Promised Enormous Gains

The entire room was filled with eery green light, but he could not tell where the light was coming from. The stone walls were damp and covered in moss, but the air here was very dry. On the stalactite walls, there were also a few withering vines. The vines intertwined with each other, weaving across half of the wall surface. There were even a few withering flowers growing on the vines.

Di Lan looked at the remnants of these flowers and leaves, feeling somewhat familiar.

"These are Orchidium, a natural resource type spirit orchids." Suddenly, a thought had crossed his mind and he was able to recognize these withering stems and vines.

Spirits can be categorize into two kinds and two types: living and non-living; heavenly and earthly.

Living Spirits are usually heavenly, they are the Spirits that have its own will and consciousness. These are the Spirits which the Spirit Masters refine to be used as their source of power.

On the other hand, non-living Spirits are usually earthly, they are the Spirits that were used as cultivation resources by Spirit Masters.

Spirits came in many different species and forms. Some were like mineral rocks such as the sapphire form of the Moonfang Spirit. Some came in the forms of bugs, such as the Butterfree. There were also flowery grassy types, just like these Orchidium before Di Lan.

Just with pouring in spiritual essence would they be able to grow. After growing up, the flowers would secrete spiritual nectar which a vial of this nectar can be used to refine Spirit Master's spiritual essence.

Di Lan moved his line of sight along the vines, and sure enough he discovered a heap of withered roots gathered into a ball-shaped clump at a corner. The Butterfree was resting on the clump of dead roots, sleeping soundly. It was already within easy reach.

Di Lan walked over and cautiously took the Butterfree into his arms. Then, he got onto his knees and pulled the dead vines apart, discovering a pile of skeleton bones bundled inside.

"I've finally found you, Demon Monk." There was a smile on his lips as he saw this.

The Demon Monk's remains was originally intact, but right now it was broken into several pieces. Di Lan could hardly care; he kicked away a piece of leg bone that was in the way and squatted again, searching through the remains.

First, he found a bag of spirit stones. When he opened them, he only found 25 pieces.

"Old miser!" Di Lan spat. The Demon Monk's outer appearance looked flashy, but unexpectedly he only had so little money put aside.

However, he quickly thought of the reason – The Demon Monk went through a fierce battle, add on to the fact that he got tainted by the Moonfang Spirit, so he would definitely have used spirit stones to heal his injuries. To be able to leave behind 25 pieces was actually not bad already.

After that, he found a few heavenly and earthly Spirits remains. Most of them were from flower and grass species, and had all completely withered away. Spirits need spirit essence to survive after all. Though grass Spirit and flower Spirit need less spirit qi, but in this secret cave there was not even a single ray of sunshine, which made the spirit essence contaminated with yin qi.

When Di Lan cleared away the remains of the Spirits, there he found an unadorned jade ring which was slightly buried in the dirt. Di Lan's eyes sparkled right away, this was a spatial ring where you can conveniently put items in a refined space.

In the Mu Yue Village, only those clan elders can own this kind of item. For this kind of item to be used, a Spirit Master has to put a brand on it first by dropping ones blood that contains ones spiritual essence.

Di Lan branded this unadorned spatial ring right away, there he saw 3 bags of spirit stones. Di Lan took out a bag, and saw that it contains 100 spirit stones. As he looked to the other 2 bags, it has 100 spirit stones each also. This means that he has a total of 325 spirit stones now. What a jackpot!

The Demon Monk was on the same rank as the fifth generation clan leader but a stage higher. After fighting a fierce battle, he fought with around ten elders right after. His own Spirit were mostly consumed, he must have planted the Orchidium here as to heal his injuries. Yet in the end, because of the Blackmoon Spirit of the fifth generation patriarch, he was dragged to death.

After thirty years, the Spirit in his possession also died as time passed away. The only ones left were the remains that Di Lan was seeing around.

This Butterfree probably has been reliant on the Orchidium and barely lived through until today. But as the Orchidiums withered away one by one, it also lost its food supply.

This prompted the Butterfree to go outside and look for places with rich spiritual essence. Then in this night, it was attracted by the rich spirit essence in the sword bamboo forest and came before Di Lan.

"Looks like the Butterfree is not just my greatest gain here. The amount of spirit stones was bountiful, it was worth such a risk." A sort of sense of achievement rose into Di Lan's heart.

In his memories, the Butterfree was a Rank Three Spirit, it has regressed its rank to one spirit. To Di Lan's situation as of the moment, this incident is favorable to him because the spirit essence that will be consumed by this Spirit will be much less yet with higher effects compared to the usual Butterfree.

A rank one Butterfree's skill or effect is to raise the aptitude of a Spirit Master to 10 to 30 percent. Since, this Butterfree was once a rank three spirit, its effect now is guaranteed that have been maximized to 40 percent.

"Should I also tell the clan about the remnants of Demon Monk? Maybe, I could gain profits from it." Di Lan thought for a moment, then he pushed away this idea. The Demon Monk's treasure seemed to be just the Butterfree and the spirit stones, but that was not the case.

Sense of loyalty and honour to the clan? Di Lan does not have one bit of that. Especially, when the clan just casually threw his importance right away after finding out his aptitude.

The indifferent nature of the clan will not look at Di Lan with importance. He can only rely on his own hard work and find cultivation resources, in the early stage of cultivation.

"Count on the clan? Heh heh." Di Lan sneered in his heart, "How can I be so naïve like my past life."

Do not depend on anyone; you must rely on yourself on everything in this world.

After making sure that he had ransacked every corner of the cave, Di Lan began his way back following the original road home.

Holding against the water pressure and squeezing past the boulder, he returned outside the mountain. Looking back at this huge boulder, no wonder he couldn't find it for seven days straight even though he wasted so much effort. This place is an underground secret cave. But how was this place underground though? It was clearly in the inside of the mountain.

To be able to find this place tonight was partly due to luck, partly due to hard work, and the biggest reason would be the sword bamboo wine. This sword bamboo wine was really rich, it could be said to be the best in Bao Mao Mountain.

But all of this was no longer important. The Demon Monk's treasure had been unearthed and ransacked by Di Lan; although in the end it was somewhat disappointing that other profits that he should gain was wasted away, it was also reasonable. The most important was that Di Lan's original goal was in his hands, and the resources that he needed was also gotten.

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In the night, the bright crescent gave off clear and pure moonlight. The moonlight was like the maiden's gentle hand, lightly stroking over the Mu Yue Village. Along the way, the bamboo houses were like jade, standing in great numbers. The night breeze blew slowly.

"I hear you! I hear you! Who is it, knocking on the door at this very late at night…" The inn worker grumbled as he opened the door, his eyes puffy from sleep.

But when he saw Di Lan standing at the door, all the displeasure and sleepiness from his expression changed, and he bent his waist and said with a flattering smile, "Ah, young master. This little one is very lucky to be able to open the door for young master."

Di Lan nodded his head, his expression cold with indifference, and walked into the inn.

His expression made the worker laugh in a more humble manner, and he took the initiative to ask, "Young master, are you hungry? Would you like me to notify the kitchens and make some small dishes for you as supper?"

"No need," Di Lan shook his head and only ordered, " Go and prepare some hot water for me, I would like to wash myself."

"Yes!" The worker immediately nodded, "Young master, go on to your room first. I guarantee you, the hot water will be sent over immediately."

Di Lan let out a smile of approval and went up the stairs, heading towards the second floor.

He returned to his room. Just after he lit the lamp, the inn worker came up with a basin of hot water. Of course, there were cloth towels and other toiletries.

Di Lan let the worker leave and closed the room door. He put down the door latch, washed himself and got up to his bed.

Although his body was feeling a little tired, his heart still flared with a surge of excitement. "I finally got my hands on the Butterfree. The Butterfree is much rarer than the Moonfang Spirit, because in a sense it is a growth-type Spirit that increase a Spirit Master's latent talent!"

Di Lan sat cross-legged on the bed and took out the Butterfree. The Spirit was still sleeping soundly. Its body size was slightly bigger than the Moonfang Spirit, soft and purple like a steamed bun.

Under the light, its body was shrouded in a layer of faint silver glittering light, just like a pearl's mellow luster. Two little eyes resembling two roasted sesame seeds were mounted on its chubby white head, making it appear charmingly innocent.

Placed in his hand, it was not heavy. Its weight was just like a pebble. When smelling it carefully, its body exuded a whiff of buttery aroma. The smell was faint and misty, as if it was not there, but unexpectedly, it made him thought of a medium rare steak. Di Lan's nose twitched as he inhaled the fragrance of the Butterfree.

"Next up, I will need to set my heart on holing myself in the inn refining this Spirit. As long as I have a vital Spirit, I can return to the academy and be qualified to stay in the academy dormitories. I'll also be able to borrow the clan resources to cultivate. I can only stay in this inn for one or two times; if I stay too long, the cost would be too much." Di Lan pondered as he was preparing himself for Spirit refinement.

He was originally left with no spirit stones, but now he gained 325 pieces. But to a Spirit Master, this amount of primeval stones still mean nothing.