Chapter 9: Vital Essence (Part 2)

It started quite plainly, with only Guo Shier’s cold voice heard: “Let’s begin the physical training.”
“Mm! Oh… I’m… I’m almost ready…”
A faint voice, even a bit trembling.
“Using the blood talisman might cause some pain… Mm, it’ll hurt more than the Ming talisman. Try to endure it!”
“Mm… I… I’ll try my best to hold on…”
“If you really can’t bear it, just cry out… No one here will laugh at you…”
Then everyone heard the sound of a kitten crying. Huo Bao was puzzled and asked softly, “Is there a cat here?” Before he could finish, Chen Bing hit him hard. Chen Bing snapped angrily, “What cat! That’s Xiaohong’s cry…”
Hong Shi was impressed and said, “Wow, Xiaohong is amazing—she can cry so softly despite the pain!”
Chen Bing grumbled, “Who’s like you, screaming so loudly?”
“Ah… Ugh… Yiya ya… Uuuu…”
The three of them exchanged stunned looks. Huo Bao said, “Hey, guys, why is this sound so strange?” Hong Shi and Chen Bing shook their heads in confusion. Hong Shi even wondered, “Why aren’t they talking?”
After about twenty minutes, Chen Hong came out with tears in her eyes, followed by Guo Shier, drenched in sweat. Both of them looked disheveled.
Watching them walk away, Huo Bao said, “Let’s leave quietly. If Shier notices, it’ll be terrible… What if he does something similar next time he’s training? Ah, let’s run!” All three shuddered. If Guo Shier did something similar next time, wouldn’t they suffer immensely?
Guo Shier washed his face, inwardly smiling bitterly. Training a young girl was indeed troublesome. He sighed, regained his composure, and climbed down through the gap in the cliff.
The massive Earth Dragon had been torn apart, its flesh almost completely removed, leaving only a huge skeleton. The outer flesh of the Earth Dragon had dried up and was discarded as useless, but there was still plenty of fresh meat inside, preserved intact. This meat wasn’t only delicious but also a rare and powerful tonic.
The bones, stripped of all flesh, emitted a faint green glow. Instead of the usual white, they were a light green, looking beautiful with a smooth, crystal-like surface, as if made of jade. Faint talismanic patterns appeared from time to time. Beside Guo Shier lay a rib from the Earth Dragon. Though it was just a small bone on the dragon’s body, he could only hold half of it—this rib was over ten meters long, resembling a pillar.

“Worried you can’t take away so many bones?”
Luo Jie walked over. Guo Shier nodded and said, “How can we take these away?”
Luo Jie smiled and said, “Not a single bit will be wasted. Hehe, these bones are all the best material for talismans. Even fragments can be crushed and purified to obtain materials for making talismans.”
Guo Shier asked, “Master, when will we leave?”
Luo Jie laughed and said, “Can’t wait already? No need to rush. We still need to stay here for a while. After finishing off this Earth Dragon, we’ll go down… to search beneath the cliff. There must be treasures there. Just look at this Earth Dragon. Sandstorms aren’t something that happens only this time. Even if they occur once every ten years, countless talisman beasts die beneath the cliffs. We can find a lot of useful materials without putting in too much effort.”
Guo Shier nodded. If he could get something without struggling, he certainly wouldn’t miss such an opportunity. He said, “Master, is there anything I need to do?”
Luo Jie smiled and said, “Nothing much. But this Earth Dragon is really huge, and even after purification, the amount will be considerable. Collect them by yourself. Anything you can purify on your own… just keep it. Also, take a bag of the scale plates you collected last time. Hehe, those are treasures.”
A large talisman storage bag could hold tens of thousands of scale plates. Luo Jie, being fond of his disciple, gave him one bag right away. He had only collected six bags in total.
Guo Shier smiled and said, “Thank you, master.” He happily took the talisman storage bag.
Luo Jie was the backbone and leader of this team. He allocated all the resources obtained, so Guo Shier got many preferential treatments. Anything given to him wasn’t counted in the total income.
Guo Shier called over his teammates and started looking for suitable bones to break apart. He couldn’t collect too large bones.
Large bones required steps like purification, cutting, and liquefaction, skills Guo Shier didn’t yet possess. He could only find smaller bones and purify them using ordinary methods. If seen by a senior talisman master, they would surely scold him for wasting materials. Even so, he still obtained many talisman bodies and bone materials.
From the large bones cut by them at Qinan Mountain, they searched for smaller fragments and then crushed and purified them. In this way, Guo Shier gathered several hundred pounds of purified bone powder to use for making talisman bases, which was a significant income. Such bone powder was excellent material for making precious talismans. If sold in the talisman market, it could fetch a high price. Of course, Guo Shier wasn’t stupid enough to sell it for money. Such materials were truly rare treasures.

Guo Shier felt like a hardworking little bee, slowly collecting nectar. All his storage bags were already full, so he had to create new ones on the spot. Now, each of the five young men carried about a dozen storage bags around their waists, plus a leather backpack filled with more storage bags as well.
This time, the harvest was truly abundant. Fortunately, Luo Jie had even more materials from the giant dragon, so much of it would surely go to waste.
Under Luo Jie’s guidance, the giant earth dragon was completely disassembled, with nothing useful left unutilized. By the end, the ground was even cleaner than before.
Looking at the empty pile of rocks, Luo Jie said satisfactorily, “Dashan, take ten people to the left, and I’ll take the rest to the right. Search separately. Hmm, within three days—no matter what we find—start heading back after three days. We’ll reunite here and then leave.”
Of course, Guo Shier followed his master. They walked along the cliff face, seeing numerous broken bones on the ground. Since a giant earth dragon had just been disassembled, everyone paid little attention to the scattered bones. In fact, if those bones were taken back to the North Talisman Gate and carefully sorted, many useful bones could still be found. But everyone’s tastes had been spoiled by the giant dragon, so they ignored the scattered bones.
Only Luo Jie occasionally picked up a bone from the ground, exclaiming, “There are quite a few good bones here. It’s a shame there’s no time to sort them carefully.”
Just a few hours later, they found the carcass of a talisman beast, clearly a victim of this disaster as well. It was over six meters long, with long legs and a slender body. Its head resembled a bird, with a long, sharp beak. The bright red beak itself was a natural talisman artifact that could be used to craft a pair of giant swords.
Luo Jie said, “This is a pretty good ordinary talisman beast. Heh, it would take a lot of effort to kill it. Now… Shier, it’s yours. Go and disassemble it.”
Guo Shier wasn’t modest at all. Since it was his master’s order, he set to work. He and four of his companions quickly began disassembling the talisman beast. Thanks to his training from disassembling the giant earth dragon, he could do it effortlessly. In just a few hours, not even a trace of the beast remained. The reason it was so quick was that this beast was already nothing but skin and bones.
Over the three days, they didn’t travel far but found six more talisman beasts. They also saw a few people from the Herding Talisman Gate—now reduced to skeletons.

Guo Shier found several talisman pouches beside those bones, containing a mess of items. The most valuable ones were two talisman books, but unfortunately, no talisman keys were found. There were also a few books, which, though not cultivation manuals, were books about the Beast Talisman Sect—this made Guo Shier feel as if he had discovered a treasure.

In less than six days, Luo Jie and the others returned to the cliff gap. Qi Nanshan and the rest had also arrived. They were all Talisman Warriors, full of energy and able to run long distances. However, like Luo Jie’s group, they didn’t find any treasures. Everyone understood that the real treasures might be buried under the bone debris, but no one could dig through it—the workload was simply too great.

Luo Jie said, “Beyond this mountain range, who knows what we’ll encounter? This place is extremely dangerous. Just a sandstorm almost cost us our lives. Be careful, everyone. Hehe, if we can return safely, this expedition to the secret realm will already be a great success.”

Qi Nanshan laughed and said, “Yes. How many times have we explored secret realms only to come out empty-handed? Hehe, this time… not long after entering the secret realm, we caught a mutated Earth Dragon. Good luck indeed!”

Guo Shier asked Luo Zhan in confusion, “Uncle Luo, when you went to the secret realms before… weren’t the gains good?”

Luo Zhan replied with a smile, “It depends on each person’s goals and requirements. If it’s purely for materials, generally speaking, there will be some gains, just varying amounts. But if there’s a specific goal, it becomes much harder. For example, if you want to hunt mutated talisman beasts, out of ten trips, you might only succeed once. Even if you encounter one, you may not be able to defeat it—you might even die in the secret realm. So this time we’re very lucky. Haven’t you seen… how moved your master is?”

The group climbed back up to the cliff gap and walked along the mountain range for a while before finding a way down. Along the way, they gradually saw green wild grass and low shrubs. From time to time, they could also spot small animals scurrying about, and birds flew in the sky—there was no longer complete silence around them.

Chen Bing pointed to the distance and asked, “What’s that?”

Guo Shier narrowed his eyes and examined it carefully. After a while, he said, “It should be a small pond. That’s reflection…”

Chen Hong couldn’t help but exclaim, “Wow, we finally have a place to get fresh water! I want to take a bath…” She suddenly realized she had gotten a little carried away, blushed, and quickly hid behind Guo Shier.

Luo Jie said uncertainly, “Dashan, what’s wrong with that pond?”