Last night, while Su Ye was dealing with the aftermath of the battle.
He also took the opportunity to search the bodies of Feng Dequan and the others, as well as their rooms.
Because time was limited last night,
he could only roughly gather his spoils and take them with him, without a chance to examine them closely.
Now, Su Ye finally had the time to settle down and take stock of his loot.
First up was the most valuable item: the magical artifact flying saber he had taken from Feng Dequan.
Just calling it a magical artifact flying saber felt a bit disrespectful.
'For now, I'll call this treasure the Shimmering Gold Flying Saber.'
Next were the Spirit Stones and spirit sand from the various pouches.
Su Ye counted them. In total, there were thirty-six and a half Spirit Stones, along with some loose spirit sand.
Spirit sand was the lesser currency to Spirit Stones.
According to the exchange rate at the Donglong Island Marketplace, twelve pieces of spirit sand could be traded for one Spirit Stone.
This spirit sand was roughly equivalent to half a Spirit Stone.
Su Ye's personal wealth instantly jumped from zero to thirty-seven Spirit Stones!
However, some of the Spirit Stones were stained with fresh blood.
'Bloodstained Spirit Stones, huh...' Su Ye raised an eyebrow, his expression flickering.
These Spirit Stones were most likely looted from the corpses of the Luo Family cultivators.
'How unfortunate...'
Su Ye shrugged nonchalantly, deciding to adopt these homeless, wild Spirit Stones.
The Spirit Stones produced on Donglong Island were all of a uniform design, so no one would be able to tell they were ill-gotten goods.
SPLASH.
Su Ye executed the Ghost Water Skill, gathering moisture to wash the bloodstains off the Spirit Stones before putting them away neatly.
After stowing the Magical Artifact and Spirit Stones, the remaining loot consisted mostly of mortal items like gold, silver, jade coins, and wound powders.
They were useful, but not particularly valuable.
'So poor...' Su Ye sighed.
It couldn't be helped. If they weren't poor,
who would risk their lives hunting demons?
Besides, out of caution, Su Ye hadn't touched any Magical Artifacts or Storage Pouches marked by the Luo Family.
This meant his gains this time were bound to be limited.
'Still, a direct profit of nearly eighty Spirit Stones, plus the Gray Ridge Whale meat and the dividends and rewards after our return...'
'The final haul should still be quite substantial...'
Su Ye's heart was as calm as still water, neither arrogant nor impatient.
For him, who was still in the early stages, having enough resources was sufficient. Stability and safety were what mattered most!
After tidying up the miscellaneous items, he was just about to begin his daily cultivation.
Suddenly, Su Ye's brow twitched as if he had noticed something.
'Huh?'
He reached out and felt a leather pouch that had belonged to one of the Loose Cultivators.
Then, he began to take it apart.
From a hidden compartment inside the leather pouch, an old, faded, light gray brocade bag fell out!
'This is... a Storage Pouch?!' Su Ye exclaimed in pleasant surprise.
'The Loose Cultivator actually dropped some good loot?!'
He infused his Magical Power into it, and after a quarter of an hour, he managed to wear away the original Magical Power imprint.
HUM!
Su Ye cautiously extended a sliver of his Spiritual Sense into the Storage Pouch.
A small, independent space appeared in his perception.
The space wasn't large, about a foot in length, width, and height.
There weren't many items inside, just a few Spirit Stones, which brought Su Ye's total assets to forty Spirit Stones.
But that wasn't important.
The Storage Pouch itself was Su Ye's greatest prize this time!
Among first-rank, low-grade Magical Artifacts, Storage Pouches were always among the most expensive!
'Although, something seems off about this Storage Pouch's space...' Su Ye blinked.
Sweeping his Spiritual Sense over it, he could tell.
Wisps of spiritual light from the formation patterns at the edge of the Storage Pouch's space were leaking out.
And the entire space was collapsing at an extremely slow rate!
'The formation patterns are aging, and the space is collapsing?' Su Ye said, stunned.
To wear out a Storage Pouch, known for its durability and stability, to this extent...
would probably take at least two or three hundred years.
Su Ye estimated that the Storage Pouch's original space was probably around three cubic meters.
Ten times its current capacity.
'Just how long was this Storage Pouch used for...?' Su Ye mused, stroking his chin.
If this item wasn't something plundered by a Tomb Raider,
then it was probably a family heirloom passed down through several generations of that Loose Cultivator's family.
'If it breaks in my hands, does that count as destroying a historical artifact?'
Su Ye didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
'Oh, well...'
Su Ye shook his head, no longer dwelling on it.
Judging by the rate of the spatial collapse, as long as nothing major went wrong, it should still be usable for a few more years.
In a few years, he would surely have replaced it with better storage equipment.
'For now, I'll make do with this Storage Pouch. Once I have money, I'll sell it off at a discount.'
Even so, Su Ye took precautions.
He would only put miscellaneous items and some of his Spirit Stones in this museum-piece Storage Pouch.
The Blood-Drinking Spear and the Shimmering Gold Flying Saber would absolutely not be going inside!
The Storage Pouch's space was unstable.
Who knew when it might suddenly implode!
If he put his Magical Artifacts inside and the space collapsed, his losses would be enormous!
After sorting through all his spoils, Su Ye sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and focused his mind, beginning his daily routine of cultivation and breathing exercises...
...
Time passed.
「One month later.」
It was the eighth month since the Flying Serpent had set sail!
CRACK.
A Spirit Stone in Su Ye's hand dimmed and disintegrated into powder.
"Huu..." Su Ye opened his eyes and exhaled a long, turbid breath.
Using Spiritual Self-Inspection to sense the Magical Power within his body, a hint of joy appeared on his face.
'I'm already ninety percent of the way through the second level of Qi Refining!'
Thanks to the steady supply of Gray Ridge Whale meat strengthening his meridians, coupled with the daily absorption of Spiritual Qi from Spirit Stones and the cultivation speed-up from his panel...
With these multiple boosts, even though Su Ye had a low-grade Spiritual Root and mediocre aptitude, his cultivation speed was astonishingly fast!
'As expected, in the Early-stage Qi Refining, resources are the most important thing.'
Among the four great elements of cultivation—wealth, companion, technique, and location—"wealth" comes first!
Sensing the progress of his Magical Power, Su Ye estimated,
'At most two more weeks, and I'll break through to the third level of Qi Refining!'
There were no bottlenecks in the Early-stage Qi Refining; as long as he accumulated enough Magical Power, the breakthrough would come naturally!
'I've advanced a whole level in less than a year. That's even faster than the original owner of this body went from being a mortal who could sense Spiritual Qi to reaching the first level of Qi Refining!'
At this thought, the corners of Su Ye's mouth couldn't help but curve upwards.
'The only slight shame is that my experience point gain has basically stagnated recently.'
Lately, the crew had shown little interest in maintaining the Flying Serpent.
This was only human nature.
After the turmoil of the whale hunt and the rebellion, and with their imminent arrival ashore,
the crew had inevitably grown much lazier about the Flying Serpent's daily maintenance.
They would often go three or four days before reluctantly coming out to maintain the deck once.
In such an environment,
Su Ye was unwilling to act conspicuously out of character just for the one or two experience points granted for daily maintenance on the Flying Serpent.
As a result, his acquisition of experience points had unavoidably stalled.
'But it doesn't matter...'
The five hundred experience points needed to level up [Tide Hunter] weren't something he could gather in just a month or two anyway.
'Besides, my Cultivation Realm comes first. I might as well use this time to cultivate directly to the third level of Qi Refining!'
A sharp glint flashed in Su Ye's eyes.