Fantasy: Starting with a bowl, you can exchange it for endless cultivation.

"Is that so? That's wonderful!" Cheng Mengling exclaimed with delight.

Chen Lei is going to be removed from his position because of this incident.

Then, in the desolate state, wouldn't we no longer have to worry about being targeted?

And there's Brother Gu.

He has been promoted to the first rank and is to be transferred to a prefecture to serve as the head of the Night Watch.

The head of the Night Watch of a prefecture directly controls the Night Watch of more than a dozen cities and more than fifty counties under his command.

They have more power now.

With Brother Gu, the head of the Night Watch of the prefecture, protecting them in the future, the Cheng family's business scale will be able to double again.

That's really amazing!

"Okay." Gu Chen nodded and said, "Call Wei Zhong here. Let's resume our usual routine today and begin refining pills."

"For the next month, until my new appointment is officially announced, I will be staying at the Cheng family's residence," Gu Chen said.

"Okay, Brother Gu, no problem." Cheng Mengling nodded and continued, "Brother Gu, our Cheng family has collected another batch of that special alchemy material in the past half month."

"Oh, okay, bring them over together later," Gu Chen said.

They also collected another batch of materials for refining the Red Copper Elixir.

Not bad.

Refine this copper pill again to increase the protective divine runes of the copper body to eighty.

He would then be able to ignore attacks from late-stage Transformation Realm cultivators.

Then came the ninety questions.

Ninety protective divine runes are a hurdle. Once ninety protective divine runes are condensed within the body, a red copper protective shield can be formed, resulting in a qualitative change.

It can directly resist attacks from those in the early stages of the Core Formation realm.

He should be able to finish it before he takes office.

"Yes." Cheng Mengling nodded, and then arranged for Gu Chen to stay in a quiet house.

She then went to inform Wei Zhong to have someone move Gu Chen's alchemy furnace over, while she went to prepare the alchemy materials.

On that day, everything was ready.

Due to time constraints.

Gu Chen only refined three batches of pills.

Two furnaces of the fifth-grade innate sacrificial elixir, and one furnace of red copper elixir.

The two batches of sacrificial pills earned him 1,200 taels of silver, bringing his total silver holdings to over 60,000 taels.

He spent 30,000 taels of silver to purchase materials for refining a new batch of red copper elixir.

He was left with 30,000 taels.

The new batch of red copper pills also increased the number of protective divine patterns on his red copper body to eighty, enabling him to condense protective true energy.

It can ignore attacks from the late stage of the Sea Transformation Realm.

Meanwhile, in Zhongzhou...

As soon as Shangguan Wuqing returned, he approached Qin Ming and initiated a high-level meeting.

They discussed the affairs of the Night Watch in the desolate region.

He directly listed Chen Lei's various erroneous decisions and ultimately proposed impeaching Chen Lei from his position as the head of the Wilderness Guard.

Ultimately, the Night Watch's high-level decision-making team made its decision based on various considerations.

He agreed to Shangguan Wuqing's proposal.

Chen Lei was removed from his position as the Chief of the Night Watch of the Wilderness State.

Li Xianghe was appointed to take over the new position of Chief of the Wilderness Guard.

Li Xianghe, a first-rank Venerable.

He is the disciple of Qin Ming, one of the two deputy directors of the Night Watch who are at the half-step terrestrial immortal level.

People from Shangguan Wuqing's faction.

Qin Ming is the leader of their faction, and his stance is to support the current second prince of the Divine Dynasty in his struggle for the throne.

And Gu Chen.

He was also advised by Shangguan Wuqing to be promoted to the sixth rank and go to a prefecture to serve as the head of the Night Watch.

The proposal was passed immediately.

It was even personally approved by the current Lord of the Night Watch.

He himself is very interested in Gu Chen.

Besides him, he was the second person in the entire Divine Dynasty to comprehend the "Four Beasts Celestial Phenomenon Technique".

Gu Chen was assigned to the prefecture where he would take up his post, which was the Li Huo Prefecture.

With He Teng eliminated, the position of Director of the Night Watch Division of Li Huo Prefecture became vacant.

It's a good time to send him to take up his post.

This way, he doesn't have to wait; he can go through the entire process and take up his post immediately.

The process will take a month.

So after Gu Chen received the news...

We can't go there immediately either.

He had to wait until the procedures were completed and the official seal was issued and handed to Gu Chen before he could take up his post.

In the following period, Gu Chen resumed his previous life.

He spent his days refining pills and his evenings dedicating an hour to studying the secret technique of attacking the soul, striving to achieve mastery as soon as possible.

At the same time, he used his own true essence and divine soul power to nurture the top-grade earth-rank weapon, the Blood Transformation Blade.

After this period of nurturing, his connection with the Blood Transformation Blade has deepened, and they have begun to resonate.

There are absolutely no problems using it.

It was even more fitting than when he used the Fire Profound Blade.

The destructive power of sword techniques is also greater.

The Blood Transformation Blade is, after all, a top-grade Earth-rank treasure weapon. If it is nurtured to develop spirituality, it can be upgraded to a Heaven-rank treasure.

That's a weapon that only experts at the Heaven and Earth Realm can use.

By nurturing oneself with true essence, it becomes easier to connect with others.

Meanwhile, the Yamamoto family in the island nation...

Soon, they also received news that all the strongmen they had sent to Yuehai County in the desolate state a few months ago, and the new stronghold they had just established, had been wiped out by the Night Watch.

The desolate state is located in the southeast, near the Ten Thousand Mountains to the south.

Of the four prefectures within its borders, only Yuehai Prefecture is close to the coastline and has an outlet to the sea. Moreover, because it is located in the southeast, it is not subject to stricter regulations than the eastern prefectures that are directly connected to the island nation and the Divine Dynasty.

In the past, the resources they smuggled from Yuehai County were quite substantial.

But ever since Liu Xun was killed...

They then encountered setbacks one after another in Yuehai County.

They wanted to establish a base, but couldn't.

They finally managed to find He Teng, and just as they were about to transport the first batch of supplies, the Night Watch discovered them and wiped them out.

Not only did they lose the money they used to bribe He Teng, but so many members of the Yamamoto family also died.

Fortunately, they didn't send over the first-grade spiritual herb, Peiyuan Ginseng, that they had promised He Teng.

Otherwise, even that ginseng would probably be lost.

The Yamamoto family decided to send another group of strong individuals, ultimately assigning one fourth-rank and three fifth-rank experts to oversee the situation.

We must re-establish our base.

We cannot lose the Yuehai County area.

And we must find out exactly what happened in Yuehai County.

How could a stronghold that would never be discovered in previous years have been raided so many times in less than half a year this year?

Could it be that some powerful figure has arrived at the Night Watch?

From the Yamamoto family in the island nation, a new batch of powerful individuals began to set off on their way.

Meanwhile, Gu Chen...

But they were unaware of it.

He continued to steadily accumulate wealth according to his own pace.

Meanwhile.

In the desolate state, in Zhenshi County.

Gushan County is a county town located near the Shiwan Mountains.

It is located in Datong Village, a village under the jurisdiction of Heixiong Town.

The town's constables, the county's yamen runners, and the county's night watchmen—several powerful figures gathered here.

Seeing the tragic state of Datong Village, everyone frowned deeply.

In Datong Village, a population of over a thousand, all of them died.

Moreover, most of them were never found.

Only a few corpses, devoured by demons, and some severed limbs remained.

Judging from the situation, it seems that the entire village has been eaten or abducted by demons.

After the town's constables discovered the situation, they immediately reported it.

The county government and the night watchman arrived immediately.

The head of the night watch in Gushan County was a man named Dong Kui. After examining all the traces at the scene, he...

Preliminary assessment suggests that the massacre was committed by demons from the Ten Thousand Mountains.

But upon closer reflection, something felt off.

The only demonic force near Gushan County is the Black Bear Demon.

They also frequently deal with it.

The leader of the Black Bear Demons was an old black bear at the fourth level of the Innate Realm, and that old bear was extremely timid.

Even if its bear demons were to come out and eat people, it would instruct them to exercise restraint to avoid attracting powerful Night Watchers to annihilate them.

It would never dare to come out and openly devour the villagers of a village on the border of the Divine Dynasty.

If we do that...

It knew it was doomed.

It wasn't it that did it; it was probably other demons in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

It's possible to devour over a thousand people in one go without a word getting out. How many demons would it take to do that?

These demons are usually quite undisciplined. If you send them out of the Hundred Thousand Mountains to eat people, they will only howl excitedly and bite and kill people indiscriminately.

But they wouldn't surround the entire village, otherwise it would be strange if one person escaped.

He had a vague feeling that the tragedy in Datong Village might not have been committed by demons, but by someone else, and that the demons were just a cover.