Taking Stock of the Spoils!

"Were they dead?!"

Lu Changsheng's heart gave a violent leap with the tremor from the Golden Light Brick landing.

He stared fixedly at where the three men had stood, now occupied by the Golden Light Brick towering like a small mountain.

Under that blow, the three had not even managed to scream.

Their several defensive spells and black shield artifact might as well not have existed when the Golden Light Brick slammed down.

"Hah! Hah! Hah!"

After a moment of stunned silence, Lu Changsheng was certain they could not possibly have survived. He relaxed, his emotions still churning slightly as he panted for breath.

Talismans consumed little spiritual power, but they drained his mental energy. Using a stack of nearly twenty had taken a considerable toll on him.

The main drain, however, had been activating the Golden Light Brick talisman treasure, which had drawn away more than half his spiritual power at once.

With a thought, Lu Changsheng recalled the talisman treasure.

The enormous Golden Light Brick immediately reined in its radiance, returned to its original talisman form, and flew back into Lu Changsheng's hand.

Where the Golden Light Brick had struck, it left an enormous crater several dozen feet wide and equally deep.

The three bandit cultivators had already been reduced to three mangled heaps of bloody pulp.

As for the black shield artifact, the Golden Light Brick had smashed it out of shape, leaving nothing but a lump of metal.

"Is this the power of a talisman treasure?! It's terrifying!"

"I'm only at the chain qi third layer, so I can only unleash part of its power."

"If I were in late-stage chain qi, or the foundation establishment realm, and unleashed its full power, how astonishing would that be..."

Looking at the three men reduced to pulp in the crater, Lu Changsheng licked his dry lips, his heart filled with shock.

This was his first time using a talisman treasure and witnessing its power.

The dozen or so talismans he had thrown out at the start had all been blocked by the three men.

Yet once the talisman treasure appeared, it crushed everything like rotten wood and withered weeds.

The three had been utterly powerless to fight back.

Not only had this shown Lu Changsheng the power of a talisman treasure, it had also given him a faint glimpse of the strength of a mighty foundation establishment cultivator.

He guessed that the power he had unleashed with the talisman treasure at the chain qi third layer was roughly equivalent to a single strike from a mighty foundation establishment cultivator.

Not daring to dwell on it, and afraid the commotion might attract others, Lu Changsheng suppressed his nausea, jumped into the crater, and retrieved the three men's Storage Bags from the mangled heaps of bloody pulp.

He used the Cleansing Technique to remove the blood and flesh from the Storage Bags, then destroyed the remains with a Flame Talisman.

Picking up the ruined, misshapen metal shield and the flying knife artifact nearby, he used a Wind-Riding Talisman on himself, leaped out of the crater, and swiftly left.

An hour later.

Having restored his original appearance, Lu Changsheng rode more than a hundred li away from Ox-Head Mountain. Only after confirming that no one was pursuing him did he stop to rest and recover his spiritual power.

"Whew!"

"Thank goodness I didn't try to save resources. After activating the talismans, I immediately used the talisman treasure."

"Otherwise, killing those three with only lower-grade and middle-grade talismans would probably have been impossible."

"The cultivation world really is incredibly dangerous. I was already being so cautious, yet someone still set their sights on me."

"I'll have to be even more careful from now on."

Lu Changsheng found a patch of woods to rest in. Recalling what had happened, he still felt a lingering fear and let out a long breath.

The thought that he had been targeted despite all his precautions raised his awareness of the cultivation world's dangers to another level.

He felt that this cultivation world was ruled by the naked law of the jungle, where the weak were prey to the strong.

Without strength, danger and unforeseen trouble could strike at any moment, anywhere.

"It looks like joining a faction and sheltering beneath a great tree is the way to go."

"Though I'm living under someone else's roof in the Lu Lineage, at least my safety is somewhat assured."

Lu Changsheng muttered to himself, realizing the benefits of having a lineage's backing.

Within a lineage or sect, one had to contribute to the collective, but at least in the early stages, someone would stand in front and shelter one from the wind and rain.

After meditating briefly, Lu Changsheng could not help shaking his head.

The spiritual energy in the mortal world was far too thin.

Recovering through meditation alone was so slow that he had no idea how long it would take.

He took out a spirit stone and began meditating to recover.

A long while later, the crystal-clear spirit stone had dimmed considerably.

Spirit stones were mostly used as currency, but they could also be used for cultivation, allowing cultivators to absorb the spiritual energy within and speed up their progress.

For most cultivators, however, using spirit stones directly for cultivation was far too wasteful.

Buying spiritual foods such as spirit rice, Spirit Tea, and Spirit Wine was more cost-effective.

After using one spirit stone, Lu Changsheng had recovered most of his spiritual power.

He took out the Storage Bags he had removed from the three men and began taking stock of his spoils.

"Good thing all three had Storage Bags, or I would've taken a crushing loss."

"I wonder what's in their Storage Bags, and whether it'll be enough to recoup my losses."

The handful of talismans he had used alone was worth thirty or forty spirit stones.

As for the cost of that single strike with the talisman treasure, even Lu Changsheng could not estimate it.

But it was worth at least a hundred spirit stones.

If these three had been penniless bastards, he would have suffered a truly crushing loss.

A short while later, Lu Changsheng counted out a hundred and three spirit stones from the three Storage Bags.

One flying sword artifact and one bell artifact.

Three bottles of Fasting Pills, one bottle of Yellow Dragon Pills, one bottle of Clear Spirit Pills, and three unfamiliar bottles and jars.

Fifteen First-Tier Lower-Grade Talismans, six First-Tier Middle-Grade Talismans, and one upper-grade talisman.

There were also books and assorted odds and ends.

"This flying sword, bell, and flying knife all look like lower-grade artifacts. Each should sell for around fifty spirit stones."

"Though this shield is an artifact, all the restrictions inside it have been destroyed. It can only be sold as scrap. I wonder how much it's still worth."

"But these three Storage Bags should also be worth a hundred and fifty spirit stones."

"Adding all these odds and ends, the total should come to about five hundred spirit stones."

After taking stock of the three men's belongings, Lu Changsheng felt much better.

He smacked his lips and sighed aloud. "As they say, murderers and arsonists wear belts of gold. Wherever you go, killing and robbing will always be the fastest way to make money."

When he had first arrived at the Lu Lineage and become a live-in son-in-law, he had received only two spirit stones a month.

Even after becoming a Talisman Master, he had received only ten spirit stones a month.

The hundred talismans he had sold today represented a month's worth of work, and after deducting the costs, he had earned only a little over a hundred spirit stones.

How could that compare to the ease and speed of killing someone and seizing their treasures?

Still, Lu Changsheng had absolutely no intention of making money through murder and plunder.

Quite apart from his morals, which would not allow him to slaughter innocent people indiscriminately.

It was also too dangerous and did not suit his

way of doing things.

With the system at his disposal, why would he need to take such a crooked path, hanging his head from his waistband and risking his life?

Marrying wives, taking concubines, and having children was the proper path!

Besides, he was only a weakling at the chain qi third layer. He had won this battle solely by relying on talismans and a talisman treasure.

After sorting everything out, Lu Changsheng picked up the foot-long flying sword artifact and tried controlling it.

Once cultivators reached the chain qi third layer, they could use the "Object-Control Technique" to wield artifacts.

Earlier, while in the Lu Lineage, Lu Changsheng had been rewarded with a flying sword for being the first to father a child.

But before he could try it out, he had sold it to fund his talisman making.

Now that he had a flying sword in hand, he naturally felt an irresistible itch to try it out.

Whoosh-

Under Lu Changsheng's control, the flying sword immediately turned into a streak of silver light and shot away.

Ordinary artifacts did not need to be refined; they could be wielded with the Object-Control Technique.

The Spirit Artifacts used by mighty foundation establishment cultivators developed spirituality, so they had to be refined and bound to their owners before they could be controlled.

Some artifacts crafted by high-end Artifact Refining Masters also required specialized Object-Control Techniques to wield.

Those artifacts were generally high-end as well, and this flying sword clearly did not belong to that category.

Under Lu Changsheng's control, the flying sword moved like a silver dragon, sword qi surging from it as it sliced through the surrounding trees like tofu.

Then, with a soft thunk, it easily pierced a huge boulder before turning into a streak of silver light and returning to hover before Lu Changsheng.

"An artifact certainly lives up to its name!"

"It's every bit as powerful as beginner spells, but consumes much less spiritual power. If two cultivators fought, having an artifact or not would make a difference as vast as heaven and earth!"

After briefly trying out the flying sword, Lu Changsheng looked delighted and praised it aloud.

If he used a spell like the Fireball Technique, four or five casts would nearly exhaust his spiritual power.

But he estimated that he could control the flying sword for a quarter of an hour and attack repeatedly.

With his spiritual power limited, Lu Changsheng did not try the other artifacts. He put away the flying sword, mounted his horse, and headed toward the Red Whale Gang.

He planned to meet up with Li Feiyu, then return home to settle his family before heading back to Green Bamboo Mountain as soon as possible.

The outside world was still far too dangerous. Staying safely within the Lu Lineage, improving his strength, and having more children was the way to go.