Jade Pendant

During the battle, the three Rogue Cultivators ahead had already stopped and turned back to look this way.

Seeing the battle was over, the leading Rogue Cultivator walked over.

He was around thirty, fairly tall, with rough features and a slightly crooked nose, as though it had once been broken and poorly set.

He walked up to He Shou, cupped his hands, and spoke with obvious gratitude, though his words were blunt.

"Thank you all for saving us. Otherwise, the three of us might have met our end here today."

"It was only right." He Shou wiped the blood from his saber. "How did you run into people from the Crow Claw Gang?"

The Rogue Cultivator gave a bitter smile.

"The three of us came from the south and were planning to resupply at Qinghe Market. We ran into those four on the road."

"We couldn't beat them, so we could only run. Lao Zhou was injured and couldn't run fast. If you hadn't arrived..."

The Rogue Cultivator paused there and cupped his hands again.

He Shou nodded and did not press further.

Cleaning up the battlefield took some time. They thoroughly searched the three Cultivator Bandits.

Together, the three yielded several dozen Spirit Stones and several bottles of Medicinal Pills. He Shou identified some as common pills, while others he had never seen before.

There were several Dharma Artifacts as well. The narrow-bladed Short Saber carried by their leader counted as one.

There were no storage bags. Clearly, these were not particularly well-off Cultivator Bandits.

There were quite a few miscellaneous items, though: several Talismans, two bottles of Healing Medicine, a small pouch of ore fragments, a coil of rope, and various other small odds and ends.

Li Yuan crouched on the ground, his fingers turning over the items one by one.

He reached for a small, bulging cloth bundle wrapped in oiled paper.

Li Yuan unwrapped the oiled paper. Inside were several pieces of broken ore and a jade pendant.

The jade pendant was about half a palm in size, plain in style, grayish white, and somewhat worn on the surface.

Its appearance reminded Li Yuan of Zhao Wu's jade pendant. The style was identical, and even the details looked very similar.

The instant his fingers touched it, the panel appeared.

[Detected equippable item: Breath-Concealing Jade Pendant (Complete)]

[Trait preview: Breath Concealment (Green)—passively restrains one's own aura fluctuations, reducing the likelihood of being detected by probing. Has a significant obscuring effect against perception methods of the same realm or below, and provides some interference against higher-realm perception methods]

[Permanent condition preview: While in a state of Breath Concealment, successfully conceal yourself once from the probing of a cultivator one major realm higher]

Green.

Li Yuan's fingers paused on the jade pendant for a moment, but his expression did not change.

Breath Concealment. It passively restrained aura fluctuations and lowered the chance of being discovered.

Without drawing attention, Li Yuan closed the jade pendant in his palm and put it back into the cloth bundle together with the ore fragments.

He Shou walked over and gathered all the searched items into one place.

The leader of the three Rogue Cultivators also came closer, his gaze sweeping over the pile of spoils on the ground.

"Big brother."

The Rogue Cultivator rubbed his hands and carefully chose his words. "The things on these Cultivator Bandits... we also drained some of their Spirit Qi earlier..."

He Shou glanced at him, then at Li Yuan. Seeing Li Yuan nod, he spoke.

"You were the victims. It's only right that you get a share."

"Thank you, big brother. We'll just take some Spirit Stones and Healing Pills."

He Shou crouched down and roughly divided the spoils.

Li Yuan took the jade pendant from the cloth bundle and placed it before himself.

"I want this one."

He Shou glanced at it. A grayish-white jade pendant, plain in style and worn on the surface.

"Fine."

He Shou took it and inspected it, then nodded. The others had no objections either.

Li Yuan tucked the jade pendant into his sleeve, his fingers lightly rubbing along its edge beneath the cuff.

Li Yuan tested the remaining materials and items, but none had Traits. Thus, he only took Spirit Stones. Since he had contributed the most, he received forty-eight Spirit Stones in total, nearly half the whole amount.

The Rogue Cultivators helped their injured companion away first, heading toward the market.

He Shou led the four onward along their patrol route, though their pace was noticeably faster. Running into Cultivator Bandits today had delayed them.

The remaining half of the patrol route passed quietly.

There was nothing unusual within the Spirit Detection Disk's sensing range. Occasionally, one or two faint fluctuations from Mortal Beasts flickered past.

By evening, the five returned to their station.

After returning to the station that evening, they each dispersed.

Li Yuan returned to his room, shut the door, and sat on the edge of the bed.

He took the Breath-Concealing Jade Pendant from his sleeve and studied it on his knee for a while.

Its grayish-white jade had rounded edges from wear, and its patterns were faint. Its style was almost exactly the same as Zhao Wu's pendant.

Zhao Wu's jade pendant had a Blue Trait.

This one had a Green Trait.

The two jade pendants had appeared in the hands of different people. One had been on Zhao Wu, who was spying on the market's defenses; the other had been in the possession of a Crow Claw Gang Cultivator Bandit.

The possibility of coincidence was slim.

Li Yuan put the jade pendant away without equipping it. Its Breath Concealment Trait was not very useful for now, and the permanent condition was rather harsh. As a Qi Refining cultivator, he had to hide from the probing of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Just then, someone knocked twice on the door.

Li Yuan rose and pulled back the bolt. He Shou stood outside, holding a palm-sized cloth bundle.

"Deputy Captain Li, let's talk."

"Come in."

He Shou slipped into the room and casually shut the door behind him. He did not sit, merely leaned against the wall and placed the cloth bundle on the table.

"That Cultivator Bandit leader today was on the Crow Claw Gang's wanted list."

Li Yuan nodded and waited for him to continue.

He Shou did not beat around the bush.

"Killing a Cultivator Bandit counts as merit. The higher-ups will record it. But you aren't part of the Guard Squad, so you can only receive Contribution Points and Spirit Stone rewards. You can't get promoted."

He Shou tapped the tabletop twice with his knuckles.

"I'm a deputy captain, just one step away from becoming captain. If the merit for this leader is credited to me, I might be able to take that step."

Li Yuan looked at He Shou without responding.

He Shou pushed the cloth bundle on the table toward him.

"Open it and take a look."

Li Yuan unwrapped the bundle. Inside was a Dharma Artifact.

It was a half-foot-long copper tube, narrow at both ends. Dense Spirit Patterns covered its body, while a Fire Crystal the size of a mung bean was embedded in its middle. The entire tube was dark red, and it felt faintly hot in his hand.

The instant his fingers touched it, the panel appeared.

[Detected equippable item: Flame Snake Tube (Complete)]

[Trait preview: Precision (White)—improves the accuracy of ranged spells and ranged Dharma Artifact attacks, accelerating proficiency gains for ranged spells]

[Permanent condition preview: Use ranged means to hit targets and deal damage a total of 100 times (0/100)]

[Current Equipment Slot is full (2/2). Replace current equipment?]

A White Trait. Precision—it improved accuracy and could accelerate proficiency gains.

"I took this from a Rogue Cultivator back when I used to hunt Demonic Beasts in the mountains. I never found a use for it."

"You can inject it with Spirit Qi to fire fierce, swift bullets of Fire-Attribute Spirit Qi."

He Shou's voice was calm and unhurried, his manner frank.

"The merit goes to me, and the Dharma Artifact goes to you. What do you think?"

Li Yuan turned the copper tube over in his hand but did not answer immediately.

The merit from killing a wanted Cultivator Bandit was indeed considerable, but what He Shou said was also true—Li Yuan was not on the Guard Squad's roster. No matter how great the merit, it could only be converted into Contribution Points and Spirit Stones.

As for Contribution Points and Spirit Stones, he had other ways of earning them. Dharma Artifacts with Traits, on the other hand, were hard to come by.

"Fine."

Li Yuan tucked the Flame Snake Tube into his sleeve.

The expression on He Shou's face eased. He cupped his hands.

"Straightforward. I'll write the report when we get back. You don't need to worry about anything on your end."

He Shou turned and walked out. After the door shut, his footsteps gradually faded away.

Li Yuan sat back down on the edge of the bed, took the Flame Snake Tube from his sleeve, and turned it over in his palm.

The copper tube felt slightly heavy in his hand. The Spirit Patterns gave off a faint heat beneath his fingertips. The craftsmanship was not especially fine, but its construction was solid, and the Fire Crystal was firmly embedded. It did not look like the sort of thing that would fall apart.

A White Trait: Precision. The permanent condition was to hit targets and deal damage one hundred times.

They encountered Demonic Beasts fairly often during patrols, so accumulating successful hits would not be difficult.

But the Equipment Slot was full. He would equip it when needed.

Li Yuan put away the Flame Snake Tube, sat cross-legged, and circulated the Spirit Guiding Art.

Spirit Qi surged in from all directions. After passing through Spirit Qi Filtration, it became pure and free of impurities, while his circulation revolved at high speed. The effect of Spirit Qi Condensation continued to operate, making every strand of Spirit Qi denser as it entered his Dantian.

The Spirit Qi within his Dantian was already quite abundant.

After this period of accumulation, the threshold of Qi Refining Fifth Layer was within arm's reach. His total Spirit Qi had already approached the limit of Qi Refining, Fourth Layer. Deep within his Dantian, it was like a pool filled to the brim; newly absorbed Spirit Qi could only make one circuit through his meridians before having nowhere left to go.

But unlike when he had reached the Peak Third Layer of Qi Refinement, this time he did not feel that stifling pressure.

Spirit Qi Filtration had stripped away every last impurity, leaving his Spirit Qi exceptionally pure.

On top of that, there was the effect of Spirit Qi Condensation—his Spirit Qi density was already a notch higher than that of cultivators in the same realm, and his Dantian's effective capacity had increased by thirty percent. This meant that, even at the peak of Qi Refining, Fourth Layer, Li Yuan's Dantian held far more Spirit Qi than an ordinary cultivator's.

At the same time, the effect of Circulation Acceleration was also speeding up his cultivation.

All that remained was that final little bit.