Chapter 69 Harvest

"I've hit the jackpot! I've really hit the jackpot!"

Yu Xian dropped from the sky, holding three corpses in an awkward, hunched-over posture, and landed on a barren mountain in the suburbs of Kyoto.

He glanced left and right, and after sweeping the area with his divine sense, he finally let out a sigh of relief upon confirming that no one was around.

The storage pouch in his hand was of the lowest grade, with a mere one-cubic-meter capacity. Even if he folded the corpses in half, they wouldn't fit, so he had no choice but to carry them all the way here.

Had someone seen him, being labeled a pervert would have been a minor issue; the real problem was that if his whereabouts were exposed, it would inevitably invite unnecessary trouble.

Yu Xian casually cast a Water Mist Spell, and a thick mist immediately rose up around him, obstructing all lines of sight.

Only then did he begin to examine the spoils in his hands.

The identities of the three corpses were naturally the two Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Jiang family and the second young master of the Lin family.

Among them, the body of the elderly Jiang family member had shriveled into a mummified corpse, making it the best preserved.

As for the Jiang family's ancestor, only a skeleton as lustrous as jade remained. The second young master of the Lin family suffered the most miserable fate, with his entire chest blasted away and scarcely any intact flesh left on his entire body.

"Save the best for last; let's unbox the weakest one first."

Yu Xian fixed his gaze on the mummified corpse of the old Jiang family member.

The old man's thin, frail frame was draped in a black profound iron armor that was obviously too large for him. The armor was covered in scars, presumably left by the sword techniques of the Lin family's second young master.

Without any hesitation, Yu Xian stripped it directly from the corpse.

"A superior-grade magic tool. Although it has multiple fractures and its value has plummeted, it's still the most expensive magic tool I've ever handled."

The grading of magic tools was quite simple—it depended on the intensity of their amplification of one's spiritual power.

An inferior-grade magic tool generally amplified a Qi Condensation cultivator's spiritual power by one to two tenths, meaning a Qi Condensation cultivator utilizing an inferior-grade magic tool could unleash at most one hundred and twenty percent of their normal strength.

A medium-grade tool provided a three to five-tenths boost, a superior-grade tool offered six to nine tenths, and a tool capable of a perfect one-hundred-percent amplification was rated as a top-grade magic tool.

Of course, this was merely a rough classification of magic tools.

Many magic tools might not be of particularly high grade, yet they possessed various unique utility functions, making their actual effectiveness no weaker than certain superior-grade items.

However, Yu Xian was now a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

For his highly condensed, liquid spiritual power, the amplification provided by ordinary magic tools was reduced by more than half.

Some inferior-quality magic tools might even fail to withstand his liquid spiritual power, disintegrating after being used just a few times.

Therefore, spirit tools remained the most suitable choice for Foundation Establishment cultivators.

"Next up is the universally beloved storage pouch."

Yu Xian's sharp eyes spotted the storage pouch the old man had kept close to his person. It was a crescent-white pouch, exquisite and dainty, roughly the size of a coin purse.

Compared to the dusty, sack-like storage pouch currently in his own possession, this one looked infinitely more high-end.

Since the old man was dead, the lingering divine sense left on the storage pouch was extremely weak. Yu Xian refined it just twice, and the storage pouch swung its doors wide open to him.

The pouch possessed a space of about twelve cubic meters. The pouch itself was easily worth the price of a superior-grade magic tool, if not more.

Yu Xian figured that, as a country bumpkin, he simply lacked true sophistication.

The largest storage pouch he had previously seen at the marketplace had a capacity of only five cubic meters and cost one hundred spirit stones, which already seemed like an unbelievable luxury in his eyes.

Though the storage pouch was spacious, the items inside were sparse, making it look rather empty.

Yu Xian gave a wave of his hand.

Everything inside the storage pouch spilled out at once.

First to catch his eye was a large clothing rack holding over a dozen long robes in rather subdued colors, predominantly grayish-white and cyan.

Although they were tailored from the absolute finest fabrics of the mortal world, they were completely worthless to Yu Xian, who even felt an urge to complain about why such an old man was so vain.

Next were two square sandalwood boxes, looking quite ornate and solemn.

Yu Xian rubbed his hands together in eager anticipation.

"Heavenly spirits and earthly spirits, bless me with good fortune, Grand Supreme Elder!"

*Snap!*

The sandalwood box opened.

Wisps of biting cold air billowed outward as a massive wolf head, encased within a block of ice, glared menacingly at the outside world.

Even though the wolf head was dead, it still radiated the imposing aura of a powerful entity.

This was at least a Tier 2 fierce beast, equivalent to a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Yu Xian: "..."

With a look of utter despair, he opened the remaining box.

Sure enough, it was yet another ice-encased skull.

Only this one belonged to a human.

"What in the world is wrong with these people and their bizarre collecting habits?!"

Yu Xian's mental state suffered a slight fracture.

Aside from these bulky items, the rest were merely miscellaneous trifles.

For instance, two blue spirit stones.

"Wait, as a dignified Foundation Establishment cultivator, you only had two spirit stones? Isn't that a bit too austere?"

How could Yu Xian know that before descending to the mortal realm, the old man had meticulously arranged his final affairs, distributing the majority of his spiritual stones and treasures to his descendants?

Coupled with the consumption required to help Jiang Xuanwu refine a fleshly vessel and set up the formation for his sleeping chamber, the spiritual stones he brought with him had been nearly exhausted.

"Huh, wait a minute?"

Yu Xian picked up one of the blue spirit stones. Its texture was translucent, resembling a sapphire.

"Could this be the legendary medium-grade spirit stone? These are said to provide considerable assistance even to the cultivation of Foundation Establishment cultivators."

"A single medium-grade spirit stone is worth a hundred inferior-grade spirit stones. There are two here, which means two hundred spirit stones."

"Though it still doesn't quite match your status, compared to useless clothes and severed heads, this isn't half bad."

Next came a long-necked, round-bellied jade bottle, roughly thirty centimeters in height.

Yu Xian removed the stopper and poured its contents into his palm. It was a blood-red medicinal pill the size of a raw grain of rice. Held close to his nose, it emitted a sweet, alluring fragrance.

There were at least thirty or forty such pills in the bottle.

Yu Xian couldn't help but swallow hard, tempted to swallow one down.

"No, it's best not to randomly consume unknown medicine. I should find a test subject first."

Following that were a cyan jade slip, a white jade slip, and a red wolf-head jade token.

"Let me see what good treasures these are."

Full of anticipation, Yu Xian projected his divine sense outward, and the contents of the cyan jade slip quickly surfaced in his mind.

A moment later.

Yu Xian withdrew from the jade slip with a constipated expression.

"A diary! It's another damn diary!"

"What I want are cultivation techniques! Secret manuals!"

The jade slip was entirely filled with the old man's memoirs.

Starting from roughly twenty years ago when he first arrived in the Yue Kingdom, it randomly recorded about a hundred entries.

Because the old man frequently fell into deep slumbers, even as a diary, entries were written only once every few months.

Of course, the diary wasn't entirely useless.

Yu Xian finally understood why there were so few belongings in the old man's storage pouch; as it turned out, all his good stuff had been left behind with his clan.

Moreover, the old man had reached the age of awaiting death in retirement, his cultivation practices long abandoned. How could he possibly be carrying any secret manuals around?

"Surely this won't be another diary."

Yu Xian's divine sense once again penetrated the white jade slip.

Another brief pause.

"The Seeding Demon Secret Art, experimental notes?"

As it turned out, the white jade slip recorded experimental logs concerning a technique known as the Seeding Demon Secret Art.

The Seeding Demon Secret Art involved implanting beast bloodlines into ordinary humans, allowing them to gain formidable power in a short span of time.

For instance, those Tiger-Leopard Pills were byproducts of the Seeding Demon Secret Art; if ordinary humans consumed too many, they would easily lose their minds, their intellect shattered by the dormant beastly will within.

The Black Wolf Guards were similarly products of the Seeding Demon Secret Art, and the blood pills in the jade bottle were beast-blood pills specifically formulated for the Black Wolf Guards.

These were simply the old man's pastimes born of boredom.

"Pity it's useless to me, and it can only transplant Tier 1 beast bloodlines. It's about as useful as a chicken rib."

"This one, however, holds more value for me."

Yu Xian grasped the wolf-head jade token and channeled his spiritual power into it. A flash of light emanated from the token, seemingly transmitting a mysterious signal.

This token served as a blood-contract token, specifically utilized to bind fierce beasts. The silver wolf that had previously shone brightly in the sleeping chamber was controlled by this very token.

Since the token remained unbroken, it meant the silver wolf was still alive.

Once Yu Xian transmitted a signal, the silver wolf would track the sensation and find him.

"Very well, the first treasure chest has been opened."

"Summary: one damaged profound iron armor, two medium-grade spirit stones, one diary, one set of notes, a quantity of beast-blood pills, one fierce beast (pending arrival), and a pile of ragged clothes."

With a single thought from Yu Xian, the soil on the ground churned, and a large pit was soon excavated, successfully laying the old man's corpse to rest.

"Since I'm burying you, and since these worldly goods cannot be taken with you in death, consider them my payment. Rest in peace."

With a wave of Yu Xian's hand, all the old man's garments tumbled into the pit.

Then, with a flick of his finger, he dropped a fireball into the hole.

The old man's corpse and clothing erupted into flames instantly, burning for a good half-hour before turning entirely to ash.

True to his identity as a body-cultivator, his physique was exceptionally formidable.

Had he fallen into the hands of a corpse-refining cultivator, he might have been refined into a powerful weapon that could fetch a hefty price.

However, since Yu Xian harbored no personal grudges against him, he saw no reason to desecrate the man's remains.