Mortal: Starting by looting Han Laomo's entire herb garden

The old man's gaze fell on Lu Yan.

"Young friend, where did you obtain this box?"

Lu Yan remained expressionless: "It was passed down from my ancestors, but I've never been able to open it. I've heard that the Thousand Machine Tower's mechanical skills are unparalleled, so I've come to ask for your guidance."

The old man stared at him for a couple of moments, then didn't ask any further questions. He reached out and pressed lightly on top of the box.

The faint restriction patterns immediately appeared, trembling slightly in the air.

"The technique is quite skillful," the old man murmured, a wisp of spiritual light gathering at his fingertips as he lightly tapped a few lines on the pattern.

A dozen or so breaths later, with a soft snap, the box opened.

"Alright." The old man withdrew his hand, his expression unchanged, and turned to walk upstairs without saying another word.

Lu Yan paused for a moment, then reached into the box and took out a palm-sized token.

He felt a sense of relief; his purpose in traveling this way had been achieved. He then looked at the round-faced shopkeeper and asked, "How many spirit stones?"

"one thousand."

Lu Yan nodded and took out various spiritual herbs from his storage bag, all of which were produced in the Crimson Forbidden Land. Some of them were obtained from the barefoot giant and Han Tianya.

As for whether he felt guilty about misappropriating the sect's medicinal herbs, that's not the case at all.

His return to the sect after advancing to the Nascent Soul stage would be the best way to repay Huangfeng Valley.

"Do you collect spirit herbs here?"

The waiter's eyes lit up: "Yes, of course we'll take it."

He then leaned closer to examine each plant carefully, his smile growing even wider.

"Fellow Daoist, please wait a moment while I ask the shopkeeper to give an estimate."

A short while later, a middle-aged man came out from the back room.

This man had a square face, thick eyebrows, wore a brocade robe, and exuded a calm and composed aura. He was none other than Manager Jiang of Qianji Tower.

Shopkeeper Jiang walked to the counter, picked up the spirit herbs and examined them one by one. Finally, he nodded and said, "These are of good quality. They cost 32,000 spirit stones in total. After deducting the cost of breaking the restriction, the total is 31,000. What do you think, young friend?"

Lu Yan nodded: "Deal."

The shopkeeper quickly and efficiently put away the spiritual herbs, then handed Lu Yan a storage bracelet: "Fellow Daoist, if you have any more good things like this in the future, feel free to come find me. My name is Afu, and I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

Lu Yan put away the spirit stones and then asked, "Do you have demon cores here?"

"Yes! Of course!"

Afu turned around and took out a tray from the cabinet behind him. On it were twenty or thirty thumb-sized demon cores, each a different color and radiating spiritual light.

"A level six demon core costs three thousand spirit stones. It's all produced in the Endless Mountains and is equivalent to that of a mid-stage Core Formation demon beast. Its quality is top-notch."

Lu Yan counted them; there were twenty-six in total, all of them level six. They were incredibly cheap.

"I'll take them all." He took out 78,000 spirit stones and swept away all 26 demon cores.

Ah Fu grinned from ear to ear, collecting the money while chattering, "Fellow Daoist is truly a generous person! If you need demon cores again, come to me again, and I'll save the best for you!"

Lu Yan carefully put away the demon core and then took out the various stolen goods he had seized in the Blood Forbidden Land, such as the silver longsword, the Azure Condensation Mirror, and the Pink Ball.

"Exchange these for spirit stones as well."

"Alright." The shopkeeper put away the stolen goods and gave them an estimated value of 18,000 spirit stones.

Lu Yan put away the spirit stones and was about to leave when his gaze swept over a wooden box in the corner of the counter.

The box was about the size of a palm, completely black, with a talisman pasted on it.

"What is this?" he asked casually.

The shopkeeper followed his gaze and smiled, "That's Lei Zhenzi, a one-time-use magic weapon made with thunder magic. Once activated, it can unleash power equivalent to a full-force attack from a peak Nascent Soul cultivator. Hunting teams that go into the mountains love this kind of thing the most."

Lu Yan's eyes lit up slightly. Wasn't this the Immortal-Slaying Pearl from the human realm?

However, the two Immortal-Slaying Pearls in the human realm were crudely made versions of Lei Zhenzi, possessing only one or two tenths of the power of the genuine article.

Even so, he could still threaten a Nascent Soul cultivator, but the one in front of him was the genuine Lei Zhenzi, who could destroy even a Nascent Soul cultivator in the human realm with a single blow.

"How many spirit stones?"

"One hundred million."

Lu Yan fell silent. He only had a little over ten thousand spirit stones left in his storage bag, so there was no need to even think about it.

But he really wanted this thing.

Lu Yan said calmly, "I want to check the quality first before deciding whether to buy it or not."

Upon hearing this, the man was overjoyed, never expecting that a mere cultivator would be so wealthy.

He wasn't afraid that Lu Yan would steal it and run away. After all, it was just a mere Qi Refining skill; how could it possibly cause any trouble?

He placed the wooden box on the counter, removed the talisman, and opened the lid.

Inside lay a bead the size of an egg, entirely black, with a flowing, shimmering light on its surface, faintly coalescing into a rune.

It looks different from the Immortal-Slaying Pearl in the human realm, but he can sense the power contained within it, enough to blast him to smithereens.

"Good stuff," he said, closing the lid and looking up at Afu.

Afu was smiling at him, waiting for him to start bargaining.

Lu Yan remained silent for a moment.

Then, he gave a familiar smile.

"Give it to me!"

Before Afu could react, everything went blurry.

The person is gone.

Lei Zhenzi is gone too.

Afu blinked hard, then blinked again.

no one.

There's really no one here.

He turned his head with difficulty to look at his manager.

Manager Jiang's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. He immediately took out a compass from his storage bracelet and pointed with his ten fingers.

------

Lu Yan's figure appeared out of thin air in the Crimson Forbidden Land, and the spirit stones in his storage bag finally stopped being consumed at an alarming rate.

came back.

The gains from this trip to Shanyuanjie were greater than I had imagined.

Looking at the tower, he immediately activated his Ghostly Eyes.

The old man Xiang Zhili is still here.

The lewd old man was still not far from the tower, squatting on the ground next to a corpse.

The corpse was dressed in Huangfeng Valley clothing and was a round-faced young man, the same unlucky guy who had been dragged along by Xiang Zhili earlier.

Lu Yan frowned. He looked at the faint blue light on the tower and roughly guessed what had happened.

Xiang Zhili tricked the boy into touching the barrier while he hid behind to observe.

As a result, that foolish boy ran headlong into it and was killed by the ancient restriction.

Xiang Zhili was rummaging through the corpse, probably calculating the power and type of the restriction.

After flipping through the pages for a while, seemingly without finding anything, the old man stood up, moved closer to the side, and began to ponder, stroking his chin.

Lu Yan withdrew his gaze and silently estimated the time.

The Crimson Forbidden Zone will close in a little over a day. You should allow at least half a day to get from here to the exit.

Xiang Zhili, that old guy, will probably keep dragging this out until the very last moment.

Can't wait any longer.

Lu Yan looked down at the wooden box containing Lei Zhenzi, then touched the restriction token, and gritted his teeth.

We'll give it our all.

He emerged from his hiding place and charged straight toward the stone tower.

He held the token in his hand and infused it with spiritual power.

The azure halo enveloping the tower seemed to receive some command and slowly faded away.

Xiang Zhili suddenly turned his head, a glint of light flashing in his cloudy old eyes, and he stood there stunned.

"you…"

Lu Yan didn't give him a chance to speak. The Wanli Yunyan Treads under his feet shone brightly, and he transformed into a wisp of green smoke, darting into the stone tower in a flash.

A frustrated voice came from behind: "Wait for me!"

But Lu Yan had already entered the tower.

The space inside the tower was much larger than it appeared from the outside, and his gaze instantly locked onto a skeleton in the corner.

He was wearing an old-fashioned blue Taoist robe, with a storage bag hanging from his waist.

Without saying a word, Lu Yan rushed to the skeleton, ripped off the storage bag, and probed it with his divine sense.

found it!