Chapter 149: Taking Stock of the Gains

Jiang Hao stood in front of Zuo Lan. He then turned his head to look at Fang Jin and the others.

Lan Jin trembled in fear. Fang Jin and Bai Qiong felt their scalps tingling.

“You should focus on saving your disciple first,” Jiang Hao said to them.

The nine children were still bleeding at the altar. If left unattended, their lives would be in danger.

Fang Jin and the others finally snapped out of it.

“Thank you, Disciple Jiang. We’ve been careless,” Fang Jin said.

The three of them went to rescue the children, hoping to see their junior sister among them.

Jiang Hao turned back to Zuo Lan.

At this moment, Hong Yuye appeared by his side.

Jiang Hao picked up Zuo Lan’s storage treasure.

Fortunately, Zuo Lan had withstood the impact of the Mountain Suppression technique to some extent. His storage treasure was undamaged.

Jiang Hao found five thousand spirit stones inside, along with a stone tablet and a book.

‘Five thousand more!’

He handed the stone tablet to Hong Yuye. She put it somewhere out of sight and looked at Jiang Hao.

“Give me the other two as well,” she said.

Jiang Hao knew she wanted to combine the three tablets.

After handing over the stone tablets, he turned to the injured Zuo Lan. “What was your purpose in coming here?”

“Purpose?” Zuo Lan coughed blood. He struggled to speak, but the desire to survive was clear in his eyes. “Will you spare my life if I tell you?” Jiang Hao didn’t answer. He simply stared at Zuo Lan.

Zuo Lan chuckled and felt his consciousness grow fuzzy. His vitality was dissipating. No matter what happened now, he would die.

“I was here to investigate the Heavenly Note Sect,” he said weakly.

‘ Why?” Jiang Hao was confused.

Other than the Heavenly Fragrance Dao Flower, what else was worth investigating in the Heavenly Note Sect? ‘The mining site…’

That was the only thing Jiang Hao could think of.

“We are only following orders. Each person who possesses a stone tablet has a different mission.” Zuo Lan’s voice was soft. “My mission was merely to find out about the history of the Heavenly Note Sect.”

“Who are you taking orders from?” Jiang Hao wasn’t particularly interested in the history of the Heavenly Note Sect.

However, Zuo Lan’s investigation might be related to the book Jiang Hao had found in his storage treasure. He planned to check it later.

Zuo Lan was in a weakened state. His head was lowered and blood flowed from his mouth.

“I… have a question,” he said weakly.

“What is it?” Jiang Hao asked.

“You… What cultivation realm are you at?” Zuo Lan made an effort to look at

Jiang Hao. “Are you in the Primordial Spirit Realm?”

“I’m at the peak of the Golden Core Realm,” said Jiang Hao truthfully. “You will be killed,” Zuo Lan said. “There are many people in this world who envy geniuses… many.”

“I know,” Jiang Hao said.

That was why he didn’t want to attract attention and preferred to cultivate quietly. When he became invincible, he wouldn’t have to worry anymore.

Unfortunately, Hong Yuye had already discovered his cultivation realm now. Jiang Hao didn’t know if she would make a move against him soon. He still needed some cards up his sleeve.

“Zuo Yutian…” said Zuo Lan.

“Is he from the Great Thousand God Sect too?” Jiang Hao asked.

“Yeah…” Zuo Lan’s aura was fading away. “It’s him. We were given orders by him, but I don’t know about the others.”

Jiang Hao nodded. “Where are the other stone tablets?”

“They probably escaped,” Zuo Lan said. His voice became fainter and fainter.

“Do you know who crafted the stone tablets?”

“No, I don’t know…”

Jiang Hao looked at Zuo Lan and remained silent. He was dead.

Jiang Hao sighed and turned to look at Hong Yuye. “Senior, do you know anything about Zuo Yutian?

Hong Yuye shook her head. “Let’s go back.” Jiang Hao nodded. There was nothing for them here anymore.

After taking away the storage treasures from the enemies, he stabbed the bodies two more times to make sure they were really dead. Then, he bid farewell to an astonished Fang Jin and the others before disappearing into the woods.

Meanwhile, Fang Jin and his group managed to rescue the nine children. Their junior sister was among them too!

After several setbacks, they finally met the disciple stolen from their sect. However, a little boy by her side worried them.

However, what worried them the most was Jiang Hao. His motive and purpose weren’t as simple as they had thought.

They didn’t question too much. Fortunately, they weren’t at odds with Jiang Hao. They were somewhat friendly at this point.

“For the next three days, don’t disturb me,” said Hong Yuye before she went into her room and closed the door.

Jiang Hao was happy for some leisure time. Three days without worrying about Hong Yuye was akin to a holiday for him!

But he couldn’t stray too far from Heavenly Earth City, as it would be easy for others to discover his location.

During these three days, he planned to explore the city, but the immediate priority was to examine the gains from the recent encounter.

Perhaps tonight was another night of obtaining sudden wealth for him!

Jiang Hao began to take stock of his spirit stones. He had around 3,806 spirit stones on him. Now, with Zuo Lan’s defeat, he had found 5,101 spirit stones in his storage treasure. In addition, there was a book of records.

Jiang Hao placed the book on the table and organized the spirit stones.

After putting the spirit stones into his own storage treasure, he opened the clone Zuo Lan’s storage treasure but found nothing inside.

“That’s weird,” muttered Jiang Hao. “There should be more. There should at least be something inside!”

Five thousand spirit stones was a lot of money. Zuo Lan was good at making money, but he must have spent a lot, considering everything he had done. Jiang Hao was already satisfied with the amount he had now, but he was puzzled that he found no other treasures at all. ‘Does he have a stronghold somewhere else?’

‘What a pity… not even one person survived.”

Jiang Hao proceeded to inspect the storage treasures he had picked up from the other four Golden Core Realm cultivators.

They weren’t particularly wealthy either, with one having 926 spirit stones and the other having 1,103 spirit stones.

‘They were poor too…’

Jiang Hao realized that the Golden Core Realm cultivators from the Heavenly

Note Sect were much wealthier. After all, being affiliated with the Heavenly Note Sect granted them access to some cultivation resources, while these individuals had to constantly purchase resources with their own spirit stones. It made sense that they were poor unless they accumulated spirit stones for several years like Shi Xin.

The two cultivators’ storage treasures contained some other items. There were foundation-building pills, as well as some average-quality treasures, along with a few healing talismans. Together, they could be sold for around three to five hundred spirit stones.

Next, he opened the storage treasure that belonged to the late-stage Golden Core Realm cultivator and found that this person wasn’t much better off than the previous two. They had 1,300 spirit stones, a decent-quality foundation-building spirit sword, and two bottles of commonly used pills for the mid-stage Golden Core Realm. These items were worth around one to two thousand spirit stones.

There wasn’t much else of value.

Finally, he took out the storage treasure that once belonged to the peak Golden Core Realm cultivator. Upon inspection, he found no spirit stones inside. However, there was a note. The first line read:

“I know that I may not come back alive this time, so I have hidden all the valuable things elsewhere.”

Jiang Hao was taken aback. He had never expected to encounter someone like this in the cultivation world..