The vault was empty and spacious. Night Pearls embedded in the walls served as light sources, allowing the pitch-black inner chamber to be seen clearly.
The floor was piled high with chests and crates, all manner of items heaped into mountains.
The quantity was enormous.
Lin Heng clicked his tongue in amazement.
Sure enough, the way mortals hoarded things made it seem as though they had been stockpiled for ages, too precious to use.
Fairy Cloud Peak also had a warehouse for storing goods, yet Meng Yutong had managed it for a hundred years without accumulating anything worthwhile.
Spirit Stones, pills, and ironware—however much they had, they squandered it all.
With a Master who did not know how to run a household, disciples like them could only follow her and drink the northwest wind.
"There's quite a bit of grain too..."
Golden Horse City was far wealthier than he had expected.
Lin Heng's thoughts raced. He did not need the grain. After cultivators fasted from food, they hardly needed to obtain energy through eating.
"This table is made of good material." He reached out and touched the table. It felt distinctly like jade.
Then, the object embedded in the center of the table caught his attention.
What was this?
A stone?
A thought stirred in Lin Heng's mind. He spread the fingers of his right hand and pressed them against the table. As his True Yuan circulated, a pulling force emerged.
Rumble—
A millstone-sized chunk of dark black rock was pulled free.
Lin Heng carefully examined the black stone in his hand.
"This seems to be ore, but its quality is completely different from ordinary ore."
"Hm? Is it shedding its color?"
Lin Heng cried out in surprise. The black impurities on the stone's surface began to peel away naturally, revealing a silvery brilliance beneath, like a pool of spring water.
Water Spirit Mother!
It was the purest water-attributed spiritual treasure in the Cultivation World, found only in the abyssal depths of waters.
With the Heavenly Chart and the System Space assisting him, Lin Heng naturally recognized it.
"The City Lord's Mansion is truly wasting a heavenly treasure. They embedded Water Spirit Mother into a table as decoration—what a genius!"
He muttered to himself.
The Water Spirit Mother was the essence gathered from ten thousand waters. It contained powerful vitality and energy, capable of nourishing the body, accelerating cultivation of related attributes, and even slightly improving one's aptitude.
If this were placed at an Auction, it could at least serve as one of the half-finale items.
"There are four forbidden lands in the Cultivation World. I'm afraid only the Long Nether River might have this thing."
"Forget it. Never mind where it came from... I'll take it first."
He needed to hurry. Yun Yao might follow the trail here once she woke up.
If Yun Yao saw these treasures, would she not snatch them all away?
Besides, people from the Justice Bureau were still patrolling nearby. If they discovered the corpses lying outside, he would have no choice but to kill a few more people.
Aside from the finest Water Spirit Mother, Lin Heng also found a Starfall Stone weighing around ten jin in the first Granary.
As its name suggested, a Starfall Stone was formed through rapid collapse during a comet collision. It was an excellent material for forging weapons.
The second Granary was almost entirely stocked with grain. Only a few empty treasure chests were worth taking.
Seeing nothing valuable, Lin Heng simply pried the Night Pearls off the walls.
This Mystery Box made him feel as though he had taken a loss.
When he opened the doors of the third Granary, an incomparably majestic wave of spiritual energy rushed at him.
Lin Heng was overjoyed.
"Holy shit! I'm rich! The whole vault is full of Spirit Coins!?"
The Spirit Coins in this warehouse were even more outrageous than those in the second. Dense rows of Spirit Coins were strung together by cords.
Conservatively speaking, there had to be over a million Spirit Coins here.
At an exchange rate of ten Spirit Coins for one Spirit Stone, that meant one hundred thousand Spirit Stones.
What did one hundred thousand Spirit Stones mean? Green Pavilion Sect only distributed around five hundred to one thousand Spirit Stones to its disciples each month.
Meng Yutong, as an Elder, only earned around three thousand Spirit Stones.
It would take him centuries of saving without eating or drinking to accumulate one hundred thousand Spirit Stones.
Lin Heng's eyes gleamed, greed written all over his face.
Whether in cultivation or the mortal world, money was what mattered most.
Golden Horse City had accumulated this much wealth after only several years. No wonder the Dynasty was so willing to maintain mortal stability.
Lin Heng carefully stored all the Spirit Coins in the System Space, then continued searching through what remained.
At the very back of the warehouse sat a weapon and a suit of armor.
The armor was grayish-brown and had clearly gathered dust for a long time.
Lin Heng casually picked up the armor and gently ran his hand over it.
Dragons and phoenixes were carved across its surface. It faintly exuded a fierce and tyrannical aura, as though wearing it would allow one to conquer the world.
This armor was a top-grade artifact-level suit of armor.
"The City Lord's Mansion has so many treasures hidden away without using them. Letting them gather dust here is such a waste." Lin Heng spoke softly, but his eyes remained fixed on the other two items.
A fist-sized Black Pearl and an emerald-green spiritual herb.
The Black Pearl was black, its surface smooth, with dense Black Mist rolling from it as though it could devour a person's heart.
The Black Pearl contained powerful spiritual energy fluctuations, yet when he placed it in the System Space, not a single description prompt appeared.
That was rather strange.
Could even the system not identify this thing?
After considering it, he still left it in the System Space to study later.
As for the emerald-green spiritual herb, it was a rare spiritual plant: Blood Ganoderma.
This spiritual herb grew in exceptionally rare underground regions, with an extremely long growth cycle. It only bore thumb-sized Blood Ganoderma Fruits each year.
This spiritual plant was also exceedingly scarce on the market. It could be harvested nine times a year, with only one fruit each time.
Blood Ganoderma Fruits contained powerful vitality. Even the frailest person would strengthen their body and become lively and vigorous after eating one.
"Good stuff. Whether used to refine pills or planted and cultivated, Blood Ganoderma is an excellent choice."
Lin Heng's heart stirred.
This trip to Golden Horse City had truly been worthwhile.
Not only had he gotten Yun Yao, his Senior Sister, for free, he had also gained so many treasures.
Elsewhere, at the inn.
Yun Yao slowly opened her beautiful eyes. Only after a long while did she feel the waves of pain coming from her body.
She propped herself up with her arms and looked around. Sparse, scattered clothing lay everywhere.
Her fragrant shoulders were bare, and a layer of grime had inexplicably coated the body that had once been flawless as pink clouds.
"...This... cough cough!"
Her voice abruptly cut off, replaced by coughing, followed closely by a bout of dry heaving.
Other than hurting a little, why did her throat also have such a strange taste?
Suddenly, a terrifying thought surged into her mind.
"Could it be... could it be that I even gave him..."
Her head buzzed, and her cheeks turned red enough to drip blood.
She took several deep breaths, desperately steadying her state of mind.
After a long while, Yun Yao took out a fresh set of clothes from her storage ring.
It was still that familiar fiery-red long dress.
Red, like fire—unyielding and fierce.
Standing before the mirror, Yun Yao arranged her hair. Even makeup could not conceal the bite marks on her snow-white neck.
Suddenly, she noticed something on the table glowing. Moving closer, she found a gleaming pile of Spirit Stones resting there.
Counting carefully, there were exactly three hundred.
Did Lin Heng leave them behind?
Wait!
Something was wrong!
Fine, he had worn a mask because he had a guilty conscience.
Fine, he had pulled up his pants and run away afterward.
But what did leaving Spirit Stones mean?
Yun Yao frowned. She suddenly remembered that at South City Hotel, Lin Heng had wanted to sell her to the City Lord's Mansion's young master for three thousand Spirit Coins.
In the end, she had killed that man with one slap in a fit of rage.
Three hundred Spirit Stones converted into Spirit Coins came to exactly three thousand!
Could it be...
"Ah! Lin Heng!!!"
Yun Yao finally understood. In her fury, she crushed the Spirit Stones in her hand with one slap.
So that was what he meant—he had treated her like some performing girl from a Flower Pavilion.
He had pulled up his pants and run away without leaving a single word, making it obvious that he had no intention of taking responsibility. Yet in the end, he had even treated her like a Flower Pavilion courtesan.
Yun Yao took a deep breath and loosened her clenched fists. "It's fine, it's fine. As his Senior Sister, I should be more magnanimous. If my junior brother makes a mistake, a slight punishment will do."
"That coward with a guilty conscience is afraid his legs will be broken. Since that's the case, I'll confiscate the tool of the crime."
She spoke the cruelest words in the gentlest voice.
She remembered Lin Heng muttering before he left that he would make a trip to the Money House.
Lin Heng could have done it openly if he wanted, but he should not have worn a hood to impersonate Ye Tian. Even less should he have entertained the thought of treating her like a courtesan he had paid for.
Angry as she was, she ultimately still put away the remaining Spirit Stones.
In truth, those three hundred Spirit Stones had all been taken from Jiang Caiyan.
Lin Heng's original intention had been to leave her some Spirit Stones so she could replenish her blood and energy and recover her strength.
Instead, Yun Yao had let her imagination run wild and connected it all to what had happened before.
If Lin Heng knew that his attempt to help had backfired, he would have been better off not going through the trouble.
Before you continue