Chronicles of the Green Vine: A Mortal’s Path to Immortality

A quarter of an hour later, Zhang Ling selected three magical artifacts: a small black and yellow banner, a piece of cyan-gray circular jade pendant, and a small golden mirror.

All three magical artifacts were extremely special. The small banner was obtained from the fat cultivator he killed when rescuing Mu Xiaoyan; it was a demonic artifact.

Such artifacts are called Soul Banners or Hundred Soul Banners by cultivators. Most of them are refined with many Yin souls and fierce spirits, and their power depends on the residual souls within. It is said that when the Yin souls reach a certain number, their power is stronger than ordinary high-grade artifacts.

It is also said that powerful high-level cultivators refine similar magical treasures.

Therefore, many demonic cultivators refine this kind of artifact. The Yin Soul Banner in his hand contains about thirty Yin souls, all around the mid-stage of Qi Refining, and two main souls with the strength of the late-stage of Qi Refining, making it a top-tier high-grade artifact.

Zhang Ling took this artifact because he was optimistic about the possibility of the Yin Soul Banner advancing to a top-grade artifact, but he had not learned the corresponding spells and could only find time to look for refining methods.

Next, the golden mirror was also quite powerful. The black-robed man once used this treasure to kill a first-order late-stage demon beast with one blow, demonstrating considerable power.

The last circular jade pendant was only a high-grade artifact, but it could conceal one's aura and was a special type of artifact. Wu Shan relied on this artifact to follow several sect disciples without being discovered.

For immortal cultivators, anyone can use means to hide their figure, but it is not easy to hide their aura. Even if he obtained the secret Blood Refining Transformation Technique from Old Mu, although he could change his appearance, his aura would not change.

If someone is proficient in secret arts such as tracking, or has cultivated aura observation techniques, they can lock onto him with just a wisp of aura.

With this artifact, concealing himself in the future would be even more perfect.

Next, Zhang Ling selected one offensive and one defensive artifact from the remaining artifacts. After all, his tortoise shell shield was damaged during the Blazing Flame Valley trip, and the Black Sword artifact also had cracks and could no longer be used.

Although the cyan silk thread and Cold Star Sand were good, their attack power was not strong. The Golden Brick artifact was slow to control, and if the enemy was prepared, they could easily dodge the attack.

For the offensive artifact, he chose Wu Shan's black dagger, which was also quite special.

The dagger was only a foot long and had a small mechanism on it. The delicate, cicada-wing-thin dagger that Wu Shan used to sneak attack him could be embedded on it.

Activating this artifact was equivalent to using two artifacts. If used well, it might be possible to sneak attack other cultivators.

The defensive artifact he chose was a yellow jade牌 (pái, plaque/tablet), which was a full-body defensive artifact that could activate a layer of yellow light to protect the whole body.

After picking out the artifacts, Zhang Ling put them away.

Of course, he did not forget the powerful White Bone Beast Claw. This was the first top-grade artifact he obtained, and it would become a deadly weapon.

……

Then, looking at the items on the table, Zhang Ling's expression was somewhat hesitant.

A bronze ghost mask, a piece of black paper, and a long-necked white jade bottle. He could not figure out the use of these three items.

The bronze ghost mask looked ordinary, but there was no change when spiritual power was injected into it.

He increased the injection of spiritual power, but it was still bottomless. Being able to absorb spiritual power meant it was not an ordinary item. In a quarter of an hour, Zhang Ling injected 20% of his spiritual power into the bronze mask, and finally some changes occurred.

The ghost face on the mask suddenly lit up its eyes, emitting a faint green cold light, as if it were alive. It looked a little eerie, and a thin layer of gray spiritual power also appeared on the entire mask.

With a thought, Zhang Ling wanted to activate this group of spiritual power to see, but as soon as his divine sense approached the gray spiritual power, a stinging sensation was transmitted.

Zhang Ling quickly stopped the spiritual power. The bronze mask shook a few times and fell to the ground, and the gray spiritual power on it flashed and dissipated.

The bronze mask seemed to be a special artifact. It seemed that it could not be used without a corresponding driving method.

However, this kind of thing usually has some origin, Zhang Ling thought, and with a wave of his hand, he put the mask away, and could only study it when he had time later.

He picked up the black paper and looked at it carefully. Apart from the black color, the paper was the same as ordinary paper, but it could not be torn even with spiritual power, and he did not know what material it was.

Using the same method, he injected spiritual power into it. This time, changes occurred in the black paper after only half a quarter of an hour.

Under the injection of his spiritual power, it continued to lengthen, and the black paper became a long strip of black paper one foot wide and two or three feet long, like a scroll. Densely packed silver characters vaguely appeared on it. The characters were very small and difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. He put his divine sense on it and carefully observed it.

Zhang Ling only looked at it for two breaths before withdrawing his divine sense. What was recorded on it seemed to be a cultivation technique, but he did not recognize any of the characters on it.

The silver characters were like an ancient script. Suddenly, his brow furrowed as he remembered something. With a wave of his hand, a piece of gold foil appeared in his hand. This was something he obtained when he encountered two cultivators fighting on his way to Falling Star City.

One side of the gold foil recorded a sword control spell called Illusion Sword Technique, and the other side was also a strange script.

After arriving at Falling Star City, he was busy with cultivation and alchemy, and he did not have time to cultivate the Illusion Sword Technique on it. If he hadn't seen the characters on the black paper, he would have forgotten about this thing.

Carefully comparing the characters on the gold foil and the black paper, the two scripts were very similar.

The script used in the current cultivation world is the ordinary script used by mortals. Although the scripts of some countries are different, the overall difference is not big.

Although immortal cultivators generally use this script, there is not only one script in the cultivation world. Instead, there are many ancient scripts, and it is said that there are also some demon scripts, barbarian scripts, and other alien scripts.

Ancient Immortal Script, Divine Seal Script, and Silver Tadpole Gold Script are all said to have been passed down by cultivators from the upper realm. The most widely circulated script today is evolved from Ancient Immortal Script.

Some long-standing sects generally use ancient scripts to record their techniques and secret arts. This script is collectively referred to as Immortal Script.

Thinking of this, Zhang Ling's eyes dimmed, and he thought of his grandfather. Since he was a child, he had been educated by his grandfather to read and write. He didn't expect that he was still illiterate now.

It seems that he has to find Old Mu.

The old man's Guangyuan Studio is a bookstore and has collected many books. His understanding in this area must be clearer than him. Then he put away the black paper and gold foil, and turned his attention to the only thing left on the table.

"White Jade Bottle"

He didn't know what was inside. This strange jade bottle weighed thousands of pounds. There was also a black talisman on it. How could this kind of artifact be in the hands of a Qi Refining cultivator? Zhang Ling was full of doubts.

He vaguely felt that the things in the jade bottle were not something that Qi Refining cultivators could move.

After studying it for a while, Zhang Ling shook his head, took out an empty storage bag, and wanted to put the jade bottle away separately with a thought.

Just as he put his hand on the jade bottle, the jade bottle suddenly flew up into the air. Zhang Ling was stunned, and immediately sensed the divine sense power of another cultivator enveloping him.

Zhang Ling's face froze, he slapped the table with one hand and flipped up, his body instantly moved to the other side of the stone house.

At the same time, a spiritual power shield appeared on his body, protecting him in it, and he also took out two magical artifacts.

A large amount of Cold Star Sand formed a black sand wall in front of him. The other magical artifact was a yellow small shield. The earth and rocks on the ground flew up and condensed on it, and a yellow light flashed, turning into a half-person-high shield, blocking in front of him.

After doing all this, Zhang Ling looked at the entrance of the stone house with a gloomy expression. A silver-haired old man in a blue robe appeared there at some unknown time.