Yang Hong paid no mind to the Nascent Soul cultivators who were weeping with joy.
They were old and only wished to prolong their lives.
He selected ten ordinary seeds of each of the seven grains, and three seeds of each of the top-grade grains, and then he stopped.
His gaze then fell upon the gourds.
These Guangyou gourds were interesting, with natural fibers growing inside them, like array patterns, forming a magical natural formation.
Consequently, the interior space of these gourd islands was significantly larger than they appeared from the outside.
"Fellow Daoist Ni, give me some seeds of this Guangyou gourd as well."
Yang Hong saw that Ni Zhennan and the other old men had calmed down, no longer jumping about, and made a new request.
"No problem. We'll consider the seeds of the Guangyou gourd island a gift."
Upon hearing Yang Hong's request, Ni Zhennan agreed immediately without any hesitation.
If Yang Hong hadn't come to purchase grain seeds and discover the problem with them, the Guangyou island might have become demonized by some unknown day, and they wouldn't have even known the cause.
Therefore, Yang Hong had to be thanked properly.
"Then I won't be polite."
Yang Hong was also not one to stand on ceremony. He accepted the storage bag handed to him by Ni Zhennan and began to examine it.
"Fellow Daoist Ni, you might need to inspect all the seeds on the Guangyou island, or else consider migrating."
After examining the seeds in the storage bag, Yang Hong shook his head, took out a bean-sized green seed, and crushed it forcefully.
Under Yang Hong's spiritual sense separation, a wisp of grey demonic energy appeared in his palm.
"The demonic energy in these Guangyou gourd seeds is too strong, isn't it?"
*Snap*
Yang Hong exclaimed, and then a flame appeared, directly burning away the wisp of demonic energy.
However, the fear Yang Hong had imagined from Ni Zhennan and the others did not appear; it seemed they already knew.
As expected, Ni Zhennan quickly offered an explanation.
"Fellow Daoist Yang, you may not know this.
The greatest characteristic of the Guangyou gourd is its ability to absorb demonic energy and constantly compress it into the seeds.
We use these seeds, along with spiritual techniques to activate them, to turn these seeds into heavenly thunderbolts, which we use to attack enemies."
"These Guangyou seeds are one of the reasons why the Guangyou island has been able to withstand attacks from the demon race."
"Fellow Daoist, please come this way, and I will demonstrate for you."
When it came to the Guangyou gourd seeds, Ni Zhennan was somewhat proud. The method of using seeds as bombs was invented by him.
This was his most得意 (de yi - proudest) method.
As for the formation of the Guangyou island, it was left by the previous island master and did not count as his achievement.
Everyone arrived outside the main hall and found a random open space.
Ni Zhennan began his demonstration.
"Fellow Daoist Yang, watch closely."
He placed a third-grade Guangyou gourd seed in his left palm, formed hand seals with his right hand, and began chanting.
"Heaven is clear, earth is turbid, fire is yang, water is yin. Yin and yang gather, water and fire are yin."
As the hand seals and incantations ended, the previously calm seed became violent and unstable.
"Go!"
With a push of Ni Zhennan's spiritual power, the seed flew directly into the air.
*Boom*
The seed exploded only after flying to an altitude of over 200 zhang.
"Holy cow!"
Yang Hong was taken aback. A seemingly ordinary third-grade spirit plant seed had erupted with the power of a fifth-grade common spell.
Although it was triggered by Ni Zhennan, who was at the fifth-grade Nascent Soul stage, Yang Hong could see that the true essence and spiritual power he had just used were at most at the second-grade Foundation Establishment stage.
This meant that as long as there were enough third-grade Guangyou gourd seeds and a certain number of second-grade Foundation Establishment cultivators, the Guangyou island could continuously unleash vast amounts of fifth-grade spells to fight enemies.
"What do you think, Fellow Daoist?"
Ni Zhennan looked at Yang Hong with a smug expression, not hiding his pride at all.
"These Guangyou gourd seeds are indeed very good."
Yang Hong did not lie and praised them directly. Then he took out two early seventh-grade demon cores.
"Fellow Daoist Ni, I want 10,000 seeds of each grade of Guangyou gourd."
"Hiss—two more seventh-grade demon cores!"
Ni Zhennan immediately noticed the two demon cores in Yang Hong's hand. They were not the late seventh-grade one from before, but two early seventh-grade ones.
This indicated that Yang Hong had killed more than three seventh-grade Demon Lord-level demonic beasts.
The other several Nascent Soul old men trembled upon seeing these two demon cores.
They secretly regretted having offended such a formidable and terrifying person just now,
And they were also afraid.
Afraid that Yang Hong might suddenly decide to eliminate them too.
"Fellow Daoist, although Guangyou gourds are widely cultivated on the Guangyou island, due to the limited spiritual energy concentration of the island, we primarily cultivate second and third-grade Guangyou gourds. Fourth-grade are only grown in small quantities,
And we haven't cultivated fifth-grade ones yet."
Ni Zhennan swallowed and continued.
"I can authorize giving you 100,000 seeds each of the second and third grades. However, I can only give you 100 seeds of the fourth grade, as there are many demon races eyeing us from the surrounding areas.
"If~if~ Fellow Daoist is willing to add that late seventh-grade demon core, I can give you 1,000 fourth-grade seeds."
Hearing Ni Zhennan's conditions, Yang Hong rolled his eyes and put away the two seventh-grade demon cores again.
Was Yang Hong someone who lacked second and third-grade spirit plants?
Even if the Guangyou gourd was special, exchanging second and third-grade seeds for a seventh-grade demon core was truly audacious of Ni Zhennan.
Yang Hong's goal was fourth and fifth-grade seeds.
Ni Zhennan only wanted to offer 100 fourth-grade seeds and didn't mention fifth-grade seeds at all. Did he think Yang Hong was blind?
Before entering the Guangyou island, Yang Hong had scanned the island with his spiritual sense and discovered fifth-grade spirit plants.
He had taken a closer look just now and indeed saw gourd vine-like plants.
Suddenly, Yang Hong's expression froze for a moment, then he smiled.
"Fellow Daoist, if you really don't want to trade, then forget it.
I'm not in a hurry, truly not in a hurry."
Saying this, he crossed his arms and looked towards the southwest.
"Fellow Daoist Yang, this~ can the price be negotiated? I'll make a sky-high offer, and you can bargain down.
Perhaps, if you counteroffer, I might agree?"
Yang Hong was not in a hurry, but Ni Zhennan was.
Yang Hong could do without the Guangyou gourd seeds, but Ni Zhennan desperately needed seventh-grade demon cores.
"Heh heh~ Not in a hurry~ Not in a hurry."
As Yang Hong's voice faded, a red light pillar shot up into the sky from the southwest and exploded,
A giant red arrow pattern lit up in the air.
Immediately, the urgent alarm sounds of "Dang~dang dang~" approached from afar.
"Not good! Red alert!"
"Activate the defensive formation, prepare everyone."
"Qi Refining cultivators lead ordinary people to nearby shelters; Foundation Establishment and Integration stage cultivators spread out for reconnaissance."
"Golden Core cultivators~ Golden Core cultivators gather here."
In just a moment, the twelve Nascent Soul old monsters arranged things tensely but orderly.
Their familiar actions clearly indicated that this was not their first time encountering such a situation.
Four Nascent Soul old monsters flew out in four directions and stood at the four corners of the sky.
The other eight rushed into a large hall. They didn't even have time to greet Yang Hong.
In just over thirty breaths, the island-protecting formation that had blocked Yang Hong earlier was deployed again.
"Whoa~ they are really efficient."
Yang Hong couldn't help but exclaim.
Then, a smile with an unreadable meaning appeared on his face as he looked towards the northwest.