Lü Zhong’s brow furrowed. ’Isn’t this Celestial Sunflower?’ he thought.

’What rotten luck!’

He quickly took out the box of Spirit Stones and tossed it aside.

He eagerly picked up the second Storage Bag. The haul was similar to the first, with nothing particularly noteworthy. However, it also contained a wooden box with a neat stack of one hundred Spirit Stones. It was probably a reward from Zhuang Min to boost morale. He guessed the subsequent Storage Bags would have the same.

The third, the fourth... the eleventh. As expected, each contained one hundred Spirit Stones.

He picked up the twelfth one, which also had a wooden box.

Lü Zhong opened it and let out a soft sound of surprise.

"That’s strange. It’s empty?"

He took a Jade Scroll from the bag and immersed his Divine Sense into it. A look of understanding appeared on his face.

"I see. So he gave it to his family."

The Jade Scroll was a letter home from a Mrs. Li of the Zhuang Family to her husband, Zhuang Bai. The words revealed their deep affection for one another. At the end, she mentioned that the hundred Spirit Stones had been a great help; it was just enough to arrange for one of their children to enter the Lingyue Sect as a servant disciple.

His expression impassive, Lü Zhong crushed it to dust. He felt not the slightest ripple in his heart.

The Zhuang Bai he had killed was Mrs. Li’s husband, but wasn’t he himself Li Hejun’s master and a disciple of Shuini?

He moved on to the next Storage Bag, and the haul was once again mediocre.

In total, the eighteen Storage Bags yielded one thousand seven hundred Spirit Stones, plus Healing and Qi Recovery Pills worth five to six hundred Spirit Stones.

’I hope the next ones don’t disappoint me.’

Expectation rekindled in his heart as Lü Zhong opened the Storage Bag of the black-robed cultivator.

A Foundation Establishment True Cultivator was truly on another level. There were two thousand Spirit Stones alone, plus ten Mid-grade Spirit Stones. Additionally, there was a set of Array Flags and an Array Disc that could be used to set up a Tier Two Illusion Array, the "Little Maze Formation."

Upon closer inspection, he realized it was the work of a master, making it even more valuable.

He casually pulled out a slip of paper. It was an IOU. Apparently, the Zhuang Family had borrowed this Little Maze Formation from a family with the surname Li—presumably the family of that same Mrs. Li.

Lü Zhong estimated that this Little Maze Formation could sell for at least three thousand Spirit Stones.

Of course, he had no intention of selling it. He would keep it for his own use.

Whether he used it for analysis to master and learn a new Array, or later used it against enemies, it was an excellent choice. Selling such a rare Array for Spirit Stones would be the act of a spendthrift.

His mood finally improved a little, and he opened Zhuang Min’s Storage Bag.

’Alright, it seems this guy was not only the shame of Foundation Establishment cultivators, but also the shame of Clan Leaders.’

Aside from the Storage Bag itself, which could fetch a price, the contents were worth less than a thousand Spirit Stones. There wasn’t even a single High-grade Magical Artifact. No wonder he had no strength to resist in the end; he was probably not skilled in combat to begin with.

That was normal, though. After all, cultivators who excelled at combat were a minority.

He then took stock of the Storage Bags from the Zhuang Family Elders. Each was richer than the last, yielding at least five thousand Spirit Stones in total. They must have thought they were safe in their clan’s territory and carried most of their wealth with them, letting Lü Zhong reap a huge windfall.

There were also many Cultivation Technique Jade Scrolls, but none that interested Lü Zhong. They were all common goods.

However, a technique called the "Bedroom Bliss Skill" caught his attention.

’I’ll have to see just what kind of "Bliss Skill" this is.’

He put it away carefully and turned his attention to Zhuang Xun’s Storage Bag.

Back at the Louyanxi Zhuang Family estate, he had actually checked it once before, crushing anything that might have a tracking mechanism—like a Lingyue Sect disciple’s Identity Token—or anything with a suspicious aura into dust.

Now, not much was left inside.

What remained were several hundred Spirit Stones; a bottle with three Golden Radiance Pills for increasing cultivation; various auxiliary Pills for healing and replenishing Qi; several dozen Talismans, half of which were just Cleaning Talismans; and a scroll of Cultivation Insights.

"From this, it seems things are relatively peaceful within the Lingyue Sect. Otherwise, Zhuang Xun wouldn’t have carried so little on him." Lü Zhong didn’t feel the haul was small at all. After all, the Sword Talisman Treasure alone, which still had one use left, was already a massive profit.

He casually drew the scroll of Cultivation Insights toward him and examined it carefully.

Logically, people usually carry their most precious belongings on their person. Since all of Zhuang Xun’s other items were ordinary, the only possibility was that the value lay in this scroll of Cultivation Insights.

He flipped through it and saw it was written by a Golden Core Cultivator.

After reading it carefully for a while, he did gain something. Some points of confusion in his cultivation were answered by the book.

Then, Lü Zhong dismantled the book and found a golden sheet of paper as thin as a cicada’s wing.

"Shocking God Needle!"

he exclaimed in surprise, reading on carefully.

When he got to the section on Finger Technique Hand Seals, Lü Zhong was certain this was the Magic Skill Zhuang Xun had been casting at the end. It was a rare Secret Skill specifically for attacking a person’s Divine Sense. It could condense one’s Divine Sense into a spike to attack an enemy. At the very least, the target would be dazed for a short time. Against cultivators with naturally weaker Divine Sense, a single strike could even turn them into an idiot.

Reading this, Lü Zhong gasped. ’That was a close call.’

’It’s a good thing I have two Spiritual Artifacts, one of which is the combat-oriented Qianfeng Ring. Otherwise, I really would have suffered at the hands of that Shocking God Needle.’

When he looked at the cultivation method for the Shocking God Needle, he saw that it was a difficult Secret Skill to practice.

That was normal, though, since it involved Divine Sense.

The most crucial part was refining a type of Spirit Liquid called "Nourishing Spirit Liquid" to alleviate the pain suffered while practicing the skill. This required many rare Spirit Medicines, some of which Lü Zhong had never even seen in any texts.

"I’ll have to take this slowly. I can’t expect to achieve everything at once."

He carefully stored it in his Storage Bag and began to take stock of his gains from this venture.

All the loot, plus the large quantity of raw materials from the Zhuang Family’s secret vault, added up to around thirty to fifty thousand Spirit Stones. It could be considered a bountiful harvest.

"The profits from pillaging a small family have really fattened my purse." Lü Zhong circulated the Ice Heart Mantra to suppress the wicked thought of doing a few more such jobs. He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. ’Wealth truly does move the hearts of men. I was almost tempted to moonlight as a plundering Evil Cultivator a few times.’

The wicked fire in his heart was hard to quell, so he pushed the door open and went outside.

Outside, it was a night with a full moon. Li Hejun and Bai Ling were in the Central Courtyard, admiring it.

Compared to Lü Zhong’s perilous life, the two women lived a peaceful and leisurely existence.

Li Hejun had always enjoyed managing the Talisman Shop. Seeing the business become more prosperous by the day, she was always full of smiles. She lived more comfortably than a princess in the Mortal Realm and had no fear of powerful people coming to extort them. After all, she had Lü Zhong, a Foundation Establishment "master," to shield her.

Bai Ling was much the same. She had long since developed a lazy disposition and spent her days following Li Hejun, riding her coattails.

Seeing Lü Zhong come out, they immediately stood up and bowed.

"Master, an Immortal Master delivered an invitation a few days ago. Why don’t you take a look?" Li Hejun pulled an invitation from her bodice, handed it to Lü Zhong with a grin, and even threw him a coquettish wink.

"Heh, are you hoping to get out of bed tomorrow?" Lü Zhong swatted her playfully, which only drew giggles from her. She was clearly itching for a "lesson." He threw out the threat and ignored her for the moment, opening the invitation made of Warm Jade. An invitation of this quality, with its material alone worth ten Spirit Stones, likely came from someone of significant background.

A glance told him it was from Meihua Temple.

Seeing that Lü Zhong wasn’t hiding it from her, Bai Ling also leaned over curiously and asked in confusion, "Master, this humble servant remembers Meihua Temple as a nunnery, right? Why would they send an invitation?"

"Meihua Temple..."

Lü Zhong thought carefully. He recalled it was a place similar to the Jade Flower Sect.

However, Meihua Temple had never been a match for the latter.

Seeing it was a so-called "Dharma assembly" invitation, Lü Zhong instantly lost interest. He then grabbed Li Hejun, who was trying to sneak away, and pulled in a bewildered-looking Bai Ling, having them join him in comprehending the Bliss Skill he had just obtained.

...

「One year later.」

Lü Zhong sat cross-legged in a bathtub.

His eyes were tightly shut, a layer of cyan mist swirling around him. It pulsed rhythmically with his breath, continuously transforming into wisps that merged into his body, nourishing his limbs, bones, and meridians.

Finally, a powerful suction force emanated from him, and the cyan mist was completely absorbed and vanished.

"Did... it work?"

Lü Zhong used Introspection and discovered that his Minor Circulation meridians were now as brilliant and clear as jade.

Both their toughness and width had far surpassed what they were before. He tried consuming a Pill to cultivate and found that the speed of his cultivation growth was finally about the same as it used to be.

"That wasn’t easy!" Lü Zhong said with a sigh of emotion.

He had originally thought it would take him at least two or three years.

He never expected to succeed in mastering the First Layer of the Jade Vein Technique in less than two years.

"It’s probably related to my having practiced the Four Spirits Technique. That technique also has the effect of widening the meridians. Perhaps it was this preliminary widening that reduced the difficulty of this cultivation, along with the daily medicinal baths."

Over the past year, Lü Zhong had invested hundreds of thousands of Spirit Stones.

Now, it seemed it had all been worth it.