Looting

Night gradually deepened.

Even those who returned late had long since retreated to their own rooms by this hour.

The surroundings were utterly still.

Yet Zhou Changwang and Qian Xiaoyue quietly slipped out at this time. After turning a corner and walking barely a dozen steps, they arrived before the door of the neighboring residence.

Though this was only the outskirts of the market, the rooms were still routinely fitted with simple defensive formations.

Of course, these so-called defensive formations served at most as warnings. A slightly stronger attack could easily break them.

However, once the defensive formation was destroyed, it would immediately emit an intense flash of light.

The light possessed no offensive power, but it could draw the attention of everyone nearby.

Therefore, unless they had immense confidence in their own strength, ordinary bandit cultivators truly would not dare forcefully break a formation and enter someone else's room.

And this was the only source of psychological comfort for those living on the outskirts of the market, as well as the reason they were willing to pay a certain amount of Spirit Stones in rent each month.

Naturally, Zhou Changwang and Qian Xiaoyue did not dare force their way through the formation.

Fortunately, after Zhou Changwang had counter-killed Fang Yu and Xi Feng, he had also gathered up all his spoils of war.

This naturally included the house keys the two would have carried with them—the locations of the defensive formations' formation eyes.

Only by using the "keys" to open the doors could one avoid triggering the defensive formations' warnings and enter and leave freely without hindrance.

He took out the key and aligned it with the keyhole.

With a click, the door opened, and the two immediately entered the room.

Without lingering in the living room or elsewhere, they headed straight for the pair's bedroom under Qian Xiaoyue's guidance.

Compared with their own sparse living arrangements, Fang Yu and Xi Feng's room was far more lavishly furnished. Though most of the objects were ordinary, the decorations and embellishments made it seem distinctly different.

They did not waste much time on these ordinary belongings. Zhou Changwang looked beneath the bed and saw four chests—three large and one small—arranged in a row.

He dragged all the chests out, then opened one of the three large ones. His pupils instantly contracted.

Gold.

Piles of gold lay neatly stacked inside the chest, filling half of it.

"This should add up to five thousand taels, right?"

Zhou Changwang estimated the weight. Even if it was not five thousand taels, there had to be at least three thousand.

Unfortunately, gold and silver meant little to cultivators of immortal arts.

At most, they could be used to buy mortal tools. If exchanged at the Artifact Refining Hall, they could fetch three to five Low-Grade Spirit Stones, but only because they would be melted down as artifact-refining material into "Gold Essence."

The second chest was filled with silver.

Silver was worth even less. An entire chest like this probably could not even be exchanged for one Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

The third chest also contained silver, though it filled only half the chest. The rest consisted of books and manuals, piled one atop another, more than twenty in all.

Zhou Changwang casually flipped through them.

"Blood Fiend Saber, Flame Sword, Heaven-Crippled Kick, Nine-Turn Profound Nether Scripture, Nine Forms of the Heavenly Blade, Myriad Manifestations True Formula, Primordial Art, Nine Yin and Nine Yang, Seven-Step Flight..."

They were all martial arts manuals.

Some were cultivation arts, while others were martial techniques.

Thanks to his previous body's father, he actually possessed some understanding of martial arts.

He knew that if these manuals fell into a mortal nation, they would surely stir up a storm of blood and gore. Nearly every one of them could be called peerless martial arts, fit to serve as the sect-protecting treasures and supreme foundations of martial sects.

Unfortunately, in the cultivation world, no matter what martial art it was—the legendary Heavenly Demon Disintegration, Nine-Yang Divine Formula, or even the high-sounding Eight Wilderness-Reclaiming Sabers and Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Sect—they were all little different from waste paper.

Phoenix-Cry Cove Market was filled with former martial arts grandmasters and towering figures of demonic sects who had come seeking immortality. For that sliver of possibility, they sold off the ultimate arts they had kept hidden at the bottom of their chests.

For example, his father had initially sold his own top-tier ultimate art, the Nine-Turn Golden Body Art, for one Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

For that reason, ever since learning that Zhou Changwang possessed a spirit root, his father had forbidden him from practicing martial arts, wholeheartedly wishing only for him to embark upon the path of immortal cultivation.

Only then did Zhou Changwang open the smallest chest.

"Gasp!"

"Spirit Stones!"

"And there are several talismans, ritual incense, and what is this? Jade-Slip Eyes? There are even Jade-Slip Eyes?"

Zhou Changwang had not held much hope, but the instant he opened the small chest, he cried out in surprise.

Were those gray, misty crystals not Spirit Stones?

Zhou Changwang gave them a rough count and found no fewer than one hundred and seven Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Besides the Spirit Stones, there were nearly ten multicolored spirit talismans, a small bundle of ritual incense, and fully three Jade-Slip Eyes.

Jade-Slip Eyes were special vessels used to record immortal cultivation arts, spells, and such. Three Jade-Slip Eyes were practically equivalent to three cultivation arts or spells, making them immensely significant to him.

Meanwhile, Qian Xiaoyue had also found something.

She lifted the two bandit cultivators' large bed, rummaged around briefly, and pulled a small bundle from inside a pillow pocket.

Upon opening it, she found some Spirit Stones hidden within as well, though not many—only around thirty or so. Aside from the Spirit Stones, there were several bottles of pills. None bore labels, but that posed no difficulty for Qian Xiaoyue, who had spent years at an alchemist's side. She merely opened the bottles one by one and carefully identified them before learning their names and uses.

"One bottle of Rejuvenation Pills and one bottle of Life-Creation Pills. Both are healing spirit pills.

"There is also one bottle of Detoxification Pills, one bottle of Vitality Pills, and one bottle of Yellow Spirit Pills.

"Among healing spirit pills, Rejuvenation Pills mainly work on the five viscera and six bowels, restoring the vitality lost to internal injuries, while Life-Creation Pills are mostly used for external wounds.

"As their name suggests, Detoxification Pills can cure a hundred poisons after being swallowed.

"As for Vitality Pills and Yellow Spirit Pills, both are spirit pills that can directly raise a cultivator's cultivation. Each tiny pill contains a great quantity of spiritual energy. The medicinal effect of Yellow Spirit Pills should be somewhat stronger than that of Vitality Pills.

"Unfortunately, neither bottle has much left. There are only three Vitality Pills remaining, while there are even fewer Yellow Spirit Pills—just two."

As Qian Xiaoyue spoke, a trace of regret could not help appearing on her face.

"No matter what, this time, we can truly be considered to have struck it rich."

A smile appeared on Zhou Changwang's face as well as he said with faint excitement.

Setting everything else aside, the more than one hundred and forty Low-Grade Spirit Stones alone left him deeply satisfied.

One had to know that the yield from his three mu of spirit fields was only around one hundred and fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones over an entire year. After deducting the tenant rent paid to the Spirit Plant Hall, he would receive at most fifty or sixty Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

It was pitifully little.

Yet now, in a single night, he had gained harvests comparable to the fruits of an entire year's labor—without needing to toil at all. Even though he would have to give half to Qian Xiaoyue in the end, he was still filled with excitement.