54: Chapter 54 The Emperor's Banner, the Heavenly Treasure, and the Great Calamity: Nowhere to Run!

Returning to his room, Shen Yi looked around.

Although this room was nowhere near as luxurious as Pei Lingshu's boudoir, it was still quite exquisitely furnished.

However, it lacked some of the cumbersome decorations... inside the room, there was only a large bookshelf, a desk, and a set of writing implements.

There was also the bed.

A few books were arranged on the bookshelf... not many.

Shen Yi cast his gaze over them.

"Records of the Hundred Clans, Secret Records of Yao Beasts, Canon of Spiritual Objects, Geomancy Basics..."

These books were all things Shen Yi needed to understand and know.

They were also things Shen Yi had never come into contact with before...

For example, the Records of the Hundred Clans contained detailed records of certain powerful aristocratic families, what Daoist traditions their Immortal Sprouts followed... what they were most adept at, and which direction they leaned toward when serving as officials.

The Secret Records of Yao Beasts recorded the physical characteristics and even Divine Abilities of certain atavistic Great Yao.

The Canon of Spiritual Objects contained harvesting methods... and Geomancy Basics was a must-read for any aspiring Geomancer.

With this item, one could get an overview of the terrain and roughly grasp some geomantic clues.

They were all classic texts... clearly, Pei Lingshu had put some thought into this.

Shen Yi nodded, walked to the table, and instead of sleeping, prepared to take stock of his gains.

Apart from the thousand or so copper coins from Shuhe Ancient Town, there were also gains from a Wonder.

As for the gains from Shuhe Ancient Town itself, they were some Yao Beast corpses from the underground karst caves, as well as Shuhe Stones.

Shuhe Stones were a long-term investment and couldn't be rushed, so they were set aside for now.

Besides that, the biggest gain was 'Yan Shu', Yan Ping... was just scrap, not worth mentioning!

Excluding the income from Shuhe Ancient Town itself, there were also the 'side quests' this time, which were the elite monsters and the mini-boss that appeared at the end.

The Great Black Heaven Mother Buddha Sect was a bizarre cult... it was the Demonic Path, a heretical sect, but they still needed money to spend and Spiritual Qi to cultivate.

Shen Yi rubbed his fingers over Feng He's ring, channeling his Spiritual Qi.

A brocade pouch appeared from within.

Mysterious wisps of energy flowed over it... it was clearly also a storage artifact.

The cult lived a precarious existence, and as a helmsman of the Great Black Heaven Mother Buddha Sect, this Daoist Senyou naturally carried all his possessions with him.

Because of Senyou's death, the Restriction on it had long been broken.

Injecting a trace of Spiritual Qi... the pouch opened.

The contents spilled out entirely.

Looking at the items emitting rolling black energy, Shen Yi couldn't help but feel his scalp tingle.

He first picked up a statue, which was extremely ugly and evil... it had many heads, and ten pairs of arms were crossed behind its torso.

Behind it was a huge circular wheel, carved with dense, strange, and eerie patterns.

Shen Yi looked at it closely and felt his scalp tingle again.

It took a long time for him to recover...

"This item... it seems to be a token of the Great Black Heaven Mother Buddha Sect?"

"I don't know if it's worth any money... or if it needs to be confiscated?"

"I'll figure it out once I reach Taiping County."

Shen Yi shook his head and continued looking.

His gaze fell upon a booklet.

[List of the North River Branch in Southern Sichuan...]

Shen Yi curiously opened it, his eyes filled with a hint of confusion.

It didn't contain any true scriptures, but rather recorded some secret codes, disguised aliases, and methods of communication.

Seeing this, Shen Yi grinned.

"Senyou, you son of a bitch, you really are a good guy!"

"Afraid that my, Shen Yi's, military merit wouldn't be enough... you handed over this booklet for me to kill according to the list?"

"Your death must have been worth it..."

"Hmm... not just subordinates, but colleagues too."

"North River... it should be the North River Basin, right?"

Within the Sanchuan Sand Sea, there were oases of various sizes, adding a touch of vitality to this place, so it wasn't completely devoid of life.

And these oases of various sizes were connected by different river tributaries, allowing for the exchange of goods.

The North River was a rather important river basin in Southern Sichuan, with abundant waters, and was a Rank 4 Wonder.

What kind of concept was this? This Rank 4 Wonder could support the survival of hundreds of thousands, nearly a million people.

It was certainly not small.

I didn't expect the Great Black Heaven Mother Buddha Sect to have such big ambitions, actually setting their sights directly on the North River Basin of the Sanchuan Sand Sea.

It just looked like they had just started expanding, or perhaps Senyou hadn't recorded everything?

However... a Level 9 Qi Refining, and his brain is this stupid? He actually left behind a name list?

Truly... terrifying!

Shen Yi carefully placed his 'military merit' into Feng He's ring.

He continued looking... his gaze settled on a scroll emitting black energy.

As he touched it with his fingers, he only felt a wave of greasiness.

This seemed to be... Shen Yi felt a chill run down his spine.

"Human skin... and not from an ordinary mortal, there is Spiritual Qi lingering on it."

"Is it the skin of a Cultivator?"

"Truly a cult..."

Shen Yi looked closely, his brows furrowing.

"Black Heaven Sutra?"

After flipping it open... Shen Yi's expression gradually became grave.

"Blood sacrifice of blood relatives, skulls offered to the Black Mother."

"The first step is to drink the blood of virgin boys and girls."

"The second step is the blood sacrifice of one hundred young and strong men."

"The third step... beg the Mahakala Mother Buddha to bestow the technique."

Shen Yi felt his sanity value plummeting, so he quickly closed it.

This Cultivation Technique was not simple... it had Senyou's annotations on it!

The competition within the Great Black Heaven Mother Buddha Sect was also quite fierce; it was actually some kind of wolf-culture corporate environment.

The capable rise, the inferior fall.

And the Cultivation Technique was divided into several parts; only with enough merit, status, and by sacrificing more people could one obtain the subsequent parts of the technique.

And Senyou... had already obtained the Foundation Establishment part of this technique!

He had originally thought about destroying this evil technique... to avoid it poisoning the masses, but then he had a second thought.

It seemed... he could use this to fish?

Selling Demonic Path Foundation Establishment techniques at a low price to fish for the Great Black Heaven Mother Buddha Sect... and slapping them to death once they took the bait.

Shen Yi felt this was feasible and nodded.

From then on... among the books and the like, there were no more important items.

Among the pile of miscellaneous items, Shen Yi started to count his Spirit Stone gains.

[Spirit Stones, five hundred and sixty-seven.]

[Black Pills... this item seems to be something similar to Jing Kingdom copper coins. One thousand nine hundred... the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce, that trash can, should want this, right?]

[Copper coins: three thousand eight hundred.]

[Silver Dollar: one...]

"There's actually a Silver Dollar? I really made a killing..."

"Wait... what is this?"

Shen Yi looked at the ten thousand soul banner billowing with black energy in front of him and nodded.

"This Human Sovereign Banner looks like it's of good quality."

"I remember the Dao soldiers don't have a Great Banner yet; I'll see if there's a way to modify it in Taiping County..."

"It carries wandering souls inside... hmm, can it be modified to store Evil Qi?"

"Good idea!"

Shen Yi put it away, but then, out of thin air, he found three 'tianyuan tongbao!' on the ground.

They were clearly spoils from killing the evil Cultivator this time...

but the way they appeared was too bizarre...

forget it, I won't think about it.

Once I arrive in Taiping County tomorrow, everything will be clear!

But... a huge storm was silently approaching.