"Tsk, tsk, not bad! No wonder the protagonists in novels always liked wiping out entire families. It really was satisfying. The haul was incredible!"
An hour later.
Under the cover of moonlight, Xiao Yuan happily carried a cloth sack full of Storage Rings back to his little courtyard.
This time, he'd ransacked a full six hundred thousand gold coins alone!
The Xiao Clan's annual profits were only close to a hundred thousand!
And that didn't even include all the other odds and ends inside: pills, medicinal ingredients, cultivation arts, Dou Techniques, and the like.
[Tsk, tsk, no wonder that old geezer Jialie Bi in the original story could produce five hundred and fifty thousand to buy the High Xuan Tier cultivation art, Wind Scroll Art. He really was loaded.]
[But going by the timeline, Ya Fei Mittal should have been assigned to Wutan City some time ago. I can go to the Auction House and unload this loot, and take the chance to meet one of Battle Through the Heavens' top candidates for the title of Empress of Gold.]
Creak—
Xiao Yuan pushed open the door and walked inside, beaming.
As soon as he entered, he saw a red scroll lying on the tea table.
A teapot sat on top of a note beside it, the writing neat and orderly.
It basically said that the cultivation art had been bought cheaply at the marketplace and was a gift for him to practice. It was a thank-you for accompanying the sender to buy medicinal ingredients that day and lending him money.
Looking at the cultivation art scroll on the table, Xiao Yuan sighed helplessly.
There was no need to ask who had sent it.
It could only have been Xiao Yan.
[Though I'm looking forward to being repaid, I was hoping for a gift from the future Flame Emperor...]
[This cultivation art is Low Earth Tier, too. I bet he pried it out of Yao Chen's hands.]
[My dear brother...]
He didn't know how else to describe him. All he could do was smile wryly.
Just as he was about to pick up his teacup and take a sip, a lilting voice sounded at just the right moment.
"Longing stirs the winds and clouds; stars round, earth square, the altar of three realms."
"The gate to life and death swings wide; the killing tribulation rises anew to wash away the mortal dust."
"What a dashing poem, Brother Xiao Yuan."
At those words, Xiao Yuan spat out the tea he'd just sipped.
He stiffly turned his head toward the window on the left side of the room and was instantly startled.
The window, which had been tightly shut, had somehow been opened.
Pale moonlight flowed into the room like water.
And at the edge of the window, which should have been empty, a girl in a golden dress was now perched.
Beneath the golden hem, her smooth, snow-white legs swung back and forth, tracing enticing, playful arcs in the air.
The moonlight fell upon the girl's delicate face, making her look like a moon goddess, radiant and mysterious.
For a moment, Xiao Yuan's throat tightened, and he murmured a name almost like a groan.
"Xun... Xun'er?"
[What the hell, why's this little girl like Sadako? When did she get here?]
[And what did she mean by that just now?]
Out of the corner of his eye, Xiao Yuan glanced at the cloth sack he'd casually tossed onto the tea table.
Seeing that the mouth of the sack was sealed tightly, he finally let out a small breath of relief.
But her next question made his heart leap into his throat again.
"Brother Xiao Yuan, you went to the Jialie Family just now, didn't you?"
"I..."
Xiao Yuan had only managed one word when he met Xun'er's slightly mischievous gaze and suddenly realized something was off.
[Wait, why the hell am I nervous? I didn't go sneaking around with someone!]
He immediately found his nerve.
"Mm, I did go to the Jialie Family just now."
"Then, Brother Xiao Yuan, do you admit that the Dou Wang called Gu Yue Fang Yuan was you in disguise?"
"Mm-hm, that's right."
Xiao Yuan shrugged.
He didn't know how Xun'er had figured it out, but he admitted it quite frankly.
[Maybe she had Ling Ying follow me in secret, and that's how she found out?]
[That's certainly possible.]
Just as he was thinking this, Xun'er suddenly jumped down from the window and came up beside him, examining his expression and body.
"Brother Xiao Yuan, Xun'er doesn't know how you managed to unleash the power of a peak Nine-Star Dou Wang, but I hope you'll let it be just this once. Don't damage your foundation."
Xun'er's tone was very serious.
Perhaps this was the first time she had ever spoken to him so sternly.
As a member of the Ancient Clan, Xun'er naturally knew how much damage secret techniques could cause—
The greater the leap in power, the more severe the backlash.
In the worst cases, the user's foundation would be utterly destroyed, and all their cultivation would be lost!
Although Brother Xiao Yuan had looked very cool just now, she didn't want anything to happen to him.
Then she pulled a delicate little porcelain bottle from her Storage Ring and pressed it into his hand.
"Brother Xiao Yuan, this is a Recovery Pill. It'll help your body, so remember to take it. It's getting late, and Xun'er should go get some rest."
With that, Xun'er turned and left.
There was a hint of anger and loneliness in her retreating figure.
At last, only Xiao Yuan remained. He looked at the porcelain bottle in his hand, then raised his eyes to the empty doorway.
[A Fifth-grade Pill, just like that...]
"So she came all this way to check on me..."
He couldn't help tightening his grip on the bottle.
Thinking about how he'd treated Xun'er just now, Xiao Yuan felt like he'd wake from sleep in the middle of the night, sit bolt upright, and slap himself twice.
[What the hell is wrong with me!]
Xiao Yuan carefully put the pill into his Storage Ring, then sat cross-legged on his bed alone and took out the two cultivation arts he'd gotten during the day.
No, to be precise, there were three now.
The unnamed Low Earth Tier fire-attribute cultivation art Yao Chen had given him.
The Low Earth Tier Mystic Flame Art Xun'er had given him.
And the system's reward—
[Primordial Creation Art] [Rank: Low Earth Tier] [The primordial chaos existed before the dawn of history; the origin of vital energy.] [Can devour other cultivation arts to advance.]
"Damn, all three of them are Low Earth Tier!"
But compared with the others, the cultivation art rewarded by the system seemed to have far greater potential.
After all, it could devour other cultivation arts and evolve.
It seemed almost on a par with the Flame Mantra, which evolved by devouring Heavenly Flames.
But how was he supposed to devour them?
As he pondered this, Xiao Yuan casually picked up the red scroll Yao Chen had given him.
The system's voice immediately rang out.
[Ding! A compatible cultivation art has been detected. Fuse them?]
So that was how it worked?
"Yes!"
[Ding! Fusion successful. Primordial Creation Art has advanced to Middle Earth Tier.] [Learn it?]
"...That's it?"
Xiao Yuan blinked at the cultivation art scroll, now reduced to ashes in his hand, feeling a little dazed.
He'd thought fusing cultivation arts would cause some earth-shaking phenomenon or something, but nothing had happened.
Next, he took out the cultivation arts he'd gotten for free from the Jialie Family.
From High Xuan Tier down to Low Yellow Tier, he fed them all into the art.
But this time, no prompt announcing an evolution rang out.
Only after he fed in the Mystic Flame Art Xun'er had given him did the prompt he wanted finally sound again.
[Ding! Fusion successful. Primordial Creation Art has advanced to High Earth Tier.] [Learn it?]