Nine Transformations of the True Spirit

The Duyunzhou flew at full speed in the air for an hour, at least hundreds of miles away, before it slowed down.

Chen Yuan looked around, and a light of escape descended in a dense forest. He put away the Duyunzhou, took out three formation flags, scattered them on the ground, and disappeared without a trace.

This was a set of low-level formations he obtained when he killed the disciples of Ziyang Sect in the secret realm of Dongxu Mountain. It only had a simple invisibility effect, but it was enough to block the consciousness of Qi-refining cultivators.

After Chen Yuan set up the formation, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes and meditated, looking inward at his body, scanning the Dantian meridians inch by inch.

Not long after, he found a strange breath lingering in a narrow meridian, and immediately urged his true essence to wipe it out.

After doing this, Chen Yuan felt relieved and began to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to restore his true essence.

Two quarters of an hour later, he opened his eyes, and his eyes were shining.

The middle-aged scholar and the consumptive ghost were only at the early stage of foundation building, and their strength was mediocre. Chen Yuan did not spend much effort to kill them, and only consumed 20% of his true essence.

But for the sake of caution, he immediately fled far away to avoid encountering people attracted by the momentum of the fight, and then found a place to meditate, eliminate the strange air in his body, and restore all the true essence in his body.

"Li Ju, I will remember this grudge for now, and I will settle accounts with you later..."

Chen Yuan muttered to himself, his eyes narrowed, and murderous intent was hidden.

Li Ju colluded with the demon cultivators to steal money and kill people. This is a life-and-death feud.

But he is a cultivator of Guiyuan Sect. Chen Yuan has no evidence in his hand, and he is a casual cultivator, so it is impossible to do anything to him.

If Chen Yuan revealed his identity, Guiyuan Sect had a grudge against him, and it was even more impossible for them to embarrass the foundation-building cultivators in the sect because of his words.

As for what the consumptive ghost said, setting a trap to lure Li Ju into an ambush, Chen Yuan would not believe it at all.

The demon cultivators were cunning and treacherous. Chen Yuan would never cooperate with them unless he had no other choice.

This matter could only be put aside for the time being. After he completed the sect mission, he would look for an opportunity to retaliate.

Fortunately, Li Ju did not know his true identity and would not be on guard. There would be plenty of opportunities to take action in the future.

Chen Yuan sneered and remembered Li Ju deeply in his heart. Then he took out the storage bags of the middle-aged scholar and the consumptive ghost and checked them.

As soon as his spiritual sense probed into them, Chen Yuan showed a smile on his face.

The two were indeed robbery cultivators. They were quite wealthy, with a total of 54 medium-grade spiritual stones.

There were also more than a dozen hundred-year-old spiritual herbs and three three-hundred-year-old spiritual herbs. Together with the spiritual herbs in Chen Yuan's hand, they could just make up a furnace of Heqi Dan and a furnace of Zengyuan Dan.

In addition, the two had three second-level demon pills, some medium-grade spiritual materials and demon beast materials, which were also of high value. Although Chen Yuan could not use them, they could be exchanged for nearly 20 medium-grade spiritual stones.

However, the spiritual weapons of the middle-aged scholar and the consumptive ghost were severely damaged in the battle with Chen Yuan, and their value was greatly reduced.

The white bone sword of the consumptive ghost was burned by the red smoke, and the skulls on the bone shield were completely destroyed. There were several cracks on the bone shield itself. It could not be used without repair.

The middle-aged scholar had only one medium-grade spiritual weapon, which was the folding fan. The demon head contained in it was also completely destroyed by Chen Yuan. Only the defensive power of the mountain and water shadow remained. If he wanted to restore the power, he had to refine the demon head again and fill it in.

Chen Yuan would not do such a thing. He put it in the storage bag to see if he could sell it in the future and exchange it for some spiritual stones.

After sorting out these things, Chen Yuan picked up the three jade slips in front of him and checked them one by one.

The first jade slip belonged to a middle-aged scholar. It recorded a magic technique called "Confucian Demon Crossing the World". It was very famous, but it could only be practiced to the middle stage of foundation building and was very crude.

Chen Yuan just glanced at it and put it down. He picked up the second jade slip and read it.

The remaining two jade slips were obtained from the consumptive ghost, hoping that he would find what he wanted.

This jade slip recorded the method of refining the bone shield. Chen Yuan was also not interested and picked up the third jade slip instead.

He probed his consciousness into it and finally showed a smile on his face, but after a moment, he frowned again, and finally shook his head and retracted his consciousness.

The third jade slip recorded the blood escape secret technique performed by the consumptive ghost, which was also what Chen Yuan wanted.

The consumptive ghost was only a cultivator in the early stage of foundation building, but after performing this secret, his escape speed was comparable to that of a cultivator in the late stage of foundation building, and even faster than the Duyunzhou, which made Chen Yuan quite excited.

It happened that he could use the power of the Zhoutian stars to restore the loss of blood and essence, which could avoid the disadvantages of this method to the greatest extent.

But the blood escape technique recorded in the jade slip disappointed him greatly.

If Chen Yuan performed this technique, he could indeed increase his escape speed, but the fastest escape speed was the level of the second time the consumptive ghost performed the technique today, and it could not be improved any further.

Moreover, once the blood escape technique was performed, at least 30% of the blood and essence would be consumed. If it was performed continuously in a short period of time, the loss of blood and essence would increase further.

This technique had great disadvantages, but the escape speed was only at the level of a cultivator in the late stage of foundation building, so Chen Yuan naturally would not practice it.

He put away the three jade slips, retracted the invisible formation he had set up, drove the Duyunzhou, and fled to the south.

As before, Chen Yuan stopped to restore his inner essence every day and then continued on his way.

Two days later, a majestic mountain range suddenly appeared in front of him, like a giant dragon, winding from east to west, stretching across the earth, stretching endlessly. It was the Chimang Mountains.

The speed of the Duyun Boat slowly decreased, and Chen Yuan looked at the Chimang Mountains in front of him with a complicated look.

He suddenly activated his true energy, deflected the direction of the Duyun Boat, and fled eastward for more than two hundred miles, arriving at the top of a long road before continuing to fly south.

This Xingdao is Yuanpingxing. At the end of the Xingdao is Leping County, Xin'an County, Yuzhou.

With the speed of the Yunzhou boat, it only took an hour to cross the Chimang Mountains and arrive at Leping County.

Chen Yuan determined the direction, arrived outside Chenjia Village, lowered the boat to cross the clouds, and landed in a dense forest.

He put away the Yundu boat and walked out of the dense forest. Looking up, he saw familiar and unfamiliar sights.

More than forty years have passed since he left Leping County, and Chenjia Village has become extremely unfamiliar.

The Qingping River still flows quietly into the distance, but the official road that used to be extremely smooth has fallen into disrepair and has many potholes and fractures.

The fields beside the official road have all been abandoned and overgrown with weeds.

Several thatched houses near the official road in Chenjia Village were dilapidated and collapsed, and the houses next to them were burned to ashes.

Chen Yuan looked solemn and walked towards the village. Everywhere he passed was a dilapidated scene.

He came to the Chen family manor, which had been abandoned for a long time. The houses collapsed, leaving traces of smoke from the fire. Weeds grew between the bricks and tiles, swaying in the wind.

Chen Yuan's face was solemn, he took up the escape light, rose into the air, flew slowly, spread his consciousness, and searched for traces of people in the village.

A quarter of an hour later, he searched the entire Chenjia Village and found something. He came to the northeast corner of Chenjia Village and landed on the ground.

There is a small courtyard here, fenced with thorns, and two thatched houses inside.

Chen Yuan came to the half-open firewood door, stopped, and said loudly: "Walkers passing by here, can you ask for a bowl of water?"

After he finished speaking, he waited for a moment, and an old man wearing linen clothes walked out of the house and said loudly: "Here he comes..."

This old man had messy gray hair, a face with ridges and dark skin, and wore a pair of straw sandals, but his eyes were extremely alert. He was tall and strong, and his feet were brisk. He walked to the Chaimen in just a moment.

When he saw Chen Yuan, his face was startled, and he raised his hands and saluted: "Young Master, you are so polite."

Chen Yuan has a fair complexion and an extraordinary bearing. When walking in the countryside, he wears a white gown that is not stained by dust. He has no luggage on him. It is obvious at a glance that he is not an ordinary person.

Chen Yuan cupped his hands and said, "I'm passing by here. I'm very thirsty and want to ask for a bowl of water. Can I help you?"

Hearing this, the old man showed a look of embarrassment on his face: "My family is poor and I don't have any clean utensils, so I don't dare to dirty my noble body..."

Chen Yuan said warmly: "It doesn't matter. I'm not a noble person. All I need is a clay bowl."

Seeing Chen Yuan's kind attitude, the old man raised his hand and said, "Since you don't care, sir, please come in."

"Thank you, husband."

Chen Yuan followed the old man into the thatched house. The loess floor was rugged and there were only a low square table and a rough round stool carved from tree roots.

The father-in-law said enthusiastically: "My little old man lives in a humble place. Sir, please have a seat."

Chen Yuan lifted up his gown and sat on a round stool. His white gown fell to the ground, but it was not stained with dirt.

When the old man saw this, his eyes showed surprise, but he didn't say much.

He turned around and took out an earthenware bowl from a broken cabinet, then scooped out half a ladle of water from the water urn next to the door, poured it into the bowl, bowed down, and handed it to Chen Yuan with both hands: "Master, please."

Chen Yuan took the earthenware bowl, drank it all in one gulp, placed the bowl on the square table, cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, father-in-law."

The old man quickly returned the courtesy: "Young master, you're welcome."

Chen Yuan asked: "I see that my father-in-law behaves politely, speaks appropriately, and is skilled in martial arts. Why does he live in this deserted village?"

The old man looked surprised: "Young master, I am a nursing home leader in Chenjiazhuang. I have also studied for several years and moved here fifteen years ago."

Chen Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly: "Chen Family Village? Is the owner Chen Tiezhu or Chen Daniu?"

The old man was even more surprised: "Does the young master know Mr. Chen? But the young man is not working for Mr. Chen, but Mr. Chen Rongcai."

"Chen Rongcai?" A trace of disappointment flashed in Chen Yuan's eyes, "I have lived in Leping County for a while before, and I have heard the names of the two rich men in Chenjia Village. In the past, Chenjia Village was peaceful and peaceful, not to mention how wealthy it was. Why? Is it like this today?"

When the old man heard this, his pupils shrank, he looked Chen Yuan up and down twice, and then said: "Young Master must have not been to Leping County for a long time. Sixteen years ago, there were successive floods and droughts in Yuzhou, and the next year there were locusts." After crossing the border, the harvest was greatly reduced, the people were in dire straits, and the villagers could not survive. They rebelled, and the imperial court sent troops to suppress them. Rivers of blood flowed and corpses were everywhere. Chenjia Village was also destroyed at that time. "