CHAPTER 244: CHAPTER 244: POPULAR

"Are you talking about this?" Jiang Yuan chuckled as he took out Li Ming’s storage bag, which had not yet reached the unlocking time, from his own storage bag. "I attacked the Ghost City and shattered their souls, how could I not have any spoils?"

Hehe, the spoils aren’t just a storage bag, but the skull, weapons, and materials like ghost bones are also useful to me. I can’t explain it all, so I won’t tell him.

Bai Yunqi’s vertical pupils widened immediately, staring at the ghostly aura emanating from the storage bag in his hand. The whole snake was a bit dumbfounded.

No way, how did the Venerable Family manage that?

Recalling the entire battle carefully, he realized starting with a Fire Element Technique naturally held an advantage over most Ghost Cultivators.

Especially after using the Heaven-Burning Flame, followed by the Black Flame Storm. With the Venerable Family’s abundant spiritual power, the effect was astonishing, and specifically restrained the opponent, making it easy to crush Crazy Li.

After that, the Venerable Family’s tactics were unclear, but they continued to unleash vast mountains and rivers, seemingly without regard for spiritual power, and even switched to close combat mode, wielding what appeared to be an ordinary stick to smash away.

Even though Crazy Li used a Secret Technique to finally retaliate with a Spiritual Strike Technique, the Venerable Family took the hit without seeming affected, and their stick never paused.

Bai Yunqi clearly saw the final scene—the stick struck the opponent’s neck, and Crazy Li’s life force vanished completely on the spot.

But the issue was, I immediately dragged him to run to the wooden house. Could it be...? Bai Yunqi tilted his head, watching the Venerable Family toying with the storage bag. He wondered if they had managed to steal the opponent’s storage bag during the fight.

Wouldn’t Crazy Li be furious?

The more Bai Yunqi thought about it, the more it seemed possible. Imagining the opponent unable to fight back and watching helplessly as the storage bag was taken was quite amusing.

Why did you provoke the Venerable Family?

Thinking their high realm justified barging in to rob with threats—serves them right for getting taught a lesson.

Knowing there were no losses, Bai Yunqi felt much relieved. He narrowed his eyes slightly, swaying his tail in the Spirit Pool, and raised his head slightly. "The Venerable Family is indeed formidable! Although the storage bag is surrounded by ghostly aura, it seems Crazy Li fashioned it as impenetrable as a fortress. Even with his demise, its soul seal remains hard to break. We’ll likely have to wait a few years for the soul seal to gradually weaken and vanish, allowing us to open it."

Is this thing marked with a soul seal?

Jiang Yuan weighed the bag. The system hadn’t given any warning, nor could he discern anything visible, but it seemed he didn’t need to wait years—a little over half a day would suffice.

"Hmm, I’ll first see if I can break the soul seal early using the artifact refining technique. If successful, we’ll soon see what treasures the bag contains." He casually misled Bai Yunqi with the same tactic, as neither Hu Zhile nor Bai Yunqi specialized in other skills, knowing little about this aspect.

Sure enough, the other party was momentarily dumbstruck, thinking that an Artifact Refiner could forcefully break a remaining soul seal?

He’d known Artifact Refiner friends before, but had never heard of this. Maybe it’s a secret ability of Artifact Refiners that only the Venerable Family revealed to him?

Thinking of this, Bai Yunqi looked at Jiang Yuan with admiration and emotion in his eyes. Admiring not only his all-around skills without delaying cultivation but also his intense prowess in battle; touched by the Venerable Family’s forthrightness, sharing even the ability to break a soul seal.

"What do you want for lunch?" Jiang Yuan put away the storage bag, considering what delicacies to prepare from the meat harvested at the slaughterhouse.

He also needed to consider upgrading the storage bag gifted by the system, as the rapidly accumulating items started to max out the slots.

"As cultivators, we shouldn’t indulge in mortal food; by rights, we are capable of absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy and adapting to fasting..."

Bai Yunqi craved Jiang Yuan’s cooked meals, yet still proudly feigned indifference to mortal food, finally saying in a casual tone, "However, the tiger-skin elbow cooked by the Venerable Family last time was aromatic but not greasy, and seemed to provide dietary benefits, making the body feel very comfortable. If it’s convenient..."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yuan also craved elbow, and promptly said, "Of course it’s convenient, I’ll make it right away!"

[Bai Yunqi’s favor +80]

Seeing the Venerable Family agree and head to the kitchen immediately, he sighed softly, "Such a good Venerable Family exists in the world, and I’m lucky enough to encounter them—an incredible fortune indeed!"

Before eating, Jiang Yuan habitually supplied incense sticks in Bai Yunqi’s censer and took out a newly purchased censer from the market to provide Hu Zhile with incense.

Finally fulfilling the dream of consuming Venerable Family’s premium incense, she sat beside the Spirit Pool, feeling excited, nervous, and touched all at once, unable to stop swaying her fluffy white tail slowly.

"Great technique by the Venerable Family!" Hu Zhile praised as she watched him skilfully extinguishing the flame atop the incense, "The incense is excellent too."

Jiang Yuan glanced at the Incense Chart Skills, which had accumulated and leveled up to Level Eight, nodding in agreement, "Yes, thanks to your keen sense of scents, you found many herbs we hadn’t discovered before. With good quality and quantity of raw materials, I could make high-quality incense sticks. I’ve been a bit busy lately, but when I gather more, I’ll set up Xiang Mountain for you guys."

Bai Yunqi’s eyes lit up at the mention of "Xiang Mountain," subtly turning his massive head to peep at Hu Zhile’s censer. Seeing it lacked gold edges and dragon patterns compared to his censer, he felt satisfied, narrowed his eyes, inhaled the incense entirely, and transformed into human form to wait for the meal.

Hu Zhile wasn’t willing to be so extravagant.

Enjoying dedicated incense offerings for the first time, she gracefully brought her fluffy white fox face closer, delicately inhaling the curling fragrance into her body and savoring the power of incense it contained.

This was top-tier service even Lady Yin Mountain hadn’t experienced!

She felt that just a small inhale was a hundred times stronger than the mundane offerings from common folks, relying only on shallow telekinesis to provide a little Power of Incense!

Even if an entire town of residents burned incense day and night, it might not compare to one carefully crafted incense offering from the Venerable Family.

"Truly delicious!" As the incense stick soon burned out, Hu Zhile, now in human form with a radiant smile, enthusiastically said, "I will surely find even better incense materials, and ask the Venerable Family to personally make incense."

Wan Mingchuan watched in bewilderment, nudging Yun Mo with his shoulder and quietly asked, "Brother Mo, when will you be able to consume incense?"

Yun Mo set down the brush he had held with his wings, shaking his head, "My realm is too far off, plus I’m just the master’s mount. Competing with these two for the role of Family Immortal would be increasingly challenging. I wouldn’t even dream of achieving what you ask."

Figuring that he could better spend his time learning and cultivating than indulging in envy and curiosity, he reminded himself to focus on his tasks.

Since the master entrusted him the execution of Qing Wu, avenging his fallen comrades, Yun Mo had learned a few more words, enough to understand texts with slightly more characters. He used to read little and lacked introspection; now reading, he realized the need to settle and reflect quietly.

By focusing on himself, undertaking current tasks earnestly, and avoiding daydreaming about others’ overflowing orchards, he found fewer distractions and less distress.

Being by the master’s side presented many opportunities. Only by laying a solid foundation could he seize his opportunity firmly when it arrived!