A Golden Belt from Murder and Arson

"*Haa... haa...*" Chen Zhuo panted heavily. Only when the sword radiance completely dissipated did he finally snap out of it. Lunging forward with a swift step, he gathered up the black net. It was the Dharma artifact that the sinister elder had wielded moments before. Though he had no idea how to use it yet, Chen Zhuo carefully stowed it away. This was Chen Zhuo's first time killing someone, but he felt no particular guilt or horror. On the contrary, he felt a strange rush of excitement; even now, he could clearly hear the pounding of his own heart. Capitalist society chewed people up without spitting out the bones, and in feudal antiquity, human life was treated as mere grass. Whether here or in the Immortal Mansion, without a decisive, ruthless disposition, one simply could not survive! There was nothing more to say—it was just the cold wind blowing through Desolate Valley. The world of the Immortal Mansion was no different. Even though the Immortal Mansion strictly prohibited murder under severe penalty, proclaiming that all cultivators were equal whether at Qi Refining or Nascent Soul, and that a Nascent Soul butchering a Qi Refining cultivator was a heinous crime... One could listen to such talk, but did the Immortal Mansion itself truly believe it? How could a Nascent Soul possibly be equal to a Qi Refining cultivator? If a Nascent Soul or Golden Core cultivator murdered someone in Qi Refining, the Immortal Mansion would... No, the Immortal Mansion's law-enforcement cultivators would certainly strike hard—by forcing the killer to pay a hefty fine in spirit coins. And that money went straight into the Immortal Mansion's national treasury. Only when fighting erupted between cultivators of the exact same realm would the Immortal Mansion truly intervene. Still, no matter how one looked at it, the order in the Immortal Mansion world was reasonably good. At the very least, murder had to be done quietly. Moreover, because one would inevitably have to pay compensation, many high-level cultivators couldn't be bothered to slaughter low-tier cultivators, lest they damage their own immortal path potential. To a Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivator, even a single spirit coin's worth of immortal path potential was not to be squandered! It was nothing like this Spirit Bead World, where the law of the jungle reigned supreme. Here, people traded lethal blows and killed to seize treasures the moment they met. It had truly given Chen Zhuo a taste of this world's style. Chen Zhuo walked forward composedly, plucked the storage bag hanging at the grim elder's waist, and marveled inwardly. *Damn, a storage bag!* *This is an incredible prize!* "These things sell for as much as a thousand spirit coins! If you save up five of them, you can even trade for an inferior spiritual root!" Chen Zhuo was secretly thrilled. Truly, killing and arson yielded a golden belt! Because the Immortal Mansion waged perpetual wars across other realms, materials used for spatial magic treasures like storage bags were all channeled into crafting boundary-breaking weapons. As strategically regulated, exceedingly scarce resources, the price of storage bags remained sky-high. A storage bag like this would fetch at least a thousand spirit coins on the open market. Chen Zhuo swept his divine sense through it for a quick glimpse of its space and contents, promptly tossed the demon leopard's carcass inside, and immediately fled the scene. After heading south for a few hundred meters, he activated the Boundary-Breaking Bead and vanished into thin air. *** Back in the Immortal Mansion world. Immediately upon his return, Chen Zhuo took stock of his spoils. He had looked forward to this with high hopes, but a single glance left him thoroughly disappointed. Inside the storage bag were only three or four glowing stones, a few changes of clothing, and a handful of books. Chen Zhuo skimmed through them. The books turned out to be maps and a cultivation manual, presumably for the old man's personal use. "*Sigh*, fair enough. If this wicked old man had been reduced to hunting out in the boonies, he obviously didn't have much money." Chen Zhuo let out a long sigh and took out one of the glowing stones, examining it with curiosity. "So this is a spirit stone?" A spirit stone—a real spirit stone! Not the cold numbers displayed on a jade screen, but a tangible, genuine spirit stone! According to the latest official exchange rate, the rate was 1:10. On the black market, one could probably trade it for around 1:13. Even though the old man was destitute by ancient cultivation world standards, Chen Zhuo had still made an absolute fortune between these three and a half spirit stones and the storage bag itself! Not to mention, he had also obtained a Dharma artifact and an intact demon beast carcass! Of course, that Dharma artifact hadn't even managed to breach a Golden Armor Talisman. It was undeniably a bottom-tier, entry-level artifact, the sort that would likely be discarded as scrap metal in a Qi Refining academy. Still, Chen Zhuo didn't mind. He couldn't afford the Immortal Mansion's high-grade artifacts anyway, so it would do for now. As for the demon beast carcass... Chen Zhuo decided to roast it and eat it. Even though this beast was only at the first layer of Qi Refining, its flesh had been nourished by worldly spiritual qi. It was plump, juicy, and immensely nourishing. For someone like Chen Zhuo, who had yet to reach the fourth layer of Qi Refining and was still in the body-tempering phase, it was exceptionally potent! Bought on the market, a single jin of this meat would cost at least twenty or thirty spirit coins, wouldn't it? Thinking this, Chen Zhuo sliced off two or three jin of meat and began roasting it right away. Though his cooking method was rudimentary, the top-quality ingredient more than made up for it, giving a bumpkin like Chen Zhuo—who rarely enjoyed fine delicacies—immense satisfaction. "This leopard meat really is nourishing!" With just one bite, Chen Zhuo's eyes lit up. He felt his blood surge and his physical strength swell! He eagerly took a few more bites while pondering his current situation. Before dying, the grim elder had claimed to be a "cultivator of Yunjin Market" and said he had been hunting demon beasts there alongside many friends. Though that had mostly been a bluff, Chen Zhuo didn't dare drop his guard. What if the old man truly had companions nearby? He had just killed someone. Even though the other party had struck first, the man was still a cultivator at the fourth layer of Qi Refining. Who knew if he had relatives, friends, or sect brothers in the vicinity? Furthermore, judging by the old man's words, Chen Zhuo deduced that "Yunjin Market" was likely a gathering place for cultivators—perhaps a bustling market town or the base of a sect. *I can't take any risks.* Chewing on the leopard meat, Chen Zhuo calculated silently: *I won't go to the Spirit Bead World for the next ten or fifteen days. Better lay low until the storm blows over. Once enough time has passed, I'll reassess.* Although the spiritual qi in the Spirit Bead World was abundant and made cultivating far more efficient than in the Immortal Mansion, his life came first. If the grim elder really had companions lingering around, wouldn't showing up rashly be walking straight into a trap? Chen Zhuo resolved to lie low for now, focusing on cultivating in the Immortal Mansion world. In ten days or half a month, he could head back to check the situation. After devouring every last bite of the leopard meat, Chen Zhuo meditated briefly to regulate his breath. Then, he opened his spiritual communication jade slip to review his upcoming class schedule. In five days, one of the rare offline sessions for the Spiritual Qi Implantation Class would take place. This would be Chen Zhuo's very first in-person class since enrolling. Although it was only for the Spiritual Qi Implantation Class, it was still an official course at the Taiqing Vocational and Technical College of Alchemy, held together with students from the regular classes. Offline classes were also free and far superior to online lectures, allowing students to interact with real instructors. However, it was essentially a vocational course rather than a pure cultivation class. A vocational and technical college of alchemy naturally prioritized alchemy, treating cultivation as supplementary. No one expected vocational college students to shoulder major cultivation duties in the first place; reaching Foundation Establishment would already make someone an elite prodigy. The primary goal was targeted training to produce advanced alchemists. Nowadays, alchemy, artifact forging, and talisman crafting were largely relegated to factory assembly lines, where a dozen or so Qi Refining cultivators with a basic grasp of the theory could keep an entire production line running. Yet assembly-line products were merely up to standard. Producing top-tier masterpieces still required manual craftsmanship. That was precisely why junior colleges existed. Aside from assessing cultivation realm, the vocational-to-university advancement exam also allowed students who achieved notable mastery in alchemy to further their studies at the School of Spirit Elixirs at Taiqing University. In any case, offline classes were an indispensable part of his path. Judging by the grim elder's reaction, even flawed, substandard talismans from the Immortal Mansion were hot commodities over there. Therefore, Chen Zhuo had to take this vocational training all the more seriously! Playing the cross-realm smuggler had a pretty good ring to it, didn't it? *Still, I need to hop online and look up a guide on how to control low-tier Dharma artifacts so I can put this black net to use.* To the elites, this trinket might be utter garbage. But in Chen Zhuo's eyes, it was already quite a decent treasure. Once he was done with it, he could even resell it on the Tiaotiao second-hand artifact recycling platform and pocket another couple of spirit stones.