"Heh," Lu Ping chuckled. "Can't I rent a high-grade cave abode from your clan?"
The innkeeper's face lit up, but then he thought of something and hesitated. "I dare not hide this from you. According to the rules, high-grade caves are usually rented to late Blood Condensation cultivators in the city. I'm afraid it will be inconvenient for you to rent a mid-grade cave abode. Also, the latest batch of cave abodes will expire in a month's time. If you can't wait, you can rent a mid-grade cave abode first. Although the environment there isn't as good as a high-grade cave abode, it's still not bad."
"In a month's time?" Lu Ping was a little hesitant. This time, he was besieged by Miao Weidong's group and Enlightened Master Jin Li. Although he managed to escape with his life, he also suffered serious injuries. He needed to find a place to recuperate. Moreover, because of the continuous battles, Lu Ping had consumed a lot of spiritual energy and healing herbs. His body had accumulated a large amount of medicinal toxins that he didn't have time to refine. If he stayed here for too long, it would inevitably affect his future cultivation. Therefore, a cave abode with sufficient spiritual energy could undoubtedly shorten the time it would take for Lu Ping to recuperate.
At this time, a cultivator wearing a red cloak rushed into the inn. His gaze swept across Lu Ping, then he turned to the innkeeper and said, "Innkeeper, I have urgent matters to attend to. Please return the extra spirit stones quickly."
"Alright." Innkeeper Li was obviously familiar with this business. "You rented the cave abode for a year, five months. Our inn uses half a year as the rental period. Anything less than half a year will be counted as half a year. Therefore, we can only return 1,200 spirit stones to you. Please accept this.
We look forward to your next visit. "The cultivator obviously had urgent matters to attend to. After taking the spirit stones and returning a token, he hurriedly left without looking back. From beginning to end, Lu Ping didn't say a word, acting like an irrelevant person.
After the cultivator left, Lu Ping stared at the cultivator's back with an expressionless face. When the shopkeeper returned, he smiled and said, "That cultivator is clearly at the peak of the Blood Condensation Realm. He must be renting a high-grade cave abode. Shopkeeper, why don't you rent this cave abode to me?"
Manager Li was delighted when he heard this, but he still hesitated and said, "This doesn't conform to the rules of the clan. The clan has always rented the abodes uniformly. If …"
Lu Ping placed a storage bag on the table and pushed it towards the shopkeeper. "Shopkeeper Li, here are three thousand spiritual stones. According to your family's rules, renting a high-grade cave dwelling for a year and an additional month will only cost me two thousand six hundred to seven hundred spiritual stones. As for the fact that only Late Blood Condensation cultivators can rent a high-grade cave dwelling, I believe it won't be a problem for Shopkeeper Li."
Shopkeeper Li took the storage bag and scanned it with his divine sense. His face immediately lit up. As long as he reported to the clan that this high-grade cave abode had been rented by someone else for a year, who would know? He would be able to obtain six hundred spiritual stones without anyone noticing.
Lu Ping naturally knew what the shopkeeper was planning, but he didn't expose him. He only smiled as the shopkeeper passed the token to Lu Ping. Then, he turned to Xiao Sima, who was following behind Lu Ping, and said, "You should know the location of the cave abode. You can bring this guest there."
Xiao Sima nodded and said embarrassedly, "Senior Lu, please follow me!"
Lu Ping smiled and didn't say anything. He didn't expect this Xiao Sima to be a shill for the Li Family Inn. From the tone of their conversation, it seemed like this wasn't the first time Xiao Sima had introduced business to the inn.
Lu Ping's cave abode was located in a large manor on a high ground in the west of the city. This manor was the Li Family's residence. According to Xiao Sima, the Li Family's spirit veins had been cultivated to the extent of two small-scale spirit veins. The concentration of spiritual energy in the high-grade cave abode was equivalent to that of two small-scale spirit veins. This was the Li Family's way of gathering spiritual stones and befriending the rogue cultivators in the city. The other two clans also did the same, but the Zhang Clan and the Wang Clan's foundations were much stronger than the Li Family's.
Lu Ping rewarded Xiao Sima with twenty spiritual stones and told him to come back five days later. Xiao Sima was only in the Third Layer of the Blood Refining Realm, so twenty spiritual stones was a huge sum to him. He immediately patted his chest and promised Lu Ping that he would come back in five days.
Lu Ping looked at Xiao Sima's back as he skipped away. He recalled the time when he was still in the Blood Refining Realm and worked hard to earn spiritual stones to cultivate. He suddenly empathized with Xiao Sima's joy.
Lu Ping didn't expect to meet someone he knew the first time he arrived at the East Sea. It was the cultivator in a red cloak who had just canceled the lease of the cave abode. Lu Ping had a deep impression of him. This person was the Hall Master of the Overturned Sea Gang's Raging Ocean Hall, Hong Shikui.
When Lu Ping returned from the Demonic Sea, he saw with his own eyes that Hong Shikui was accompanied by Yuan Shikong, who later died at his hands. Hong Shikui returned to the mysterious' palace 'through the teleportation formation on the deserted island outside of Autumn Cloud Island. Lu Ping didn't expect to bump into him here today.
As he recalled the deaths of the silver-robed cultivators in the small manor, Lu Ping's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Hong Shikui was in such a hurry to cancel the lease of the cave abode because he discovered something was amiss in the small manor? However, Miao Yi had already destroyed the corpses of the cultivators there, so he probably wouldn't discover that someone had used the teleportation formation to travel from the North Sea to the East Sea. He would only think that someone had ambushed the small manor, discovered the secret crypt, killed all the cultivators in the manor, and destroyed the teleportation formation.
As for the cultivators from the Overturned Sea Gang and the Qiu Clan, they probably wouldn't discover anything either. After all, the beast tide following behind Lu Ping would destroy all evidence. In that case, only Enlightened Master Jin Li would know the truth.
However, it was likely that Enlightened Master Jin Li was no longer in the North Sea!
Lu Ping chuckled coldly. Although he didn't think that destroying the teleportation formation would be enough to kill Enlightened Master Jin Li, if an accident were to occur during the teleportation, it would be more than enough for Enlightened Master Jin Li to bear the consequences.
However, he didn't know what the current situation in the North Sea was like, or if Hu Lili had already safely returned to Zhenling. The North Sea Monster Tribe had launched the beast tide several years in advance. This was clearly premeditated. The various sects of the North Sea were unprepared and would most likely suffer a great loss.
However, he remembered that he, Miao Weidong, and the others had attracted a portion of the beast tide south, inadvertently helping Zhenling weaken the power of the beast tide. However, the Xuan Ling Sect, Yujian Sect, and Ling Gu Sect to the south would be in deep trouble due to the increased strength of the beast tide. Especially since Lu Ping had directly disappeared from the vicinity of Autumn Cloud Island. The beast tide that was following closely behind could only vent its anger on Autumn Cloud Island. If things went badly, the Overturned Sea Gang might suffer another heavy blow.
Lu Ping was currently in the East Sea, so the situation in the North Sea had nothing to do with him for the time being. However, what surprised Lu Ping was that the murderers of the cultivators in the small manor were actually the First Miss of the Li Clan and her group.
That day, before Lu Ping destroyed the corpses, he first asked Samling to collect the cultivator's aura that lingered in the air. He didn't expect that when he entered the city today, he would coincidentally bump into the First Miss of the Li Clan and her group, who had just returned from a hunt. Samling instantly discovered something. The aura on this group was exactly the same as that of the cultivators who had killed the cultivators in the small manor.
Lu Ping had taken care of the aftermath for this First Miss, but he didn't know if the cultivators had left a tracking spell on the First Miss of the Li Clan and her group before they died. However, Lu Ping saw that they didn't even think of destroying the corpses and evidence. It was obvious that they had no experience in this sort of thing. They probably didn't even realize that someone had left a mark on them. However, there should be a Core Forging cultivator in the Li Clan, so these marks should be discovered and erased.
This matter was getting more and more interesting.
Lu Ping thought with great interest. The cultivators in the small manor, Hong Shikui, and the mysterious "palace" behind them were obviously a tyrannical force that spanned the East Sea and the North Sea. And a medium-sized cultivator family on this island actually had the guts to raid their stronghold.
Lu Ping didn't expect that he would encounter such a strange thing as soon as he arrived in the North Sea.
Lu Ping suppressed these thoughts from his mind. After he closed the cave residence, he found that there was indeed a faint spiritual aura inside. The most important thing about a spiritual vein was that it flowed slowly and imperceptibly. This was much better than using spirit stones to cultivate, and there was almost no waste.
Lu Ping released all of his pets. Normally, when he wasn't in front of others, Lu Ping would never keep his pets in the Spiritual Beast Pouch. Therefore, although Lu Ping's spiritual pets were mischievous, they were very intelligent and had a good relationship with Lu Ping.
This closed-door cultivation lasted for five days. After he temporarily stabilized his injuries and refined the excess poison in his body, Lu Ping felt that his cultivation had improved a little.
Lu Ping came out of his closed-door cultivation feeling refreshed. Xiao Sima was already waiting outside the cave residence's protective formation. He was so bored that he was kicking the pebbles on the ground to play with.
When he saw Lu Ping come out, Xiao Sima's eyes lit up. He immediately jumped in front of Lu Ping and said, "Senior Lu, where are we going today?"
"Bring me to all the places that sell spiritual herbs on the island." For some reason, Lu Ping felt a natural sense of closeness towards Xiao Sima. Perhaps it was because Xiao Sima's current experience was very similar to when he was young.
Under Xiao Sima's guidance, Lu Ping swept through all the five-hundred-year-old spiritual herbs that were being sold in the three families' cities. Although he managed to harvest a few hundred stalks of different types of five-hundred-year-old spiritual herbs, most of them were ordinary ones. There were even some rare spiritual herbs that were used as main ingredients that were not sold at all.
However, this was still not bad. Ordinary spiritual herbs were easier to cultivate, but rare spiritual herbs usually had harsh conditions to grow. On an ordinary medium-sized island like this, once they appeared, they would probably be kept by the three families.
Although this kind of large-scale shopping was expensive and could not be hidden from the attention of those who were observant, Lu Ping did not care about this.
As a qualified alchemist, there were only three things he was concerned about every time he went to a new place. The first was to buy as many spiritual herbs as possible. After a cultivator entered the Blood Condensation Realm, pills used for cultivation would become scarce. Other than the difficulty of concocting pills, the most important factor was the scarcity of spiritual herbs. Therefore, it was every alchemist's instinct to collect spiritual herbs regardless of the cost.
Actually, the so-called regardless of the cost was only the opinion of outsiders. Once a cultivator passed the apprentice level and became a pill master, there was no such thing as a loss!
The second thing was to collect as many pill recipes as possible to improve his alchemy skills. There were many kinds of spiritual herbs. If a pill master focused on refining a single type of pill until he died, not only would it be a waste of spiritual herbs, but it would also be difficult to improve his alchemy skills.
The third thing was to collect all kinds of alchemy tools. This was the principle of the saying, "To do a good job, one must first sharpen his tools."
As for whether exposing his identity as an alchemist would cause others to covet him, that would be a joke. How could an alchemist's inheritance be obtained by robbing others? Moreover, every alchemist had a large network of cultivators. Moreover, the alchemist circle was quite strange and xenophobic. The biggest taboo was for outsiders to steal a alchemist's inheritance. Alchemists might look down on each other, but they would never allow others to look down on any alchemist.
Every alchemist would receive sufficient respect in any faction.
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