Chapter 271: Chapter 165: Bountiful Spoils: The Divine Fire Sect’s Retaliation (Part 2)

It had only been a year, and he had already successfully formed a Fake Pill.

After all, it wasn’t easy for a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to successfully form a Fake Pill.

One had to choose a Spiritual Beast Inner Core that aligned with their Five Elements. Even then, the success rate of smoothly refining it into the body was less than one in fifty.

If not for such a high risk, many old cultivators with no hope of reaching Core Formation would have tried it long ago.

"Excellent! This is how we Sword Cultivators should be!"

Master Fu Jian, however, clapped his hands and cheered from the side.

When he heard that all those Demon Cultivators had been run through the heart by flying swords, a smile spread across his face. "Seeking out the enemy alone, raising a sword to slay demons... this young fellow has quite a bit of my flair from back in the day!"

"Ming Yan, why don’t you call him over so we can meet him?"

Hearing this, Thunder Sound True Man immediately suggested, "Junior Brother, don’t be hasty. In my opinion, it would be better to wait a couple of days."

"The Demon Cultivators have just retreated. Now is the perfect time to improve our Magic and find ways to counter the enemy. Besides, there are many other matters that need to be dealt with down below."

"It won’t be too late to summon Xiao Chen to Elemental Magnetic Peak to be rewarded for his merits once the dust has settled."

His suggestion immediately won the approval of the other Daoists. Just now, several Demon Dao Golden Core cultivators had attacked in unison.

Both the Demon Soldiers and the Magic they used were worth returning to review and analyze thoroughly.

If they could find a weakness in their opponents, they could seize the advantage in their next encounter.

.

「Qingyang Spirit Ore.」

Yao Dehai and the other cultivators had already departed.

After exchanging some pleasantries with everyone, Xiao Chen returned to his room and began to take stock of his spoils.

The haul mainly consisted of various Magical Artifacts and Storage Bags.

The Magical Artifacts were straightforward enough. Most Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivators were quite poor, and their collections consisted mostly of Upper-Grade Magical Artifacts.

The Storage Bags, however, were a different story. Not only did each person have one, but they were all protected by Restrictions.

For the first time in his life, Xiao Chen discovered that breaking into Storage Bags was surprisingly physical work.

Even though he had far more experience breaking Storage Bag Restrictions than most cultivators...

...it still took him a full eighteen hours to open them all.

Fortunately, his time was not wasted.

The Storage Bags contained anywhere from one or two thousand to ten or twenty thousand Spirit Stones each.

All told, there was a grand total of 187,989 Spirit Stones, which had to be split between two Storage Bags just to fit.

’Sigh...’

Xiao Chen let out a soft sigh. ’My Storage Bag still isn’t big enough. It’s already full with just this small amount of Spirit Stones.’

He had read in the *Hezhou Travelogue* that there were larger models available in the Eastern Domain.

’If I get the chance in the future, I could ask someone to bring one back for me.’

The contents of the various Demon Cultivators’ Storage Bags were incredibly diverse.

They contained everything from Pills, Artifacts, Talismans, and Arrays to items for music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

There were also all sorts of Spiritual Grass, Spirit Fruits, Spirit Ores, and more.

It was a true test of Xiao Chen’s discerning eye and his knowledge of the various Spiritual Objects in the cultivation world.

However, he had a wealth of experience in this area, employing a simple but effective method: a preliminary sort based on Spiritual Qi content.

Items with low Spiritual Qi content were generally not very expensive.

By the same token, items rich in Spiritual Qi were guaranteed to be valuable.

The exception was items stored in special containment boxes; most of the time, those were valuable treasures with unique properties.

Following these two criteria, Xiao Chen quickly completed his initial screening. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

He divided all the loot into three categories.

The first category was the largest but consisted of worthless miscellaneous items not worth mentioning.

He could just find a Black Market and sell them off in batches when he had the chance.

The second category consisted of items he couldn’t identify but felt were out of the ordinary.

There were only five such items in total.

The first was an Ancient Ink-Wash Painting on a single scroll, estimated to be from several thousand years ago.

The second was a block of Tin-Dyed Spirit Ink, only three inches long, with purple veins running through it. It was preserved in a containment box.

The third was a Tassel Silver Chain, about five inches long, which appeared to be a bracelet-like ornament. It was covered in densely packed, minuscule script.

The fourth was a Han Baiyu Carving, a full three feet tall, which vividly depicted a goshawk. It seemed to contain a faint trace of life force.

The fifth was an Oval Copper Mirror, about a foot in diameter. Its edge was inlaid with five different Spirit Pearls, each of which seemed to be an Upper-Grade Magical Artifact, yet the mirror itself could not be directly refined.

Xiao Chen decided to keep all five items and figure out what to do with them after he investigated their origins.

The third category was comprised of valuable Spiritual Objects that he recognized.

There was one catty and six taels of Flame Light Spiritual Sand, seven taels of Heavy Water Spirit Sand, and three taels of Xutu Spirit Sand.

There was also one bottle of Five-Colored Profound Water, one bottle of Mutton Fat Jade Dew, and two bottles of Tiger-Subduing Spirit Water.

The *Hezhou Travelogue* mentioned this Tiger-Subduing Spirit Water. It was said to be a top-grade Tier Two Spiritual Liquid used exclusively by Body Refining Cultivators.

There was a single Twin Cyan Lotus, four stalks of Seeking Plum Ancient Ginseng, and six stalks of Nanhua Yellow Bamboo.

Seeking Plum Ancient Ginseng was produced on Seeking Plum Mountain at the front lines. It was an excellent Alchemy Spiritual Material, and he had read about it in Elder Chen’s alchemy notes.

The corresponding Seeking Plum Ginseng Pill, once consumed, could even regenerate shattered bones, making it a renowned Healing Holy Medicine.

Nanhua Yellow Bamboo was a specialty from the Central Domain and was one of the primary materials for crafting high-quality Defensive Spiritual Artifacts.

Two stalks had appeared at the last Thousand Bamboo Tower auction, with a single stalk fetching a price of six hundred Spirit Stones.

The Thousand-Year Sword Bamboo also came from the Central Domain. At the time, Xiao Chen had wondered if people in the Central Domain were particularly fond of growing bamboo, and he had even compared its appearance to regular Sword Bamboo.

That was why he recognized it instantly upon seeing it again.

Finally, there were three rather unusual items.

First were six catties of Fragrant Mountain Ancient Leaf. This was a famous Spirit Tea from Hezhou, harvested from the only nineteen ancient tea trees still remaining on Xiangye Mountain.