I Don't Agree to the Terms
Chapter 351 - 201: This is the true Five Elements Sect; your Five (hang) Sect is not orthodox_2

Chapter 351: Chapter 201: This is the true Five Elements Sect; your Five (hang) Sect is not orthodox_2

Just as he was considering making a move, Gu Shanhai suddenly turned his head to see a huge centipede emerging from the forest. Its pitch-black shell and the intermittent pulses of mana being emitted were proof that it was a demon beast.

"Let me think, a Black Mud Centipede, right? This thing is quite venomous, but to grow this big, it must have lived at least a thousand years. The ecosystem here is really not bad." Gu Shanhai wasn’t worried about it at all.

In the Xuanji Realm, a thousand-year-old demon beast was roughly equivalent to a Qi Refinement Realm cultivator. The difference between wild beasts and demon beasts is whether they have mana.

Usually, demon beasts are lucky enough to survive after devouring some natural treasures, which is how they accidentally develop mana and gradually increase it over time.

Essentially, they’re just a bit bigger than normal wild beasts, a bit stronger, and completely brainless.

Becoming enlightened was out of the question—there was no such rule in the Xuanji Realm. If they wanted to gain intelligence, they had to rely on cultivators and be elevated by the Beast Taming Technique; otherwise, they’d just be strong beasts for their entire lives.

They might be a bit rare in the wild, but in fact, many big sects raised demon beasts according to a set process.

Moreover, without the assistance of cultivators, wild demon beasts could live for ten thousand years and still wouldn’t compare to the Foundation Establishment Stage. It was truly pitiful—they couldn’t cultivate on their own or become enlightened without the Beast Taming Technique.

As for swallowing natural treasures to gain enlightenment? That’s even more far-fetched. Where could you find such a thing, when human cultivators had already caused enough trouble in this world? How could it be possible to create another demon cultivator? It would be like importing a nest of snakes to deal with rats at home—attracting more trouble.

If the Xuanji Realm could control demon cultivators, they could control human cultivators—there was no need for such a roundabout method.

Gu Shanhai thought this over, but the Black Mud Centipede wasn’t idle and wriggled fiercely towards him. As a strengthened version of a centipede, this was its only move.

The Azure Dragon turned its head, expelled a breath of Dragon Breath at the centipede, and immediately enveloped it in a halo of mana.

Fortunately, it restrained itself and didn’t kill the centipede in one blow.

Many negative statuses appeared on the centipede, and Gu Shanhai could only lament its wasted size; it was nearly ten meters long, but it was all for show.

"I remember hearing that boiling the centipede, removing its shell, and then deep-frying the meat is quite tasty?" Gu Shanhai recalled that Hong Qigong seemed to have eaten it that way.

But as to how exactly to prepare it, Gu Shanhai wasn’t too clear.

With his constitution, he wouldn’t die even from poison. He had the Druid talent of poison immunity, which had now grown to not just be limited to ordinary toxins—it could even exempt him from some transcendent poisons, let alone his other enhancements like a robust physique.

"Come on, set up the pot, light the fire, let’s cut a couple of pieces to try." Gu Shanhai thought for a moment; he could start building the Five Elements Sect at any time, but he shouldn’t waste the centipede by letting it die, as it wouldn’t taste fresh anymore.

The Azure Dragon skillfully peeled open the shell of the Black Mud Centipede with its short claws and sliced off a piece.

What followed was quite simple. The Azure Dragon transformed, Gu Shanhai added water and started a fire, and soon a rather unpleasant earthy smell started bubbling up.

"The first step already failed; it smells terrible." Gu Shanhai had considered adding some scallions, ginger, and garlic, but looking at it now, adding such seasonings seems like a waste.

After fishing out a small piece, he stuffed it into his mouth to taste.

"This flavor, it makes me feel like I want to sprout." Gu Shanhai’s comment was a model of understatement.

The earthy smell gave him the odd sensation of wanting to plant himself in the soil.

"Kill it; it’s too disgusting." Gu Shanhai let Little White take action, and with one stomp, the whole Black Mud Centipede was crushed into a mushy mass.

If it had tasted better, Gu Shanhai might have considered raising it—cutting off a piece to taste now and then. But since it was so unpalatable, it didn’t have any value.

Of course, having no value was only in his perspective. After processing, the Black Mud Centipede could be used as a medicinal herb, either for concocting medicine or alchemy. Gu Shanhai just didn’t need those pills, so it was useless to him.

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"There should be no more predators in this area."

Such a large centipede would require a significant amount of nutrition every day. Gu Shanhai didn’t believe for a second that it was herbivorous, not with the way it just lunged at him, trying to bite him.

"I’m at a loss, not only did I not get to taste fresh meat, but now I have to clean up." Gu Shanhai looked at the centipede sauce, knowing he had been careless and should have let Little White kill it from a greater distance.

The Black Mud Centipede’s scent grew stronger after it died.

Fortunately, Gu Shanhai didn’t need to deal with it himself; the Azure Dragon opened its mouth, and with a burst of light, its Dragon Breath turned the centipede into a pile of charcoal.

Though the place was still a mess, at least the foul smell was gone.

"From now on, I can’t just try to taste everything; I need to exercise some restraint," Gu Shanhai admonished himself.

"This bunch of beasts is really nothing but a chicken rib, unless they’re domesticated. Otherwise, the wild ones are not only weaker but also disobedient."

Just like the Black Mud Centipede, the Chengyun Sect had many of them domesticated, and they weren’t wild like this one. Usually, they were even tended to by ordinary people, having been tamed through the Beast Taming Technique just like well-behaved babies.

After dealing with the unexpected centipede, Gu Shanhai then threw himself into the construction of the Five Elements Sect.

Felling trees and quarrying stone were trivial matters.

"Damn it, if only I still had those Druid Divine Skills from before, I could do this a million times easier," Gu Shanhai somewhat missed the long list of Druid Divine Skills.

Whether it was turning stone into mud or mud into stone, all would have saved him a lot of time and effort.

Not to mention the related plant-based spells that could instantly grow wood or charm animals to help with work. Unfortunately, those were all gone.

Gu Shanhai had limited energy; he couldn’t master everything and had to focus on his own development and research.

So he didn’t delve deep into these related spells either.

He could have forced control, but after calculating the cost, Gu Shanhai found it would be three times more expensive than doing it himself, so he had no choice but to get on with it.

After three days of hard work, both the Azure Dragon and Little White had a feeling of being worlds apart; even Gu Shanhai himself was sitting on the side, too exhausted to move.

"Now I understand why my master’s Five Elements Sect behaves like that. For a cultivator who entered the sect as a child to achieve what they have is already hitting the ceiling," Gu Shanhai couldn’t help but complain, originally thinking Xia Xingyi was just useless.

Only after getting down to work did he realize it wasn’t that Xia Xingyi was incompetent, but rather that crossing industries was truly not a job for humans.

Indeed, he could have hired people to work, but whether it was Gu Shanhai’s location or Xia Xingyi’s Five Elements Sect, both were deep in the mountains and forests. Unless they kidnapped people, ordinary humans would almost never come all the way here.

Such acts of kidnapping, disciples from the Chengyun Sect would hardly do; they generally ensured the growth of ordinary people. Did you really think the entire Chengyun Sect could survive on disciples alone?

In reality, most of the Chengyun Sect’s disciples were in management. All costs were transferred onto the ordinary people. In the eyes of the Chengyun Sect’s higher-ups, mortal humans were also a resource, and furthermore, one that needed to be properly managed.

Therefore, most people in the Chengyun Sect wouldn’t overexploit the mortals, for shearing wool is not the same as killing sheep for it; once the sheep are dead, the wool is only good for one use.

So to make a distinction, the Chengyun Sect is also considered a righteous sect, and after Gu Shanhai sneaked in, the title of righteous hero, which he should have been apt to call himself, gained a bit more weight, even though he was still a practitioner of the Evil Path.

Being a player on the Evil Path didn’t clash with being a righteous hero; as long as he dressed sharply and acted like an immortal, who would know what kind of calamities he had caused behind the scenes?

As for Gu Shanhai not capturing mortals to work, it wasn’t because of kindness, but caution, for the Five Elements Sect was to be his dwelling for a long time to come, and security had to be ensured. There was so much to arrange, and the mortals understood nothing. If anything went wrong, he would be the one to suffer later.

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