Compensation

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Outside Penglai, a Purple-Gold Immortal Ship ten thousand zhang long slowly cleaved through the sea of clouds. Its deck was piled high with jade caskets, treasure chests, and all manner of immortal materials sealed beneath layer upon layer of restrictions. At its very center floated three spiritual vein cores, each like a shrunken mountain range.

Extremely dense innate spiritual qi continuously seeped from them. Even from tens of thousands of miles away, it noticeably enlivened the spiritual aura of the surrounding seas.

The Great Luo from the Celestial Court responsible for escorting the compensation did not look particularly pleased.

Anyone in his place would have felt the same.

Three Large Innate Spiritual Veins, ten Innate Spiritual Roots, three High-grade Innate Spirit Treasures, plus a huge batch of innate immortal materials from the Celestial Court's reserves. Sending away such an enormous fortune without feeling the pain would be pure nonsense.

Especially when he thought that these things were not being used to forge an alliance or exchange for treasures, but because their own Emperor had personally gone knocking, started a fight, lost, and could only pay compensation afterward, his feelings became even more complicated.

The feeling was probably like kicking down someone else's door, only to fail to break it open and end up paying for their renovations.

It stung a little.

"The Celestial Court, by order of the Emperor, has delivered the items agreed upon previously."

Standing outside Penglai, the Great Luo raised his voice.

As his words fell, the clouds and mist ahead silently parted.

Luxuan stepped out from within.

With a sweep of his divine sense, everything aboard the entire immortal ship entered his view.

Dongwang Gong had not played any tricks this time.

Not a single item was missing.

Even the quantity of those so-called "innate immortal materials" exceeded Luxuan's original expectations by quite a bit. Clearly, Dongwang Gong had no desire to give Penglai another excuse to make trouble over mere compensation.

"Leave it there."

Luxuan said it casually.

The Celestial Court Great Luo's mouth twitched slightly.

So many treasures.

And all he got from Luxuan were three words?

Could he not at least show some emotional response?

Of course, he only dared to think that inwardly.

After all, though he had not personally witnessed how Luxuan had used Dongwang Gong as teaching material a few days ago, the other Great Luos had talked about it so much that his ears had nearly grown calluses.

Now, when many in the Celestial Court mentioned Penglai, their first thought was no longer "an immortal isle overseas."

Instead—

Do not go there unless you have to.

You might get beaten up.

"Now that the items have been delivered, I shall not disturb you further."

The Great Luo cupped his hands. He did not even intend to enter the island before turning and leaving.

Bixiao happened to be flying over from afar. Seeing his retreating figure, she could not help but feel curious.

"Master, why did he run away so quickly?"

"Perhaps he is in a hurry."

As Luxuan spoke, he waved a hand.

The restrictions over the entire Purple-Gold Immortal Ship dispersed in unison.

Boom!

Innate spiritual qi so dense it nearly condensed into substance instantly surged into the heavens.

The cores of the three Large Innate Spiritual Veins manifested at once, like three crystalline giant dragons coiling through the void. Countless spiritual qi channels interwove across them. A single one was enough to sustain the daily cultivation of an ordinary high-grade blessed land.

The ten jade caskets containing Innate Spiritual Roots also opened of their own accord.

Scarletflame Spirit Peach.

Profound-Yin Ice Lotus.

Five-Colored Cloud Bamboo.

Azurewood Divine Vine.

Though none of them could compare to top-tier spiritual roots like the Huangzhong Plum or Innate Flat Peach, even the worst among them was a low-grade Innate Spiritual Root, while two had reached the middle grade.

The final three jade boxes each contained a High-grade Innate Spirit Treasure.

An azure pearl.

A Purple-Cloud Immortal Robe.

And an ancient mirror engraved with patterns of mountains and rivers.

Bixiao's eyes immediately lit up.

Yunxiao and Qiongxiao soon arrived as well.

Looking at the mountain-like pile of resources before them, the three sisters were momentarily filled with emotion.

Before taking Luxuan as their master, let alone Large Innate Spiritual Veins, they had found it difficult even to encounter an ordinary Innate Spiritual Root.

Now their master had fought the Celestial Court once.

And the other side had directly sent ten of them.

Was this how top Great Wilderness experts got rich?

They had learned it.

But with their current cultivation, they obviously could not imitate it.

"Master, how do you intend to deal with these things?"

Yunxiao asked.

She had assumed Luxuan would send most of the resources into Treasure Cliff, or use several spiritual veins to further strengthen Penglai.

Yet after looking around, Luxuan raised a hand and pushed the three High-grade Innate Spirit Treasures toward the three sisters.

"One each. Pick one."

The Three Cloud Sisters were visibly stunned.

Bixiao lowered her head and looked at the Golden Flood-Dragon Scissors in her arms.

"Master, don't we already have Supreme-grade Innate Spirit Treasures?"

"If you have supreme-grade ones, can you not have high-grade ones?"

Luxuan asked in return.

Bixiao actually found that quite reasonable.

"That is true."

Yunxiao, however, was somewhat helpless.

"Master, we have not even fully refined the spirit treasures we already possess. Taking more now would likely just be wasteful."

Luxuan nodded.

"Then leave them here for now."

"Take them when you need them later."

As he spoke, he looked toward the ten Innate Spiritual Roots again.

"Divide these as well."

Yunxiao finally could not hold herself back.

"Master."

"You also need resources for cultivation."

Along the way, they had discovered one very obvious problem.

Whenever their master gave them things, he had never shown the slightest reluctance.

He gave away Supreme-grade Innate Spirit Treasures as easily as speaking.

They could use Enlightenment Cliff whenever they wished.

They could drink Three Lights Divine Water whenever they wished.

Now that the Celestial Court had delivered compensation, he looked ready to heap that onto them as well.

Naturally, they were moved.

But being moved was one thing. They could not truly eat their master out of house and home, could they?

Seeing Yunxiao's earnest expression, Luxuan roughly guessed what she was worried about.

He found it somewhat amusing.

Eat him out of house and home?

Impossible.

Not to mention that Penglai itself possessed deep foundations.

Just the hundredfold feedback brought by the three sisters' every growth meant that the resources he invested in them practically had no such thing as a loss.

In a sense, the Three Cloud Sisters were not even three gold-devouring beasts.

They were three treasure basins that could produce offspring on their own.

Naturally, he could not say such things outright.

Otherwise, the lofty image he had cultivated over so many years might develop some rather strange cracks.

"At my current realm, ordinary resources no longer provide much help to my cultivation."

Luxuan spoke with a solemn expression.

"These spiritual roots and spiritual objects are more useful to you instead."

"The most important thing for you now is not saving resources for your master, but raising your cultivation as quickly as possible."

Yunxiao still wanted to speak.

Luxuan had already raised a hand to stop her.

"If your master truly lacks resources, I can simply go find them myself."

"The Great Wilderness is so vast. Could a Great Luo possibly starve to death?"

Hearing this, Qiongxiao nodded gently.

"Master's words are reasonable."

Bixiao had long since been convinced.

"Exactly."

"Big Sister, Master is so powerful. How could he possibly lack treasures?"

After saying that, she added another sentence.

"If it truly comes down to it, isn't there still the Celestial Court?"

The air suddenly fell silent.

Yunxiao turned to look at her.

Qiongxiao looked at her too.

Bixiao blinked.

"What?"

Even Luxuan's mouth twitched.

This girl's train of thought was a little dangerous.

If the Celestial Court knew it had become a "resource redistribution site" in his youngest disciple's eyes, Dongwang Gong would probably move Purple Palace Isle out of the Eastern Sea overnight.

"Stop talking nonsense."

Luxuan tapped her forehead.

"So long as others do not provoke Penglai, your master will naturally not rob their things for no reason."

Bixiao covered her forehead and gave an "Oh."

Then, in her heart, she automatically completed the thought.

So long as the other side took the initiative to provoke them.

Then they could take their things.

Understood.

Luxuan did not notice that his youngest disciple was conducting some dangerous reading comprehension. Raising a hand, he sent two of the three Large Innate Spiritual Veins into the land of Penglai.

Rumble!

The entire immortal island trembled gently.

The two spiritual veins swiftly connected with Penglai's original network of Innate Spiritual Veins, and the already astonishingly dense innate spiritual qi rose another level.

As for the last remaining vein—

Luxuan did not merge it into the island.

Instead, he split it directly into three.

The three much smaller spiritual veins turned into streams of light and flew respectively toward the cultivation grounds of Yunxiao and her sisters.

"From now on, each of your cave abodes will have a spiritual vein branch."

"There is no need to economize when cultivating."

Bixiao's eyes shone brightly as she listened.

"Master."

"Can spiritual veins be used individually too?"

"Why not?"

"Don't those immortal sects outside have a whole group sharing one?"

Luxuan's expression remained calm.

"That is because they are poor."

The Three Cloud Sisters: "..."

If other Great Wilderness cultivators heard that sentence, it would probably offend quite a few people.

Yet as they looked at the Innate Spiritual Veins behind Penglai, so plentiful they were almost inexhaustible, they could not find any grounds to refute him.

Luxuan then took out several kinds of innate spirit fruits best suited to the three of them.

Yunxiao, who leaned toward the Water-Cloud Great Dao, received the Profound-Yin Ice Lotus and several spirit fruits.

Qiongxiao, who specialized in Slaughter, received a stalk of Golden Spirit Bamboo containing innate Geng Metal qi.

Bixiao received the most.

Because she wanted to try everything.

In the end, she hugged a heap of spirit fruits and smiled until her eyes were nearly invisible.

Watching the backs of his three disciples as they left, Luxuan then glanced at the more than half of the Celestial Court's compensation that still remained. He was in an excellent mood as well.

Now this was a true virtuous cycle.

Fight a battle.

Take resources.

Raise disciples.

The disciples grew stronger.

Then he reaped it back a hundredfold himself.

If this cycle kept going, forget the Celestial Court.

Even if a Sage came to deliver money in the future, he would dare accept it.

Several days later.

The Three Cloud Sisters each entered cultivation.

Luxuan also began sorting the remaining immortal materials and sending them to various places throughout Penglai.

What he did not know was that, as Bixiao carried a heap of spirit fruits back to her cave abode, she suddenly spotted the shimmering Three Lights Divine Water Lake in the distance.

The young girl gradually slowed her steps.

She lowered her head to look at the spirit fruits in her arms.

Then she looked at the tricolored lake stretching beyond the eye's reach.

A rather bold idea suddenly sprang to mind.