123: The wool comes from the sheep.

After some deliberation, Su Ling finally decided on the Magic Treasures he wanted to replace.

"Divine Wood Soul Nurturing Plaque, thunder-rushing cloud-treading boots, Black Ice Mist Hiding Robe..."

Tapping lightly on the light screen with his fingertips, he brought up the phantoms of the three Magic Treasures. Su Ling's tone was calm as he said, "I would like to see the physical items of these three high-grade magic treasures."

The information described on the light screen was limited, so Su Ling still wanted to appraise them first before making a decision.

"No problem."

Wei Yang chuckled and casually summoned the three Magic Treasures, placing them before Su Ling.

Su Ling secretly activated his Immortal Eye of Treasure Appraisal, and information about the three High Grade auxiliary Magic Treasures immediately surfaced in his mind.

As he scanned the information, his fingertips subconsciously rubbed his cuff. The corner of his mouth curled up in an almost imperceptible arc, clearly satisfied with the quality of the Magic Treasures.

[bodhi soul nurturing plaque, a High Grade auxiliary Magic Treasure. Refined primarily from Bodhi Jade, its surface is carved with a soul-nurturing formation pattern. It possesses the effects of nourishing and repairing the Divine Soul.]

[thunder-rushing cloud-treading boots, a High Grade auxiliary Magic Treasure. Refined primarily from Thunder Silk, with Thunder Cloud Jade embedded in the soles and a Cloud Pattern Formation carved into them. Consuming mana allows the user to cast the 'Thunder Flash' Spell, instantly moving a hundred zhang, with a cooldown of five breaths. When activated with lightning-element mana, it leaves thunder traces while moving, causing a paralysis effect upon contact with enemies.]

[Black Ice Mist Hiding Robe, a High Grade auxiliary Magic Treasure. Woven from Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Silk and refined with a mixture of Nether Mist Crystal powder, it is carved with a Mist Hiding formation pattern. It can release a black ice mist to enter a semi-stealth state, evading the Divine Sense detection of Core Formation Cultivators. When subjected to physical attacks, it automatically releases cold Qi to freeze the enemy's Magic Treasure.]

According to the light screen, the total price of these three High Grade auxiliary Magic Treasures was nearly nine million Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Among them, the bodhi soul nurturing plaque was the most precious. The surface of the lustrous white jade tablet had faint Bodhi leaf patterns flowing across it, and it felt warm and smooth to the touch.

Just the mellow Soul Power fluctuations it contained felt like warm sunlight bathing the body, making him feel extremely comfortable.

Its value was as high as 3.8 million Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Su Ling felt his heart tighten slightly.

This expenditure could be called his largest ever, but when his fingertips touched the soul nurturing plaque, the warmth slowly seeping into his Sea of Consciousness instantly made him suppress the sting of the cost.

The Ghost Soul Arrow was peerlessly powerful, but it required the Divine Soul as a guide, and every use was extremely taxing on the mind.

The depletion of his Divine Soul was one of the reasons why he had returned to the base city.

If he had this bodhi soul nurturing plaque to nourish him day and night, the risk of using his trump cards in the National War in the future would be greatly reduced.

Moreover, he only needed to kill one or two Peak Core Formation Cultivators, and the captured resources would be enough to make this soul nurturing plaque 'worth the price'.

"A total of 8.7 million Low-Grade Spirit Stones."

Wei Yang's gaze lingered on Su Ling's face for a moment before he added, "The old Magic Treasures Fellow Daoist is replacing can be bought back by the Sect for Spirit Stones. Although it's not as much as in an outside trade, it has the advantage of convenience..."

"Oh? Then I'll trouble Fellow Daoist to take a look."

A flash of spiritual light appeared in Su Ling's eyes. With a flip of his palm, the three new Magic Treasures were stored in his storage ring, replaced by two old treasures shrunk to the size of a palm.

The vajra jade washing robe glowed with a faint milky-white spiritual light, with some traces of spiritual energy wear on the edges.

The thousand-mile cloud-chasing boots were wrapped in a layer of wind aura as thin as a cicada's wing, though the talismans at the toes had dimmed somewhat.

Wei Yang took the Magic Treasures, a wisp of Spirit Probing Technique condensing on his fingertip as spiritual power slowly seeped into the treasures' interiors.

After a moment, he set the Magic Treasures down and spoke in a steady but indisputable tone, "The Medium Grade magic robe, the vajra jade washing robe, has decent defensive power, but the heart-protecting talisman pattern already has cracks; it can be exchanged for 300,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones. The Medium Grade magic boots, the thousand-mile cloud-chasing boots, have severe wear on the wind-element talismans; they can only be exchanged for 200,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones."

Su Ling gave a silent sneer upon hearing this.

He had seen similar Magic Treasures at auction houses before, and the total price was at least 700,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Now that the Sect was buying them back, even though both Magic Treasures were worn, the buyback price had been cut by thirty percent.

He suddenly remembered those Magical Artifacts he had exchanged before. At the time, he only thought it was convenient, but calculating it carefully now, the actual value of those Magic Treasures probably far exceeded fifty million Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Had he known this earlier, it would have been better to keep them for later trading.

Fortunately, he had been cautious and kept the high-grade magic treasures he'd seized along with a few Medium Grade Magic Treasures that had special effects.

Otherwise, he would have definitely suffered a huge loss today.

"Fellow Daoist shouldn't feel like you're losing out."

Seeing the change in Su Ling's expression, Wei Yang revealed a meaningful smile. "It's not just my Bitao Sect that is like this; all of the Seven Sects are the same... Seeing as Fellow Daoist has provided so many Magic Treasures at once, this old man will reveal a bit of extra information to you."

"Oh, what information?"

A look of curiosity surfaced in Su Ling's eyes as he asked calmly.

"The Sects use the National War to screen for talent, and there are many considerations involved..."

Wei Yang glanced at the Bitao Faction token at Su Ling's waist and lowered his voice, saying, "The amount of resources handed over is a very important hidden score!"

"There's such a thing?"

Su Ling was momentarily speechless upon hearing this.

Good heavens!

These 'unspoken rules' really are everywhere!

Wei Yang stroked his beard and revealed a 'you-know-what-I-mean' kind of smile.

"In that case, I will do as Fellow Daoist says."

Su Ling suppressed the thoughts in his heart and added in a calm tone, "Furthermore, I need ten bottles each of Essence Returning Pills and Spirit Accumulating Pills, and five bottles of Meridian Tempering Profound Pervading Pills..."

The Essence Returning Pill was a third-tier Medicinal Pill, pale gold in color, melting into mellow spiritual power to increase cultivation as soon as it entered the mouth.

The Spirit Accumulating Pill was a third-tier Divine Soul Medicinal Pill; the dark purple pill was wrapped in a layer of soul mist and could slowly nourish the Divine Soul.

The Meridian Tempering Profound Pervading Pill was a fourth-tier Medicinal Pill, glowing with an emerald-like luster. Its medicinal power was overbearing yet gentle, capable of tempering the Meridians and broadening spiritual power channels.

Each of these pills was worth tens of thousands or even over a hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

With ten pills per bottle, the total added up to over ten million.

With Su Ling's current mana and Divine Soul, which were comparable to the Peak Core Formation Stage, taking fourth-tier Medicinal Pills was appropriate, and he could even fully absorb the medicinal power.

In addition to these, Su Ling also purchased a large number of fourth-tier healing and recovery pills, and ten jars of Fourth-Tier Demonic Beast essence blood from the metal and lightning systems.

The golden Gryphon essence blood gleamed with a metallic luster, while the lightning-element Thunder Roc essence blood was wrapped in fine arcs of electricity; both were necessities for him to nourish his azure roc wings.

By the time he walked out of the Logistics Hall, the original 50.5 million Low-Grade Spirit Stones in his storage ring had only 27 million remaining.

Within the Bitao Faction's base city, there were simple Immortal Caves specifically for Cultivators to enter secluded meditation.

However, these Immortal Caves were not cheap, costing one thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones per day, yet their effects were only comparable to a Medium Grade Immortal Cave in the outside world. It was clearly the Bitao Sect using the National War to amass wealth.

While the price of the Immortal Caves was outrageous, they had the advantage of being sufficiently safe.

Only if the city was breached would the Cultivators inside the Immortal Caves be automatically awakened.

Otherwise, even a Nascent Soul Cultivator would be unable to force their way in.

While Su Ling secretly criticized the Bitao Sect's 'robbery' tactics, he couldn't help but admire their business sense.

This kind of pricing made it affordable for ordinary Core Formation Cultivators while also allowing them to earn a fortune from the Cultivators.

That 'hand-over' hidden score essentially took the concept of 'the wool comes from the sheep's back' to the extreme.

No wonder the Seven Sects were so generous as to bring out Spiritual Artifacts to reward the top ten ranked Cultivators.

This series of operations made Su Ling, who came from Blue Star, unable to resist giving them a huge thumbs up.

Although he felt the sting of losing Spirit Stones, he had stayed within the illusory rainbow flying cloud bell for ten years and participated in high-frequency combat for over half a year.

Now that a Breakthrough was imminent, he simply splurged over 300,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones to rent an Immortal Cave for a full year.

He then turned and stepped into the Immortal Cave, which was shimmering with a pale blue light screen.