Qin Shilei first put away all the secret manuals, then inventoried the other items submitted by the Demonic Sect.
He casually glanced at the pile of red items, selecting two with distinctive features to keep, and returned the rest to Huangfu Feng.
He then looked at the forty to fifty purple items before him.
A little more than half of these were weapons and equipment belonging to Huangfu Feng and his group.
Qin Shilei looked at the dejected Demonic Sect members and asked, "Do you want them?"
Huangfu Feng said somewhat dejectedly, "King An Qin, if you were to confiscate all our weapons and equipment, our strength would likely drop significantly. This would prevent us from serving you better."
Qin Shilei waved his hand and collected the entire pile of purple items.
"Work hard to earn merit. As long as your contributions are sufficient, I will return your weapons and equipment to you."
"Not only that, but you can also exchange for Enlightenment Tea with your merit."
"Perhaps, with Enlightenment Tea, you can even further advance your cultivation."
Upon hearing this, their eyes lit up.
They had also heard of the heaven-defying effects of Enlightenment Tea.
If they could truly exchange for some Enlightenment Tea from Qin Shilei, perhaps it would indeed allow their cultivation to advance rapidly.
Shi Yongzhen, with even greater eagerness, asked, "King An Qin, may I ask how one can exchange for Enlightenment Tea?"
His lifespan was nearing its end. If his cultivation did not improve significantly, he feared he would not live for another three years.
His need for Enlightenment Tea was more urgent than anyone else's.
Qin Shilei said calmly, "Various rare heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and various top-tier items, can all be exchanged for varying amounts of merit. Contributing to King An Qin's manor will also earn you varying amounts of merit.
As long as you have enough merit, you can exchange for top-tier items in my possession, such as Enlightenment Tea.
If you can obtain items of orange rarity or higher, I will immediately give you ten to one hundred pieces of Enlightenment Tea."
Huangfu Feng hesitated for a moment and then asked, "King An Qin, what exactly is the situation with this spatial secret realm?"
Qin Shilei glanced at him and said indifferently, "This spatial secret realm has now become my personal exclusive space. If you wish to have a sanctuary three years from now, you had better perform well."
The expressions of the Demonic Sect members turned even more grim.
Not only was their life and death in the hands of this person, but now even the Demonic Sect's last refuge against foreign races was controlled by him.
From this point onwards, they could only obey his commands completely.
Qin Shilei then made an agreement with them: they were not allowed to return to the Great Xia Kingdom without his command.
From now on, they were to search various parts of Blue Star for all sorts of heavenly materials and earthly treasures and top-tier items.
However, each person had to wear a Thousand Mile Sound Transmission Talisman, report their whereabouts every three days, and return to the Tianzhao Kingdom every half month to receive his summons.
Elder Hu, as a means for Qin Shilei to indirectly control the other Demonic Sect experts, was ordered to remain in the Tianzhao Kingdom to guard it.
After announcing his requirements, Qin Shilei opened the exit of the spatial secret realm and let Huangfu Feng lead all the Golden-tier and above experts of the Demonic Sect out of the secret realm.
Qin Shilei followed them to collect a wisp of soul from the three Platinum-tier experts who had remained outside, and store it within Elder Hu's spiritual sea.
Having basically subdued this faction of the Demonic Sect, Qin Shilei returned to the Blessed Land of Grotto-Heaven.
From the pile of purple items, he selected suitable ones to equip himself and An Qian and the others.
There were eight single-use attack and defense scroll items.
Qin Shilei refreshed and fixed the attributes one by one, then distributed them to An Qian and the others.
Two jade pendants that condensed internal elemental energy were also given to An Qian and Kong Qingshu.
Two prayer mats that calmed the mind, increased cultivation speed, and reduced the risk of qi deviation were to be used in rotation by the four of them.
Three bottles containing a total of ten Breakthrough Pills, which increased the chance of advancing to the Platinum realm.
One bottle containing two Yuan Breaking Pills, which increased the chance of advancing to the Diamond realm.
One Golden Sun Ganoderma, one Heavenly Yuan Fruit, and one Bodhi Flower. These three heavenly materials and earthly treasures could either enhance cultivation or mental power. However, the fruiting cycle was too long. Qin Shilei could only wait until later to refresh and fix attributes that could accelerate their growth to utilize them.
As for the other purple items that were temporarily unusable, Qin Shilei collected them all into his Qiankun Ring.
This encounter with the Demonic Sect could be considered a great harvest.
Qin Shilei took out the Soul Control Technique again.
Soul Control Technique (Purple): When the target is not resisting, one can extract a wisp of their soul. Through this wisp of soul, one can control the target's life and death at any time.
[Perform attribute refresh?]
[Refresh.]
Perception (Purple): The host can use the extracted soul to sense if the target harbors any ill intentions towards the host.
Optimization (Purple): With the optimized Soul Control Technique, the soul wisp stored in the host's spiritual sea will have minimal impact on the host.
Skillification (Purple): This secret manual is fully skillified, allowing for instant learning of this ultimate skill.
Qin Shilei thought for a moment and chose the Optimization attribute.
Although the Perception attribute was also excellent, Qin Shilei possessed the Purple Eye of Delusion, which allowed him to command the target to open their mind at any time, enabling him to completely control them, and then check if they harbored any ill intentions.
Soul Control Technique, Body Shedding Art, Heavenly Demon Disintegration. Three secret manuals in total.
Qin Shilei, An Qian, and the other two girls would all study the Soul Control Technique and the Body Shedding Art.
Only Qin Shilei and Zhang Xiaoli would study the Heavenly Demon Disintegration.
Zhang Xiaoli picked up the fragrant and pure tea in her hand and took a sip, lamenting, "If I had had a lot of Enlightenment Tea before, I wouldn't have had to study so hard and could have easily gotten into Tian'an University, the top school in Great Xia!"
An Qian teased, "Are you really willing to have a lot of Enlightenment Tea back then? You definitely wouldn't have met Shilei, and perhaps you would have already turned into a zombie by now."
"Ugh!" Zhang Xiaoli pouted, "An Qian, you rascal. I was just sighing about the efficacy of this Enlightenment Tea, and you're cursing me to become a zombie! Just you wait, I'll give you an artistic binding."
As she spoke, she released several vines, looking eager to try.
*Slap!*
Qin Shilei playfully slapped Zhang Xiaoli on her pert backside and said, "Stop fooling around and quickly study the secret manuals, lest you waste the Enlightenment Tea."
Kong Qingshu clapped her hands and applauded, "Well done! Xiaoli is truly lawless. All day long she only thinks about tying us up to satisfy her perverted desires."
Zhang Xiaoli stuck out her tongue. "Two elder sisters, this humble maiden dares not do it again. How about I let you tie me up?"
An Qian and Kong Qingshu rolled their eyes and ignored her, lest the conversation stray elsewhere again.
Under the heaven-defying effects of Enlightenment Tea, within less than two days, they had mastered these ultimate skills.
They took turns attempting to use the Body Shedding Art.
They discovered that the duration of the Body Shedding Art was about ten minutes, which increased their strength threefold. Moreover, using the Body Shedding Art did not prevent them from casting other power-boosting ultimate skills.
If Qin Shilei were to use the Body Shedding Art while in the Dharma Aspect Heaven and Earth state, the increase in strength would be terrifyingly despair-inducing.