Chapter 432: The barren world

Translated by: La0o9

Proofreader: Arya

“It went quite well, seems like your plan to steer attention towards a disciple you took in was very effective” Qing Rou commented.

“It’s only a little trick, the real battle is still ahead” Gu Qing Shan told her.

He looked around, evaluating the room.

Qi Yan was both a Virtualized realm cultivator and the son of the sect’s master, but his room was quite normal and unimpressive.

Gu Qing Shan didn’t see anything that can be called unimaginable or miraculous.

The only thing that caught the eye was a frog carved from spirit jade.

Gu Qing Shan went to the table, picked up and observed the jade frog.

The jade frog was carved from the highest quality spirit jade, outfitted with a small spirit funnel formation inside, it was always automatically storing spirit energy for the cultivator to use.

As Gu Qing Shan took it in hand, he felt a rush of spirit energy entering his body.

“What a good item” he praised it”

This was the only thing in the room that managed to catch his eyes.

“Didn’t you say there’s already no way to replenish spirit energy anymore in this world?” he questioned the women.

“There are still occasionally some good items left, but Qi Yan wasn’t willing to use them, like this jade frog. That was his most favorite treasure” Qing Rou answered.

Gu Qing Shan put down the jade frog and picked up a fan that happened to be on the table.

Opening it, he found depicted on the fan was a nude woman with pristine white skin hidden among faint clouds, laying down suggestively.

Qing Rou and Wan Er glanced at him, wanting to see this reaction.

With a natural expression, Gu Qing Shan just started fanning himself.

“Yep, that’s how he would be” Qing Rou praised his acting.

“This isn’t me” Gu Qing Shan spoke in irritation.

A slight knock came from the door.

The knock was very soft, as if afraid that they would bother Qi Yan.

Gu Qing Shan released his inner sight to check outside the door to find some cultivators leaving a trunk at his doorsteps.

They slightly bowed respectfully before leaving.

Gu Qing Shan recalled what he read and asked: “Is it already time for when the sect supplies goods?”

“It was right on time, that’s great, we have pills that we can use now” Wan Er looked at Qing Rou expectantly.

“I didn’t think we would get benefits just as we returned” Gu Qing Shan smiled and commented.

Qing Rou spoke: “Let me get it”

She pushed open the door, slowly walked across the front yard to retrieve the trunk.

Soon enough, the chest was opened in front of the 4 of them.

A few bottles of pills.

A small bag of spirit stones.

A jade tag.

This was all of it.

Wan Er took the bag and estimated in her hand.

“It’s awesome, I think we got about 60 low-tier spirit stones this time” she spoke happily.

60 pieces of spirit stones…

Gu Qing Shan was practically trembling when he saw these items.

Qi Yan is a Virtualized realm cultivator, one of three Hallmasters of the sect, yet he’s only given this many spirit stones every month?

Back in the cultivation world, whenever Bai Hua Fairy gave her disciples spirit stones, she would always give enough to fill an entire Inventory Bag.

That was about a few hundred thousand pieces.

As for pills, common formation plates, talismans, even decorative weapons and armor, Bai Hua Fairy would always prepare as much as possible for her disciples.

Even Qin Xiao Lou had to complain that Shifu was spoiling him too much.

Of course, this type of complain couldn’t escape a beating from Bai Hua Fairy or white goose.

But this partly showed just how good Bai Hua sect’s treatment was, as well as how rich the resources of the cultivation world were.

In comparison, Qi Yan’s side was too shabby.

Gu Qing Shan sighed: “This world’s resources are already impoverished to this degree?”

“Yes, the surface of the world itself is already gone, where would cultivation resources come from?” Qing Rou confirmed it.

“All sects in the world right now are merely using the resources they stole and accumulated from before to survive on dying breaths” Wan Er added.

Gu Qing Shan was speechless.

Originally, from how great the level of cultivation of this world is, he thought it would be a blindingly glorious civilization, anyone would think so.

But this was only a barren and dying world.

And the reason for that was a single True Demon Lord.

Before the realm demon came, this world must have been a rich and thriving world, otherwise it couldn’t conquer so many other worlds and give birth to so many powerful cultivators.

But the appearance of a single realm demon destroyed all of that.

If the realm demon had appeared in my world instead, would the results be different?

Gu Qing Shan sighed and shook his head.

He then noticed Qing Rou was staring at the bottle of pills, her expression seems like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself.

Gu Qing Shan then took the pill bottle.

He opened it, put one out in his hand and sniffed to find that it was a normal healing pill.

“You need this?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

Wan Er quickly cut in and spoke in Qing Rou’s place: “Big sis is soft, she once wanted to save a few other slaves but was found out by Qi Yan was punished by kneeling on a cold flame for a long time”

“Since her spirit energy was sealed and she didn’t have any medicine, big sis’ wounds still haven’t fully healed”

Gu Qing Shan nodded in understanding.

“A cold flame? That would cause wounds that hurt very deeply, so this bottle of healing pills… you can’t use it” Gu Qing Shan muses as he heard it.

Wan Er froze.

The hope in Qing Rou’s eyes dimmed, but she nodded: “That’s right, we’re currently at a very crucial time, you should keep these pills to prepare for yourself”

“That’s not what I meant” Gu Qing Shan told her.

He put the bottle of pills back into the trunk, tapping his Inventory Bag.

He took out and offered a small blue bottle to Qing Rou.

“Use this one” Gu Qing Shan said.

Qing Rou was surprised.

Wan Er quickly took it and opened the bottle.

A thick fragrance of medicine came from the bottle.

The room was quickly filled with this scent.

“What high-quality pills, I haven’t seen such things for a very long time! What kind of pill is this?”

Saying so, Qing Rou squinted her nose and tried her best to absorb the medicine fragrance into her body.

Such an action was very unbecoming of a powerful Tribulation realm cultivator, in fact it seemed a little cute.

As maids, the amount of cultivation resources they were provided was basically next to nothing.

Gu Qing Shan answered: “7-Cycle Life Turning Pills, capable of healing all fire poison, aiding recovery of elemental wounds and replenishing inner power”

Qing Rou’s expression became calm again, pushing the bottle back to Gu Qing Shan.

“This kind of pill must be very precious, you should save it for yourself, I can still handle my wounds” she said.

“Just take it, I can get as much of these things as I want” Gu Qing Shan was smiling bitterly.

The first time Gu Qing Shan faced off against the Pope, he barely managed to use [Seven Swords Flowing Dragon] which resulted in heavily injuring himself.

When he came to Shen Wu world, his wounds had yet to heal so he had to take several pots’ worth of medicine baths.

At that time, Bai Hua Fairy refilled his Inventory Bag with cultivation resources enough to last for a while.

Afterwards, sensing her own death, Bai Hua Fairy directly put all of Bai Hua sect’s resources into the 7-colored fragrance bag before she left and gave it to him.

As one of the people who stands at the peak of a cultivation world, the amount of resources and wealth that Bai Hua Fairy can accumulate is unimaginable to a normal person.

So this bottle of 7-Cycle Life Turning pills wasn’t even a fraction of what he owns. (1)

Qing Rou stared at him in wonder, wanting to discern his true thoughts.

Gu Qing Shan ignored her suspicions and lightly put the blue bottle back into her hands: “I sincerely hope that we can cooperate, helping each other get out of this tough situation”

“Alright, if you are serious, then I will take these pills” Qing Rou told him.

Wan Er happily spoke: “Big sis, just look at the way he risked his life to save his master, he definitely can’t be a bad person”

Qing Rou nodded.

Gu Qing Shan then took the jade tag out of the trunk.

Infusing it with his inner sight, he was notified of a few things that has been happening in the sect lately.

The last big sect in the world, Rakshasa Peak wanted to come visit them.

The Grand Elder was still busy in recovery, so he won’t show up until Rakshasa Peak arrives at the sect.

The sect master was facing his tribulation in the space vortex.

No one would ever face their tribulation in this world, otherwise the realm demon would notice.

These important matters has always been the same, nothing really changed.

What caused Gu Qing Shan’s attention was actually a minor detail.

The masters of Xiang Ji Hall, who were in charge of managing sect resources, and Ning Yue Hall, in charge of sect members’ cultivation, announced something together.

The sect member’s portion of spirit stones will be given a bit later than normal this month.

This was because of a decision by the sect to welcome Rakshasa Peak’s visit with a grand banquet.

Because of the banquet, Xiang Ji Hall will be busy organizing it, unable to calculate the spirit stones supply for now.

Because of the esteemed guests’ arrival, Ning Yue Hall will also be organizing an intra-sect tournament.

The tournament’s prizes are quite decent, enough to draw the sect’s disciples to compete.

Only after this will the sect return to normal operation and Xiang Ji Hall will be able to calculate the work regarding spirit stones.

Gu Qing Shan checked the tournament competitions to find that it wasn’t quite as he thought.

The tournament mainly tested the cultivator’s expertise on the 6 arts.

Divination, Formation, Talisman, Smithing, Pills and Cooking are the 6 arts.

Of these 6 arts, the one that was emphasized the most by the sect was Formation.

As for cultivation level and battle, it wasn’t even part of the tournament.

After a little bit of thinking, Gu Qing Shan understood why.

The sects of this world have already given up on the cultivation of their disciples.

What good does high cultivation bring?

For the sect, not only do they have to give you more resources, they also have to watch out for you trying to usurp authority.

On the other hand, expertise with the 6 arts contributed more to the sect.

Especially expertise in formation.

Without formations, this world’s cultivation civilization would’ve already collapsed.

Note:

(1) a fraction of what he owns: The original idiom is “not even a hair off of his 9 cows”, meaning it’s a laughably miniscule amount compared to his wealth.