Chapter 80: This Is Mine
In the middle section of Yunzhong Mountain Range, in front of Sun Man's cave.
"Boom, boom, boom."
Intense bursts of explosions rang out. Hu Buwei looked at the formation in front of him with great helplessness. He led over ten Qi Refining Period cultivators and had been attacking for over half a month. But the Eight Gate Golden Armor Formation truly lived up to its reputation as a third-tier formation. There was still no sign of breaking it.
"Elder, we are exhausted."
A cultivator at the Qi Refining Period spoke to Hu Buwei, saying that the spiritual power of Qi Refining Period cultivators was not strong enough. After an hour of fighting, they needed to rest and recover their spiritual power.
"Take a rest, once your spiritual power is restored, we will immediately take action. The treasures inside this formation are beyond your imagination. Drinking a potion will be enough to support you for three to five years."
Hu Buwei once again made big promises to them. He didn't dare ask for help from a cultivator at the Building Foundation Period, as that would inevitably lead to infighting. But it would be different with someone at the Qi Refining Period. He would decide how much they would get in the end.
The leader at the Qi Refining Period showed a happy expression. Before this, they had attacked the outer layer of the second-order formation and only took three days to break it. After breaking the formation, they discovered a fifty-acre spiritual land filled with medicinal herbs. Each person's share of the herbs was worth thousands of spirit stones. If they could break the formation inside, they would make a huge profit.
"Someone is coming."
Just as everyone sat down to rest, they sensed someone arriving through the air. More than ten people immediately stood up and took out their magical weapons to prepare. Hu Buwei also took out his own flying sword.
"Taoist Friend Lin"
Hu Buwei saw the newcomer and felt relieved. They were all people who had attended a meeting with Sun Man before, people he knew. Friend Lin was still at the early stage of building their foundation as an independent cultivator, while he was already at the mid-stage of building his foundation, so he had nothing to worry about.
"So it's Friend Hu who practices Taoism. What is Friend Hu here for?"
"Friend Lin, you may not know this, but Friend Sun has gone on a long journey. Before leaving, they entrusted the cave to me for safekeeping. If Friend Lin doesn't have any urgent matters, it's best to leave for now. Friend Hu is busy with something and can't entertain Friend Lin."
"Is that so? But I also received a request from Friend Sun to help manage the cave."
Lin Jiang said coldly. He was furious because he had returned from Yunzhong City to find that his house had been robbed.
The formations were broken through, and all the spiritual medicines in the spiritual land were taken away. Even the spiritual fruits on the mountain were completely picked, and the spiritual bamboo at the entrance was uprooted. Damn it, they even took away the fish fry in the fishpond.
It was a complete ransacking, almost making Lin Jiang vomit blood. This was a home he had spent over three years building, investing so many spirit stones and effort into it. He hadn't even had the chance to enjoy it, and now everything had been cheapened by someone else.
Moreover, it seemed like it had been several days already, and he had nowhere to even start investigating. How could he not be angry?
"It seems that Taoist Friend Lin also knows about Sun Taoist Friend's unfortunate situation. So, I won't pretend anymore, Taoist Friend Lin. This place is mine now, please leave."
Hu Buwei smiled and said. The biggest opportunity in the middle of the Yunzhong Mountain Range is other people's caves. Many independent cultivators are watching many caves. If a cave has been inactive for more than a month, someone will target it.
They will determine if the owner of the cave is dead, missing, or in seclusion, and then make a choice. If they choose correctly, they will benefit greatly. If they choose wrongly, they might lose their lives.
However, there are still many people doing this job every year. Some even set traps and specifically hunt down those independent cultivators. Yunzhong City has seen countless independent cultivators who just arrived and didn't know the risks, and lost their lives here.
Hu Buwei was also a member of the exchange meeting a few months ago. When Liu Dong killed fuliu-jian and Shen Bo, he was there too. Like Lin Jiang, he chose to go home at that time.
After that, he never heard any news from Sun Man, so he sent people to keep an eye on him. They watched for about three months, but never saw Sun Man. He realized that something had happened to Sun Man, so he gathered a group of people to seize the cave.
Lin Jiang wasn't the first to come here. Several others had come before, but he scared them away. This is how the Yunzhong Mountain Range is—it's a survival of the fittest, where the strong prevail.
"It's a coincidence, I also have my eye on this place. You can leave now."
"It seems that today I am going to ask Taoist Friend Lin to teach me some great tricks."
"Come on"
Lin Jiang also took out his flying sword, an excellent quality spiritual weapon, which looked plain and unremarkable.
"Go"
"One Sword Flying Immortal"
The two of them were a hundred meters apart, each summoning their flying sword. The two flying swords quickly collided in midair.
"Snap"
With a crisp sound, Hu Buwei's flying sword instantly shattered. This scene made people gasp in disbelief and feel heartbroken. After all, this was a high-quality spiritual weapon sword that he had spent a lot of money to buy. And now it was gone just like that?
Lin Jiang's flying sword continued its momentum, directly aiming for Hu Buwei's face. Hu Buwei immediately threw out a second-order defense spiritual talisman and took out a shield spell to defend himself.
"Boom"
Lin Jiang's flying sword pierced through the protective shield created by the spiritual talisman, and then stabbed Hu Buwei' magic shield. Hu Buwei felt a strong jolt in his hand, causing his face to turn pale.
"So strong!"
"Come again!"
Lin Jiang activated his flying sword, causing it to swing back and then fly out again.
"Golden light spell!"
Hu Buwei yelled, he only had one flying sword, once it was used, it disappeared. But he wasn't willing to give up just like that. He quickly performed a spell gesture, wanting to fight against Lin Jiang again. It didn't make sense for a mid-level Building Foundation cultivator to lose to an early-stage Building Foundation cultivator.
The golden light hit Lin Jiang's flying sword but had no effect. The sword directly pierced through Hu Buwei' magic shield, breaking through his arm and causing him to scream in pain.
"Splat"
The scream abruptly stopped, a drop of blood appeared on Hu Buwei' temple, slowly growing larger. Hu Buwei collapsed to the ground.
Lin Jiang put away his flying sword and also retrieved the hidden flying needles. These needles are superb quality spiritual weapons, made primarily from the tail needle of a certain third-level demonic bee, inscribed with special formations. Even someone in the Golden Core Period wouldn't be able to notice them if they weren't serious.
"Run quickly."
Seeing Hu Buwei defeated and dead, the rest of the Qi Refining Period cultivators immediately scattered. Lin Jiang didn't bother chasing after them. There was no need.
Lin Jiang approached and took Hu Buwei' storage bag, then dug a hole nearby and buried him. Lin Jiang was someone who paid attention to details. While others might only care about killing, he took care of both killing and burial.
Taking out Sun Man's control token, Lin Jiang swaggered into Sun Man's cave. The area controlled by Sun Man's cave was even larger than his own home, but the core region was only a few hundred acres. The spiritual medicines and such in the outer regions were all gone.
"Purple Gold Tooth, Yellow Purple Flower, Three-Leaf Lotus, and many second-level spiritual medicines, all main ingredients for True Yuan Pills."
Lin Jiang glanced at the Spiritual Herb Garden in the core region, which had a large-scale cultivation of second-level spiritual medicines used by cultivators in the Building Foundation Period. Most of them were main ingredients for True Yuan Pills. Considering Sun Man's identity as an alchemist, this wasn't surprising.
However, the most precious thing was a Spiritual Herb Garden behind the cave. It covered about five acres and had only twelve plants. Each plant was isolated by its own formation. These were fourth-level spiritual medicines, and each plant had a medicinal age of over a hundred years.
"Where did Sun Man get these good things? So many, he hit the jackpot."
Lin Jiang was suddenly filled with joy. The fourth-grade spiritual medicine was very valuable and difficult to cultivate. If they were allowed to mature, each plant could make even an ordinary Building Foundation Period cultivator wake up laughing in the middle of the night.
"It seems like Sun Man has invested a lot in these twelve spiritual medicines."
Lin Jiang noticed a pile of powdered spirit stones nearby. Those were the result of spirit stones being depleted of spiritual energy. Lin Jiang estimated that there were at least tens of thousands of spirit stones.
But thinking about it, Sun Man's spiritual energy in his cave was not enough to support the growth of the fourth-grade spiritual medicines. Even if he used the Spirit Gathering Formation to gather the spiritual energy from several kilometers around, it wouldn't be enough because he also had other spiritual medicines to take care of and his cultivation also required consumption. So he had to use spirit stones to supplement it.
"Sun Man, my Taoist friend, in the future, I will invest more in your investments. You can rest assured that I won't waste a single bit of these twelve spiritual medicines."
Lin Jiang silently thought to himself, cultivating high-grade spiritual medicines was like a long-term investment for cultivators, similar to playing fixed investments. Every year, or even every month, you would invest some funds in it for several decades or even hundreds of years. Then you would receive a large harvest, perhaps even becoming rich overnight.
Lin Jiang saw how much effort Sun Man had put into this, so he couldn't waste it. He had to pick up where Sun Man left off.
Wealth, it doesn't disappear, it only transfers, just like a smile, transferring from your face to mine.
Lin Jiang found the foundation of the Spiritual Herb Garden and rearranged the spirit stones. Afterwards, he toured the core area.
The next step was a clean sweep, erasing all traces of Sun Man's existence. From now on, this cave would be renamed Lin's.
Two days later, Lin Jiang went to Yunzhong City once again and bought a second-order formation set. He incorporated Sun Man's original cave into it, serving as the outer perimeter.
Lin Jiang decided to stop taking care of bamboo, fruits, and fish ponds. It was taking too much time and not bringing much profit. Instead, he scattered a lot of magic medicine seeds, following the way those bad uncles did. He would let nature take its course and see how many would grow. After all, it was impossible to control everything.
In the coming time, he felt that he needed to work hard.
"Say no to being complacent, say no to laziness, and let's start with me."
Lin Jiang gave himself a pat on the back, and it made him feel really touched.
