Windfall

"You killed him?"

Before Luo Chen could answer, Wang Yuan nodded to himself.

"Looks like you did."

As Luo Chen backed away nervously, Wang Yuan walked over to the charred corpse and swung his broadsword.

The head, burned beyond recognition, was casually severed.

Wang Yuan glanced at the tense Luo Chen and the Storage Bag in his hand, a complicated look in his eyes.

The night wind was slightly cool, making the bloodstained body feel even colder.

Luo Chen forced an ugly smile. "Brother Wang, I haven't finished reading that book yet."

As if recalling something, Wang Yuan's complicated gaze gradually faded, and his eyelids drooped again.

"Go home early. Great River Market is dangerous at night."

"Mm-hmm."

Luo Chen turned to leave, but after hesitating, he still went back and laboriously slung the snakeskin sack full of herbs onto his back.

That was everything he owned.

Watching Luo Chen's retreating figure nearly leave the alley, Wang Yuan let out an inexplicable sigh.

"Take this. Consider it payment for that head."

A black nail as long as a chopstick landed at Luo Chen's feet. Fresh red blood stained it, and there were even bits of flesh stuck to it.

"Brother Wang, you're too kind."

"Get lost. Take the woods, not the main road."

"Mm."

With a heavy grunt, Luo Chen plunged into the woods without looking back.

In the alley, Wang Yuan stood there for a while with three heads in hand before gradually vanishing into the darkness.

"Urgh..."

"Phew!"

Luo Chen slumped half against the foot of his bed like a dead fish, drenched in sweat, even his underpants soaked through.

Another Soul Severing Nail embedded in his waist lay conspicuously on the floor before his bed.

Enduring the intense pain, Luo Chen grabbed the jars and bottles beside him and poured their contents into the wound.

This was a healing medicine he had made himself, specifically for dealing with the risk of furnace explosions during Pill Refining. It had helped him quite a few times before.

Today, it had found an even greater use!

As the medicinal powder entered his body, a cool sensation arose, followed by burning pain.

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

Low, growling curses rang out from time to time.

Never before had Luo Chen felt such anger.

He was not angry over the harm his enemy had inflicted upon him, but at his own weakness.

If he had been as strong as Wang Yuan, he would not have ended up like this today.

Only after binding the wound with cloth strips did Luo Chen finally let out a breath of relief.

Enduring the pain, he went to the living room, opened the snakeskin sack, and sorted the various herbs onto different shelves.

These low-grade medicinal herbs and spiritual materials could not be mixed together for long, or their effects would be greatly reduced.

His limping steps looked pitiful beneath the bean-sized oil lamp.

Luo Chen even felt that this scene was exactly like his previous life, when he had gone to work sick right after surgery.

"No matter where I go, I can't escape this life of toil. No wonder I only lived to seventy-five in my previous life."

After finishing all that, he finally had time to lie down on the bed.

The constant pain at his waist left him exhausted beyond measure, yet unable to sleep.

Helpless, he could only find something else to distract himself.

"Let's see what good things that guy even more short-lived than me had."

Storage Bags belonging to Qi Refining Stage cultivators were all unprotected. Without Spiritual Sense, there was naturally no way to set restrictions on them.

After the owner died, the mana imprint upon it naturally dissipated as well.

Luo Chen mobilized the last traces of his spiritual energy and opened the Storage Bag.

A huge pile of items instantly crowded his wooden bed.

"Today was market day. This guy really bought a whole heap of stuff."

A Low-Grade Magic Robe, a box of Soul Calming Incense, five bottles of Grain Avoidance Pills, a bottle of Qi Nourishing Pills, a bottle of Golden Chest Powder, and a stack of talismans.

There was also a bundle of dried spiritual grass, and this thing alone took up over half the bed.

Other than those items, there were the Spirit Stones Luo Chen cared most about.

"Ninety-two Low-Grade Spirit Stones. Damn it, what a poor bastard!"

Luo Chen cursed, then happily packed the items back one by one.

There really were very few Spirit Stones, nowhere near enough for someone at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.

But the value of the other items far surpassed those ninety-two Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

There was no need to mention the Low-Grade Magic Robe. Though it was somewhat worn and had probably belonged to that Short-Lived Ghost, it would still fetch at least a hundred Spirit Stones if sold.

It activated even faster than talismans.

That was why Luo Chen had been able to activate it so quickly earlier. When the Short-Lived Ghost had taken a Fireball Spell to the face, he too had immediately activated the robe's defensive barrier.

If it had been an intact Mid-Grade Magic Robe, it could have withstood six or seven fireballs at least. Unfortunately, Wang Yuan had damaged it beforehand.

It had not even held up through the third shot.

Three breaths of time were not enough for the severely wounded Chen Xiao to use any other means.

The five bottles of Grain Avoidance Pills were not worth much, and their quality was not even as good as pills Luo Chen refined himself, but they were still worth one Spirit Stone.

As for the rest, they were very valuable.

Soul Calming Incense was one of the finest external aids for low-level cultivators to assist their cultivation.

One stick of Soul Calming Incense a day was enough to let a cultivator practice their Innate Cultivation Method five more times. It was said to restore the fragile souls of low-level cultivators.

There were twelve sticks in the box, worth one hundred and twenty Spirit Stones.

There was even less need to mention the Qi Nourishing Pills. The pattern on the bottle showed that they came from the Spirit Medicine Pavilion.

The price was fixed, with no bargaining: one hundred Spirit Stones per bottle!

Good stuff. Once swallowed and refined, they could increase spiritual energy.

As for that stack of talismans, Luo Chen estimated from experience that they were worth fifty or sixty Spirit Stones too.

He did not recognize the dried spiritual grass filling his bed, but since someone had deliberately bought such a large amount of it for their Storage Bag, it had to be useful.

Adding it all up, it was worth around four hundred Spirit Stones!

A windfall!

Sure enough, a horse does not grow fat without night grass, and a man does not grow rich without windfalls.

In that brief span tonight, Luo Chen's net worth had quadrupled.

And his greatest gain was not even these things.

It was the Storage Bag itself!

Its capacity was not large, only one cubic meter. It was the smallest and cheapest kind of Storage Bag.

But even in the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion, it was worth ten thousand Spirit Stones!

Who knew whether the Short-Lived Ghost had received it from someone else or stolen it? In any case, he definitely could not have afforded it.

Or rather, the vast majority of low-level cultivators could not afford even the smallest Storage Bag.

These things were standard equipment for Inner Disciples of great sects. Outer Sect disciples were not even qualified to own one!

"I'm rich, I'm rich!"

"No wonder killing people for treasure is one of the most classic tropes in webnovels. No matter the genre, it always has a place."

"It's just too risky. One slip, and the cart overturns—you can bury a lifetime of hard work in it."

Tonight, two incidents of killing for treasure had happened right before Luo Chen's eyes.

Li Zixiong of the Great River Gang had gathered three men to surround and kill Wang Yuan, and the result had been a cart overturning.

The Qi Refining Fifth Layer Short-Lived Ghost had intended to instantly kill Luo Chen, and the result had been a cart overturning.

"Dangerous things like that should be left to the professionals. I can't handle being scared like this."

Luo Chen turned it over in his mind, then picked up the final jade bottle that had not been put into the Storage Bag.

Golden Chest Powder, one of the Spirit Medicine Pavilion's signature medicines.

It had excellent healing effects against injuries caused by any Metal Attribute Magic Tool, and sold for only ten Spirit Stones.

It was cheap and good, and had always been beloved by the independent cultivators of Great River Market.

He sniffed it. The smell was fine; it was not poison.

Besides, no one would put poison into a healing medicine bottle inside their own Storage Bag.

If they were seriously injured and muddled in the head, then took the wrong medicine, that would be a real spectacle.

It just meant he would have to undo the cloth strips he had painstakingly tied.

With a sigh, Luo Chen had no choice but to get moving.

The next day at noon, Luo Chen woke up in a daze.

It was a rare occasion for him to sleep in.

In the late night, he had ultimately failed to withstand his weakness and fallen asleep.

After staring wide-eyed at the ceiling in a daze for a while, Luo Chen still gritted his teeth and forced himself out of bed.

No matter how bitter or difficult life was, it was no reason to lie down and rot.

He went into the living room, grabbed a bundle of spiritual grass, spread it flat over a bamboo tray, and prepared to take it outside to dry.

When he pushed open the door, the noon sun was so bright that he could not open his eyes at first. Once he adjusted, he was startled to find Wang Yuan standing outside.

Wang Yuan casually tossed something into the bamboo tray full of spiritual grass.

"Take it. From now on, you're a member of the Mountain Shattering Gang."

"If anyone gives you trouble, tell them Wang Yuan is backing you."

Luo Chen stared blankly at the iron token in the bamboo tray.

"Thanks, Brother Wang."

Wang Yuan waved a hand. "What are you thanking me for? Back when I was at my lowest, you let me buy several bottles of Grain Avoidance Pills on credit. I never thanked you either."

"Alright, I've given you the thing, so I'm heading back. The Outer City Area may be unsettled for a while. Be careful whenever you go in or out."

With that, he turned and left, without the slightest hesitation.