At the edge of a vast platform terrace on Mountain Affairs Peak, Xu Disheng summoned forth the comfortable, expansive purple Spirit Cloud and stepped onto it.
Yuan Qi followed closely behind, also getting on the Spirit Cloud. Xu Disheng glanced at him out of the corner of his eye but didnât say anything.
Li Dan and Lu Siwan also got on one after the other. There was a bit of hesitation on Li Danâs face, and after a bit, he still decided to speak up. âSenior Martial Brother Xu, can you give Siwan a bit more spirit stones? 10 spirit stones is enough. If it really isnât doable, take some from my portion and give it to her. Sheâs just a weak girl. Itâs truly too hard for her to live on Morning Dew peak. Every time she goes on a mission, she only narrowly manages to escape death.â
Xu Disheng lightly flicked his sleeves, smiling a smile that didnât reach his eyes. âWho said that this reward of 210 spirit stones had any of your shares in it?â
Li Dan choked angrily, and just as he was about to speak, he heard Xu Disheng continue. âYour portion? What portion? Was that serpent demon killed by you? Was the spirit vein extracted by you? Or,â the youth turned around, his eyes seeming to have a layer of dense fog shrouding them. âDid you help me complete this small-scale mission at all?â
Li Dan was left speechless. He turned to look at the delicate expression of the girl behind him, his heart dripping with sympathy for her. He summoned his courage once more and said, âSenior Martial Brother XuâŚâ
Xu Disheng waved his hand to interrupt him, then turned to look at Yuan Qi. âYuan Qi, in your perspective, how should this matter be handled?â he asked.
Yuan Qiâs eyes examined Xu Disheng, but he couldnât see what he was thinking through his calm, indifferent expression.
He clenched his teeth, then pointed at Li Dan and shouted, âHow dare you, Li Dan! Senior Martial Brother Xu already gave you 30 spirit stones, and thatâs him already being quite considerate to you! He gave you an inch, and now you want a mile! You son of a bastard!â
Yuan Qi turned back to Xu Disheng and cupped his fists. His tone was furious to the extreme, as if he was feeling wronged on Xu Dishengâs behalf. âSenior Martial Brother Xu, in my opinion, Li Dan and her are clearly both starving wolves who can never be satisfied! It would be better to kick these two off this Spirit Cloud right this instant and have them return to Morning Dew Peak by themselves!â
Xu Disheng turned back around, looking towards the fog and mist among the mountains surrounding Mountain Affairs Peak. His indifferent voice could be heard. âLi Dan, did you hear that?â
Li Danâs expression was complex as he looked at the view of Xu Dishengâs back, his heart gradually becoming cold as ice.
Suddenly, he felt a small, tender hand grab onto his hand. He turned around and saw the girlâs eyes, like rippling sunlight on the water. She was lightly shaking her head at him.
A burst of intense resentment flooded from Li Danâs heart, and he turned his hand over and tightly grasped Lu Siwanâs soft hands, pulling her along with him as they got off of the Spirit Cloud.
He watched as the purple spirit cloud rose up into the air and flew in the direction of Morning Dew Peak. He held tightly onto her warm hand, his chest full of heroic pride as he said, âXu Disheng, you fickle, unjust man! Sooner or later, Iâll have you eat my dust as I look down on you and show you that you were totally wrong!â
But in the next moment, when he felt the 20 spirit stones in his bosom, his expression instantly crumpled. The two of them didnât have a flying-type Spirit Tool, so they could only ride someone elseâs Spirit Cloud to get back to Morning Dew Peak. Li Dan retracted his heroic passion as he started to quietly calculate how many spirit stones would be remaining after the two rode a Spirit Cloud back.
Standing on the Spirit Cloud, Xu Disheng casually asked, âYuan Qi, what Spiritual Root Sequence are you?â
Yuan Qi bowed slightly and said, âRank 6 Spiritual Root.â
Slightly surprised, Xu Disheng asked, âYour Spiritual Root aptitude isnât bad, and youâre clever enough, so why did you join Chen Xingzhouâs small-scale mission when it was clearly a trap?â
Yuan Qiâs expression turned a bit stiff as he said, âOriginally, I was following Senior Martial Brother Chen⌠no, Chen Xingzhou. He wanted me to disguise myself among the newcomer disciples and wait for an opportunity to take action. But Senior Martial Brother Xuâs corrosive water droplet technique was too tyrannical. Plus, it was a surprise attack, so I never had the chance to reveal myself before Chen Xingzhou and the others were killed by you.â
Xu Disheng glanced at him and nodded. Yuan Qi was speaking the truth. After all, Chen Xingzhou and his attendants were all dead, aside from Ge Song, whose whereabouts were unknown, so there was no need to continue hiding anything.
He waved his hand, and 10 spirit stones and a common longsword Spirit Tool appeared in front of him. Xu Disheng said, âFor now, you can take this Spirit Tool and these spirit stones for your own use.â
A look of delight appeared on Yuan Qiâs face. He hurriedly put the items away, feeling somewhat nervous in his heart.
After all, the value of that longsword Spirit Tool was several dozen spirit stones, and was too precious. In the past, when he was following Chen Xingzhou, he had managed to save up a few dozen spirit stones, but he was still reluctant to buy a longsword Spirit Tool.
While the two were talking, they had already arrived at Morning Dew Peak.
The purple Spirit Cloud slowly landed, and Xu Disheng put away the Spirit Cloud. âDonât worry about those items and cultivate well. This is my palace courtyard on Morning Dew Peak. If you run out of spirit stones, you can come find me,â Xu Disheng said.
Feeling moved by Xu Dishengâs favor, Yuan Qi hurriedly agreed. He watched Xu Disheng walk into his palace room. The light barrier appeared, and he subconsciously stroked the longsword Spirit Tool in his hands, in somewhat of a daze.
Rank 6 Spiritual Root was already considered part of the middle class Spiritual Root. Regardless of the growth potential, the cultivation speed was much faster than those that had profound meridians belonging to the lower class Spiritual Roots. Xu Disheng seemed to value Yuan Qi and even gave him a precious longsword Spirit Tool, but was that really because of his aptitude? Or was it part of another scheme?
Inside the palace room, it was calm.
The youthâs state of mind had finally relaxed a bit. It was only when he was all alone that his heart felt at ease. The solace in solitude was the only sentiment that he felt a sense of belonging to.
He opened all of the storage pouches he had and took out all of the items, first sorting them neatly into categories.
Several heaps of spirit stones piled up into one massive pile, which was concentrated with so much spiritual energy that it was on the verge of condensing into substance. These were the glorious spoils earned through staying true to black-hearted scheming.
When he left Morning Dew Peak, he had used up practically all of the spirit stones he had, and he didnât have a single good Spirit Tool. With this one trip out of the sect, he reaped a truly massive harvest.
Back at the spirit vein in Jade Water Lake, he had used the black parasol Spirit Tool that Chen Xingzhou and his attendants had prepared, allowing him to extract 300 spirit stones. He also had 30 spirit stones from Xi Jingshan.
Turning in the corpse of the serpent demon to the Spirit Armament Pavilion yielded him over 200 spirit stones, and the completion reward for the small-scale mission was another 210 spirit stones.
Chen Xingzhouâs storage pouch had the most spirit stones, with 190 spirit stones inside. There was also a longsword Spirit Tool with seals carved on it, which was called the Three Suns Sword. Although it was only an ordinary Spirit Tool, there were parts on it carved with seals, so it was extremely precious.
There was also a bejeweled imperial seal, which was about the size of oneâs palm. It was called the Severing Spirit Seal, and it was clad in sharp, offense-oriented qi. As a high-grade Spirit Tool, it was the most valuable thing in his storage pouch.
This was most likely Chen Xingzhouâs special treasure, but he didnât have the chance to use it before receiving the surprise attack of the Summon Rain technique, which had caused him to feel stifled to the extreme at the time.
In Chen Xingzhouâs storage pouch, there was actually another ordinary longsword Spirit Tool without any seals engraved on it, but Xu Disheng already gave that one to Yuan Qi.
In the other storage pouches, there were far fewer spirit stones. Added together, their value didnât exceed 50 to 60 spirit stones.
Xu Disheng made an inventory of the spirit stones he had right now. Aside from the spirit stones that he gave to Yuan Qi, Li Dan, and Lu Siwan, he now had a little over 1000 spirit stones, but the number didnât exceed 1,100.
Even with Xu Dishengâs temperament, the look in his eyes fluctuated slightly at this amount, and he clearly wasnât as calm at heart as his appearance suggested. Faced with so many spirit stones, even he wasnât able to maintain a completely levelheaded gaze.
With his identity as an elite disciple, Chen Xingzhouâs assets were plentiful. Just that high-grade Spirit Tool, the Severing Spirit Seal, was worth well over 400 spirit stones!
Xu Disheng also made another pile for all the medicines and pills. Most of them were Spirit Gathering Pills, but there was a small number of Qi Gathering Pills, and there was even one Qi Boosting Pill! These medicinal pills were all useful for him. He placed them along with the Severing Spirit Seal into one storage pouch.