After the lesson at the academy, I walked back to the Sacred family's compound.
Meanwhile, on the third floor of the school library, Nie Li and his group were settling in. The floor was filled with small rooms originally meant for student reading, but now it served as their base.
Nie Li had been hired as a library clerk, a position that required little actual work yet provided a generous monthly salary of three hundred demon spirit coins. It was a comfortable arrangement, one that Nie Li gladly accepted. After all, who would turn down such an opportunity?
The decision to hire Nie Li as a clerk seemed strange on the surface, but after some thought, Nie Li realized the truth. One of the experts he had sensed earlier must have arranged this, likely as a safeguard to protect him from the Sacred Family’s influence. While the role of a library clerk wasn’t prestigious, it came with certain protections—enough to keep the Sacred Family at bay.
"Nie Li, offending the Sacred Family like that, wouldn’t it bring trouble?" Wei Wan finally broke his silence, his cautious nature evident in his tone.
"Does it matter?" Lu Piao chimed in with a smirk. "Seeing Shen Xiu's face was priceless. I don’t regret it."
Besides Nie Li, Wei Wan, and Lu Piao, two other students from commoner backgrounds with red soul realms sat in the room—Zhu Xiangjun and Zhang Ming.
Nie Li remembered them from his past life. Back then, they weren’t particularly close, but they had fought valiantly during the final battle against the demon beasts. They had defended Glory City to the bitter end, sacrificing their lives in its defense.
In this life, things were different. Nie Li had taken the lead, gathering this small group of commoners under his guidance.
"I just spent over three thousand demon spirit coins to buy three primary soul crystals. I want to test your aptitude!" Nie Li announced, his eyes gleaming with purpose. Even if he spends so much, there guys can at least have some use.
"Aptitude test? Didn’t we already do that when we enrolled?" Wei Wan asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.
Nie Li chuckled. "My test is different."
Lu Piao had already gone through this test, and Nie Li also tested his own, although he was already aware of his own aptitude.
The room fell silent as everyone exchanged curious glances. Since the founding of Glory City, the method of testing soul force has remained unchanged. Their soul realms had already been measured—so what was Nie Li planning? Each soul crystal cost a thousand demon spirit coins, and Nie Li spent so much of his own savings to purchase three. Though his words were met with skepticalness, his earlier displays of knowledge left them trusting him.
"Unused soul crystals are the most sensitive," Nie Li began to explain. "They can accurately measure a person’s soul realm. But once a crystal has been used by multiple people, it loses its precision and can only roughly gauge the soul realm’s type and the strength of the soul force."
"So, aside from soul realm type and soul force strength, what else can be measured?"
"The attributes and form of the soul realm," Nie Li answered.
The group looked at one another, confused. Nie Li's explanation was completely foreign to them—this wasn’t the kind of knowledge taught at the Holy Orchid Institute. Yet, despite their lack of understanding, they had learned enough to trust Nie Li’s insight without question.
---
When I made my way back to the Sacred family's compound, I entered my room and sat on the floor.
On the way, I had bought a fresh soul crystal, now resting in my palm. This type of crystal could apparently fuel one’s soul cultivation, something I sorely needed. My previous crystal had long expired, crumbling to dust after I barely got the chance to use it.
Training without a soul crystal for a few days was slowing my progress. It was time to step things up.
Soul crystals were just one method of advancing cultivation—elixirs were also commonly used, but they required knowledge of alchemy, not to mention the right materials and recipes. That kind of expertise was harder to come by.
On my way back, I had also made a few other purchases. I placed the bag I carried on the floor and opened it, revealing a small mountain of glistening red crystals.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
These were demon crystals from horned sheep, hunted by Nie Li and his group, which they had sold to a trader in Glory City.
I had bought them for my own purposes.
Beside them, two more bags sat full—one containing the fur and the other, the horns of the horned sheep.
Altogether, the items had cost me around 10,000 demon spirit coins, a significant sum for the average citizen of Glory City.
The sheep fur could easily be handed over to the Sacred Family’s servants for processing. Noble families were always in need of luxurious fur coats, and despite the recent scandal involving the Sacred Family, their finances, though strained, wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to make some extra spirit coins. Selling these furs to nobles would bring in a nice profit.
The horns and demon crystals, however, were more valuable. They could be used in alchemy—if, of course, one had the knowledge and skills to concoct potent elixirs. That’s where the true profit lay.
From my conversations with the trader, I learned that Nie Li and his group had spent a week hunting sheep, eventually selling them for around 5,000 demon spirit coins.
Nie Li lacked the means to process the materials properly, opting for a quick sale. But once I had everything processed and sold to the right buyer, I could easily turn a profit of 15,000 spirit coins.
However, if the horns and demon crystals were refined into elixirs by the Sacred Family’s alchemists, the profits could double—or even triple.
Luckily, the horned sheep were among the lower-tier beasts, having existed for quite some time, so there should be well-documented alchemical recipes to produce elixirs from their parts. Each elixir could be sold for several thousand.
The Sacred Family also had access to various alchemical recipes for soul-strengthening and flesh-tempering elixirs, highly sought-after among cultivators.
With the support of the patriarch, I had access to these resources and currently held around 900,000 spirit coins in reserve.
If I could successfully sell the raw materials and perhaps even produce elixirs from them, I wouldn’t have to worry about running out of coins anytime soon.
The expenses of being a demon spiritualist would only grow as I advanced through the ranks. Each breakthrough meant investing heavily in materials, crystals, and cultivation techniques.
However, being a bronze rank demon spiritist and possessing access to a high-tier cultivation technique, I could avoid the wasteful expenses many others had to endure.
Still, there was the matter of the Sacred Family’s deteriorating reputation, thanks to Nie Li. His actions had undermined the family’s standing, and as a result, items produced or associated with the Sacred Family would be harder to sell on the open market.
But this also presented an opportunity. With fewer eyes on the family’s resources, I could quietly obtain valuable materials and relics left neglected in their downfall without anyone noticing or caring.
It was an advantage I couldn’t afford to waste. As long as I played my cards right, I could stockpile enough wealth and resources to not only protect my own advancement but perhaps even use it to gain leverage over the Sacred Family itself.
At night, I sat cross-legged in the dim light of my room, the silence allowing me to focus entirely on my cultivation technique.
I began absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, feeling the essence of the world flowing through me, seeping into my core, strengthening my soul realm.
My soul realm was like an endless sea, its waters surging with soul force, ebbing and flowing like the tides.
In recent days, I have noticed a significant improvement in the strength and density of my soul force. The constant training had begun to bear fruit.
The first stage of soul force cultivation was to achieve the unity of heart and soul, a state where one’s will was aligned perfectly with the force that resided within.
As I meditated, I felt the resonance between my thoughts and the energy surrounding me.
The constant enhancement of my soul force caused the sea within me to surge again and again, the waves crashing higher with every cycle of cultivation.
Slowly, my soul realm began to glow with a faint cyan light. With each pulse, I could feel the energy purifying, becoming more potent and more concentrated.
While cultivating, my thoughts kept wandering, focusing on the unique advantages of having a dark wood attribute soul realm. Each attribute carried distinct traits and offered its cultivator special advantages. For example, a fire attribute would enhance one’s affinity with fire, making fire-based techniques more potent. Merging with a fire demon spirit would amplify such power, making the cultivator even more formidable.
But the dark wood attribute held a different kind of strength—its connection to life, growth, decay, corrosion, and transformation. It was more subtle but also versatile, a balance between creation and destruction. I could harness both regenerative powers and corrosive life-stealing abilities if I mastered the right techniques. This dual nature of the dark wood attribute made it formidable in both attack and defense, as well as in alchemy. The thought of combining it with the rare demon spirits of the same attribute made my future potential limitless.
On the other hand, the non-attributed soul realm was considered the weakest. Having no defining trait, characteristic, or soul form meant that it lacked the advantages offered by specialized attributes.
However, Naraku was not aware that while Nie Li had the neutral soul attribute, he was an outlier because he practiced the Heavenly God cultivation technique—that didn’t bind him to a single attribute, but instead, it allowed him to adapt, giving him the freedom to cultivate a wide array of techniques, regardless of their elemental alignment, and would also allow him to integrate with seven demon spirits, each with a different attribute.
The cultivation world was vast, and those who could adapt, innovate, and push their limits were the ones who reached the pinnacle of power.
I opened my eyes, the cyan glow from my soul realm fading as I ended my session. This was just the beginning. The path ahead was clear—master my own soul realm, harness the power of demon spirits, and find a way to push beyond the limitations that bound ordinary cultivators.