Chapter 35: Taking Stock
Outside Lingxiao Hall. The elders held their meeting, which took only half a day before they all dispersed.
Xu Ziqing was the last to walk out of the hall.
He was the only nominal disciple of Dongyuan Sect Master Chen Linyuan. After the meeting ended, he still had some private conversation with the sect master, so he walked out of the main hall later than the ordinary elders.
“…”
Xu Ziqing seemed to sense something and looked to his side.
Qin Xijun was leaning against the steps outside the hall, looking at him with a smile.
“Elder Qin, what brings you here?”
“Oh, Young Elder Xu, don’t be so formal. After all, I’m the one who brought you into the sect… your attitude is really terrible.”
“You dump all these elder affairs on me, a true disciple, and you still have the nerve to say that.”
Xu Ziqing flicked his sleeve and headed straight down the mountain.
However.
He didn’t rush to leave on his flying sword.
“Hehehe, there’s nothing I can do about it. You know how my disciples are. None of them are as reliable as you, right…”
Qin Xijun caught up and walked beside him.
“Don’t give me that… tell me, what is it this time?”
“Look at you, saying that. Can’t I come chat with you if there’s nothing wrong?”
“Those who show courtesy without cause are either thieves or villains.”
“Well, you really misunderstood me this time. I came to thank you.”
Xu Ziqing stopped in his tracks, his expression suspicious. “Thank me… thank me for what?”
“Thank you for standing up for that kid.”
“For who?”
Xu Ziqing couldn’t remember helping anyone.
“That outer disciple, Song Yesheng.”
“…”
Xu Ziqing pondered for a moment and waved his hand. “What I did today had nothing to do with you or him.”
“Just an outer disciple. His life or death is none of my concern.”
“If that’s the matter, then there’s nothing to thank me for. You might as well thank Master… thank the sect master for taking action.”
“You know my purpose very well.”
Xu Ziqing lost interest in talking, waved his hand, and summoned his flying sword.
His tone was indifferent, without any ripple.
“I don’t care who lives…”
“I only want Xuanyuan Sect to die.”
…
The events at Silent Valley made Song Yesheng’s name the talk of the entire Dongyuan Sect for quite a while.
But now that the matter was resolved, the protagonist at the center of the incident had also fallen in cultivation, and it would soon be forgotten.
In the cultivation world, a drop in cultivation level meant many things.
The most important of these was that even if one could re-cultivate spiritual energy, the time lost in the process was enough to destroy the mindset of an ordinary cultivator.
Everyone silently agreed on one thing.
That was that this outer disciple named “Song Yesheng” probably had no hope of reaching Foundation Establishment in this lifetime.
But Song Yan knew nothing of this.
All he knew was that he could finally return to his own cave dwelling.
How could he have predicted that so many things would happen when he first left?
Now returning to his own cave dwelling…
Song Yan sighed softly.
“It feels like a lifetime ago.”
After the matter at Silent Valley was resolved, the tense body and mind of these past few days suddenly relaxed.
The deep exhaustion from the depths of his heart, combined with the injuries to his meridians that had not yet fully healed, surged toward him.
Without resisting, Song Yan threw himself into sleep.
He slept soundly through the night.
The next day, when the sun was high in the sky, he was gently tapped on the nose by Xiao He’s cold snake tongue before slowly waking up.
He bathed and changed clothes in the cave dwelling, washing up, and immediately felt refreshed.
He sat cross-legged on the stone bed, circulated the Qi Condensation Scroll, and after several cycles, completed his basic cultivation for the day before slowly withdrawing his effort.
His mind was calm.
He sent his spiritual sense into the Qiankun bag, and Song Yan began to take stock of the gains from this trip. To be honest, although those two Qiankun bags were not brought back, when he saw Wang Xi’s Qiankun bag, Song Yan really couldn’t put it down.
He still remembered that Qiankun bag, black as night with gold thread edges, exquisitely made.
He didn’t know where it was custom made.
Putting aside his thoughts, he organized the items.
Although he had already tried to calm himself down, when Song Yan saw the pile of items belonging to Wang Xi, his breathing still quickened.
“Ten…”
“Twenty…”
“…”
“One hundred and thirty… one hundred and thirty-six spirit stones!”
With Song Yan’s current divine sense strength, he could actually tell the exact number at a glance, but this poor guy loved the feeling of counting spirit stones one by one.
Song Yan knew this actually wasn’t that much.
After all, Wang Xi also needed a large amount of resources for cultivation.
As long as one wasn’t a merchant in the cultivation world, no one would hoard a huge number of spirit stones in their Qiankun bag. They would have long been exchanged for cultivation resources.
But for Song Yan, these one hundred and thirty-six spirit stones were an amount he didn’t know how long it would take to save up.
Song Yan’s own spirit stones had long been spent, with only four fragmented spirit stones remaining.
Now, after consolidating Wan Songran’s pile, he actually possessed one hundred and sixty-five spirit stones!
“A fortune!”
Forcing down the joy in his heart, Song Yan continued taking stock.
Apart from the spirit stones he cared about most, the bulk consisted of magical artifacts, pills, and some talismans.
The two people’s magical artifacts totaled five items. Two of them were offensive magical artifacts, an earth-yellow flying sword that belonged to Wang Xi, which for some reason had not been used that day.
Perhaps because its power was inferior to that small golden seal magical artifact called “Mountain Subduing Seal.”
Speaking of which, Song Yan felt another pang of heartache.
“What a pity…”
When he killed Wang Xi that day, the seal had fallen without a trace along with the collapsing inverted mountain, and it was never seen in Wan Songran’s Qiankun bag afterward. It must have sunk into the muddy swamp.
“Although I’ve already decided to take the pure sword cultivator’s path and won’t use these magical artifacts, they can still be sold for spirit stones.”
There was nothing he could do about it. Song Yan was truly afraid of being poor.
He now had an extraordinary obsession with spirit stones.
The other offensive magical artifact was a long whip, belonging to Wan Songran.
“If not for that strange flute… does the Wan family of Western Chu use whips to command spirit beasts?”
Song Yan speculated maliciously in his heart, muttering under his breath.
That was too primitive.
Setting it aside, he took out the only defensive magical artifact among these items.
A triangular jade amulet made of green jade.
Song Yan had often seen amulets of this shape at the Lingyuan Ze market. This kind of thing was very common in the cultivation world of Chu State.
Its function was also very simple—it could withstand three attacks from a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.
This type of defensive magical artifact, once activated, usually took effect automatically without the cultivator needing to spend mental effort to control it.
This belonged to Wang Xi. Unfortunately, the arrogant and conceited him had not activated it at the time.
Perhaps when Wan Songran used that Azure Wood Severing Talisman, everything had already been too late.
This was something Song Yan could use himself, so of course he wouldn’t sell it.
The last two items—one was something Song Yan had never seen before. He planned to take it to Granny Qin for appraisal later.
The other was this red-black flute.
Song Yan held it in his hand, playing with it, recalling the scene when Wan Songran played this strange flute to influence the minds of spirit beasts.
“What a bizarre flute.”
He used spiritual energy to carefully clean this Glutton Tail Flute…
Originally, Song Yan had planned to sell this flute as a “precious treasure” anonymously at the next auction in the Lingyuan Ze night market in exchange for spirit stones.
But now he hesitated.
Because he seemed to have heard or seen a description of a treasure with similar effects somewhere…
“Ah…”
After thinking carefully for a moment, Song Yan’s eyebrows raised as he remembered.