Staying Alive Cautiously in the Celestial Realm and Becoming the Strongest

After refining their Golden Core, cultivators' Divine Sense would be greatly strengthened, allowing them to practice the Technique of Heavenly Hearing and Earthly Perception.

Nascent Soul True Immortals could even have insight into the land for thousands of miles.

Wang Chen's breakthrough to the Breakthrough Mansion stage had not been long, and of course, he did not have such ability.

But his Divine Soul was far stronger than that of cultivators of the same tier, hence his range of Perception via Divine Sense was comparable to that of a high-tier Purple Mansion!

His Perception, following his Divine Sense, extended in all directions, steadily covering the entire village.

Then, he activated the Clarify Technique!

This Purple Mansion Tier spell, combined with his own Divine Sense, could penetrate deceit, detect demons, and see the truth. When cultivated to the highest realm, it would expose all kinds of ghosts and evil spirits in their true form.

Wang Chen had put a lot of effort into the Clarify Technique and had already reached the Great Achievement realm, not much short of Grandmaster.

The moment he activated the Clarify Technique, his vision suddenly changed.

Instantly, he "saw" different things!

Datian Village had more than three hundred households with over four hundred tile-roofed houses, among which a dozen exuded a faint black mist, rising and writhing like baring fangs and brandishing claws.

Wang Chen was startled.

He had been the village head of Datian Village for some time now, yet there were so many Evil Wraiths hiding right under his nose.

Of course, the presence of these black mists did not necessarily mean that Evil Wraiths were hiding within them.

But the village had long been invaded by evil, and the undeniable fact that many households had shown signs of evil!

Wang Chen's thoughts raced, and he immediately flew towards the house nearest to him that showed anomalies. Explore more at empire

He landed directly in the courtyard and swung his sleeve to push open the tightly closed door of the inner house.

Bang!

The family of four hiding inside were all startled, staring blankly at Wang Chen who burst in.

Wang Chen's gaze swept across the room and he flicked an Evil-Repelling Talisman towards an old woman.

A burst of Spiritual Light suddenly exploded, enveloping her completely.

The old woman screamed involuntarily, emitting wisps of black smoke from her body, which were then dissolved by the Evil-Repelling Spiritual Light!

The next moment, she passed out.

"It's okay now,"

Wang Chen told the others, "She was invaded by evil power, but I have expelled it completely; you need not worry."

The old woman had not been possessed by an Evil Wraith, but she had been contaminated with a significant amount of Evil Power. Without Wang Chen's discovery and expulsion, she would have inevitably succumbed to evil over time.

There would have been no chance of saving her.

Now at most, it was considered an affliction by evil; after expelling the Evil Power, she only needed to rest for a while to fully recover.

The problem truly wasn't serious.

Wang Chen, fearing her family might develop feelings of repulsion due to fear, took the time to explain a few words.

After speaking, he turned and left, hurrying to the next house to expel evil.

In the dozen or so households that were locked on, there was no second Evil Wraith, so the resolution was still rather easy.

But after cleaning up Datian Village, Wang Chen called the three esteemed elders to the Village Head Residence.

He asked, "Does the village have an Evil-Repelling Artifact?"

An artifact referred to could be a Spiritual Artifact, Magical Treasure, or Spiritual Treasure, etc., mainly used to expel Evil Spirits and suppress the fate of a place, far surpassing ordinary magic artifacts in function.

The most typical example was the Fixed Sun Bell in Cloud Mountain City, said to be a third-tier Magical Treasure forged by a Golden Core True Person. It guarded the central hub of the City Protecting Great Array of Cloud Mountain, automatically ringing every two hours, its sound reaching a hundred miles around.

Anyone hearing the Fixed Sun Bell would immediately know the time.

But the most important use of this treasure was to intimidate and drive away Evil Wraiths!

Datian Village of course could not compare to Cloud Sun City, but this was the West Sea Spirit Domain, and the situation was very different, thus Wang Chen needed to understand this to plan for the long-term peace and security of the village.

"There is one."

The elders' reply startled Wang Chen, "Originally, the village had an Evil-Repelling Drum."

This large drum was a second-tier Spiritual Artifact and belonged to the public property of Datian Village, originally placed in front of the Empire Land Temple.

Whenever an Evil Wraith invaded the village, the Evil-Repelling Drum would automatically sound, warning the villagers while repelling the Evil Wraith.

Although the ranking of the Evil-Repelling Drum was not high, and it could not handle powerful Evil Spirits, its alarm function was significant.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Wang Chen, curious, asked, "Where is it now?"

The three elders looked at each other, and one of them awkwardly said, "It had always been in Huang Deqi's hands."

As it turned out, Huang Deqi had claimed the Evil-Repelling Drum as his own a long time ago, only displaying it around the New Year.

His reason was to protect the public property, to maintain and care for this Spiritual Artifact on a daily basis.

Everyone knew this reason was far-fetched, but who dared to object?

Now that Huang Deqi had been arrested and vanished without a trace, all his property had been confiscated. Where could they find the Evil-Repelling Drum?

After hearing this, Wang Chen was also at a loss for words.

This Master Huang was truly greedy, even encroaching on the Evil-Repelling Drum that guarded the village. He probably would have stopped a manure cart passing by his house to taste if it was salty or not.

After thinking it over, Wang Chen asked, "How many Spirit Stones for one Evil-Repelling Drum?"

An elder replied, "Thirty to fifty thousand Spirit Stones."

The price really wasn't expensive!

After all, this was a second-tier Spiritual Artifact.

"Well then,"

Wang Chen mused, "Draw up a charter and buy an Evil-Repelling Drum to protect the village and guard against the invasion of Evil Spirits."

It's hard to guard against Evil Wraiths, and he couldn't possibly watch over the village every day. Having the Evil-Repelling Drum as a watchdog would save him a lot of worries.

However, Wang Chen certainly didn't intend to foot the bill again.

He had already contributed a lot of supplies and Spirit Stones to form the Guard Squad of Datian Village.

Did they really think Wang Chen was a big fat mark?

The three elders also understood this reasoning. After exchanging glances, one elder hesitated before saying, "Huang Deqi has a store in Wan City."

Wan City is the only county town within hundreds of miles around, governing hundreds of surrounding villages, with a dense population and bustling commerce. The prices of the shops in the city were not low.

Even with a slightly worse location, it'd be easy to exchange for an Evil-Repelling Drum.

Wang Chen wondered, "But Huang Deqi has already been raided, hasn't he?"

The workmanship of the Patrol Guards in raiding houses was extremely precise. Wang Chen had visited Elder Huang's mansion before and saw that all the items worth Spirit Stones had been taken, leaving only an empty shell behind.

How could the lease for a shop in the city be spared?

The elder explained, "One of his shops was registered under the clan's name."

I see!

Wang Chen didn't care about the reasons for Huang Deqi's shop registration; as long as he didn't have to pay out of his own Storage Bag, it wasn't an issue.

"Then sell the shop and exchange it for the Evil-Repelling Drum!"

The Huang surnamed elder's eyes twitched, and he gritted his teeth to reply, "Yes!"

He was actually very reluctant to do so, as the value of the shop was extremely high. Originally, after Huang Deqi's downfall, if it really reverted to the clan, everyone could have gotten a share.

But he had to bring it out; after all, others knew about this shop's existence.

If he didn't voluntarily speak up and someone else reported it to Wang Chen behind the scenes, that would be too passive!

Elder Huang had no choice but to make the painful decision to part with it.

--------

Here's the second update.