"."
Liu Yu did not turn around. He merely waved with his back to her, ultimately leaving the young woman's call unanswered.
He knew his own circumstances well. For now, his heart was set wholly on pursuing the Great Dao, and he had no intention of squandering his years on romance.
This Senior Sister Yan Qun'er was a direct descendant of a Golden Core lineage within the sect. She had reached the eighth level of Qi Refining at such a young age, and her future Foundation Establishment was all but assured.
Her elders could not possibly look favorably upon an ordinary outer sect disciple.
With his mediocre Three Spiritual Roots aptitude, the bottleneck of Foundation Establishment was a formidable hurdle looming before him.
If he failed to establish his foundation, never mind anyone else-this Martial Aunt Hongyu alone would probably make him suffer for it.
Waving to show that he had heard her, Liu Yu formed hand seals with both hands and rode the Giant Wood Sword toward his cave abode.
Yan Qun'er pursed her little lips. Disappointment filled her heart, and she lowered her head without a word, feeling as though something had slipped away.
She simply lacked experience in dealing with people; she was still quite perceptive. Seeing Liu Yu leave without so much as turning his head, how could she fail to understand his meaning?
At the sight, Yan Hongyu was speechless.
Seeing her niece like this, how could she not understand the reason? She had once been that age herself, after all.
For now, however, she merely held Yan Qun'er and offered a little comfort, then steered the red-carpet magical artifact toward Green Elegance Peak.
About four to six hours later, Liu Yu returned to his cave abode on Greenwood Peak.
By then, daylight filled the sky. A red sun hung in the middle of the heavens, freely pouring out its light and warmth.
There were no Voice-Transmitting Talismans outside his cave abode this time, so apparently no one had come looking for him over the past few days. He tapped his Storage Bag, took out his token, opened the abode's protective restrictions, and went inside to sit on the stone bed.
Although this trip had been brief, lasting only four or five days, he had fought two magical battles in succession on the return journey, leaving him mentally exhausted. Fortunately, he had accomplished his goal of buying a Bottleneck-Breaking Elixir at Jiatai Market. Next, he would continue his attempt to break through the bottleneck into late Qi Refining.
Liu Yu sat cross-legged on the stone bed, swallowed a healing pill, and slowly circulated his cultivation technique to refine its medicinal power.
A faint green glow shone from his face. His complexion was pale, his brows tightly furrowed, and beads of sweat emerged one after another. The healing pill had begun to take effect, its medicinal power slowly treating his internal injuries as he circulated his cultivation technique.
Suddenly, Liu Yu spat a mouthful of black blood onto the floor. His brows gradually relaxed afterward, and color began returning to his pale face.
Four hours later, he let out a heavy breath of stale air and slowly brought his cultivation to a halt.
His injuries were now mostly healed and would no longer interfere with normal cultivation.
Once he relaxed completely, waves of fatigue washed through his body, and drowsiness swept over him.
Liu Yu no longer fought it. After washing up, he loosened his clothes and lay down on the stone bed to sleep.
He slept for a full twelve hours, waking only during the hour of the ox. Stretching his body, he immediately felt brimming with energy, his spirits bright.
He reached out and opened the window, letting the cool moonlight spill inside. Leaning against the windowsill, Liu Yu gazed toward the mountains beneath the night sky.
The stars and moon vied in brilliance, shedding their radiance. This was the hour when the myriad stars shone!
There was ample light in the night sky, and visibility was fairly good. Spirit Mountains towered into the clouds, their immense outlines faintly visible. Streaks of flying light in every color, some large and some small, circled among the mountains. Some suddenly sped away, shrinking into sesame-sized points of light; others vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving no trace. The sight was quite fascinating, enough to make one lose oneself in it.
Liu Yu stood quietly for a long while, his mind gradually emptying. Much of the viciousness that had accumulated from fighting two magical battles and killing two people over the past few days dissipated as well.
Closing the window, he took a fist-sized luminous pearl from his Storage Bag. It shone with white light. He placed it in the lamp holder on the table and covered it with a gauze shade.
For mortals, such a luminous pearl was an exceedingly precious treasure that even a thousand gold pieces might not buy. To cultivators, however, it was merely a mundane object devoid of spiritual energy, worth very little and useful only for decorating a cave abode.
He placed two Storage Bags on the table—the spoils he had taken from the scholar-robed cultivator and his wife, naturally. Both were Lesser Storage Bags, with internal spaces three feet in length, width, and height.
Storage Bags generally came in three grades. A Lesser Storage Bag had an internal space measuring three feet in each dimension.
The internal space of a middle-grade Storage Bag was three times that of a lower-grade one, while an upper-grade Storage Bag held three times as much as a middle-grade one.
Storage Bags were generally used by cultivators in the Qi Refining Period and Foundation Establishment Realm. Golden Core Stage cultivators used more advanced storage magical artifacts: Storage Rings.
As for how much space a Storage Ring contained, Liu Yu did not know.
Storage Bags were the lowest-grade storage magical artifacts. They could be used without binding them to an owner, and any other cultivator who obtained one could open it directly.
Liu Yu opened both Storage Bags and poured out all their contents.
Setting aside the miscellaneous odds and ends, he placed the items of some value on the table.
The middle-grade magical artifacts consisted of a small green saber and a length of red silk. Regrettably, both had been severely damaged during the fierce magical battle and were now completely unusable.
Even if he found someone to repair them, their power would no longer compare with what it had been when they were intact. They were worth little now, which Liu Yu found rather unfortunate-especially the defensive magical artifact shaped like a length of red silk, whose value had been nearly equal to that of the Giant Wood Sword.
The lower-grade magical artifacts were a small yellow fork and a small silver ruler. Both were utterly ordinary lower-grade magical artifacts. Liu Yu gave them a cursory inspection and paid them no further attention.
What interested him most was the little oval mirror. He still vividly remembered how the scholar-robed cultivator had activated it, releasing a beam of white light that greatly weakened the Golden Dragon Sword.
The mirror was slightly larger than his palm. Intricate patterns were carved into its golden frame, and its smooth, reflective surface had not a single flaw.
Liu Yu held it and studied it for a long time, but he could not determine what material it had been crafted from.
It was probably a support magical artifact. Though it had little offensive power of its own, it could often produce an unexpected effect at a crucial moment. He set the oval mirror aside, intending to refine it once he finished taking stock of his gains.
Apart from the magical artifacts, there were several bottles of pills for middle- and late-stage Qi Refining cultivators, along with two bottles of pills for healing injuries and restoring magical power. All were common varieties with unremarkable effects. Liu Yu curled his lip and casually put them into a Storage Bag reserved specifically for pills.
He was currently using only a Lesser Storage Bag, its internal space just three feet in each dimension—roughly a meter by the measurements of his previous life. It was already struggling to hold his growing collection of possessions. Most outer sect disciples had only one Storage Bag. If he hung two from his waist, it would be far too conspicuous even for an alchemist, and others might inevitably entertain some "unpleasant" ideas.
This also served as a reminder to Liu Yu: it was time to buy a middle-grade Storage Bag. Once he broke through to late Qi Refining and was promoted to the inner sect, using one would be perfectly appropriate, and no one would find it strange.
Finally, there was a pile of spirit stones, a little over five hundred in all. These were probably the stones the scholar-robed cultivator had raised to buy Yellow Dragon Pills for the alluring woman. Given his means, he might even have incurred considerable debts.
"Husband and wife are birds of the same wood; when great calamity strikes, each flies away alone."
Recalling how the alluring female cultivator had struck seductive poses after the scholar-robed cultivator's death, Liu Yu sighed inwardly.
There was great terror between life and death, and not everyone could face it calmly. After all, the immortal path prized the self.
Yet when he recalled the alluring female cultivator's final seductive appearance, her clothing half undone, his body could not help stirring, and a current of heat seemed to rise in his belly.
Liu Yu gave a bitter smile, picked up the water jug, and swallowed several mouthfuls of clear water to suppress the fire within him.
Thank you to the readers Love Has Gone and the Wind Has Stilled, May the World Treat You Gently pi, Hunan Warlord, 20191206162342345, Wind and Cloud Ranking Card, My Favorite Reads Are Immortal Cultivation Farming and Spatial Realms, Mu Yuyan, An Unforgotten Thought, and others for your recommendation votes!
Thank you to Wind and Cloud Ranking Card for the tip of 100 coins!
If you enjoy this book, please cast a recommendation vote to support it! Changting bows in thanks!