There Really Is One

Wang Li was in an excellent mood.

Even after accounting for the forty percent owed to He Lingxiu, this Ghost Pattern Spirit Bone was equivalent to several days of work for him and Lü Shenliang in a place like this.

"Fellow Daoist Hehe, I don't think any Qi-gazing technique can compare to your Innate Clarity Spiritual Root. With a gifted spiritual root like yours, you could probably pick up overlooked treasures even at markets that specialize in selling artifacts and magical implements, couldn't you?" he transmitted with a beaming smile.

He Lingxiu turned and gave him a long, deep look.

Wang Li increasingly felt that she was sinister, while she increasingly found Wang Li difficult to deal with.

This man looked as though there was something wrong with his head, always muttering strange nonsense, yet every word he said seemed laden with deeper meaning, probing into the other party's foundations.

"You don't need to keep testing me."

She transmitted back casually, "Otherwise, what do you think I relied on to establish myself in Jiaomu Market?"

"True!" Wang Li seemed not to have heard her first remark at all. His face was filled with solemn admiration, but his tone brimmed with envy, jealousy, and hatred. "Just helping people assess the grade of spirit materials must earn you quite a bit, right? Cultivators with gifted spiritual roots like yours truly never lack spirit sand for cultivation. Unlike my senior sister—what use is an Innate Immortal Spiritual Root? She can't earn spirit sand, but she burns through it faster than anyone else."

"If you dislike your senior sister that much, why do you treasure her so dearly? Why do you call yourself Wang Bihui?" He Lingxiu mocked.

Wang Li chuckled. "No matter how much I dislike her, she's still my own senior sister. That can't be changed."

He Lingxiu rather admired his ability to speak against his own heart. With a cold laugh, she transmitted, "Five hundred paces ahead to the right, one foot beneath that wisteria vine—do you see any treasure light?"

Wang Li's eyes immediately lit up again.

He grabbed the Ghost Pattern Spirit Bone and headed toward the spot He Lingxiu had indicated. Upon reaching it, he quickly said that there seemed to be treasure light, then immediately started digging with the Ghost Pattern Spirit Bone.

This Ghost Pattern Spirit Bone was sturdy enough anyway, and it had a slightly curved arc to it. It was actually very handy for digging and scraping.

"What spirit material did you find now?"

Mu Yu, Han Yao, Chen Wan, and the others were all stunned to see him acting this way.

But Wang Li was soon stunned as well.

"Is there no treasure light?" He Lingxiu asked, meeting Wang Li's puzzled gaze.

Wang Li was somewhat dazed.

"I asked whether you saw treasure light. I never said there was treasure light here." He Lingxiu chuckled as she transmitted.

Wang Li came to his senses and was instantly helpless. "If you do that again, don't blame me for being unable to get along with you properly."

"As long as you act normally from now on and stop constantly testing me with all your deep schemes, I can get along with you properly." He Lingxiu glanced at him. "Everyone has some secrets of their own. We're only joining hands to do business, so don't be so curious."

Wang Li had run headlong into a wall. He put away the Ghost Pattern Spirit Bone and walked onward. "I saw wrong. There's no treasure light here."

Ye Wan had originally been shocked, thinking Wang Li could dig up a spirit material wherever he went. Seeing Wang Li like this now, he could not help laughing out loud.

This man was truly too strange. Was he a lunatic?

At that moment, He Lingxiu's transmission rang in Wang Li's ear again. "This time there really is treasure light. Five paces in front of you—a Fire Element Spirit Bone." "There's treasure light!"

Before Ye Wan's laughter had even faded, Wang Li's shout rang out again.

Before he could react, Wang Li had already taken several strides forward and started digging again.

He was utterly speechless. "Can't you lead the way properly? Are you a mole, digging holes everywhere? Do you really think spirit bones are buried all over the place?"

Before he had even finished speaking, Ye Ji and Ye Jiuyue beside him had already drawn in sharp breaths. "Holy shit, there really is one!"

Ye Wan's eyes immediately bulged.

A distinct red treasure light appeared before Wang Li. Then he scraped out an oval spirit bone the size of a palm.

Mu Yu and Han Yao exchanged a glance. Neither of their expressions changed much, but the way they looked at Wang Li was clearly completely different from before.

For cultivators like them, one occurrence might be coincidence, but two absolutely could not be.

"Is this some demon beast's kneecap?" Wang Li brushed the dust from the spirit bone and looked at He Lingxiu.

This spirit bone really did resemble a kneecap. It felt excellent in his hand, like a piece of warm jade with a delicate, smooth surface.

The red radiance shining from within was also gentle, and its color was lovely—a peach blossom pink.

He Lingxiu gave it a casual glance. "It should be the crown bone of a Fire Feather Snake. An intact crown bone like this can be used to refine a complete defensive shield."

"That's incredible!"

Wang Li's face turned bright red.

He weighed the spirit bone in his hand, finding it more and more impossible to put down.

Spirit materials that could serve as primary materials for refining artifacts were worlds apart in price from those that could only be used to refine consumable magical implements.

Among the orthodox Seventy-two Immortal Sects of the Lesser Jade Continent, most sect disciples probably possessed no proper reusable artifacts even upon reaching the Fifth Level of Qi Refining or the sixth level. They only had consumable magical implements.

"Fellow Daoist Wang's luck truly is quite good." Mu Yu smiled amiably again.

Wang Li and He Lingxiu had truly become completely unfathomable to her.

In her view, cultivators who were so familiar with White Bone Continent and could discover spirit materials along the way that even she could not detect should not be so excited over one or two such items.

Yet Wang Li's face was flushed with excitement now, and it did not seem feigned.

As for He Lingxiu, her relationship with this man seemed merely ordinary, as though they had only been thrown together temporarily for this business. Yet this young woman's discernment and knowledge seemed to far surpass those of ordinary cultivators.

"Keep going!"

Wang Li eagerly continued onward.

At the same time, he transmitted to He Lingxiu, "Fellow Daoist Hehe, I think we truly can do business together for the long term."

He Lingxiu chuckled. "You really are practical."

Wang Li took pride rather than shame in it. "Of course. As a cultivator, you can't wage war against spirit sand."

He Lingxiu gave a cold laugh.

Though her face wore a cold smile, she held no mockery in her heart toward Wang Li's words.

On the contrary, the more Wang Li displayed the miserly manner of a man whose eyes shone at the sight of spirit materials while his heart calculated their value in spirit sand, the more she felt sympathy for—and even some admiration toward—the senior sister and junior brother of Profound Heaven Sect.

It was obvious that Wang Li and Lü Shenliang had found earning spirit sand far too difficult over the past years.

Even without any special spiritual root, a cultivator like Wang Li, judging by his intelligence and comprehension of cultivation methods, would have been stronger than several of her senior brothers and sisters known as the Five Elders of Huayang had he been placed in another sect, barring anything unusual. His sect would not have allowed him to lack spirit sand for cultivation.

As for Lü Shenliang, who possessed an Innate Immortal Spiritual Root, she should have had even less need to worry about spirit sand.

To her knowledge, throughout the entire Lesser Jade Continent, there were only four living cultivators with Immortal Spiritual Roots including Lü Shenliang. Two of those had acquired spiritual medicines later in life and formed Acquired Immortal Spiritual Roots; in cultivation speed, they still lagged an entire tier behind Innate Immortal Spiritual Roots.

"I'm asking seriously this time, not trying to test you on purpose." Wang Li's voice sounded again. He clearly truly did not wish to wage war against spirit sand, and his tone was both solemn and courteous. "Can your Innate Spirit-Recognizing Root really distinguish even spiritual medicines? If we knew some place produced a certain spiritual medicine, but that medicine concealed itself extremely well and released no spiritual energy at all, could you find it?"

"Unless certain spiritual medicines have gained sentience and possess especially powerful methods of mimicking aura, it should not be a problem." Though He Lingxiu and Wang Li had constantly been playing games of intrigue against each other, they often shared a strange tacit understanding. The moment Wang Li asked, she vaguely guessed what he intended. After thinking for a moment, she continued truthfully, "Most Qi-gazing techniques observe fluctuations in spiritual energy. They cannot detect spiritual objects that restrain their spiritual energy, merely absorb it, and do not release it. But my Innate Clarity Spiritual Root is different. Objects of different origins feel utterly distinct to me."

Wang Li muttered through transmission, "Then take a look first and see whether I have any Primordial artifact inside me."

He Lingxiu rolled her eyes at him.

She felt that Wang Li's nature was hard to change. He could not speak seriously for more than a few sentences before his thoughts leaped elsewhere and he casually spouted nonsense.

What she did not know was that Wang Li was actually completely serious.

Wang Li knew that although his senior sister sometimes had major problems with her mind, whenever she was lucid, she absolutely would not act recklessly.

He Lingxiu also did not know that back at Lone Peak, Lü Shenliang had once considered capturing her and forcing her to inspect whether Wang Li truly carried a Primordial artifact on him.

"So there really isn't one." Wang Li understood the meaning of that eye roll and immediately became somewhat dejected.

"If our cooperation during this trip to the Seven Treasures Ancient Domain is pleasant, I can consider accompanying you in the future to seek spiritual medicines that might treat your senior sister." At that moment, He Lingxiu's voice rang in his ear once more.

Wang Li drew a deep breath. "Then don't go back on your word."

Deep in Wang Li's heart, his senior sister Lü Shenliang was probably even more important than himself.

If there were a chance to restore her damaged divine soul, then no matter how dangerous it was, he would stake everything on trying.

He still did not understand He Lingxiu well enough.

He only knew that He Lingxiu was sufficiently crafty and sufficiently sinister.

But as long as He Lingxiu kept her promise, even if she had seen through his weakness and intended to make use of it, he would accept it.