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Lanshan Spirit Mine.
In the half-open state at the center of the teleportation formation, a youth in blue clothes looked with glittering eyes at the two items in front of him.
A storage bag.
A grey-white stomach sack tied with thin cow tendon ropes.
They respectively came from Pauper No. 1 and one of the top authorities of the wealthy Tushan Monster Country—King Kong Que!
"I’ve heard that the monster realms are abundant with resources yet inept at pill and artifact refining. Each demon king has amassed a vast fortune of spirit mines, elixirs, and spirit stones, piled up like mountains."
"One of the key terms of the Qiyu Sect’s cooperation with the Demon Country is to refine magical treasures that fit the strengths of several great demons."
"Stay calm, stay calm!"
Jiang Ding steadied his excited heart.
He was too poor!
After purchasing the teleportation formation, aside from the Electromagnetic Magical Gold and Mercury Silver Magical Gold that must remain untouched, his storage jade pendant was so empty that it could harbor mice, with only around a hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones to his name.
He hadn’t even prepared a Soul Searching Talisman or a Purification Talisman.
"When I have money, the first thing to do is to switch to a larger storage artifact, one that can hold living things. I don’t want to carry the golden pendant on me."
Jiang Ding rubbed his hands together, deciding to test his luck first.
Picking up Pauper No. 1’s storage bag, Divine Sense and Sword Intent surged in.
It could be seen that, after ascending to False Dan, the other party had re-refined the restrictions of the storage bag. Various Divine Sense traps and countermeasures were densely arranged, reaching the level of a Golden Pill.
If any typical foundation-building cultivators dared to touch it, they would be instantly struck by Divine Sense, turning into fools.
Boom!
Within layers of restrictions, an Azure Great Sun rampaged through with brute force, spreading a dreadful aura of Breaking Law and Elimination Method, without any finesse, just sheer power.
The intricate and sophisticated Divine Sense restrictions cried out and instantly collapsed and dissolved, and even the deeply concealed self-destructing restrictions were useless, destroyed along with the rest.
In the span of a breath, the storage bag flashed with Spiritual Light, having returned to a state without an owner.
Divine Consciousness scanned over it.
"Huh? He’s actually not that poor."
Jiang Ding exclaimed in surprise.
Inside the storage bag, various top-grade and middle-grade magical artifacts and some miscellaneous items flashed by his gaze. These were Zhou Kunlong’s life savings while at the foundation-building stage and were not worthy of Jiang Ding’s attention.
The first things he saw were naturally a pile of Gray Iron Stones and semi-liquid Poisonous Liquid Silver Mine, left to collect dust inside the storage bag.
Purely annoying items that he wouldn’t really use. 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
"See? The Electromagnetic Magical Gold and Mercury Silver Magical Gold are inherently mine; it’s destiny," Jiang Ding laughed as he took these items and stored them in his storage jade pendant.
Second, there was a mountain of spirit stones!
Divine Sense swept across, quickly tallying the amount.
"Two million low-grade spirit stones, and ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones."
Jiang Ding nodded, "This must be a reward from the Qiyu Sect for his promotion to Golden Pill, a congratulatory gift."
Picked up.
The last item was about a hundred kilograms of third-order Spirit Copper, its purple-red color gleaming, ringing with a vibrating echo when struck, the vibration unceasing.
"This is good. Although in terms of value it’s only worth eight or nine hundred thousand lower-grade spirit stones, it’s impossible to buy third-order spirit mines with lower-grade spirit stones. A hundred kilograms can be used as the main material for refining lower-grade magical treasures."
"It can be kept for future trades of rare items."
"There’s also the lower-grade magical treasure the Flame Twin Dragon Scissors, which if repaired could also be quite valuable."
"My wallet feels a bit more secure now."
Jiang Ding marveled, "Just a False Dan cultivator can have such wealth; no wonder high-level cultivators like to establish sects and recruit disciples en masse. The wealth of sect cultivators indeed differs from that of a solitary loose cultivator."
"A good start."
He put down the storage bag and turned his gaze to the gray-white stomach sack tied with cow tendon strings.
After thinking it over, he took out what seemed like soul-nurturing incense from Zhou Kunlong’s storage bag, confirmed they were free from poison, lit them, and inserted them into the ground.
"No need for a cleanse, I’m clean enough."
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Jiang Ding closed his eyes to nourish his spirit, adjusting himself to his peak condition.
It wasn’t so much that he feared the Divine Sense restrictive enchantments would injure him, but rather that self-destruction of the enchantments might be too ferocious, causing failure at the last moment and resulting in decades of sleepless nights.
A moment later, he opened his eyes.
The sound of the sword’s hum resonated, and both the Divine Sense and Sword Intent buzzed, rushing into the stomach restriction. The Azure Great Sun shined brightly, breaking and eliminating the layered restrictions, dissolving them into nothingness.
"I worried over nothing," Jiang Ding said, opening his eyes and showing delight. "The restriction techniques are crude, far inferior to the Qiyu Sect´s inheritance, not befitting anything beyond the savagery of hairy and blood-drinking monsters."
"I’ve struck it rich," he proclaimed.
After untangling the coiled beef tendon, he turned the grayish white stomach inside out.
Rustle rustle rustle...
A pile resembling a small mountain of spirit stones, ores, elixirs, beast skins, and human corpses split open and gutted, seasoned and roasted to a golden hue—men, women, the elderly, and children alike, each with distinct aromatic spices and levels of roast.
"Man-eating monsters," Jiang Ding commented, concealing the joy on his face.
He observed a moment of silence for his kindred dead, then sent out several strands of Light Blue Sword Qi, slicing the piled corpses into dust and collecting them into Zhou Kunlong’s storage bag.
After a brief inventory, his eyes lit up.
"Over ten million low-grade spirit stones, two hundred thousand mid-grade spirit stones, and one hundred and thirty-two top-grade spirit stones!"
"Over a thousand kilograms of various third-order Spiritual Gold, nineteen third-order spirit medicines, innumerable first and second-order spirit ore and medicines, one third-order tiger demon skin, and thousands of skins from first and second-order beasts!"
"Furthermore, there is a middle-grade defensive magic tool, and its own flesh, feathers, and bones also have value, equivalent to another middle-grade magic tool."
"Even with the crudest calculation in low-grade spirit stones, there should be thirty million."
"King Kong Que, your death has been most beneficial," Jiang Ding chuckled, stowing all the items away.
"When you have money, you must spend it, or else it’s just sitting there, useless," he mused aloud.
Jiang Ding wore a pensive look as he considered his options.
"Firstly, the storage jade pendant needs an upgrade. This grayish white stomach is from some kind of spatial-dimensional monster, barely processed; it holds considerable value. By adding two million low-grade spirit stones, it should be possible to refine a brand new space jade pendant, the kind that can hold a small mountain and store living things as well."
"That should suffice, sparing me the need to consider a replacement for a long while."
"The captured third-order Spiritual Gold and spirit medicines should be exchanged for Empty Mysterious Crystal Copper to the greatest extent possible. The coating for my Air-Space Battleship still needs supplies, so it’s essential to stock up."
"Lastly, it’s time to repay debts."
"To pay back the banyan tree special scholarship from my high school days."
With a flash of light in his hands, Jiang Ding revealed an Azure Flying Sword identical in make to the Taiqing Flying Sword.
"This Sword of Dao Foundation, forged from Thousand-year Soul Nurturing Wood and No. 21 Synthetic Geng Metal, may only serve as a decoy for the Taiqing Flying Sword, but its value is also considerable. The Central Array Spirit Computer has added even more materials to its forging, making it at least as expensive as an artifact from the infant treasures category."
"In the future, it could be considered for refinement into a Ship Spirit to assist in the control of the Air-Space Battleship and future Air-Space Mothership."
"Its value is at least in the hundreds of millions of low-grade spirit stones."
"I can’t pay it back in full right now, but I can start by returning fifteen million of the low-grade spirit stones. A portion in spirit stones, a portion in third-order Spiritual Gold and spirit medicines, will be donated to the banyan tree Array Spirit special scholarship. The rest will be repaid in multiple amounts when I have more money."
"Now off to acquire a Third Order High Quality Soul Searching Symbol to check up on the Demon Country’s intelligence."
He left Armor-25 sitting cross-legged in the guise of a youth in blue clothes.
With a hum from the teleportation formation, Jiang Ding’s figure vanished from sight.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back beneath the deep pool of Chizhong Mansion in Yue Country, surrounded by dripping stalactites emitting light in a submerged cave.
"Hmm, Armor-25 has tested it once, and I’ve tested it once; the teleportation formation is functioning normally," he nodded, then took out the jade box containing the peacock demon King Kong Que’s demon pill and Divine Soul to give it a check—the contents were still in deep slumber.
He swiftly added several simulated Taiyin Sword Intent seals to strengthen the sealing, casually tossing it onto the Second Order Golden Knife Formation to create a trigger-activated trap.
The moment any sign of the Divine Soul awakening was detected, the concentrated Golden Knives would immediately begin shredding.
In such a state, the Divine Soul of Peacock Demon King Kong Que was doomed.
"For now, this will do," Jiang Ding said as his figure faded from view.
