Just as Nie Li and Gu Lan didn't know what to say, Gu Bei walked in from outside.
"Nie Li, what are you doing here?" Gu Bei was stunned for a moment. "Word out there is that you and Murong Yu in the Ghost Ruins... had a conflict?" Gu Bei's voice trailed off.
"Don't bother softening it for me. What conflict? I haven't even reached the Destiny Realm — how could I possibly be his match? Naturally I got crushed, and on top of that he took all the soul scales I'd hunted!" Nie Li said.
Nie Li's frank admission caught Gu Bei off guard. He scratched his head and offered an awkward smile. "So what's your plan? Murong Yu is still extremely powerful. I'm afraid none of us are a match for him."
"For now, I'll just have to endure it. There's something I need your help with," Nie Li said calmly.
Gu Lan couldn't help but glance up at Nie Li. If it were any other young man who'd gone through something like this, he would have been consumed by rage by now. She never expected Nie Li to endure it so composedly.
Gu Bei patted his chest confidently. "Whatever it is, just say the word. I'll do my best!"
"I want you to help me procure Demon Spirits — ordinary growth-rate, good growth-rate, and excellent growth-rate ones will do. The more, the better!" Nie Li said.
Hearing this, Gu Bei froze for a moment. "I don't know what you'd want with so many Demon Spirits. The Dragon Ruins Domain is mostly filled with high-grade creatures, many of which carry Dragon Blood inheritance. They're far superior to the ordinary ones you're asking for!"
"I don't need Demon Spirits with Dragon Blood inheritance."
"If they're just ordinary Demon Spirits, only Supreme-grade or Deity-grade growth-rate ones would be of any use at all. Ordinary Demon Spirits with low growth rates are completely worthless!" Gu Bei asked in bewilderment. "If you want to fuse with Demon Spirits, I can absolutely get you much better ones!"
"I have my own use for them. Whatever it costs to buy these ordinary Demon Spirits, I'll pay you back," Nie Li said. "I need a lot — the more, the better!"
"Ordinary Demon Spirits won't cost much. They're not found in the Dragon Ruins Domain, but there are plenty in other small worlds. I can send people out to hunt them, and it won't take long to get you a huge supply," Gu Bei said after a brief moment of thought.
"Then I'll be counting on you!" Nie Li said with a faint smile.
"What's with the polite talk? We're brothers, and besides, you saved my sister!" Gu Bei chuckled.
Before long, Gu Bei dispatched several Destiny Realm experts to the various small worlds to hunt ordinary Demon Spirits. For powerhouses at the Destiny Realm, such a task was trivial. Since Nie Li had stressed that this had to be done with absolute secrecy, Gu Bei only sent trusted confidants.
Within a single day, Gu Bei's people had procured over twenty thousand Demon Spirits from the nearest small world.
With this first batch of Demon Spirits in hand, Nie Li returned to his room and began refining. Among the twenty thousand-plus Demon Spirits, quite a few possessed good or even excellent growth rates.
Nie Li set to work refining, placing ten Demon Spirits of the same grade into the Nightmare Demon Pot, then initiating the refinement. It had been quite some time since he'd last refined Demon Spirits, but Nie Li still had the process down cold.
Refinement failed!
Refinement failed!
Refinement succeeded!
Again and again he refined. One after another, Demon Spirits of progressively higher growth rates emerged from the Nightmare Demon Pot. As the number of refinements increased, the Nightmare Demon Pot continuously absorbed the power of the shattered Demon Spirits.
Nie Li holed up in his room, refining Demon Spirits without rest. From over twenty thousand ordinary Demon Spirits, he ultimately produced thirty Deity-grade growth-rate Demon Spirits. Under normal circumstances, a single Deity-grade growth-rate Demon Spirit without Dragon Blood inheritance could sell for thirty to fifty spirit stones.
That was already quite a lot, considering these were ordinary students. For anyone besides someone like Gu Bei, who had a prestigious family background, scraping together thirty to fifty spirit stones was extremely difficult. And for someone like Gu Bei with his family connections, the Demon Spirits they fused with would definitely carry Dragon Blood inheritance — or even ancient bloodlines. They wouldn't buy ordinary Demon Spirits, not even Deity-grade growth-rate ones.
Although Murong Yu, Hu Yong, and their lot were doing everything they could to cut off Nie Li's access to spirit stones, Nie Li wasn't just going to sit there and take it!
If he couldn't get spirit stones from the Ghost Ruins, he'd find another way. Was a living person really going to be stopped by something as trivial as this? With enough spirit stones, Nie Li's cultivation could advance by leaps and bounds, and sooner or later he would surpass Murong Yu.
Lu Piao and Xiao Yu returned to the courtyard.
"Lu Piao, what happened to you?" Nie Li asked, confused, when he saw Lu Piao's bruised and swollen face.
"Don't even mention it. I hunted down over three thousand Soul Scales in the Dragon Ruins Realm, and every last one of them got snatched by those bastards under Hua Ling — then they beat me up on top of it!" Lu Piao said indignantly, still fuming at the memory.
Xiao Yu gave a bitter smile and said, "I ran into some trouble too, but it wasn't too bad — they weren't strong enough to do anything to me. Still, after two days I only managed to hunt down just over five thousand Soul Scales! After I got back, I heard you came out over a day ago?"