Chapter 19: Heavenly Spirit Root

Lu Qingshan broke the silence with an intentional remark.

Dantai Qingrun swept her bright eyes over Lu Qingshan, "You seem to know quite a lot?"

This sentence was an acknowledgment of the sword cultivator's claim.

Lu Qingshan chuckled lightly, "As the Dantai Tower Master, you are so young yet you've already assumed the position of Yuanshan Tower Master, it's very likely that you come from a powerful clan.

By coincidence, there happens to be a Dantai Family in Qing State, and the surname Dantai is quite uncommon, so the probability that Dantai Tower Master has no connection to this Dantai household is not high.

Moreover, the Dantai Family is a well-known sword cultivator clan in Qing State, so..."

Dantai Qingrun's gaze measured Lu Qingshan from head to toe for a moment, then she said no more.

Seeing that Dantai Qingrun had no desire to continue the conversation, Lu Qingshan simply maintained his silence, but in his mind, he was rapidly speculating about something.

In his previous life, within the game, he had never heard of the name Dantai Qingrun.

There were two possibilities for this situation.

The first possibility was that Dantai Qingrun was just a regular, insignificant NPC that served as a brief interlude.

But right after Lu Qingshan entered the room, the first thing he did was to cast the Heavenly Eye Technique on Dantai Qingrun.

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????? (Human Race)

Occupation: ???

Rank: ??? (Extremely Lethal)

Attribute: ???

Skills: ???

Talent: [Heavenly Spirit Root]: ???

?????

...

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Due to the vast gap in strength, the information he obtained was a series of question marks, the only useful piece of information being the [Heavenly Spirit Root] in the talent column.

[Heavenly Spirit Root]: Gains a 100% increase in Experience Points when cultivating a cultivation method.

A very rare but not very popular talent among players.

—Players were always passionate about leveling up through fighting monsters, and there were only a few who would honestly level up by cultivating methods.

Therefore, an attribute that increased the Experience Points gained from cultivating methods seemed quite superfluous to players.

But for NPCs, this talent was proof of genius.

NPCs cannot level up by fighting monsters; they always increase their cultivation by cultivating methods.

Having the Heavenly Spirit Root was akin to having a Golden Finger.

In other words, it meant, this root could potentially produce a Nascent Soul!

With such a talent, Dantai Qingrun, under normal development, would surely not have a low achievement.

Furthermore, with Dantai Qingrun's approach-me-not aura, and Lu Qingshan's understanding of those thrill-seeking players, Dantai Qingrun was bound to become a very popular NPC among players!

Clearly, Dantai Qingrun could not just be some ordinary transition NPC.

Yet she was utterly unknown.

That left only the second possibility.

Dantai Qingrun met with an early misfortune in the game, and when the players entered "Nine Heavens" on a large scale, the NPC Dantai Qingrun no longer existed in "Nine Heavens".

With this in mind, Lu Qingshan looked at Dantai Qingrun, his eyes inevitably filled with a bit more sympathy.

Girl, do you know that despite how fierce you appear now, your future isn't actually that great?

...

In the northern part of Yuanshan City, on a bustling street, there was a sizeable residence with tightly closed vermillion gates that bore no signboard.

Not far from this residence, diagonally across the street, there was a two-story tavern that appeared to be doing good business, bustling with patrons coming and going.

A somewhat sloppy-looking middle-aged male cultivator was sitting by a window on the second floor of the tavern, with an array of fine food and two small pots of wine on his table.

Looking at the chaotic array of dishes and cups on the table, it appeared that the meal had gone on for quite some time.

Jiang Rong, the deputy Tower Master of Yuanshan Tower, despite his sloppy appearance, had substantial seniority under his belt.

He had stayed in Yuanshan Tower for nearly a hundred years, responsible for assisting the Tower Master with various tasks, having experienced the changeover of three Tower Masters; Dantai Qingrun was his fourth.

The Tower Masters come and go like flowing water, but the deputy Tower Master is constant as iron.

With a century's buildup of authority, Jiang Rong's influence in Yuanshan City was deeply ingrained.

Although within Yuanshan Tower, the Tower Master was supreme, due to respect for the elder, Dantai Qingrun would normally refer to Jiang Rong as a junior.

His authority and status were not to be underestimated.

Jiang Rong gazed down from the window at the nearby residence, idly fiddling with a half-filled wine cup, lost in thought.

Eventually, a jade pendant hanging at Jiang Rong's waist flickered with a ripple of green light.

Jiang Rong was slightly distracted as he received the message riding on the green wave.

Soon after reading the message from his subordinate, the normally languid Jiang Rong's eyes shone with a sharp light. He lifted his head, drained the cup of wine in one gulp, and then set the cup down on the table.

"Shopkeeper, the bill!" he called.

At that moment, a faint aura of decisiveness emanated from Jiang Rong.

With the intelligence provided by Lu Qingshan and Yuanshan Tower's control over Yuanshan City, in just half an hour, they had pinpointed the location of the "Blood Corpse Real Person" within the city.

And in an extremely short span of time, they had organized a sufficient number of people.

At this moment, the small residence was quietly surrounded by the cultivators of Yuanshan Tower.

...

Jiang Rong didn't make a big show of force by breaking down the door.

——Yuanshan Tower always kept a low profile in its affairs.

After circling the residence, Jiang Rong transformed into a wisp of light smoke and directly entered the backyard.

Smoke Luo Technique!

One of the signature abilities of a Nether Cultivator.

After employing the Smoke Luo Technique, Jiang Rong searched the small residence unhindered.

The residence wasn't large, and Jiang Rong was extremely fast; in just a short moment, the light smoke that Jiang Rong had transformed into had circulated around the residence.

"Not here..." Jiang Rong frowned slightly, "Impossible, according to the intelligence, just a few hours ago, the Blood Corpse Real Person was surely seen entering this residence. How can there be no one here, unless...."

At that thought, Jiang Rong no longer cared about the possibility of startling the quarry. A vast Divine Sense surged from between his eyebrows, and quickly spread throughout the entire residence.

As expected.

Somewhere beneath the ground of the eastern room in the residence, something was blocking the penetration of his Divine Sense.

Jiang Rong rushed to the eastern room, surveyed the space, and finally, his gaze landed on a bookshelf in the corner of the room.

Jiang Rong extended his left hand and swung it; a ball of black mist-like Spiritual Power shot out from his hand and slammed directly into the bookshelf.

Bang——

Following the thunderous crash, the bookshelf was shattered, its fragments scattering everywhere.

Jiang Rong's gaze sharpened.

Behind the bookshelf was an entrance to an underground passage, a person-high opening, dark and forbidding, leading to an unknown destination.

Without hesitation, Jiang Rong entered it.

Walking down this underground passage for a short distance, the tight confines suddenly opened up; Jiang Rong found himself in a dark chamber dozens of square meters in size.

On the floor of the chamber lay several dozen Spirit Stones, still glowing faintly white, connected by hidden wires.

Hidden Spirit Formation: It conceals the fluctuations of spiritual power within the formation and can shield against cultivators' Divine Sense probing.

However, there was no one inside the dark chamber.

Looking around.

There were a total of five passages in the dark chamber, all leading to unknown destinations.

A cautious rabbit has three burrows; the Blood Corpse Real Person had prepared no fewer than five escape routes for himself.

The cautious and cunning Blood Corpse Real Person, upon sensing the probing of an unfamiliar Divine Sense in the residence, had swiftly escaped through one of these five passages.