jiang Li and Shenshan Qiuhua had feelings for each other, so he naturally could not sit idle.
It seemed that he had to rush back as soon as possible.
As for the four inner cores…
[Consumed the Liquor Fire Sword Song Golden Core. Added Status: Liquor Fire Sword Song]
[Liquor Fire Sword Song: Increased alcohol tolerance, increased fire resistance by 150, increased Sword Qi by 200, increased spiritual qi strength of the Liquor Fire Sword Song. Duration: 30 days] (− +)
[Consumed the Asura Fallen Blood Core. Added Status: Asura Fallen Blood]
[Asura Fallen Blood: Increases the strength of the power of chaos. Resistance to the chaotic will has increased. Obtained temporary skill Bloodsucking. Obtained temporary skill Fallen Blood Ignition. Duration: 30 days] (− +)
[Consumed the Buddha Demon All Life Core. Added Status: Buddha Demon All Life.]
[Buddha Demon All Life: Increases the strength of the soul. Increases resistance to voices and thoughts of the people. The comprehension of Buddhist cultivation methods has greatly increased. Obtained temporary skill Thousand Faces. Obtained temporary skill Faith Incense. Duration: 30 days] (− +)
Jiang Li swallowed all four inner cores in one go.
He had the effect of the Heavenly Lightning Yin-Yang Indestructible Zombie Core previously. The other three inner cores also gave him three abilities that were based on the three clones.
After he broke through, this degree of enhancement could no longer clearly increase his strength limit. Regardless, they brought him some good effects and skills.
After that, Jiang Li picked up the two green lamps on the ground.
The flames burning on the two green lamp wicks were clearly much brighter than before.
Jiang Li had placed them on the Star Tower for a month and a half to absorb some of the Human Fire.
After he left with these two green lamps last time, he originally thought that he could rely on them to display his might.
However, he quickly discovered that it was impossible to use pure fire-attribute spiritual qi to control this legendary fire of the human race.
Later on, after testing it out, he discovered that the Human Fire was actually the merit fire of the human race. If he wanted to use it, he had to use the power of virtuous merit.
Jiang Li used his bit of merit as fuel and could only barely use the fire to light up a dry smoke. He could not use it to fight at all.
Therefore, when he returned to the Star Tower, he planned to use the Green Lantern Ghost’s lamp to absorb more fire.
Now, it was time to use it.
His two fingers pinched the flames on the two green lamps. The two bright flames were pinched by him and fused into one in his palm before being sent to his mouth to be swallowed.
With the bit of merit that he had, he could barely control it now. He guided the fire into his dantian and placed this small flame under the five Golden Cores.
Then, he recalled the four parallel minds and controlled the five inner cores to approach and fuse together under the power of the Human Fire.
[Human Fire is refining the Golden Cores. Added Status: Golden Core Refinement (Five-into-one). Added Status: Merit Infusion.]
[Golden Core Refinement (Five-into-one): Increases the fusion progress by 0.5% every day. Duration: 28 hours] (− +)
[Merit Infusion: Infused with the merit of the human race. Gains 1 point of merit per hour. Duration: 28 hours] (− +)
Using the legendary flames of the Human Fire to refine the Golden Core had a much higher success rate than the Heavenly Punishment Lightning Tribulation.
There was no indication on Jiang Li’s status that it could fail.
The only problem was that after absorbing the Human Fire for one and a half months, the power was too small and the duration was too short. It could only last for 28 hours.
However, because Jiang Li’s Golden Core was too strong and he was refining five Golden Cores at once, the difficulty of this was naturally much higher than ordinary Golden Cores.
Even when using two green lamps together, in terms of time, it would actually take 200 days in total.
If this portion of the flames was exhausted, Jiang Li would have to use his merit to replace it. At that time, his progress might even fall to less than 0.1% per day.
Jiang Li could only change the duration of the status to prevent the fire from ever extinguishing.
The only pleasant surprise was that with this fire burning incessantly in his body, it was actually able to slightly taint him with the merit of the human race.
Although it was only one point per hour, with enough accumulation, perhaps it could also upgrade his Merit Blessing status.
At that time, he could use the power of virtuous merit to strengthen this fire.
In other words, as long as he had enough time, he could repeatedly upgrade the Merit Blessing status and Human Fire status. The speed at which he accumulated would become faster and faster.
Such precious merit points could actually be used for free. This was something worth looking forward to.
However, even he did not know how long he had to wait to obtain the Merit Blessing (Medium) status.
In addition, just as Jiang Li had thought, refining the Golden Core would not cause too much restriction on one’s strength.
Ordinarily speaking, battles would not affect the refinement process.
Back then, Elder Duan Shuang could successfully fuse his Golden Core under the circumstances of the lightning tribulation and fighting several elders.
Jiang Li was currently using the better and safer Human Fire, and he had already extended the fusion status, so he had even less reason to worry about this.
Therefore, he could completely complete the fusion of the Golden Core in his body while doing other things.
Jiang Li did not waste any time. He directly touched the golden door of light and left the Star Tower Space.
He did not take the two Green Lantern Ghost lamps with him. In any case, the fire on them was already gone. He might as well put them here and absorb more. If he came again next time, it might give him a surprise.
However, if he wanted to come here again, he had to find another three lifetime stone.
The current Ghost King Desolate Ground was too dangerous.
The feeling of free falling appeared again. When the scene before his eyes became clear, Jiang Li had already returned to the Stone Mountain Range’s Myriad Snake Cave.
This place was not much different from when he left. However, there seemed to be fewer snakes swimming around.
After being robbed by Jiang Li, this place had already completely fallen into decline. There were only some snake eggs of low quality and a few thousand weak snake demons that Jiang Li looked down on.
In a few years, they might rise again, or they might just disappear completely.
He thought for a moment and finally released the Golden Web Python to continue leading these snakes.
On the one hand, Jiang Li had benefited from this, so he did not want the Holy Spirit’s lineage to end because of him.
On the other hand, the Golden Web Python had already joined him.
If he could reorganize the snake demon faction of the holy land, he could also quickly establish an intelligence network in the Rock Mountain Range.
The great enemy of the Great Mountain Region, the Myriad Slaughter Sect, was still here. Jiang Li needed to obtain as much information as possible.
After giving two simple instructions, Jiang Li left the Snake Cave Holy Land and flew towards the outer region.
This time, Jiang Li was in a hurry. He did not walk the same path as before and directly flew out from the high sky of the wasteland.
Doing this would have attracted the attention of many flying demons in the wilderness and face attacks. The gains would not make up for the losses.
However, this time, there were indeed many flying demons who discovered him. However, after these demons approached Jiang Li for a distance, they all turned around and left without exception.
The Human Fire was a legendary flame of the Suiren Clan[1] that protected the weak humans in the Primordial World that was even older than ancient times.
It could bring warmth, drive away the darkness, roast food, and scare away savage beasts.
Although the fire in Jiang Li’s body was small, as long as it revealed its aura, it could drive away most demons.
There was no need to worry about the attacks of the demon beasts in the sky. Jiang Li flew with all his might, and he seemed to have transformed into a shooting star that quickly flashed through the sky.
After breaking through, his speed was much faster than before.
It only took a few days to return to the base of the Great Mountain Alliance near Phoenix Sun City.
However, while flying in the air, Jiang Li could only see the encampment from afar before he saw a familiar peach blossom flying ship.
Jiang Li’s eyes twitched. This was the flying ship of the Mu family.
He thought of many things immediately.
Could it be that the Mu family had caused the disappearance of Shenshan Qiuhua and the others?
The Mu family’s Mu Chunyang and the few elders were still imprisoned under the Shu Mountain Demon Subduing Pagoda.
Could it be that they had discovered this matter and captured a few captives to cause trouble?
The cultivation method and physique of this family were special. They seemed to be the nemesis of the Nine Nether Dao Scripture and the Nine Nether Wood.
Jiang Li’s method of creating “good friends” was useless against them.
He could not resolve this conflict easily.
Facing the Myriad Slaughter Sect alone was already a huge headache for them. If another Mu family came, they would really not be able to withstand it.
He directly landed at the entrance of the encampment’s discussion hall. Jiang Li did not greet him and pushed open the door to enter.
“Alliance Leader Jiang!”
“Jiang Li! You’re back!”
There were not many people in the meeting room. A few higher-ups of the Great Mountain Alliance were pleasantly surprised when they saw Jiang Li appear.
Previously, when they heard that their Alliance Leader ran out alone again, they were very worried. Now, they finally saw this living person again.
The few people sitting opposite them looked at him curiously at first, but as they looked, there was an inexplicable sense of disgust in their eyes.
This was an instinctive reaction caused by the conflict of cultivation methods. Jiang Li looked at them and had the same feeling, and he wanted to slap each of them!
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“Auntie Mu, you’re here too.”
Among the people from the Great Mountain Alliance, Jiang Li saw Shenshan Qiuhua’s mother, Elder Mu of Shu Mountain, rushing over from the Great Mountain Region.
“These guests have come to the Great Mountain Alliance. I, Jiang Li, have been lacking in hospitality.”
Elder Mu also noticed that the situation was not right. She stood up and introduced the two sides.
“Chunkong, Elder Li, this is the Alliance Leader of the Great Mountain Alliance, Jiang Li.”
“Alliance Leader Jiang, these are the relatives of the Mu family. The Great Mountain Alliance has yet to stabilize its foundation in the Eastern Region and can’t mobilize many people. I took the initiative to ask my relatives to help search for Qiuhua. I apologize.”
Jiang Li immediately felt much more at ease when he heard Elder Mu’s explanation.
It turned out that she had invited them to help find her. It had nothing to do with Mu Chunyang. This way, the worst situation had not happened.
“Auntie Mu, just call me Jiang Li like before. I’m also very worried about Qiuhua and the others’ disappearance.”
“It’s my fault as the Alliance Leader for not having enough manpower to search and rescue them. Aunt Mu, you are eager to save your daughter, so how can I take your apology?”
He comforted Elder Mu and turned to look at the Mu family.
“Friends from afar, thank you for your help.”
[1] In Chinese Mythology, Suiren is credited as a culture hero who introduced humans to the production of fire and its use for cooking.