After his talent [Yang Fire Body] evolved into [Golden Ember Body], Qi Ping could already sense more clearly the terrifying flames hidden deep within his own bloodline.
“Solar True Fire!”
It was precisely because this flame existed in his blood that he possessed such remarkably high fire-attribute talent, and that his physical body could continuously transform into an even stronger fire-attuned constitution.
“Affinity with fire-attribute spiritual energy has increased a lot!”
“My perception of the laws of fire is also much sharper now—I can mobilize more of the True Meaning of Fire!”
“Fire spiritual power flows through my body even more smoothly, and the speed at which I refine spiritual energy into spiritual power has also gotten faster!”
After running a few tests, Qi Ping couldn’t help but be stunned by the changes brought about by his talent upgrade.
“No wonder some people can advance rapidly even with ordinary resources—the efficiency gained from a higher talent level is just that much greater!”
“It looks like my cultivation speed during the Foundation Establishment stage is going to be a lot faster from now on!”
Having experienced firsthand the cultivation speed offered by his new talent, Qi Ping felt extremely satisfied.
Right now, the most important thing for him was to raise his cultivation to Foundation Establishment perfection as quickly as possible, and then break through to the Golden Core stage.
He planned to break through to Golden Core using the fire attribute first. With advantages like the Beast King’s Flame, Sun Essence, and the Golden Ember Body, plus the fact that he had the deepest comprehension of the True Meaning of Fire, breaking through via the path of fire would be much simpler and carry the lowest risk for him.
Once he broke through to Golden Core and assembled the Five Elements Body, switching over to cultivate the path of the Five Elements would be much easier. Then he could condense a Five Elements Golden Core without rushing, and the risk would be minimal.
The path of the Five Elements giving birth to all things was one he absolutely had to walk—but not right now.
For the time being, there were simply too many experts in the Azure Sky Region who were stronger than him, so his top priority remained breaking through in cultivation.
After giving Ya Ya some time to get familiar with his newly transformed power, Qi Ping began making arrangements to take stock of the spoils.
“More than two years have passed. The attention focused on this matter should have mostly faded by now. It’s time to reap the harvest!”
Three to four hundred thousand spirit stones!
All kinds of treasures, ores, materials, and weapons!
Dozens of storage pouches filled with cultivation techniques, spells, and all sorts of knowledge!
Such an enormous fortune—and Qi Ping had held back all this time before finally dealing with it.
This wasn’t just him being overly cautious. In the first few months, large numbers of people had been sweeping the area, searching relentlessly, trying to find the wealth that the Bee Daoist had plundered from those families.
Qi Ping didn’t know what special methods they used, or if it was just blind luck, but they actually managed to find several hiding spots where storage pouches had been stashed.
Keep in mind—Qi Ping had already inspected and confirmed that those items had no lingering tracking methods left on them!
But the fact remained: about five or six of his caches had been discovered.
Luckily, he had split the spoils from each Foundation Establishment family into at least several dozen different hiding places, so the losses weren’t significant.
It was also a good thing he hadn’t been impatient enough to gather everything together back then. If he had, losing the treasure would’ve been the least of his problems—the real disaster would’ve been his true identity being exposed, or the news that the Bee Daoist was still alive getting out.
If that had provoked the Immortal Alliance into deciding to eliminate him at all costs, that would’ve been the truly dangerous scenario.
And compared to the paltry losses in material wealth, what really bothered Qi Ping was how his hidden storage pouches had been discovered.
That kind of unknown method was what truly frightened and worried him!
“But I’ve only scratched the surface of the cultivation world—it’s only natural that there’s a lot I don’t understand yet!”
“This time, I’ve harvested over ten thousand cultivation techniques, spells, and all kinds of knowledge. There should be plenty on tracking methods too…”
“Once I’ve studied all of them, I should be able to find some clues, and my knowledge and foundations will be greatly enriched!”
Compared to spirit stones, it was these invaluable treasures of knowledge that Qi Ping valued most!
He could earn spirit stones on his own—the Druid path didn’t lack ways to slowly accumulate wealth in the cultivation world. But what was truly rare was this massive trove of knowledge!
Among the vast amount of knowledge he’d plundered this time, Qi Ping figured a lot of it was stuff he wouldn’t have even thought to buy even if he had the spirit stones—that was the limitation of his own experience!
But he imagined that once he’d digested all the collected texts from those Foundation Establishment families, his knowledge would undoubtedly leap to a whole new level!
…
After formulating a plan and contingency measures for tallying the wealth, Qi Ping set out from his territory with his Treant clone, Ya Ya in his Golden Ember Crow form, the Hundred-Pupil Flower Spirit who had broken through to second-tier intermediate, and the swarms of bees.
Then, far away from Qingshi County, he spent several days setting up ten second-tier intermediate formations before finally beginning the process of summoning and cataloging the spoils!
He went to such lengths because he was afraid some late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators had already discovered his hidden storage pouches and deliberately set traps, waiting for the day all the wealth was gathered in one place!
But now, with so many formations in place, plus Ya Ya and the Hundred-Pupil Flower Spirit backing him up, he was confident enough to take on several late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators at once!
After everything was ready, Qi Ping used his Treant clone to summon back one-tenth of the spoils, began cataloging them, and then, once the tally was complete, called forth the box puppet from the mysterious black market via the black market token!
The first round of cataloging and trading went very smoothly.
After going through the counting and selling process, Qi Ping successfully netted 53,697 low-grade spirit stones!
In addition to the spirit stones, there were also a small amount of ores and a massive haul of books and knowledge.
After obtaining these, Qi Ping once again scattered and hid the sorted items in separate locations.
Then, after another week passed, he began tallying the second one-tenth of the spoils.
Qi Ping wasn’t in any hurry—playing it safe was the priority. Besides, staying here didn’t hinder his comprehension of the True Meaning of Fire at all.
In fact, it seemed that because he’d changed environments, his efficiency in comprehension had actually improved, so he didn’t mind the process at all.
“Switching up the cultivation environment every now and then isn’t half bad for enlightenment!”
And so, Qi Ping tallied and processed one-tenth of the spoils every week, smoothly completing seven-tenths of the total!
From those seven-tenths of the spoils, Qi Ping had gathered approximately 370,000 spirit stones!
The sheer volume of jade slips, books, knowledge, and ores was also overwhelming!
All of them had been carefully hidden away—safe and sound!
However, just as Qi Ping was recalling and preparing to tally the eighth one-tenth of the spoils, something unexpected happened.
Not long after the bee swarms brought back the spoils, three late-stage Foundation Establishment figures followed closely behind!
This sent a jolt of alarm through Qi Ping’s heart!
“Someone’s here?”
“So there really were people lying in wait for my spoils!”
Qi Ping had originally only been taking precautions just to be safe—after all, staying here for a month or two didn’t hinder his cultivation. But he never expected to actually hook such big fish!
There really were sly old foxes like that out there. Thank goodness he’d been cautious enough to make thorough preparations!
“Three late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators?”
After triggering [Natural Perception] multiple times and confirming there was no danger too great to handle, Qi Ping’s racing heart gradually settled down.
Then he glanced at the Golden Ember Crow beside him, the Hundred-Pupil Flower Spirit, and the fifteen second-tier formations he’d set up…
After obtaining [Golden Ember Body] and [Heaven’s Favor], the power of the fire-attribute formations he laid down was on a completely different level from before…
