The instances were still there

At first, He Xiuyuan and Ye Ningshuang were still a little reserved.

But once they saw that Ying Huaixu still had over eight hundred thousand spirit stones, they simply treated the money as pocket change he had bestowed on them.

He Xiuyuan said, "Brother, from now on, you're my real brother!"

Ye Ningshuang said, "Thank you, senior brother!"

But inwardly, she thought, What's his is mine, and what's mine is his anyway. Yes, that's how it is. I'll make it up to him properly in the future!

Ying Huaixu smiled and waved a hand. He didn't care about such details.

"We don't get to come out often, so go enjoy yourselves. As for me, I happen to have some shopping to do!"

With that, Ying Huaixu turned and left.

The main reason was that everyone in the cultivation world recognized the Divine Firmament Sword Sect's robes.

So Ying Huaixu wasn't worried about anyone giving them trouble.

As for the Thousand Mechanisms Sect's plans here, Ying Huaixu cared even less.

The Thousand Mechanisms Sect wouldn't make a move against them so soon. They needed to put out bait, let them send word to the Divine Firmament Sword Sect, and lure more disciples here for a blood sacrifice.

First, Ying Huaixu explored all of Falling Radiance City.

Mostly to reveal the map.

Once the map was fully revealed, Ying Huaixu gained another 300 experience.

Then he went on a shopping spree.

The independent cultivators went wild.

Mostly because Ying Huaixu seemed like a walking money dispenser.

He bought every bit of refined iron ore they had, even though nobody usually wanted it.

Then came century gold, millennium gold, and ten-thousand-year gold.

Ying Huaixu wanted all of it.

And that wasn't all.

He bought up all their tempering stones, too.

Everyone thought Ying Huaixu was either a fool or a walking money dispenser because these materials were incredibly common in the cultivation world.

More importantly, although they could be used to refine equipment, only independent cultivators without any backing used them.

The major sects normally had top-grade equipment cores specifically for equipment refining.

But nobody warned him.

A fool like this only came along once in a thousand years.

They simply didn't understand.

Ying Huaixu wanted these things because he had the equipment enhancement and advancement functions.

Everything he bought was used to enhance and advance magical treasures.

Ying Huaixu didn't understand why the people of this world didn't know that, but it didn't matter. As long as he had those functions, that was enough.

What delighted Ying Huaixu even more was that these materials were far cheaper than they had been in the game, and there were plenty of them.

Ying Huaixu felt as though he were playing a GM version of the game.

In any case, he was having a wonderful time buying everything up.

What pleased Ying Huaixu most was that each of these materials only took up one slot in his inventory.

No matter how large the items were, they stayed in a single slot.

Only the quantities differed a little from reality.

For example, a large, irregular chunk of fine gold would show up as a quantity of 2 in his inventory.

Sometimes, three or four tiny pieces of fine gold were needed to make a quantity of 1.

"This inventory isn't simple, either!"

Ying Huaixu muttered to himself.

Still, after buying everything up, Ying Huaixu figured he had enough.

He would unlock equipment enhancement after reaching Meridian Opening, and these early-stage enhancement materials should be enough to outfit him with top-grade magical treasures.

There was no need to buy more.

After finishing those purchases, Ying Huaixu headed straight to the Nether Capital Merchant Guild in Falling Radiance City.

His reason for visiting the Nether Capital Merchant Guild was simple: to earn spirit stones.

He didn't have much choice.

After reaching Meridian Opening, every improvement would require not only enormous amounts of experience, but also enormous amounts of spirit stones.

Even the enhancement system required spirit stones.

Moreover, the spirit stones consumed by the system were deducted directly from system space.

In other words, he needed not only spirit stones, but also vast quantities of Supreme Spirit Stones.

For his later improvements, spirit stones from quest rewards alone would be nowhere near enough.

He would also have to obtain them from this world.

One reason he had come to the Nether Capital Merchant Guild was that it bought and sold everything.

It was the most mysterious merchant guild in this world.

Even in the very late stages of the game, many players couldn't do without the Nether Capital Merchant Guild.

Mostly because the Nether Capital Merchant Guild had three universally useful instances.

The Spirit Stone Instance, the Medicinal Herb Instance, and the Equipment Materials Instance.

Although each instance could only be run twice a week.

The rewards from those two runs were considerable.

Ying Huaixu wanted to see whether these instances still existed now that he had crossed over into a real world.

Walking up to the Nether Capital Merchant Guild's counter, Ying Huaixu looked at the female cultivator behind it and said, "I'd like to wager!"

The female cultivator paused, then narrowed her eyes.

"You're from the Divine Firmament Sword Sect? How do you know about this?"

Ying Huaixu's heart immediately skipped a beat.

Holy shit, they really exist!

The female cultivator looked Ying Huaixu up and down, then took out a bronze token.

"With your cultivation, you can only enter the bronze-tier Wagering Arena. And the Nether Capital Merchant Guild takes thirty percent of all your earnings!"

Ying Huaixu nodded. "No problem!"

Then the female cultivator personally led Ying Huaixu to the wagering entrances.

The moment he saw the three entrances, Ying Huaixu grew excited.

They hadn't changed at all. The three wormhole-like entrances each led to an instance for a different kind of material.

The Spirit Stone Instance, the Medicinal Herb Instance, and the Equipment Materials Instance.

Upon seeing the three instances, Ying Huaixu went straight into the Spirit Stone Instance.

Once inside the Spirit Stone Instance, Ying Huaixu grew even more excited.

The familiar mine tunnel, the familiar Spirit-Devouring Beast boss.

"Roar!"

Sensing someone approaching, the Spirit-Devouring Beast immediately fixed its gaze on Ying Huaixu and let out a series of furious roars.

But a moment later, the boss could no longer make a sound.

Ying Huaixu charged straight at it and unleashed repeated Heavenly Frost Sword strikes with no cooldown.

He was now at the ninth level of Body Tempering, and his stats completely outclassed this thing.

Killing it was practically a one-sided slaughter.

The only difference from the game was that, after defeating it in the game, he would open a chest and receive a notification telling him how many spirit stones he had obtained.

Now, after he killed it, it dropped a small piece of multicolored jade.

"What is this thing?"

Ying Huaixu walked over, picked up the multicolored jade, and examined it.

It was only the size of a fingernail, and he couldn't sense anything unusual about it.

With no other choice, Ying Huaixu left through the wormhole entrance that had reopened.

The Nether Capital Merchant Guild's female cultivator had been waiting for Ying Huaixu the whole time.

But when she saw him emerge less than half a minute after entering, she was a little surprised.

"Did you fail?"

Ying Huaixu paused.

"Huh? No!"

With that, Ying Huaixu handed the woman the small piece of rainbow jade.

The woman's eyes widened the moment she saw it.

"You... you're so fast!"

Ying Huaixu said, "..."

What kind of remark was that?

But what happened next shocked Ying Huaixu.

"After deducting our thirty-percent share, this is worth fifty thousand Supreme Spirit Stones. Here are your spirit stones!"

The woman gave Ying Huaixu a crystal pendant.

"You can use this to withdraw your spirit stones from any of our Nether Capital Branches!"

Ying Huaixu had never expected to receive so many spirit stones.

More importantly, that was after they had taken thirty percent. Back when he played the game, two runs had only netted him twenty thousand damn spirit stones.

Holy shit, how much had the game been ripping us off?

"I'd like to challenge it again!"

The woman shook her head.

"You can't kill another Spirit Stone Vein Beast. Only one of them can grow to maturity every seven days!"

"You can only attempt the other two secret realms now."

Without hesitation, Ying Huaixu speedran the other two instances.

The Medicinal Herb Instance seemed to drop herbal essence.

With the herbal essence, Ying Huaixu could choose any medicinal herbs within a certain value range.

The boss of the Equipment Materials Instance dropped a small cube of unidentified metal.

Likewise, that small cube could be exchanged for any equipment-refining materials within a certain value range.

That part was better than the game.

But it made sense. This wasn't a game anymore.

After exchanging everything for what he wanted, Ying Huaixu left, thoroughly satisfied.

It was worth mentioning that the woman from the Nether Capital Merchant Guild, who had initially paid little attention to Ying Huaixu, personally saw him off when he left.

Ying Huaixu was simply too powerful.

And the woman was certain that Ying Huaixu would return seven days later.

The proceeds from his wagers counted toward her performance, too.

Ying Huaixu was clearly going to be her personal god of wealth from now on.

So she was exceedingly courteous, even taking it upon herself to give Ying Huaixu a VIP token for the Nether Capital Merchant Guild.

With this token, he could receive a twenty-percent discount on purchases at any Nether Capital Merchant Guild location!

Naturally, Ying Huaixu didn't refuse.

He would definitely be buying things from the Nether Capital Merchant Guild later.

Especially as he progressed further, he would become increasingly dependent on the Nether Capital Merchant Guild.

This trip's quest had been well worth the effort.

He now had a reliable source of spirit stones.

His medicinal herbs and future magical treasure enhancement materials were probably covered, too.

For the time being, he wouldn't need to worry about any of those things.

Next, he would start accumulating experience.

Afterward, Ying Huaixu returned to his inn to sleep.

But the next morning, He Xiuyuan woke him up.

"Junior brother, the mission!"

Ying Huaixu paused. "Mission? What mission?"

He Xiuyuan was speechless.

"What did we come here for?"

Ying Huaixu said, "Oh, right, right. But there's no hurry. Let's eat first, and I'll explain the mission to you afterward. I've actually found some leads already. I just need to confirm a few things!"

He Xiuyuan froze.

"Don't tell me you secretly went off to investigate the mission yesterday!"

Ying Huaixu nodded. "Yes, exactly!"

He lied with a perfectly straight face!