Translator: 549690339

Apart from the map given by the spirit beast store.

Wang Ba had also been to the bookstore in the market before, purchasing maps of nearby areas as well as detailed maps and travelogues covering most parts of Yan State.

Upon comparison, there were hardly any discrepancies.

However, the map provided by the spirit beast store was noticeably more detailed about the area within a hundred miles of Jiantao Station.

It even marked some spots where Class I Spirit Beasts might appear.

Of course, one could forget about Class II Spirit Beasts.

The secret markets owned by the Tianmen Cult mostly sold resources of Class

I, with Class II being considered rare and valuable.

Items related to the second class were almost always precious.

Even though the shopkeeper of the spirit beast store was at the Qi Refining stage and did not need to do everything himself, he couldn’t just casually give out such valuable maps.

If one wanted to obtain Class II magic tools, spirit beasts, elixirs, and Cultivation Methods, they had to either leave the station and seize them on their own.

Or complete missions within the Cult to earn Merit, which they could then use to exchange for items in the Cult’s treasury.

Or, they could establish good relationships with cultivators who possessed Class II techniques and conduct private transactions.

Either way, with regards to Class II resources, the Tianmen Cult adopted a conservative approach.

This was one of the tools used by the Tianmen Cult to control its Foundation Establishment cultivators.

If one wanted to gain access to resources, they had to comply with the Tianmen Cult and work themselves to the bone.

But enough about that, Class I Spirit Beasts were enough for Wang Ba.

Anyway, he had been staying in the Cult for too long, and he wanted to go out and move around, catching some spirit beasts he hadn’t seen before while he was at it.

If these Spirit Beasts were highly valuable, he would breed them to increase his stock of Spirit Beasts. If they weren’t very valuable, they would be perfect for his experiments in making treatment solution.

While flipping through the map, he quickly spotted a familiar name:

Armored Giant-head Turtle.

He was immediately invigorated.

Piloting his Class II flying magic tool, he flew over the massive mountain range surrounding Jiantao Station and towards the dense forest.

Perhaps it was because the Tianmen Cult’s campaign against Incense Fire Dao had drawn the attention of most cultivators, after Wang Ba flew over the mountains, he initially saw the figures of several Tianmen Cult cultivators.

The deeper he flew, the fewer people were around.

Correspondingly, traces of wild beasts became gradually prominent.

Wang Ba unleashed his Spiritual Sense completely, covering an area of several dozen meters.

However, to his disappointment, he didn’t encounter a single Spirit Beast throughout his journey.

This was drastically different from his imagination – spirit beasts were supposed to be everywhere.

Thinking about it more, though, it made sense.

After all, with the wide range of methods used by cultivators to catch Spirit Beasts, few fish slipped through the net.

This place wasn’t far from Jiantao Station, and driven by profit, the cultivators naturally had scoured it clean.

Wang Ba was not too disappointed, though.

Looking at the strange and fascinating forest, he felt an unusual sense of pleasure.

His soul even felt a hint of excitement.

At the end of the day, cultivators were also humans. After staying cooped up for a long time, they needed to get out.

Soon, with directions from the map, using the mountains and some other significant landmarks as reference, Wang Ba located the habitat of the Armored Giant-head Turtle.

To his surprise, the habitat of the Armored Giant-head Turtle was not in a lake as he had imagined, but in a creek cutting through the forest.

The area had a tropical rainforest-like feeling to it, with steam rising and the atmosphere being extremely humid.

Wang Ba searched carefully for a long time but did not see any Armored Giant-head Turtles. He estimated that all the Spirit Turtles here had been taken by the cultivators beforehand.

However, he did see several black leeches the size of an arm.

Wang Ba quickly recalled information about these black leeches from his memory.

This was a Class I lower-grade Spirit Insect, the Blood-sucking Leech.

Birds, beasts, fish, insects, as long as it can draw blood, all fell within its diet range.

He watched with his own eyes as a tiger, which had mistakenly entered the area, was silently attached by the Blood-sucking Leech, and then sucked dry in the blink of an eye, leaving only skin and bones.

Strangely enough, the tiger seemed to be unaware of what had happened. Even after being sucked dry, it maintained consciousness and continued to look for food around.

“Snap.”

Wang Ba lightly pinched his fingers, crushing a Blood-sucking Leech that had fallen from a tree leaf above with him as its target.

Blood-colored juice splattered everywhere, and the spiritual energy dissipated along with it.

“Quite weak huh.”

Wang Ba was somewhat disappointed.

Such Spirit Insects were ordinary in terms of combat power. To the majority of cultivators, they were of no use, and perhaps because of this, no one had bothered to capture them.

Although Wang Ba couldn’t think of any uses for these creatures, out of habit, he gathered up all the blood-sucking leeches in the area.

Given the range covered by his spiritual sense, even if the leeches hadn’t been completely eradicated, it would probably take them more than a decade to recover to their previous state.

After collecting the blood-sucking leeches, he continued deeper into the area according to his map.

But this time, without a specific target, he moved much more slowly.

Although slower, he was also more thorough.

As he delved deeper, he began to learn and see more things.

The various spirit grasses and spirit beasts he had once seen in books, he finally saw in reality.

He collected anything he saw – spirit beasts, spirit grass, spirit materials, and more – into his bag without hesitation.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to the proximity to the Jiantao Station, the surrounding area had already been thoroughly looted, so he didn’t even see a single Class II spirit beast.

He had wanted to test his skills against a Class II spirit beast, but of course, his main combat powers were still Jia 15 and Jia 16.

After all, other than some Class II talismans and a set of Iris Invisible Needles, he was seriously lacking in Class II abilities.

This wasn’t his fault.

It was normal for someone who had only been cultivating for a few decades to lack Class II abilities.

Moreover, Class II spell inheritance was extremely rare in the market. Wang Ba had checked, but unfortunately, the few that were there didn’t align with his compatibility. Even if he practiced them, they wouldn’t improve his abilities as much as a set of Class II magic tools would.

One of the reasons he wanted to leave the Jiantao Station was to see if there were resources like these in the outside world.

After all, even if his cultivation speed was fast, he would still need to spend a lot of time. This means learning Class II spells is necessary.

Of course, if the process of obtaining them was too dangerous, then it wouldn’t be worth it.

For Wang Ba, traveling a hundred miles would not take much time.

Even though he spent time collecting things along the way, he quickly came to a stream in front of a mountain.

Across the stream, Wang Ba could faintly see the silhouette of a large beast flashing through the towering forest that outmatched its surroundings in height.

His expression couldn’t help but become solemn.

The place across from him was the ‘Musen Island’, one of the three danger lands surrounding the Jiantao Station.

The towering trees stood out, towering above the surrounding forest, like an island in a forest.

Hence the name: Musen Island.

The island had many Class II spirit beasts and some had even seen the existence of Class III spirit beasts there.

Due to the presence of natural formations, once someone entered, they could easily get trapped and unable to leave.

The other two danger lands were similar.

Because of this, neither the previous Jiantao School nor the later Tianmen Cult dared to enter lightly. They could only prohibit anyone from entering.

Fortunately, these spirit beasts seemed to be trapped by this natural formation. Aside from the occasional spirit beast lucky enough to escape, the Jiantao Station was generally unaffected.

Both sides therefore maintained an unspoken agreement to live separately without any interference.

Wang Ba of course didn’t have the courage to enter. After watching for a while across the stream, he took out his map and studied it carefully.

The three danger lands almost entirely encircled the Jiantao Station, but there were narrow gaps between them, forming a pathway that allowed people from the Station to pass through and reach the outside world.

Based on the map of Yan State, not far from the three danger lands, one would encounter numerous mortal cities.

In addition, there were some gathered places for rogue cultivators, and the periodically appearing ‘Ghost Markets’.

These Ghost Markets were special types of markets that appeared and disappeared randomly. They were created by rogue cultivators to avoid checks by Sect cultivators, but at the same time, they needed to ensure they could exchange goods.

According to what Wang Ba had learned from travel logs he found at the Jiantao Station, this form of market was most common under the rule of various countries in the Chu Dynasty.

This was due to political instability – a stable market for rogue cultivators would easily be quietly swallowed by large sects.

For self-preservation, these Ghost Markets became more numerous.

While the truly good items in the Ghost Markets couldn’t compare to the treasures in the sect’s treasury, they still had a fair amount of Class 11 and even Class III treasures.

There were even Ghost Markets hosted by top-notch cultivators where Class IV treasures appeared.

Wang Ba was not so greedy. If he could find a few Class II treasures that he could use, he would be content.

After weighing his options carefully, he eventually chose to turn back, avoiding ‘Musen Island’, and flying down the deeper passage..