Chapter 17: Windfall

"You killed him?"

Before Luo Chen could answer, Wang Yuan nodded to himself.

"Looks like it."

Amidst Luo Chen's nervous retreat, he walked over to the charred corpse and swung his broadsword.

The head, burned beyond recognition, was casually severed.

Wang Yuan glanced at the tense Luo Chen and the storage bag in his hand, his gaze complex.

The night wind was chilly, and the blood-stained body felt even colder.

Luo Chen forced an awkward smile. "Brother Wang, I haven't finished that book yet."

As if remembering something, Wang Yuan's complex expression gradually faded, and his eyelids drooped once more.

"Go home early. The Dahe Market is very dangerous at night."

"Mm-hmm."

Luo Chen turned to leave, but hesitated before walking back to laboriously hoist the snake-skin bag full of medicinal herbs onto his back.

That was his entire life savings.

Watching Luo Chen's back as he neared the alley exit, Wang Yuan sighed inexplicably.

"Take this. Consider it payment for this head."

A black nail the length of a chopstick fell at Luo Chen's feet. It was stained with fresh red blood and even bits of flesh.

"Brother Wang, you're too kind."

"Get lost. Take the small woods, don't take the main road."

"Mm."

With a heavy grunt, Luo Chen dove into the small woods without looking back.

In the alley, Wang Yuan stood for a while holding the three heads before gradually fading into the darkness.

"Woo-woo..."

*Ding! *

"Haa!"

Luo Chen leaned against the bed frame like a dead fish, drenched in sweat, his underwear soaked through.

On the floor in front of his bed lay the other Soul-Breaking Nail that had been driven into his waist.

Enduring the intense pain, Luo Chen grabbed the bottles and jars nearby and poured them into his wound.

This was his homemade healing medicine, specifically for dealing with the danger of exploding cauldrons during alchemy; it had helped him many times before.

Today, it had found a greater use!

As the powder entered his body, a cool sensation emerged, followed by a searing, fiery pain.

"Damn! Damn, damn, damn..."

Low, growling curses echoed from time to time.

Luo Chen had never been as furious as he was in this moment.

He wasn't angry at the damage the enemy had inflicted, but at his own weakness.

If he were as strong as Wang Yuan, he wouldn't have ended up in this state today.

Only after binding the wound with cloth strips did Luo Chen finally heave a sigh of relief.

Enduring the pain, he went to the living room, opened the snake-skin bag, and sorted the various herbs onto their respective shelves.

These low-grade medicinal herbs and spiritual materials could not be mixed together for long, or their efficacy would be greatly diminished.

His stumbling footsteps under the bean-sized oil lamp looked pitiful.

Luo Chen even felt this scene was exactly like his past life, when he would go to work sick after surgery.

"There's no escaping a life of toil anywhere. No wonder my lifespan in my previous life was only seventy-five."

After finishing all this, he finally had the time to lie down on the bed.

The persistent pain in his waist kept him from sleeping, even though he was exhausted beyond measure.

Helpless, he could only find something else to do to distract himself.

"Let's see what good things that guy who died even younger than me had."

The storage bags of Qi Refining stage cultivators were undefended because, lacking spiritual sense, they naturally couldn't set up restrictions.

After the owner died, the mana imprint on it naturally dissipated.

Luo Chen mobilized his remaining bit of spiritual power and opened the storage bag.

A pile of items instantly filled his wooden bed.

"Today is the day of the big market; this guy actually bought a whole pile of things."

A low-grade magic robe, a box of calming incense, five bottles of Grain-Bigu Pills, one bottle of Qi-Nurturing Pills, one bottle of Golden-Casket Powder, and a stack of talismans.

There was also a bundle of withered spiritual grass; this was the stuff that took up most of the space on his bed.

Besides these things, there were the spirit stones Luo Chen cared about most.

"Lu Lu Jiushi-two low-grade spirit stones. Damn it, he's a pauper!"

Luo Chen cursed, then happily packed the items back one by one.

The spirit stones were indeed few, not matching the level of a fifth-layer Qi Refining stage cultivator.

But the value of the other items far exceeded these ninety-two low-grade spirit stones.

Not to mention the low-grade magic robe; although a bit worn—likely what the short-lived guy was wearing—it was worth at least a hundred spirit stones if sold.

The speed at which this thing could be activated was even faster than talismans.

That was why Luo Chen was able to activate it quickly earlier, and why the short-lived guy had immediately activated the robe's built-in defensive light shield when hit in the face by the Fireball Art.

If it had been a complete mid-grade magic robe, it could have withstood six or seven fireballs, but unfortunately, it had already been damaged by Wang Yuan earlier.

It hadn't even lasted through the third hit.

Three breaths of time was not enough for the heavily injured Chen Xiao to employ other means.

The five bottles of Grain-Bigu Pills weren't worth much, and the quality wasn't as good as what Luo Chen refined himself, but they were still worth one spirit stone.

As for the others, they were very valuable.

Calming incense was one of the best external aids for low-grade cultivators to assist in cultivation.

One stick of calming incense a day was enough to allow a cultivator to practice their core cultivation technique five more times; it was said to be able to restore the fragile souls of low-grade cultivators.

A box of twelve sticks was worth a hundred and twenty spirit stones.

The Qi-Nurturing Pills were even more so; the pattern mark on them indicated they came from the Spirit Medicine Pavilion.

Fixed price: one hundred spirit stones per bottle!

Good stuff; swallowing and refining them could increase spiritual power.

As for that stack of talismans, based on Luo Chen's experience, they should be worth fifty or sixty spirit stones.

He didn't recognize the withered spiritual grass covering the bed, but the fact that the guy had specifically bought such a large pile for the storage bag meant it must be useful.

Calculating it this way, the total value was four hundred spirit stones!

A windfall!

Sure enough, a horse doesn't get fat without night grass, and a man doesn't get rich without a windfall.

In just that short moment tonight, Luo Chen's net worth had quadrupled.

And his biggest gain wasn't even these things.

It was this storage bag itself!

The volume wasn't large, just one cubic foot; it was the smallest and cheapest storage bag.

But at the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion, it would still cost ten thousand!

He didn't know if the short-lived guy had been given it by someone else or had robbed it, but he definitely couldn't have afforded to buy it.

Or rather, the vast majority of low-grade cultivators couldn't afford even the smallest storage bag.

This kind of thing was standard equipment for inner-sect disciples of large sects; outer-sect disciples weren't even qualified to own one!

"I'm rich, I'm rich!"

"No wonder killing people and seizing treasures is the most classic trope in web novels; no matter the genre, it always has a place."

"It's just that the risk is too high. One slip-up and you're finished, burying a lifetime of effort."

Tonight, there were two instances of killing for treasure right in front of Luo Chen.

Li Zixiong of the Dahe Gang gathered three people to surround and kill Wang Yuan, and ended up flipping his own car!

The fifth-layer Qi Refining short-lived guy intended to kill Luo Chen instantly, and ended up flipping his own car!

"Such dangerous things, better leave them to the professionals. I can't take the shock anymore."

Luo Chen's mind turned, and he picked up the last jade bottle that hadn't been put into the storage bag.

Golden-Casket Powder, one of the signature elixirs of the Spirit Medicine Pavilion.

It had excellent healing effects for any damage from metal-attribute magic artifacts, and sold for only ten spirit stones.

High quality and low price; it had always been loved by the loose cultivators of the Dahe Market.

He sniffed it; the smell was fine, not poison.

And no one would put poison in a healing elixir bottle in their own storage bag.

If you were heavily injured and your consciousness was confused, taking the wrong medicine would be a huge joke.

It was just that he would have to laboriously unwrap the cloth strips he had already tied.

Sighing, Luo Chen had no choice but to get to work.

At noon the next day, Luo Chen woke up in a daze.

This was a rare sleep-in for him.

In the second half of the night, he hadn't been able to resist the weakness and had fallen asleep.

Opening his eyes wide and lying blankly on the bed for a while, Luo Chen gritted his teeth and forced himself to climb up.

No matter how bitter or difficult, it was no excuse to lie there and rot.

He went to the living room, picked up a handful of spiritual grass, spread it flat on a winnowing basket, and prepared to take it out to dry.

Pushing open the door, the noon sun made him unable to open his eyes for a moment. When he adapted, he was shocked to find Wang Yuan standing outside.

The other man tossed something casually, and it landed in the basket full of spiritual grass.

"Take it. From now on, you're a member of the Mountain-Breaking Gang."

"If anyone gives you trouble, just say you're under my, Wang Yuan's, protection."

Luo Chen looked at the iron token with the word "Mountain" in the basket, his gaze dazed.

"Thanks, Brother Wang."

Wang Yuan waved his hand. "What for? Back when I was at my lowest, you lent me a few bottles of Grain-Bigu Pills, and I didn't say thanks to you either."

"Alright, the item is yours, I'm heading back. The outer city area might be unstable for a while, be careful when you come and go."

Having said that, he turned and left without the slightest hesitation. ===== CHAPTER 18 =====