Chapter 17: Windfall

"You killed him?"

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

"Seems like it."

Amidst Luo Chen's nervous retreating, Wang Yuan walked over to the charred corpse and swung his great saber in a single stroke.

The head, so burnt that its features were unrecognizable, was casually severed.

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

The night breeze was cool, and the blood-stained body felt even colder.

Luo Chen forced a strained smile. "Brother Wang, I haven't finished reading that book yet."

As if remembering something, the complexity in Wang Yuan's eyes gradually receded, and his eyelids drooped once more.

"Go home early. Dahe坊 is very dangerous at night."

"Mhm, mhm."

Luo Chen turned to leave, but after a moment of hesitation, he walked over and struggled to hoist the snake-skin bag filled with medicinal herbs onto his back.

It was his entire life savings.

Watching Luo Chen's retreating figure as he neared the mouth of the alley, Wang Yuan let out an inexplicable sigh.

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

A black nail, the length of a chopstick, landed at Luo Chen's feet. The black nail was stained with bright red blood and even had bits of flesh clinging to it.

"Brother Wang, you're too kind."

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

"Mhm."

With a heavy grunt of affirmation, Luo Chen ducked into the small woods without looking back.

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

"Ugh..."

*Ding!*

"Phew!"

Luo Chen leaned half-collapsed against the foot of his bed like a dead fish, drenched in sweat; even his underwear was soaked through.

On the floor in front of his bed lay another Soul-Breaking Nail, driven into his waist.

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

This was his homemade healing medicine, specifically designed to deal with the danger of cauldron explosions during the alchemy process; it had helped him many times in the past.

Today, it had an even greater use!

As the medicinal powder entered his body, a sensation of coolness arose, followed immediately by a searing, burning pain.

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

Low, growling curses rang out from time to time.

There had never been a moment when Luo Chen felt as angry as he did now.

It wasn't anger at the damage inflicted by his enemy, but anger at his own weakness.

If he were as powerful as Wang Yuan, he wouldn't have fallen to this state today.

It wasn't until the cloth strips were tied tightly around the wound that Luo Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Enduring the pain, he went to the living room, opened the snake-skin bag, and sorted the various herbs into different categories on the shelves.

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

His staggering footsteps looked pitiful under the dim light of the oil lamp.

Luo Chen even felt that this scene was strikingly similar to his previous life, when he would go to work while still ill after finishing a surgery.

"No matter where I go, I can't escape a life of hard labor. No wonder my lifespan in my previous life was only seventy-five years."

Only after finishing all this did he have time to lie down on the bed.

The constant pain radiating from his waist meant that even though he was exhausted beyond belief, he couldn't sleep.

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

"Let's see what good things that guy, who had a shorter life than me, had."

The storage bags of Qi Refinement stage cultivators were undefended; without spiritual sense, they naturally couldn't set up restrictions.

Once the owner died, the traces of magical power on them would naturally dissipate.

Luo Chen mobilized his meager remaining spiritual energy to open the storage bag.

A large pile of items instantly filled his wooden bed.

"Today was a market day; this guy certainly bought a lot of things."

A low-grade dharma robe, a box of Calming Incense, five bottles of Fasting Pills, one bottle of Qi-Nourishing Pills, one bottle of Golden Treasury Powder, and a stack of talismans.

Additionally, there was a clump of dried spiritual herbs, which occupied most of the area on his bed.

Aside from these items, what Luo Chen cared about most were the spirit stones.

"Ninety-two low-grade spirit stones. Dammit, he's a pauper!"

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

The spirit stones were indeed very few, inconsistent with the level of a fifth-layer Qi Refinement cultivator.

However, the value of the other items far exceeded those ninety-two low-grade spirit stones.

Setting aside the low-grade dharma robe—which, though somewhat worn and likely worn by the short-lived man before him, would be worth at least a hundred spirit stones if sold—its activation speed was even faster than talismans.

That was why Luo Chen had been able to activate it so quickly earlier; when that short-lived man was hit in the face by a fireball, he had immediately activated the robe's built-in defensive light shield.

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

It hadn't even withstood the third one.

In three breaths of time, the heavily injured Chen Xiao had no time to employ other methods.

The five bottles of Fasting 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 rest, they were very valuable.

Calming Incense was one of the best external aids for low-level cultivators to assist in their training.

One stick of Calming Incense a day was enough to allow a cultivator to practice their innate cultivation technique five more times; it was said to be able to restore the fragile souls of low-level cultivators.

A box contained twelve sticks, worth one hundred and twenty spirit stones.

The Qi-Nourishing Pills went without saying; the pattern on them indicated they came from the Spirit Medicine Pavilion.

Non-negotiable: one hundred spirit stones per bottle!

These were good items that could increase spiritual energy after being swallowed and refined.

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

He didn't recognize the dried spiritual herbs covering the bed, but the fact that such a large amount had been specifically bought in the storage bag meant they were definitely useful.

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

A windfall!

As expected, a horse does not grow fat without night grass, and a man does not become rich without a windfall.

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

And his greatest harvest wasn't even these items.

It was the storage bag itself!

The capacity wasn't large, only about one cubic meter—the smallest and cheapest type of storage bag.

But in the Myriad Treasure Pavilion, it would still be worth ten thousand!

He didn't know if the short-lived man had been given it or had stolen it, but he certainly couldn't afford it.

Or rather, most low-level cultivators couldn't afford even the smallest storage bag.

Such things were standard equipment for inner disciples of great sects; even outer disciples weren't worthy of owning them!

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

"No wonder 'killing for treasure' is such a classic trope in web novels; it has a place in every genre."

"It's just that the risk is too high. One mistake and you crash, and a lifetime of hard work is buried in it."

Tonight, there had effectively been two instances of "killing for treasure" occurring before Luo Chen's eyes.

Li Zixiong of the Great River Gang, who gathered three people to ambush Wang Yuan—he crashed!

The short-lived man at the fifth layer of Qi Refinement, who intended to instantly kill Luo Chen—he crashed!

"Such dangerous things are better left to the professionals; I can't handle the shock."

Luo Chen's mind raced as he picked up the last jade bottle that hadn't been put back into the storage bag.

Golden Treasury Powder, one of the signature pills of the Spirit Medicine Pavilion.

It had excellent healing effects against any metal-attribute magical tool damage, and it sold for only ten spirit stones.

High quality and low price, it had always been a favorite among the rogue cultivators of Dahe坊.

He sniffed it; the smell was fine, it wasn't poison.

Besides, no one would put poison in a medicinal bottle inside their own storage bag.

If one were heavily injured and their consciousness was muddled, taking the wrong medicine would be a disaster.

It would just mean the hard work of untying the cloth strips all over again.

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

The next day at noon, Luo Chen woke up in a daze.

This was a rare occasion where he slept in.

In the latter half of the night, he had ultimately succumbed to his weakness and fallen asleep.

Opening his eyes wide, Luo Chen lay in a daze on the bed for a while before gritting his teeth and forcing himself to climb up.

No matter how bitter or difficult, it wasn't an excuse to lie around and rot.

Coming to the living room, he picked up a handful of spiritual herbs, spread them out on a winnowing basket, and prepared to take them out to dry.

Pushing open the door, the midday sun was so bright he couldn't open his eyes for a moment. By the time he adjusted, he discovered Wang Yuan standing outside.

With a casual toss, the other man dropped an object into the basket filled with herbs.

"Take it. From now on, you are a member of the Broken Mountain Gang."

"If someone comes looking for trouble, tell them you're under my protection, Wang Yuan."

Luo Chen stared blankly at the iron token in the basket.

"Thanks, Brother Wang."

Wang Yuan waved it off. "Thanks for what? Back when I was at my lowest, you let me run a tab for a few bottles of Fasting Pills, and I never even said thanks."

"Alright, I've given you the thing, so I'm heading back. The outer city might be a bit restless in the coming days, so be careful when you go in and out."

With that, he turned and left, without any lingering hesitation.

(End of Chapter)