With the Eight Immortals' magical treasures in hand, even a mortal like myself! Ha!

Senior Brother Lu saw the spirit stones—a large number of mid-grade spirit stones. Scanning them with his divine sense, he found over 3,100 mid-grade spirit stones. If these were ordinary spirit stones, they would amount to over 300,000. When had Senior Brother Lu ever seen so many spirit stones?

You should know that a rare spiritual herb that is three thousand years old only costs 100,000 spirit stones, and a Foundation Establishment Pill only costs two or three thousand spirit stones. 300,000 spirit stones is enough to buy a hundred Foundation Establishment Pills.

Senior Brother Lu, a Qi Refining disciple, had never seen so many spirit stones before.

"Ha, hahaha, hehehe!" Senior Brother Lu laughed maniacally again when he saw so many spirit stones. With this batch of spirit stones, Senior Brother Lu felt that reaching the Core Formation stage would not be a problem.

Senior Brother Lu put away the spirit stones, his gaze falling on Dong Xuan'er. He thought to himself, "Why not go all the way and become her Daoist partner right here and now? Then we'll make it a fait accompli..."

Thinking of this, Senior Brother Lu revealed a ferocious smile, stepped forward and grabbed Dong Xuan'er. However, when Senior Brother Lu saw Dong Xuan'er's face, he was taken aback: "Martial Aunt?"

"You seem quite happy." Dong Xuan'er's voice, which sounded neither male nor female, entered Senior Brother Lu's ears, making him somewhat apprehensive. He wondered what kind of sorcery this was.

Startled, Senior Brother Lu stumbled back two steps, accidentally brushing against Chen Qiaoqian's body and falling down.

"You're hurting me." Chen Qiaoqian suddenly raised her head and revealed a strange smile.

These were not what terrified Senior Brother Lu the most; what terrified him the most was Gu Qing getting up from the ground.

Gu Qing reached out and said, "You took my storage bag, shouldn't you return it?"

Upon hearing this, Senior Brother Lu gripped the storage bag tightly, staggered to his feet, and roared, "No, these spirit stones are mine, mine! You're dead, dead!"

"Ah!" Senior Brother Lu suddenly sprang to his feet, his hands forming hand seals, and dozens of wind blades slashed towards Gu Qing.

In the blink of an eye, Gu Qing was sliced ​​to pieces by the flying wind blades, with only his head remaining suspended in the air, speaking: "You took my storage bag, shouldn't you return it?"

"No! Die!" Senior Brother Lu once again conjured a wind blade and slashed it toward Gu Qing's head.

Seeing this, Gu Qing gently blew a breath, and the wind blade that was originally flying towards him suddenly changed direction and shot towards Senior Brother Lu.

Seeing this, Senior Brother Lu tried to dodge, but there were too many wind blades. In the end, Senior Brother Lu was shot and bled profusely. The pain all over his body made him shudder and he became a little more awake.

At that moment, the space inside the cave shattered like a mirror, and everything returned to the original scene, with Senior Brother Lu kneeling in front of Gu Qing.

When Senior Brother Lu looked up and saw that Gu Qing was unharmed, Chen Qiaoqian was still sleeping on the ground, and Dong Xuan'er was looking over with wide, curious eyes, he seemed to understand something.

Those were all illusions. No, if they were illusions, how did I get these injuries?

Even Senior Brother Lu was confused about what was going on for a while.

But Senior Brother Lu only felt his brain was too tired, and finally he fainted on the ground. Everything was so real.

"Senior brother, what did you do to him? Why did he act like a madman just now?" Dong Xuan'er asked curiously.

Gu Qing simply smiled and said, "Before he made his move, he was caught in my illusion. He probably encountered something terrifying in the illusion."

"You hiding guy, do I have to ask you to come out?"

Gu Qing suddenly looked in one direction and saw a figure hiding behind the secret rock.

Upon being discovered, the figure emerged from its hiding place. Dong Xuan'er was somewhat surprised to see it: "It's you."

The person who came out was none other than Han Li himself. Han Li never expected to encounter such a thing here. What surprised Han Li the most was that Gu Qing was also here.

"Master!" Han Li stepped forward and bowed.

Gu Qing was somewhat surprised, then asked, "What are you doing out here? Never mind, just take these two people back and hand them over to Sect Leader Zhong."

Han Li was still thinking about what excuse to come up with when he saw Gu Qing transform into a streak of light and disappear.

Upon seeing this, Dong Xuan'er hurriedly said, "Senior brother, wait for me!"

As she spoke, Dong Xuan'er chased after him, leaving Han Li alone in the cave, which left Han Li at a loss for words.

After glancing at Chen Qiaoqian and Senior Brother Lu on the ground, he could only carry them on his back and take them to Sect Leader Zhong as Gu Qing had instructed.

Gu Qing went to Hong Fu's place after entering the valley. Hong Fu asked Gu Qing, "Did you gain anything from this trip?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Qing couldn't help but feel a little resentful. He knew perfectly well whether he had gained anything or not. He was certain that Hong Fu was following behind, otherwise, the transmission talisman would have flown over so conveniently just as he was thinking of leaving Yuanwu Kingdom.

It's probably not going to be easy to get rid of Yellow Maple Valley in a short time.

"I sold some medicinal herbs and earned two hundred mid-grade spirit stones," Gu Qing said truthfully.

Two hundred mid-grade spirit stones are equivalent to two high-grade spirit stones. Hong Fu sometimes envied her disciple, whose wealth was probably not much less than hers.

"Hmm, very good. This is a reward from the sect for helping you ripen the Foundation Establishment Pill seed." As she spoke, Hong Fu handed over a storage bag. Gu Qing took it into his hand and scanned it with his divine sense. There were a total of two hundred mid-grade spirit stones, which was quite a lot.

With these spirit stones, Gu Qing had a total of over 3,300 mid-grade spirit stones, which would be considered quite wealthy even among Core Formation stage cultivators.

"Master, when shall we depart?" Gu Qing couldn't help but ask.

Hong Fu's answer almost made Gu Qing faint. Hong Fu calmly said, "No rush. The trade fair has been postponed to six months later. You still have time to prepare."

Six months later? That's not what they said when they sent the message; they said they'd set off immediately. Now, after they came back, they're saying they'll have to wait until this year.

Gu Qing was somewhat displeased after hearing this, but what could he do? Was he going to "humph!" and whip Hong Fu? That was simply impossible.

"Yes, Master, then this disciple will go down to cultivate." Gu Qing said, cupping his hands in greeting.

"Yes, you can give your junior sister some pointers when you have time, and make sure she doesn't cause trouble outside. This is a Foundation Establishment Pill prepared for her, so she can focus on breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage with you." Hong Fu handed a bottle of pills to Gu Qing.

Gu Qing was somewhat surprised to hear this. Wasn't Hong Fu the one who hated pale-faced young men the most? Her criteria for choosing men were that they be ordinary and unremarkable, preferably with a bit of ugliness.

However, judging from Hong Fu's expression, she seems to be intentionally trying to bring herself and Dong Xuan'er together.

I don't know if it was Hong Fu's idea or the idea of ​​Linghu Laozu behind the scenes.

"Yes, Master." Gu Qing accepted the order and then used his divine sense to examine the pill bottle. He found two Foundation Establishment Pills inside. It seemed that Hong Fu didn't have much confidence in Dong Xuan'er's advancement to Foundation Establishment, and had actually prepared two Foundation Establishment Pills.

With these two Foundation Establishment Pills, Gu Qing now has five Foundation Establishment Pills.

One of them was left behind when Gu Qing was building his foundation, and the other two were just obtained from Chen Qiaoqian and Senior Brother Lu.