"Oh, what did he leave?" She asked with excitement, curious about the inheritance left by a person capable of leaving behind such intense sword intent.
"There were several spiritual stones equivalent to a thousand low grade spiritual ones and a pill recipe."
"Uh?" She deflated instantly, hearing that only those two things were what was left by the person who made the cave. It wasn't that she thought that a thousand spiritual stones was too low but that she thought that he would leave a powerful sword technique or something of the like.
Seeing her expression of surprise and disappointment, Ling Xu continued. "Don't worry, although it may seem like too little for his strength since this person was in the Core Condensing Realm in his peak, the pill recipe he left behind will be very useful later to refine a pill that will helps us when we breakthrough that realm."
"What?" Sun Qinglan's ears perked up and her face brightened once again. "The pill recipe he left behind is actually helpful for when we breakthrough to the Core Condensing Realm!"
Ling Xu observed her sudden reaction and couldn't understand why she became so surprised at this.
"Since that's the case, that is more than enough as an inheritance." Seeing his confused face at this, she continued. "Although pill recipes aren't particularly a secret when it comes to the most basic pills, there are some that are impossible to get even if you spend all the spiritual stones you possess after saving up for years."
"I didn't expect it to be so hard to get one."
"That's right, and that's because apart from the basic pills like qi refining pill, qi condensing pill, qi replenishing pill and healing pill, there are a myriad variety of pills which may have different miraculous effects. Some of them may be able to help regrow a complete arm, which is on another level compared to a normal healing pill, while some may be able to increase one's foundation and strength, making every stage in our cultivation to have a higher limit compared to before."
"Now that I think about it, the crimson veins pill that come from Lesser Crimson Town must be one of those special pills. After all, this pill can only be bought from the Treasure Shop and it also sells it to other towns since there aren't other pills like it."
"So it is actually like this." Ling Xu begun understanding how important this pill recipe was, since it would probably have some special effect compared to the pills he had already made contact with.
"Yes, and this pill recipe is even more precious since it is for when one breaks through to the Core Condensing Realm. Seeing it this way, it must have the effect of increasing the foundation of the realm once you advance and it can help anyone who uses it have the ability to fight stronger people and even surpass one's own stage."
Saying this, she looked at his brother as she realized that Ling Xu already had the ability to fight those who were a stage above him, he was even able to surpass several stages as she didn't even know which was his current level of strength within the Qi Refining Realm.
"That's great, then we will be able to build a much stronger foundation!" Ling Xu said excited about it since he would welcome anything that would allow his strength to increase even more.
After explaining to him the importance of this pill recipe, they walked for a few minutes until they left the cave as they could see the light once again. Ling Xu then used his new spatial ring which contained the space equivalent to a whole room and took out half of the spiritual stones.
Seeing the small mountain of low grade spiritual stones, she already knew what he meant by it. "Brother Xu, it is okay you can keep the spiritual stones. You only need to help me refine a pill once I am at Foundation Building and have the ability to breakthrough to the next realm."
Ling Xu was speechless, he couldn't understand why she wasn't moved at all by the spiritual stones on the ground. With this quantity she would be able to buy a high grade treasure or several techniques, she would even be able to support her cultivation through several stages in the Qi Refining Realm.
As she saw his reaction, she realized that she needed to explain a little. "It is not that I don't want them but I don't need them." As he heard this, Ling Xu heard her intently since he didn't expect her to say that she wasn't interested in half a thousand low-grade spiritual stones. "Two months ago, I became the disciple of an inner elder who also happens to be a third grade alchemy refiner. With his help, I won't have a need for spiritual stones until I reach Core Condensing."
"So that's how it is." Ling Xu now made sense of her lack of interest in the small mountain of spiritual stones. "Then I will keep them for myself." He moved his hand and his spatial ring absorbed them once again. He didn't hesitate since he understood that she didn't really need them at all.
I didn't know alchemy refiners had so many resources, I thought that they would have to waste a lot of resources for them to refine pills.
He pondered since he saw Sun Qinglan not surprised by five-hundred low grade spiritual stones. If she wasn't moved by that he wondered how many resources his master would have.
They then begun returning as they weren't planning on staying for the night outside the sect knowing that there could be several dangers since they both had a very low cultivation realm.
On their way back, before arriving, Ling Xu gained the courage to ask the hard question that he had been pondering, seeing that she wouldn't mention it at all.
He apologized in the best way he could about killing her fiancée since he didn't know what was their current situation and could have killed the love of her life. But he didn't think that way because of the way she addressed Lu Wenjie and how she didn't seem very affected by his death.
"Don't worry, I didn't like him at all. If it wasn't because he found out that I had become my master's disciple and I had a foot on the inner sect he would have never asked his family to arrange a marriage." She said lightly.
"It seems that she didn't have any kind of relationship with him, that's fortunate. Else I wouldn't know how to look at her again." He was relieved since he was worried about losing his new sister, still it wouldn't affect him much as only a small time had passed since they knew each other. But Ling Xu was one to care about his relationships since he knew its importance after losing his mother.
Even now, he vividly remembered his friend Lu Xie from Earth and how little time he had before having to part ways. If Ling Xu had a way in the future to return and see his friend again he would do everything he could to make it possible.
"I am sorry if it seemed that way when you killed him, but I only reacted that way because it seemed that you did it without a reason. But it was only because he went after you first." Her face suddenly showed a little bit of guilt as she paused for a second and then continued. "I also want to apologize, I already expected for him to try something, but I never knew that he would try to kill a fellow disciple."
Ling Xu felt her sincere apology. "That's okay, you didn't expect that all of this would turn this way. Who would have thought that it all happened because of a slight spar." He ended with a laughing tone.
The mood seemed to ease since Sun Qinglan also laughed a little after hearing him trace back to when she was irritated and she challenged him to a duel. "You had also quite the role in it, who would have thought that you would try to provoke me once we were on the arena." She then sighed. "But now I understand were your confidence came from, who would have thought that you were so strong."
A trace of emotion could be heard since she longed for the kind of strength that she saw in Ling Xu. "I still don't know how you managed to kill the seniors he brought with him. But you don't have to tell me."
His mouth opened up a little. "Fortunately, she didn't ask for an answer since I would have had to lie." He wouldn't have known how to answer since it would all be related to his secret and him coming from another world.
Ling Xu believed that even if he called himself a genius of a hundred years he wouldn't have been able to explain everything since even geniuses had a limit on winning against someone that surpassed them several stages.
Back at the sect, they first went to the Affairs Hall and claimed the reward from the mission and gave to Zhou Xueqin, the person in charge of attending disciples, a bag containing thirty-four fangs from the Ashen Fire Wolves.
They didn't say anything about the missing people from their group since outer disciples could choose missions from the signboard without registering them on their names so the sect didn't have a track on who participated on which mission.
As they came out, Sun Qinglan asked to keep the reward form the mission since she said that she would have a few days before meeting her master and needed to buy a few pills to breakthrough and was currently short on them.
Ling Xu didn't object after obtaining a total of two middle grade spiritual stones and eight-hundred low grade ones.
Afterwards, they separated as he headed to his room to settle everything that he had obtained until now.
Standing up in his room, Ling Xu had taken out everything he had gotten until now as it was neatly separated into categories.
"With this I should be able to survive for a long time." A small mountain of low grade spiritual stones and two middle grade ones could be seen, he counted every single one as he found out that he now had the value of 1100 low grade ones.
Apart from that, there were four treasure sword that all looked very different. One of them being the one he had been using until now was of low grade, and the other three were of middle grade, being from Lu Wenjie and the two seniors who remained nameless until the end.
"This one looks special." He observed the one from the senior who had died prematurely, he was in the eight stage and his qi must have been of the fire element since his sword contained fire properties, giving off a warm feeling from the light that emanated from the red lines on it.
He didn't even care to refine it since Ling Xu's current techniques had nothing to do with the fire element so he knew that it would have no effect on him. On the contrary, it could even prove to make his sword technique less effective since his Flowing Stream Sword technique contained the concept of water, having the flow of a stream.
"I should consider buying my own sword since every one of these were gotten from others and maybe I can also get one with the water element." He said since he now had more than enough spiritual stones to buy one for himself.
Apart from the swords, there were also two bottles containing ten middle grade qi refining pills and three low grade qi replenishing pills. The five low grade qi refining pills had already been used by him during cultivation and he had even had to buy another bottle of ten before going on the mission since it helped him refine qi faster.
"Maybe I could start refining middle grade pills since the effect from the low grade ones don't seem to help me as much as before after entering the second stage of Qi Refining." Apart from buying a sword for himself, Ling Xu decided to purchase a few bottles of middle grade qi refining pills apart from the one he already had, to support his current cultivation level.
After seeing the bottles of pills, he turned to the last items he had taken out from his ring. There he saw four spatial rings, every one of them had the treasure level and were low grade, with one of them standing out a little more since it was of middle grade.
"I hope their previous owners had something of value on them before dying."