183: Chapter 183 Seeking Yin-attribute items to strengthen the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm!

After the zombie incident in He Ming County concluded, only a few days had passed before Elder Rat set out from the Northern Mountain Range.

He did not take many followers, leading only twelve Late Stage Qi Refining Gray Rat Demons, split into three groups, as they slipped out of the Yunjian Mountain Range under the cover of night.

"Boss, where are we going?" Rat Two followed behind, his back laden with a large bag of empty Storage Pouches.

"He Ming County."

"He Ming County? Wasn't it already cleared out?"

Elder Rat offered no explanation, merely casting a glance.

Rat Two stopped asking and followed silently. Having been with the Boss for so many years, he had learned one thing: ask less, do more.

Outside the city of He Ming County. The abandoned graveyard, having been cleared, was in shambles.

The Formation Hall Disciples had already withdrawn, and the Spiritual Vein fissure had been sealed, but the ground remained littered with the crushed bone fragments of zombies and the Yin Qi that had seeped into the soil.

The Disciples of White Cloud Temple only cared about killing zombies; they naturally had no desire to do the work of cleaning up the aftermath.

Yet, what Elder Rat wanted was precisely this "trash."

"Collect." Elder Rat crouched behind a tombstone and gestured with his claw.

The twelve Gray Rat Demons scattered and began rummaging through the ruins. Zombie bone fragments, evil Yin-tainted soil, residual Yin Qi crystals...

These waste materials, which were worthless in the eyes of ordinary Cultivators, were all scraped up by the gray rats and stuffed into Storage Pouches.

"Keep the bones intact, don't break them; the Yin Spirit Rat can use them for bone refining."

"There are condensed Yin crystals in that soil; dig deeper, don't leave a single piece behind."

Rat Two dug for quite a while before holding up a black crystal the size of a fist, with a cold, eerie Spiritual Qi flowing across its surface...

"Boss, the quality of this thing is quite good."

Elder Rat took it and examined it for a moment, his nose twitching.

"A Low Grade Tier 2 Corpse Yin Crystal. This thing is quite rare; it seems those Cultivators from White Cloud Temple didn't check very carefully."

"This thing could sell for about a hundred Spirit Stones. However, we aren't selling it."

"Save all these Yin-attributed resources; I'll send them to Rat Three when there's time."

Rat Three, the Yin Spirit Rat, was the one currently stationed in the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm.

He Ming County was just the first stop. Over the next two months, they visited six locations.

Throughout the entire jurisdiction of the Ming Prefecture Northern Protectorate, wherever zombies had appeared, Elder Rat would bring his people to "clean up" after the White Cloud Temple Disciples had finished their sweep.

The rat demons were extremely stealthy; ever since they started cultivating the Wind Path, their Wind-Concealment Evasion Technique could be called peerless!

The Spirit Rats traveled underground, leaving no traces. Once they arrived at a location, they would rummage through everything, take what they wanted, and then retreat.

At every location, the rat demons would sift through the remains and bone fragments... while Rat Two would identify the valuable Yin-attributed resources.

Elder Rat personally selected the best quality Yin crystals, evil bones, and tainted soil.

"This batch is better than the last." Inside a wild Yin cave that had been cleared, Elder Rat tallied the harvest.

Six Corpse Yin Crystals of varying quality, the best one approaching Medium Grade Tier 2.

About twenty fragments of beast bones stained with Yin Qi, three jars of purified Yin-attributed spiritual soil, plus a few Spirit Stones that had been gnawed on by zombies, covered in strange Yin Qi patterns.

It wasn't a massive haul, but it added up.

"Boss, these Yin objects... are we really going to send them to that place?" Rat Two asked in a low voice.

"Yes."

"But these things are, after all, evil Yin items. If the Sect finds out..."

"What would the Sect find out?" Elder Rat glanced at him. "We are cleaning up the battlefield and clearing away filth for the Sect; we're just picking up some unwanted waste while we're at it."

"This is called recycling waste."

"If the Old Ancestor hasn't said it's not allowed, then it's allowed!"

Rat Two was rendered speechless and scratched his head, deciding not to say anything more. That was true, after all.

Few people in White Cloud Temple cared about what the Spirit Rat Lineage did. These broken bones and rotten soil would just pollute the environment if left there, so it was actually a good thing that Elder Rat took them away. As for what they were used for, that was no one else's business.

Every three months, Elder Rat would arrange a long journey. He wouldn't go himself; the distance was too great, and the round trip would take too long—the internal affairs of the Spirit Rat Lineage could not function without him.

He sent two experienced rat demons. Their cultivation wasn't high, both were at the Late Stage of Qi Refining, but they were cautious, clever, and fast.

These two gray rats carried the Yin-attributed Spiritual Materials collected over three months. They traveled through underground secret passages, exited the jurisdiction of the Northern Protectorate, crossed most of Ming Prefecture, bypassed Huang Province, and arrived at Di Province.

Wandu Mountain Range, Broken Soul Ravine. Behind that moss-covered stone wall, the entrance to the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm remained tightly concealed.

The two gray rats took the supplies inside, completed the handover with the Yin Spirit Rat, Rat Three, and then returned along the same path, the entire journey taking no more than twenty days. They remained hidden along the way, and all was peaceful.

Inside the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm. Compared to six months ago, this dilapidated little Secret Realm had undergone quite a few changes.

The Yin Spirit Rat, Rat Three, had been managing this place for quite some time with twenty low-level rat demons.

In the center of the basin, the originally collapsed palace complex had been partially repaired. Although the roofs of several side halls were patched crookedly, they were at least able to shelter against the wind and rain.

Six caves were dug behind the halls to serve as living quarters for the rat demons.

Over at Gale Gorge, the Hurricane Demons that had been slaughtered by the other demons were now reappearing as juveniles from the crevices in the rock walls.

Rat Three did not kill them all. Although these Hurricane Demons were evil creatures, their existence served as a resource in itself; they could be repeatedly hunted as a food source for the rat pack.

Later, he even set up a simple expulsion Formation at the entrance of the gorge to block the Hurricane Demons deep within the canyon, preventing them from running to the basin to cause trouble.

As for the Yin-attributed Spiritual Materials that Elder Rat had been sending, they were quite good. Rat Three cultivated the Yin Spirit Dao.

Yin-attributed resources were scarce, and this batch of resources solved his urgent needs. Later, he even found a place with heavy Yin Qi and opened up a new cave.

It was specifically used to refine and store these Yin resources. He embedded Corpse Yin Crystals into the cave walls, spread Yin spiritual soil on the bottom, and arranged the bone fragments in a special pattern, forming a place to gather Yin Qi.

He was a Yin Spirit Rat, naturally having an affinity for Yin Qi. The main attribute of Nine Winds Valley was Wind, which had limited help for his cultivation, but this artificially created Yin Qi cave perfectly made up for that shortcoming.

Here, he could both temper his body using the Wind-attributed Spiritual Qi in the Secret Realm and Cultivate his life-bound Cultivation Technique in the Yin Qi cave. One Yin, one Wind—both were balanced.

"In a few years, once I've saved up more high-quality Yin objects, I'll try to see if I can Cultivate a small plot of Yin Spiritual Field at the southern end of the Secret Realm."

"Then I can plant Yin-attributed Spirit Medicines like Yin Nether Grass or Ghost Orchid, becoming self-sufficient."

Rat Three's ambition was not great, but his ideas were pragmatic. With the back-and-forth, this secret line of Nine Winds Valley was running more and more smoothly.

The Spirit Rat Lineage was quietly operating a second base thousands of miles away, which could also be considered Shi Jian's second foothold.

No one knew about this. Even the Sun and Zhao families were completely unaware; after all, one should not put all their eggs in one basket.

White Cloud Temple was certainly good, but one must always plan for a rainy day. This Nine Winds Valley was the retreat Shi Jian had prepared for himself.