Chapter 23

Xie Ruolan appeared, indicating that this adventure was finally over. Lin Haoming didn’t waste any words and the two of them flew back to the sect.

Lin Haoming found it strange that Xie Ruolan never used a flying sword or a flying magical tool during the flight. After all, only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage and above could fly using their own magical power. However, this was definitely Xie Ruolan’s secret, and Lin Haoming guessed that even if he asked, she wouldn’t tell him, so he didn’t say anything.

Lin Haoming originally thought that Xie Ruolan would go straight back, but halfway through their flight, she landed on a small hill. After she cast a spell, a green stone on the hill suddenly moved, revealing a cave entrance behind it.

Lin Haoming looked at the cave entrance in surprise.

Xie Ruolan’s urging voice sounded in his ear: “What are you spacing out for? Aren’t you coming in?”

Hearing Xie Ruolan’s call, Lin Haoming immediately followed her in.

After they walked inside, the green stone moved back into place. Lin Haoming looked around and found that this was a temporary cave dwelling.

“Rest here for two hours!” Xie Ruolan instructed as they reached a stone room, then she entered the room herself.

The door of the stone room closed, and a magical array was activated, seemingly to isolate the aura inside.

Lin Haoming didn’t know what Xie Ruolan was going to do here, so he sat down to meditate.

However, he was used to the Five Elements Array for gathering spiritual energy, and sitting in meditation for cultivation was something he couldn’t accept. He gave up after meditating for less than half an hour.

Recalling that he hadn’t carefully inventoried the items they had obtained, he opened all the storage bags.

In total, they had eliminated five people, four of whom were fellow sect members. However, the storage bags of these four fellow sect members weren’t very good, not even as good as his own. The storage bag of the Heavenly Sword Mountain disciple was quite large, about seven to eight zhang in size, which was considered a mid-grade storage bag, and it probably cost two to three hundred spirit stones.

Lin Haoming didn’t hesitate to claim it for himself and put his own things inside.

The storage bags of the five people naturally didn’t contain any spirit stones. The high-grade magical tools, mid-grade and above spirit recovery pills, and some useful talismans were all taken. In addition, some spiritual herbs and minerals, including the Red Sun Ginseng, were also taken, as these things were not refined into pills or magical tools in the first layer.

The remaining items included seven to eight mid- and low-grade magical tools, twenty to thirty low- and mid-grade talismans, over a hundred Qi Gathering Pills, and more than thirty Qi Merging Pills, as well as a small amount of low-grade healing and detoxifying pills.

In fact, Lin Haoming had seen higher-grade healing and detoxifying pills, and even pills to unlock potential, but Xie Ruolan had taken them all. After all, these things were hard to sell in the first layer and were also unnecessary for her.

In addition to these, there were also some used spirit stones. Lin Haoming knew that the sect had a rule that disciples had to turn in their used spirit stones after they were depleted. If they didn’t turn them in, they would be punished. This way, it was a benefit for Lin Haoming.

To others, these were used spirit stones, but to him, they were real spirit stones. Although there were only about three hundred, it was still a significant income.

After two hours, Lin Haoming found that Xie Ruolan indeed came out on time. However, the moment she came out, he sensed a faint cold aura emanating from the room.

At that moment, he recalled the five souls that Xie Ruolan had stored in her gourd. It seemed that Xie Ruolan had refined the five souls here, directly integrating them into her Yin Soul Banner to avoid being punished by the sect’s rules if it was discovered that she had the souls of fellow sect members.

Lin Haoming couldn’t help but admire Xie Ruolan’s meticulousness. He also knew that with five more souls, the power of her Yin Soul Banner had increased significantly. If she could obtain the soul of a Foundation Establishment cultivator as the main soul, she might even have the strength to face a general Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Of course, the soul of a Foundation Establishment cultivator was too powerful for Xie Ruolan, a Great Perfection Qi Condensation cultivator, and too easy to cause a backlash. Even if she had one, she probably wouldn’t integrate it into the Yin Soul Banner.

After leaving the stone room, Xie Ruolan took Lin Haoming out of the temporary cave dwelling and returned to the sect’s teleportation array. The two of them then teleported back to the sect.

Since Lin Haoming couldn’t return to the first layer without Xie Ruolan’s guidance, she specially escorted him to the entrance of the passage to the first layer. Lin Haoming then flew toward the market.

After returning to the market, Lin Haoming entered his cave dwelling. The servant boy saw him and immediately came forward, saying, “Boss, a friend of yours has been waiting for you. He’s been here for two days!”

“What do you mean he’s been here for two days and hasn’t left?” Lin Haoming was puzzled. He couldn’t think of anyone who would wait for him like that.

“Yes! He’s in the soundproof room. I told him to come back in a few days, but he refused to leave and insisted on waiting for you!” the servant boy replied.

Hearing this, Lin Haoming became even more curious. There was no fear of anyone openly attacking here, so he directly entered the soundproof room.

When he entered the soundproof room, Lin Haoming found that the person waiting for him was actually Bao Wenliang.

Since leaving the Floating Pagoda Cave, Lin Haoming hadn’t returned there. Many people in the Floating Pagoda Cave knew he was a shopkeeper here, and some, like Niu Wu, had even come to buy things from him. However, Bao Wenliang had never come.

Although Bao Wenliang had never come before, it was as if they had lost contact. But this time, Lin Haoming found that as soon as he walked in, Bao Wenliang immediately ran to him, knelt down, and hugged his leg, crying, “Senior Brother Lin, save me! You must save me!”

Lin Haoming looked down at Bao Wenliang, who had regressed from the seventh layer of Qi Condensation to the sixth layer, and whose face was pale and looked as if all his blood had been drained.

“What happened?” Lin Haoming asked, frowning. From his appearance, Lin Haoming could tell that something bad had happened to Bao Wenliang, and it might have threatened his life.

Hearing Lin Haoming’s question, Bao Wenliang’s bloodshot eyes welled up with tears of pain. Facing Lin Haoming, he bit his lip and tore open his shirt.

Lin Haoming focused his gaze and his eyes widened in shock, his expression filled with horror!