Chapter 82: Second-Stage Demon Pill

The green-robed Daoist gazed at the heavily damaged Immortal Fate City, a flicker of annoyance in his eyes.

He summoned a palm-sized green bronze bell. It expanded against the wind to over ten *zhang* in size, adorned with exquisite patterns on its surface.

The green-robed Daoist cast an incantation onto the large green bell. Numerous spiritual runes illuminated its surface, and it emitted a vast expanse of green light, forming a colossal green light curtain that enveloped the entire Immortal Fate City, preventing more demonic beasts from entering the city.

“Fellow Daoist Wang, quickly gather forces to eliminate the demonic beasts within the city. As for those outside, leave them to me.”

The green-robed Daoist shouted loudly. He opened his mouth and spat out a green bronze lamp.

He exhaled a stream of green alchemical fire, igniting the bronze lamp, then cast several spells onto it.

The flame on the wick surged, and a gigantic green firebird flew out from it, flapping its wings and swooping down towards the second-tier demonic beasts below.

The Qingyang Sect disciples on the large green flying boat were not idle either. They either released powerful talismans or summoned mighty demonic beasts to slay the enemies, but with little effect.

A sharp glint flashed in the green-robed Daoist's eyes. His palm glowed with dazzling green light as he struck out at the air towards the Flying Flame Tiger's location.

Above the Flying Flame Tiger's head, numerous green light specks materialized out of thin air, swiftly forming a five-*zhang*-sized green giant hand that slapped down towards the Flying Flame Tiger below.

The Flying Flame Tiger had detected the anomaly the moment the green light specks appeared.

It let out a roar, flapped its wings violently, and transformed into a streak of red light, soaring forward.

No sooner had its front paws landed than the green giant hand slammed down. Over a dozen second-tier demonic beasts were crushed into pulp by the green hand, and a large crater appeared on the ground.

After destroying dozens of second-tier demonic beasts, the green firebird went straight for the blue flood dragon.

The blue flood dragon shot out a thick blue light beam. The beam struck the green firebird, freezing it into an ice sculpture.

However, the ice sculpture quickly shattered, and dozens of fist-sized green fireballs flew out. The fireballs hit the second-tier demonic beasts, instantly incinerating them to ashes.

The blue flood dragon tried to evade, but its body was too massive. Several green fireballs struck it, turning into a large expanse of green flames that spread across its body.

The blue flood dragon let out a pained roar. A large cloud of white mist emanated from its body, attempting to extinguish the green flames, but it was useless; the green flames continued to spread.

“Roar!”

An angry dragon's roar echoed, and the blue flood dragon, baring its fangs and claws, flew towards the Hundred Beasts Mountain Range.

Realizing the green-robed Daoist's formidable power, it dared not linger. With the blue flood dragon gone, the Flying Flame Tiger and the green giant eagle also did not stay, following the blue flood dragon towards the Hundred Beasts Mountain Range. Without the three third-tier demonic beasts to command them, the second-tier demonic beasts besieging the city scattered in disarray, fleeing for their lives.

Inside Immortal Fate City, Wang Yangming directed the cultivators to completely eliminate the demonic beasts that had breached the city. Of course, the cultivators paid a heavy price: over a hundred cultivators were killed in action, and many more were injured. Most of these were Qi Refining cultivators, with Foundation Establishment cultivators making up only a small fraction.

Numerous buildings were destroyed, either by demonic beasts or by the residual effects of the magical battles.

Wang Changsheng stayed close behind Wang Ruyan and encountered no danger. Wang Ruyan herself was protected by five Foundation Establishment cultivators, ensuring her safety.

In this battle, first-tier demonic beasts suffered the most casualties. Relatively few second-tier demonic beasts were killed by cultivators; most were trampled to death by their comrades. Since second-tier demonic beasts lack sentience, when those in front fell, the ones behind simply stepped over their bodies.

After the demonic beasts retreated, the green-robed Daoist recalled his giant bell artifact. Cultivators from Immortal Fate City rushed out to collect demonic beast materials.

The storage bags used by Qi Refining cultivators were spiritual artifacts, at most about a *zhang* in size, and thus unable to hold many items.

Wang Yangming did not stop them. Given the significant casualties among cultivators in defending against the demonic beasts, it would be inappropriate not to offer some tangible benefits. He assigned people to collect materials from second-tier demonic beasts, while allowing other cultivators to first scavenge materials from first-tier demonic beasts.

Wang Mingzhan led Wang Changsheng to scavenge for demonic beast materials. His target was high-grade first-tier demonic beasts. Although materials from second-tier demonic beasts were valuable, too many cultivators were vying for them; some even resorted to fighting over the corpses of second-tier demonic beasts.

Wang Changsheng took out a glittering golden dagger and disemboweled a long-dead demonic rabbit, stripping its hide.

This hide was relatively well-preserved and could be used to refine an inner armor artifact.

Demonic beasts were valuable all over. Besides fur, their claws and whiskers were also good refining materials. Wang Changsheng only harvested the hides, leaving other materials behind, as his storage bag couldn't hold too many items. Hides were the most valuable material from a demonic beast, second only to its demonic core.

He was very fast. To quickly strip the hide, he cut it off with some flesh still attached.

“Eh, what’s this?”

As Wang Changsheng slit open the belly of a demonic rat, an egg-sized pale yellow sphere rolled out from its abdomen.

“A demonic core!”

Wang Changsheng was startled at first, then quickly recognized the origin of the yellow sphere.

Demonic beasts of the second tier and above had a certain chance of forming a demonic core. Demonic cores could be used for alchemy, were excellent refining materials, and were also the most valuable material from a demonic beast.

He glanced left and right, confirming that no one was paying attention to him, then discreetly put the second-tier demonic core into his storage bag.

A second-tier demonic core was worth at least five to six hundred spirit stones; a good quality one could fetch over a thousand spirit stones.

After obtaining a demonic core, Wang Changsheng lost interest in harvesting hides. He proceeded to disembowel over a dozen second-tier demonic beasts, but found no other demonic cores. Clearly, he had simply been lucky earlier.

“Changsheng, hurry up. Higher-level cultivators won’t let us scavenge too many demonic beast materials. Focus on harvesting hides.”

Wang Mingzhan sent a telepathic message to remind him.

Focusing solely on hides was Wang Mingzhan's idea. Seeing Wang Changsheng wandering around and not harvesting hides, he quickly sent the telepathic reminder.

Wang Changsheng acknowledged with a sound and continued harvesting hides.

Less than half an hour later, Wang Changsheng's storage bag was filled with hides, mostly from high-grade first-tier demonic beasts, along with three hides from second-tier demonic beasts. He still only had one demonic core.

As Wang Mingzhan had anticipated, half an hour later, Wang Yangming prohibited cultivators from privately harvesting materials and ordered them to return to Immortal Fate City. Those who disobeyed would be executed without mercy.

In that half hour, some cultivators had managed to scavenge a large quantity of demonic beast materials, making a significant fortune.

To defend the city, two sets of third-tier formations were destroyed, and most of the treasury's contents were expended. Compensation was necessary, and Wang Yangming allowing participating cultivators to scavenge for half an hour was already quite generous.

Several rogue cultivators, overly excited, ignored Wang Yangming's order and continued to scavenge for demonic beast materials, only to be mercilessly executed by the enforcement squad.

Only after the enforcement squad successively killed over a dozen cultivators who defied the order did the remaining cultivators agree to return to Immortal Fate City.

Upon receiving the order, Wang Mingzhan immediately pulled Wang Changsheng back towards Immortal Fate City, not daring to linger for another moment.