Spoils of War

Across the crimson wasteland.

Two figures, a man and a woman, swept past, leaving behind two distinct colors across the desolate, silent, crimson-tinged expanse of heaven and earth.

These two were none other than Yin Wenzhou and Qin Qingmu. Across the barren land where red dust stirred and no living souls could be seen, they walked side by side, pressing steadily forward.

Both were Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators; driving their escape lights at full speed, they could travel over a hundred li in less than half an hour.

Neither spoke along the way. After another half hour passed, both came to a stop at the same time, sitting cross-legged facing each other to sense the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth. Before long, both opened their eyes almost simultaneously and looked at each other, shaking their heads in shared disappointment.

“I still can't sense any difference in the fire Qi.”

Yin Shixiu took a deep breath. “That flame storm was incredibly widespread. It seems there was also something else passing through that disrupted things, causing the fire spiritual Qi between heaven and earth to turn violently active. The difference between directions is barely perceptible.”

This was already their thirteenth day inside the Yanyang Spiritual Realm. Originally, they had traveled together in a larger group, but by now, aside from him and Qin Qingmu, everyone else had been forced to leave the spiritual realm in disappointment as their Yanyang Tokens expired.

Now only the two of them remained, advancing in a single direction and attempting to sense the world's spiritual Qi every half hour in hopes of locating the Yanyang Xuancang Flame.

Unfortunately, after ten-plus days, they had still come up empty-handed.

Qin Qingmu remained silent for a moment before speaking up. “Perhaps... it isn't because of that storm, but because the spiritual Qi across the entire Yanyang Spiritual Realm is naturally so chaotic that it's difficult to sense?”

“...” Yin Shixiu furrowed his brow wearily and sighed. “That is indeed possible.”

A bead of sweat clung to the tip of Qin Qingmu's delicate nose. Biting her lower lip gently, she suddenly spoke with overwhelming sorrow, “I rushed back from Shiyan Academy, braving countless twists and narrow escapes along the way just to make it to the exchange tournament in time—all for the Yanyang Xuancang Flame.”

“And now, yet... it is truly laughable and lamentable...”

Her radiant face—resembling a peach blossom full of dew—and delicate brows were now clouded with grief, her eyes glistening with unshed tears that moved anyone who saw her to pity.

Seeing such a beauty weeping in sorrow, Yin Wenzhou was momentarily at a loss. He couldn't help but pull her into his embrace, comforting her gently, “The Yanyang Spiritual Realm was already on the verge of fading; this turn of events merely confirms it. This was neither what we wished for nor something we could change—it is simply bad luck.”

“Qingmu, please do not be so sad. I have entered this realm multiple times to observe the spiritual fire and have gained some insights. Once we leave the realm, we can discuss the Dao together, and I will share everything with you.”

Seeing Yin Wenzhou say this, Qin Qingmu wiped away her tears, rested her head on his shoulder, and gave a soft, gentle response.

Yet out of Yin Wenzhou's sight, her expression settled into quiet calm. She thought to herself, It seems he really wasn't lying to me. Even Yin Wenzhou had no prior knowledge of such a change in the realm. Ah well, I will just take things one step at a time.

...

After gulping down the blood toad in a single bite, Little Seven fell into a deep sleep.

Shi Yu checked on it several times by sinking her divine sense into the Fate-Tapping Bell. Seeing that its aura was stable, she knew it was likely fine, so she stopped worrying and waited peacefully for it to awaken.

“My earlier judgment was wrong. I've been walking for so many days that I should have left the flame storm's area of impact long ago, yet the fire spiritual Qi in the air is still violently restless, making it hard to sense variations in fire intensity across directions... It seems the spiritual Qi in this realm is naturally like this.”

Shaking her head, she paused to take a rest.

Sitting down casually on the ground, Shi Yu took hold of the storage ring hanging around her neck.

Over the past few days, besides searching for the Yanyang Xuancang Flame, she had spent all her time working on Pei Yanji's storage ring.

With Pei Yanji dead, a major threat within the spiritual realm was eliminated, allowing Shi Yu to feel much more at ease. Erasing the divine soul mark stamped onto the storage ring wasn't overly difficult, but since Pei Yanji had possessed Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation, it required persistent, slow effort to wear down the seal.

Now, after several days, the imprint had been reduced to a paper-thin layer. Striking while the iron was hot, Shi Yu blanketed it with her divine sense and continued to wear it down.

The moment she felt the barrier turn frail and brittle, she condensed her divine sense into a sharp beam and struck hard against it.

With a clear zheng sound, the imprint shattered into nothingness, and the storage ring finally became an ownerless object.

Having completed this, Shi Yu began to inspect the contents of the ring.

She didn't know Pei Yanji's exact background, only that he was an evil cultivator from Wanchou Prefecture. Judging by his lavish standard of living, however, he likely came from an extraordinary origin and certainly didn't lack good items. Shi Yu hoped to find things inside that would be useful to her.

Sweeping her divine sense inside, she found the space within the storage ring was quite large—about three zhang across.

The first thing to catch her eye was his formidable Tier-5 pill furnace. The furnace bore an eerie aura, wafting a thick stench of essence blood and lingering souls that made Shi Yu frown.

She had no intention of using this furnace and shifted her attention to the other items.

“He truly was wealthy...”

Tallying up the vast array of cultivation resources, there were over ten thousand spirit stones alone.

Low-grade spirit stones were casually piled in a corner, while medium-grade spirit stones were tied neatly in animal hide pouches; a quick sweep of her divine sense revealed three to four hundred of them inside. There were even three high-grade spirit stones.

These three high-grade spirit stones were four-sided prisms, crystal clear and emitting a faint luminescence. A single high-grade spirit stone was worth a hundred medium-grade spirit stones and contained incomparably pure, dense spiritual Qi.

Spirit stones were wonderful resources. In places like Lingtai Prefecture where heaven and earth spiritual Qi was thin and impure, with various attributes mixed together, cultivators had to use breathing techniques to absorb what they needed and expel incompatible Qi, which was tedious. Cultivating directly with spirit stones was far more convenient and rapid.

Previously, Shi Yu had only possessed low-grade spirit stones, whose spiritual Qi content was rather modest. Cultivating with them had been slower than utilizing a Spirit-Gathering array plate supplemented with pills and Life Spring water, so she had rarely used spirit stones for cultivation.

After arriving in Hengze Prefecture, the local spiritual meridians were higher in quality. Although low-grade spirit stones remained the dominant currency, medium-grade spirit stones could occasionally be seen.

Shi Yu couldn't make good use of low-grade spirit stones for cultivation, treating them merely as currency. Medium-grade spirit stones, however, were extremely useful—not only for cultivation, but also for setting up formations and refining artifacts in the future.

She had even been planning to convert all the low-grade spirit stones on her into medium-grade ones before leaving Hengze Prefecture.

As for the three high-grade spirit stones from Pei Yanji, they were even rarer. Though officially one high-grade was worth a hundred medium-grade, across all of Changyuan Prefecture, high-grade spirit stones were produced in negligible quantities—it would be virtually impossible to trade for them even if one offered medium-grade spirit stones.

“I'll save these high-grade spirit stones for emergencies...”

Tucking them away carefully, she examined the remaining items.

Since Pei Yanji was an alchemist, his storage ring naturally contained plenty of spiritual plants and similar items, mostly of fine quality. A significant portion comprised poisonous herbs and evil flowers abundant in Wanchou Prefecture, many of which happened to match the Tier-3 and Tier-4 pill recipes Shi Yu knew.

Next were four or five high-quality artifacts. As a weapon refiner herself, Shi Yu wasn't particularly interested in them, so she tossed them aside, intending to sell them for spirit stones later.

Finally, there were fully ten-plus jade slips and ancient texts. Seeing them brought a flash of excitement, and she picked them up to scan through them one by one. “I wonder if there are any new pill recipes.”

Unfortunately, after a quick sweep with her divine sense, she found that all ten-plus jade slips recorded cultivation techniques. It seemed that precious pill recipes were not something even Pei Yanji would carry lightly on his person.

The ancient texts were likewise transcribed copies of techniques.

These techniques varied in quality, were mostly incomplete, possessed different attributes, and formed no coherent system.

After a moment's thought, Shi Yu understood: these were undoubtedly spoils Pei Yanji had gathered from various cultivators he had killed and robbed over time.

Currently, she was severely lacking in techniques, so she welcomed all of them without complaint. Setting aside a few evil cultivator techniques, she put the rest away, intending to study them whenever she had spare time. Ultimately, even lower-quality techniques could be deduced and evolved through the Fate-Tapping Bell, turning into “experience points” to be fused into other techniques. Learning more could only benefit her.

Lastly, there was a palm-sized, strangely shaped token. Shi Yu pulled it out and saw crooked characters carved upon it. Only after careful inspection could she decipher them: “Xuanyin Ruins?”

It sounded like the name of a faction, perhaps the organization Pei Yanji belonged to.

The token possessed a strange, eerie aura. Shi Yu tried to inspect the restrictions carved into it, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't see them clearly, as if they were shrouded in fog.

“It's likely because my cultivation is insufficient to probe it clearly,” Shi Yu pondered. Although she couldn't see the restrictions and thus didn't know what function the token served, if it truly was a faction token, it would likely carry tracking imprints or something similar.

She had no curious desire to investigate further, nor did she plan to keep the token on her person to ask others about it later. She decisively tossed it away, allowing the red sand drifting across the sky to slowly cover and bury it.

“Even if there really is a tracking mark on it, leaving it here in the Yanyang Spiritual Realm means no one should be able to hunt me down.”

Out of caution, she checked the storage ring itself and its contents once more. Only after confirming there were no strange marks left behind did she finally put her mind at ease.

Gazing at the path ahead, she set off once more, searching for the location of the Yanyang Xuancang Flame.