Invitation

"Fifty Spirit Stones as payment?"

Shen Mo immediately grew interested when he heard this.

"That's right. Fifty Spirit Stones for two months.

"If we encounter an Illusionary Stone Spirit while patrolling at night, or discover a Gold-Devouring Rat sneaking into the mining area to steal food, you won't need to do anything. I'll handle it myself.

"You'll also have plenty of time to practice Alchemy or Talisman Making. Your only task is to accompany me and help guard the place."

Chen Mengze's words made the offer even more tempting.

"I'll go. Of course I'll go."

Fifty Spirit Stones for two months was a pretty good assignment, even for an Inner Sect disciple.

He had nothing else to do. He'd already planned to spend these two months staying in the sect and focusing on Alchemy and Talisman Making, improving his experience in both.

Now that he'd found a task that would let him earn fifty Spirit Stones without having to do any real work, of course he accepted gladly.

It wouldn't interfere with his own schedule. It didn't matter where he practiced Alchemy.

The only question was, why had she come to him with such an easy way to get something for nothing?

After thinking it over, Shen Mo decided that Chen Mengze was cold on the outside but warm-hearted inside. Although they rarely saw each other nowadays and had grown distant, she'd still come to look out for her childhood friend when a good opportunity came along.

Thinking this, he found Chen Mengze's image in his mind growing a little more endearing.

"Mm. Since you've agreed to go, it's settled."

Chen Mengze nodded. "Come meet me at the Weapon Forging Hall on the right side of the mountain gate plaza at a quarter past one this afternoon."

With that, she didn't even say goodbye. She turned and left.

"Before a work trip, I'd better get everything ready!"

After watching her leave, Shen Mo surveyed the room and began packing.

He put the spirit herbs, writing brush, Beast Blood, Sandalwood Ink, yellow paper, and all sorts of materials for Alchemy and Talisman Making into his Qiankun Pouch, so he could use them while stationed at the Mystic Crystal Mining Area.

"These things are easy to pack, but..." Shen Mo looked at the Red Cloud Cauldron in the middle of the room and grimaced. "This cauldron is far too huge. My Qiankun Pouch is so small there's no way I can fit it inside."

"I should head to the marketplace. It's time to upgrade my Qiankun Pouch."

After hesitating for a moment, Shen Mo decided to go to the marketplace and buy a new Qiankun Pouch.

The one he was using now was a basic Qiankun Pouch, the kind the sect gave free to all its outer disciples when they first joined.

Its storage space was far too small.

Shen Mo had managed with it in the past.

But the more he experienced and learned, the more things he acquired. His Qiankun Pouch could no longer keep up.

The marketplace district of Dao-Gaining Alley.

River-Facing Pavilion was a sect-owned business that the River-Facing Sect had established in the marketplace.

It specialized in selling all kinds of rare treasures. It was also the only place in Dao-Gaining Alley where Qiankun Pouches were sold.

"Shopkeeper, how much is this Qiankun Pouch?"

Shen Mo glanced over the Qiankun Pouches and quickly picked out a pure white one embroidered with delicate cloud patterns.

"This is a mid-grade Qiankun Pouch. It has a storage space of one hundred cubic meters, making it the most advanced Qiankun Pouch we have here."

"As for the price, it costs five mid-grade Spirit Stones."

The shopkeeper stood behind the counter and called out after taking a glance from afar.

"Five mid-grade Spirit Stones?"

Shen Mo was startled by the price and carefully put it back where it belonged.

"That's far too expensive. Only the sect's elders and a few highly ranked direct disciples can afford something like this."

One mid-grade Spirit Stone could be exchanged for one hundred low-grade Spirit Stones.

Five mid-grade Spirit Stones were worth five hundred low-grade Spirit Stones.

With that much, he could buy who knew how many low-tier spirit herbs, spirit talismans, and rare natural treasures.

It was simply too expensive for him.

"Where are the low-grade Qiankun Pouches?"

"On the bottom right, in the leftmost row. Those are all low-grade Qiankun Pouches." The shopkeeper nodded in that direction. "These pouches have a storage space of twenty cubic meters and all cost fifty low-grade Spirit Stones."

Shen Mo could just barely afford that price if he gritted his teeth.

Yesterday, he'd sold all the talismans and spirit pills he'd made recently, then searched around his home. He now had fifty-four Spirit Stones on him.

"I'll take it." Shen Mo handed over most of his wealth and successfully exchanged it for a low-grade Qiankun Pouch, black and white with a Taiji symbol embroidered on it.

"With this, I can carry not only the Red Cloud Cauldron, but every piece of furniture in my house."

He kept turning the newly bought Qiankun Pouch over in his hands, unable to put it down.

As soon as he returned from the marketplace, Shen Mo performed the blood-binding ritual and imprinted the Qiankun Pouch with his divine sense.

This divine-sense imprint was like the screen-lock password on a phone in his previous life. Once it was in place, only he could open the pouch.

Anyone else trying to force it open would have to erase his divine-sense imprint first.

That was no easy feat.

To forcibly erase an imprint left by someone else, one's cultivation had to be at least an entire major realm higher than the person who'd left it.

"Whoosh!"

He lightly slapped the ear of the Red Cloud Cauldron and focused his mind.

The cauldron standing in the room abruptly vanished, stored inside the Qiankun Pouch.

After putting the cauldron away, he looked around the house and packed in everything he thought he might need during the next two months.

The new storage pouch had plenty of room inside, unlike the sect-issued one, which had a storage space of only a few dozen cubic centimeters.

For once, he got to enjoy the luxury of not having to carefully calculate how much he could fit. He could pack as much as he wanted.

"I've pretty much got everything."

"Now there's only one thing left to do!"

After taking everything he needed, he went to a corner at the western end of the room.

He crouched down and pulled up the bricks embedded in the floor, one by one.

A passageway appeared beneath them.

Shen Mo followed the secret passage down to a cramped space underground, barely more than ten square meters.

Inside stood an old-fashioned Eight Immortals table.

On the table sat the pot of spirit soil, with the Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit still growing in it.

He'd dug out this underground cellar himself yesterday.

He'd done it to hide the Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit.

Since the fruit wasn't ripe yet, he couldn't put it in a storage pouch, so it had to stay outside.

But leaving it out in the open at home would draw far too much attention.

That was why he'd dug a cellar to hide it.

"But a cellar alone still isn't safe!"

He remembered Uncle Chen's warning.

The sect's Spirit Sea Realm experts had extraordinarily powerful divine senses. With a single thought, they could survey the surrounding area and let their spirits roam the void.

The cellar could block ordinary sight, but it couldn't keep divine sense from peering inside.

So, to prevent the abundant spiritual energy released by the Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit as it grew from attracting the attention of the sect's experts, he'd brought back something else from the marketplace along with his new Qiankun Pouch.