To clarify,
“Killing and arson brings wealth” is a lie!
You can’t get rich by turning the tables and robbing robber cultivators.
If they had any assets, who would be willing to be a rogue cultivator?
The man in black was just like that—dirt poor.
His Artifact Longsword was a low-grade magical artifact.
He had no defensive magical artifacts.
The only thing he had plenty of was storage bags.
Enough to qualify as a Five-Bag Elder.
Li Xunhuan couldn’t understand what kind of strange organization the Black Fiend Sect was. Why was it full of people like this?
The beggars’ sect of the Cultivation World?
Then what did that make him?
He had one storage bag, the three brothers had three between them, and now there was another one?
A Five-Bag Elder?
As his thoughts turned, Li Xunhuan considered something: did storage bags have any Trade value?
The next second, a pellet appeared in his hand.
【 First-rank, low-grade curio: Compressed Cave Abode. A must-have for the wilderness; this one was the size of a two-courtyard Siheyuan Courtyard. 】
The cave dwelling came with two formations: an Alert Formation and a Concealment Formation.
It wasn’t that the storage bags had no value; it was just that their value was low.
The magical artifacts and storage bags belonging to the three brothers and the man in black had only been enough to redeem one Compressed Cave Abode.
Sure enough, finding a place to settle down was no easy task.
If it came to a fight to the death, he’d leave tonight.
He gathered up everything he would and wouldn’t be taking with him, then left behind a letter of resignation.
A scholar had to be polite!
At the last moment, Li Xunhuan looked over Li Garden, then used his Soaring Heaven Treading Waves movement skill to head out of the city.
Not far beyond the city, an auspicious cloud suddenly appeared beneath his feet and carried him toward the horizon.
It wasn’t quite soaring through the clouds and riding the mist; at best, he was crawling along the clouds.
His destination: Cai Xia Mountain, Jingzhou.
..
“Something terrible has happened! The City Lord has cast aside his official seal and abandoned his post to seek the Dao!”
Two days later, a Shout rang out, startling people both inside and outside Jiayuan City.
“He had a perfectly good position as City Lord. Why go seek Immortal Destiny?”
“Let me be the City Lord!”
A crowd quickly gathered in front of the City Lord’s Mansion.
Many prominent figures from the city had come. Mo Juren was mingling among them.
Cultivation?
So the Lord City Lord really wasn’t a cultivator.
If the Lord City Lord could give up being City Lord, what about him?
Thinking of his five wives, three daughters, and his position as head of the Jingjiao Association, he found it hard to let go.
Suddenly, a voice rose above the crowd, drowning out the clamoring discussion.
“Chief Historian, perhaps the Lord City Lord has merely gone out for a while. You say he went to seek Immortal Destiny, but do you have any proof?”
“Yes, yes, I do. There’s a poem to prove it.”
“What are you standing around for? Recite it!”
“All right.”
【 In the heavens stands the White Jade Capital, with twelve towers and five cities.
An immortal laid a hand upon my head; we tied our hair together and received eternal life. 】
Eternal life?!
Mo Juren’s pupils suddenly contracted.
His thoughts returned to the scene he had witnessed outside Bamboo Leaf Mountain: an immortal flying on a sword. He made a decision that went against his ancestors’ instructions.
He would lie in wait for a cultivator and obtain an inheritance from them.
Cultivation.
He wanted eternal life!
At the same time, on a nearby rooftop, Daoist Qingwen heard those words and nearly yanked out his beard.
Seeking Immortal Destiny?
What was Li Xunhuan pretending not to know? Wasn’t he a cultivator himself?
It was one thing to fool the outsiders in the city, but how could he fool himself, too?
And what about that promise of “Fourth Layer of Qi Refining, cultivation too low, so I need to study and practice martial arts”? Why had he gone off adventuring now?
Liar!
A scholar, and yet no better than a brute.
Suddenly, Daoist Qingwen’s eyes widened as a possibility occurred to him.
Could Lord Li be planning to join one of the Seven Great Sects?
That was a little too optimistic.
He had a three-element spiritual root too. Did Qingwen not want to join a sect?
There was no shortage of people in the Cultivation World.
The Seven Great Sects recruited disciples once every five years, and each sect could take in over a thousand.
Among them, even the least talented youths had at least a three-element spiritual root.
In other words, three-element spiritual roots weren’t worth much in the Seven Great Sects.
That created a barrier: they wouldn’t accept anyone who wasn’t their own, or whose origins were unknown.
And recruits couldn’t be over sixteen.
As for Li Xunhuan...
Sigh.
Difficult, difficult, difficult.
So be it. Everyone had their own aspirations.
He only regretted losing a good friend. From now on, he would once again have to match wits with the cultivation Story.
Fellow Daoist, take care.
Daoist Qingwen took one step forward, and a flying sword appeared beneath his feet. He left this sorrowful place.
..
Cai Xia Mountain lay in northern Jingzhou, 108,000 li from Jiayuan City in Lan Prefecture.
A Mortal couldn’t walk that far.
It had taken Old Demon Han four months to cross mountains and rivers with his Eighth Layer of Qi Refining cultivation.
That gave some idea of how far it was.
Li Xunhuan was different.
He had come through the clouds and mist, taking a straight route.
After more than half a month of sleeping rough and eating whatever he could find, he arrived at Cai Xia Mountain.
The Seven Mysteries Sect was a two-hundred-year-old jianghu sect that had occupied Cai Xia Mountain for years. Most of its mountain tops had already been developed.
Its most famous claim to fame was that it was Old Demon Han’s training ground as a novice.
That was of no use to Li Xunhuan.
So he chose to ignore it.
With the Soaring Heaven Treading Waves Divine Ability, Cai Xia Mountain was as easy to cross as flat ground.
Was it on the path between Xiushui Peak and Divine Hand Valley?
As he walked through the mountains, Li Xunhuan deliberately revealed himself.
Before long, two martial artists in tight-fitting outfits leaped out from hiding.
Clearly, the Seven Mysteries Sect still had some strength. They had sentries hidden here.
“Stop! Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
Li Xunhuan lowered his gaze and cupped his fists.
“You two, where is Xiushui Peak?”
【 First-rank, low-grade spell: Bewitching Technique. A basic spell that can only be used on Mortals. It can confuse their spiritual intelligence and make them follow instructions. 】
The focus left their pupils. They pointed in a direction.
“Xiushui Peak is that way.”
“Then thank you both for showing me the way.”
He was a scholar, after all. He had to be polite.
Before long, the three of them reached Xiushui Peak.
At Li Xunhuan’s “request,” the two burly men in tight-fitting outfits headed toward Divine Hand Valley.
They trudged along with a grunt, moving with sweeping kicks and kicking up a cloud of dust.
Nothing unexpected happened.
As one of the men cried out and grabbed his foot, a bottle with a yellow, cement-like exterior was kicked into the air.
The Sky Palm Bottle!
Just as Li Xunhuan was about to pick it up, he frowned and retreated to the back of the group, keeping the two men in front of him.
“You two, since you’re already helping me, would you mind picking up that little bottle?”
The burly men said nothing. They walked straight to the little “yellow” bottle, bent down to pick it up, then turned back.
The sky was clear, without a cloud. Nothing happened.
Safe.
Li Xunhuan took the Sky Palm Bottle and weighed it. It felt no different from an ordinary bottle.
With a thought, he used the Cleansing Technique, and the “little yellow bottle” reverted to its ordinary appearance as a little green bottle.
It looked mediocre.
【 Lower-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, Sky Palm Bottle—fragment. When whole, it is high-grade. 】
On the other end of the Scales,
【 Lower-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, Third-Rank White Lotus, a protective treasure of the Daoist Sect. 】
【 Lower-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure. 】
Mystery solved.
The Little Green Bottle was a spiritual treasure, born innately in this World.
Across the Myriad Heavens, when complete, this spiritual treasure could rival an innate high-grade spiritual treasure from the Primordial Era.
Not bad at all.
As the saying goes, it is better to teach someone how to fish than to give them a fish.
For now, the Green Liquid in the Little Green Bottle was what he needed most, so he would keep it.
He had originally planned to exchange it for a treasure that produced one drop a day.
For example, the Heaven-Connecting Jianmu from Eternal Life, which connected to the Immortal Realm and produced immortal energy, would be a fine choice.
With the Sky Palm Bottle in hand, his first goal was to obtain a cultivation method.
First, he would set himself a modest goal: a Millennium Spirit Medicine.
Before that, however, he looked over the two hidden sentries.
To be safe, he served them Forget-Worry Pills.
Watching the two leave in a daze, Li Xunhuan nodded.
Now, no one would disturb his start.