Chapter 148 - 145: Xu Family’s Gains and the Northern Plains Situation
Chapter 148: Chapter 145: Xu Family’s Gains and the Northern Plains Situation
After leaving Qingshi Town, Lu Zhao silently activated the Breath Concealment and Shapeshifting Skill. His bones popped softly as his face rippled and reshaped itself like melting wax. In a matter of breaths, the burly, scar-faced man was gone. In his place was an eighty-year-old man with white hair and a beard, his face etched with deep, weathered lines. His back was hunched, and he wore a faded gray robe, blending in seamlessly among the Wanderers commonly seen in Northern Wilderness County.
’Wind Manipulation Technique!’
With a mere thought, a gentle breeze swirled up from his feet, lifting his body. He shot forward with a swiftness that belied his appearance, skimming low across the wilderness beside the road. The wind howled in his ears as the Magical Power within him surged like a stream to sustain the constant consumption.
After a full day of frantic travel, as the sun set, the silhouette of a Marketplace controlled by the Liu Family, several times more prosperous than Qingshi Town, finally appeared on the horizon.
After paying the entrance fee with Spiritual Sand, Lu Zhao—or rather, the ’old man’ he now appeared to be—quickly blended into the slightly crowded streets of the Marketplace. He expertly avoided the clamor of the main street, ducking into a relatively quiet back alley. There, he found a rundown inn called Xiake Inn and rented the cheapest, most secluded room. He closed the wooden door and, with a flick of his hand, cast several Restrictions around it.
HUMMM!
An almost imperceptible film of pale blue light instantly enveloped the room, sealing it off from any prying Divine Sense.
With that done, the doddering look on Lu Zhao’s face instantly vanished, his eyes becoming clear and sharp once more. He walked to the hard-planked bed by the window and sat down, taking a deep breath of the stale air. Reaching for his waist, he untied a dusty gray pouch. From it, he pulled out over a dozen Storage Bags of varying colors and designs, spreading them out on the rough bed.
The time to take stock of his spoils had finally come.
Heart pounding with excitement, he casually picked up the first Storage Bag and swept his Divine Sense inside. The first thing he saw was a Tier One Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact with a dim Spirit Light—clearly something that belonged to an ordinary disciple of the Xu Family.
Next to the artifact were several dozen scattered Lower Grade Spirit Stones, a few bottles of common Tier One Lower Grade Qi Recovery Pills and Hemostatic Powder, and some miscellaneous items like ore fragments and talisman paper. Lu Zhao’s expression remained indifferent as he sorted the contents, gathering the Spirit Stones and piling the other junk to one side.
Lu Zhao then opened the second, third, and so on, up to the fifth bag. The contents were all more or less the same: mostly Lower Grade Magical Artifacts, a handful of Spirit Stones, some Tier One Pills, and a few Lower and Middle-Grade Talismans. The haul wasn’t impressive, but it was what one would expect from low-ranking clan Cultivators.
When he picked up the sixth bag—a deep blue Storage Bag embroidered with a water wave pattern—Lu Zhao’s gaze sharpened the moment his Divine Sense entered it. In a corner of its inner space lay several Array Discs of different sizes. One, shaped like a Turtle Shell, was pitch-black and covered in complex Water Element Runes, emanating the steady, heavy fluctuations of an Array.
Lu Zhao’s fingertips brushed across the cool surface of the Turtle Shell Array Plate, and an image of the Xu Family’s Clan Protection Array, which had briefly blocked one of his attacks, flashed through his mind. Although he had shattered it with a single, full-powered strike, its Defense Power was actually quite decent—enough to withstand a barrage from a typical Late-stage Qi Cultivator. He mulled it over for a moment before taking out the Array Disc and stowing it away carefully. ’This might come in handy someday.’
The remaining Array Discs were of a slightly lower grade, mostly Trapping Arrays and Illusion Arrays. He stored them away as well, planning to sell them when he got the chance.
The next few bags belonged to the Xu Family’s so-called ’Elders’, and their contents were, as expected, a bit better. The seventh and eighth bags held several Tier One Middle-Grade Magical Artifacts with a much brighter Spirit Light: a sharp Long Saber, a Profound Iron Shield, and a vibrant Flying Shuttle. Their quality was decent, but nothing more. These Elders had more Spirit Stones than the disciples, about two to three hundred in total, and their Pills were also upgraded to a few bottles of the more effective Tier One Middle-Grade variety.
When he picked up the eleventh bag, Lu Zhao could feel that it was unusually heavy. His eyes flickered as he carefully widened the bag’s opening. As his Divine Sense probed inside, a fist-sized chunk of metal entered his ’vision.’ It glowed with a deep blue luster and emanated a bone-chilling cold.
"Jade Cold Iron!" A genuine flicker of delight finally crossed Lu Zhao’s eyes. He took out the piece of metal, frigid to the touch, and felt the pure Water and Metal Dual Attribute Spiritual Energy contained within it. ’This is a genuine Tier Two Middle-Grade Spirit Material!’
’Whether used to forge a Tier Two Water Attribute Flying Sword or to refine a Puppet Core, this is an incredibly rare and valuable item.’
A thought stirred in his mind as he mused with a smile, ’How could a minor Qi Cultivation Clan like the Xu Family get their hands on something like this? It just goes to show that anyone in the Cultivation Realm can get ridiculously lucky. A pity for them, though, that this lucky chance has now fallen into my hands.’
Filled with anticipation from this pleasant surprise, he continued opening the rest of the bags. However, the contents of the twelfth and thirteenth bags quickly dampened his excitement.
They contained only the usual Middle and Lower Grade Magical Artifacts, Spirit Stones, and Pills—nothing of note. Lu Zhao gave a self-deprecating smirk. ’Of course. Lucky finds are the exception, not the rule. The wealth of most Cultivators, including the so-called leaders of these minor clans, is nothing to write home about.’
Finally, he picked up an ink-black Storage Bag made of clearly superior material and embroidered with gold thread—this was the Storage Bag belonging to Xu Cheng, the Patriarch of the Xu Family.
The moment his Divine Sense probed inside, he drew out a smooth, warm Cyan Jade Scroll. Lu Zhao pressed it against his forehead, and a vast torrent of information flooded into his Sea of Consciousness.