Zhou Xuan smiled, ignoring the others' chatter.
Their horizons stretched only so far.
They had no way to understand what it meant to forge a bond with an Inner Sect Disciple in the Foundation Establishment Realm—not if that bond truly took root.
He paid them no further attention, turned around, and threw himself back into his work.
To the other Chore Disciples, the whole affair was just a minor interruption, and they soon forgot about it.
In their eyes, Zhou Xuan had simply gotten lucky. He'd happened upon an Inner Sect senior brother with a decent temper, said a few flattering words, and escaped being caught in the man's anger.
As for finding that so-called Copper Marriage Contract?
That was nothing but a pipe dream!
The trash heaps at the Miscellaneous Affairs Department were piled as high as mountains, layer upon layer. Who knew which corner the thing had been buried in?
Finding a scrap of copper in a Trash Mountain larger than an ordinary mortal city was no easier than fishing a needle out of the ocean.
They thought Zhou Xuan had blown his own trumpet and made a grand promise to the Inner Sect senior brother.
When he failed to find the thing and couldn't deliver, even that senior brother, good-natured as he might be, probably wouldn't let Zhou Xuan off lightly.
If he angered an Inner Sect Disciple in the Foundation Establishment Realm, Zhou Xuan might truly die without even knowing how.
Zhou Xuan couldn't be bothered with the looks around him—some sympathetic, some pitying, and some gleeful.
Just as usual, he plunged headfirst into the newly delivered pile of Scrap.
On the surface, he diligently sorted and gathered the various kinds of Scrap. His movements were practiced and nimble, making him look like an ordinary chore disciple working himself to the bone just to survive.
But in secret, every time his hand swept over discarded medicinal dregs, torn Talisman paper, or Spirit Beast bones still imbued with Spiritual Energy, he silently recited the same word in his mind.
"Absorb!"
His movements seemed haphazard, but they followed a precise order. Like the most efficient scanner, he extracted the last trace of Spiritual Energy from tons of garbage.
[Ding! Absorbed residual spiritual power from a damaged first-tier Talisman. Gold Touch Value +1!]
[Ding! Absorbed the shattered bones of a second-tier Spirit Beast. Gold Touch Value +3!]
[Ding! Detected discarded medicinal liquid containing trace poison. Absorption successful. Gold Touch Value +2!]
A string of system notifications rang in his mind like the sweetest music.
Every now and then, as he rummaged through the heaps, he also found a few pieces of decent scrap.
For instance, the tip of a broken Flying Sword. Its core runes had been destroyed, but once repaired, it could still serve as a decent low-tier Dharma Artifact.
Whenever he came across something like that, Zhou Xuan casually slipped it into his Universe Bag without drawing attention.
His movements were perfectly natural. To anyone watching, he was simply putting sorted trash into his Storage Bag; no one would suspect a thing.
Time flew by amid the tedious yet fulfilling labor.
After half a day, Zhou Xuan had single-handedly processed nearly a third of the several new heaps of Scrap on the outskirts, each like a small mountain.
His astonishing efficiency left the supervisor in charge quietly dumbfounded. He assumed the Sect's Dismissal Order had spurred Zhou Xuan into a desperate burst of survival instinct, and even felt a little more respect for him.
Zhou Xuan's gains were even more impressive.
[Gold Touch Value balance: 728 points.]
In just half a day, he'd amassed over a hundred points of Gold Touch Value!
Seeing the number, Zhou Xuan felt a wave of satisfaction.
At this rate, reaching a thousand points and raising his Spirit Root to the next stage was just around the corner!
It seemed like a pretty good haul, but when he thought about the tens of thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of Gold Touch Value he might need later, Zhou Xuan felt a headache coming on.
Upgrading his Spirit Root, repairing the treasured copper piece, and performing Enlightenment on Dharma Artifacts.
Every one of them was a bottomless pit that devoured gold.
His meager resources were still far too thin.
The revolution wasn't over; his comrades still had work to do!
With that thought, Zhou Xuan bent back to work.
Unfortunately, he'd combed through the third of the area he'd cleared, but hadn't found so much as a trace of the Copper Marriage Contract that Senior Brother Zhao Zhen prized as much as his life.
Zhou Xuan shook his head, but wasn't surprised.
The area was still too large. It was only natural that he hadn't found it yet. As long as the thing was still somewhere in the Miscellaneous Affairs Department, sooner or later it would turn up.
As dusk approached, Zhou Xuan finished processing the last patch of medicinal dregs in front of him, wringing out the final trace of Spiritual Energy.
Only then did he straighten up, dust off his hands, and turn to leave, ready to return and continue with his grand plans.
But just as he turned around—
A gaunt, withered figure appeared soundlessly beside him.
"Gah!"
Zhou Xuan's heart clenched. The sudden appearance startled him so badly that he instinctively took half a step back.
When he recognized the newcomer, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then his brows furrowed.
It was Zhou Ye.
He had no idea when the man had come up beside him. He'd made no sound at all as he walked.
In the dim light, that face of his—already like a corpse's—looked all the more sinister and terrifying.
"What are you doing? Trying to scare me to death?"
Zhou Xuan said irritably.
Zhou Ye didn't seem to mind his tone. His cloudy eyes fixed on Zhou Xuan, and his gaunt face bore a strange mix of tension and excitement.
He raised a hand, dry and clawlike as a chicken's foot, and slowly opened his palm.
There, in the center of his hand, lay a small, thin, old-fashioned copper piece, its edges already curling slightly!
It was only two fingers wide. A few crooked characters and the birth dates of two people had been crudely engraved on it.
It was the very Copper Marriage Contract Senior Brother Zhao Zhen had been searching for!
Zhou Xuan's pupils contracted sharply, and his gaze instantly locked onto the contract.
He never would've guessed that the thing he'd spent all that time searching for would be in Zhou Ye's hands!
Zhou Xuan lifted his head and fixed Zhou Ye with a sharp stare. "How did you get it?"
Under Zhou Xuan's questioning gaze, Zhou Ye's body trembled slightly, as if he were afraid. Still, he mustered his courage and met Zhou Xuan's eyes.
"What do you want?" Zhou Xuan asked bluntly, wasting no time.
He knew perfectly well that Zhou Ye hadn't handed the contract over right away. Instead, he'd chosen to come to Zhou Xuan now. He must have wanted something in return.
At Zhou Xuan's words, an astonishing light suddenly flared in Zhou Ye's lifeless eyes.
"I don't want to leave the Sect!"
His voice was hoarse and low, each word squeezed out from deep in his throat.
"I'm still pursuing the path to immortality!"
He clutched the contract in his fist as if it were his last lifeline.
"You can help me. I know you can. If you help me stay here, I'll give you this contract!"
Zhou Xuan silently studied Zhou Ye and the eyes reddened with excitement.
He could read the desperation and all-or-nothing madness in them.
The scene of his first meeting with Zhou Ye rose unbidden in Zhou Xuan's mind.
Back then, Zhou Ye had been just as gaunt, but his eyes had been numb and resigned.
Now, Wang Fugui's Dismissal Order was like a needle, stabbing through that numb shell and making Zhou Ye feel pain again—and reigniting the resentment he'd tried to bury.
Zhou Xuan's impression of him was fairly good.
At the very least, when Zhou Xuan had first arrived at the Miscellaneous Affairs Department and everyone else had kept their distance, Zhou Ye had kindly offered him a few words of warning.
It had been a small kindness, but Zhou Xuan remembered it.
Help him?
How?
Zhou Xuan's mind raced.
Given Zhou Ye's current condition, he was afflicted with Pill Poison, had been stuck at the fourth level of Body Forging for years, and was nearly thirty. He fit the criteria for the first group to be kicked out under the Dismissal Order.
For him to stay, Zhou Xuan would have to remove the Pill Poison from his body and help him break through to the fifth level of Body Forging within three months.
A detoxification pill?
A pill to raise his cultivation?
The Marketplace did sell things like those, but they were expensive.
Even if Zhou Xuan traded all his Gold Touch Value for Spirit Stones, he might not have enough to buy them.
Zhou Xuan's gaze flickered as he weighed his options.
As he looked at Zhou Ye's face, brimming with hope and pleading, something stirred in his heart.
He fell silent for a moment, then slowly said, "I can help you. It's not impossible."
At those words, Zhou Ye's breath caught. Wild joy blazed in his eyes!
Zhou Xuan's gaze quietly fell on him.
At the same time, he silently thought:
"System, switch modes!"
[Ding! Mode switch successful! Current mode: Enlightenment!]
In an instant, the world before Zhou Xuan's eyes changed in a wondrous way.
The gaunt figure of Zhou Ye now had a faint data screen floating over him, visible only to Zhou Xuan.
[Target: Zhou Ye]
[Race: Human]
[Realm: Fourth level of Body Forging]
[Spirit Root: Four-Element Pseudo Spirit Root (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire)]
[Status: Pill Poison infestation (moderate), depleted vitality and blood, blocked Meridians, damaged Spirit Root]
[Overall assessment: A low-grade beast of burden on the verge of being scrapped]
At the sight of this string of data, Zhou Xuan's heart gave a violent thump!
He forced down his shock and fixed his eyes on the final line—the most crucial piece of information!
[Enlightenment repair available. Estimated Gold Touch Value cost: ???]
[Enlightenment path one: Remove Pill Poison and repair Meridians.]
[Enlightenment path two: Replenish vitality and blood, increase cultivation.]
[Enlightenment path three: Repair and improve Spirit Root quality.]
[Warning: Performing Enlightenment on a living being carries unknown risks. Host, proceed with caution!]
When Zhou Xuan saw those lines, he nearly stopped breathing!
So it really was possible!
Before you continue