Crow Immortal: I Can Duplicate Infinite Resources

Chapter 261: The Crow King

“This little brat is really giving this old Daoist a massive headache!”

Dressed in a faded Daoist robe and a bamboo hat, with his hands clasped behind his back, Old Daoist Li sighed heavily as he strolled down a bustling mortal street.

If he tried to return the Talisman Treasure, Han Yu would absolutely refuse it.

But holding onto it weighed heavily on Li’s conscience. It was a child’s trump card, a life-saving artifact. If the boy met with an accident because he lacked this exact item, Old Daoist Li would carry that debt to the grave. It was a debt he could never repay, especially considering the boy was the sole bloodline of that bastard surnamed Han and his beloved Wan’er.

He had to find a way to help the kid. He needed to do something to ease his own guilt.

Every time he dwelled on the matter, Old Daoist Li cursed the treacherous traveling merchant who had painted a target on his back. If not for that scumbag, he wouldn’t be agonizing over returning the Talisman Treasure. He could have just accompanied Han Yu to the Mystic One Market, or even taken the boy on a grand tour of the Southern Domain and the Central Heaven Domain.

Speaking of old debts, Ye Guxing had supposedly returned to the Spirit Sword Sect from the Eastern Sea Kingdom. Had he finally managed to slaughter the Saint Blood Perfected One?

Perhaps not.

The Saint Blood Perfected One’s survival instincts were legendary; pulling off a Root and Branch Elimination on him was nearly impossible. At worst, the demonic bastard would just undergo another drastic shift in temperament, erasing whatever shred of camaraderie or gratitude he still held for Old Daoist Li.

Han Yu had mentioned that the recent chaos in the Nanli Kingdom was sparked by the mortal Emperor colluding with the Demonic Cultivators under the Saint Blood Perfected One’s banner. They had assassinated Wanchun Valley’s stationed disciples specifically to harvest Blood Essence and destabilize the region.

Given that level of coordination, it was highly likely the Saint Blood Perfected One was still alive and pulling the strings.

Just as his thoughts drifted, Old Daoist Li’s eyes suddenly narrowed. His instincts flared.

Ahead of him, a peasant woman carrying a woven basket was walking briskly, her head bowed. She was on a direct collision course with him.

Without a single word, completely abandoning his disguise, Old Daoist Li triggered the Blood Escape Technique.

His body instantly dissolved into a streak of crimson light, launching vertically into the sky.

Almost simultaneously, the “peasant woman” and two seemingly ordinary pedestrians behind him exploded upward, giving chase. “Fascinating! How did you detect us? We were a hair’s breadth away from capturing you!”

Old Daoist Li didn’t look back, pushing his Blood Escape Technique to its absolute limit while cursing violently in his heart.

That damned traveling merchant! He actually found me again!

If he hadn’t spent decades surviving the grimy, treacherous underbelly of the Jianghu—witnessing countless petty thefts, poisoned blades, and back-alley ambushes—he would have walked right into that trap!

Wait. How did he track me? Old Daoist Li thought frantically. I haven’t set foot in a single Cultivator market recently. I’ve been actively avoiding him…

Pills. Blood Essence. The Sound Transmission Shell.

Those were the only three items he still carried from his trades with the merchant. Which one was the tracker?

He didn’t have time for a thorough investigation; he needed to amputate the risk immediately.

Glancing over his shoulder, he confirmed his pursuers were three Foundation Establishment realm puppets. They were fast, but they couldn’t match the sheer velocity of his Blood Escape Technique.

He ripped the Disguise Pills, the vials of Blood Essence, and the Sound Transmission Shell from his Storage Bag.

Once he had put enough distance between himself and the puppets, Old Daoist Li swooped down into a dense forest. He shoved the remaining two bottles of Disguise Pills deep into the hollow of a tree trunk, ten feet off the ground.

He rapidly swapped his robes, utilized a minor technique to Change his appearance, and rigorously scoured his body with Spiritual Energy to purge any lingering tracking markers.

Finally, Old Daoist Li severed a portion of his own energy to forge a blood avatar. He strapped his Storage Bag to the decoy, retaining only the Talisman Treasure Han Yu had given him.

“Let’s hope the merchant takes the bait…” he muttered.

If the merchant’s puppets successfully tracked down the blood avatar, it meant the tracker was either the Blood Essence he used for daily Cultivation or the Sound Transmission Shell he used to contact Han Yu.

Considering the worst-case scenario, a chilling, murderous intent flared in Old Daoist Li’s eyes.

If the Sound Transmission Shell was compromised, it wasn’t just him in danger. The merchant would eventually trace the signal straight back to Han Yu.

Realizing the catastrophic implications, Old Daoist Li instantly adjusted his trajectory, abandoning his northern route and tearing toward the southeast.

The Mystic One Market was in that direction, and Han Yu would be heading there to hunt for Spirit Stone Marrow Liquid.

If the Sound Transmission Shell was the culprit, Old Daoist Li had to intercept Han Yu and warn him to destroy it immediately. If he failed, he would be directly responsible for the boy’s death, rendering the Talisman Treasure he carried a sick, tragic joke.

After flying several hundred miles, Old Daoist Li landed in a secluded valley. He consumed a drop of his untainted Blood Essence and sat in meditation, slowly replenishing his drained Spiritual Energy.

Once fully recovered, he deliberately kept his pace slow. To definitively verify which of the three items was bugged, he had to give the traveling merchant ample time to hunt down the blood avatar.

If the merchant never found him again, he could finally breathe easy.

Han Yu opened his eyes, feeling lighter and more powerful than he had in months.

Having refined all eight Heavenly Secret Spindles, the offensive capabilities of his nine Star Luo Threads had skyrocketed. The absolute kill zone—the range where the threads possessed maximum velocity and lethality—had expanded to a thirty-foot radius.

This didn’t mean the Star Luo Threads were limited to thirty feet. He could extend them as far as his Spiritual Energy would allow. However, pushing them beyond the optimal thirty-foot radius drastically reduced their maneuverability and defensive flexibility, rendering them no more effective than the standard Heavenly Secret Threads used by the Little Sky Net Sect.

But within that thirty-foot sphere, the Star Luo Traction Technique was an absolute nightmare. It was a bizarre, unpredictable secret art that consistently caught Foundation Establishment Cultivators completely off guard.

Beyond weaponizing the threads, Han Yu had finally digested the complete Jade Slip for the Thousand Illusions Secret Art. His proficiency with illusionary clones, misdirection, Changing his appearance, and suppressing his aura had evolved to a profound level. Penetrating his disguises would now require an absurdly high Cultivation base.

The most significant triumph of this secluded Cultivation, however, was finalizing the Foundation Establishment path for the Blood Refining Technique.

Previously, upon reaching Blood Refining Foundation Establishment, his blood talismans had condensed into one hundred and eight refined blood pearls, each etched with intricate runic patterns.

Now, possessing the complete methodology, he had mapped the optimal circulation route for his Blood Essence and Spiritual Energy. He cycled the energy throughout his entire body, finally drawing it into his Danzhong acupoint, where it coalesced into a dense, crimson blood altar.

This blood altar functioned as an internal forge. It autonomously absorbed, refined, and converted raw Blood Essence into Spiritual Energy. For a standard Demonic Cultivator, this altar was a godsend; it allowed them to slaughter mundane mortals and slowly accumulate their weak, low-grade blood into usable Cultivation energy without suffering dilution.

For Han Yu, the altar itself was a secondary benefit. The true prize was the systematic methodology for circulating Blood Essence and steadily advancing his power. Attempting to forge a path to the Golden Core realm blindly would have been suicidal. By hijacking the established system utilized by Foundation Establishment Demonic Cultivators, he had secured a stable roadmap for his future Cultivation.

Ending his meditation, he stood and pushed open the heavy wooden doors of the ruined mountain god temple.

Instantly sensing their master’s emergence, the flock of crows descended from the canopy, swirling around him in a tempest of black feathers.

Han Yu smiled, reaching out to scratch the heads of the two nearest birds. Suddenly, he paused, interpreting the chaotic jumble of thoughts echoing from the flock.

“What do you mean?” Han Yu asked aloud, his brow furrowing. “You captured a Demon Beast?”

The crows cawed affirmatively, their voices rising in a deafening, rhythmic chorus.

Caw! Caw! Caw!

Driven forward by the relentless shrieking, a massive black bear, standing easily over ten feet tall on its hind legs, lumbered out of the tree line. It walked with a heavy, hesitant gait, constantly grumbling under its breath in a gruff, deep voice.

“Stop rushing me… stop rushing me, I’m comin’…”

The hulking beast reached the clearing before the temple, its massive shadow falling over the gentle-looking youth surrounded by crows.

The great bear hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then, with an earth-shaking thud that kicked up a massive cloud of dust, it dropped straight to its knees.

“The Bear King of Heifeng Mountain,” the beast rumbled, bowing its massive head, “pays its respects to the Crow King!”