Liang Yi spoke somewhat weakly, "I only know his name is Xu Mu and he's from Jiang City. He's the son of the chairman of the local Xu Group. As for exactly where he lives, I have no idea."
Liang Yi had heard Fang Chu mention some things about Xu Mu before.
It was mainly because Xu Mu had previously impersonated Fang Chu, tricking the two of them into fighting each other. After clearing up the misunderstanding, Fang Chu only gave her a brief rundown of the situation.
She hadn't gone out of her way to ask for more details, either. Back in the ruins, Xu Mu clearly had the chance to kill her, but ultimately held his hand.
Instead, he ended up saving her using the methods of the Judo Club.
She harbored a peculiar feeling toward Xu Mu, which was why she hadn't pursued the matter any further.
"Alright! Since he's the son of a prominent figure, investigating him will be much easier. Let's pull out; this mission is a failure."
Zi Wangyou patted Liang Yi on the shoulder, and the two left together.
Barring any surprises, Xu Mu wouldn't expose her identity for the time being. Just as he had said before, the enemy of an enemy is a friend.
However, she definitely wasn't going to let Xu Mu hold this over her head forever. In the near future, she needed to step up her efforts to snatch treasures from the Eternal Life Research Institute.
But before that, she definitely had to meet Xu Mu face-to-face. If she could just kill him, all these potential crises would naturally be resolved.
...
Meanwhile, Xu Mu and his group left the ruins.
As for the ruins themselves, they were currently handed over to the Sanitation Department for management.
After they got into the car, Chen Xuan placed a woven bag in the trunk.
"Chen Xuan, what exactly is in that bag?"
Jiang Huihui asked from the side.
"These are the natural treasures Brother Mu managed to get,"
Chen Xuan replied, but only after glancing at Xu Mu through the rearview mirror.
"Let me explain,"
Xu Mu said as he started the car and prepared to head back.
He gave them a general rundown of what had happened and also brought up his so-called spatial ring.
Hearing this, Dai Xingluo, who had claimed the front passenger seat, suddenly looked at Xu Mu. "No wonder you had so much water on hand while we were in the ruins, Brother."
In the back, Meng Wanyue nodded to herself. She remembered Xu Mu's black sword, which she had previously assumed was manifested from a cultivation technique.
Now it made sense; he had been keeping it in his spatial ring.
"Xu Mu, does that mean you still have a ton of natural treasures in there? Do you remember our agreement on how to split the loot?"
Jiang Huihui asked while chewing on a piece of bubblegum.
"I remember. If we found a treasure together, you'd get half of it right off the bat, since you were the one who provided the location of the ruins. But if someone found something on their own, it belonged to them."
Xu Mu smiled faintly. "Old Chen and I found these natural treasures while you weren't around. Therefore, they have nothing to do with you."
Jiang Huihui's expression turned grave. Suddenly, she reached out from the back seat and wrapped her arms around Xu Mu's stomach. "I'm begging you on my knees, please share some with me! If I hadn't told you about these ruins, you wouldn't have been able to get so much! Please, Brother Xu Mu!"
"Holy crap! I'm driving! Let go!"
Xu Mu struggled to shake her off.
Only then did Jiang Huihui let go, though she continued to plead, "Brother, I don't need half. I'll take a third... No, a fifth! A fifth is fine, right?"
Meng Wanyue and Dai Xingluo both narrowed their eyes at her. This woman usually looked so heroic and valiant that they had assumed she was a total tomboy.
They hadn't expected her to be so good at acting cute and whiny.
Dai Xingluo saw a threat in her.
Meng Wanyue, on the other hand, saw hope. If she had to learn how to act cute and coquettish from Dai Xingluo, she would rather die.
But if it meant learning from Jiang Huihui's shameless begging, she felt she could probably manage to speak up.
"Relax. Among the treasures we found this time, there is Grade-Seven Black Mountain Ginseng and Grade-Eight Blood Chrysanthemum. I'll refine some medicinal pills for you all in advance to help you break through to the Bone-Forging and Meridian-Strengthening stages."
Xu Mu had taken a quick glance earlier. Although there wasn't a huge amount of these two natural treasures, and they exceeded his current pill-refining grade,
with his techniques, the resulting medicinal effects would still be several times stronger than if they simply ate the raw herbs.
By his calculations, he could refine at least a dozen pills of each type.
Even factoring in the people currently with him, as well as Ye Tong, Ye Yu, Xu Ningbing, Feng Yue, and the others, it would be more than enough to go around.
[Favorability +15] x3
Jiang Huihui was filled with gratitude. After all, once a martial artist entered the Grandmaster Realm, most people needed natural treasures to supplement their cultivation if they wanted to advance any further.
Take the mid-Grandmaster stage, the Bone-Forging Realm, for example.
The natural calcium levels in an ordinary person's body simply couldn't support the advancement. One could only step into this realm by consuming natural treasures that supplemented the body's calcium.
And natural treasures like that were incredibly rare, something you could stumble upon by luck but never actively seek out.
Even if they did appear somewhere, they would instantly become the target of fierce competition among numerous factions.
Because of this, for certain hidden families, assassin organizations, and small sects,
the early Grandmaster stage was essentially their absolute peak. Even if they were lucky enough to obtain a treasure that could help someone advance, it would be reserved for top dogs like the family head or sect master.
The rest of their members simply had no chance at all.
Meng Wanyue and Dai Xingluo were also profoundly grateful from the bottom of their hearts.
Xu Mu was truly their benefactor. If it weren't for his medicinal pills and cultivation techniques, they would have absolutely never reached their current realms.
Chen Xuan was in even greater awe of Xu Mu. After all, it was Xu Mu who had invited him to these ruins in the first place.
He felt like he hadn't even been of much help, yet he was still getting such incredible medicinal pills for absolutely nothing.
...
Xu Mu first dropped Jiang Huihui off in Yang City before heading back to Jiang City with the rest of the group.
Upon arriving at the villa, Chen Xuan first took out all the rare natural treasures from his woven bag and laid them out on the grass in the courtyard.
"Brother Mu, is there anything else you need help with?"
Chen Xuan hoisted the woven bag onto his shoulder.
"That's all. You can head back for now. Once I've finished refining the pills, I'll have them sent to you."
Xu Mu waved his hand at Chen Xuan.
"Alright then, I'll be taking my leave."
Chen Xuan got on his electric scooter and left the premises.
Xu Mu also told Meng Wanyue and Dai Xingluo to leave first, so they wouldn't interrupt his alchemy.
Feeling that their recent battle hadn't been satisfying enough, the two decided to head out and spar again.
Now, Xu Mu was the only one left at home. He had no idea where Ye Yu and Bai Yi had run off to play.
Xu Mu first made his way to an unoccupied room inside the villa and took out all the natural treasures he had obtained from this trip.
This was to free up some room in his storage space.
Afterward, he carefully took inventory right there, first separating the medicinal herbs from the non-medicinal materials.
Looking at the sheer number of treasures, Xu Mu nodded in satisfaction. His haul this time was truly massive.
Xu Mu picked up a golden piece of metal that was rolled up like a scroll.
"A Grade Eight Golden Spirit Iron? This is good stuff. It's perfect for making an alchemy furnace."
Xu Mu grabbed the golden metal and used sheer brute force to pry it open, molding it into the shape of a simple alchemy furnace with his bare hands.
The properties of Golden Spirit Iron were similar to regular gold, meaning it had very low hardness. However, unlike gold, it was completely impervious to fire.
When scorched by flames, it would release a special substance that imbued the refined pills with stamina-recovering properties.
Using this material to refine recovery-type elixirs like Qi Replenishing Pills would yield twice the result with half the effort.
...
At the same time Xu Mu was refining pills.
Zi Wangyou had already arrived in Jiang City. She didn't even have to spend money for information; she just asked a random passerby and immediately found out the location of the Xu Consortium.
She also clearly knew the exact location of the Xu family manor.
"Miss, where are we going now?"
Liu Ge asked from the side.
"Straight to his house. We'll grab his father and his sister. Let's see if he still dares to withhold the item from us."
Zi Wangyou sneered.

ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!

saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"

transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”

pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"