241: Chapter 241 So Many Treasures!

Shen Qingyuan picked up his teacup, took a sip, and set it down casually: "Quasi-Emperor Realm."

The entire hall fell silent instantly.

You could hear a pin drop.

The hands of several Elders holding their teacups froze in mid-air, their expressions becoming subtle.

Among them were Elders of the Asking Dao Realm and the Saint Realm, but at this moment, regardless of their cultivation level, they all froze there as if they hadn't heard clearly what Shen Qingyuan said.

"Senior, what you said was... Quasi-Emperor Realm?" Cangming Wujian's voice tightened slightly.

"That is correct."

Another long silence followed.

Cangming Wujian took a deep breath, set down his teacup, folded his hands on his lap, and his voice was a few shades deeper than before: "Senior should know what a Quasi-Emperor Realm Puppet implies. It already exceeds the scope of ordinary Puppetry Art, involving the condensation of Heaven and Earth Laws and the infusion of dao rhyme."

"With the accumulation of my Cangming Clan over tens of thousands of years, we have indeed crafted Quasi-Emperor Realm Puppets and Saint King Realm Puppets. But in today's world, spiritual Materials are scarce, so wanting to craft a Quasi-Emperor Realm Puppet... I fear it is no longer possible."

"I have the Materials; you only need to craft it." Shen Qingyuan's tone was calm.

He raised his right hand, his slender fingers slicing gently through the Void Realm.

A golden streak of light suddenly appeared, like a sharp blade cutting through space.

The streak of light expanded rapidly, turning into a space rift a zhang wide.

From the rift, two massive corpses slowly emerged, their entire bodies exuding a heart-stopping pressure.

One was a pitch-black giant python, its body fully a thousand zhang in size, its scales shimmering with a deep blue luster under the candlelight.

The other was a crimson-gold giant eagle, its wings seemingly capable of blotting out the sky when spread, its feathers as if forged from gold and iron.

Quasi-Emperor Realm Yao Beast.

Nether Mystic Snake, Golden-Winged Peng.

The hall fell into dead silence once more.

Cangming Wujian's pupils contracted sharply; he stood up abruptly from his chair, not even caring that his sleeve had knocked over his teacup.

The tea in the cup spilled onto the table, flowing down the edge of the ice-porcelain cup and dripping onto the floor, making a faint sound.

But he didn't notice at all.

He just stared fixedly at the two massive corpses emerging from the space rift, his withered fingers gripping the armrests so tightly his knuckles turned white.

"Quasi-Emperor... Quasi-Emperor Realm Yao Beast corpses?!" An Elder behind him had his voice go out of tune, as if someone were strangling his throat, shocked and horrified. "And there are two of them?!"

"Nether Mystic Snake... Golden-Winged Peng... These are the ancient Yao Race Quasi-Emperors recorded in ancient texts!" Another Elder stood up directly, took two steps forward, and then stopped abruptly, afraid of losing his composure. "Corpses of this level have long been extinct; where did Senior find them?!"

Shen Qingyuan leaned back against the chair, his hands tucked into his sleeves, and said slowly: "Do you need to know that as well?"

Seeing the two Quasi-Emperor Yao Beast corpses, the slight doubt in Cangming Wujian's heart completely vanished.

To be able to bring out such rare supreme treasures, this person must undoubtedly be a Venerable!

He became increasingly polite, smiling apologetically as he replied: "Please forgive us, Venerable, it was our loose tongues."

"Venerable, having the Quasi-Emperor corpses is not enough." The Saint Realm Elder to the side tried his best to suppress his surging emotions; his voice was a bit steadier than before, but his fingertips were still trembling slightly. "The crafting of a Quasi-Emperor Puppet requires a large amount of auxiliary Materials. Just the Seal Formation to maintain the Quasi-Emperor dao rhyme requires over a dozen spiritual Materials of the Saint Realm or higher. There is also the container to hold the core, which must be at least ten-thousand-year-old Mysterious Ice Jade Essence or spiritual Materials of an equivalent grade..."

He paused, looked up at Shen Qingyuan, and his voice carried a hint of probing: "Senior, have you prepared these things?"

Shen Qingyuan's lips curled slightly.

He raised his hand, took out a Storage Ring from his sleeve, and tossed it over casually.

Cangming Wujian subconsciously reached out and caught it.

The ring felt warm in his hand, and the richness of its spiritual power fluctuations far surpassed any Storage Magic Treasure he had ever seen.

He probed into it with his Divine Thought, and the next second, he was frozen as if fixed in place.

Inside the ring, dozens of types of spiritual Materials were neatly stacked.

Ten-thousand-year Mysterious Ice Jade Essence, nine-turn lingzhi, dragon blood mysterious gold, earth marrow mysterious essence, Saint Spirit Jade, Saint Realm Yao Beast inner cores... any single item taken out would be enough to make the large Sects of the Northern Plains green with envy, yet here they were, piled full.

The few Elders couldn't help but crowd around, each probing with their Divine Thought to look into the ring, and then they all gasped in unison.

"These... the value of these Materials is worth the accumulation of my Cangming Clan over thousands of years!" The voice of a Saint Realm Elder trembled, his gaunt fingers gripping his cuffs involuntarily.

"That ten-thousand-year Mysterious Ice Jade Essence alone is enough to support the operation of the Quasi-Emperor Puppet's core Formation!" Another Elder's throat went dry. "And that nine-turn lingzhi; each stalk is a Peerless Grade item for tempering the meridians of a spiritual Puppet. With these, the success rate of crafting the Puppet can be increased by at least thirty percent!"

"Thirty percent? I think at least forty percent!"

The group exchanged glances, growing more shocked the more they looked.

The hall was quiet for a moment, leaving only the faint sound of the candles burning and the suppressed breathing of the Elders.

Finally, Cangming Wujian placed the ring back on the table solemnly, rested his hands on his knees, and bowed slightly toward Shen Qingyuan, his voice steadier than before: "Since the Venerable is fully prepared, my Cangming Clan cannot refuse."

He paused, his gaze falling on the two Quasi-Emperor corpses suspended in the space rift, a barely perceptible heat flashing deep in his eyes: "My Cangming Clan is willing to craft a Quasi-Emperor Realm Puppet for the Venerable."

"However—" He changed the subject, his tone becoming more serious. "The crafting of a Quasi-Emperor level Puppet is by no means a task of three or five days. Even with the ancient methods left by our ancestors, one must use essence blood as a guide and Divine Soul as a thread, smelting the Materials one by one into the Puppet's body, and then trigger Heavenly Thunder to temper it, only then can the dao rhyme be preserved. The entire process takes at least three months, and up to half a year, and it cannot be interrupted midway."

"Three months to half a year?" Shen Qingyuan frowned slightly. "That is a bit too long."

Cangming Wujian showed a look of helplessness on his face and explained: "Venerable, this is already the limit of what our Cangming Clan can do. The tempering of Materials requires time; unless there is a Lesser Spring-Autumn Secret Realm, by utilizing the Great Dao of Time within it, could it be completed in a short time. But... the Lesser Spring-Autumn Secret Realm has not appeared in the world for tens of thousands of years, and I do not know if it still exists in this world."

Lesser Spring-Autumn Secret Realm?

Shen Qingyuan was thoughtful; he remembered that a few years ago he seemed to have obtained a similar treasure.

A moment later, his eyes lit up, and he took out a purple jade gourd.

"There is a Lesser Spring-Autumn Secret Realm inside here. Although the space is not very large, it should be enough to craft the Puppet."

The air in the hall seemed to freeze.

When Shen Qingyuan said the words "There is a Lesser Spring-Autumn Secret Realm inside here," Cangming Wujian was just raising his teacup to his lips. Upon hearing this, his hand jerked violently, spilling hot spiritual tea all over his lap, but he didn't notice at all, staring intently at the palm-sized purple jade gourd on the table.

The gourd was deep purple throughout, with fine golden patterns flowing on its surface, glowing with a warm luster under the candlelight. Its shape was ancient and simple, and at first glance, there was nothing extraordinary about it.

But Cangming Wujian had cultivated for over two thousand years and had seen countless spiritual items and Magic Treasures. Just now, when his Divine Thought touched the surface of the gourd, he felt an extremely profound fluctuation of spatial Laws emanating from it.

That fluctuation was vast and distant, carrying all sorts of mysteries.

"Lesser Spring-Autumn Secret Realm..." Cangming Wujian's voice trembled slightly. He set down the teacup, pressed his hands on the table, and stared fixedly at the gourd, his breathing becoming rapid. "Is what Senior says true?"