I am a Late Bloomer in the Immortal World Chapter 465: Refining Spirit Crystals, Unexpected Blessing

Seeing that Wei Tu agreed, Nangong Zhe finally relaxed, letting out a quiet sigh of relief.

Three spirit crystals—this was the lowest price he had planned to offer publicly. If Wei Tu had demanded more, he would’ve declined the deal outright.

But truthfully, because of the silver-haired woman's instructions, he didn’t dare let the price negotiations fall apart and ruin his chance to recruit Wei Tu.

Now that Wei Tu hadn’t pressed the matter, this outco was clearly in Nangong Zhe’s favor.

"According to custom, the paynt will be delivered in two installnts. Fellow Daoist Wei, I hope you're clear on that."

Nangong Zhe reminded him.

As he spoke, he turned over his palm and produced a cooperation spirit contract, handing it toward Wei Tu.

Wei Tu didn’t mind. After all, he was just a guest cultivator in the Blood Flood Dragon rchant Guild, not soone they would completely trust. It was only natural that they wouldn’t give him the entire paynt upfront.

He nodded slightly and lifted his hand, drawing the spirit contract from midair with his magic power.

After briefly inspecting it and confirming nothing was amiss, he casually stowed it into his storage pouch.

This so-called “cooperation spirit contract” was basically just an IOU that the Blood Flood Dragon rchant Guild would fulfill after the task was done. There was no need to take it too seriously. One copy for each party—simple as that.

On this matter, neither Wei Tu nor Nangong Zhe thought the other would risk starting a feud just to avoid paying a few spirit crystals.

After all, both a Nascent Soul elder and the Blood Flood Dragon rchant Guild had reputations that were worth far more than this paynt.

With everything wrapped up, Nangong Zhe didn’t linger. After giving a reminder to Ying Ziming, he cupped his hands in farewell and left.

Half a day later—

A female Golden Core cultivator arrived at Wei Tu’s residence, respectfully delivering the agreed-upon deposit from Nangong Zhe.

The deposit was exactly one spirit crystal.

More precisely, it was a wood-attribute spirit crystal.

It was about the size of a baby’s fist, not neatly cut like ordinary spirit stones. Its surface was rough and uneven, with a flickering green glow that seed almost alive.

Still, just judging from its appearance, it didn’t look more valuable than a top-grade spirit stone—not sothing worthy of being called a “source spirit stone.”

Wei Tu paused for a mont, then released a soft green glow from his palm and touched the wood-attribute spirit crystal.

The mont he did, he felt his own magic power being slowly drawn out by the crystal.

It didn’t feel like a dead object—it felt alive.

"Golden Sun-Gazing Eyes." Wei Tu muttered as he activated his eye technique, peering into the crystal.

Inside the spirit crystal, besides the abundant pure wood spiritual energy, he saw a thin, hair-like strand of condensed deep-green light drifting around within.

After absorbing so of Wei Tu’s magic power, this green strand grew slightly stronger and shone even more brightly.

'That strand of light must be the source aura that distinguishes a spirit crystal from an ordinary spirit stone,' Wei Tu thought.

Without delay, he stepped into the cultivation chamber of his cave abode, sat cross-legged, and began channeling the Divine Wood Origin Technique to absorb the source aura from the wood-attribute spirit crystal.

Not long after, the crystal’s source aura was pulled by his technique into his ridians.

The mont it entered—

Wei Tu instantly felt a surge of vibrant, life-filled energy spread throughout his body. He was filled with a refreshing clarity.

Even more than the feeling in his body, it was his inner Nascent Soul that reacted. The little figure inside him suddenly grew plumper, as if it had been starved for ages and finally had a full al.

"One spirit crystal equals seven years of hard cultivation for !" Several days later, Wei Tu completely refined the energy and source aura within the crystal. Delighted, he spoke aloud.

Now, for the first ti, he saw a clear path to rapidly raise his Nascent Soul level and head toward Divine Transformation.

That path was: refining large quantities of spirit crystals!

If one crystal saved him seven years, then what about ten, or one hundred?

If he had over one hundred spirit crystals, wouldn’t that an he could advance from early-stage Nascent Soul to mid-stage in an extrely short ti?

But just as the thought ford, he quickly shook his head and dismissed such unrealistic fantasy.

A few years back, at a high-grade auction, the top Nascent Soul cultivators there had only bid with a few to a dozen spirit crystals each.

That ant their entire net worth was probably around twenty to thirty crystals.

In other words, if he wanted to get over one hundred spirit crystals quickly, the only real option was to act like a bandit and hunt down four or five veteran Nascent Soul cultivators.

But those old cultivators were no pushovers.

Back when he and Cao Mi killed Master Hongjing, it had taken everything they had.

And Master Hongjing had been one of the weaker ones among early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

Even though Wei Tu now had dual Nascent Souls in body and magic and had grown much stronger, taking down veteran Nascent Souls was still a risky task.

Still, Wei Tu wasn’t disappointed.

After all, here in the Guixu Sea cultivation world, he’d found a clear path to rapidly increase his Nascent Soul strength—sothing Nascent Soul cultivators in the main Great Cang cultivation world could only dream of.

Compared to them, he truly was lucky.

As for spirit crystals…

He might not get a large amount any ti soon, but his cultivation path was still long. There was no need to rush.

The agreed ti for Wei Tu and Nangong Zhe to strike against the Spider Heart Sect was half a year later.

Half a year was short. If you took travel ti into account, Wei Tu didn’t have many days left on Yuanjun Island.

Before leaving, he wanted to exchange updates with Cao Mi about their recent movents.

After all, once he left Yuanjun Island, it wouldn’t be strange if sothing went wrong along the way and he was delayed for several years—or even over ten years.

If Cao Mi thought he’d disappeared without a word and panicked, exposing her identity, it could ruin everything. He would regret it deeply.

Before parting ways, the two of them had already agreed on a secret code for contact.

Because of that, it didn’t take long for Wei Tu to get in touch with Cao Mi, who was still healing from her injuries.

Of course, to be safe, they didn’t et in private. Instead, they arranged to “coincidentally” cross paths at a specific ti and place.

Monts later, the two passed by each other like strangers.

"Spirit crystals?"

"Didn’t expect to find sothing like that in the overseas cultivation world…"

After walking so distance, Cao Mi paused and quietly mulled over what Wei Tu had just told her.

High-grade auction.

Breaking through Body Cultivation Stage Four.

Refining spirit crystals.

Those three major updates from Wei Tu naturally made her focus on the part about what he gained after refining spirit crystals.

After all, spirit crystals would benefit her too.

But after thinking about it a bit more, Cao Mi restrained herself and suppressed her growing interest.

With her years of experience leading the Moon Condensation Palace, she clearly knew when to do what.

She also understood how foolish it would be to ruin her long-term plans just for a small gain.

Right now, what she needed to worry about most was recovering from her injuries. Everything else could wait.

…

Several days later.

Wei Tu and Ying Ziming departed from Yuanjun Island, heading toward the Blood Flood Dragon rchant Guild’s branch—Jinglei Island.

Jinglei Island Branch was the third-largest among all of the Blood Flood Dragon rchant Guild’s branches.

Because of the ongoing conflict between the guild and the Spider Heart Sect, this branch had inevitably gotten dragged into the fight and had sent a request for help to headquarters four years ago.

But since the Blood Flood Dragon rchant Guild had been on the losing side, Nangong Zhe had only offered verbal support and never actually sent reinforcents.

So now, Wei Tu, Ying Ziming, and the seven Golden Core cultivators under them were the first actual reinforcents Jinglei Island had received.

"Jinglei Island’s branch leader is Yan Gongcheng. That guy’s always been the opportunistic type. With the Spider Heart Sect rising, he might’ve already defected."

"Brother Wei, you should be careful with him."

On the way to Jinglei Island, Ying Ziming hesitated for a mont, then offered Wei Tu a warning.

"Oh? Brother Ziming, you know this Yan Gongcheng well?"

Hearing that, Wei Tu raised an eyebrow in surprise and quickly followed up with a question.

Before assigning the task, Nangong Zhe had indeed ntioned so intel about this branch leader Yan Gongcheng.

But none of it suggested he might’ve turned traitor, like Ying Ziming was implying now.

"Brother Wei, you wouldn’t know. About a hundred years ago, I worked with Yan Gongcheng for a while. I’ve been familiar with his character ever since."

"It just didn’t seem right to badmouth a colleague, so I never ntioned this to Guild Leader Nangong."

Ying Ziming paused for a mont to explain.

Hearing that, Wei Tu was slightly relieved. So this was just Ying Ziming’s personal judgnt—not sothing the Blood Flood Dragon rchant Guild had known and deliberately hidden from him.

'But could Nangong Zhe really not know that Yan Gongcheng might betray them?' Wei Tu’s eyes flickered slightly as he thought.

He didn’t believe that soone as shrewd as Nangong Zhe would overlook sothing this crucial.

Maybe, like Ying Ziming, Nangong Zhe didn’t want to criticize a fellow cultivator without proof… but it seed more likely that he was hiding sothing else.

As for what that “sothing else” was, Wei Tu couldn’t even guess.

Of course, he could just be overthinking it—but in the cultivation world, being suspicious was always better than being too trusting.

Because the latter could cost your life.

After that, Ying Ziming fell silent again and didn’t say much more to Wei Tu.

The two continued their journey without further conversation.

Four months later.

They arrived at Jinglei Island as scheduled, a sea island on the southern edge of the Donghua Demon Kingdom.

But just before they landed, Wei Tu suddenly raised his brow. A flash of golden light passed through his eyes as he looked toward the cloud-filled sky ahead.

Seeing this, Ying Ziming imdiately grew alert. He’d already had doubts about the Jinglei Island Branch before taking on this mission.

With his experience, he easily guessed that Wei Tu had likely used a spiritual eye technique to spot sothing unusual.

"It’s the Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect and the old sect master of the Divine Stone Sect. Two Nascent Soul cultivators are lying in wait to ambush us," Wei Tu said cautiously.

With his current mastery of the Golden Sun-Gazing Eyes, it was hard to detect the presence of those veteran Nascent Soul cultivators. But before approaching Jinglei Island, he had already released the Dragon Glaze Pearl and used Ancestor Chìlóng’s power to scout the surroundings.

Those two cultivators were detected by Ancestor Chìlóng and then subtly revealed to Ying Ziming by Wei Tu, as if he had discovered them himself.

As for the details on those two…

These two, one a well-known figure of the Spider Heart Sect, the other an allied friend of the sect… of course the intel the Blood Flood Dragon rchant Guild gave him had already listed them.

"What? Those two are here too?"

Ying Ziming’s face changed slightly.

Although the strength of the Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect and the old sect master of the Divine Stone Sect—both early Nascent Soul cultivators—wasn't much different from his, if Yan Gongcheng from Jinglei Island Branch sided with them, then things would be very bad for him and Wei Tu.

They had no advantage in terrain or allies. Winning wasn’t even worth thinking about—escaping in one piece would be lucky.

"Damn it! What kind of trash intel did Nangong Zhe give us!" Ying Ziming cursed aloud.

According to the original plan, he and Wei Tu were to support Jinglei Island Branch and join forces with Yan Gongcheng to take down the Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect in a three-on-one.

Even if Yan Gongcheng betrayed them, a two-on-two wouldn’t be too bad.

But now, it was two versus three. He and Wei Tu basically had no other option but to retreat.

"Let’s go—get out of here first!"

Wei Tu didn’t charge in. His thoughts matched Ying Ziming’s—they needed to escape first and deal with the rest later.

Three spirit crystals weren’t worth dying for.

As soon as he finished speaking, Wei Tu flicked his sleeve, wrapped his magic power around the four Golden Core cultivators behind him, and vanished in a flash of green light.

The technique Wei Tu used wasn’t his trump card—the Blood Curse Ghost Escape—but just the escape technique stored in his natal magic treasure, the Thunder Spirit Ruler. Still, his speed outmatched many Nascent Soul cultivators. Average cultivators couldn’t even co close to chasing him.

Seeing that Wei Tu had even taken an extra “burden,” Ying Ziming felt a bit grateful but didn’t hesitate. He wrapped his magic power around the remaining three Golden Core cultivators and fled in the opposite direction.

On the other side.

The Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect and the old sect master of the Divine Stone Sect had already laid out a grand formation, waiting for Wei Tu and Ying Ziming to walk into the trap. Seeing them suddenly flee, both were stunned for a mont, confused by their sudden action.

But they quickly realized what had happened—the two had noticed sothing was wrong and ran first.

"Hold on. Don’t chase yet. They might be doing this on purpose, trying to lure us out and test the situation inside Jinglei Island."

Old sect master of the Divine Stone Sect stopped the Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect, who was ready to give chase. He paused and said thoughtfully.

"Also, don’t you still have that tracking artifact for those seven juniors?"

"Even if they really did run, we can chase them down afterward without wasting much ti."

He added the reminder casually.

"Right! That makes sense." Hearing that, the Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect paused and waited again patiently.

He didn’t believe that Wei Tu and Ying Ziming could so easily discover their ambush.

If their formation was that easy to detect, they wouldn’t have used it to ambush the two in the first place.

But—

Ti passed.

Still, neither Wei Tu nor Ying Ziming showed any signs of returning to Jinglei Island.

"They really ran!"

Soon, the Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect and the old sect master exchanged looks and ca to the sa conclusion.

Fortunately, the Holy Son still had the locator artifacts tied to the seven Golden Core cultivators Wei Tu and Ying Ziming brought with them, so they weren’t too disappointed.

"Let’s go after Ying Ziming first."

Sensing their locations from afar, the Holy Son saw that Ying Ziming’s escape speed was a bit slower and he was also closer, so he imdiately made the call.

Monts later, two lights—one purple, one yellow—shot up from Jinglei Island and chased in the direction Ying Ziming had fled.

…

anwhile, Wei Tu had no idea that because his escape was just a bit faster, he’d managed to avoid a deadly ambush.

Even if he had known, he wouldn’t have cared much.

With his strength, he couldn’t take on the Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect and the old sect master at once, but with the Blood Curse Ghost Escape, getting away from them wasn’t difficult at all.

Half an hour later.

Once Wei Tu felt he was far enough to be safe, he stopped and let down the four Golden Core cultivators he’d brought with him, instructing them to return to the Yuanjun Island headquarters.

If everything had gone as planned, those seven Golden Core cultivators would’ve helped ease the manpower shortage at Jinglei Island.

But now, things had changed.

Keeping them around would only turn them into cannon fodder—or worse, fuel for his Blood Curse Ghosts. Better to send them back.

"Thank you, Senior Wei!"

Hearing this, the four Golden Core cultivators looked as if they’d been granted a royal pardon. Their escape lights flared and they scattered in all directions.

Although Wei Tu and Ying Ziming hadn’t told them the reason for fleeing, they weren’t stupid. With a bit of guessing, they figured out how dangerous things must be on Jinglei Island.

Now that they didn’t have to risk their lives, they were more than grateful.

After watching them go.

Wei Tu turned around and looked toward Jinglei Island. His gaze flickered slightly as he stroked his chin, clearly hesitating.

In terms of pure strength, he wasn’t a match for the combined force of the Holy Son of the Spider Heart Sect, the old sect master of the Divine Stone Sect, and Yan Gongcheng. But in other aspects… that was another story.

He just wasn’t sure if now was the right ti to take that risk.

‘Fortune favors the bold. I’ve got the Blood Curse Ghost Escape, and now that I’m free of baggage, they should fear —not the other way around.’

‘Jinglei Island Branch probably has a lot of spirit crystals!’

‘This situation might not be bad luck after all—it could be a lucky break.’

Greed stirred in Wei Tu’s heart as he quietly thought to himself.