Tower. Cultivation Chamber.

  Oom! Ethereal Qi swirled like a silent storm, converging toward Bubai – now seated in a meditative posture on the bed with a spirit stone clutched in each hand.

  The fully active mysterious Qi absorption formation hummed with life, not letting even a sliver of the pure energy dissolving from the shrinking crystalline stones go to waste.

  It wasn’t long before the energy in both stones were drained, adding another four percent to his dew pool, almost raising the water level in the spherical mysterious space to its halfway mark.

  Bubai opened his eyes, looked at his palms, and sighed, "And another two spirit stones have turned to dust. Seriously, cultivating with spirit stones literally makes them disappear like flowing water..."

  This method of burning wealth really is painful to bear.

  As, the Inner Sect Exchange was coming up and it was best to be fully prepared.

  Since there was a surplus of wealth in his coffers, it was obviously time to fill up his dantian.

  Of course, refining such an immense amount of Qi in one fell swoop would be a bit taxing on his spirit, but with steady pacing over the next few days, it could be done.

  But right now, Bubai could already feel the toll—an all-too-familiar grogginess.

  Since he didn’t want to wring himself dry like a zombie yet...

  “Guess it’s time for a little rest.”

  Looking over to the side, Bubai found his leg-hugging secretary frozen with her head resting on her knees, watching him with gssy eyes that shimmered like still pools.

  "Uh..." Bubai began sheepishly, "Did I disturb your rest?"

  Still wearing her indifferent, yet serene poker face, Xiao Lan shook her head. "Rest enough."

  Oh, right. He remembered that foundation realm cultivators didn’t need as much rest as mortals.

  Bubai then peeked at the small pouch of spirit stones by her side and suggested, "Then, cultivate?"

  Xiao Lan's eyes flickered coolly. "Qi disturbance too strong."

  Ah… Hearing this, Bubai felt a bit embarrassed inside. There was no need for any finger pointing to pinpoint the cause.

  This was his fault.

  Seriously, he has grown rather accustomed to his mysterious Qi absorption formation and dual cultivation methods.

  This reliance had made him nearly forget some of the basic matters of cultivation.

  Cultivation usually wasn’t as easy as he made it out to be nowadays.

  Gathering Qi for most normal cultivators required intense concentration on running their cultivation circution method.

  Any interruption, whether from the external environment or internal turmoil, could cause a dangerous Qi riot in the body, leading to backsh...

  Spitting blood like in dramas was actually not a joke, but a common thing during cultivation.

  In worse cases, there could be sting damage to the meridians, and if unlucky, even the spirit!

  That’s why so many orthodox cultivators liked to seclude themselves somewhere away from any external interference in order to cultivate in peace.

  On the other hand…

  Dual cultivators just needed to let others do the grunt work of gathering Qi and then harvest the fruits of that bor in one fell swoop.

  This ease was one reason why unorthodox dual cultivation was considered so against the heavens. Same goes for his cheat.

  His mysterious formation took care of all the heavy lifting in the cultivation process, and even if he did some acrobatics in the process, it wouldn’t affect him.

  Sitting and meditating was just a habit he had formed after his long, arduous eighteen-year journey of Qi gathering back at the Cloud Sword Sect.

  But it was at most a ritualistic formality to appear normal during cultivation.

  As, keeping up this facade didn’t mean he was actually normal.

  Siphoning all the Qi in the vicinity was a norm for his mysterious Qi absorption formation.

  But by turning his cultivation chamber into a pce void of Qi, he made it nearly impossible for Xiao Lan to cultivate peacefully.

  This was why she rarely joined him in normal cultivation at home, often retreating to the undisturbed storage room downstairs or the corridor to practice instead.

  Bubai had already grown accustomed to this, leading him to sometimes neglect the actual impact he had on others.

  "Sorry about that..." Bubai awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

  Xiao Lan's poker face softened slightly. "Not matter. Adapt."

  Indeed, she has always been adapting to his every need. Accepting all he gives. Never asking for much.

  A virtuous waifu like her really nagged his conscience when it came to some matters...

  But Bubai didn’t let it bother him for too long.

  He simply took out another small coarse pouch containing three spirit stones.

  Every stone was precious, but it was a bit embarrassing not to share some more, especially since he burned through so many himself and even hogged all the Qi in the tower.

  Adding a handful of talisman he recognized plus some Bigu pills and the likes, Bubai handed them all over with a spare iron sword he looted from a Flower Picking Gang team leader long ago.

  "There won’t be much Qi left in the tower for a while. You can rely on these to recover. The rest is for self defense."

  Xiao Lan quietly continued to stare at him without budging.

  "Errr…” Feeling a bit self conscious, Bubai touched his own face. “Are there flowers on my face?"

  Finally breaking her stare, Xiao Lan shook her head slightly, reaching out to accept the pouch.

  Bowing her head, she opened it and began counting the spirit stones inside…

  Counting and counting, on and on, as if there were an infinite number within.

  Erhmm… she still wore her poker face, but why did he feel she became... strange?

  Well, not a bad kind of strange. Kinda cute even.

  Still, rather than leave her sitting idly, he decided to give her something to do.

  Holding his hands out, Bubai pulled out a modest low end table, followed by two brushes and an inkstone.

  Another flourish of his hands brought out a small pile of pill bottles. To be precise—unidentified pills.

  What he wanted to do wasn’t hard to guess.

  To let his spirit recover, a small break from cultivation was needed, but he didn’t actually have to rest during every break. That’s an inefficient use of time!

  Rexing doesn’t mean he can’t be productive. What’s more productive than sifting through his loot still waiting to be cssified?

  After all, while An Jali had the wisdom to sort and organize things into general categories, but identification was a different matter altogether.

  This required an actual cultivator with a wealth of knowledge and experience. His cultivation secretary happened to fit the bill.

  Bubai gnced at Xiao Lan, seeing her stealing gnces from the corner of her eyes. He offered her a warm smile.

  "Mind helping me identify some more items?"

  Xiao Lan officially turned her head over, looking down at the various pill bottles. "Can."

  With that, she took it upon herself to start grinding ink, gracefully, almost as if it were second nature.

  Seeing her get started, Bubai didn’t dilly-dally and shuffled closer to join her.

  Serene. Soothing. These just came naturally when he was with her… well, except when he’s doing hehehe.

  But there was enough debauchery for today.

  After his little brother’s marathon, any more would be excessive and wasn’t conductive for rejuvenating his groggy spirit.

  Instead, the excitement gained from exploring the fog of mystery hanging over his loot could probably py a better role in invigorating his spirit!

  Plus, doing so was a great preparation for the stash which he could bring to the upcoming Inner Sect Exchange, potentially turning the tide of a battle!

  There were heaps after heaps piled up within the pills and herbs section, let alone the other categories.

  Just imagine the wonderful treasures or precious life-saving pills that were still lost in these piles.

  Maybe a high-css spell-breaking talisman? Perhaps a mysterious pill to deal with Qi-based ailments?

  Possibly other mediums reted to the Seed of Pleasure Art? Or treasures to purge dantian parasites?

  Well, the odds were slim, but it wasn't wrong to have hope, right?