The next morning, Gu An woke up from his bed, sunlight shining on his sleepy face. He couldn't help but rub his eyes.

The previous day's battle during the day and the standoff at night had been utterly exhausting. Gu An was drained in both body and mind, so he decided not to cultivate and instead had a proper sleep.

Upon waking, he immediately felt refreshed and clear-headed.

Of course, Gu An still didn't dare to sleep too deeply, after all, there was a new person in his home.

Yawning, Gu An climbed out of bed and pulled out two Storage Bags. One belonged to the scarred-eyed burly man, and the other was given by Xiao Wenyuan.

These were all basic Storage Bags of the cultivation world, without any owner-recognition function. They could be opened by infusing them with spiritual power.

A thread of spiritual energy probed in, and he first opened the scarred-eyed burly man's Storage Bag.

The first thing he saw was a pile of gaudy undergarments, some still stained with blood, carrying a strange odor.

"Truly perverted!" Gu An frowned and remarked, planning to take them out and throw them away later.

It seemed he really hadn't killed the wrong person.

Apart from these useless items and other mundane objects, Gu An picked out all the items that shimmered with spiritual light one by one. He no longer wanted this Storage Bag and planned to sell it later, to see who would win the grand prize.

A pile of spiritual items lay before Gu An. There were eighty-six spirit stones. Not bad! It was far more than what Gu An had.

A First-Grade Lower-Tier flying magical artifact, the Black Wind Kerchief; four First-Grade Lower-Tier Fireball Talismans; one First-Grade Middle-Tier Rock Armor Talisman; and forty jin of Beast-Blood Spirit Rice.

Adding the Middle-Grade magical artifact Ghost-Head Saber, the Lightning Summoning Talisman, and a centipede Demon Beast corpse, the scarred-eyed burly man's wealth was quite decent for a mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivator.

Among these, Gu An had long coveted a flying magical artifact. Although this Black Wind Kerchief lacked the dashing elegance of Sword Riding or the ethereal grace of Senior Brother Wang's leaf magical artifact, it was still a flying magical artifact-it could fly! Gu An was already very satisfied.

It was just that Little Black would have fewer opportunities to be useful from now on!

Gu An nodded and then opened Xiao Wenyuan's Storage Bag. This Storage Bag contained very few items, only two things, which seemed to have been carefully organized.

A jade slip and a small box of spirit stones. Gu An counted them; there were exactly one hundred.

"Wow, quite generous!" Gu An thought cheerfully. Adding the previous eighty-six, that was nearly two hundred spirit stones. He had never seen so many spirit stones before!

At the previous Yun Kingdom gathering, Gu An had bought some talisman paper and talisman ink, leaving him with only six spirit stones. He had used two more during the battle, leaving him utterly broke.

Now, having become rich overnight, Gu An was so happy his eyes narrowed into slits. He chuckled foolishly twice, then warily looked around before quickly putting the spirit stones into his Storage Bag.

"Hmm, let me see what this is?" Gu An was full of anticipation for this jade slip. Since he had given a hundred spirit stones as a gift, the jade slip shouldn't disappoint either!

With a thought from his spiritual sense, lines of text, like silver hooks and iron strokes, flowed into Gu An's mind.

The Cicada-Breath Spirit-Concealing Art!

The Xiao clan's foundational cultivation technique. It was obtained by an ancestor of the Xiao clan while exploring the Cloudmist Mountains, when he stumbled upon a Foundation Establishment cave dwelling. It was divided into two chapters.

The upper chapter, the Cicada Molting Chapter, involved condensing a cicada molting within the Dantian to store spiritual power. The cicada molting isolated internal and external auras, thereby creating the effect of concealing one's cultivation base. When mastered, it could conceal three levels of cultivation. Unless one had a powerful spiritual sense or had cultivated a spiritual eye-type technique, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could not see through it.

The lower chapter, the Cicada Slumber Chapter, took inspiration from the seventeen-year cicada. It involved sleeping beneath the earth, retracting all bodily aura, and quietly lying dormant, making one completely undetectable. It was a first-rate method for preserving one's life.

Gu An's mind was shaken. This compensation was far too heavy. Even in the Scripture Pavilion of the Qingyuan Sect, such a inheritance was rare. Given Gu An's status, he couldn't even dream of obtaining it. He never expected to receive it in such a coincidental manner.

Thinking of this, Gu An's impression of Xiao Wenyuan greatly improved!

The Cicada Molting Chapter, which concealed one's cultivation, was exactly what Gu An urgently needed. Under the effect of [Spirit Source Feedback], his cultivation speed far exceeded that of a Three Spirit Roots cultivator. His rapid improvement in cultivation could easily attract others' scrutiny, and practicing the Cicada Molting Chapter could effectively address this issue.

The Cicada Slumber Chapter, which retracted one's aura, was also very useful. Gu An had heard many anecdotes from the cultivation world, including cases where cultivators escaped death or even turned the tables by hiding their aura.

Gu An let out a long sigh. This Xiao Wenyuan was really a good person, giving away such a precious inheritance without hesitation!

His cultivation of the fourth layer of Qi Condensation was probably due to practicing the Cicada Molting Chapter. He had hidden it so well that Gu An hadn't noticed at all.

That meant Xiao Wenyuan was also a battle genius, a seventh-layer Qi Condensation cultivator who had killed an eighth-layer one.

"Hmm, not bad. This makes White Mirror Lake's safety even more secure." Gu An smiled faintly, thinking silently.

Having suddenly gained so many spiritual items, Gu An felt an itch in his hands-it was the urge to hoard! So he began tallying again.

Hmm, one hundred and ninety spirit stones. Not bad, not bad!

magical artifacts included the Middle-Grade magical artifact Water Origin Pearl, the Ghost-Head Saber, and the Mind-Bewildering Bell; the Low-Grade magical artifacts included the Emerald Shadow Needle and the Black Wind Kerchief. He had both offense and defense, with both unconventional and orthodox methods complementing each other. Very good, very good!

First-Grade High-Tier Talismans included the Lightning Summoning Talisman, the Vajra Talisman, and the Chain Fireball Talisman; First-Grade Middle-Tier Talismans included one Rock Armor Talisman and two Ice Arrow Talismans; First-Grade Lower-Tier Talismans included four Fireball Talismans. Quite good, quite good!

Over two hundred jin of Spirit Rice, as well as Blood Moon Eels and Black Spirit Fish, and also...

After counting the spiritual items in his Storage Bag once, Gu An left the room contentedly. At this time, Xiao Wenyuan had not yet come out of his room.

Gu An cooked two bowls of Golden Cloud Rice porridge. Its color was like golden flowing clouds. The Spirit Rice was half-cooked, not yet fully broken down, and had been simmered until a layer of oil formed. It was smooth and silky in the mouth, with a faint flow of spiritual power. Truly worthy of being Spirit Rice!

Gu An sighed in admiration and first enjoyed a bowl himself.

"Fellow Daoist Xiao, there's a bowl of porridge on the table. Have some later!"

After greeting him, Gu An didn't wait for Xiao Wenyuan's response. He lifted his body and leaped toward White Mirror Lake.

Having not seen them for over half a month, quite a few Black Spirit Fish had died again. They had been clamoring in Gu An's mind every day. He didn't know what was going on, so he decided to go check today.

Arriving at the surface of the lake's center, Gu An clapped his hands. A dark, oppressive cloud of fish quickly swam over, as if they had been waiting for him to settle accounts.

Eh, why were they all so thin?

With a "splash," nearly a hundred waves of water crashed toward him, startling Gu An so much that his expression changed. He quickly summoned the Water Origin Pearl, and a spiritual power barrier condensed, blocking the layers of heavy waves.

Was this a rebellion? This had gone beyond ordinary mischief. It seemed a proper lesson was necessary.

At this moment, seeing that Gu An still hadn't fed them, the Black Spirit Fish school also became agitated.

Bastard! Not feeding them for half a month, the mud in this small lake had been gnawed thin by a layer. Nearly a hundred of their kind had died. Now that he had finally appeared, he still wasn't feeding them!

Don't underestimate Black Spirit Fish just because they're spirit fish!

Looking at the hundreds of pairs of fish eyes filled with rage, Gu An finally began to realize something.

It seemed... it seemed he hadn't arranged for anyone to feed them!

With an awkward smile, Gu An quickly took out fish food mixed with Spirit Bran and ordinary rice from his Storage Bag and scattered a dozen handfuls.

The water surface immediately boiled over. Seeing this, Gu An felt another pang of guilt and sprinkled a small handful of Golden Cloud Rice.