Immortal of the Nine Realms

A flicker of surprise flashed in the young monk's eyes. His Holy Bone Buddhist Beads were mid-grade, profound-rank, bearing two Dao Imprints. With these beads, even if he encountered someone at the Soul Splitting Realm, he was confident he could handle a move or two. Yet now, his Holy Light Flames couldn't eliminate the two spirit-bound evil entities?

In the next moment, he activated the beads again. The round beads shot toward the black and white paper figures like a torrential storm, transforming into arrows of dazzling golden light as they flew.

The paper figures exchanged a smile, and then stepped forward. Their figures suddenly vanished from sight and reappeared behind the arrows.

However, the arrows didn't seem to have been released with the intention of targeting them. Seemingly endowed with consciousness, they immediately turned and flew toward Fang Chen.

They had been aimed at Fang Chen from the start, not the paper figures!

The green-headed sea turtle suddenly let out an angry roar. Countless streams of water energy surged, forming solid water shields between itself and Fang Chen.

Puff, puff, puff.

The arrows pierced more than ten water shields like papier mache, not slowing down in the slightest.

The sea turtle finally understood the difference between itself and the young monk. Despite their cultivation levels being just one minor realm apart, their combat power was worlds apart. If the young monk truly wished to kill it, perhaps one strike would suffice!

If they both end up injured, I can slip away... The sea turtle thought to itself, suddenly diving down.

Fang Chen stood above the sea, his feet not touching the water.

As the arrows were about to land on him, they suddenly lost their gleam and swiftly transformed back into a string of Buddhist beads, gently landing in his palm.

Not far away, the young monk's flesh was mangled. His skin had been completely peeled off, now draped over the black paper figure.

The young monk was filled with unwillingness and terror, constantly shouting in rage. As the black paper figure took complete possession of his skin, everything fell eerily silent.

Meanwhile, the white paper figure had already dove into the sea. After a short while, it resurfaced with the sea turtle.

The sea turtle wore a sheepish look. "My lord, this little demon was just scared, I didn't mean to run away."

The sea turtle was shocked. The Heiye Temple monk was defeated this fast?

It instinctively looked aside and saw the black paper figure holding a bloody, mangled corpse with a single hand.

What kind of a death is this?! He was skinned alive?!

Suddenly, the sea turtle realized that this human cultivator was very likely also a practitioner of the evil arts.

Having absorbed the young monk's karmic essence, the black paper figure's aura grew thicker. It took the monk's corpse back to the turtle's back and handed over the storage ring found on the monk's body to Fang Chen.

Fang Chen put the Buddhist beads away, flicked his finger to conjure a fireball, and burned the young monk's corpse to ash. He then instructed the green-headed sea turtle to continue the journey.

The sea turtle, seeing that Fang Chen had not scolded it, dared not say another word and paddled forcefully toward the distance.

A few days later, Fang Chen finally finished refining the young monk's storage ring. Inside, he found many porcelain bottles and demonic cultivator's core crystals. After opening one of the porcelain bottles and taking a quick glance, it was clear that it contained the essence blood of demonic cultivators.

Fang Chen continued to examine several bottles, initially thinking they were all filled with demonic cultivators' essence blood. However, some of the bottles felt different.

The essence blood inside did not carry the aura of demonic cultivators, but instead, it had the distinct aura of human cultivators.

Detecting the scent of a human cultivator's essence blood, the sea turtle took the opportunity to criticize the Haiye Temple. "My lord, I wasn't lying, was I? The monks from Haiye Temple speak about righteousness, but their actions are no different from ours."

"They collect this essence blood to refine pills?" Fang Chen casually asked.

"Not many cultivators in the Immortal Demonic Sea know alchemy. At least Haiye Temple doesn't have such experts. But there are many places in the Immortal Demonic Sea that constantly buy various types of essence blood, demonic cultivators' cores, human cultivators' golden cores, or even nascent souls, all of which can fetch a good price," the sea turtle explained. "Haiye Temple's dealings with the Night Fork King are related to this."

"Isn't that the work of evil cultivators? Doesn't anyone care?" Fang Chen said lightly.

The green-headed sea turtle paused for a moment. Its tone turned a little strange. "Who's going to care? The Immortal Demonic Sea has always been about minding your own business. Even if someone wanted to interfere, there's no way to go about it.

"The Immortal Demonic Sea is so vast that as anyone is determined to hide, it's impossible to find them. To this day, no one knows how big the Immortal Demonic Sea really is, and there are many places that no cultivator has ever set foot into.

"All of those regions are really dangerous. If I hadn't spent over a thousand years in the Immortal Demonic Sea, I wouldn't have been able to guide you, my lord."

After this conversation, Fang Chen's understanding of the Immortal Demonic Sea deepened significantly. The sea was far larger than he had imagined, and without the teleportation arrays between islands, traveling through the Immortal Demonic Sea would not be an easy task for cultivators.

The green-headed sea turtle remarked, "When I was young, I heard some old seniors mention that even if you combined the territories of the Central Continent Empire, Celestial Heaven, and Northern Dipper, it would still be nothing more than a drop in the ocean compared to the Immortal Demonic Sea. My lord must have offended some righteous cultivators, but it's no matter. Once you're in the Immortal Demonic Sea, they'll never find you,"

"The combined territories of the three major territories are merely a drop in the Immortal Demonic Sea?" Fang Chen muttered thoughtfully.

Even though the statement might be exaggerated, there was no smoke without fire.

As they continued their conversation, Fang Chen casually sorted through the storage ring of the young monk, eventually organizing a hundred porcelain bottles containing essence blood.

Whether human or demonic cultivator, once they're dead, their essence blood would be refined to be at most as large as a drop of water.

These 100 porcelain bottles of essence blood represented the lives of countless human and demonic cultivators.

As for the demonic cores, there were 200 in total, seemingly carefully planned and prepared for sale. These were the cores of 200 demonic cultivators in the Golden Core stage.

Fang Chen took out a lantern from the storage ring and held it up to his eyes. "This is…."

Inside, several shadowy figures were flying around, constantly colliding with the walls of the lantern as they attempted to break free. Some of the shadows inside were human-shaped, while others were of demonic forms.

"My lord, these are all Nascent Soul and Enlightenment Realm beings. These are very valuable. Each one could be sold for at least 30 mid-grade spirit stones. If you're willing to exchange them for low-grade spirit stones, that could easily start at several hundred thousand," the green-headed sea turtle said, looking at it with greed in his eyes. "If you don't mind, could you sell me a few? The demonic cultivators' Nascent Souls in there would be perfect for increasing my strength."

"Oh? You can consume Nascent Souls to increase your power?" Fang Chen said with a faint smile.

The sea turtle chuckled. "For our kind, whether its essence blood or Nascent Souls, both can enhance our strength. It does come with some karmic consequences, but with our long lifespans, we have plenty of time to digest that karma and are not afraid of future calamities."

Fang Chen's expression suddenly darkened. "Focus on your journey. These Nascent Souls are not for sale."

The green-headed sea turtle paused, quickly shutting up and lowering its head to continue its journey, though it grumbled inwardly. This evil cultivator must want to keep them for himself. What a stingy guy. I'm working so hard, and this is how I'm treated.

"Little White, what would happen if we released these Nascent Souls?" Fang Chen asked, turning toward the white paper figure.

The white paper figure blinked in surprise. "Are you planning to use the Spiritual Attachment Technique to refine them?"

Fang Chen shook his head, his gaze lingering on the lantern. "There are some familiar faces within.…"