Chapter 498: 295: Fourth Grade_2

Chapter 498: Chapter 295: Fourth Grade_2

His Divine Thought skipped over the Spirit Pills, even if there were third-grade Spirit Pills inside, he wouldn’t be interested.

“What is this?” His Divine Thought scanned a wooden box, and just the sight of the box caused his heart to skip a beat, and he muttered to himself.

Because the material of the wooden box was third-grade Nourishing Spirit Wood, a kind of spirit wood that could lock in Spiritual Energy.

Any Spiritual Object worth preserving with third-grade Nourishing Spirit Wood would have to be at least third-grade. To say that even ordinary third-grade Spiritual Objects were an understatement in terms of value compared to the wood, because third-grade Nourishing Spirit Wood was among the more valuable within third-grade Spiritual Objects.

Li Shiming carefully used his Divine Thought to open a slit in the third-grade Nourishing Spirit Wood Box, simply allowing his Divine Thought to enter without letting any Spiritual Energy leak from inside.

In his Divine Thought, a small humanoid fruit was protected by a magical treasure within the third-grade Nourishing Spirit Wood Box.

“Red Infant Ginseng Fruit, how could Fang Lu have this thing?” Li Shiming’s voice grew louder this time, and if it weren’t for the fact that he was in the confines of his cave dwelling, which isolated him from the outside, this exclamation might have attracted a lot of trouble.

The Red Infant Ginseng Fruit was a fourth-grade item, something only Nascent Soul Ancestors were qualified to come into contact with.

More crucially, it was not a Spiritual Medicine but a natural Spiritual Object that could increase the success rate of forming a Nascent Soul by twenty percent.

A twenty percent increase in the Nascent Soul formation rate would drive any Golden Core cultivator insane. Even Nascent Soul Ancestors, upon learning of the existence of the Red Infant Ginseng Fruit, would fight to snatch it.

Besides the effect of increasing the Nascent Soul formation rate, the Red Infant Ginseng Fruit could also somewhat improve the quality of the Nascent Soul inside a Nascent Soul Ancestor.

No matter how much it could enhance the quality of the Nascent Soul, even a slight effect would be worth a Nascent Soul Ancestor’s attention.

Upon seeing the Red Infant Ginseng Fruit, Li Shiming’s first reaction was not that he had struck it rich but rather a frown.

“Big trouble, huge trouble!” he murmured to himself.

He didn’t believe that Fang Lu, a mere Golden Core Early Stage cultivator, could possess a natural Spiritual Object like the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit.’

In his judgement, the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ should belong to the Skywalk Trading Company, and he had no idea how it ended up inside Fang Lu’s Space Ring.

Of course, Li Shiming was unaware that the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ in Fang Lu’s possession was exchanged by Supervisor Feng Yi of the Skywalk Trading Company’s Beishu Continent division.

Supervisor Feng Yi, at the Fake Infant Stage, wanted to enhance his own strength. Self-cultivation would not yield any results, the only option was to nurture oneself with Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

And the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ was one of the few Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that could enhance the quality of a Fake Infant. Supervisor Feng Yi paid a huge price to obtain it from another continent and had it sent to the Beishu Continent through the channels of the Skywalk Trading Company.

Fang Lu handled this matter, retrieving the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ for Supervisor Feng Yi and took a detour to meet Li Shiming after learning of his whereabouts.

Although Li Shiming didn’t know the origin of the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit,’ he understood that with such an item in his possession, Skywalk Trading Company would never let him off.

But to hand over the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ was also something he was unwilling to do. Merely the fact that it could increase the Nascent Soul formation rate by twenty percent, such a top-tier Nascent Soul Treasure of the Cultivation World, now that it had come into his hands, he wouldn’t give it away.

Fortune that comes one’s way should not be ignored, lest one suffers the consequences of inaction.

The matter of the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit,’ he didn’t plan to tell anyone.

Now that he was a Half-step Golden Core, achieving the Golden Core was within reach. Given his alchemy capabilities, he believed his cultivation speed during the Golden Core Stage wouldn’t be slow. He was confident that in a few years, he would need the help of the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit.’

He stored the third-grade Nourishing Spirit Wood Box in the workroom space and, after some thought, also wore Fang Lu’s Space Ring on his finger, transferring the items out and selecting a few everyday Spiritual Objects to put into the Space Ring.

With the Space Ring, which had an internal space for Corpse Refining, he moved some Spiritual Objects he didn’t want others to see into the workroom space.

He now wore two Space Rings on his hand, openly displaying Fang Lu’s Space Ring.

He decided that no matter who inquired, he would adamantly deny ever having seen the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit,’ even preparing himself for a situation where someone might search his Space Ring.

‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ hidden in the spacecraft, no one will find it.

Li Shiming was well aware of how precious the resources for Nascent Soul advancement were. Just look at the competition between his master Elder Su and Elder Ji. If it wasn’t for the sect’s suppression, they would have come to a life-and-death stand-off long ago.

Even so, Elder Ji still used all his connections to prevent Elder Su’s injuries from healing, aiming to eliminate his ability to compete.

It was Li Shiming’s sudden appearance that not only procured the critical Spiritual Medicine for Elder Su’s treatment but also became the straw that broke Elder Ji’s hope.

Of course, even now Elder Su had not achieved a hundred percent victory. In the vast Shushan Sect, for many years, only one set of Nascent Soul resources could be prepared for the sect’s Golden Cores. Before the final deadline, any Golden Core cultivator within the sect who met the standard had a chance to compete for that spot.

As far as Li Shiming knew, among these Nascent Soul resources, there was no ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’. Instead, they were several Spiritual Objects and Spiritual Medicines a notch below the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’.

It stands to reason that even if the Shushan Sect obtained treasures like the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’, they would not be used for Nascent Soul advancement; instead, they would be taken by the Nascent Soul Ancestors to enhance their own strength.

That is to say, the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ in his hands was more valuable than the Nascent Soul advancement resources prepared by the Shushan Sect for its Golden Cores.

The ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ was the most valuable Spiritual Object he had obtained, and it was also the first fourth-grade spiritual item.

In the next two days, Li Shiming became much more cautious. He did not rest in his cave dwelling.

At night, he found a place in Fire Cloud Valley on his own and set up a Concealing Array with one hundred and eight third-grade Array Flags, not even notifying Elder Zhao so as to avoid being ambushed by powerful cultivators in his cave.

Inside the cave dwelling, he left a large amount of high-explosive explosives, and the detonation device was connected to the cave’s Formation.

Since he couldn’t explain the matter concerning ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ to the Shushan Sect, their response to Fang Lu’s attack on Li Shiming resulting in Fang Lu’s death was merely to send an inquiry to Skywalk Trading Company, demanding an explanation and proposed measures.

Given the immense power of the Shushan Sect on the Beishu Continent, such an inquiry was an extremely serious matter.

One misstep in the response and the Shushan Sect would take even further action against Skywalk Trading Company.

However, the Shushan Sect was ignorant of the matter concerning the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ and thus misjudged the situation.

Upon learning that Fang Lu had been killed and that the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ had been lost, Supervisor Feng Yi nearly went mad.

Without any delay, he used the fastest Flying Boat Magical Treasure to make his way to Fire Cloud Valley.

As for the inquiry from Shushan Sect, the staff from Skywalk Trading Company would deal with it.

For Supervisor Feng Yi, even at the risk of becoming an enemy to the Shushan Sect, he had to retrieve the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’.

Supervisor Feng Yi was closing in on four hundred and fifty years old. Remaining at the Fake Infant Stage wouldn’t extend his life span, which at most was five hundred years.

Five hundred years is the utmost limit, but due to injuries, impurities formed by spiritual medicines in the body, and other impacts, almost no Golden Core cultivator actually reaches the full life span of five hundred years without any deficit.

False Infants are those who have forcefully elevated their power to Nascent Soul Level by a special method, and because of this forced elevation, despite their increased strength, their lifespan remains the same as that of Golden Core cultivators.

Of course, False Infants are not without means to elevate themselves. As long as they enhance the quality of their False Infant, their power as well as their lifespan will correspondingly increase.

Concerning his lifespan, for Supervisor Feng Yi, no situation could prevent him from retrieving the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’.

He regretted letting Fang Lu retrieve the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’ for him. He did not doubt Fang Lu’s loyalty since Fang Lu himself was far from ready to use the ‘Red Infant Ginseng Fruit’. It is even uncertain whether Fang Lu could reach the Late-stage Golden Core in his lifetime.

He was preoccupied with other matters, and thus he sent Fang Lu, whom he trusted the most.

There had been no issues in previous retrievals of fourth-grade spiritual items, but this time, a problem arose involving his own fourth-grade spiritual item.