How Did It Alarm the Sect Master?!

After being thoroughly disgusted by Senior Brother Xie, Luo Hong completely gave up the idea of selling talismans to his fellow disciples.

It was simply too taxing and time-consuming, delaying both his research into Silver Runes and his cultivation.

At present, the only way left for him to earn Spirit Stones through talismans was to exchange them at Hundred Crafts Hall.

As one of the seven great cultivation sects of the Yue Kingdom, Yellow Maple Valley had countless disciples. Among them, Qi Refining Stage disciples numbered the most, a full ten thousand.

Moreover, there were only a few years left until the sect opened its gates wide again to accept disciples, and then another thousand or so new disciples would enter the valley.

Among these Qi Refining Stage disciples, those with hopes of Foundation Establishment were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Thus, the vast majority chose to engage in some cultivation side profession.

Located within a great sect, most naturally chose Beast Taming or spirit plant cultivation, but quite a few disciples also tried their hand at pill refinement, artifact refinement, and talisman crafting.

There was basically no one studying formations, because without anyone to teach them, it was almost impossible to learn.

Yellow Maple Valley's upper ranks supported disciples who boldly gave it a try. After all, the more outstanding production-type Cultivators there were, the better. Although most of these disciples would soon experience the feeling of "if you don't work hard once, you'll never know what despair feels like," with such an enormous base number, one or two geniuses were bound to emerge.

Hundred Crafts Hall had in fact been established by Yellow Maple Valley specifically to discover such geniuses. The other mediocre disciples could only become "wage slaves."

Hundred Crafts Hall sold all sorts of cultivation side-profession materials, but the truly good goods had long been monopolized by high-level Cultivators. What remained was all ordinary merchandise. Fortunately, the prices did not make their own disciples suffer a loss.

What Luo Hong truly found objectionable was Hundred Crafts Hall's buyback system for all kinds of low-grade products.

Taking talismans as an example, when Hundred Crafts Hall bought them back, it ignored quality and looked only at grade. Three beginner low-grade talismans could be exchanged for two Spirit Stones, fully thirty percent below market price. They were plainly trying to pocket the difference.

"Since you are heartless, don't blame me for being unjust."

When Luo Hong emerged from Hundred Crafts Hall, his Storage Bag contained a huge pile of Yellow Talisman Paper and cinnabar sand.

Both were the lowest-grade talisman-crafting materials. The cost of making talismans about thirty times only amounted to one Spirit Stone.

Of course, for an ordinary talisman crafter, using these two things to make talismans, even after ten thousand attempts, it was highly likely that not a single one would succeed.

Sitting cross-legged on his bed, Luo Hong was just about to pick up his brush and go all out when he suddenly remembered that half a month ago, he had also sat here declaring that making Water Bullet Talismans held no interest for him. His cheeks could not help turning a little red.

"Ahem, Water Bullet Talismans are business. Nothing shameful about business."

After all, he could earn Spirit Stones by the fistful. Luo Hong did not mind eating his words once.

Talisman crafting required mana, and Luo Hong's current Mana Limit was only 184. Once exhausted, it took quite a while to recover.

Thus, in order to make more talismans, Luo Hong poured only 2 mana into each talisman paper whenever he crafted one.

Beginner low-grade spells such as the Water Bullet Technique required only 2 mana at minimum to cast. It was simply pitifully weak at that level, and only Cultivators in the early Qi Refining Stage would use it.

At most, it could be raised to 6 mana, equivalent to the full-force strike of a Qi Refining Mid-stage Cultivator. For a beginner low-grade spell, that was quite impressive.

A month later, Luo Hong looked at the Water Bullet Talismans and Water Shield Talismans piled throughout the room like waste paper, and the corner of his eye twitched.

"Ah, I clearly possess dragon-slaying skills, yet I've fallen to selling plasters. This is a damned black mark on my history. It's all for Spirit Stones—I, Luo, will do this business with tears in my eyes!"

With thirty thousand inferior talismans tucked away, Luo Hong arrived near Hundred Crafts Hall.

Thirty thousand beginner low-grade talismans could be exchanged for twenty thousand Spirit Stones. That was more Spirit Stones than Luo Hong could earn from eight hundred years of work at Fanghua Garden. If he exchanged them all in one go, it would surely attract enormous attention.

Furthermore, Old Demon Han's Foundation Establishment Pill being stolen showed clearly enough the character of Yellow Maple Valley's Foundation Establishment seniors. If they learned of this, who knew what vile things they might do.

Therefore, exchanging for Spirit Stones required careful methods.

Fortunately, the procedures for exchanging Spirit Stones at Hundred Crafts Hall were not strict. One only had to show a Yellow Maple Valley disciple's waist token and produce a certain number of talismans.

Thus, Luo Hong lurked outside Hundred Crafts Hall for three days and figured out the Steward Disciples' shift-change times.

Then, beginning early on the fourth day, he entered Hundred Crafts Hall in different disguises and exchanged talismans for Spirit Stones from different Steward Disciples, a hundred or so Spirit Stones at a time.

Hundred Crafts Hall had to serve more than thirty thousand Qi Refining Stage disciples. It was usually bustling with people coming and going, and the dozens of Steward Disciples on each shift were basically never idle. Moreover, most Steward Disciples were not particularly attentive to their duties—or rather, they had become numb to them.

The uniform Water Bullet Talismans and Water Shield Talismans were rather eye-catching. Luo Hong had even prepared an explanation in advance in case anyone asked where the talismans came from, but in the end, he did not need it even once.

"Junior Brother, what unfortunate timing. The hall's stock of Spirit Stones is insufficient, so I fear your talismans cannot be exchanged."

This was the third day Luo Hong had been exchanging for Spirit Stones. Only several hundred inferior talismans remained in his Storage Bag, and one final exchange would have completed the job. Yet he had not expected such a response from the Steward Disciple.

"It's fine, Senior Brother. I'll come again next time."

"That's good. Still, it is strange. The sect transferred twenty thousand Spirit Stones here just a few days ago. Together with the existing stock, it should have covered two or three months of the hall's needs. How could it have run out so quickly? Sigh, this means we'll have to conduct a thorough audit of the accounts again."

The Steward Disciple sighed repeatedly, for every major audit left everyone at Hundred Crafts Hall rushed off their feet and scorched with anxiety.

Luo Hong restrained the urge to touch his Storage Bag and walked out of Hundred Crafts Hall as though nothing had happened.

Under normal circumstances, Hundred Crafts Hall changed shifts every three days, at which time they reconciled the minor accounts. As for the main accounts, those were only reconciled once every half year.

Therefore, Luo Hong's original plan had been to use these three days to exchange all the inferior talismans before the Foundation Establishment senior overseeing Hundred Crafts Hall discovered the problem during the accounting.

Yet he had not expected twenty thousand Spirit Stones to directly drain Hundred Crafts Hall's reserves, preventing Luo Hong from finishing the job completely.

"Haha, worthy of me indeed. I actually managed to empty the Spirit Stone reserves of one of the sect's major halls. Time to slip away."

Having gained an advantage, he immediately ran. Calculating the time, the Yellow Dragon Pills he had asked Senior Sister Li to refine should be ready as well. Luo Hong decided that after obtaining the pills, he would cultivate in seclusion at Fanghua Garden for half a year and lie low for a while.

Luo Hong's plan was sound, but when he went to the Land of Profound Fire to visit Li Xiaowan, all he received was her Sound-Leaving Talisman.

It turned out that during the days he had been digging into the sect's walls, Li Xiaowan had left the valley with her younger sister for training.

The talisman said that she had gone looking for Luo Hong before leaving, but upon arriving at Fanghua Garden and seeing the defensive formation tightly sealed, she sent in a Sound Transmission Talisman. When no one answered, she gave up.

"She even said something as inauspicious as, 'I'll give you the pills when I return.' Why do I feel like my Yellow Dragon Pills are in danger?"

With matters having reached this point, Luo Hong could not possibly chase Li Xiaowan back, so he could only return to Fanghua Garden and continue researching Silver Runes.

But what Luo Hong had not expected was that more than ten days after his good deed at Hundred Crafts Hall, not only had the matter not died down, it had actually grown increasingly intense.

"I heard that recently, even the Sect Master personally went to Hundred Crafts Hall to demand answers about This Matter. He flew into a tremendous rage and forced the Foundation Establishment senior stationed at Hundred Crafts Hall to swear that he would solve the case."

"What exactly happened? Everyone from Hundred Crafts Hall keeps their mouths shut about This Matter. Senior Brother, do you know the inside story?"

"I don't know either. In any case, everyone should be careful lately, especially not to provoke anyone from Hundred Crafts Hall. Otherwise, trouble may come knocking. Eh? Why is this Junior Brother's face so pale? Did something go wrong with your cultivation technique?"

"It's nothing, nothing. I was merely too hasty for a moment. I'll be fine after meditating for a while."

Luo Hong was beginning to panic. How had this managed to alarm the Sect Master?!