Chapter 149: Win-Win!

"Let me tell you all, this business is worth doing!"

"Look at old Lao Hei; why is it that recently he has had Spirit Stones to eat Spirit Pills, and even married a noble family woman he couldn't have reached before?"

"Isn't it because he took a job from me, completed it, and received the bounty?"

"Don't be scared off by places where Evil Spirits appear; we aren't going to those Blood Sacrifice zones, just dipping in and out of the edges to help the owners find their lost items."

"The mortality rate isn't high!"

"At most, you get infected by Evil Qi, which is harmful to your path of cultivation."

"But ask yourselves, if we don't go earn Spirit Stones, do we even have a path of cultivation to speak of?"

In the teahouse, the middle-aged Cultivator acting as the bounty broker spoke eloquently, making a very convincing case.

The dozens of Loose Cultivators sitting in the teahouse were many of them truly swayed, revealing expressions of temptation.

Then, as a few Loose Cultivators gritted their teeth and stood up, cursing that they would rather die than be poor, they made their move!

After finding the middle-aged Cultivator to register, about one-third of the Loose Cultivators were stirred up, signing up one after another to receive information and setting the time and place for the upcoming assembly.

Tens of minutes later, the middle-aged Cultivator triumphantly stroked his mustache as he walked into an alley, then began to scold the three Loose Cultivators who had been waiting inside.

"How many times have I said it? Keep your expressions natural, keep your tone natural. Do you know that at least half the people there knew you were just shills!"

"It's fortunate that times are hard now, even if Baihe Zhenren is merciful and allows us Loose Cultivators to temporarily not pay various miscellaneous fees."

"Wanting to cultivate and wanting to live a little better is just too difficult."

After the middle-aged Cultivator finished scolding them, he took out a bottle containing low-tier Pills and distributed them to these Loose Cultivators.

Spirit Stones are precious; what is more commonly used by the lowest-level Cultivators are low-tier Pills, which are high-consumption items that can be bought in bulk with a single Spirit Stone.

After the middle-aged Cultivator let these people leave, he slowly changed his attire.

Then he prepared to leave Jiuye Mountain Market to head to another, larger market with more variety to kill time.

Suddenly, a pressure descended from the sky.

He saw a flash of white shadow appear before his eyes.

Even without seeing clearly, the middle-aged Cultivator's face changed drastically as he performed a "tiger landing" maneuver, his head slamming onto the cold stone floor to beg for mercy.

"Get up. As long as you haven't lied, there is no need to worry about anything."

Su Ping slowly approached the middle-aged Cultivator and said indifferently.

The middle-aged Cultivator was drenched in sweat and hurriedly said:

"In front of Baihe Zhenren, this little one dares not lie... Although I am greedy for wealth, I know the principle of obtaining it through proper means. Although I used some small tricks, what I told those Loose Cultivators is all true!"

"In this regard, other Markets have people like me, and Yunshan Market even has a bounty hall run by the authorities."

"Zhenren... one check and you will know!"

Su Ping was noncommittal, only taking all the information from him.

After carefully reviewing it, Su Ping finally understood.

These bounties were primarily individual rewards from those cultivation families who had fled the area.

They were reluctant to leave behind certain things, yet unwilling to return themselves to face the risk of encountering Evil Spirits or being invaded by Evil Qi.

So they simply provided maps, markers, and bounties, hoping to rely on spending Spirit Stones to find someone to help them bring the items back.

Besides the bounty, any harvest those people made during this period naturally belonged to them entirely.

This could be considered a tacitly approved benefit for the Loose Cultivators willing to take risks.

With the map markers, the Loose Cultivators could also find good things more easily.

In a sense, it could be considered a win-win.

And just as this person said, the destinations were all on the periphery of the danger zones, not in the Blood Sacrifice areas.

On one hand, it was naturally because Loose Cultivators wanted to make money, not throw their lives away; on the other hand, no Cultivator had ever come out of a Blood Sacrifice area alive to post a bounty.

Su Ping had no interest in the bounties.

But seeing so many cultivation families leaving so many ancient books and artifacts behind.

He could not bear it, so he decided to help out.

He then obtained more map information through the middle-aged Cultivator.

Then, after an afternoon of rapid flight.

Su Ping saw a mountain range that had completely withered and blackened, with an average height exceeding ten thousand meters, lying before him.

And he saw that within these rolling mountains, bursts of black Qi erupted from time to time, accompanied by strange cries that echoed throughout this mountain wilderness.

"Crossing these mountains, one leaves the Jinzi Domain and enters the Immortal Sect's Mu Zi Yu."

"This time, the Evil Spirit outbreak is in several regions of Mu Zi Yu near the mountains."

"The closest one to me... should be Mu Ling City!"

"Unlike Jinque City, this Mu Ling City was historically built on a Second-Tier Spiritual Vein, and therefore many cultivation families resided within it."

"It is considered one of the regions where Cultivators and mortals live together the most."

"It is also one of the places where the Blood Sacrifice succeeded."

Su Ping did not enter the mountains, but instead found a place to hide.

He used the Memory Scepter to summon Exorcist Mage Yunkong and Fire Knight Alwin.

Then, multitasking, he had the two Memory Illusions gallop off in different directions.

In the blink of an eye, they plunged into the black mountains.

Along the way, if they encountered Evil Spirits, they would bypass the strong ones, and for the weak ones, they would go straight up and slay them with a sword!

Even without deliberately hunting these weak Evil Spirits.

When they rushed out of the mountains, both the Exorcist Mage and the Fire Knight had harvested double-digit numbers of Mysterious Remains.

Afterward, Exorcist Mage Yunkong headed toward the small family manors on the periphery where the danger level was lower.

Fire Knight Alwin, meanwhile, headed toward Mu Ling City.

If there were any precious materials or even inheritances left in this region.

Then it must be the area surrounding the site of the Blood Sacrifice.

Those places were the first to be affected by the Evil Gods or Evil Spirits that descended after the Blood Sacrifice succeeded; most Cultivators lost their lives before they even had a chance to bring anything out.

Whether it be Evil Spirits or Evil Gods, they had no interest in these things.

As long as they weren't destroyed, they were likely still where they were.

This made Su Ping feel that he could give it a try.

There was no help for it; who told him his foundation was still too poor, with his collection of books related to the extraordinary not even enough to fill a Great Library?

Then he could only trouble the Memory Illusions to help pick up what others didn't want to supplement his own foundation.

Several dozen minutes later.

A manor, shrouded in black mist and thus avoided by Loose Cultivators fearing to scavenge there.

Was suddenly broken of its past tranquility by an Ice Giant Sword descending from the sky.

As the Cold Ice Array appeared, cold light surged into the sky.

The evil spirits in the manor melted into the Dharma Array like ice cream encountering blinding sunlight.

Afterward, the white-haired youth who had cast the array confirmed that no Evil Spirits would disturb him, and began going house to house to collect what he needed.

This was already the third manor with practitioners that the white-haired youth had searched in a short time.

The previous two manors had no black mist, but the harvest was not much, mainly consisting of books, some antiques, and art such as ancient Huijuan.

However, after opening an Underground Basement in this manor, Su Ping, who was far away, couldn't help but let out an "eh."

For in this basement, there actually existed a strange-looking wooden Buddha statue.

At the same time, rolls of Buddha scriptures wreathed in black energy were stored in the room.

"These Buddha scriptures look sinister; the content inside should also count as a type of extraordinary knowledge, right?"

"Tsk, this family of Cultivators doesn't look like good people either; perhaps the black mist in the manor was a contingency they left behind to prevent it from being stumbled upon by those Loose Cultivators?"

"Let me see, the owner of this manor seems to be the Mo Family of Mu Ling!"

Su Ping was recalling the map.

Suddenly, he discovered that as the Exorcist Mage put the Buddha scriptures into the Storage Bag.

That wooden Buddha suddenly opened the three eyes on its face.

A voice spoke out through it:

"Who dares to break into the secret chamber!"

"You are..."

Before the words were finished, Exorcist Mage Yunkong had already slapped out with a palm, directly smashing the upper body of this wooden carving to pieces!

Afterward, he activated the Cold Ice Array to purify the remaining remains of the statue.

Following that, Exorcist Mage Yunkong quickly left the Underground Basement and headed toward the next location without any hesitation.

As for this clearly problematic Mo Family.

Su Ping would take action to report them in the identity of a kind-hearted person.

At the same time.

In the Mo Family manor, which was temporarily residing in a Market near the mountains and had not gone far, their Old Ancestor suddenly flew into a rage.

Not long after, this Mo Family's only remaining Foundation Establishment cultivator took more than ten Qi Refining Late Stage clansmen and disappeared into the horizon aboard a small Immortal Boat.

And on a high mountain outside the original site of Mu Ling City.

Fire Knight Alwin stood on the summit, gazing into the distance.

He could see that the original city no longer existed, having completely turned into a large circular crater.

It was just unclear whether it was the work of an Evil God or the Golden Core Great Abilitys who came to clean up the mess.

However, on the outskirts of the large crater, many ruins could still be seen.

Among them were no shortage of ruins shaped like high towers.

"Walking all the way here, the danger seems not as great as imagined."

"But this is also thanks to the blessing of the Indomitable Will, plus the protection of the Evil-Warding and Evil-Punishing Stone Lion against all evils."

"If it were other Cultivators, even those at Foundation Establishment, after arriving at this place, they would feel the mental pressure and Divine Soul burden brought by the invasion of Evil Qi, right?"

The Fire Knight kept the high-altitude view in his mind.

Immediately, he leaped down and landed in a high tower ruin.

With a sweep of his Divine Sense, he immediately saw a storeroom inside that had only partially collapsed.

He took out the large Storage Bag he had specially prepared.

Fire Knight Alwin entered the ruins and began to put things into his pockets.

Just like this, he circled the edge of the large crater.

The Storage Bag brought by the Fire Knight, who had a fruitful harvest, was already eighty percent full.

Among this, more than half were various books.

This made Su Ping very pleasantly surprised, even if most of them were duplicates.

It should be enough to meet the minimum requirements of the Great Library.

Just as Su Ping was happily planning to find the next target for the Fire Knight.

He suddenly noticed an Immortal Boat flying overhead.

And from the direction the Immortal Boat was flying, he judged that it should be the location of that Mo Family manor.

Although it could only be considered a guess.

However... over here, Exorcist Mage Yun Kong discovered the Underground Basement and destroyed the Fo statue.

And over here, an Immortal Boat rushed over in such a hurry.

Isn't that a bit too coincidental?

After all, that place is a land wreathed in Evil Qi.

Even the Immortal Boat merchant fleets of large commercial alliances would choose to go around it, rather than pass through that airspace and increase the risk.

But, just such a small Immortal Boat plus the mobile forces of a small cultivation family... how did he dare?

Wait, it seems this illusion of Yun Kong looks like a Qi Refining Late Stage?

Hmm... that is understandable then!