“Tao...you look like you’ve had a mountain fall on you.” Bai Lufeng said, stifling a laugh as he looked at Tao’s appearance.

Tao was covered in dust, his clothes ripped from the sharp rocks, and his body filled with cuts, bruises, and indentations from pelleting of rocks. Even if he had an Origin Realm cultivation base, that didn’t mean he could handle a mountain collapse on him. He was almost in tears as he felt sore all over, his gaze when he looked at Yan Zaizen was filled with an intense grievance.

Yan Zaizen looked away, holding his smile. Not only did he cause both of them to feel a hint of inferiority that caused them to waddle up like babies for a bit, but he also caused a mountain to collapse. He felt a little guilty, but it was a bit funny. The reason for that was simple.

Earlier…

“I don’t know if you should cultivate in the same mountain as me,” Yan Zaizen warned.

“Pfft, even if you bring down the mountain, I’ll be unharmed. I’m not at the Origin Core Realm for show!” Tao responded in a voice filled with pride and reassurance.

Yet…

“Well, I did warn you…” Yan Zaizen quietly muttered, avoiding Tao’s gaze while rubbing his nose lightly. Tao snorted in defiance, unwilling to accept that explanation.

You collapsed a mountain on top of me!

How could I forgive you with just that?

However, Yan Zaizen directly ignored his grievance and tried to change the subject. “Have you figured out the amount of wealth we’ve accumulated so far?” This was a very important question. The last time they checked their wealth was after the royal robbery, but now they’ve robbed two first-tier sects — Soaring Cloud Sect & Earthly Titan Sect — and many of their experts. As for the Soaring Cloud Sect, they ripped it from its roots and pocketed it all.

Tao’s eyes lit up with excitement with a slight smile, as if his wounds didn’t exist. He checked his spatial ring, his eyes suffused with a little bit of greed. “The Soaring Cloud Sect truly had some good things, some very rare materials they likely didn’t know how to use or was saving it. Similar to the Earthly Titan Sect. Not to mention, I found a True Essence Sublimation Pill from the elderly male Soaring Cloud Sect’s Grand Elder who fought back viciously in defiance."

No wonder he fought back so fiercely, this pill was sufficient enough to help someone at half-step True Essence Realm breakthrough! It heightened the chances, but because his cultivation was far too low, he couldn’t use it. They were all surprised that he possessed this pill.

Those weren't the only incredible things. The Sectmasters of both sects possessed an extraordinary amount of wealth. As commonly known in the cultivation world, even if someone had an extraordinary amount of essence to make a cultivation breakthrough, it still required a vast amount of time to refine those materials and thus cultivators, especially high-ranking ones, typically had a vast amount of low/mid-grade liquid essence drops.

“Adding everything obtained after Sky Heart City, we’ve gained nearly two billion in wealth. In total, we’ve earned seven billion, and that is just market price estimations! If we had the highest price for all the rare materials and pills, we could easily reach ten billion!” His eyes suffused with intense greed.

Bai Lufeng and Yan Zaizen weren’t any different, their eyes filled with the light of greed. “We’re rich! Hahaha!” Laughing towards the skies, Yan Zaizen felt incomparably satisfied. However, Tao said words that broke their dreams. “We may have this amount of wealth, but we still have to trade it for actual essence to be worth much, otherwise...we just have a lot of useless materials we can’t really make use of…”

“...”

Yeah...right.

Even if the things they possessed were worth ten billion, that didn’t mean they actually had ten billion in their possession. Yan Zaizen sighed in resignation, “What about in actual wealth?”

“About two billion...” His voice was filled with a deflated tone.

Bai Lufeng’s eyes widened with surprise. Two billion may be far less than ten billion, but that was still two billion! The equivalence to twenty mid-grade essence crystals! This amount of wealth would still blow grand-tier powers out of the water, but they looked like they were robbed! These people...if it wasn’t for the fact Yan Zaizen could kill him with a thought, and Tao wasn’t exactly a small fry, he would’ve smacked them both upside the head.

“Well, two billion is good enough. We can trade off the materials at the Capital, maybe auction a few of them off, right?” Yan Zaizen inquired. Tao responded with a slight nod in agreement.

“Then, that's that. We have two True Essence Sublimation Pill, and many other grand-tier pills and elixirs, we can definitely sell them for top dollar!” Yan Zaizen exclaimed.

“...” Both Tao and Bai Lufeng remained silent.

Did he really want to sell the pills and elixirs? Did he really want to sell the True Essence Sublimation Pills?! Was he insane?! They were priceless, who would ever even think about it?

Seeing both of their looks, Yan Zaizen felt a little embarrassed after some thought. These pills and elixirs may not be useful to him now but they may be useful to him in the future. “Okay...we’ll sell the materials for top dollar!” He corrected.

They both nodded in perfect sync.

“Young Lord Zai, you’ve changed.” Bai Lufeng finally took notice of Yan Zaizen’s extraordinary changes. Not only was he taller, he looked more attractive, even Bai Lufeng was feeling odd sensations from looking into those amber-gold eyes.

Tao, however, didn’t even take note. He pretty much saw Yan Zaizen grow a foot and change drastically during the Deep Mines over the course of two years, he was numb to it.

“I’ve had a breakthrough in my body cultivation method.” Yan Zaizen casually replied. Bai Lufeng didn’t know about the Immortal Herculean Physique, so he could only accept that response and not delve deeper. It was obvious Yan Zaizen wasn’t willing to speak further on the subject.

However, both Bai Lufeng and Tao couldn’t help but conceal a deep complex feeling within their hearts. Earlier, they were in a terrible state of emotional and mental instability. Yan Zaizen’s breakthrough had caused them to nearly collapse in mentality as if the heavens deemed them irrelevant.

Luckily, the moment Yan Zaizen finished his cultivation and arrived near them, they could feel his dao aura that radiated slightly quickly repair their mentality with unyielding confidence, warm sensation of safety, and they regained control of their lives once more.

Essentially, just his presence alone allowed them to feel better.

Tao felt this more prominently than Bai Lufeng, and he was relieved. Yan Zaizen became his guiding light of hope and he gained new ambitions and dreams under him. Around Yan Zaizen, he felt beyond comfortable.

“We’ll cultivate for a few more months and take off towards the Presba Capital.” Yan Zaizen declared. Tao and Bai Lufeng nodded in understanding.

The Presba Capital was the capital city of the entire country. It housed numerous grand-tier clans, the imperial-tier royal clan, and the solitary sword sect. Despite its name of being a city, it covered a vast amount of land that exceeded two thousand li.

Yan Zaizen intended to use their continental-type Spatial Platform. Unlike the spatial platform in Sky Heart City, Xuanwu City or Sky Titan City, this platform could travel to other continental planets within the Xiantu Realm.

This platform was how all major transactions between continents were performed, and it was due to this platform built by the Xiantu Empire that all the grand-tier or higher forces gathered within this so-called capital city. All four of the countries and a few other powers had their own continental-type spatial platform.

“Xiantu Continent…” Yan Zaizen muttered softly to himself. This realm had three continental planets each with millions of islands — Fallen Stars Continent, Mystic Wave Continent, and Xiantu Continent — but the Xiantu Empire was located at the Xiantu Continent.

Not only was the Xiantu Empire located there but also the Main Headquarters of the Anima Syndicate! This was his destination. He could go to one of the lesser locations for membership, but the main headquarters were spoken of by Wu Yuanxu with an air of reverence.

He mentioned the extraordinary cultivators there, the status one would receive if they were a high-ranking member and various things that fascinated Yan Zaizen.

Not to mention, the Xiantu Continent was the strongest continental ground within the Xiantu Realm! Yan Zaizen intentions were exploring the myriad realms, why not the owner of his birth realm as his first destination?