Chapter 43: Panic and Suspicion

Every cultivator has their own destined opportunities and secrets. Seeing that Wan Yi was not going to elaborate, Yan Wuji did not press the matter further.

While the two were speaking, the baptism of the Heavenly Dao descended, and countless streams of pure spiritual energy from heaven and earth surged into Wan Yi's body.

Compared to the previous time, this influx was far more violent. After all, this time he had slain two Imperial Realm cultivators in one go, and one of them was even in the middle stage of the Imperial Realm.

Feeling the wildly surging spiritual energy, Wan Yi's expression shifted, and he said solemnly, "Brother, I'm heading back to enter seclusion. We'll talk about everything else later!"

At this point, Yan Wuji had already guessed Wan Yi's situation, but just as Wan Yi stood up to leave, he called out to stop him.

"Well, my good brother. Since matters are settled, shouldn't you return certain items to me?"

Upon hearing this, Wan Yi gave an awkward laugh, scratched his head, and said sheepishly, "Apologies, I completely forgot!"

Hearing this, Yan Wuji immediately gave him a look that clearly said, "A genius would believe that."

Wan Yi shot back a look that said, "Aren't you a ghost anyway?" and then produced twenty puppets.

Yan Wuji took the puppets, but his gaze drifted toward Wan Yi's wrist, as if to say there was still something else.

Catching that look, Wan Yi hurriedly pressed his arm against his chest! He thought to himself, "You must be joking! The storage bracelet contains the accumulated wealth of the Dan Ding Sect over thousands of years; even if you want it, there's not a snowball's chance in hell!"

Seeing that Wan Yi refused to hand over the bracelet, Yan Wuji pulled a long face and said, "My dear brother, it's not that your older brother is stingy, but this bracelet is simply too valuable. I can't afford to part with it like this!"

Wan Yi eagerly asked, "Name your price, I'll buy this bracelet!"

Yan Wuji raised an eyebrow: "Are you certain?!"

Wan Yi nodded: "Certain!"

Hearing this, Yan Wuji let out a "heh heh" chuckle, then raised a single finger and gestured toward Wan Yi.

Looking at that finger, which was as thick as a pestle, Wan Yi's face turned green, and he blurted out, "Damn it, you want ten million top-grade spirit stones? You people are outrageously greedy!"

Yet just as he was about to fish out the spirit stones, Yan Wuji shook his head and said, "It's not ten million!"

Hearing this, Wan Yi paused his hand, which was halfway into his pouch, and asked with extreme vigilance, "Then how much is it?"

Yan Wuji flashed a mischievous grin: "Ten 'damn its'!"

"Damn your grandfather!" Wan Yi felt the urge to commit murder right then and there. If it weren't for the fact that the items inside the storage bracelet had nowhere else to go, he would have ripped the bracelet off and thrown it straight into the fellow's face!

Wan Yi, whose heart was bleeding, wore a dark expression, gritted his teeth, and fumbled about inside the storage bracelet. After a long while, he produced a storage ring, tossed it over to Yan Wuji, and said viciously, "Here you go!"

After working his fingers to the bone the entire night, he hadn't even warmed the spirit stones in his hands before being swindled out of a hundred million by this guy! No matter who was in his shoes, their heart wouldn't feel happy.

Seeing Wan Yi wear an expression as if his elder brother had just died, Yan Wuji explained with a hint of helplessness: "My good brother, there's something you don't understand.

The bracelet I borrowed for you is a supreme-grade spirit artifact, just a step away from awakening its own sentience and breeding an artifact spirit.

Charging you a hundred million for such an item is not excessive at all. If you were to take it to the Wangchuan Tower for auction, you couldn't buy it for even eight hundred million or a billion!"

Hearing Yan Wuji's words, Wan Yi's heart skipped a beat. From the other's words, it wasn't hard to tell that this storage bracelet did not belong to the Wangchuan Tower.

An item of this caliber already exceeded the operational capabilities of the Wangchuan Tower. If his guess was correct, this storage bracelet likely originated from Fengdu.

Seeing Wan Yi dazed after hearing his words, Yan Wuji continued, "Brother, if you don't believe me, you can give it a try.

Spirit artifacts of this tier can be drawn into your body's Qi ocean to be nurtured. Once an artifact spirit is nurtured, its help to you in the future will be immense."

Upon hearing this, Wan Yi was instantly overjoyed. Whether it had an artifact spirit or not didn't matter to him; what mattered was the part where this storage bracelet could be drawn into his own Qi ocean.

This was utterly crucial to him. That storage bracelet was simply too flashy; carrying it around was inconvenient, yet leaving it behind made him anxious. How wonderful would it be if he could now store it inside his body!

Following this thought, Wan Yi slipped the storage bracelet off his arm, followed the method Yan Wuji had taught him, drew a drop of his heart's blood, dripped it onto the item to re-establish ownership.

Then, with a single thought, he successfully drew it into his body.

Seeing him so nervous, Yan Wuji couldn't help teasing, "Seeing how much my good brother cares about this bracelet, you must have acquired quite a few good things at the Dan Ding Sect tonight, right?"

Wan Yi shook his head repeatedly upon hearing this: "No, what good things could there be? I simply like it because its storage space is big enough!"

While he said this outwardly, inwardly he was cursing furiously: "Even if you beat me to death, I will never admit it! This is the foundation accumulated by the Dan Ding Sect over thousands of years; these items alone are enough for me to establish my own sect!"

............

Over the next few days, Wan Yi holed up inside his thatched hut without taking a single step outside. He spent his time stabilizing his cultivation realm while meticulously cataloging the wealth he had plundered from the Dan Ding Sect.

Through this baptism and transmission of spiritual energy from the Heavenly Dao, the Five Elements Qi Ocean within Wan Yi's body had expanded significantly, and the five minor Qi oceans had already reached half the size of his main Qi ocean.

Regarding this, Wan Yi felt somewhat noncommittal.

If not for these five Qi oceans, the baptismal spiritual energy he had obtained this time would have been more than enough to elevate his cultivation all the way to the Golden Core Realm.

But look at him now; his cultivation hadn't improved by even the slightest fraction.

However, compared to his stagnant cultivation, what brought him comfort was the wealth plundered from the Dan Ding Sect.

There were countless spirit herbs and medicinal plants, most of which were varieties he had never seen before. Yet, since the other party had stored them in the inner treasury, they were definitely not ordinary goods.

Now that he had become Zhou Shuoxin's personal disciple, he would soon learn alchemy, and by then he would know what grades these spirit herbs belonged to.

As for the finished medicinal pills inside, he had no interest in them. He wouldn't dare consume pills of unknown origin!

And as for taking them out to sell, he was afraid of being recognized by people from the Dan Ding Sect, so in the end, the only beneficiary would be Qi Mingyue.

He dumped all those medicinal pills in one go to be sold on consignment at the Wangchuan Tower.

The spirit stones he had plundered weren't actually that many; altogether they didn't even add up to one billion, and a hundred million of that had been returned to Yan Wuji to purchase the storage bracelet. Every time he thought of it, his heart still ached.

While he was holing up in his thatched hut, enjoying these peaceful days, the cultivation world had already descended into absolute chaos!

That very night, the cannibalistic monk of the Muluo Sect launched a nighttime raid on the Dan Ding Sect, slaying two Imperial Realm ancestors of the Dan Ding Sect. The news spread like wildfire, growing wings of its own.

In the span of a single night, it became the talk of the town, known to virtually everyone in the cultivation world.

At first, some people refused to believe it, but after the Righteous Alliance dispatched multiple representatives to investigate, the truth of the rumor was confirmed.

After all, hundreds of Dan Ding Sect elders had witnessed with their own eyes that night how the cannibalistic monk had slain their ancestors.

However, because they had been too far away at the time and the night had provided cover, they hadn't seen the exact appearance of the perpetrator. Thus, they couldn't determine which specific Imperial Realm cultivator from the Muluo Sect had made a move.

Yet, a bloody crime had been committed. Even though Ge Honggen had indignantly left on behalf of the Dan Ding Sect that day and refused to join the alliance, the Righteous Alliance could not simply sit by and do nothing.

Consequently, a campaign to eradicate the Muluo Sect was launched right then and there. In an instant, the entire cultivation world was on edge, with every rustling of grass and tree sounding like an approaching enemy!

To be continued......