Chapter 106: Storage Bag Gains

After dealing with the aftermath, Wei Tu returned to the valley where Zhao Qingluo lay and placed the storage bag embroidered with the character “Zhao” beside her. Inside Zhao Qingluo’s storage bag, aside from the Foundation Establishment Pill, there were also two magic artifacts, over thirty mid-grade spirit stones, more than two hundred low-grade spirit stones, and some miscellaneous items. The total value, at the very least, exceeded a thousand spirit stones. However, Wei Tu had no intention of taking these extra items. There were three reasons for this. First, taking the Foundation Establishment Pill could be justified as repayment for saving her life—it was within the bounds of reason. But if he were to take the entire storage bag, that would be outright robbery. Once Zhao Qingluo woke up, it would be easy for her to turn extreme, leading to an irreconcilable grudge between them. —Even though the miscellaneous items weren’t worth much, their sentimental or practical value to their original owner was another matter entirely. Leaving a way out ensured that future encounters would not be disastrous. He had already taken the most precious and crucial item, the Foundation Establishment Pill—there was no need to bring unnecessary trouble upon himself over the rest. Second, as a talisman master, Wei Tu earned more than enough spirit stones through his craft to sustain his cultivation. The only thing he lacked in the Qi Refinement Realm was this one Foundation Establishment Pill. Possessions that couldn’t be immediately converted into usable resources brought him only risk, not benefits. With the Late Bloomer destiny at his back, he could steadily grow stronger. There was no need to complicate his path for a petty gain, putting himself in needless danger. Third, storage bags belonging to members of powerful families, along with their artifacts and belongings, were rarely so easy to take. Most of them contained tracking formations left behind by their sects or clans. At the moment, the Zhao Clan of Qiyue had yet to send anyone searching for Zhao Qingluo—likely because four days was still too short a time. But if she were to disappear for too long, it would be a different story. Lastly, another crucial point— He had deliberately left behind the so-called “high-ranking cultivator’s inscription” on the valley’s rock wall to mislead any investigators, shifting suspicion toward someone else. Anyone capable of eliminating Blood Demon Elder and Geng Wen would logically be at least at the Foundation Establishment Realm—and such a cultivator wouldn’t bother with a little extra loot. In other words, very few Qi Refinement cultivators would have the discipline to forsake such a large sum of valuables. Thus, taking only the Foundation Establishment Pill while leaving the rest behind was the safest and most low-risk choice for Wei Tu. After placing the storage bag down, Wei Tu did not immediately leave. Using a Burrowing Talisman, he hid himself five zhang (approximately 16 meters) underground, keeping watch over Zhao Qingluo’s reaction when she woke up. If she were to fly into a rage, feeling humiliated and harboring hatred… Then, for the sake of his own safety, Wei Tu wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate her on the spot. If it came to that, all previous hesitations would be meaningless. Time passed. A day later. Under Wei Tu’s watchful gaze— Zhao Qingluo regained consciousness. She first scanned her surroundings. Seeing that her clothes were intact and her body was free of any expected violations, she let out a sigh of relief. Then, Zhao Qingluo noticed the storage bag beside her and the inscription left on the rock wall. She remained dazed for a moment, then muttered, “How fortunate.” Afterward, she crossed her legs and began meditating to restore her spiritual energy, showing no concern for the missing Foundation Establishment Pill. Upon seeing this, Wei Tu nodded to himself. He withdrew his presence, carefully burrowing his way out of the valley. Only when he had traveled over ten miles away did he finally reveal himself. Since he now had the Wind-Cleaving Eagle, Wei Tu didn’t immediately head back to Danqiu Mountain. Instead, he left the Wind-Cleaving Eagle in the Demon Wolf Mountain Range, instructing it to conceal itself carefully before returning to Danqiu Mountain. Spirit beast bags, much like storage bags, were spatial artifacts. However, because they had to contain living creatures, their price was often several times higher than a regular storage bag. Generally speaking— Only Foundation Establishment cultivators had the financial resources to afford such a “non-essential” artifact for carrying spirit beasts. Upon returning to his courtyard on Lark Street, Wei Tu bolted the door shut and retrieved two storage bags from his robes. One was taken from Blood Demon Elder, and the other belonged to Geng Wen. Wei Tu’s spiritual sense probed into Geng Wen’s storage bag, and upon seeing that the spatial field inside was slowly collapsing, he sighed in regret before hastily removing the contents one by one. Storage bags, as magic artifacts, weren’t so easily destroyed. However, since Geng Wen self-destructed his divine sense imprint before dying, it had caused irreversible damage to the bag’s internal space. Based on Wei Tu’s estimate, the space inside Geng Wen’s storage bag would completely collapse within a month. “But there’s a silver lining!” “Geng Wen, that old fox, didn’t want to leave me any spoils before he died, so he self-destructed his divine sense imprint on the storage bag… but that actually made it effortless for me to unlock it.” Wei Tu chuckled. This time, Geng Wen’s cunning backfired on him. Had he not self-destructed his imprint on the bag, Wei Tu would have needed several days to break through its seal. By then, it would have been too late. Without understanding the effects of the Lust-Inducing Powder, he might have rashly killed Zhao Qingluo, taken the treasure, and fled as a fugitive—a decision that would have greatly increased his chances of death. Geng Wen’s act of desperation inadvertently gave him another path to choose. “Aside from these seven jade slips and sixty-three spirit stones, there’s nothing else of real value in Geng Wen’s belongings.” “Well, that makes sense. He risked his life to rob Zhao Qingluo for a final gamble—there’s no way he would have had extra spirit stones lying around.” Wei Tu carefully laid out the seven jade slips he had retrieved from the valley onto his desk. Only now did he have the time to examine their contents in detail. “The first four jade slips… seem to be a set of high-grade first-tier alchemy inheritance records.” “They were probably given to him by Alchemist Shu, the second-tier alchemist.” Wei Tu separated the four identical pale-yellow jade slips and placed them aside. Then, he focused his gaze on the three remaining jade slips, each with a different design. “One contains a compilation of Geng Wen’s personally developed pills, including the Lust-Inducing Powder. Another details the formula for the Purple Essence Pill…” He had already checked two of the three unique jade slips back in the valley. After a brief pause, he picked up the last strangely shaped black jade slip. “Thousand Faces Phantom Art?” Wei Tu’s eyes narrowed as he read the golden text inscribed at the beginning. He hadn’t expected this black jade slip to contain a cultivation technique. After scanning through its contents, Wei Tu immediately recalled how Chu Yin had disguised herself as "Yuchi Yu" and infiltrated Lark Street Courtyard more than ten years ago. Back then, he had marveled at how flawlessly she had disguised herself, with no noticeable traces of her true identity. Now, after reading this cultivation manual, all his doubts vanished. Thousand Faces Phantom Art, a specialized transformation technique from the cultivation world, could allow a practitioner who reached the second level to alter their appearance and body shape, mimicking another person. Its only drawback was that it couldn’t completely mask the practitioner’s spiritual aura. The technique could only help with disguising physical features but couldn’t entirely erase one’s original presence. “Even so, this is an extraordinary technique.” Wei Tu carefully stored away the black jade slip, deciding that he would start practicing it in the near future. His cultivation in Heavenly Fragrance Silk Technique had already enhanced his Fragrant Silk Nose beyond the manual’s original limits. Perhaps, if he mastered this art, it could evolve similarly, providing unexpected benefits. “Unlike Geng Wen, Blood Demon Elder’s storage bag is perfectly intact.” “This old devil has been on the run for decades—his fortune must be massive.” Wei Tu picked up Blood Demon Elder’s storage bag and began the tedious process of erasing the divine sense imprint left behind. Compared to Zhao Qingluo’s storage bag, the imprint on this one was much stronger. It was stubbornly resilient. It took Wei Tu nearly two full days to completely wipe out the imprint. When he finally sent his spiritual sense inside— His expression twitched slightly. “…This Blood Demon Elder… is actually quite poor.” The expected vast fortune was nowhere to be found. Despite having a storage bag twice the size of Geng Wen’s, the amount of spirit stones inside was pitiful—only slightly more than Geng Wen’s, around one hundred forty spirit stones. A hundred-plus spirit stones wasn’t exactly a small amount, but for a highly skilled demonic cultivator, it was shockingly low. However, after some thought, Wei Tu quickly understood why. Blood Demon Elder had been raising two high-grade first-tier spirit beasts—their power equivalent to two late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators. Spirit beasts were notoriously expensive to maintain. The fact that Blood Demon Elder still had over a hundred spirit stones left actually meant he had been quite good at managing his resources. “Honestly, if he were rich, why would he still be a robber?” Wei Tu scoffed internally. Like mercenaries, bandit cultivators spent almost all their spirit stones to increase their power. It was rare for them to accumulate wealth and leave behind riches for others to loot. Still— Wei Tu wasn’t particularly interested in Blood Demon Elder’s spirit stones. Magic artifacts, jade slips, and rare materials—those were far more valuable. His gaze shifted toward the pile of jade slips, pill bottles, and several bloodstained pouches stacked in the storage bag. Half a day later. Wei Tu finished sorting through the miscellaneous items in the storage bag, excluding the spirit stones. Regarding jade slips, Blood Demon Elder had a considerable number, but their quality was far inferior to Geng Wen’s collection. Most were low-tier cultivation techniques for Qi Refinement cultivators, such as "Golden Essence Technique" and "Flame Marrow Art"—neither particularly valuable nor rare. However, two blood-colored jade slips stood out. Their quality was decent, but they were demonic cultivation techniques—completely useless to Wei Tu. The real surprise came when Wei Tu examined the artifacts. Aside from the blood-colored scythe, which Blood Demon Elder had wielded—a high-grade magical weapon, he also found two mid-grade magical artifacts: 1. Heavy Water Orb – A weapon capable of both attack and defense. 2. Violet Iron Shield – A defensive artifact with sturdy resistance. For Wei Tu, these were significant gains. Carefully, Wei Tu opened a jade box. His hands trembled slightly with excitement as his eyes landed on a three-foot-long crimson ginseng root inside. “Foundation Establishment Spiritual Material—Dan Yuan Ginseng!” Wei Tu muttered under his breath, unable to contain his astonishment. He hadn’t expected Blood Demon Elder to secretly carry a Foundation Establishment spiritual ingredient. Although this ginseng was one of the lesser-ranked materials among the thirteen primary ingredients needed for refining Foundation Establishment Pills, its value was undeniable. At the very least, it was worth two to three thousand spirit stones. Wei Tu pondered. "I was initially worried that taking a Foundation Establishment Pill without a known source would raise suspicion. After all, I have no legitimate way to acquire one..." "But now, with this Dan Yuan Ginseng—combined with the future Foundation Establishment spiritual material promised by Kou Hong Ying—I can exchange them in the market for an openly acquired Foundation Establishment Pill!" "With a legitimate source, no one will question how I obtained it!" Most importantly— "If I can secure two Foundation Establishment Pills, my chances of advancing to the Foundation Establishment Realm will be almost guaranteed!" Wei Tu felt a surge of excitement. His Geomagnetic Spirit Body was equivalent to a mid-grade spiritual root, but that only made his daily cultivation faster. When it came to Foundation Establishment, however, he was still considered a low-grade spiritual root cultivator. A cultivator with low-grade spiritual roots had, at best, a 50% chance of successfully breaking through—even with the aid of a Foundation Establishment Pill. A mere 50% probability. But with two Foundation Establishment Pills, that percentage jumped to over 70%. After organizing his spoils, Wei Tu stored all the illicit goods in Blood Demon Elder’s storage bag, keeping it close to his person. Then, he left Lark Street Courtyard to gather information. Four days had passed since Zhao Qingluo had escaped her predicament. As he walked through the streets, Wei Tu originally intended to investigate Geng Wen’s cave residence, but he hesitated— What if Zhao Qingluo was also investigating? Meeting her now might raise her suspicions. Instead, he changed course and headed toward Hu Yao’s residence in the slums. Inside the main hall, Hu Yao poured a cup of tea, her tone laced with amusement. "Wei Daoist, it’s been over ten years since you last visited me. Why the sudden interest today?" Wei Tu remained composed. “No special reason.” He shook his head, avoiding a direct question about Geng Wen’s recent actions. They exchanged a few pleasantries. Once Hu Yao served the tea, Wei Tu finally got to the point. "Hu Daoist, I once heard from the late Alchemist Wang that Gong Shulan possessed a Foundation Establishment spiritual material?" He planned to bring up Gong Shulan first before leading the conversation toward Geng Wen. That way, his interest in Geng Wen wouldn’t seem suspicious. Upon hearing Gong Shulan’s name, Hu Yao’s expression shifted slightly. Her usual warm demeanor cooled. She set down the teapot, lowering her head briefly before looking up with a half-smile. “Oh? And what, Wei Daoist, are you thinking of doing? Trying to seize this opportunity for yourself?” Wei Tu noticed the change immediately. “Is there a rivalry between them?” He quickly recalled— Alchemist Wang had abandoned Hu Yao for Gong Shulan. Perhaps that was why her attitude changed. Wei Tu feigned indifference. “Just asking.” He casually waved off the notion before steering the conversation toward Geng Wen. “I heard that Geng Wen has been plotting against Gong Shulan for that Foundation Establishment treasure. If he actually succeeds… I fear my days would be numbered.” —He knew that Hu Yao was already aware of the grudge between him and Geng Wen. In fact, it was Hu Yao herself who had passed on information through Tong Peipei when Zhao Qingluo had stormed Geng Wen’s cave residence. Hearing this, Hu Yao’s expression softened slightly. She leaned back, casually swirling her teacup before speaking. “Wei Daoist, you no longer need to worry about Geng Wen seeking revenge.” "Two days ago, Geng Wen’s entire cave residence was completely destroyed by a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Qiyue Zhao Clan." “Even his master, Alchemist Shu, was implicated and punished by the Zhao Clan.” Wei Tu pretended to be stunned. "Why did that happen?" Previous Chapter || Next Chapte