Mortal: Starting with the Golden Jade Book

"A gigantic...spirit-gathering array that radiates across thousands of miles?"

Yan Ruyan murmured these words, imagining what a magnificent scene it would be, and then she understood what Lin Zui meant by creating a spiritual vein.

"Young master, is such a thing truly possible?"

"We can't do it on our own, but with Miss Xin's expertise in formations and Brother Qi's skills in weapon forging, there's still a good chance."

Lin Zui smiled and said that he had already had this idea in his mind when he saw the relevant content in the jade book. Later, after he brought the two under his command, he naturally handed this matter over to them to study.

After all, professional tasks should be left to professionals, and now the results have indeed been achieved.

"However, Brother Lin, don't be too happy yet."

Xin Ruyin suddenly said.

"Oh, what other difficulties are there?"

"There are many difficulties, but we can find ways to solve the technical ones. However, building such a large array would require a huge amount of resources. Even just building one that radiates over a hundred miles would require at least 300,000 spirit stones. We are powerless to help with that."

Lin Zui frowned. This was indeed a problem. Although he could make and sell talismans and make a huge profit, it would take more than a year or two to earn that amount.

It seems we have no choice but to resort to some unconventional methods.

Lin Zui's eyes flickered, and many unhealthy images flashed through his mind. After a moment, he looked at Xin Ruyin.

"I'll figure out a way to handle this. You and Brother Qi can start preparing now. Once I've got enough spirit stones, we'll get started."

"But there's no rush. Let me strengthen your meridians first!"

……

One day later.

Lin Zui and Yan Ruyan sat in a teahouse in Tianxing Sect Market, blending into their surroundings.

"Not bad, you've mastered the 'Return to Origin Technique' quite perfectly."

Lin Zui praised Yan Ruyan, who showed no trace of spiritual energy.

"Yes, I originally thought I wouldn't be able to cultivate this one like those other secret techniques, but I didn't expect it to go so smoothly."

Yan Ruyan was also very happy. In the past, because of her outstanding appearance, she always needed to wear a veil when going to crowded places to reduce attention.

However, once she mastered the Returning Origin Technique, her aura became completely integrated with the surrounding environment. Even if ordinary cultivators saw her, they would subconsciously regard her as something else in the environment and wouldn't pay any attention to her, which would reduce a lot of trouble for her.

"Cultivating those secret techniques either requires the complementary power of the five elements, or the primordial energy refined by the Five Elements Transformation Technique. You don't have either of these, so naturally you can't cultivate them."

Lin Zui chuckled.

"But don't worry, I know a lot of immortal techniques. After we finish dealing with the spiritual veins, I'll carefully select a few suitable techniques for you to practice."

"Uh-huh."

Yan Ruyan nodded happily, but then looked a little worried.

"But where are you planning to get spirit stones? Three hundred thousand spirit stones—some small families don't even have that many in their entirety."

Lin Zui nodded.

"Therefore, normal ways of making money are definitely not going to work."

"Do you have some other unethical way of making money?"

Yan Ruyan frowned.

Lin Zui didn't answer, but instead revealed a wicked smile.

"I'm asking you, where does your Yan family store all your spirit stones?"

"Why are you asking this? Uh, you don't mean to..."

As Yan Ruyan sensed the strange emotions transmitted through the mind-reading technique, an absurd idea instantly arose in her mind.

"You're not planning to infiltrate a family and steal their spirit stone vault, are you?"

Lin Zui's lips curled up slightly.

"Otherwise what? How long would it take to sell all that stuff? Of course, if you're willing to sell your Qiankun Tower talisman, that's fine too; you'd probably still have some money left over."

"Uh... I don't want to."

Yan Ruyan squeezed her storage bag; it was her life-saving possession, how could she sell it?

"But how can we rob them? The two of us combined can probably only suppress one early Foundation Establishment cultivator. Surely any small family has more than that?"

"Idiot! You already said you're infiltrating a family, so why fight them head-on?"

Lin Zui rolled his eyes at her. He could even snatch a living person like her, so what was snatching a few spirit stones?

But which one should we target?

Based on personal preference, it would naturally be better to rob the Fu family, since they were the family that killed Qi Yunxiao in the original story. Although they were later wiped out by the Old Demon, it wasn't their doing, so it wasn't satisfying enough.

However, the Fu family is still too powerful, and snatching spirit stones is different from taking chestnuts out of the fire in Yan Family Fortress. Without the right timing, location, and people, the risk is too great. It is better to target a smaller family.

"Yan'er, do you know anything about the cultivation families in Yuanwu Kingdom?"

Lin Zui stroked his chin and asked.

"Are there people who commit heinous crimes, act unscrupulously, incur the wrath of both heaven and man, and yet steal without any psychological burden?"

Yan Ruyan was speechless. Why did it seem like you were acting on behalf of heaven?

"The largest cultivation families in Yuanwu Kingdom are the Fu family, the Qin family, and the Hu family. These families are evenly matched and have been fighting each other for many years. They are well-known. There are many smaller ones, but I don't know much about them. If you want to know, you should be able to buy relevant information in the market."

"Yes, I can go and buy some information to study it."

Lin Zui nodded.

"Wait here for me for a moment, I'll be right back."

Half a day later.

Lin Zui put down the jade slips in his hand, his eyes flashing.

"They're not anything good, so I'm relieved."

Yan Ruyan rolled her eyes as she listened. In her opinion, Lin Zui's words were purely a fabrication, and he could always find a pretext.

Cultivation families have a long history, and in order to survive and develop, they inevitably face competition and killing, and of course, there are also many conspiracies and schemes.

If all these things are considered evidence of these families' numerous evil deeds, then there would probably be no innocent families in the world.

Shaking her head helplessly, Yan Ruyan then looked at Lin Zui.

"Very well, those families have committed countless evils, we're acting on behalf of Heaven, aren't we? But what are your plans? Are you confident in your abilities?"

"It's simple. We'll start by targeting the smaller families. These families usually only have one or two Foundation Establishment cultivators, and they don't have any powerful protective formations. With my stealth techniques and the amazing ability of the Shrinking Earth Talisman to ignore restrictions, as long as we figure out the location of the hidden spirit stones, it'll be no problem to steal some without anyone noticing."

Lin Zui thought about it again.

"However, there's no need to take them all. If each family takes a little, even if they discover the spirit stones are missing, they'll probably assume there's a thief within their own ranks and won't make a fuss."

"As for those mid-sized families, or those families with powerful protective formations, we can first cultivate a few spies to act when the opportunity arises."

"As for the Fu family, the Qin family, and the Hu family, we'll leave them alone for now and deal with them later when we're stronger..."

Yan Ruyan's almond lips parted slightly, somewhat stunned. She hadn't expected that what seemed like a far-fetched idea to Lin Zui would be so simple, and... it even seemed to make a lot of sense.

"Young master..."

"What's wrong?"

"I suddenly feel that stealing spirit stones... might actually be quite promising..."

"what?"

Lin Zui's eyes widened. Through the telepathic connection, he suddenly discovered that the girl opposite him, who had just been full of worry, had inexplicably become excited.

Then Yan Ruyan suddenly jumped up, grabbed Lin Zui's hand, and looked at him with bright eyes.

"Young master, let's get moving!"

……

Five months later.

A massive theft of spirit stones has broken out in the cultivation world of Yuanwu Kingdom!

The Luo family, a cultivation family second only to the three major families, was robbed while transporting a batch of spirit stones. Three Foundation Establishment cultivators, including the Luo family patriarch, and dozens of Qi Refining disciples were all killed.

Upon hearing this news, the entire Yuanwu Kingdom was thrown into a state of panic. After all, there had been rumors of some small families having their spirit stones stolen before, but most people did not pay much attention to them.

However, this incident immediately caused all the families to become restless.

While increasing manpower to guard their own spirit stone reserves, they also approached several major sects, such as the Tianxing Sect, asking them to help capture this spirit stone thief.

However, after investigating for over a month, the major sects found nothing and had no choice but to pin the blame on the demonic path.

While the entire Yuanwu Kingdom was in chaos, Lin Zui, the real mastermind behind all this, had already washed his bloodstained hands and transformed himself into a legitimate businessman.