207 City Attraction
After Ju Shoufen had sobered up, Cao Mao brought Xie Tian's corpse from his system inventory and placed it in front of her.
When Ju Shoufen recognized the identity of the corpse, she laughed, "Wenhe is going to be pissed if he finds out about this."
"Why?"
"Didn't Jia Shan tell you? Wenhe sold a fake corpse of Xie Tian to Dong Zhongying and got a bunch of essence cores from him. Had you given him the corpse, he could have earned everything, including the shadow element crystal.
Cao Mao shook his head, "I don't think it's worth it. We can get more than that if we refine his corpse."
"Hoh?"
Ju Shoufen got interested. She sat next to Xie Tian's corpse and opened her hand, "Give me a sharp knife. I'm going to dissect it. Also, do me a favor, don't let his corpse disintegrate into dust this time."
Cao Mao was confused about why the corpse would turn into dust. Still, he gave a high-grade throwing knife to Ju Shoufen.
Disturbingly, as if Ju Shoufen was a professional butcher, she dissected Xie Tian's dead body into several parts. All innards, meat, bones, and skin were neatly arranged. The most important parts of Xie Tian, his blood and his dantian core, were also placed in separate containers.
"Alright, done! Now, you said that Xie Tian has inherited a fire dragon bloodline, right?" Ju Shoufen cleaned the blood on the hands with the green water puddle nearby. She even summoned several fireballs to dry Xie Tian's skin.
Cao Mao sweated bullets. He pretended not to care about what Ju Shoufen was doing, "Yeah, he has that unique bloodline. I wonder if you can create a pill out of his parts, so we can acquire that bloodline for ourselves."
"Hahaha! You're too greedy. Isn't the orc bloodline not enough for you? Do you want to create a dragon orc bloodline or something?"
"I wouldn't mind becoming some draconic orc, or orcish dragon. But is it possible to have multiple bloodlines?"
"Normally, cultivators focus on one bloodline since the racial skills are difficult to master. If you have multiple bloodlines, I doubt you would have enough time to practice the skills and increase your cultivation. It usually takes 50 to 100 years to master a single racial skill or a certain branch of techniques. In your case, I doubt that you can master everything within a hundred years."
Cao Mao pointed at the floor, "I have this space, though."
"…"
--
Isolation Training Space (Lv. 6/10)
Conversion Ratio (Real World Hour/Isolation Space Hour): 1:50
Dual Cultivation Mode
Protagonist Rematch Mode
Upgrade Conditions
100,000 Liters of Life Essence.
Increase the level of wood element crystal to level 5
Possess at least two primary element crystals.
Next Upgrade Perks
Conversion Ratio (Real World Hour/Isolation Space Hour): 1:100
Realm Expansion (Depending on the mastered element.)
Private Plane Development Mode
--
Every night, Cao Mao had 400 to 500 hours to train, depending on how long he wanted to sleep. And if he could upgrade his element power to the next tier, the space would provide him more extra time to train in the future.
"Anyway, what do you need to refine Xie Tian's blood and dantian core for his bloodline? I need a list so I can import real items into the space."
"… Okay. I don't have a brush and a scroll right now, but I'll write you a note tomorrow morning. Also, I have an experiment that I want to test in your space."
"What is it?"
"Is it possible for me to stay here after you wake up?"
The idea wasn't new. In the past Cao Mao once had intended to leave some of his yin slaves in the space to train, but he had been afraid that something might happen to them. Thus, he had never actually tried it out.
"It will be risky. I have no idea what will happen to you after I wake up."
"Try it. What can go wrong?"
"Many people I know said that. Then, in the next few days, they either died or became crippled."
"…"
Cao Mao didn't want to take risks. He asked the system to make sure.
'What will happen if I leave a yin slave in my space and I wake up?'
Ding
\u003cThe yin slaves will be automatically ejected from the space.\u003e
\u003cIf you want to keep your yin slaves in the space, please upgrade Isolation Training Space to level 7 or higher. The Plane Development Mode will be enabled, and you can turn this space into a lower plane.\u003e
'Hmm!?'
It was an interesting feature, but the requirement was tough. Cao Mao would need a long time before he could establish his second sea of essence and get his second primary element active.
"I'm sorry. I don't think you can stay here. You'll probably be ejected from this space as soon as I wake up."
Ju Shoufen stared at Cao Mao's face for a moment. Then, she rolled her eyes and sighed. She got used to Cao Mao's secrecy, and after all the dissecting, she wasn't in the mood to argue with him.
"Fine. Let's store his blood, dantian core, bones, meat, and skin. We can discard the innards. Oh, keep the heart, too!"
"I understand that we can use his dantian core and blood. But why meat and bones!? Are you going to eat it!?"
"Idiot! Do you think I'm a sick bastard like you!? They will become the pill ingredients!"
Cao Mao heaved a sigh of relief for a moment before he sweated bullets again. He gazed at the potential pill ingredients with a distorted expression, "So, they are pill ingredients? Is that pill some sort of human sausages or something?"
"Fuck, no! I need to extract the residual Qi from them and enhance the dantian core! I'll discard them after I'm done with the energy extraction! I don't use human meat to make pills, you fool!"
Cao Mao was relieved. At least, he wouldn't have to resort to cannibalism.
Still, he couldn't call himself clean either. After all, essence cores were practically fossils of ancient cultivator's organs.
Cao Mao changed the subject, "Alright. Let's get to work. What can I do to help?"
Ju Shoufen took the fire element core, which she had earned from the previous fight with Xie Tian's clone.
"First off, the fire element is very important to us alchemists. You can't simply hope to get better without having mastered the fire element . Since you've already taken the wood element as your primary element, you will need to make-do with the fire element as your secondary element."
Cao Mao widened his eyes in surprise, "I thought you gave it to Ju Chen."
"You fool! All that blood of yours seems to only ever go to your member! You can increase your girl's element affinity through sex, right? So, if you have the fire element affinity, you should be able to refine Chen'er and give her the fire element affinity, too!"
Ju Shoufen had discovered most of Cao Mao's secrets via his loud-mouthed yin slaves. She had several ideas about how she and her granddaughter could get stronger with Cao Mao's assistance.
The loli elder continued giving Cao Mao lectures…
…
Time passed.
Every day at noon, the pylon tower, which was under construction, released life Qi into the air.
During the first few days, it was so small that the energy was barely noticeable. Everyone thought that it was just the arrays around the city that filtered the blood Qi from the sea into clean air.
But after the 7th day, the tower stopped producing Qi strands and it created a rain cloud instead.
Despite being protected by a shield array, the black cloud appeared inside the dome. When it condensed enough moisture, it showered everyone with a rain of life essence.
Each droplet contained condensed life essence, which was beneficial to any cultivator. They were also harmless for Jia Shan and the babies.
After the rain had stopped, life Qi became abundant within the array dome.
Wei Yuan, Ma clansmen, alchemist elders, and yin slaves were shocked at first, but they adapted to the change rather quickly as they started collecting the energy into their dantian. They rejoiced that they had obtained something good from the unusual rain.
On the 8th day of the pylon tower construction, the rain of essence appeared again at noon. Once more, everyone celebrated and cultivated in earnest.
The same event repeated the next day and the day after that.
On the 10th-day, no one was happy anymore. As the life essence energy was too abundant, all of them couldn't absorb and digest everything. Moreover, the rain kept producing more life essence, which lingered on the ground and floated around in the air. The city became wet and humid as if it was a rainy season.
The Qi and Essence became thicker to the point that it overwhelmed everyone. Instead of absorbing more energy, they were busy digesting what they had breathed in and expelled out the excess energy. The mothers also got concerned about their babies, who cried more often because of the humidity.
On the 11th day, the barrier array couldn't contain the Qi inside the city anymore. Some of the Qi strands and essence droplets leaked outside. Moreover, everyone was forced to construct a drainage system to release the rainwater outside of the city. Otherwise their home would be flooded.
The excess rainwater poured into the Blood Sea. Fortunately, the Blood Qi from the Blood Sea conflicted with the Life Essence droplets. They contested and devoured each other, so the Life Essence slowly dissipated into the sea and nurtured the sea creatures.
However, nothing stopped the leaked Qi from traveling from the other directions. Soon, they spread further.
On the 12th day, more energy leaked from Siren City. At a radius of 3 kilometers outside the walls, every cultivator could sense the delicious life essence.
Then, on the 13th day, cultivators outside of Xuan City noticed the flow of Qi. Several organizations and clans sent their men south to investigate the source, hoping to find a spirit vein or a treasure.
Many people gathered around Siren City.
Seeing more people approach their city, Ma Ping and Ma Shoucheng created more killing formation arrays and trap arrays on top of the walls as a precaution against intruders. Thus, no one would be able to sneak inside the city and find out about the orc children.
Jia Wenhe and Pang Lingming also took the duty as the city guards, warding off random visitors. Their presence as core pillar experts scared weak troublemakers away.
Still, as the Qi and Essence around the city were purer and thicker than energy from refined stones, none of the uninvited guests wanted to leave. They started to camp outside of Siren City and meditated, absorbing the free energy.
More people began occupying the nearest spots around the city walls since they couldn't enter.
At first, everyone shared the Qi in the air peacefully. But when more 4th-stage and 5th-stage cultivators showed up and demanded the best spots for themselves, chaos ensued.
Fight occasionally broke out. Strong experts killed weaker cultivators and occupied the closest places to the city walls while weaker ones were forced to camp further away.
Half a day later, big shots from major clans joined in for the fun. Five of the core pillar experts chased other people away and claimed the best spots next to the city wall. A couple of them also tried to bribe Jia Wenhe and Pang Lingming, trying to get inside the city.
Both city guards saw the opportunity. They declared that they would allow anyone to sit on top of the city wall for a day if they could pay them ten essence cores.
Unfortunately, these core pillars didn't have enough cash to buy the expensive ticket. They had the urge to attack the city and investigate the city interior.
Fortunately, as the auction event was around the corner, these experts chose not to cause trouble for Pang Lingming and Jia Wenhe. After all, fighting against these experts, who had the support from the unknown arrays, was akin to suicide.
Thus, they stayed outside the city and fought each other to get the best camping location.
Many scouts from the big sects and clans soon appeared. They didn't bother fighting for the best spot to cultivate, but they returned to their masters, telling them what they had discovered.
On the 14th-day, a scary guy appeared.
Zhao Bao, the representative of the Huangjin Sect, visited the city personally. He also brought his three disciples with him.
With the presence of the nascent soul, nobody dared to stop him from approaching the city. The old monk stopped in front of the city gate.
"Amitabha, Fellow Daoists. May I ask for permission to enter the city, so these children could have a safe place to stay?"
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