Eternal Life: I Can Control My Essence Qi-Chapter 120 - 15: First Arrival in Da Li

"This time heading to Da Li, it’s for..."

Chen Qingju, in a daze, drooled from the corner of her mouth as she instinctively narrated.

Under Zhang Yao’s ’Soul Capturing and Thought Extraction Technique,’ she could only keep digging into her deep memories, without the slightest notion of concealing anything.

"I see..."

After half a moment, Zhang Yao listened to her account, revealing a look of sudden realization.

Pingdu Sect has passed down for a thousand years, secretly spreading many branches and arranging plenty of secret collections, just to prepare for the unexpected.

In case one day the sect is destroyed by foreign enemies and the Dao lineage is severed, they could still rely on the remaining disciples and these branches and secret collections to rise again.

Among the many secret collections:

The ’Celestial Capital Secret Collection,’ known to both Dongge Sect and Xige Sect, requires the Celestial Capital Token to open.

Back when Pingdu Sect was destroyed and the sect was in chaos, the ancestors of Dongge Sect and Xige Sect took out some Celestial Capital Tokens, passing them down till now.

The Celestial Capital Secret Collection opens once every twenty years, only cultivators with Qi Refining Cultivation can enter, and there are quite a few treasures inside.

Twenty years ago, the Celestial Capital Secret Collection opened once, and like the two times before, it was Dongge Sect’s victory, with Xige Sect suffering a crushing defeat.

Another twenty years passed, Chen Qingju also broke through to Qi Refining Tenth Layer, having deep insight into Qinglian Song and strong power, was highly hoped on by Luori Alliance Leader, sent to Da Li to participate in this Celestial Capital Secret Collection contest.

"Looking at it now, I’m afraid that Luori Alliance’s leader miscalculated."

"These Dongge Sect disciples, I don’t know what magic skill they developed to actually locate the whereabouts of the Celestial Capital Command Token..."

Zhang Yao thought to this point, shaking his head to himself.

When Chen Qingju arrived at the Lu Kingdom border, she predicted that people from Dongge Sect would surely either hire tribulation cultivator groups or send people to disguise as tribulation cultivators to intercept and kill her at the border.

Therefore, she deliberately waited for the previous northward team to leave, then jumped out to seize the opportunity and become an organizer, also recruiting and persuading a few Qi Refining Perfection cultivators to ensure her safety to the maximum extent.

Yet she never expected:

The three tribulation cultivator leaders from Dongge Sect, amid the chaos, directly ignored the others and instantly locked onto her true form.

Even though she had already changed her appearance, and the information was absolutely confidential, this could only mean that what the other party locked onto was not her, but the Celestial Capital Command Token on her.

"Xige Sect is stagnant, adhering to old ways; Dongge Sect, however, is aggressive and innovative."

"No wonder in recent years, Xige Sect gradually can’t compete with Dongge Sect, falling behind in the competition..."

Zhang Yao pondered for a moment and continued to ask some intriguing details.

Two moments later, after obtaining satisfactory answers through repeated questioning, Zhang Yao flicked his finger again, casting ’Flying Rock Divine Crystal Technique.’

"Bang!"

Chen Qingju’s head was pierced by a pale yellow crystal, leaving a bloody hole on her forehead, her body fell weakly to the ground.

Zhang Yao gathered all the magical artifacts and storage bags, then gathered several corpses, ignited them with Fireball Skill, burning them to ashes.

"Let’s go!"

He rode the Flying Sword Escape Light, swiftly leaving this place, heading northward.

A moment later, at the end of the desolate zone, lush green mountains and forests appeared.

"Da Li, here I come!"

Flying high in the sky, Zhang Yao showed a smile.

The verdant green of the world kept expanding and soon occupied the entire field of vision, leaving the barren yellow-brown behind.

"Buzz!"

At the moment of entering Da Li Border, the dense spiritual qi assaulted him, making Zhang Yao couldn’t help but take a deep breath, lost in it.

"The concentration of spiritual qi here is simply astounding..."

Zhang Yao marveled in his heart.

Compared to Wei Kingdom, Lu Kingdom is tens of thousands of miles away, closer to the Central Plains, but its spiritual qi concentration increased by less than double.

But between Da Li and Lu Kingdom, only separated by a desolate zone, the spiritual qi concentration in Da Li is three to four times that of Lu Kingdom, compared to Wei Kingdom it’s like heaven and earth.

"Only such an environment of spiritual qi can nurture a flourishing cultivation age."

Zhang Yao thought to himself, a turmoil of thoughts in his heart:

"However, this intentional feeling becomes more and more distinct."

The closer to the core areas of the Central Plains, the more abundant the spiritual qi.

Even each country isolated by a desolate zone shows a noticeable difference in spiritual qi density, like Lu Kingdom and Wei Kingdom, Lu Kingdom and Da Li, the difference is enormous.

The density of spiritual qi clearly feels manipulated, controlled, like regions divided and ranked by human intervention.

Thinking back to the earth vein nodes and ancient maps discovered in Lu Kingdom, Zhang Yao became more convinced of his inference:

"Within the territory of the Hundred Countries of Central Plains, the spiritual qi density might have long been artificially divided."

He thought to this point and could only sigh:

"Compared to Da Li’s cultivators, Lu Kingdom’s cultivators truly have it rough."

Thinking back when he was in Lu Kingdom, it took him eighty whole years to promote to the pitiful Qi Refining Fourth Layer.

If it were Da Li, even with the same cultivation technique and qualifications, it might take at most just over a decade.

Clearly, they are the same people, with the same level of effort, yet merely the difference in origin caused such a drastic divergence in life paths.

What an injustice!

"Phew..."

Zhang Yao exhaled deeply, gazing at the distant azure sky with profound eyes:

"I wonder whose handiwork all of this is ultimately."

"If I ever have the chance, I really want to send them my regards..."

He shook his head inwardly, discarding the absurd thought, piloted the escape light to land in the forest, and began meditating and refining qi, restoring magical power.

Several hours later, with his magical power restored to perfection, Zhang Yao took out a heap of storage bags and began to tally the harvest.

"Hmm, the quality of this top-grade magical artifact is quite good, even surpasses the Celestial Thunder Spike by a bit..."

"Oh ho, this guy kept a low profile, actually having a deposit of over five thousand spirit stones, must have been a boss before."

"To think, Chen Qingju turned out to be the poorest, she really was just a tool person, poor treatment..."

Counting the spoils always brings joy.

A total of seven storage bags.

Clearly, those three unlucky people used by Chen Qingju, after being dealt with by those three tribulation cultivator leaders, had their storage bags conveniently taken, which in the end benefited Zhang Yao.

Zhang Yao took half an hour to finally tally all the harvest.

First are the spirit stones, roughly twenty thousand pieces.

Then there are the top-grade magical artifacts, a total of eleven pieces, also worth about twenty thousand spirit stones.

Lastly, there are spirit pills, talismans, cultivation techniques and magic technique scriptures, spirit grass, spiritual gold... and other items of incalculable value, estimated at two to three thousand spirit stones.

"Wow."

"Calculating it this way, just this gain alone is worth as much as a Foundation Establishment Pill."

Zhang Yao’s face showed joy, he was somewhat emotional:

"Robbing the robbers is indeed the fastest way to wealth."

Killing for treasure and sudden wealth, all his hard work running a shop for twenty years couldn’t compare to this one tracking and ambush.

Of course, this was truly his luck.

After all, taking the lifelong savings of seven Qi Refining Perfection cultivators all at once, even Foundation Establishment cultivators in Da Li Cultivation Realm rarely get such opportunities.

"And the most important gain..."

Zhang Yao took out a pale golden command token, pondering silently:

"Should I take this Celestial Capital Command Token away?"