"Thank you, Mr. Mu, thank you!"

After the Blood Demon was killed, Village Chief Hao came forward, still shaken, expressing his gratitude to Xiao Mu with a thankful look on his face.

"You're too kind, Village Chief."

Xiao Mu politely replied, casually discarding the now-charcoaled Peach Wood Sword.

The drawback of ordinary Peach Wood Swords is their low quality. Each use of the 'Furious Flame - Burn' technique would render it useless.

Regretfully glancing at Qing Yan's altar, Xiao Mu shook his head, "Unfortunately, not all of the spirit tablets survived. Old Xu devoured the Yin Spirits of Old Lady Zhou and Old Man Zheng."

After Old Xu transformed into an Evil Ghost and devoured the Yin Spirits of Old Lady Zhou and Old Man Zheng, the spirit tablets of all three shattered. Now, only three tablets remain on Qing Yan's altar. On the other hand, the tablets belonging to Xiao Mu were perfectly intact.

Village Chief Hao, still pale from the shock, had witnessed the whole scene of Old Xu transforming into an Evil Ghost and devouring the Yin Spirits of Old Lady Zhou and Old Man Zheng.

However, he did not blame Xiao Mu for this, as the responsibility lay with Daoist Qing Yan. If they had followed Xiao Mu's arrangement from the start, none of this would have occurred.

Village Chief Hao stated, "It's not Mr. Mu's fault. I saw everything. Actually, I should thank Mr. Mu, since if it wasn't for him, we probably would not have been able to save any of the spirit tablets."

Having said this, Village Chief Hao felt truly grateful.

When the spirit tablets are damaged, his Yin Virtue would definitely be affected as the person who lent the tablets. He could not escape responsibility.

If Xiao Mu hadn't acted in time to save the other spirit tablets, allowing all six to be destroyed—it was a scenario so damaging to his Yin Virtue, Village Chief Hao dared not even imagine it.

He had seen firsthand how Old Xu exacted his revenge on Old Lady Zhou and Old Man Zheng. By now, he had figured out that Qing Yan's rites of passing for them were meaningless.

Qing Yan could give rites of passing to Old Lady Zhou and Old Man Zheng because they were not the victims and could easily forget their misdeeds against others. However, he definitely could not do the same for Old Xu, because Old Xu himself was a victim.

Suddenly imagining a scene where Xiao Mu didn't kill Evil Ghost Old Xu in time, enabling Old Xu to destroy the remaining three spirit tablets, Village Chief Hao broke out in a cold sweat.

If that had happened, his own sins would have been substantial.

Reflecting on that, his gratitude towards Xiao Mu grew even more.

"Mr. Mu, don't worry, I will definitely try to persuade the Peach Ancestor to give you the Peach Wood," said a genuinely grateful Village Chief Hao.

"Thank you for that."

Xiao Mu expressed his gratitude.

Even though Qing Yan had fled and the Blood Demon was eliminated by him, he was originally supposed to receive the Peach Wood. However, having Village Chief Hao's assurance provided him an additional guarantee of obtaining the Peach Wood.

Next, Xiao Mu asked Village Chief Hao to call for people from the village to help dig open the altar.

Once the altar was dug open, a rusty, bloodstained iron cage was unearthed from below.

Such iron cages were used in ancient times to starve prisoners to death. This particular cage, which had likely been used to starve countless people, had become a highly ominous object after the world had mutated.

Fortunately, with the Blood Demon eliminated, the curse power on the iron cage was significantly weakened. Ordinary people would not be greatly affected as long as they didn't make long-term contact with the cage.

After instructing the villagers to destroy the iron cage and preferably to melt it down completely, Xiao Mu returned to the city with the Peach Wood he had acquired from the Peach Ancestor.

As soon as he returned to his place, Xiao Mu couldn't wait to take out the Peach Wood and use the Mutation Technique on it.

Being without a weapon always made him feel insecure.

There was no choice, for those who cultivated Taoist law, the importance of the Peach Wood Sword was immense. Without the Peach Wood Sword, one's personal strength would decrease by more than half.

Whether it is Dao Talismans or other spells, the power gap between using them with a Peach Wood Sword and without is considerable.

Out of gratitude to Xiao Mu, Village Chief Hao specifically asked a skilled carpenter from the village to craft the Peach Wood into a sword.

The sword was exquisite, carved with various patterns.

Xiao Mu placed his finger on the body of the Peach Wood Sword, selected Mutation for Magical Implements, and was slightly taken aback by the results.

It required two energy points?

To carry out the mutation on this Peach Wood, provided by the hundred-year-old Peach Ancestor, it required two energy points.

Luckily, Xiao Mu had enough energy points and carried out the mutation right away.

After using up two energy points, a brand new Peach Wood Sword Artifact appeared in front of Xiao Mu.

Immediately, Xiao Mu, who had planned to take his finger off the body of the Peach Wood Sword, noticed that the sword could undergo a second mutation.

This time, the energy points required had doubled to four.

As expected of the Peach Wood obtained from a hundred-year-old Peach Ancestor; compared to ordinary Peach Wood, not only did the energy points required for mutation double, but the number of mutations also multiplied.

After a moment of thought, Xiao Mu gave up the idea of carrying out a second mutation on the Peach Wood Sword.

He had other uses for the remaining five energy points, and could not use them all on this sword.

Only then did Xiao Mu attentively take a look at his Peach Wood Sword.

The shape of the Peach Wood Sword was unchanged, divided into three segments, corresponding to the Heaven, Earth, and Human trinity; The length was still two feet and four inches, corresponding to the twenty-four solar terms; and the variety of patterns carved on it corresponded to the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Beyond this, a peculiar pattern was faintly shimmering on the body of the Peach Wood Sword.

Thunder Patterns?!

A slight tremor ran through Xiao Mu's heart.

All of the magical implements in Taoism, fundamentally, share a characteristic: they all must be capable of Exorcism and Demon Suppression, with their ultimate power being the ability to trigger Heavenly Thunder.

The existence of thunder patterns on the surface of a magical implement indicates that the implement itself has gained a touch of thunder property.

This thunder property naturally injected an essence of Extremely Yang and Unyielding into the magical implement.

"Kara!"

Wielding the Peach Wood Sword, Xiao Mu made a casual sweep. The sound of the usually silent sword now faintly echoed with the sound of thunder.

"What a superb sword!"

Xiao Mu admired, absolutely falling for his brand new Peach Wood Sword.

Using this Peach Wood Sword against ordinary demons and monsters would likely be resolved with a single swing. He would not even need to use a Fire Talisman.

Speaking of Fire Talisman, Xiao Mu could not help but think of the Heavenly Talisman Scripture. The Heavenly Talisman Scripture he received was only the first part which included Fire Talisman as the only offensive Dao Talisman; The reputedly more powerful Thunder Talisman did not appear.

It seemed that the Thunder Talisman should be included in the latter part of the Heavenly Talisman Scripture.

He decided he needed to find an opportunity to get the latter part of the Heavenly Talisman Scripture. Having the Thunder Talisman would complement his newly acquired Peach Wood Sword.

However, the most important thing at the moment was to improve his Realm. He had to breakthrough the Spiritual Qi Realm and advance to the next Realm as soon as possible.

To improve the Realm, he needed energy points and ginseng.

He looked at the remaining ginseng and then at his bank card balance. Xiao Mu couldn't help but frown—it seemed he was out of money again.

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