Inventorying the Spoils

"Truly amazing! As expected of Lightning Spells, which boast unparalleled power among all spells. This kind of might is almost comparable to Tier 3 spells within the common Five Elements Spells!"

At the sandy slope's summit, Zhou Yang gazed at the charred remains of the Sand Bandits on the ground, his face filled with astonishment.

He had long heard that Lightning Spells were incredibly powerful, with few other spells of the same tier able to match their might. Only after witnessing it today did he realize that Lightning Spells' great reputation wasn't just empty boasting.

However, while Lightning Spells were powerful, their cultivation difficulty was also unparalleled among many spells.

Generally speaking, only cultivators whose Spiritual Root attributes contained both Wind and Lightning could learn Lightning Spells relatively easily.

For cultivators like Zhou Yang, whose Spiritual Root attributes leaned towards the Five Elements, learning Lightning Spells wasn't impossible, but the difficulty would be more than ten times greater than for Wind-Lightning attribute cultivators. Moreover, even if learned, the spell's power would be significantly lower than that cast by Wind-Lightning attribute Spiritual Root cultivators.

For this reason, although many cultivators coveted the power of Lightning Spells, very few were willing to waste a large amount of time on them; it was extremely rare to find even one in a thousand.

Furthermore, to create Lightning Spells into Talismans, not only were the Talisman Master's spell attainments and crafting techniques required to be extremely high, but Spiritual Materials containing Wind and Lightning attribute power also needed to be used as the medium.

Precisely because of these stringent conditions, Lightning Talismans, which sealed Lightning Spells, had always commanded the highest prices among all Talismans of the same tier, sometimes even reaching the prices of higher-tier Talismans.

Even then, they were usually available in name only, and acquiring one depended on luck.

The Tier 2 High-grade "Lightning Strike Technique" Talisman in Zhou Yang's hand was obtained from the Old Clan Leader, Zhou Minghan. It was a trump card he had specifically given Zhou Yang for self-defense before he descended the mountain.

When handing over this rare Talisman, the Old Clan Leader had also specifically cautioned him not to use it lightly unless absolutely necessary.

He hadn't expected that after less than a month out, he had already used this Talisman, which the Old Clan Leader, Zhou Minghan, had treasured for decades.

"What a waste! If I had known the Talisman's power was this great, it wouldn't have mattered if I let that guy go!"

Zhou Yang recalled the Old Clan Leader's extremely solemn expression when he handed the Talisman to him, and suddenly felt a pang of regret.

Although all Sand Bandits deserved to die, wasting such an incredibly rare Tier 2 High-grade Lightning Talisman to kill one Sand Bandit felt like a significant loss!

However, since things had come to this, his regret was useless. He could only look at the Sand Bandit corpses on the ground with half comfort and half anticipation, muttering to himself, "I hope the Storage Bags on these three guys can give me some surprises, otherwise today has truly been a colossal loss!"

Strictly speaking, this was the first time he had killed anyone in both his lives, and he had killed three at once, and they were cultivators.

However, perhaps due to the influence of his upbringing, he didn't feel any aversion to fighting and killing. He didn't feel any discomfort seeing the Sand Bandit corpses on the ground.

Back at the Clear Stream Mountain Oasis, those miners killed by the Gold-Eating Rats were truly miserable; many of them were dismembered. Although he had felt a bit upset seeing that scene back then, he hadn't had any particularly adverse reactions.

After all, cultivators had magical power to protect their bodies, were immune to all illnesses, and even if their bodies had adverse reactions due to psychological reasons, they could quickly suppress them by mobilizing their magical power.

Shaking his head, not dwelling on these trivial matters, Zhou Yang tidied up the corpses of two Sand Bandits on the ground. After confirming nothing was missed, he set the corpses ablaze, turning them to ash. Then, he used the "Earth Evasion Technique" to burrow underground and search the corpse of the Sand Bandit he had killed with a sneak attack using the "Armor Piercing Dagger." Only then did he return to the tent at the base of the sand slope, content, to inventory his spoils.

Unlike Sect Cultivators and Family Cultivators, Rogue Cultivators didn't have fixed cave dwellings to store their belongings, so they didn't have to worry about their lairs being wiped out after they left.

For the vast majority of Rogue Cultivators, carrying all their wealth on their person was the only way to feel secure. Therefore, while the capacity of Rogue Cultivators' Storage Bags might vary, their internal space was always packed full.

As a result, Zhou Yang didn't find just 3 Storage Bags from the three Sand Bandits, but a total of 10.

Among these 10 Storage Bags, three had a capacity of one zhang, six had a capacity of five chi, and one had a capacity of three chi.

After he opened all 10 Storage Bags, he found them filled with all sorts of jumbled items, from small items like golden cups and jade bowls used for eating and drinking, to large items like cowhide tents and jujube pear wood beds; everything was there.

However, the most abundant items were [Golden Pearl Rice] and frozen Demonic Beast Meat. It was as if the three Sand Bandits feared starving to death in the desert, as each of them carried enough [Golden Pearl Rice] and Demonic Beast Meat to last them three to five years if they were alone!

"No wonder the elders in the family always spoke about Rogue Cultivators with a strange tone, full of disdain, even calling them beggars and vagrants in the Cultivation World!"

"Carrying all these pots and pans, along with large quantities of spiritual rice and beast meat, isn't that just like beggars and vagrants?"

Zhou Yang looked at the Storage Bags filled with various mundane items that were of little use to cultivators, feeling both amused and immensely disappointed.

He had been hoping to find some valuable goods in these Storage Bags to compensate for the several Tier 2 High-grade Talismans and one Lightning Talisman he had wasted. Now, it seemed that this idea might be difficult to realize.

Rogue Cultivators were just Rogue Cultivators. If Rogue Cultivators were wealthy, they wouldn't have fallen to the point of becoming Sand Bandits, although not just anyone could become a Sand Bandit.

However, even a mosquito's leg is still meat, and even if a steamed bun isn't tasty, it's still food. After thoroughly searching the 10 Storage Bags, Zhou Yang did find some usable spiritual items for cultivation.

Among these spiritual items, low-grade spirit stones were the most numerous, with two to three hundred pieces. Then there were several bottles of low-grade and mid-grade spirit pills for various uses, estimated to be worth about a hundred spirit stones.

Zhou Yang also found a few Tier 2 Talismans that the three Sand Bandits hadn't had time to use, as well as three sets of refining and alchemy materials that the Sand Bandits had somehow acquired and hadn't had time to fence.

These materials, if not refined into magical artifacts or pills, were only worth about ten to twenty spirit stones. However, Zhou Yang himself was an artifact refiner, and his father was an alchemist. If utilized properly, their value could increase severalfold.

Additionally, three of the Sand Bandits' Storage Bags contained eight low-level cultivation techniques, several annotated cultivation insights, and two cultivation travelogues detailing some strange occurrences and anecdotes in the Cultivation World. Zhou Yang examined them; six of the eight cultivation techniques were already collected in the Zhou family's scripture cave. The remaining two, after being donated to the family, could be exchanged for twenty low-grade spirit stones as a reward for his efforts.

Calculating this way, if we add the several Tier 2 magical artifacts he obtained from the Sand Bandits, as well as the value of the 10 Storage Bags themselves, the goal of breaking even had actually been achieved, and there was even a considerable profit.

"Kill people and set fires to get rich; build bridges and repair roads and no one remembers you. The ancients did not deceive me!" Zhou Yang sighed, deciding to retract his previous statement.

Although Rogue Cultivators were poor, even a broken ship still had three pounds of nails!

After all, the three Sand Bandits were all late-stage Qi Refining cultivators and had been engaged in robbery for many years, so they had accumulated some wealth.

If he didn't count the life-saving Talismans and emergency pills gifted to him by his elders, his personal wealth might not have been much higher than theirs.

Even within the entire Zhou family, excluding the Foundation Establishment cultivators Zhou Minghan and Zhou Xuanhao, only those elders at the ninth level of Qi Refining could firmly surpass these three Sand Bandits in terms of personal wealth.

After Zhou Yang finished inventorying his spoils, he burned all the useless miscellaneous items with a fire. Then, he packed the remaining useful items into two large-capacity Storage Bags and hung them at his waist. The other few empty Storage Bags were strung together with a rope and hung in the sack on the back of the Sand Camel Beast, preparing to discard them at the family store once they reached the White Sand River Oasis.

Being a family cultivator had its advantages. Treasures obtained outside, as long as their origin was clear and did not involve cultivators from other families or sects, could be sold in the family's shops, only requiring a half-percent handling fee to the family after sale.

For Rogue Cultivators, no matter the origin of their treasures, if they tried to sell them in shops in the market, they wouldn't get the normal price. At the very least, they would have to reduce the price by thirty percent to have a chance of selling them.

If they were unlucky or lacked experience and tried to sell stolen goods, which they had snatched or even picked up from family or sect cultivators, to legitimate shops, and the origin of the stolen goods was recognized, not only would the stolen goods be confiscated, but they would also be arrested and interrogated by the market enforcement cultivators. Once found guilty of murder and robbery, their lives would be forfeit.

For these reasons, Rogue Cultivators who found any spiritual items outside would sometimes prefer to waste a lot of time setting up stalls in the market's flea market area to sell them slowly, rather than being exploited by shops. Only when they absolutely couldn't sell them and urgently needed spirit stones would they reluctantly go to the shops and accept being ripped off.

However, Rogue Cultivators also had to pay spirit stones to the market administrators for staying in the market. If they stayed for too long without selling their goods, Rogue Cultivators would eventually have no choice but to accept being exploited.

Being a rogue cultivator in the Cultivation World is truly a miserable existence.

Zhou Yang felt fortunate to be a family cultivator. Although the Zhou family wasn't a major clan, compared to the lowest-tier rogue cultivators in the Cultivation World, having the family as his backing meant he wouldn't be exploited too harshly.

The fierce battle with the three Sand Bandits didn't take much of Zhou Yang's time. However, it took him nearly half the night to sort through the spoils of war from the three Sand Bandits.

As dawn began to break, after finishing his inventory of the haul, he didn't linger in the area. Instead, he packed up his tent, mounted his Sand Camel, and continued on his journey.

Thank you all for your comments. I've summarized them and found that most of what you're worried about is the same as what I'm worried about. Writing according to my own ideas won't cause any problems. What might seem like a "cheat" or "plot hole" to some, looking back now, probably isn't. After all, readers on Qidian are mature and understand the author's intent when giving the protagonist an advantage.

What everyone is most worried about are those cliché ancient novel tropes where the protagonist obtains high-tier divine artifacts and inheritances from powerful beings, then proceeds to slaughter everyone – Foundation Establishment cultivators defeating Golden Core, Golden Core cultivators destroying Nascent Soul… Actually, you're all overthinking it. Even if the protagonist reaches Golden Core, Nascent Soul, or beyond in cultivation, and has various fortuitous encounters behind him, perhaps possessing the strength to wrestle with major figures, it certainly won't be as simple as fighting opponents of a higher level as if it were eating and drinking. Rest assured, I'm also an old bookworm and understand what kind of plot points disgust readers…

Alright, the issues have been resolved. I won't spoil which solution will be used… Lastly, I'm asking for recommendation votes, hehehe… The single-chapter post has been deleted.