"I need to reflect. I couldn't control myself when I saw the enemy this time."
Fang Xi laid out two storage bags, one exquisite and one crude, silently alert.
Killing for treasures is exhilarating, but being the one killed for treasures is not so wonderful.
Fang Xi, who possessed a treasure trove, did not want to end up in such a situation.
After calming his emotions, he first picked up the crude storage bag.
This storage bag belonged to Ying Song, a person with weak cultivation. With Fang Xi already at the mid-stage of Qi Refinement, he quickly unlocked it in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
Inside the storage bag was a space similar in size to Fang Xi's own storage bag, containing two talismans, a dozen spirit stones, some clothes, and miscellaneous items.
Fang Xi even felt that these many talismans might not all belong to Ying Song but were likely life-saving items given to him by someone else, Qi Liu.
After all, a cultivator in the early stage of Qi Refinement is weak in cultivation and cannot use high-grade magical tools, so talismans are more convenient.
In addition, the flying magical tool Ying Song used, named "Black Cloud Pouch," also became Fang Xi's spoils of war.
"Overall, not bad."
"However, the real prize is still that expert from the Kou family..."
Fang Xi picked up the storage bag of Kou's third brother, which was obviously more exquisite.
Not only exquisite, but the magical imprints on it were also very powerful.
Fang Xi spent five or six hours before he could barely erase them and unlock it...
When he finally opened it, even though he was somewhat mentally prepared, his eyes still narrowed slightly.
Spirit stones!
What caught his eye first was a pile of over a hundred spirit stones in the corner!
"Jackpot, this is a jackpot..."
Muttering to himself, Fang Xi looked at the other gains and couldn't help but be surprised.
The capacity of this storage bag clearly surpassed the previous two, with a size of about three cubic meters. It contained some blood-stained magical tools, materials, elixirs, even jade slips, parcels... Most of it was scattered and seemed hastily packed.
"This third brother from the Kou family must have robbed many people in the market and collected a lot of wealth..."
At this moment, Fang Xi unceremoniously accepted this accumulation.
He abandoned his original storage bag and directly upgraded to Kou's third brother's three-sided storage bag, feeling much more spacious.
He didn't plan to leave the remaining two storage bags empty either, but intended to use them specifically to transport demonic beast materials.
For a cross-world transporter, the more storage bags, the better.
Fang Xi could already imagine the day when he would advance to become an Eight-Bag Disciple of the Beggar Gang, or even a Nine-Bag Elder...
...
Night fell.
"Thanks to the Kou brothers for their gifts!"
Fang Xi thoroughly identified and cleaned up the miscellaneous items, holding the gains he had processed today in his hands.
A golden longsword magical tool!
This magical tool was two feet and three inches long, one inch wide, entirely golden, with delicate scale patterns on the surface, a dragon head decoration on the hilt, and a chilling aura emanating from the blade, sending shivers down one's spine at first sight.
This was clearly a top-grade magical tool - the Golden Dragon Sword!
"In the market, even the cheapest top-grade magical tool costs a hundred low-grade spirit stones!"
"Unfortunately, this is stolen goods and can't see the light of day."
Thinking of the fact that the third brother still had two elder brothers at the late stage of Qi Refinement, Fang Xi felt a bit uneasy.
In reality, according to the rule in the cultivation world that whoever defeats the enemy obtains the spoils of war, this storage bag of Kou's third brother should have belonged to Situ Qingqing.
However, the female cultivator did not mention it, indicating her tacit approval.
Fang Xi also felt that saving the other party's life and taking a bit of the spoils of war was not a big deal.
At this moment, he could only accept the trouble that came with it.
In addition, in the storage bag of Kou's third brother, there was also a medium-grade magical tool, the 'Mystic Iron Shield,' which Fang Xi took out, treasured, and refined as a defensive magical tool.
As for the flying shuttle he controlled, it was destroyed by the dark thunder and was no longer usable.
"With this, along with the Black Cloud Pouch for travel, I have a complete set of magical tools for attack, defense, and travel... Indeed, killing for treasures is the fastest way to make money, isn't it?"
Fang Xi muttered to himself.
Apart from magical tools, among the pile of looted goods, he also found many jade bottles containing elixirs, including a bottle of 'Wood Essence Pill,' which was a pleasant surprise.
Unfortunately, the most valuable item was a bottle of 'Golden Spike Pill,' a refining elixir used by mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators practicing metal attribute techniques, probably used by Kou's third brother himself.
Fang Xi couldn't use it, so he had to keep it for now.
There were also some healing and detoxifying elixirs, as well as a large number of Qi Gathering Pills, which he sorted and stored categorically, knowing they would come in handy in the future.
As for the jade slips, they contained various miscellaneous records.
There were complete texts of the 'Fire Essence Technique' and half of the 'Golden Wind Art'...
Unfortunately, they were all common cultivation techniques like the 'Longevity Technique,' and Fang Xi had no intention of changing his main cultivation technique.
As a wood attribute cultivator, he had no intention of switching to metal or earth attribute techniques, lest he completely abandon his foundation.
However, some of the miscellaneous studies, travel notes, and humanities recorded in the jade slips broadened Fang Xi's horizons, and he planned to read them when he had free time in the future.
"Lastly, there's this."
Fang Xi picked up the last jade slip.
This jade slip was not only thicker than the others but also had a different texture, similar to the ordinary sheep-fat white jade, warm and glossy, with strands of golden threads inside.
At first glance, it was clearly a high-grade item among the jade slips.
When Fang Xi first got his hands on it, there were even traces of blood on it, indicating that many cultivators had perished in the struggle for this item.
And when Fang Xi's spiritual sense probed into it, countless densely packed pieces of information instantly appeared, with a line of golden characters at the forefront—
【Primer of Array Dao (Volume 1)!】
This was actually a first-tier array formation inheritance!
The four arts of cultivation: array, elixir, artifact, talisman!
Even the lowest-ranked talisman master among them could live a very comfortable life, not to mention the array formation master at the top of the hierarchy!
Previously, Fang Xi had thought about delving into a craft.
However, he had originally planned to study the way of talismans and had even cultivated good relationships with some talisman masters, such as Master Zongfu and Chen Ping... But fate had its own plans.
Now, he had a rough idea. This array formation inheritance was just the beginning, suitable for beginners in array formations, with the most powerful array formation inside being only a first-tier top-grade!
But that was already enough. If taken for sale, it could fetch at least several hundred spirit stones!
As for why the inheritance of array formations was almost as valuable as the notes on talismans from Master Zongfu...
"Damn, array formations are too difficult!"
Looking at the first sentence of the array formation primer, Fang Xi was dumbfounded:
"Array formations gather the changes of heaven and earth, delve into the mysteries of creation and multiplication, cultivators are best to observe with divine sense, entering the field can double the results with half the effort..."
Divine sense!
This was an exclusive ability of Foundation Establishment cultivators!
Divine sense could project out, explore beyond the body within tens of yards or even hundreds of yards, giving a significant advantage in battle.
Moreover, with divine sense, there were more conveniences in making talismans, refining elixirs, and crafting artifacts.
So, those Foundation Establishment cultivators who seriously studied one of the four arts of cultivation, with divine sense as assistance and long years of life for research, mostly achieved some results.
And Fang Xi finally understood why array formation masters were at the top of the hierarchy!
While alchemists and artifact craftsmen could start studying from the Qi Refinement stage, array formation masters were better off starting at the Foundation Establishment stage!
Not to mention, with divine sense, there were more advantages in researching prohibitions, mapping out terrain, and even observing the subsequent evolution of array formations!
"But the key is, cultivators in the Qi Refinement stage don't have divine sense at all, only spiritual sense for internal viewing..."
Fang Xi felt like vomiting.
As he read further, realizing that studying array formations required a specific space, as well as a large number of spirit stones to make array plates and flags, he was even more dumbfounded...
In fact, these resources were fine, but the key to truly entering the path of array formations lay in aptitude, that is, insight into the mysteries of array formations!
For array formations, if you couldn't comprehend them, then you couldn't comprehend them!
No matter how many times you tried, you would still fail!
Among the other three crafts, such as alchemy, talisman crafting, and artifact forging, you could accumulate experience and skills through trial and error, even slowly improving.
In other words, as long as you weren't afraid of wasting resources, you could still make progress.
But with the way of array formations, if you couldn't comprehend it, you just couldn't!
No matter how many times you tried, you would still fail!
Among Foundation Establishment cultivators, there were more who studied elixirs, artifacts, and talismans, but very few array formation masters, which was also one of the reasons.
"Making talismans brings wealth, crafting artifacts ruins families, persuading people to learn arrays, and heaven strikes with thunder!"
Looking at the annotations added by some junior in the jade slip, Fang Xi's mouth twitched.
But upon careful recollection, among wandering cultivators, there were more talisman masters, very few alchemists and artifact craftsmen, whose skills were often inferior to major sects. And array formation masters were extremely rare... It seemed quite fitting.
"Unfortunately... I don't have any other inheritances in my hands."
"Never mind, let's take a look. It's difficult to cultivate in the Great Liang anyway, so it's better to spend some time confirming my talent in the way of array formations..."
Fang Xi steadied himself and continued to study the Primer of Array Dao.
"The composition of an array formation has several important parts: array source, array pattern, prohibition, array eye..."
The array source is the source of power for the array formation. Some legendary array formation masters can even use the stars and celestial bodies as their array, with power to destroy heaven and earth.
Of course, most cultivators nowadays use spiritual veins as the array source, at most supplemented with spirit stones.
For example, the Azure Water Array in the Qingzhu Mountain market!
This array is a second-tier array formation, but Qingzhu Mountain only has a first-tier spiritual vein, unable to support the full operation of a second-tier array formation.
Therefore, the Azure Water Array usually only operates at the lowest consumption level, for this reason.
And in times of war, one can naturally invest a large number of spirit stones into the array source without regard to cost, to fully unleash the full power of this array formation!
After the array source comes the array pattern!
This is where countless array formation masters put in their blood, sweat, and tears!
Understanding array patterns mainly relies on one's insight!
Different array formations require different array patterns to be set up. The array patterns then combine to form prohibitions, which can be said to be the most basic part. If there are conflicts in the array patterns, the array formation will definitely not succeed!
Looking at the array pattern of an entry-level array formation, the dense runes made Fang Xi feel a bit dizzy, like a programmer in a past life seeing terrifying error codes...
(End of this chapter)