141: The owner of Baihe Lake.

White Crane Lake.

The basement of the Merchant Alliance branch by the lake.

A light flickered in the darkness. Liu Xuan walked in from the door, passed through the area with boxes of monster beast flesh and blood, and went deeper until he reached a Cultivation room carved with mysterious Formation patterns.

It looked mysterious, but it was actually just the most common Yin Gathering Formation. The Formation Plate was purchased from Yu Feng, a first-tier high-grade one, costing five hundred Spirit Stones.

“Buzz~”

Upon seeing Liu Xuan enter, the Black Crystal Bee Queen immediately flew to his side, emitting a close Divine Thought.

“Well done!”

Liu Xuan looked at the black-robed man's corpse on the ground and smiled.

He then looked at Little Shadow, who was sitting cross-legged, absorbing Yin Qi. Her magic robe had a large hole in the chest, revealing her dark golden skin, but she didn't seem to care at all.

‘Emotionless!’

Without Liu Xuan's command, Little Shadow was just a robot. Besides instinctively absorbing Spiritual Qi and Yin Qi, she did nothing else.

“Little Shadow, come over and search him!”

This mysterious Foundation Establishment Cultivator had an unusual background, and there might be some hidden tricks on him. To be safe, Liu Xuan controlled Little Shadow to search the corpse.

Little Shadow stopped Cultivating and walked over. Under Liu Xuan's Divine Soul command, she stripped off a magic robe.

Liu Xuan swept his Divine Sense over it. “A second-tier Medium Grade Spiritual Artifact magic robe, not bad!”

A second-tier Medium Grade Spiritual Artifact magic robe would cost at least five thousand Spirit Stones. With Liu Xuan's earning ability, it would take him several months to draw Talismans for that.

Beneath the magic robe was a second-tier Medium Grade protective round shield Spiritual Artifact. Liu Xuan hadn't carefully investigated its specific function, but it seemed even more Advanced than the magic robe.

On the wrist was also a string of emerald green round bead Spiritual Artifacts, of second-tier Low Grade.

Besides these, there was the most important Storage Pouch. The truly good things should all be stored inside.

Taking the Storage Pouch from Little Shadow's hand, this pouch was moon-white and had exquisite patterns drawn on it, clearly a high-grade item.

The Storage Pouch had a Restriction on it, but Liu Xuan possessed Divine Sense, so this Restriction wasn't difficult, and he broke it open in a short while.

A scorching aura rushed out, and the first thing that caught Liu Xuan's eye was a bright yellow Flying Sword.

‘This should be this person's Natal Flying Sword!’

The rank of this Natal Flying Sword didn't seem high, only second-tier Low Grade, but its materials were precious, and it had nurtured this person's lifelong Sword Intent. Its true value was immeasurable.

With its master dead, the Natal Flying Sword had also lost a part of its spirituality. If it didn't receive nourishment for a long time, it would probably turn into an ordinary Spiritual Artifact.

Putting it aside for now, Liu Xuan checked other items. This Storage Pouch had a space of twenty cubic meters, double that of a second-tier Low Grade, making it a second-tier Medium Grade. This Storage Pouch alone was worth over five thousand Spirit Stones.

There were over three thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, over one thousand Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, over two hundred High-Grade Spirit Stones, and one Top-Grade Spirit Stone.

Converted to Low-Grade Spirit Stones... fifty thousand!

The various Spirit Stones were neatly categorized and stacked, their quantity a bit more than Liu Xuan had expected.

Foundation Establishment Cultivators earned a lot of Spirit Stones, but their expenses were also high. Being able to save fifty thousand Spirit Stones was already quite good.

There was a pile of various Medicinal Pills, dozens of bottles. As a peak second-tier Alchemist, Liu Xuan couldn't yet refine second-tier Medicinal Pills, but he recognized them.

These Medicinal Pills were generally auxiliary Cultivation Medicinal Pills, all of second-tier Low Grade.

There were also some miscellaneous Medicinal Pills for various uses, with some of all tiers, their value relatively lower.

Roughly estimating, their value was about thirty to forty thousand Spirit Stones.

Talismans were relatively fewer, only about ten second-tier Low Grade Talismans, worth around several thousand Spirit Stones.

Other items included various sundries: Spirit Medicine, spiritual materials, Ore, books... a little bit of everything.

“Summary of Blazing Sun Sword Art.” He picked up a carefully stored book and flipped through it. It contained this person's insights into a Sword Art.

According to the content, the Blazing Sun Sword Art was a lower-tier version of the Nine Luminaries Sword Canon, with less power but also a corresponding reduction in learning difficulty.

The Cultivation Technique was created by a Golden Core True Person. At that time, he lacked the talent to comprehend the complete Nine Luminaries Sword Canon and achieve a Breakthrough to Golden Core, but his Comprehension Ability was very high. He managed to bypass the difficult points of the Nine Luminaries Sword Canon, replacing them with a secondary set of conditions, and finally succeeded in creating the Blazing Sun Sword Art, and smoothly Cultivated to the Golden Core True Person stage.

Liu Xuan had no use for this Sword Art, as he could directly Cultivate the Nine Luminaries Sword Canon, but reading it still had benefits, as it could increase his understanding of the Dao of the Sword.

After tallying all his gains, Liu Xuan roughly calculated that the total value exceeded one hundred thousand Spirit Stones, equivalent to a small Spirit Stone mine.

After years of hard work drawing Talismans, the total Spirit Stones he earned hadn't even reached one hundred thousand!

‘If not for the System's gift, being a Robber Cultivator truly is a grand path!’

The Immortal Realm's class stratification was extremely severe. Without status or background, it was very difficult to obtain resources for a higher-level Breakthrough without resorting to illicit means.

The Red Pine Sect was considered a place with exceptionally good order. From the perspective of the neighboring Nether Fire Sect, the small amount of chaos in the Red Pine Sect was not even a big deal, not even considered part of their daily routine.

Liu Xuan put all the items into a Storage Pouch, then handed this Storage Pouch to Little Shadow for temporary safekeeping.

These items were not easy to sell for now, and Liu Xuan didn't need the Spirit Stones immediately, so it didn't matter where they were kept.

If there truly were any marks on these items, and the Cultivator behind this person came looking, with Little Shadow to stall them, Liu Xuan would have time to react.

As for this person's corpse... Liu Xuan waved his sleeve, and a swarm of Black Crystal Bees immediately emerged. A moment later, not a single hair remained on the ground!

As Liu Xuan left, the basement returned to darkness, without even a glimmer of light... Three days later.

A new cloud-breaking flying boat arrived at White Crane Lake, while the original cloud-breaking flying boat was transported back to the Sect.

On the second floor of the flying boat's deck.

Xiao Ran handed a control core of the cloud-breaking flying boat to Liu Xuan. “The Yongning Robber Cultivators suffered heavy casualties. It's estimated they won't be able to stir up any trouble for a while. White Crane Lake will be entrusted to you during this period. I need to enter secluded Cultivation to seek an opportunity for a Foundation Establishment Breakthrough.”

“Senior Sister, I also need to Cultivate...”

Liu Xuan also didn't want to take on such mundane administrative tasks. He didn't want to be busy every day like Xiao Ran was before.

“I'm only asking you to manage it for a while! Just come find me if anything major happens.”

“How about this, I'll also hand over the several medicinal gardens on the island for your management. You only need to pay the normal taxes, how does that sound?”

Liu Xuan's heart swelled with joy. Seeing that Xiao Ran didn't seem to be joking, he immediately put away the token and bowed with a smile:

“Thank you, Senior Sister!”

The most valuable assets of White Crane Lake were actually the several medicinal gardens on the Lake Heart Island.

Those were second-tier medicinal gardens, like money trees. Xiao Ran had always managed them, hiring people from the Sect's Spirit Plant Hall to take care of them.

Xiao Ran handing these medicinal gardens to Liu Xuan, only requiring normal taxes annually, was equivalent to giving Liu Xuan several thousand Spirit Stones each year.

Coupled with the control of the One Yuan Water Dragon Grand Array on Lake Heart Island and the control of the cloud-breaking flying boat, Liu Xuan had completely become the master of White Crane Lake.

“Alright!”

Xiao Ran looked at Liu Xuan's greedy and materialistic expression, shaking her head with a smile. “I'm leaving. Remember not to disturb me if there's nothing important!”

A fragrant breeze wafted, and Xiao Ran's beautiful back disappeared from Liu Xuan's sight.