104: Chapter 104 Intermediate Qi and Blood Talisman

The temple in Wangjia Village had also been repaired by the villagers.

The divine statue was sitting upright behind the offering table.

Village Chief Wang Deshun knelt at the very front, with the villagers of Wangjia Village lined up behind him.

Instead of returning to their respective homes, they came straight to the village's divine temple to tidy it up for Lord Qinling first.

Village Chief Wang Deshun lit the joss sticks, inserted them into the censer, and kowtowed.

[incense points + 3]

The refugees offered incense and kowtowed one by one.

After finishing the incense offerings, these villagers finally headed to their respective homes.

Most of the houses in the village had been destroyed by the roots and stems, so they needed to rest and repair them before moving in.

Qin Ling's split spirit sat inside the shrine, and even after all the villagers finished offering incense, he still did not receive the prompt that his jurisdiction had expanded.

However, with the prior experience from the Underwater Temple on the East China Sea Seabed, he was not surprised by this.

After the evil spirits' attack that night, the number of remaining villagers in Wangjia Village and Sun Family Village was no more than a hundred, only around fifty.

And if he wanted a village to become his jurisdiction, having a population of less than a hundred simply wouldn't do.

Thinking of this, Qin Ling's split spirit flickered, passed through the roof, and hovered high in midair.

He looked down at the village beneath his feet that had just been wrested back from the evil spirits.

The villagers were all busy rebuilding their hometown.

Then he raised his head, casting his gaze toward the west.

That Evil Tree still stood tall in the center of Guanhai County City.

Even from such a distance, its sky-covering canopy could still be seen, pitch-black like a dark cloud that would never disperse.

Its roots and stems stretched in all directions, reaching toward those villages in Guanhai County.

Qin Ling's brows furrowed as he looked at the Evil Tree.

With so many villages in Guanhai County, it was impossible that only Wangjia Village and Sun Family Village had been attacked by evil spirits.

The other villages must have been heavily destroyed by the Evil Tree's roots and stems as well, and many commoners probably died to become nutrients for the Evil Tree.

If this continued, the population of the entire Guanhai County would dwindle further and further.

As a wild god who needed commoners to worship him and collect incense points, Qin Ling naturally was unwilling to see this situation.

He could not just stand by and watch those villages perish one by one.

He could not just stand by and watch those commoners turn into nourishment for evil spirits one by one.

He could not just stand by and watch his incense points get cut off bit by bit.

The gaze of Qin Ling's split spirit became sharp.

Since he couldn't keep dragging this out, he had to go to the county city and see what the Evil Tree was truly made of.

Anyway, with the existence of the Divine Split Art, sending a split spirit to test the waters was safe for him.

However, the county city was too far away; even with his cultivation in the Xiansheng Realm, his current active range still couldn't reach the county city directly.

Therefore, he needed a village that could serve as his stepping stone.

Overlooking from midair, he quickly found a suitable village.

This village was called Liuhe Village, located right in the middle between Qin Family Village and the county city. There was a small river at the village entrance, and the riverbank was planted full of willows.

He needed that village as a stepping stone and needed it to worship him, so that he could descend upon Guanhai County City and have a showdown with that Evil Tree.

But the current problem was how he could make Liuhe Village believe in him.

Qin Ling quickly had an idea.

...

Qin Family Village.

Qin Ling inside the shrine employed the divine technique Intermediate Talisman Art.

This was a talisman art he had obtained long ago, but he had never used it.

It wasn't that he didn't want to use it; rather, he hadn't had the time and hadn't found a suitable opportunity.

And now was the right time; he began to craft the Intermediate Qi and Blood Talisman from the Intermediate Talisman Art.

Divine power wound, intersected, and separated on his palm, forming a complex pattern that he had never drawn before yet was incomparably familiar with.

Soon, two talismans quietly lay in the palm of his hand.

The lines of these two talismans were denser, finer, and more complex than the qi and blood talisman.

Touching them with a finger, they were warm, as if some living creature was beating inside.

Looking at these two Intermediate Qi and Blood Talismans, Qin Ling let out a long breath.

These two talismans cost him 40 incense points.

They were a full fold more expensive than the previous qi and blood talisman at 10 incense points each.

Qin Ling had no time to feel the pinch; he clutched these two Intermediate Qi and Blood Talismans and walked out of the temple door into the courtyard.

At this moment in the courtyard, Qin Yin was practicing martial arts holding a long saber, with the saber tip pointing at the courtyard wall, motionless.

Her wrists did not tremble, her arms did not shake, and her entire person was like a stone statue, with only the corners of her clothes fluttering gently in the breeze.

Qin Mo, on the other hand, was practicing martial arts nearby holding a long spear, his long spear whistling as it was wielded.

The two of them had already been peak Rank-1 martial artists long before.

In Qin Ling's eyes, the two of them were only a kick away from advancing to Rank-2.

And now, the two Intermediate Qi and Blood Talismans in Qin Ling's hands were precisely the final push the two of them needed.

Qin Ling concealed his figure, so Qin Yin and Qin Mo did not see him.

He raised his hand and flicked gently.

Two talismans flew out from his fingertips, landing separately on the backs of Qin Yin and Qin Mo.

The moment the talismans touched their clothes, they transformed into two streaks of red light that sank into their bodies.

Qin Yin's body suddenly stiffened.

She felt something burrowing in from her back.

Hot!

But that heat lasted only a split second before turning warm.

It spread from her back to her shoulders, from her shoulders to her arms, from her arms to her chest, and sank from her chest into her Qi Sea.

She lowered her head and saw the veins on the back of her hands throbbing because the thing that had entered her body was stirring her qi and blood.

She turned her head and saw that Qin Mo was also stiffly frozen there, the veins on his forehead bulging as he clenched his teeth.

The gazes of the two people collided.

They knew what this was; they had received the qi and blood talisman more than once before.

But this time, the qi and blood talisman was completely different from the previous ones.

This time, the sensation was stronger and fiercer, like a small stream turning into a river, aiming to flush open all those blocked meridians that had stuck them for a long time.

Qin Yin reacted first.

She turned around, facing the divine statue inside the temple with lowered brows and drooping eyes.

This must be the talisman bestowed upon them by Lord Qinling.

Qin Yin straightened her body, sat cross-legged, placed her hands on her knees, and closed her eyes.

The light rampaging inside her body was gathered up by her bit by bit.

Gathered into her meridians, gathered into her Qi Sea, and gathered into those bottlenecks that had stuck her for so long and could never be broken through.

Qin Mo also sat cross-legged, placing his long spear horizontally across his knees, and closed his eyes.

The qi and blood inside his body were as violent as Qin Yin's, rampaging within him.

He clenched his teeth and pushed that violent qi and blood down bit by bit, pressing it into his meridians, his Qi Sea, and his bottlenecks.

The courtyard immediately quieted down.

Aside from the breathing sounds of Qin Yin and Qin Mo, there was only the faint crackling sound of the joss sticks burning in the censer.

Qin Ling sat on the temple eaves, supporting his chin with his hand, looking at Qin Yin and Qin Mo in the courtyard below.

He was waiting for the two of them to break through their bottlenecks with the help of the Intermediate Qi and Blood Talismans, waiting for them to step across the threshold from peak Rank-1 into Rank-2.

An hour later, two surging auras of blood energy exploded in the courtyard.