101: Wealth without end

Two days later.

Lei Huo Mountain Ruins.

Looking at the devastated Lei Huo Mountain Market at the foot of the mountain, with black smoke billowing and even sporadic fluctuations of combat Spells, the faces of The Two Sages of Lei Huo were ashen, and they hated Venerable Huixing to death in their hearts.

Clearly, a great riot had occurred here!

Hundreds of years of careful management had been completely reduced to dust in just three days.

The losses this time were too great!

It could be said that the Foundation of the entire Lei Huo Mountain Market had been dug out.

True Person Yu Ting took a deep breath, turned to look at the person beside him, and said in a low, apologetic tone, "Fellow Daoist Minglou, I had intended to be a good host and properly thank you for saving our lives."

"But given the current situation, I'm afraid..."

A gentle, jade-like male voice sounded.

"I understand, I understand. Fellow Daoist Yu Ting, there's no need for that."

The speaker was a middle-aged Daoist.

He had a clear, lean face and a three-strand long beard.

He wore a Heavenly Star Treasure Crown on his head, stood on a wisp of hazy white cloud Qi, and was clad in a Moon-White Daoist Robe embroidered with simple cloud patterns and Immortal Beasts.

His eyes were peaceful and free of contention, and his entire being exuded a naturally captivating aura of tranquility.

He was none other than the Elder from the Taihe Sect, the Great Immortal Master of Profound Fetus Late Stage: True Person Taihe Guangting Minglou.

Immortal Master Yu Yan stepped forward at this moment, saying with a flattering smile, "This time, we owe much to Fellow Daoist Minglou. Otherwise, if the two of us had truly fallen into the hands of that Demonic Path scoundrel from Xuan Yin Palace, we would have wished for death."

"No matter. The Spirit Stone tributes you two usually submit to my Taihe Sect have never been lacking, and you are considered an affiliated force of my Taihe Sect. Naturally, we must protect you both. How could we allow Xuan Yin Palace to act so arrogantly here?"

"Ahaha, yes, yes."

The Lei Huo brothers lowered their heads and chuckled.

"However~"

True Person Ming Lou's tone shifted, "What this Venerable One just said was from the Sect's perspective, but from this Venerable One's perspective..."

"This Venerable One traveled tens of thousands of miles with great effort to get here, and earlier, to save you two, I even fought a great battle with Venerable Huixing. The consumption was not small, you know."

His expression was a half-smile, somewhat thought-provoking.

The Lei Huo brothers exchanged a glance, lowering their heads, and couldn't help but curse inwardly at the same time.

He's here for benefits!

Damn it, what Taihe Sect, what Xuan Yin Palace, they're all cut from the same cloth.

They extort and seize, utterly shameless!

Their Lei Huo Mountain had been paying taxes and tributes to the Taihe Sect for hundreds of years; these Spirit Stones combined would definitely be an unimaginable astronomical figure.

Now that an affiliated force was bullied by an external enemy, shouldn't the leader step in to resolve it? Otherwise, who would follow them in the future?

They even want to extort another share!

So, all my previous tributes were in vain?

And looking at True Person Ming Lou's demeanor, his appetite couldn't possibly be small!

True Person Yu Ting sighed secretly, "Forget it."

"Consider it a life-buying fee. Fortunately, I had anticipated this."

He took out a Storage Pouch and, with a pained expression, handed it to True Person Ming Lou.

"The two of us brothers will always remember your life-saving grace. These few Spirit Stones are a small token of our respect."

True Person Ming Lou took it expressionlessly, and after probing it with his Divine Sense and seeing the small mountain of Spirit Stones, he finally smiled.

Enough to buy a Magical Treasure of decent quality.

"Well said, well said."

"Since the matter is settled, this Venerable One will return to the Sect. The two Fellow Daoists should first properly clean up Lei Huo Mountain, and we shall meet again another day."

As soon as he finished speaking, he transformed into an Escape Light and vanished into the sky.

Only after True Person Ming Lou had left did True Person Yu Ting and Immortal Master Yu Yan drop the smiles from their faces.

"Brother, these people are too much!"

Immortal Master Yu Yan said in a low voice, his expression annoyed.

"Enough, let's not talk about it."

True Person Yu Ting waved his hand to stop his younger brother's complaints, sighing, "After all, they saved our lives. Just consider it a life-buying fee; it's nothing major."

"But we've been offering tributes to them for hundreds of years, humbling ourselves for hundreds of years, and what good has it done us in the end? Their greed is simply too ugly!"

True Person Yu Ting said earnestly, "Indeed, in the Cultivation World, strength is paramount. So, little brother, you must seize this opportunity. As long as you can successfully Breakthrough to Profound Fetus Late Stage, everything will be different."

Upon hearing this, Immortal Master Yu Yan's expression became solemn, and he nodded heavily, "I know, brother!"

"Mm."

True Person Yu Ting nodded with satisfaction, then his brows furrowed slightly, his expression showing a hint of defiance.

"But little brother, what you just said is not wrong. In recent years, the Taihe Sect's conduct has indeed become increasingly erratic, and even affiliated forces like us cannot escape it."

"They are merely a bunch of people who rely on True Monarch Taihe's prestige to throw their weight around. Besides that... Hmph!"

The two complained to each other for a few sentences, then descended from the clouds and began to clean up the mess.

The Taihe Sect has been established for over eight hundred years.

This is not a short amount of time.

Yet, the Taihe Sect has surprisingly not produced a second True Monarch, always having only True Monarch Taihe alone.

Although True Monarch Taihe is very powerful, having become one of the recognized strongest existences in the Cangmang Realm, capable of independently supporting and even confronting the Xuan Yin Palace.

But the other members of the Taihe Sect are somewhat lacking... few of them are renowned in the Cangmang Realm.

True Person Ming Lou just now could barely be considered one, but such people are few and far between in the Taihe Sect.

In comparison, the Xuan Yin Palace's Foundation is much stronger; it has never lacked Dharma Aspect Seeds like Venerable Huixing... West of Lei Huo Mountain, tens of thousands of miles away.

At the bottom of a pile of rocks on an ordinary small mortal mountain lay an unremarkable yellow stone bead.

It was the main body of the Yuxu Grotto-Heaven.

After flying tens of thousands of miles, even the fastest Dao Foundation Peak Cultivator would have long been unable to keep up with Yu Xuzi's figure, having been left without a trace.

Inside the Grotto-Heaven.

Yu Xuzi was carefully tallying the unexpected windfall from this trip.

The harvest was simply too great!

One incomplete Third-Tier Medium Grade Formation Plate.

Six Second-Tier High Grade Magical Artifacts, over a hundred Talismans, more than fifty bottles of various Medicinal Pills, and a large number of miscellaneous items such as Formations, Spells, and Secret Arts.

There were even more items below Second-Tier Medium Grade. Besides some he had casually snatched, many were spoils of war obtained from the Cultivators he had killed.

But just by looking at the nearly hundred Storage Pouches discarded on the ground beside him, one could tell how many people Yu Xuzi had killed... and those piles of shining Spirit Stones.

"I'm getting richer and richer. With so many things, I don't even know how to use them all."

Yu Xuzi sighed with emotion.

He even wondered if there was any Dao Foundation Cultivator in this world richer than him?

He used to be the Richest Qi Refining Cultivator; now he must be the Richest Dao Foundation Cultivator, right?

But wealth has no limit!

He still needed to continue getting richer.

Expecting him to witness an unexpected windfall and remain unmoved was impossible; few people could resist such temptation.

To not take what heaven gives is to suffer its blame!

As for the shops and merchants who suffered heavy losses in the market riot, and The Two Sages of Lei Huo, they could only accept their bad luck.

He didn't cause the riot.

At most, he merely added fuel to the fire. If he didn't snatch these things, they would have fallen into someone else's hands anyway.