Chapter 57

Chapter 55: Issuing Invitations to Recruit

They were now eager for Tuobaye, this plague god, to leave, but Tuobaye was not prepared to depart so easily.

"Get up, all of you! You all participated in the attack, didn't you!" Tuobaye shouted loudly. "Each of you hand over 20,000 gold coins, and I'll let you off. Otherwise, I'll throw you around, and it won't be my medicinal garden that gets damaged."

Upon hearing Tuobaye's words, the young men felt as if they had swallowed flies.

They had intended to extort Tuobaye, but now they were being extorted by him, and they didn't dare refuse.

If they didn't give him the gold coins, Tuobaye would likely continue to beat them up and destroy the medicinal garden.

They could endure the pain, but if all the spiritual herbs were destroyed, they wouldn't be able to complete their tasks, and the consequences would be more than they could bear.

If the spiritual herbs were destroyed, they wouldn't just lose the resources for cultivation; they would also face punishment.

Faced with these consequences, they were willing to hand over 20,000 gold coins each.

These young men often extorted new disciples, and although most of the gold coins went to Brother Lu Haicheng, they still had a considerable amount left.

They all looked at Tian Tong, hoping he would make the decision.

Tian Tong's face was extremely grim. "Give him the gold coins!"

The fourteen young men each took out 20,000 gold coins. Seeing the pile of gold coins on the ground, Tuobaye said, "Find me a bag to put the gold coins in."

Tian Tong and the others felt even more aggrieved but had to comply. They just wanted to get rid of Tuobaye as soon as possible so they could find stronger allies to teach him a lesson.

"Find a large cloth bag for him," Tian Tong said, suppressing his anger.

A few young men went to the wooden house to find a large cloth bag, and soon someone brought one.

"Put all the gold coins in the large cloth bag and give it to me," Tuobaye said coldly.

The young men, who dared not disobey, quickly put the gold coins into the large cloth bag and respectfully handed it to Tuobaye.

Tuobaye picked up the bag and left in large strides.

Tian Tong waved his hand, and two young men followed at a distance.

Noticing that someone was following him, Tuobaye turned around and saw that it was two familiar faces from the group of young men earlier.

"What are you following me for?" Tuobaye said coldly.

The two young men were terrified and turned to leave.

Tuobaye sneered. "Since you're here, carry the gold coins for me."

He naturally wanted to take advantage of the free labor.

The two young men had no choice but to step forward, saying timidly, "Senior Brother, give us the gold coins. We'll help you deliver them to your residence."

They thought that although it was humiliating to carry gold coins for a new disciple, at least they would know where Tuobaye lived and could complete their task, which was not bad.

The gold coins were heavy, and he couldn't put them in his spatial ring or have Tu'er carry them, as it would cause trouble if exposed.

Now that someone was helping him carry the gold coins, he didn't care about much else.

Tuobaye was well aware that these two were following him to find out where he was staying. His residence would eventually be known, so he might as well let them know openly.

"Look, aren't those two Tian Tong's followers? Tian Tong is Brother Lu Haicheng's subordinate. Why would his followers follow a new disciple?"

Tuobaye had just entered with Mu Linshen, so many people recognized him as a new disciple.

"This new disciple must have some background. Even Brother Lu Haicheng's people are carrying things for him. We'd better not provoke him."

Many people who had intended to cause trouble for Tuobaye now gave up.

Hearing the people's discussions, Tuobaye also breathed a sigh of relief. Having two followers reduced a lot of trouble.

Although Tuobaye didn't care about the trouble caused by the outer disciples, he still wanted to reach his place as soon as possible to start his studies.

As night fell, the soft moonlight illuminated the Immortal Cloud Valley, creating a dreamlike and beautiful scene.

Many spiritual herbs were absorbing the essence of heaven and earth, making the essence in the Immortal Cloud Valley extremely rich. Under the moonlight, various light colors appeared.

Tuobaye finally found the 102nd medicinal garden and felt very pleased. "Put the gold coins in the wooden house, and you can leave."

The two young men, who had been holding their breath throughout the journey, were now relieved. They were extremely excited, put down the bag, and quickly left.

Many people around saw this and began to speculate about Tuobaye's background. He had followers right after entering the Immortal Cloud Valley, and the followers seemed to be very afraid of him.

Usually, the outer disciples who took care of the outermost medicinal gardens were new disciples.

Many new disciples around, some still injured and unable to pay the gold coins, had been beaten up.

Even those who were not injured had been extorted for a lot of gold coins.

Seeing Tuobaye's strength, these people dared not provoke him and didn't want to bother him. They felt that Tuobaye was from a different world, and they didn't have the courage to approach him.

Tuobaye also didn't want to deal with these outer disciples, as he didn't want to waste time on them.

Tuobaye didn't bother with the medicinal garden and directly entered the wooden house, put away the gold coins, and started reading about spiritual herbs.

Although he had only glanced at the medicinal garden, he knew there were only two types of spiritual herbs in it.

However, he had a thick book about spiritual herbs, which recorded many types, including some high-level ones.

Spending the whole night, Tuobaye read some knowledge about spiritual herbs. Most of the content was about first-grade spiritual herbs, including the two he had to manage: Zixian Grass and Mutuo Flower. These two herbs were the main ingredients for first-grade healing pills.

Many new disciples took care of these two herbs. As they gained more experience, they would be assigned to take care of higher-level herbs.

The Dan Ding Sect was vast, but high-level spiritual herbs were limited and could not afford to be lost.

Taking care of first-grade spiritual herbs like Zixian Grass and Mutuo Flower was relatively simple. He just needed to practice the Wood Spirit Technique and cultivate nearby to help the herbs grow quickly.

Practicing the Wood Spirit Technique was very beneficial for cultivating spiritual herbs, but it was slower for accumulating essence energy.

Tuobaye didn't mind. He planned to spend an hour each day practicing the Wood Spirit Technique to ensure the herbs grew well. The longer he practiced, the better the herbs would grow. However, he didn't want to stand out too much and decided to live a simple life for a few years.

For the rest of the time, Tuobaye didn't rush to improve his essence energy cultivation. He mainly focused on studying the path of divine symbols and finding a way to cultivate his body into a divine symbol body.

His current essence energy cultivation was already quite strong, and there was no need to improve too quickly.

Relatively speaking, Tuobaye placed more emphasis on refining his physical strength. After achieving a minor success in the first transformation of the Nine Transformations of Gods and Demons, his physical strength reached 120,000 pounds.

One could say that his physical strength was extremely abnormal, and it was very difficult to make progress.

Unless there was progress in the Nine Transformations of Gods and Demons or in the cultivation of the divine symbol body, it would be very difficult to improve his physical strength.

Of course, if he had other fortuitous encounters, his physical strength could also improve significantly.

Even so, Tuobaye still persisted in practicing the first transformation of the Nine Transformations of Gods and Demons every day. Although the improvement in physical strength was slow, continuous practice was still beneficial.

Cultivation was divided into two major systems: the Qi cultivation method and the body cultivation method. At the same level, body cultivators were generally stronger, but it was difficult for them to advance and they had to endure unimaginable pain. For example, Tuobaye had suffered greatly while practicing the first transformation of the Nine Transformations of Gods and Demons, even going into a demonic state before achieving minor success. It would be even more difficult to achieve major success in the future.

Tuobaye didn't plan to succeed immediately but to accumulate continuously. When the opportunity came, he could smoothly break through.

The cultivation of essence energy was relatively easy in the early stages, and Tuobaye wasn't worried at all.

The essence energy in the Immortal Cloud Valley was rich, similar to what Tuobaye had absorbed using the Spirit Attraction Talisman in the past. If he used the Spirit Attraction Talisman here, the speed would be several times faster.

However, he didn't plan to use the Spirit Attraction Talisman for the time being. This was the Dan Ding Sect, and if someone discovered that he was using the Spirit Attraction Talisman to cultivate, it could cause a series of troubles.

Before he had a firm footing, Tuobaye decided to be low-key.

During this time, he could also familiarize himself with the knowledge of spiritual herbs and study how to cultivate the divine symbol body.

The next day, someone delivered food to the wooden house for the outer disciples to eat.

This way, the outer disciples could focus on cultivating and tending to the spiritual herbs.

After eating, Tuobaye began to practice the Wood Spirit Technique.

As for Tu'er, he had brought a large amount of meat in his internal space and didn't need Tuobaye to worry about him.

The Golden Silver Flying Snake King couldn't provide them with poison for the time being and could only provide them with essence energy to keep them in a state of hibernation.

For the first three days, no one disturbed Tuobaye, and he took the opportunity to memorize the Wood Spirit Technique and the Fire Spirit Technique.

He was a balanced waste spirit root, and he could practice all five elemental spirit techniques, although the speed was very slow.

He didn't care about that and decided to practice and see how it went.

On the fourth day, just as he finished practicing the Wood Spirit Technique, a large group of young men rushed over.

"Oh no, so many strong people are here. Someone is going to suffer."

"Look, the leader seems to be Duan Chengyuan. He is Brother Lu Haicheng's top subordinate!"

...

Seeing the large group of young men rushing over, Tuobaye knew they were looking for him.

He remained unmoved and continued to tend to the spiritual herbs.

"Boss Duan, it was him who extorted nearly 300,000 gold coins from us, injured many of our brothers, and destroyed many spiritual herbs," Tian Tong said, appearing as well.

"Boy, hand over the gold coins, and become our boss's subordinate. We might spare you this time," Duan Chengyuan said.

Tuobaye's strength that day had caught the attention of Lu Haicheng, who wanted to recruit him.

Among the million outer disciples, there were factions. Lu Haicheng controlled thousands of outer disciples, making him a powerful faction.

When these factions encountered strong outer disciples, they would first try to recruit them. If recruitment failed, they might try to suppress them.

Now that Tuobaye was valued, if he didn't agree, he would definitely be suppressed by Lu Haicheng's faction.

Faced with this situation, Tuobaye didn't even consider it.