Once I enter the pass, great Confucian scholars will surely debate the classics for me.

Reaching the Food Demon Realm does not signify the end of one's cultivation journey.

After venting his excitement, Zhou Qingfeng landed under the peach tree and swept the scene clean with a wave of his hand, storing everything in the 'Holy Ring,' the champion prize of the Heavenly Ranking.

Then Zhou Qingfeng sat cross-legged under the peach tree, calmed his mind, and took out the pills that were specially made for those in the Devouring Fiend Realm.

The Devouring Fiend Realm can absorb many types of fiend energy. Compared to the Devouring Calamity Realm, which is extremely picky and only eats the energy of the Three Calamities, the Devouring Fiend Realm has a much wider range of cultivation resources to consume.

These malevolent energies can be broadly categorized into three types.

One type is tangible evil energy.

Sharp corner sha: The sharp corner of a building is pointed at a residence or office.

Wall Knife Sha: The wall of a neighboring building cuts into your own building like a knife.

Reverse Bow Sha: When a road is curved, like a drawn bow, and the house or building is located on the "back" of the bow.

Piercing Heart Sha: A road or river runs directly through the center of a residence.

Sky-Cutting Sha: A narrow space between two tall buildings, forming a "skyline".

Road rushing evil: A road directly rushes towards the entrance of a building.

Lonely Yin Sha: A building that lacks the support of other buildings around it, appearing isolated and helpless.

Void Sha: A house that is narrow in the front and wide in the back, resembling a pocket, makes it difficult to retain wealth.

The second type is invisible malevolent energy.

Unpleasant odors: such as musty smells or sewage smells.

Light pollution: excessively strong light or reflected light.

Sound pollution: Related to unpleasant noise.

Color stigma: Colors that are too strong or discordant.

Numerical Sha: Related to numbers, such as 4, 13, 666, 9, 17, 39, 6666, 20, 28, 34, 44, 53, 64, 70, 7.

Lei Sha is related to lightning.

Directional Sha: Associated with unfavorable positions in the Bagua or Flying Star chart.

The third category is special types of malevolent energy.

Earthly Fiends: These are negative energy fields that gather in geographical environments, such as graves, sewers, and cliffs.

Water afflictions: Negative effects of water flow, such as rapid currents, stagnant water, and leaks.

High-pressure sha: The surrounding tall buildings make one's own residence appear small and restrict one's view.

Reflective glare: Doors and windows facing strong reflective surfaces, such as water or mirrors.

In addition to these, there are also Time Sha, Five Elements Sha, Qi Field Sha, and Human Sha.

The Time-based Sha (煞) changes constantly based on the season, zodiac sign, and time of day, and includes Heaven and Earth Sha, Lunar Sha, Daily Sha, Hour Sha, and Directional Sha.

The Five Elements Sha is an inauspicious influence born from the mutual restraint of the Five Elements.

There are two main types of negative energy fields: one is Yin Sha, which is caused by an excess of Yin energy, and the other is Yang Sha, which is caused by an excess of Yang energy.

Human-related afflictions include those related to people, such as anger afflictions, hatred afflictions, jealousy afflictions, murderous afflictions, negative afflictions, pessimistic afflictions, marital afflictions, birth afflictions, resentment, and annual afflictions.

All these malevolent energies were discovered by the predecessors of the Food and Turbidity Path through their research.

These malevolent energies are also a type of turbid energy, mixed in with the boiling turbid energy. If you want to consume them, you need to carefully extract these malevolent energies before you can swallow them into your life palace and transform them into magical power.

The Life Palace has a bluish-green color and emits a faint bluish glow. It is round like a jade ball and can switch between solid and illusory at will.

The magical power and life soul of a cultivator in the Devouring Fiend Realm reside in their Life Palace, making it undeniably important. Therefore, the ethereal Life Palace is constantly circulating between the two souls and seven spirits to ensure that the Life Palace will not be shattered by the enemy.

The Heart-Piercing Pill, Thunder Fiend Pill, and Yin Fiend Pill placed in front of Zhou Qingfeng were made by professional alchemists at the Fiend-Eating Realm by collecting fiend energy and supplementing it with other fiend-grade materials.

Each bottle contains thirty pills of this Fiend-grade medicine, and each pill costs 100,000 coins, making a bottle worth 3 million coins.

Each pill can increase one coin of magical power. If a cultivator in the Devouring Fiend Realm wants to advance further, they need to accumulate 500,000 coins of magical power before they can leapfrog to the Devouring Poison Realm.

The term "poisonous realm" does not refer to poisons or toxic substances; those are insignificant poisons.

The real poison is the poison of the human heart.

Because of all the poisons in the world, none is more poisonous than the human heart.

Therefore, the "poisonous realm" specifically refers to the poison in people's hearts.

The scientific name for this realm is the Realm of Eating Poison, but it has a more common and fitting name among the people: the Realm of Eating Heart.

To advance to the Poisonous Realm, one needs to prepare five poisonous hearts as materials for advancement: the heart of great greed, the heart of great delusion, the heart of great anger, the heart of great doubt, and the heart of great arrogance.

Of these five types of advancement materials, perhaps only one in a million will appear.

It is very easy for ordinary people to possess one or more of the poisons of greed, anger, ignorance, doubt, and arrogance.

However, it cannot be called one of the five major poisons; at most, it is a poison that everyone has.

The greatest greed refers to extreme greed and possessiveness, which is not limited to material wealth, but also includes the pursuit of power, status, emotions, or sensual pleasures. It is never satisfied and always seeks more and better.

The mind of great ignorance refers to foolishness or ignorance, a mistaken understanding and misunderstanding of the nature of things, which makes people cling to wrong ideas, find it difficult to accept the truth, and never be able to awaken.

The mind of great anger refers to intense feelings of rage and hatred, dissatisfaction and hostility towards others or situations, and is always harming others, leading to endless suffering and conflict for oneself.

A deep-seated doubt refers to persistent suspicion and disbelief, doubting the world, doubting everything, including distrust of one's own and others' abilities, making it forever difficult to establish firm beliefs and goals.

Great arrogance refers to extreme self-esteem and conceit, believing oneself to be superior to others, placing excessive emphasis on one's own opinions and achievements, and refusing to accept criticism or new knowledge.

Having even one of these five poisonous hearts is already incredibly rare, let alone possessing all five.

Even if you collect all five poison hearts, you still need to perform an additional sacrificial ritual to reach the Poison-Eating Realm.

The sacrificial ceremony is to worship the five turbid heavenly ways.

Through a specific sacrificial ceremony, one directly confronts the Five Turbid Heavenly Dao and receives its baptism... well, it can also be called root pollution. After the sacrificial ceremony is successful, the Poison-Eating Realm cultivator can become a carrier of a certain low-level rule, and in the future, they can only study such rule techniques and supernatural powers.

Different sacrificial rituals represent vastly different rules and powers that are being controlled.

Generally, cultivators at the Devouring Fiend Realm who reach this stage can no longer afford to consume Fiend-grade pills to enhance their cultivation. Those who fight alone can only endure the long and arduous process, relying on their own talents to absorb the fiend energy contained within the turbid energy.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, 99% of independent cultivators in the private sector have essentially reached the end of their careers.

Even a top-tier nobleman like Zhou Qingfeng, with a net worth of hundreds of billions, would feel the pinch if he had to consume a demon-grade pill.

Zhou Qingfeng poured all three bottles of the evil-grade pills into his mouth, calmed his mind, and formed hand seals to mobilize his magic power to envelop the surging medicinal power and refine it into magic power, which he then guided into his life palace for storage.

The three calamities surrounding him all left, replaced by a large amount of malevolent energy slowly gathering around Zhou Qingfeng. Seven times the amount of turbid energy meant that there was seven times the concentration of malevolent energy in this place.

With the help of consuming pills, three times the speed, and seven times the baleful aura, Zhou Qingfeng's cultivation speed was many times faster than that of ordinary cultivators.

This is a speed that others can only dream of, a cultivation speed that others wouldn't even dare to imagine.

Countless people are trapped in a food crisis for their entire lives.

Even if one is lucky enough to reach the Devouring Fiend Realm, so what?

Five hundred thousand coins of magical power—this is a number that would make most cultivators in the Devouring Fiend Realm feel despair.

It's like Zhou Qingfeng riding in a super luxurious carriage pulled by four horses, speeding along a wide and smooth road, while everyone else is still struggling along a rugged mountain path.

There's no way to compare them; there's simply no comparison.

Zhou Qingfeng was focused on his secluded cultivation. When he ran out of pills, he notified Jin Wei to send someone to bring them in. Time had lost its meaning at this moment. He only knew that every day of hard work would bring rich rewards.

Before we knew it, it was February 2nd, 1092, the end of winter, the Dragon-Swallowing Festival, during the reign of Emperor Gengshi.

While Zhou Qingfeng was still immersed in cultivation, he suddenly felt the surrounding evil aura dissipate instantly, and the environment returned to a white space. Zhou Qingfeng snapped back to his senses and didn't know what had happened for a moment.

A moment later, the rusted brain began to turn, clicking and rattling.

He slowly recalled that the ten years of cultivation time he was granted in the White Bone Foundation Building Tower had been completely exhausted after several trips in and out of the tower.

After a brief check of his own magical power, he found it had reached 214,620 coins.

"It's time to go out." Zhou Qingfeng said with difficulty. He hadn't spoken for decades and had almost forgotten how to speak. But speaking was an instinct, and once you learned it, you would never forget it.

After a short period of adjustment, I was able to speak fluently.

He slowly stood up, stepped out of the practice room, and walked down the steps.

As they walked out of the White Bone Foundation Building Tower, they saw the City Lord's Mansion decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers, filled with a festive atmosphere. More than ten servants were clearing snow. When they saw Zhou Qingfeng come out, they were all stunned.

Then a senior servant hurriedly dropped the broom and urged the new servant beside him to bow: "Are you blind? This is the fourth young master who is in seclusion. Hurry up and pay your respects."

The dozen or so new servants hurriedly clasped their hands in a trembling manner and bowed, saying, "We are your servants, Fourth Young Master."

Zhou Qingfeng nodded slightly and looked at the veteran servant, saying, "Do you recognize me?"

The old servant smiled obsequiously, "I had the honor of meeting you once before, on a day when it was snowing heavily. You had just come out of seclusion then. What a coincidence! Now that you've come out of seclusion, it's me again."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Qingfeng's rusty mind seemed to work for a moment, as if he remembered such a person: "Oh, so many years have passed, what position do you hold in the manor now?"

The veteran servant clasped his hands in response: "Young Master, I have worked diligently for the past ten years and have now become a supervisor in charge of the sanitation and environment around the White Bone Foundation Tower."

Zhou Qingfeng's face was blank, and his eyes were empty as he said, "Well, let's get back to work."

"Yes, Fourth Young Master." The veteran servant immediately led the other new servants to start working.

Zhou Qingfeng walked away with his hands behind his back, following the familiar yet unfamiliar road. He did not visit his master and mother immediately, but instead left the city lord's mansion and entered the bustling streets.

To quickly break free from rigid thinking, apathy, and indifference, one must awaken oneself with the warmth of everyday life and spend a few days with family and friends to quickly return to normal.

This is normal. Doing the same thing repeatedly for a long time alone can make you feel numb and like a cold stone. If you want to warm up, you have to immerse yourself in this hot, mundane world, observe all aspects of life, and experience the atmosphere of everyday life.

Fortunately, nearly ten years have passed, and the people of Sword Tower have a blurred memory of Zhou Qingfeng. Even if Zhou Qingfeng stood in front of them, they would not recognize him at first glance. However, they have not forgotten Zhou Qingfeng.

They still remember Zhou Qingfeng, who was ranked number one on the Heavenly Ranking. Whenever Zhou Qingfeng stepped onto the stage again, all the people of Sword Tower would cheer for him. Even now, there are still storytellers in teahouses telling Zhou Qingfeng's story.

"It's been almost ten years. Zhou Silang has disappeared since the Heavenly Pride Tournament. I really miss the days when he was around."

What do you miss about him?

"I miss him stirring things up. As long as he was around, he could always create a big commotion, and I could watch the excitement. The ten years he disappeared have been so boring. I don't even know what to say about him anymore."

"Haha, that's true. I suddenly miss Zhou Silang a bit too."

"Speaking of which, is Zhou Silang still in seclusion? With his talent and ability, he should have easily passed the mere Food Fiend Realm. Why isn't he showing up yet? I'm so bored!"

Zhou Qingfeng sat in the restaurant, enjoying the food and wine, listening to the idle chatter of the common people, and basking in the lively atmosphere around him. A smile slowly crept onto his lips: "The warmth and life of the world are what truly soothe the soul."

For the next few days, Zhou Qingfeng did not return to the Zhou residence. Instead, he wandered around the bustling city, using the alias Xiao Zhou to make acquaintances. Whether they were ordinary people, cultivators, the elderly, or children, Zhou Qingfeng could chat with them with a smile, just like a street urchin who did not have a proper job and wandered around the streets every day.

Once he felt he had recovered sufficiently, Zhou Qingfeng returned to the Zhou residence. There, he bathed and changed clothes, surrounded by beautiful maids, and transformed once again into a dashing young nobleman.

In the study, after congratulating Zhou Qingfeng on reaching the Food Demon Realm, Jin Wei began to report to Zhou Qingfeng on his work achievements in recent years and some things that Jin Wei felt were important and worth reporting.

"Young Master, the framework of the main city of the fiefdom has been built up over the years. The basic infrastructure such as the square, barracks, training ground, workshops, granaries, markets, and water canals has been completed, costing a total of 100 billion magic coins."

Zhou Qingfeng was practicing calligraphy when he heard the report. He looked up at Jin Wei and said calmly, "What about the population?"

Jin Wei bowed his head and reported: "Excluding slaves, the number of registered free people has increased to three hundred households, with a verified population of one thousand five hundred, half of whom are cultivators and half are ordinary people."

"The two of them, Zhiqi and Master Chen, are quite strict about the settlement. They believe in quality over quantity and require that each household must have a cultivator before they can settle down in the fiefdom with their whole family."

“Young Master, everything is difficult at the beginning. Building a city is an extremely costly undertaking in terms of money, manpower, resources, and time. It requires the painstaking efforts of several generations to complete. Spending 100 billion over ten years is already considered a very careful calculation.”

"Fortunately, the framework has already been established."

"Once things get on track, the investments we make now will yield substantial returns."

Zhou Qingfeng said calmly, "Yes, let the money circulate as much as possible. Keep some rare and precious items, and liquidate other items that can be traded on the market. Keeping so much money in hand is just dead money."

Jin Wei clasped his hands in a salute: "Young Master, I was just reporting this matter to you. Over the years, I have already cashed out everything that could be converted into cash, and most of the money has been invested in various industries in the local area. Currently, we are receiving very considerable dividend income every year."

"Moreover, a reserve personal guard has now been added to the mansion."

"These reserve guards were all composed of Zhou's household slaves, mainly consisting of 25 adult female slaves and 50 adult male slaves from the mansion, in addition to 150 young household slaves."

"The young servants are all children aged three to six that Miss Shui'er bought from slave traders. After years of training and constant indoctrination with the idea of ​​loyalty to the Zhou family and to you, the results are already beginning to show."

Zhou Qingfeng raised an eyebrow: "Oh, why did you suddenly decide to train servants, little sister?"

Jin Wei clasped his hands in response: "Miss Shui'er said that the Zhou family needs talented people to develop, but it also needs loyal servants."

“Even if a servant trained from childhood is mediocre, he is still trustworthy.”

"Moreover, the descendants of our servants will also be loyal to our Zhou family for generations to come and will never betray us."

Zhou Qingfeng said with a smile, "It seems that my sister has made progress in the past eight or nine years."

Jin Wei looked respectful: "Miss Shui'er has become increasingly formidable over the years. During your seclusion, she also participated in the Heavenly Pride Competition and won twenty-seventh place on the Heavenly Ranking, which once again boosted the prestige of the Zhou family."

Zhou Qingfeng nodded with satisfaction, then asked, "Where is Shui'er now? Where is Uncle? I've been back at the manor for half a day, and I haven't seen a single person."

Jin Wei clasped his hands in response: "Miss Shui'er and Uncle are overseeing the overall situation in the Zhou family's fiefdom with the reserve guard. You have just come out of seclusion, would you also like to go and inspect the fiefdom?"

Zhou Qingfeng became interested and placed the brush on the inkstone: "Then I'll have to go take a look."

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