“I said I would gift you a First-Grade magical tool, Fellow Daoist. How could I accept extra Spirit Stones?”

Wang Hao shook his head, declining the refund.

“I happen to have three Mid-Grade Spirit Stones here, which are perfect for powering the Flying Cloud Boat,” Du Xiandie said, taking out three pale red stones brimming with dense spiritual energy. “I’ll give them to you as well!”

Mid-Grade Spirit Stones came in varieties: colorless ones were attribute-neutral, while multicolored ones possessed specific elemental affinities. These red stones were clearly Fire-attributed.

Since Wang Hao happened to be short of them, he accepted the offer. “Then I shall not stand on ceremony and gratefully accept!”

“If you ever come to the Qingyuan Sect again to sell Vein Protection Pills, Fellow Daoist, you can still look for me. Custom-made magical tools are also possible!” Du Xiandie smiled as she returned the courtesy.

“Certainly, certainly!”

After bidding farewell to Du Xiandie, Wang Hao left the Qingyuan Sect in a hurry. Since he had already secured the magical tools, he skipped the trouble of returning to the Qingyuan Market and flew directly toward Mount Ruojun.

Wang Hao’s flight speed was moderate, designed to conserve energy.

After traveling tens of thousands of miles, just as his Qi was beginning to run low, a dark shadow flashed before him.

A masked man in black blocked his path.

Wang Hao glanced at the stranger expressionlessly. “What is the meaning of this, Fellow Daoist? Why are you blocking my way?”

A sinister smile appeared on the masked man’s face. “Heh heh, my goal is simple. You came from the Qingyuan Sect, so you must have quite a few good things on you. Be sensible and hand over your Storage Bag. This old man might show some mercy and let you live.”

In the robber’s view, Wang Hao was definitely a disciple from some family subordinate to the Qingyuan Sect who had come to trade. He had followed for a while, only revealing himself after confirming Wang Hao was alone. Anticipating a substantial haul, greed flashed in his eyes.

A look of fear appeared on Wang Hao’s face. “Fellow Daoist, you are only at the Fourth Layer of Foundation Establishment. If we really fight to the death, you won’t be able to take me down quickly. It would be better for you to leave now!”

As he spoke, he made a move to turn and flee.

“Heh heh, I advise you not to struggle in vain. Otherwise, you will only suffer more physical pain!”

The man in black wore an expression of utter confidence. To him, Wang Hao was merely a newly advanced Foundation Establishment cultivator who hadn’t even had time to practice many divine abilities. Dealing with him would be child’s play.

“Die!”

The man in black spat out a white flying sword from his mouth—it was his Life-Nurtured Flying Sword, cultivated within his dantian. It shot straight toward Wang Hao.

He went all out from the very first move, aiming to eliminate his enemy instantly. The man in black was extremely cautious; against anyone else, this ambush would undoubtedly have been fatal.

“Haha, let’s see where you can escape!”

The man in black assumed Wang Hao couldn’t withstand his full-force strike and relaxed his vigilance to the extreme.

Suddenly, a flash of cold hatred passed through Wang Hao’s eyes as he stared directly at the cultivator.

The man in black was startled, his pupils contracting sharply. But before he could react, he felt as if his mind had been brutally pierced by an iron cone.

His consciousness vanished instantly. He spat a mist of blood from his mouth, swayed, and plummeted toward the ground like a stone.

Having lost its master, the flying sword lost its power. It wobbled for a moment before falling right in front of Wang Hao.

“Damn it, trying to play dirty with me?”

Wang Hao chuckled lightly. This guy had acted quickly, unlike typical villains who talk too much. This forced Wang Hao to counterattack hastily using the Spirit-Splitting Cone. Fortunately, the outcome was good.

He collected the man’s Storage Bag and flying sword, tossed a fireball at the body to burn it to ashes, and then buried the remains. Without pausing to check the loot, he rode his escape light away.

This wasn’t the place to examine his gains; there was a risk of encountering other highwaymen.

Wang Hao couldn’t help but inwardly complain about his luck. Damn it, how many times had he traveled far from home? And he had already run into three groups of robbers.

Returning to Mount Ruojun, Wang Hao didn’t alert anyone. He went straight to his own cave dwelling.

He took out the Storage Bag belonging to the man who had ambushed him, waved his hand to break the restriction, and dumped the contents onto the floor.

Wang Hao gave it a cursory glance. This person wasn’t particularly wealthy. There were only two thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, though there were over ten Mid-Grade ones.

As for magical tools, the best item was his Life-Bound Spirit Sword. Unfortunately, a Life-Bound Spirit Sword could only unleash its full power for its bound cultivator; others could wield at most thirty percent of its power, making it inferior to high-quality First-Grade tools.

There was also a Mid-Grade Spiritual Tool: an inner armor vest. Its material wasn’t discernible, but it was worth at least a thousand Spirit Stones.

As for pills, they were rather ordinary. As an alchemist, Wang Hao looked down on these things; altogether, they weren’t worth five hundred Spirit Stones.

What remained were some talismans and two jade boxes.

Surprisingly, there were three Second-Grade Low-Tier Blazing Fire Talismans and two Second-Grade Mid-Tier Water Needle Talismans. This was an unexpected delight; Wang Hao didn’t have any Second-Grade Mid-Tier talismans on hand.

The Water Needle Talisman was an area-of-effect attack. When activated, it formed tens of thousands of densely packed water needles. Though they generally weren’t great at breaking through a cultivator’s defenses, they were exceptionally useful against Beast Tides—one talisman could harvest swathes of low-tier demonic beasts.

Wang Hao turned his attention to the jade boxes. Usually, items carefully stored in jade boxes were considered extremely precious by cultivators.

He carefully opened one of them.

Inside sat a very strange talisman. Unlike other spirit talismans with complex runes and spiritual energy fluctuations, this one had only a single small golden sword depicted on it—vividly lifelike—and nothing else. It appeared extremely simple.

“Could this be a Grandmaster Talisman Treasure?”

Wang Hao held it in his hand and carefully sensed it but didn’t find anything special. He thought about injecting spiritual energy to test it but feared something unexpected might happen, so he decided to put it away for later study.

The second jade box contained only two jade slips. Wang Hao guessed these were cultivation techniques.

Indeed, checking one slip revealed a technique called the Profound Origin Sword Art. Since the dead man used a flying sword as his life-bound tool, he was truly a sword cultivator.

This technique wasn’t bad; however, Wang Hao wouldn’t switch his cultivation path for it. Sword cultivators emphasized pressing forward relentlessly and breaking through everything with one strike—it didn’t match Wang Hao’s true principle of “lying low.”

He picked up the other jade slip and placed it against his forehead. Two large characters appeared in his mind: Array Dao.

It explained how to set up formations, refine formation flags, and craft formation tools, progressing from simple to profound, up to Second-Grade Mid-Tier. This single item was probably worth more than everything else combined.

Among the four paths—Formations, Tools, Alchemy, and Talismans—Formation Masters were the rarest and most difficult to train. Not only did they require extremely high comprehension, but they also needed complete legacies for study. Crucially, they didn’t make money in the early stages. Only after reaching the Second Grade could they sell simple formations to earn Spirit Stones.

However, Formation Masters above the Third Grade became highly sought-after. Protective mountain formations for major families or sects, large arrays for strongholds or cities—each was immensely valuable. The profit from one set of formations could equal what an alchemist earned from refining pills for an entire year.

“I have already learned alchemy and talisman-making; do I really need to learn formation setting too?”

Wang Hao looked bitterly at the jade slip in his hand. The four paths were actually interconnected. Alchemy and tool refining both required fire control. Talisman-making, tool refining, and formation setting all involved writing runes. High-grade pills also used runes. Since Wang Hao had already mastered two paths, learning the others would have some foundation.

But he didn’t have enough time!

His cultivation couldn’t fall behind. He also needed to focus on body tempering, plus alchemy and talisman-making. For over ten years now, Wang Hao had been so busy he hadn’t even had time to find female companions. If he studied formation setting too, would he have any life left?

“I’ll put this aside for now. Maybe I’ll have time later, or I can find suitable people to pass it on to.”

Wang Hao put away the jade slip. After some thought, he felt this ambush wasn’t ordinary.

He encountered robbers not long after leaving the Qingyuan Sect. Could it be related to someone inside?

Chu He? Chen Qing?

Although his interactions with them hadn’t been frequent, they had gone through life-and-death situations. Their character didn’t seem like they’d do such things.

Then Du Xiandie?

He had spent over ten thousand Spirit Stones in one go and carried many spiritual tools, easily arousing greed. But Du Xiandie wasn’t an ordinary cultivator either; she was wealthy herself.

Or perhaps those two Qi Refining cultivators who received him? But they couldn’t have known how rich Wang Hao was.

“These few people are all suspects, but I can only be more careful in the future and find ways to investigate.”

Wang Hao stood up, preparing to see Wang Yanzhao and give him some of the purchased magical tools.

He planned to keep the Clear Source Boots, the Soul-Calming Pendant, and the inner armor vest obtained from the black-clad cultivator for himself. He would give the rest to the Patriarch. These items were worth close to three thousand Spirit Stones.

As for the loot from the black-clad cultivator, he didn’t plan to let it surface for now. He would wait a while. If there was no movement or investigation regarding the death, he could deal with them later.

The Patriarch had treated him well all these years. It was time to repay him a little.