Danwu Refining Spirit

Chapter Sixty-Two: Utterly Embarrassing

Summer in Tianyun Continent is rather short, and early autumn arrives in the blink of an eye. Although some of the summer heat has not yet dissipated, the weather is no longer as scorching as it was a few days ago.

Today is an auspicious day. The genius disciple Xiao Chong is leading a group of people to the Southern Wilderness to find a new spiritual vein for the family.

Feiyue City has declined, and various cultivation resources are nearly exhausted. Especially in the last two years, the amount of spirit stones mined by the family from the spiritual veins has decreased significantly, and there is a trend of being unable to make ends meet.

If they didn't want to sit idly by and wait for their doom, they had no choice but to find another way out. Therefore, as the leader of the Xiao family, the patriarch Xiao Kaixin took this matter very seriously. He had to thoroughly search through an entire almanac and consult several masters before finally settling on this date.

As for the pioneers, apart from the martial arts master Yin Changkong who was in charge, all other personnel were selected directly from the sect by Xiao Chong. Of course, their martial arts level was all below Martial Apprentice; it wasn't like they were going to war, so why would they need so many experts?

Most importantly, although the Xiao family is the most prominent in Feiyue City, there aren't that many disciples at the Martial Life Realm. They all have their own duties, which cannot be changed casually.

Xiao Chong had his own plans regarding the arrangements for his entourage. Fatty was efficient, so he would naturally be taken along; he could be put in charge of logistics.

Yin Feng must also be included, otherwise how can we seize Yin Changkong's weakness? Moreover, I had dealt with him during the hunting competition, and I felt that he was calm under pressure and had good acting skills, very suitable for negotiating with people.

The Southern Wilderness is now a gathering place for many small families, and all sorts of people want to get a share of the pie, which inevitably leads to a struggle for interests.

When there are conflicts of interest, it's natural to negotiate and deal with different people. Knowing how to speak appropriately to different people is a fundamental skill.

But who has time to chat with them? I need to cultivate myself, okay? Besides, someone as honest as me isn't good at hypocrisy.

Thus, Yin Feng had no idea that he had been branded a hypocrite by Xiao Chong, and joined the pioneering team. Naturally, his father, Yin Changkong, was also among those who were tied to the chariot.

Besides Fatty and Yin Feng, eight more disciples will be selected from the sect academy, making a total of ten people to form a pioneering team.

To facilitate management, these ten disciples were mostly chosen from people of different surnames who were studying at the Xiao family.

In addition, there was a team of one hundred people. These people were used to mine elemental stones after the spiritual vein was found, and they had virtually no combat ability.

On an open ground outside Feiyue City, Xiao Chong was saying goodbye to Xiao Kaixin with a heavy heart, their eyes filled with tears as they held hands and gazed at each other.

"Chong'er, you can rest assured about your journey. I will find someone to take care of everything at home for you. I will also take good care of your little maid. As long as I am here, no one will dare to make any move on her."

Xiao Kaixin held Xiao Chong's hands, her eyes brimming with tears, and said, "Also, if things don't go smoothly..."

"Cherish life, flee far away." Xiao Chong quickly replied, trying to break free from Xiao Kaixin's old hand, but the other party held on too tightly and he couldn't pull away at all.

Xiao Kaixin nodded and said, "It's good that you know, it's good that you know."

As he spoke, he stretched out an old hand and gently stroked the back of Xiao Chong's hand to show his affection and care.

The texture is just... too rough! Xiao Chong groaned inwardly, his chrysanthemums falling to the ground.

Just as Xiao Kaixin finished speaking, Xiao Chong had barely escaped the clutches of the demon when he was immediately grabbed by another pair of hands.

But the feel of these hands is much more comfortable; they are small, delicate, and tender.

"Young master, remember to take good care of yourself when you go out alone. Keep this change for when you're out."

Qingmeng grabbed Xiao Chong's hands, sobbed a few times, and took out a thick stack of silver notes from her bosom, stuffing them into his hands.

Getting the money-grubbing Qingmeng to bleed out of him is no easy feat. Looking at the silver notes, Xiao Chong was moved to tears.

But Qingmeng, do you know that these silver notes were issued by banks in Feiyue City? They are worthless outside the jurisdiction of Feiyue City.

Outside, real gold and silver are the only hard currency, but even harder is spirit stones. Of course, the most popular is the spirit energy card, which can store spirit energy.

It must be said that the people of Tianyun Continent are quite creative. Since there is no unified administrative body, there is naturally no concept of currency. Therefore, gold and silver become the standard for measuring the value of an item.

In the eyes of cultivators, gold and silver are fine for buying ordinary items, but they prefer to exchange for various cultivation resources with spirit stones. However, one cannot carry a large amount of spirit stones or gold and silver when traveling, so spirit cards came into being.

A so-called Yuanli Card is a card made of special materials that can store Yuanli (energy). The amount of Yuanli can be displayed as a number on the card.

These cards are blank when they are first made. Cultivators can input their Yuan energy into them for themselves or other cultivators to absorb.

The numbers on the card are called card points. The higher the card point, the more elemental energy it stores. Each time the elemental energy inside is absorbed, the card point will decrease accordingly until it reaches zero, and the card will become a blank card again.

Regarding the exchange rate, one card point is roughly equivalent to the value of a two-inch square elemental stone.

This knowledge was all crammed before going to the Southern Wilderness, since Xiao Chong's previous status would have made it impossible for him to come into contact with high-level items like Yuanli Cards.

Seeing Xiao Chong's mournful expression, Xiao Kaixin generously extended his hand and said, "I'll help you exchange them all for Yuanli cards. They'll be convenient to use after we get out, and you can keep them to replenish your Yuanli."

"Thank you, clan chief." Xiao Chong was very polite.

There's no way to be polite. You have to understand that Yuanli Cards are highly sought after; they can't be bought with just silver. Moreover, unless absolutely necessary, no cultivator would use Yuanli Cards to exchange for anything.

"With his wealth, it's not easy for him to accumulate such a thick stack of silver notes. These small denominations are the most inconvenient to use, as they are scattered in small pieces, and some may even be worth only one tael. I should give him more later..." Xiao Kaixin thought as he took the silver notes from Xiao Chong's hand.

"Huh, the top one is still worth a thousand taels. I wonder if they secretly sold off their family fortune." Xiao Kaixin was secretly surprised and continued counting down.

"Ugh, another thousand-tael note. I wonder how much of his family fortune he's secretly sold off." Xiao Kaixin glanced at Xiao Chong and had already mentally categorized him as a spendthrift.

"Huh, why is it still a thousand taels?" Xiao Kaixin thought he might be seeing things and rubbed his eyes hard.

One thousand taels.

One thousand taels.

It's still one thousand taels.

How many are there? Xiao Kaixin became more and more alarmed as she counted, her face turning green.

Half a day later, the silver notes were finally counted. Xiao Kaixin glanced at Xiao Chong and, taking advantage of the other's inattention, secretly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

A full million taels of silver, enough to exchange for a thousand Yuanli cards. I couldn't possibly scrape together that much on my own. It's truly a huge embarrassment.