Inventorying Spoils of War, Strengthening the Universe Pouch

The collected discarded pills, copied medicinal ingredients, corpses of the slain...

Every single one was a hot potato that could bring about death!

"If only I had a storage bag to properly put away these life-threatening items, that would be great!" Shen Fan secretly mused in his heart.

Casually, his peripheral vision swept over the items he had plundered from Baishitong, and among them, a palm-sized cloth bag caught his eye.

Although Shen Fan had never owned a storage bag himself, he had seen many Outer Sect Disciples carrying them. Just like Li Qingshan, he often had one hanging from his waist.

"Could this be the legendary storage bag worth five hundred Spirit Stones?"

Shen Fan was filled with curiosity. He picked it up and examined it closely.

When he tried to untie the drawstring at the opening of the bag, he found that no matter how hard he pulled, the bag remained motionless, as if locked by an invisible shackle.

"What on earth is going on?"

Shen Fan frowned, completely bewildered.

He instinctively squeezed the small bag and felt some irregular-shaped items, about the size of a fingernail, inside.

"Spiritual Sense!"

A flash of inspiration struck Shen Fan's mind as he pondered.

In the cultivation world, storage bags, as common spatial artifacts, had a rather high entry barrier, usually requiring cultivators to reach at least the third layer of the Qi Refining Stage.

This was because the operation of storage bags relied on spiritual sense, and the third layer of Qi Refining was the critical point where spiritual sense could begin to be stably projected outwards. Of course, this was merely the bare minimum requirement for use.

However, cultivating spiritual sense was a difficult path for anyone.

In the Qi Refining Stage, spiritual sense was just budding, only capable of perceiving the flow of spiritual energy within the body and unable to be projected outwards. Even when using a storage bag, one had to hold it in hand to barely control it.

Only upon reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage could spiritual sense break through the limitations of the physical body, projecting outwards for several meters to perceive the surroundings or to simply manipulate artifacts.

At that point, cultivators could use storage bags with ease, even operating them remotely.

With that thought, Shen Fan closed his eyes slightly and began to focus on sensing his own spiritual sense.

In an instant, a divine thought emanating from his Spirit Abode, like a keen eye, instantly reached every corner of his body.

The circulation of his spirit meridians, the fullness of his dantian, the subtle changes in his acupoints – everything was under his control.

This was Shen Fan's spiritual sense.

After sensing the existence of his spiritual sense, Shen Fan immediately held the storage bag in his hand and directed his spiritual sense to surge towards it like a tide.

"Bang—!"

The next moment, Shen Fan's spiritual sense seemed to hit a transparent wall and was forcefully repelled.

He sensed carefully and seemed to detect an imprint of spiritual sense that did not belong to him.

"This is... that guy Baishitong's spiritual sense imprint!"

Shen Fan instantly realized and then sneered, "He's already dead, and his spiritual sense still wants to stop me?"

Before he finished speaking, Shen Fan condensed his spiritual sense into a spear and fiercely stabbed at the invisible wall.

"Crackling—!"

A cracking sound, audible only to spiritual sense, echoed deep within his soul.

Immediately after, a white light flashed across the cloth bag and disappeared.

By the time Shen Fan withdrew his spiritual sense, the cloth bag could now be opened with ease.

However, when Shen Fan flipped the Universe Pouch, intending to pour out its contents, he suddenly remembered that using the Universe Pouch still required his spiritual sense to explore it.

Shen Fan circulated his spiritual sense again, probing into it like tendrils, only to find that it held a world of its own.

A space about ten feet square appeared in his mind.

Inside, various items were stored in a disorganized manner, from everyday necessities like pots, pans, bedding, and clothing, to cultivation essentials like Spirit Stones, spirit rice, Demon Cores, and techniques – everything was there!

"Good heavens, that guy Baishitong was truly hiding his strength!"

Shen Fan couldn't help but sigh.

Admittedly, for a rogue cultivator who mingled in the marketplace and specialized in swindling, to have such a hoard was truly surprising.

Shen Fan immediately began to take stock, finding 208 low-grade Spirit Stones, about 100 jin of spirit rice, and approximately 40 Demon Cores from the first to sixth layers of the first rank.

In addition, there was a copy of the Yellow-grade low-rank cultivation art, Polar Ice-Fire Body Forging Art, a copy of the Mortal-grade mid-rank cultivation art, Spirit Communication Beast Control Art, and a copy of the first-rank mid-grade technique, Dragon Grasp.

This Dragon Grasp might be a technique cultivated by a body refiner.

The above was all of Baishitong's possessions.

Shen Fan kept everything useful and threw the rest into the incinerator, burning it all to ashes.

Afterward, he also placed the Nine Nether Corpse Refinement Art and Azure Water Fire Ward, given to him by Old Man Duan, into the incinerator.

As for the remaining spirit rice, Flame Serpent Art, and the like, they were still hidden beneath the bedding.

After all, if someone from the Heavenly Xuan Sect investigated, and he had nothing on him, it would only make him more suspicious. Leaving some things behind would be better for dealing with any checks.

"Right!"

Shen Fan's eyes suddenly lit up. "I wonder if those corpses can be stored inside?"

If they could, it would save him a lot of trouble!

The Universe Pouch's space was still, preventing food from spoiling. Although it couldn't store living things, these were already corpses, so it should be fine.

With that thought, Shen Fan immediately went to the storage room and tried to store the corpses inside.

However, he discovered that the internal space of the Universe Pouch was too small to accommodate them.

"Damn it, if only it were a bit bigger!"

Shen Fan sighed, but then a new hope ignited in his mind. "Right, I wonder if this Universe Pouch can be upgraded?"

Thinking this, Shen Fan immediately took out everything inside and then carefully placed the Universe Pouch into the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl.

"This Universe Pouch is intact. Tomorrow, will it just spawn a bunch of Universe Pouches?" Shen Fan thought to himself.

However, the next morning, Shen Fan dismissed this idea.

Because the Universe Pouch he had placed inside wasn't duplicated; instead, its quality was improved.

The originally low-grade Universe Pouch had transformed into a top-quality Supreme-Grade Universe Pouch, with an internal space of a hundred zhang.

Shen Fan speculated about the function of the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl: "It seems that as long as the item placed inside doesn't exceed its limit, the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl will automatically upgrade it to its limit. However, if the item placed inside has already reached the highest quality, only then will it be replicated in quantity!"

After committing this speculative characteristic to memory, Shen Fan placed all his belongings inside again.

But at that moment, he slapped his forehead, realizing his mistake. "How could I be so foolish! Will the items inside the Universe Pouch increase if the Universe Pouch multiplies? Or will the quality of the items inside also increase if the quality of the Universe Pouch is enhanced?"

Shen Fan regretted it inwardly. Based on the rules he currently understood, the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl would not continue to strengthen or replicate items that had already been strengthened.

In other words, if he put this strengthened Universe Pouch in again today, there would be no change!

"If only I had another Universe Pouch, then I could try it out!" Shen Fan thought to himself.

However, he then had a change of heart. "But I can still try it again tonight. Even though the strengthened Universe Pouch can't be further strengthened or replicated, what about the items inside?"

With that in mind, Shen Fan decided to try it out tonight.

And today's task was to refine these two corpses into Corpse Puppets.