Lin Shiming watched as the Demon Cultivator retreated back into the demonic fog, which was also slowly receding into the Tongtian River.
The anxiety Lin Shiming had been holding slowly dissipated, as an intermediate grade Spirit Stone was continuously being absorbed in his hand.
This time, he had killed a total of seventeen Foundation Establishment early stage cultivators. Even though he picked the seventeen whose cultivation strength was clearly from the Zhao Kingdom faction of the Foundation Establishment families, weaker than the formal disciples of the Corpse Refining Sect and Heavenly Demon Sect.
But the consumption of his True Yuan was indeed substantial, enough to completely deplete a Foundation Establishment middle stage cultivator under normal circumstances.
This time, he had gone all out. His Divine Sense of the late Foundation Establishment phase was revealed, along with his full mastery of the Purple Wood Heart Sutra and Wood Vine Technique. Even the Red-haired Demon Monkey was exposed, which could be said to be all his cards thrown out within a short period of time, except for the Purple Wood Profound Heavenly Sword Formation.
Next time there's a major battle, probably even late Foundation Establishment cultivators will be targeting him.
But by then, what of it?
Lin Shiming couldn't help but smile at the thought.
Once this great battle was over, he planned to exchange for a Cave Heaven Bead, then go out and retrieve the Golden Winged Mantis and a superior grade Spirit Stone, and with that, break through to the Foundation Establishment middle stage in one swoop.
By then, with a superior grade Formation Sword in hand, he really wouldn't fear ordinary late Foundation Establishment cultivators.
"But what about the Zi Xuan Hermit?" Lin Shiming suddenly frowned, thinking that once the battle was known, the Zi Xuan Hermit would probably suspect whether there was something wrong with his Purple Wood Heart Sutra.
The Zi Xuan Hermit had already tested him once before on Fangmu Mountain.
He could only hope that the Zi Xuan Hermit would put it down to his latent Spiritual Body.
Lin Shiming shook his head, no longer thinking about it. Today's all-out effort was unavoidable for him, unless he was willing to repeatedly engage in sneaky battles. But having seen the Corpse Refining Sect and Heavenly Demon Sect, even Purple Mansion cultivators would resort to sneaky attacks without any dignity of the strong—slowly killing in such a way posed an even greater risk.
Of course, his biggest concern was how long the Zhao Kingdom could hold out.
The cultivators of the Heavenly Demon Sect and Corpse Refining Sect completely relied on waging war to sustain themselves, gaining corpse refining materials and essence souls by killing.
On the other hand, the Zhao Kingdom cultivators, at most, got some insignificant blood corpses and some demon banners after killing their enemies, and with the Zhao Kingdom cultivators' techniques, these weapons were hardly effective.
If a Purple Mansion cultivator of the Zhao Kingdom died this time, next time, the Corpse Refining Sect would have one more Corpse General.
Afterwards, he returned to the courtyard with the group. Along the way, many Foundation Establishment families were sending messages to the Lin Family, hoping to form alliances.
If at the beginning, the Foundation Establishment families had confidence in expelling the Corpse Refining Sect and the Heavenly Demon Sect seeing the Beast Taming Ring Treasure in the sky, now after countless deaths, even losing relatives and martial brothers to the Corpses and fiends within the Demon Flags, they only wished to survive this war.
Meanwhile, the strength displayed by the Lin Family was enough to move them.
"Father, mingle with these families more, but remember not to make promises, nor to alienate them!" Lin Shiming advised, noticing the families that wanted to get acquainted, and sent a message to Lin Houyuan.
Even with the Zi Xuan Hermit taking care of things above, Lin Shiming still felt some distrust towards the Sect Cultivators and also didn't want to put all his bets on them.
While these Foundation Establishment families might look insignificant, their abilities to gather information and survive amidst chaos were not to be underestimated.
Interacting with them more was definitely not a bad thing.
Lin Houyuan nodded and after discussing for a short while, Lin Shiming went with Lin Xianzhi to the Demon Slaying Tower to exchange for treasures.
In front of the Demon Slaying Tower, the crowd was bustling, with many cultivators coming and going.
All of them had just gathered enough heads of demon cultivators and were coming to exchange for treasures.
Lin Shiming was following behind Lin Xianzhi, silent, like a junior accompanying Lin Xianzhi to gain experience.
And Lin Xianzhi, he was acquainted with many Sect Cultivators and was constantly chatting. If he encountered some cultivators with unfathomable Cultivation Levels whom he didn't know, he would still greet them from a distance.
They quickly arrived at the display screen with the treasure list. Lin Xianzhi focused on the list, the heads of ten Foundation Establishment late-stage cultivators could be exchanged for quite a few good items.
Lin Shiming also followed suit, scanning the screen as if he was watching a circus, then his eyes heated up as he looked at those precious Third Rank treasures.
He then took out his Token that recorded his military exploits and after checking, his eyes revealed a hint of disappointment.
Some cultivators nearby didn't notice Lin Shiming's expression, but the Perfection-stage cultivator in charge of handling the treasures looked at Lin Shiming somewhat scornfully.
Such a novice cultivator clearly marked as a family's seed was actually the most likely to die in these large Sect battles.
What he didn't know was that Lin Shiming's heart also heaved a sigh of relief.
The Cave Heaven Bead was still there!