Immortal Road.

Chapter 164: Surprise
The door of the secret room opened, and Lin Shan came out for the first time in ten years. Not being used to the glaring sunlight outside, he couldn't help but use his hands to block it slightly.

As his age increased again, he was already 33 years old. According to the saying in this world that people become adults at the age of 16, he had once again changed from a boy to a young man.

From this aspect alone, even though he was so diligent and took drugs to practice, and had an enhanced panel to help break through the bottleneck, he still couldn't catch up with the talent of Qi Zhong, the true disciple of Qianyun Pavilion. When he was in the middle stage of foundation building, his physique was still that of a teenager.

The black skeleton in the cave courtyard also recovered to the middle stage of foundation building, which was obviously under the control of the original body in the Nascent Soul stage. Except for the difficulty of condensing the golden elixir and the Nascent Soul, the small bottleneck of foundation building was as easy as drinking water and eating for him.

At this time, a small sapling was running around in the courtyard and having fun. The spiritual field next to it had been planted with some unknown flowers and plants by the Black Skull Demon Lord who had nothing to do over the past ten years.

"You are a very good at hiding yourself. You are actually a master of alchemy. Tsk tsk~"

The Black Skull Demon Lord smacked his lips, as if he was still savoring the purple mist that had just leaked out of the secret room.

However, after feeling Lin Shan's cultivation, he suddenly felt a little restless. This kid's cultivation speed is so fast? He can actually catch up with the recovery progress of this old monster in the Nascent Soul stage.

Lin Shan chuckled, sat down at the stone table in the yard, and asked it directly how things were going. The latter threw a long box over to him.

Lin Shan took it and opened the box. There were more than a dozen small bottles inside, and some green branches.

"Most of the phantom fluid and phantom wood I've saved over the past ten years are here. I only took a small portion for myself."

Hearing the words of the Black Skeleton Demon Lord, Lin Shan just nodded without saying anything more. Even if he ate the meat himself, he had to leave some soup for others. Besides, it was just a skeleton, and the Phantom Spirit Liquid would be useless to it.

After taking a look at the heartless phantom tree saplings playing in the spiritual field next to him and confirming that they were not malnourished due to too much blood loss, he was secretly satisfied that the Black Skull Demon Lord acted in moderation and knew the essence of fleecing the sheep.

He picked up a jade bottle and sprinkled the "Phantom Spirit Liquid" in it on his eyes. He immediately felt like he was being soaked in a warm spring. The scenery in front of him changed, the light flowed, and the vision gradually recovered.

He opened his eyes again and looked around, and found that there were hidden formations around the cave. He could vaguely see some traces of them.

"The key to using the Illusionary Spirit Fluid is persistence. Apply it every day. After a long time, you will be able to gradually increase your resistance to illusions, and be able to see through most illusions. You can also detect many hidden formations and restrictions in advance and avoid them."

Lin Shan nodded. It was a pity that he had not studied the formation systematically. Otherwise, with this pair of magic eyes and the attainments in formation, the sum of the results would be much more than just one plus one equals two.

But he doesn't know how to set up the formation, but Xiaoxin, the spirit of the Xuxing Plate, does!

Just when he thought of the weapon spirit Xiao Xin, he suddenly realized that the Black Skeleton Demon Lord sitting opposite him was motionless, staring at him in a daze.

"Why are you looking at me like this?"

Lin Shan couldn't help but touch his face. Is there something on my face?
But given the character of the Black Skull Demon Lord, even if there was a scar on his face, he wouldn't take it so seriously, right?

At this time, a little girl with braids secretly ran out and was hiding timidly behind Lin Shan, secretly looking around with her little head.

Especially when he saw the young seedlings of the ancient phantom tree playing in the medicine field, he couldn't help but show curiosity in his eyes.

But in the eyes of the Black Skeleton Demon Lord, this is not a little girl at all, this is clearly...
"Fuck! Innate weapon spirit!"

"scare!"

Not only did the little girl shrink her head back in fear, but Lin Shan was also startled by the shout. The long-lost feeling of the Nightingale organization's noise came again.

Looking at the green eyes of the Black Skull Demon Lord opposite him, his tone was full of undisguised greed, and he stared at him like a lustful ghost.

"What do you want to do? I warn you not to mess around!"

The Black Skeleton Demon Lord seemed not to hear anything and rushed forward like a vicious dog pouncing on its prey, grabbing him by the collar, and the black skull's mouth opened and closed with a "clicking sound".

"Good boy, you have kept it a secret from me for so long, you actually have an innate spiritual treasure!"

"."

Lin Shan didn't know how to explain to it. It was impossible to tell outsiders about the enhanced panel. Even if the two of them had a soul contract that prevented them from harming each other, it was impossible to reveal even a single thing.

But sooner or later it will realize that it has a magical treasure, so it might as well just make up stories.

"I just discovered it recently. I didn't expect that the Void Star Plate is actually a spiritual treasure."

"Quick! Quick! Take it out and let me see it!"

The Black Skull Demon Lord looked extremely anxious, jumping up and down, scratching his ears and cheeks, wishing he could just start snatching it away, as this thing was a deadly poison to a weapon refining master.

Lin Shan was speechless. As a demon king in the Nascent Soul stage, he must have seen it before, no matter whether he had a magic treasure or not! Is it necessary to be so boastful? Besides, the magic treasure he just strengthened is not even warm yet.

He took out the Virtual Star Plate reluctantly and handed it to him reluctantly, muttering "be gentle", "don't drop it", "I can't afford the compensation even if I sell you".

The latter had no time to refute him, and took it with a pair of trembling bony hands, and every move revealed the meaning of "piety", and even stroked it in ecstasy. Because the bony claws had no flesh and blood, there was a scratching sound when stroking.

"Ke La, Ke La~"

Lin Shan looked at this guy with heartache as he used his bones to hold his spiritual treasure. Xiao Xin, the spirit behind him, also showed an uncomfortable expression.

Finally, after a while, seeing that it had no intention of stopping, the two of them could no longer bear it and snatched back the Void Star Disk.

"Alright, alright, just take a quick look, don't be so careless!"

The black skeleton didn't dare to refute like a child who had done something wrong, and was still staring at the virtual star disk in Lin Shan's hand. Even the spirit Xiao Xin could feel the extreme desire in the soul fire of his head, and he quickly hugged Lin Shan's neck tightly and refused to let go.

"Don't you have any spiritual treasure in your own body? Why do you look so ignorant?"

The Black Skull Demon Lord was extremely humble at this time. Facing Lin Shan's disdainful eyes, he smiled faintly, wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, and answered honestly.

"My original body owns the Skeleton Demon Ridge of Hell that stretches for millions of miles, so I naturally have a spiritual treasure, but..."

"Just what?"

"My magic treasure is an acquired magic treasure, far inferior to your innate magic treasure."

"Is there a difference between innate and acquired abilities?"

Lin Shan was now curious. He thought that magic weapons were spiritual treasures, but he didn't expect that there was a difference? However, the strengthening panel seemed to have been written before, but he didn't deliberately study it.

In order to take a closer look at the Virtual Star Disk, the Black Skull Demon Lord had no choice but to explain to Lin Shan in detail the origin and classification of spiritual treasures.

If a cultivator wants to upgrade his magic weapon to a spiritual treasure, in addition to asking a master of weapon refining for help, he also has to find a soul in the Nascent Soul stage to awaken the spirit. Most of the time, the souls of monsters are used to awaken the spirit.

But everyone knows that no matter whether it is a human cultivator or a monster, if the soul is not detained by humans after death, it will stay in the world of the living for a maximum of seven days before being led away by the ghost messengers from the underworld.

Therefore, the souls used to revive magic weapons must be fresh souls that have just died a few days ago. And for the cultivators and monsters who can cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage, who doesn't want to reincarnate after death? No one will sacrifice themselves, so the only way is to kill.

However, anyone who has the power to kill a creature in the Nascent Soul stage and forcibly imprison its soul must also have a cultivation level above the Nascent Soul stage.

At the same time, the selection of souls is also very particular. Not just any soul in the Nascent Soul stage will do. It must also be compatible with one's own magic weapon.

Take the Black Skeleton Demon King of the Fifth World of Hell for example. He is a master of refining weapons and has many soldiers and generals under his command. In order to upgrade his own life magic weapon, he spent a full fifty years. He finally found and killed a Yuanying stage bone dragon in a magma sea thousands of meters deep, refined it into the magic weapon and activated it himself.

When a magic weapon is first awakened, the spirit is as fragile as a newborn baby. That tiny spirit body may be blown out by a gust of wind, so it needs the owner's careful care and gradual nurturing.

The strength of the spirit body can be cultivated, but it takes a long time for the spirit of the weapon to awaken. Generally, spiritual treasures are passed down from generation to generation by powerful sects over the years, spanning tens of thousands of years.

Therefore, only Lingbao can be called the "treasure of the sect."

The reason why the Black Skull Demon Lord was called the master of weapon refining was because he successfully refined a magical treasure for himself.

It has only been cultivated for a few hundred years, and its spiritual treasure is not very intelligent. Like an ignorant beast, it can only use its instincts passively to slightly improve the agility of the spiritual treasure.

But even so, the value of spiritual treasures far exceeds that of magic treasures, because their upper limit is extremely high and their growth potential is unlimited.

"So the power of your acquired spiritual treasure is not much different from that of a magic weapon, because the weapon spirit is still in the initial stage of growth."

Lin Shan touched his chin thoughtfully.

The Black Skull Demon Lord nodded and began to tell him about the innate spiritual treasure.

The difference between innate spiritual treasures and acquired spiritual treasures is that the spirit of the weapon is born and nurtured by nature, absorbing the essence of the sun and the moon, and seizing the fortune of heaven and earth. It is born in the depths of the magic weapon and is innately in perfect harmony with the magic weapon, and can develop all the functions of the magic weapon.

If we say that under the same spiritual intelligence, the acquired spiritual treasure spirit can only tap into 40% of the potential of the main body, while the innate spiritual treasure spirit can tap into 100%! The gap between the two is huge.

However, innate spiritual treasures are too rare. After all, most magic treasures are in the hands of cultivators. Only some ancient relics may slowly give birth to spirit artifacts over countless years, and the probability is no different from finding a needle in a haystack.

What made the Black Skull Demon Lord envious and jealous was that the intelligence of the spirit of Lin Shan's innate spiritual treasure was obviously very mature. It could already control the spiritual treasure itself and even make the spiritual treasure "self-concealed" to hide itself.

Even this was concealed before, it must be a ripe and tempting melon!
Generally, spiritual treasures that have reached this level of intelligence can not only develop their own functions independently, but can also assist their masters in certain areas. They can be said to be perfect partners in the world of cultivation!

"It's a pity that it's an auxiliary spiritual treasure. If it was a killing innate spiritual treasure and also possessed such spiritual intelligence, I'm afraid..."

The Black Skull Demon Lord did not continue speaking, and the meaning was self-evident.

However, it would not be naive enough to believe that Lin Shan would be so lucky as to obtain another killing magic weapon. That would be pure nonsense.

Now that he has obtained this spiritual treasure Xuxing Plate, this kid is afraid that he has shortened his lifespan countless times.
After hearing this, Lin Shan did not feel any regret. At this stage, the auxiliary spiritual treasure was the most useful to him. The killing spiritual treasure could not be used without his own mana. If the spirit of the weapon controlled the main body to fight the enemy, it would be impossible to defeat the cultivators above the Jindan stage.

It will not be too late to consider killing spiritual treasures only after your cultivation level is high.

……

The little girl sat on the shoulders of her master Lin Shan, swinging her two white feet in front of his chest, listening to the conversation between the man and the skeleton. When they discussed about the spirit of the weapon, her little head nodded or pondered, obviously very intelligent.

It was obvious that the Black Skull Demon Lord was still determined to play with the Virtual Star Disk again. While explaining it to Lin Shan, he couldn't help but touch it secretly. However, the spirit Xiaoxin controlled his body to avoid it, but the guy became more interested in her.

For a master weapon refiner, the attraction of an innate spiritual treasure is extremely extreme.

"Brother, let's be frank. I want this magic treasure so badly."

"You name a price! I'll give you whatever you want. My real body is also well-known in the fifth world of hell. Do you need a million skeletons? Can you take a look at the countless treasures? Do you want to know more about my magical powers?"

"How about this? I'll trade my magic treasure with you. I'll work for you my whole life. Even if I recover to the Nascent Soul stage, I'll still follow your lead!"

……

The Black Skull Demon Lord had lost all his dignity as the Demon Lord of Hell. He collapsed to the ground like a beggar.

But no matter how much the Black Skull Demon Lord begged, Lin Shan refused to agree. He spent 64 points of ancient rhyme to strengthen this thing, and only took it out to exchange it when his head was squeezed by the door.

Besides, the clone of the Black Skull Demon Lord couldn't escape anyway. The working soul is a miserable person in this life.
The two argued for a while, and the spirit Xiao Xin seemed tired, so she went back to her main body, the virtual star disk, to sleep. Lin Shan also quickly put the spiritual treasure away, and the farce slowly came to an end.

The Black Skull Demon Lord suppressed his little thoughts, thinking that this silly boy Lin Shan had not seen much of the world and had no idea how powerful his original body was. If he just whispered in his ear more often, he would be able to convince him imperceptibly.

……

Next, the two of them briefly discussed the Phantom Ancient Tree, and re-formulated a new plan for this spiritual tree of heaven and earth, strengthening the physical examination cycle of regular blood draws and branch pruning, and then talked about things in the outside world.

The Black Skull Demon Lord had a strange look on his face, and he did not explain to him the war situation in the outside world. He just took out the letters and talisman notes that had been accumulated in the cave for the past ten years and gave them to him.

Lin Shan didn't know until he saw it, and he was shocked.

But after only ten years of seclusion, how come so many people left messages for him? And all of them were left within the last six months.

Half a year ago, Guardian Yan returned to the East China Sea headquarters and sent him a sound transmission note asking him to come over;

Four months ago, Luanchun also came back and left him a sound transmission note;

Two months ago, Old Man Zhong and his group of younger brothers also came back. They came to his cave one by one to find him as if they had something urgent to do, but because Lin Shan was in seclusion, they had no choice but to leave him more than 20 sound transmission notes and leave.

A few days ago, in the distant inland of the Song Dynasty, in Yichuan Market in the Yanyun Mountains, an encrypted letter from the cultivation world was sent to his cave. It turned out to be sent by his good brother Lin Fan from the same clan.

……

Lin Shan opened the sound transmission notes one by one and listened to them all, only to find that everyone was saying the same thing.

"The three evil sects were defeated on the front line and their offensive was thwarted. The righteous coalition organized a counterattack and regained a city."

Lin Fan was well-informed. He somehow found out that Lin Shan had joined the Black Lotus Sect, and secretly passed the latest news to him in the past few days.

The righteous camp has recently reassessed the strength of both sides and regained confidence in the future battle. There is no future in the evil camp, so let good brother Lin Shan run away quickly.

After reading it, Lin Shan stood there in bewilderment.

"I remember that the situation was very good ten years ago. The Demon Sect occupied half of the country, the Luosong Mountains defense line collapsed, and the imperial capital Bianliang was also captured. They were about to march into the northwest. Why..."

"We were in a favorable situation, but because we were so cautious, someone else turned the tables on us?"

(End of this chapter)