Everyone else felt a profound satisfaction, secretly thrilled. Even the established aristocratic families affiliated with the Three Great Holy Lands felt a great sense of relief. When had they ever enjoyed a position of such equal footing?
To think that something their ancestors could never achieve, or even dare to dream of, was happening today, thanks to the favor of the Lord of Evil—they were actually 'sitting in the same hall' with the Sacred Venerables, Sacred Emperors, and even the Sovereign Lords of the Three Great Holy Lands!
The Lord of Evil was truly wicked, utterly depraved to the extreme!
Such an event, one could venture, was something only he in the entire world could pull off!
Others, even those holding irreconcilable grudges against the Three Great Holy Lands, would scarcely dare to humiliate them so openly and grandly on such a formal occasion! But the Lord of Evil dared! Not just daring, but doing it with such brazen display!
And the crucial part was that since the Lord of Evil had already acted, the Three Great Holy Lands could not raise a single objection. To do so would be to 'underestimate the heroes of the world!'—placing themselves in opposition to everyone present!
Therefore, the Three Great Holy Lands were forced to swallow this bitter pill, and they had to swallow it whole!
Once everyone was seated, the tables belonging to the Three Great Holy Lands and the Misty Illusory Mansion occupied the entire first row. Directly opposite them was an arrangement that gave a distinct sense of being looked down upon, an arrangement that caused considerable discomfort.
It felt as if their side were subordinates, while those seated on the dais were the true holders of high authority!
Mo Wudao and Xi Ruochen, though silent on the matter, maintained expressions of serene composure, as if utterly unconcerned, yet their inner guard had tightened considerably.
They were all men of sharp perception. While obtaining several thousand stalks of Pure Heart Orchid today was certainly a rare achievement, what was truly invaluable was deciphering the method Jun Moxie had used to make these thousands of Pure Heart Orchids bloom simultaneously, with every single stalk bearing precisely eight perfect flowers. Such a mysterious, god-defying technique was the true source of astonishment. Yet, astonishment aside, these major Sect Masters had firmly resolved that once Jun Moxie emerged, they would certainly make him regret this display! Even with the Heaven-Seizing War imminent and precluding outright, open conflict, they would ensure that the founding of the Evil Sovereign Residence would not proceed smoothly!
On the other side, Qiao Ying and Miao Xiaomiao, entering another hall atop the high structure, were both momentarily stunned.
The entire main wall of the hall was dominated by a single, antique, sheathed long sword, suspended diagonally. On that expanse of white wall, this solitary blade was the only adornment; yet, this simple, almost stark arrangement exuded an indescribable atmosphere of deep repression and deadly intent!
Set into the four corners of the ceiling were four enormous luminous pearls, each one swirling with shifting colors. Qiao Ying, habitually austere, did not recognize them and assumed they were mere decoration. But Miao Xiaomiao, born into a prestigious lineage, recognized them instantly as exceptionally rare Night-Luminous Pearls!
In the daytime, they showed little brilliance, but when night fell, this hall would be illuminated as bright as day without a single lamp. In fact, saying 'bright as day' was somewhat inaccurate; the light emitted by these pearls was supremely soft, never harsh, and the faint, pervasive fragrance they diffused was immensely beneficial to the body.
"Such pearls, forget four—even just one, is priceless, a treasure unobtainable even with infinite wealth. But that’s not all. What is truly rare is that these four pearls are nearly identical in size. Gathering four such pearls in one place can only be described as miraculous..."
In the room, several chairs were arranged in what appeared to be a casual manner but were, in reality, placed with deliberate ingenuity. The style of these chairs was rather peculiar, yet a close inspection revealed that anyone sitting in them would experience unparalleled comfort, vastly superior to the hard, traditional seats. The comparison was seemingly nonexistent.
Between the chairs were low tables crafted from dark jade. In the center of each table sat a small white jade flower pot, and within each tiny pot rested only a single, small, tender sprout, its color soft and lustrous, lending it a look of delicate helplessness.
"This is the Ten Thousand Year Tea Fragrance Grass!"
Miao Xiaomiao gasped internally, nearly popping her eyeballs out!
The Ten Thousand Year Tea Fragrance Grass was an exceptionally unique herbaceous plant. It possessed no medicinal properties on its own; its wonder lay in its ability to release a soul-refreshing tea aroma!
From the moment it sprouts, this grass remains only a finger's height, never growing any taller! Tea Fragrance Grass less than a century old has no utility, but one five hundred years old turns green and can faintly emit a tea scent.
Reaching a thousand years, the grass turns blue, filling any space it occupies with fragrance. Only grass over ten thousand years old can truly earn the epithet 'Ten Thousand Year.' A ten-thousand-year specimen turns white, its tea fragrance naturally internalized. Placed upon a table, even if ordinary boiled water is poured into the cups resting there, the resulting beverage tastes like the finest premium tea!
If this were all, it would merely be a rare curiosity, but the true efficacy of the Tea Fragrance Grass lay in this: tea brewed under the influence of premium Tea Fragrance Grass, when consumed repeatedly, offers immense assistance to a Xuan Practitioner's cultivation breakthroughs!
It enables one to shatter bottlenecks in a single stroke, completely free of future repercussions! For those Xuan Practitioners stalled at a bottleneck for decades, centuries, or even millennia, this treasure is the very stuff of dreams!
The Tea Fragrance Grasses on the tables before them were all the color of white jade, with an almost crystalline sheen. By their appearance, they were at least ten thousand years old! Perhaps even tens of thousands of years!
Her grandfather, Miao Jingyun, had one on his study desk, but that specimen was merely greenish-white, likely only five or six thousand years old, yet it was already regarded as a treasure by her grandfather, forbidden to anyone in the Miao family to touch carelessly!
And here, there were nine such plants simultaneously! And all of them were top-grade specimens, likely tens of thousands of years old!
Miao Xiaomiao found herself speechless trying to describe this Lord of Evil. 'Immense wealth' seemed utterly insufficient. Descriptions like 'richer than a nation' were an insult to the wealth of a 'nation.'
Perhaps only the four characters 'surpassing all ages' could vaguely capture him. Miao Xiaomiao was genuinely experiencing a bizarre sensation, as if she were dreaming.
But Qiao Ying beside her was even more astonished. Being naturally frugal, she recognized neither the Night-Luminous Pearls nor the Ten Thousand Year Tea Fragrance Grass! However, the four peculiar ginseng roots placed on the four windowsills left her utterly shocked.
Those four ginseng roots, even under the sunlight, were shrouded in a faint mist that obscured their exact form. The main bodies of the ginseng were constantly shifting shape within this mist—sometimes long and linear, sometimes round and bulbous, sometimes morphing into human faces, sometimes taking on countless bizarre forms...
Not a single one possessed a fixed shape! One moment it looked one way, and with a blink, it changed again... and every form observed was unique.
Could it be...
Soul Echo Ginseng!
The legendary supreme treasure of Heaven and Earth!
Qiao Ying nearly staggered, feeling faint!
Moreover, these appeared to be highly matured, premium Soul Echo Ginsengs. Ginseng that hadn't reached such a climate could only change its form intermittently, perhaps once every period. But these specimens were shifting constantly, indicating they had reached a peak state!
This Soul Echo Ginseng, as its name implied, was unusable by ordinary people; even if consumed, it would be useless and might even severely deplete the user's vitality due to excessive Yin energy! Its only benefit was this: safeguarding the soul from annihilation!
If one had the fortune to consume a thin slice before facing tribulation or a death battle, even if killed instantly and shattered by Heavenly Lightning, the soul would not be truly extinguished. Instead, it would ensure that the three souls and seven spirits escaped intact, allowing for reincarnation or re-entry into the cycle of rebirth with the memories of the previous life perfectly preserved. Furthermore, the survivor could retain thirty percent of their previous cultivation!
Most critically, it would not impede anything in the next life at all... and guaranteed one minimum standard: the aptitude in the next life would be no lower than the current one!
For high-level Xuan Practitioners, this was an absolute dream treasure! Its rarity and preciousness even surpassed the Exquisite Lotus and the Seven-Colored Sacred Fruit!
Consider that even a Saint Infant reincarnation could not carry away any cultivation from the current life, at most retaining only complete memory, and even then, the soul loses at least seventy percent of its energy resisting the process of reincarnation. But this Soul Echo Ginseng allowed the entire process to occur without any loss, while preserving three-tenths of the original power!
Transcending levels!
If the Heavenly Sage Palace possessed such Soul Echo Ginseng, then all the predecessors sacrificed during the Heaven-Seizing Wars throughout history could be resurrected in another form, continuing their existence for millennia!... This was treasure that directly defied the heavens!
And Jun Moxie possessed four of them! Furthermore, they all appeared to be precious specimens over ten thousand years old!
Qiao Ying felt her heart pounding like a drum, her mouth dry.
The only lingering question was this: the legendary Soul Echo Ginseng is an object of extreme Yin, absolutely forbidden from being exposed to direct sunlight, lest it instantly vanish into a wisp of green smoke. Yet, Jun Moxie had placed them directly facing the sunlight at the windows! Even if it was possible that this young man had acquired treasures without recognizing their worth, the Soul Echo Ginseng showed absolutely no adverse reaction. What in the world was going on? Was her understanding flawed? Could this not be the legendary 'Soul Echo Ginseng'? But what other ginseng species in the world possessed such miraculous characteristics?
As the two women entered, they were both lost in their respective states of shock, seemingly failing to hear several greetings from Guan Qinghan. They simply stood transfixed, lost in thought.
Footsteps sounded again at the doorway, followed by a sweet, charming voice: "Come, come, quickly! Look at these two great beauties! I heard that fellow Jun Moxie is head over heels for them. Let's go see what kind of stunning beauties they are!" Another voice chirped, "Little Yi, you're jealous too, wahaha! Now you feel the threat, right?" (To be continued. For future events, more chapters, please support the author and legitimate reading!)