9: Carefully analyze the gains, and plan for the future in Montenegro.

Steering his Flying Sword and sheltered by the cloud concealment array disk, Qi Yuan finally spared a thread of attention to examine the spoils from his counter-kill of the demonic Cultivator.

That bone-white flying fork was made of decent materials, but the Artifact Refining technique was quite crude; it was merely an ordinary Medium Grade Magical Artifact, worth roughly twenty Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

The demonic Cultivator's own Storage Pouch had a small capacity, with a value also around twenty Spirit Stones.

He swept his Spiritual Sense into the pouch's space; there were many miscellaneous items inside, but not many of true value.

The most abundant items were several bottles of Medicinal Pills for cultivation, such as the most basic Qi Condensation Pills and the slightly better Essence Gathering Pills.

There were also two bottles of Blood Fiend Pellets exuding a chilling aura, clearly pills used by the Demonic Path to assist in cultivation, which were useless to him.

Looking at these common cultivation pills, Qi Yuan shook his head slightly.

In his early years, in order to break through to the Late Stage Qi Refining, he had consumed too many types of auxiliary cultivation pills.

His body had long since developed a strong drug resistance, and moreover, all medicine is thirty percent poison; the pill toxins accumulated over the years were also faintly eroding his already damaged Meridians.

Nowadays, these common Qi Refining pills had a negligible effect on him, almost none at all.

To forcibly advance his cultivation through the power of pills, he would have to find those extremely rare Spirit Vein Pills with pure and flawless medicinal power.

According to alchemy classics, when the quality of a pill reaches the pinnacle, the medicinal power within is highly condensed and pure, free of Impurities, and only then will spirit veins naturally manifest on the pill.

Such pills not only have effects far exceeding their peers, but more importantly, they contain no pill toxins.

They do not damage a Cultivator's Foundation, and even if taken multiple times, they will not cause issues with drug resistance; they are the treasure medicines dreamed of by all Cultivators.

However, refining Spirit Vein Pills is incredibly difficult, with harsh requirements for the age of the Spirit Medicine, the skill of the alchemist, and even the timing and location; the success rate is extremely low.

The appearance of even one is enough to cause a sensation at an auction.

How could such pills be something a Loose Cultivator at the Qi Refinement Stage like him could easily hope for?

By a rough estimate, the rest of this demonic Cultivator's net worth was around sixty Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

“As expected of a demonic Cultivator who robs and kills; for a fifth-level Qi Refinement practitioner, his net worth is actually much richer than many law-abiding Mid-Stage Qi Refining Cultivators, amounting to nearly a hundred Spirit Stones.”

After Qi Yuan finished his inventory, this thought couldn't help but flash through his mind.

Murder and arson bring a golden belt, while repairing bridges and roads leaves one without a corpse.

This business without capital truly brings in money quickly, making one's heart... flutter.

However, he had no intention of becoming a predatory Cultivator.

While such behavior certainly yielded huge profits, it was dancing on the edge of a blade; the slightest slip-up would lead to eternal damnation, and it was by no means a sustainable path.

This harvest of fifty Spirit Stones seemed like a lot, but it was only equivalent to the profit from twenty first-tier mid-grade talismans he meticulously drew.

His own talisman-making skill, though a bit more laborious, was stable and long-term.

Qi Yuan did not fly directly toward Cloud Dream County, but instead deliberately took a detour to prevent anyone from tracking him.

His thoughts drifted to his two pregnant wives and concubines at home.

For the child in Liu Yueer's womb, he had already used a Child Seal to enhance their Aptitude, serving as an anchor for his Bloodline continuation and future Reincarnation.

As for the fetus in Ye Yao's womb... Qi Yuan shook his head slightly.

Ye Yao herself had no Spiritual Root; without the help of a Child Seal, the probability of her offspring being born with a Spiritual Root was infinitesimal.

The number of Child Seals was limited; he had to use them where they mattered most, prioritizing the appearance of offspring with Spiritual Roots so that the Family's cultivation power could form more quickly.

Ultimately, he hoped his descendants would have a better starting point.

So, how could he find women who possessed Spiritual Roots?

This question lingered in Qi Yuan's mind.

He recalled the miscellaneous notes he had browsed through while at the Longquan Sect, as well as some unwritten rules of thumb.

It seemed that during the waves of refugees caused by various natural and man-made disasters, the probability of finding children with Spiritual Roots was somewhat higher than among ordinary Mortals in stable regions.

The reason for this was not hard to guess.

Anyone who could successfully flee and survive a large-scale upheaval more or less had some background.

They were either from wealthy landed families, minor officials and military officers, or even descendants of fallen practitioners.

These people often possessed a better hereditary Foundation and survival wisdom than purely impoverished peasant households.

And for those with Spiritual Roots, the probability that their ancestors had once produced Cultivators was inherently greater.

These Family legacies might not be apparent normally, but in the process of fleeing—which filtered for survival ability—the probability was invisibly increased.

Those with Spiritual Roots are truly as rare as phoenix feathers or dragon horns among the hundreds of millions of Mortals; the probability is tiny, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say there's only one in several thousand people.

However, this probability is not equal everywhere.

In those populous, ancient great cities and metropolises, or in regions where cultivation families once took root and Spiritual Qi once nourished the land.

The possibility of Spiritual Roots appearing among Mortals will always be slightly higher than in those truly remote and destitute backwaters.

When Qi Yuan originally chose to settle in the secluded Cloud Dream County, it was precisely because he saw that no cultivation families were entrenched here, and traces of Cultivators were rarely heard of.

If there had been traces of other Cultivators here earlier, let alone occupying this small Spiritual Vein.

The moment he discovered it, he would have unhesitatingly found a secure channel to sell this information.

He would have exchanged it for several hundred Spirit Stones and then fled elsewhere, never risking taking root here.

He would never do something where the risk far outweighed the gain.

Because of this, he also knew how slim the hope was of finding Mortals with Spiritual Roots locally in Cloud Dream County.

As for going to market towns or regions with cultivation families to directly purchase women with Spiritual Roots, that thought only flashed through his mind before being completely suppressed.

Not to mention the high cost; anyone with a Spiritual Root, even the lowest grade Five-Element Spiritual Root, is a resource worth absorbing for any cultivation power.

They only need to be cultivated to the first or second level of Qi Refining, and their energy, physical strength, and ability to master low-level spells will already far exceed those of Mortals.

They are sufficient to handle many menial tasks or even production work, creating value for the Sect or Family.

Trading in Cultivators is something only demonic Sects and evil organizations would do openly; Qi Yuan currently had no such channels.

Therefore, he turned his gaze further afield.

After some consideration, he chose Heishan Prefecture, which was separated from Yunliao Prefecture by two other prefectures.

This prefecture was newly established by the Zhao Kingdom in recent years; in ancient times, it was a place where the Yue people lived, and the entire Southern Yue Province was formerly the ancestral land of the now-extinct Southern Yue Kingdom.

The loss of national territory and the change of dynasties made the population sources here complex.

There were descendants of naturalized Yue people, remnants of the former Yue Kingdom's officials, and many descendants of officials who had been demoted and exiled here for making mistakes within the Zhao Kingdom.

With his plan decided, Qi Yuan wasted no more time.

He circulated the Bone Changing Breath Exchange Art, altering his appearance and aura, and suppressed all spiritual power fluctuations around him.

Transformed into a middle-aged merchant with an ordinary face and the weathered look of travel, he arrived within the borders of Heishan Prefecture.