Becoming an immortal and ancestor begins with the golden toad spitting out money.

Chapter 97 A Heart with Seven Apertures: A Glimmer of Hope After Darkness (10,000-word update completed today!)
"That was a really good night's sleep!"

After the desolation of the battle, perhaps due to the effects of drunkenness or the sense of security brought by Mo Linglong, Su Ji slept soundly without any psychological burden this time.

The sleep seemed to have lasted a long time, but in reality, only half an hour had passed. The death tornado was still howling and rushing into the sky, while the riverbed was littered with demons and ghosts.

"To prevent the prisoners' noise from disturbing your sleep, Miss Mo Linglong specially sealed them off within the Di Yang River..."

As Yan Tianchou recounted the events, Su Ji learned what had happened in the past half hour.

Mo Linglong personally subdued all the opposing cultivators and rewarded those who helped her.

The five people—the Wang family cultivator, the two day-roaming spirit soldiers, the Ren family cultivator, and Zhao the镖头 (镖头 is a nickname for a镖师, meaning镖师 who has been searching for a person), all obtained a mid-grade Earth Yang Stone in addition to the treasures they found, which is equivalent to each person obtaining four or five hundred strands of divine power.

"Each medium-grade earth yang stone is of a different size, ensuring that everyone who lends a helping hand receives roughly the same amount of benefit... That's fair enough!"

Thinking of this, Su Ji shifted his gaze from Mo Linglong to the peculiar stone with five holes, where some of the unsolved questions were answered.

Why does Mo Linglong have so many mid-grade Earth Yang Stones?

It naturally comes from the earth's yang spiritual vein beneath the cave!
The two waves of treasures that flew out with the death tornado were nothing more than second-rate items used to block the road; the real treasures had all been collected by Mo Linglong.

Moreover, the location where those medium-grade earth yang stones are stored is precisely this stone with five orifices.

Yan Tianchou continued, "Just now, Miss Mo Linglong mistook me for your alter ego and told me some secrets..."

"This Five-Aperture Stone is the core of the Earth Yang Spiritual Vein, also known as the Heart of the Yang Vein. It is the most essential part of the entire Earth Yang Spiritual Vein, with spiritual energy flowing through it and nurturing the top-grade spiritual medicine, the Flesh Lingzhi."

"This thing was originally the size of a house, but Miss Mo Linglong used a secret method to collect it, and it has been reduced to about a foot in size."

"Miss Mo Linglong said that if she takes out the mid-grade spiritual materials inside, the Five Aperture Heart Stone containing the power of heaven and earth can shrink even further."

"Similarly, it was because high-grade spiritual items would affect the shrinking size of the Five Aperture Heart Stones that they were all thrown up here."

"As we have seen, mid-grade earth spirit stones that exceed a certain size will shatter in the death tornado, while the much harder high-grade spirit materials all arrived at the ground unharmed..."

Normally, although mechanical spirit beasts can move, they can only perform simple actions.

To truly control a mechanical spirit beast, one must either use spiritual awareness to manipulate it or allow one's soul to enter its body.

Yan Tianchou was tainted by Su Ji's Heavenly Soul aura, so Mo Linglong naturally regarded him as Su Ji's clone.

However, Yan Tianchou knew his identity and didn't ask Mo Linglong too many questions.

Now that Su Ji has woken up, he finally has the opportunity to find out what happened.

So, as Su Ji got up and headed towards Mo Linglong, the telepathic message arrived: "Fellow Daoist Mo, you mentioned in the message from the mechanical spirit beast that the treasure had not yet met your expectations. Could it be that there is something wrong with the Five Aperture Heart Stone?"

In order to ask Su Ji for help, Mo Linglong directly gave him a mid-grade excellent Fire-resistant Spirit Robe and promised him a mid-grade flawless mechanical puppet spirit heart... It can be seen that the Five Aperture Heart Stone is quite valuable.

Judging from the unique storage power of the Five Aperture Heart Stone, the value of this treasure is probably measured in tens of thousands of strands of divine power.

Mo Linglong seemed to have known Su Ji would ask, and couldn't help but sigh: "Since Fellow Daoist Jin is my partner and has gone to such lengths to help me, he is naturally entitled to know some information."

"The Five Aperture Heart Stone, although it contains the spiritual essence of the earth's yang veins, is far from meeting my expectations."

"My situation is extremely serious; what I need is a Seven-Orifice Heart Stone..."

It turns out that Mo Linglong did not die young, but rather her body developed some problems. Not only did her body stop growing, but she also fell into a state of apparent death.

Despite spending decades, Qianbian Town still couldn't resolve Mo Linglong's physical problems. In the process, Mo Linglong severed a portion of her Heavenly Soul and Human Soul. Due to the prolonged delay, Mo Linglong's black hair had turned white, and her life force was constantly fading.

To avoid any regrets, the fourth-generation successor of Qianbian Town, Old Man Qianji, came up with a brilliant idea: to transform Mo Linglong's body into a state that was half flesh and blood and half spiritual weapon.

Mo Linglong herself has mastered the metal-type spirit pattern and is not lacking in power sources. The only thing she lacks is a spirit artifact heart that contains yang energy.

Therefore, the earth yang spiritual veins of the Great Sun Spirit Realm in each county became the target of Thousand Changes Town.

In some counties, outsiders are not allowed to enter the Earth Yang Spirit Vein of the Great Sun Spirit Realm, let alone take the heart of the Earth Yang Spirit Vein. The problematic Earth Yang Spirit Vein in Jinfeng County has become one of the best targets for Qianbian Town.

“A spiritual artifact heart…a true humanoid magical artifact!” Su Ji was shocked.

The human body is made of flesh and blood, and finding a suitable spiritual material is extremely difficult. Yet, Thousand Changes Town dared to think and act, and now only the most crucial spiritual artifact, the heart, remains.

The heart is not only the power source of blood, but also the most powerful muscle group in the body, which is exactly the opposite of yang.

Moreover, the heart of the Earth Yang Spirit Vein contains the power of heaven and earth, which can not only store a large amount of energy such as Earth Yang Stones, but also set up formations within it to control the entire body.

Su Ji's heart skipped a beat: "Putting aside the fact that Mo Linglong's body has stopped growing, she's fallen into a state of suspended animation, which is more like brain death..."

"The current approach taken by Thousand Changes Town is to use the crafting of mechanical artifacts to allow Mo Linglong to control all the mechanical artifacts in her body through the seven orifices of her heart, thus enabling her to live a normal life..."

If it were anyone else, they probably wouldn't even be able to gather all the spiritual materials. Only the mechanical masters of Thousand Changes Town could achieve such an astonishing result.

The only mistake was that the Earth Yang Spirit Vein in the Great Sun Spirit Realm of Jinfeng County only contained the Five Aperture Heart Stone, which, although more valuable, was not what Mo Linglong of Qianbian Town wanted.

"We didn't succeed this time, but we have other options. There's a suitable Great Sun Spirit Realm in Lunzhou in June, we can try there then..."

After explaining the whole story, Mo Linglong smiled sincerely on her slightly bitter face: "Instead of thinking about the future, let's focus on the present. I have already apprehended all those with ill intentions and am waiting for you to wake up so I can deal with them!"

The so-called "dealing" could be ordering them to apologize, or it could be punishing them by making them do something.

Su Ji looked at the many cultivators in the Di Yang River and his eyes lit up.

"The spirit of the Kitchen God is old and frail. Let him go after leaving behind twenty years of fire energy!"
"The Qian family monks' collection of the drunkenness and smell of alcohol from intoxicated people has already become entangled with evil magic. I request that you two colleagues take them directly to the City God Temple for investigation."

"All the treasures of the nine demons, including Firebird Yanchong, have been confiscated. Among them, five demons, including Red Ape, had resisted stubbornly not long ago, so they will come with me to dig a pit..."

"By the way, Firebird Flame, this is the second time you've offended me, so I'll add another penalty: you'll be a mining supervisor!"

Mo Linglong obtained many treasures from the Earth Yang Spirit Vein at the source of the Death Tornado. Although Su Ji had already received a considerable reward, it did not stop him from digging for treasure.

"Firebird Yanchong going to be the supervisor of a group of demons and ghosts is indeed a brilliant strategy of using one barbarian to control another!"

Seeing that Su Ji had finished dealing with the matter, Mo Linglong knew that this cooperation was also coming to an end, so she continued, "Now that this matter is settled, Fellow Daoist Jin can collect his reward at the Ghost Market tonight... If you have time in June, we may come again to invite you to continue our cooperation."

With that, Mo Linglong picked up the Five Aperture Heart Stone and looked at the mechanical spirit beasts beside her, preparing to take them with her as she left the Great Sun Spirit Realm.

The mechanical spirit beast suddenly flew towards Su Ji, then looked left and right, seemingly trying to say something.

Mo Linglong seemed to understand Su Ji's meaning, and a hint of difficulty appeared on her face: "Although Yuan Yuan is also of mid-grade flawless quality, it was specially crafted for exploring the Earth Yang Spirit Vein..."

Su Ji simply smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist Mo may not know, but the reason I had these cultivators dig the pit for me was not just as a punishment, but also to dig out the treasures hidden beneath it."

"The pit I'm referring to is very likely the core location of the Earth Yang Spiritual Vein more than two hundred years ago. Perhaps it contains not only treasures, but also the Earth Yang Spiritual Vein Seven Aperture Heart Stone that you need!"

(End of this chapter)