The Immortal Clan begins with deductive intelligence.

Li Shan led four members of his clan over, stepping over the scattered rocks.

The two Zhang family lackeys at the fourth level of Qi Refining were lying in the pile of rocks, their bodies riddled with harpoons and daggers, clearly dead beyond any doubt.

Li Shan walked at the front, his waterproof gear still dripping wet, and he carried a water-splitting dagger in his hand.

He could see the charred corpse on the ground from a great distance.

Li Shan, panting, wiped the sweat from his face and walked towards Xu Changqing with a somewhat ingratiating smile.

"Green-faced leader, you truly have impressive skills! Even that scoundrel Liu Sandao has fallen into your hands!"

"We've already dealt with those two small fry; we didn't leave any alive."

Xu Changqing patted the dust off the box and stood up.

"Since we've risked our lives on this job, we need to settle the score first to avoid damaging our relationship."

Upon hearing about the profit-sharing arrangement, the four members of the Li family behind Li Shan began to breathe heavily.

"That's natural, that's natural."

Li Shan rubbed his hands together. Although he had been intimidated by Xu Changqing's methods, no one wanted to miss out on a piece of meat that was already in their mouth.

"Boss, they're all here."

Xu Dayou wiped the soot off his face and pointed to the several dark boxes in the cabin.

Upon hearing this, Li Shan's ears twitched, and his neck involuntarily stretched out a few more inches.

Xu Changqing ignored his greedy look, stepped forward, and used his broken sword to pry open the copper clasp of one of the boxes.

"Clang!"

The lid of the box was opened.

Even in the dim night, the box of neatly arranged low-grade spirit stones still emitted a mesmerizing, hazy glow.

Li Shan's cloudy old eyes widened instantly, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, making a "gulp" sound.

In his entire life, he had never seen so many ready-made spirit stones piled up together.

The four members of the Li family were practically drooling with excitement. Their legs, which had been weak from the fighting, suddenly felt strong again.

Xu Changqing glanced at them and reached into the box, grabbing a handful.

The spirit stones collided, producing a pleasant, crisp sound.

"It's eight hundred yuan in total, and we'll split it 30/70 as previously agreed."

"This box costs three hundred yuan. Elder Li will take two hundred and forty yuan, and the rest is mine."

Without counting, he roughly rummaged through the box and pulled out a small pile of spirit stones, then kicked the remaining half-box of spirit stones, along with the box, to Li Shan's feet.

"Here you go."

Li Shan looked at the heavy box at his feet, his body trembling.

Two hundred and forty yuan!

How much spirit grain would it take to sell and how much humiliation would it take to save up this amount?

Now, it only takes half a night to get it.

He lunged forward and grabbed the box, his posture suggesting he wanted to rub his face against the spirit stone.

"Thank you so much, Boss Qingmian! Thank you!"

Li Shan was rambling incoherently, his wrinkled old face contorted into a grotesque grin.

"What about the remaining medicinal herbs and furs?"

Looking at his pathetic state, Xu Changqing pointed to the remaining boxes.

"The rest of the furs are yours, and the remaining medicinal herbs and spirit stones are mine."

Li Shan was about to speak when everyone knew that furs were much harder to circulate than medicinal herbs.

But when he glanced at Liu Sandao's gruesome corpse beside him, and then at Xu Changqing's unwavering eyes, he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

If it weren't for this person taking the lead and killing Liu Sandao, all of them would probably have perished here today.

Getting three hundred spirit stones is already an unexpected bonus.

"It's entirely up to the head of the household to decide! This old man will have no objections!"

Li Shan gritted his teeth, waved his hand, and ordered his men to quickly buy up the rest of the food.

"Alright."

Xu Changqing waved his hand, a hint of fatigue showing on his face.

"Burn all the conspicuous items on these two people, and throw their bodies onto stones to sink them into the river."

After disposing of the corpses, Li Shan led his men, carrying a box of spirit stones, and thanked them profusely as they disappeared into the reeds. His back looked much lighter than when he came.

Xu Dayou let out a long breath and plopped down on the charred deck.

"Then let's..."

"withdraw."

Xu Changqing glanced at the first hint of dawn breaking over the eastern horizon.

"Sink this ship, and make sure it's clean."

The two men worked together to drag the half-burnt awning boat to deep water, and with a few blows of the hammer, they broke a large hole in the bottom of the boat.

Watching the icy river water swirl and pour in, the boat slowly sinking to the bottom, Xu Changqing finally turned around.

That night, they committed murder, arson, divided the loot, and disposed of the bodies.

Even after two lifetimes, this was the first time Xu Changqing had ever done something so efficiently.

Back at the Xu family home.

Xu Changqing had just stepped into the study when Xu Dayou followed him in.

"Bang."

The box landed on the ground, leaving a white mark on the thick floor tiles.

Xu Da sat down on the box, his face, which was smeared with black paint, revealing two rows of big teeth, and grinned foolishly.

"Chieftain, this time... haven't we struck it rich?"

Xu Changqing turned around, closed the doors and windows, checked the soundproofing again, and then sat down at the table, pouring himself a glass of cold water to soothe his parched throat.

"It won't make you rich, but it can save lives."

Xu Changqing put down his teacup and pointed to the box.

"Open it, click."

Xu Dayou exclaimed "Hey!" His movements were so nimble that you couldn't tell he was an old man who had stayed up all night.

The lid of the box was opened again.

Xu Dayou reached in with his rough, large hands and stirred the pile of spirit stones a couple of times, listening to the clattering sounds, his face full of ecstasy.

"Five hundred and sixty yuan."

Xu Changqing knew the situation well. He had just given the Li family 240, so the remaining amount was 560.

Adding to the two boxes of medicinal herbs that Liu Sandao hadn't had time to burn, this trip's harvest is worth seven hundred spirit stones.

Xu Changqing took Liu Sandao's storage bag out of his pocket.

Liu Sandao is dead, and the divine imprint on it has long since dissipated. It was not difficult to probe the storage bag with divine sense.

Xu Changqing flicked his wrist.

"Splash!"

A bunch of odds and ends fell onto the table.

The first thing that catches the eye is a thick-backed, large-ringed sword.

"A mid-grade first-tier magic weapon, a mountain-splitting knife."

Xu Dayou picked it up and weighed it in his hand.

"If you take it to the market, the price will be at most one hundred and twenty spirit stones."

Xu Changqing ignored the knife and scanned the pile of odds and ends on the table.

A few bottles of low-level healing pills, two erotic picture books, a few changes of clothes, and... a smaller purse.

Xu Changqing picked up the money bag, opened it, and took a look.

There weren't many spirit stones poured out, only fifty or sixty.

Liu Sandao was a pleasure-seeker who earned a lot but also spent a lot. It was already quite an achievement that he had saved up this little bit of wealth.

"Poor wretch."

Xu Changqing cursed and swept the spirit stones into his pocket.

Finally, only a small black jade slip, no bigger than the palm of a hand, remained on the table.

This jade slip looks quite old; its surface has been rubbed until it shines.

Xu Changqing was a little curious, so he stuck the jade slip to his forehead.

"Chieftain, what treasure?"

Xu Dayou craned his neck.

"A sword manual titled 'The Three Blades of Broken Waves'."