Anvil and Milling Cutter

Lu Li's heart burned with excitement. He circulated his astral qi again, gathering it in his palm, aiming at the rocks along the nearby bank before thrusting his hand forward.

Clang!

The boulder, half a man's height tall, was pierced straight through. The hole was smooth and perfectly round, like a through-hole milled by a rotating cutter.

If that earlier blasting punch had been like an iron hammer—a blunt weapon—then the slash Lu Li unleashed now was like a milling cutter, a sharp weapon.

Each had its own strengths and weaknesses. Blunt weapons relied on impact to transmit kinetic force through armor and inflict internal injuries, while sharp weapons could concentrate their power on a vulnerable spot and strike at a single point.

"No, my spirit ore!"

Before unleashing those two killing moves, Lu Li had fired out the spirit-guiding copper as well. Yet when he swept the surroundings with his astral qi, he found no trace of its remains.

"To unleash the full might of the Qi-Combining Cauldron, you must use spirit ore to nourish your astral qi. The higher its purity and hardness, the greater the power. Once a killing move is unleashed, the spirit ore will vanish along with it."

"So it's disposable? Then these killing moves burn through money like crazy."

By a rough estimate, the spirit ore Lu Li had used for those two strikes was worth at least three to five spirit stones.

"You get what you pay for. Although the Qi-Combining Cauldron burns money, if you can find suitable spirit ore to nourish your astral qi, its power can rival a second-rank puppet artifact. Besides, there are plenty of money-burning killing moves. You'll understand in time."

Lu Li quickly recovered from the gloom of losing three spirit stones. There were many things in this world that money could not buy. He took out some gray silver again and tossed it into the Qi-Combining Cauldron for purification.

Soon, Lu Li repeated the same process, melding the gray silver into his astral qi.

Its power was also considerable, but it was inferior to before.

"Is gray silver not hard enough?"

Gray silver was known for its toughness, while spirit-guiding copper was famed for its excellent spiritual-power conductivity. The latter was harder than the former, but neither was the best choice.

Likewise, azure lead was also on the softer side. Among the ores in Lu Li's possession, Nethervoid Stone was undoubtedly the hardest.

The Stamping Art recorded that Nethervoid Stone possessed extreme hardness. Most of the hammers and milling cutters used in stamping were refined from Nethervoid Stone.

Thus, Lu Li drew Nethervoid Stone powder through his lungs and immediately felt a faint sting in his throat. Once the powder entered the gray-silver airways, however, the stinging sensation vanished at once.

The spirit ore passed through his lungs, filtering out impurities and nourishing his astral qi before finally gathering in his palm. Lu Li aimed at another boulder as tall as a man, raised his hand from afar, and slashed.

Clang!

The boulder split at the sound, its cut surface smooth and even. Its power surpassed the previous strike.

"Good!"

Lu Li was overjoyed. Cultivators often passed by the Treasure Flow River. Selling high-purity spirit ore would inevitably draw attention.

Moreover, he had earned so many spirit stones in one go. Whether they were mortal gold-panners or passing disciples of sects, quite a few eyed him greedily. Lu Li had always worried that someone might set their sights on him. The human heart was unfathomable; one had to stay on guard.

Now that he had such a trump card, Lu Li felt much safer.

Lu Li had comprehended these two killing moves himself, and they were not recorded in the Stamping Art. So he took it upon himself to name them Stamping Art: Anvil Hammer and Stamping Art: Milling Cutter.

"Unfortunately, my lung capacity is limited. The Nethervoid astral qi I can store is only enough for three uses of Stamping Art killing moves."

Though he called it lung capacity, it was actually the capacity of the Qi-Combining Cauldron. A puppet artifact was not a human body, after all. Its capacity seemed difficult to improve through training. If he wanted greater lung capacity, he would have to find a way to modify it in the future.

In the end, Lu Li spent two hours absorbing six taels of Nethervoid Stone and converting it into Nethervoid astral qi, while also processing two jin each of spirit-guiding copper and gray silver.

Compared to directly purchasing them with spirit stones, Lu Li had saved quite a bit of time, and he felt immensely pleased.

The latter half of the night remained busy. Panning for gold, marking locations—Lu Li was run off his feet.

The next morning, Lu Li ate a pear and made do with a steamed bun. Quite a few cultivators came that morning, five or six groups in all. He did not see any Rogue Cultivators; the newcomers were either from Azure Sun Hall or White Moon Palace.

Lu Li had known back in Southern Sun Town that these two sects had recently been fighting a trade war. White Moon Palace's Stock Immortal had threatened to raise taxes, causing the stock market to crash overnight. His mother had lost the entire family fortune because of it.

These two groups clearly did not get along. Even when they ran into each other, they did not speak, simply pretending not to see one another. The atmosphere was taut as drawn bows, as though a fight could break out at any moment.

To be honest, Lu Li felt somewhat uneasy whenever he encountered people from Azure Sun Hall. By rights, he owed Azure Sun Hall money now—and had even killed one of their people—so whenever Azure Sun Hall members appeared, he did not dare approach them to sell ore.

Today was Lu Li's third day at the Treasure Flow River. He had gradually sold off the spirit ore in his possession, earning a total of thirty-three spirit stones.

As expected, word had leaked out about his selling mineral-site locations yesterday. Dozens of people followed Lu Li early in the morning, wanting to buy the locations he knew. Seeing how enthusiastic they were, Lu Li raised the price a little.

"One spirit stone for one location? Why don't you just rob us?"

"I told you yesterday that the locations I know are limited. Of course the price would rise later. You—I remember you. You were there at the time."

"You raised the price tenfold in a day! Are you even human?"

"Forget tenfold. Every one of these locations my father left me is a rare mineral site. Even if the price went up twentyfold in a day, you'd still be making a profit."

Though everyone knew Lu Li was telling the truth, their expressions were all unpleasant. Behind his back, they cursed him as a second-generation miner.

Only those few people who had pooled their money to buy locations yesterday secretly rejoiced, glad that they had followed him then. At the time, they had felt the pain of spending one or two taels of silver; now, it seemed they had struck it rich.

Over the course of the morning, Lu Li sold six locations. After all, he had spent most of last night refining ore, only finding time to search for mineral sites in the latter half of the night.

Even so, demand still outstripped supply. The final location was sold by auction, ultimately fetching thirty taels of silver.

Lu Li counted his assets. Converting the silver into spirit stones, his total assets had reached fifty-nine spirit stones—equivalent to twenty kidneys.

Just a few days ago, his assets had still been negative thirty-six spirit stones. In only four short days, the spirit stones in his hands had gone from negative to positive.

As for the money he had once owed...

Lu Li certainly did not dare go to Azure Sun Hall to repay it now. Two of their disciples had died by his hand; once this matter was convicted, the consequences would be unthinkable.

In Elder Duan's words, "You already slaughtered the people they sent to collect the debt. In a sense, that makes you a deadbeat who's taken to the hills and become a bandit. Leaving aside whether you count as demonic, you've at least evolved into half a bandit already. Still thinking about paying them back? That's truly got no ambition at all."

After hearing her out, Lu Li felt Elder Duan was probably the sort of old rogue who loved swindling money, but what she said did make sense.

Eh, since Immortal Granny had spoken and said he did not need to repay it, then he probably really did not need to.