However, the innkeeper, after casually sweeping with his divine sense, slightly frowned, his expression changing. He said coldly, "These spirit stones are not enough to cover the compensation. The tables, chairs, and wooden planks that were destroyed were all made of precious and rare spirit wood and spirit materials..."
As he spoke, the innkeeper spread his hands again.
Wu Tao was a little angry at this. What kind of spirit wood and spirit materials were they? They were clearly just ordinary junk, not worth even a hundred spirit stones. He was already being extremely generous by giving five hundred spirit stones. He shouldn't be so greedy and push his luck.
After all, he wasn't without backing.
With the colossal Tai Yi Immortal Sect supporting him, he doubted the innkeeper would dare to play any tricks on him in broad daylight.
The innkeeper seemed to have guessed Wu Tao's thoughts. He pointed at the two corpses on the ground and said, "You truly don't know what's good for you. The corpses of Stone Hammer Butcher and the outer disciple of Qing Yang Sect are right here. I don't want anything from them. What's wrong with giving me a little more spirit stones? Are you afraid of losing money?
Wu Tao was initially annoyed by the innkeeper's bully-the-weak attitude, but the innkeeper's words then calmed him down.
Wu Tao pondered for a moment and decided to pay to avoid trouble.
A wise man knows when to yield. When one is under another's roof, they must bow their head. He would endure this matter for now and settle all scores when the opportune moment arrived.
He threw another three hundred spirit stones to the innkeeper. The innkeeper nodded with satisfaction and turned to leave.
After the innkeeper disappeared, Wu Tao focused his attention entirely on the corpses of Stone Hammer Butcher and Yu Zhipeng.
As a notorious killer, Stone Hammer Butcher's possessions of spirit stones and treasures were definitely unimaginable to ordinary people.
This was also why the outer disciples of the righteous sects relentlessly pursued Stone Hammer Butcher. After all, killing him would not only bring generous rewards from their sects but also allow them to become rich overnight, a tycoon among Qi Condensation stage cultivators.
...
With many eyes around, Wu Tao stealthily collected the storage bags from the corpses of Stone Hammer Butcher and Yu Zhipeng. After a thorough search, Wu Tao then examined Stone Hammer Butcher.
His face was ferocious, covered in a tangle of scars, making it impossible to distinguish his nose and mouth. Only his eyes were wide open, staring intently at Wu Tao.
Shaking his head, Wu Tao took out a black cloth from his storage bag and, with a swift hand movement, slashed it downwards.
Then Wu Tao wrapped the severed head of Stone Hammer Butcher in the black cloth, tied a knot from top to bottom, tightly encasing the head so that only a rough outline was visible from the outside.
This head could be used to claim the sect's reward.
Wu Tao found quite a few spirit stones on Stone Hammer Butcher.
Counting them, there were over a thousand spirit stones piled in the storage bag. Beside them were several bottles of precious healing elixirs, some elixirs to enhance spiritual power, more than a dozen medium and low-grade magical artifacts, and dozens of talismans. For a rogue cultivator, these were definitely a fortune.
Wu Tao, as an outer disciple of a top immortal sect, had a total of just over a thousand spirit stones on him.
In addition to these, there were also some spirit herbs for alchemy, raw materials for forging artifacts, and valuable items left from hunting demonic beasts. All these miscellaneous items added up to a considerable sum of spirit stones.
Perhaps selling them to his sect for contribution points would be a good option.
...
A sect also needs to be managed. Especially a sect with a history of thousands or even tens of thousands of years, its internal systems are even more perfect.
Contribution points are a common system.
Disciples can earn contribution points by completing tasks assigned by the sect. These contribution points can be used to obtain items and techniques that are not available outside or are much cheaper than the market price. This benefits the disciples and also strengthens the sect.
The advantages of joining a sect are often reflected in these aspects.
Ordinary rogue cultivators might obtain relatively high-level cultivation methods through serendipity, or they might, like Wu Tao, painstakingly gather enough resources for their cultivation by adventuring and hunting demonic beasts, coupled with occasional backstabbing.
However, in other aspects, they can never compare to sect disciples...
That is the accumulation of knowledge and the richness of resources.
The accumulation of knowledge is the primary reason why sects can always suppress rogue cultivators and families.
Sects with thousands or even tens of thousands of years of heritage possess countless cultivation experiences accumulated by their ancestors.
These cultivation experiences are recorded in jade slips, becoming important knowledge for younger disciples to draw upon and learn from.
Therefore, sect disciples always spend half the time cultivating techniques and spells compared to rogue cultivators and family disciples, have a fifty percent higher success rate, and their techniques are thirty percent more powerful.
These incremental differences eventually form a chasm between rogue cultivators, family disciples, and sect disciples.
...
The richness of resources is another reason why sect disciples are superior to rogue cultivators and family disciples.
No matter how capable or talented rogue cultivators and family disciples are, or how much spirit stone they can earn, they cannot escape one problem.
The more they know, the more they are involved, and even a slight distraction can delay their cultivation path and prevent them from going further.
In a sect, there are alchemists, artifact refiners, talisman masters... and all sorts of immortal cultivation artisans. What talent is lacking?
This allows the true cultivation disciples within the sect to focus on their practice, aside from earning some spirit stones themselves.
...
On the other hand, Yu Zhipeng, the outer disciple of Qing Yang Sect, had less fortune. He only had over three hundred spirit stones and some worthless artifact refining materials. However, there was a surprise: a jade bottle contained a small Qing Yang Pill.
To improve his meal, Wu Tao bought a roasted three-colored spirit chicken from outside, took out two coarse ceramic bowls from under the bed, poured some spirit wine, and began to eat heartily.
After eating, Wu Tao sat cross-legged and began his daily arduous cultivation. He cultivated for over a dozen hours.
...
Those who achieved great things in ancient times possessed not only extraordinary talent but also unwavering perseverance.
One sows, one reaps. Effort brings reward; this is an eternal truth.
Even if the reward is minuscule, as long as one persists, success will eventually come.
Wu Tao, with his mediocre cultivation talent, was able to reach the peak of the thirteenth level of the Qi Condensation stage at the age of twenty-four because he harbored a terrifying stubbornness and refusal to admit defeat.
...
For the sake of his inner pride, and to prove that he was no weaker than anyone else in this world.
He diligently cultivated while completing various sect missions, even resorting to backstabbing to acquire ample resources and speed up his spiritual power cultivation.
In these years, he wasted not a single moment, which led to his current cultivation and realm.
...
However, he was now at a critical juncture, preparing to make a full push to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
The embarrassing truth was that the spirit stones Wu Tao currently had in his storage bag were only enough to buy one Foundation Establishment Pill, not enough to support his dual cultivation of both Dharma and body from the peak of the Qi Condensation stage to the Foundation Establishment stage.
...
Generally speaking, for an ordinary cultivator at the peak of the Qi Condensation stage, if their aptitude is decent, one Foundation Establishment Pill is almost sufficient for breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
However, those who cultivate both Dharma and body require twice or thrice the resources of ordinary cultivators of the same realm. Furthermore, Wu Tao's aptitude was inherently mediocre, even poor. He needed even more Foundation Establishment Pills.
At least four Foundation Establishment Pills were required.
There will always be people in this world who die because of poverty. I hope that person is not me..."
Therefore, Wu Tao had to find ways to earn more spirit stones to buy Foundation Establishment Pills.
Even if it meant outright robbery and blatant seizure of various resources, he wouldn't care.
Gentlemanly demeanor and romantic charm were nonsense. In the cultivation world, strength was paramount.
The cultivation world was an order established by power.
Wu Tao's life philosophy was that he would rather be a great villain who was hated and despised by others, living a glorious life that would be remembered for eternity, than to be an ordinary person who toiled his entire life and ended up with nothing.
No one starts at the pinnacle. Everyone, regardless of who they are, rises from weakness to strength.
...
As the saying goes, if you want to get rich overnight, besides robbing, there is only gambling.
Humans have their ways, and snakes have their ways.
In the cultivation world, besides the righteous and demonic paths, the black and white, there is also gray.
Demonic cultivators slaughter cities and exterminate sects, amassing mountains of plunder. Relics from the three ancient eras—Primordial, Desolate, and Ancient—are as numerous as cow hairs...
There are also tomb robbers who steal numerous treasures from the tombs of great cultivators after their deaths. Miners venture into mountains to excavate genuine and fake ores born from heaven and earth and imbued with treasures.
A significant portion of these treasures cannot be traded.
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