Cultivation Is Money-Grabbing C17

Chapter 17 – Learning on Her Own: The Body Cultivator, Eighteen Years Old

Lian Mu took two steps back as the magical beast lunged at her, snapping its jaws wildly. She dodged at full speed while observing it.

The beast was not very large, resembling a mutated gray wolf, but its fur was covered in silver-glowing armor. Black energy leaked from the gaps where its body connected to its limbs.

This was a golden beast, a type of magical beast. It was not highly aggressive, but its natural spirit armor made it extremely difficult to injure. Moreover, some golden beasts were said to lack a sense of pain.

This one seemed enraged—its eyes were bloodshot, and it bared its fangs with a snarl.

Lian Mu sidestepped to avoid its claws, which were also covered in spirit armor and sharp enough to slice through human bone with ease.

She had no intention of getting injured before she had even earned any money.

Grabbing a tree branch from the ground, Lian Mu sprinted to the right. The golden beast chased after her, its fangs grinding with a chilling hiss-hiss sound, its claws tearing into the earth as it charged straight at her.

Just as it was about to bite her, Lian Mu kicked off a nearby tree trunk, propelling herself into the air. Twisting mid-air, she stomped down on the golden beast’s head and drove the thumb-thick tree branch into its blood-red eye.

In an instant, the golden beast reacted, the skin around its eye contracting as it immediately abandoned the wounded eye, clenching down tightly on the tree branch.

Seeing that she couldn’t pull the branch out, Lian Mu pressed down with full force, driving it in completely. Then, she swiftly climbed along the beast’s spirit armor to its edge, grabbing onto the exposed tufts of wolf fur.

The golden beast went berserk, thrashing wildly in an attempt to throw her off.

Clutching its fur tightly, Lian Mu felt like her organs were being shaken loose. She took advantage of the moment when the beast roared in pain, targeting the one spot not covered by spirit armor—its tail.

She had brought nothing with her upon arrival and had no weapons on hand. In a moment of urgency, she channeled all her spiritual energy into her fist and struck the base of the beast’s tail with full force.

“AWOOO—!”

The golden beast howled in agony, its remaining eye burning even redder. It twisted its head around to see the human clinging to its back and lunged to bite her.

Lian Mu let go, allowing herself to slide down. As she slipped to the other side of the beast, she grabbed its fur again, hanging off it halfway.

This had not been a great start—she had been too careless.

While she was strategizing, the golden beast twisted its body into an unnatural position, turning to bite her again.

Lian Mu repeated her trick, swiftly climbing to the left, causing the golden beast to snap at empty air once more.

And so, the battle turned into a desperate back-and-forth.

After several rounds, it was the golden beast that reached its limit first. Driven to madness, it shut its eyes and started biting blindly, completely out of control.

Sensing that the situation was turning dangerous, Lian Mu finally released her grip and dropped to the ground.

Then, she watched, wide-eyed, as the enraged golden beast bit down—on its own tail.

It seemed unaware of what it had done, even tightening its bite, shaking its head violently until it completely tore off its own tail. A spray of dark purple blood gushed out as it let out an anguished wail.

Lian Mu, who had barely lifted a finger: “…”

Wait… that actually worked?

Without hesitation, Lian Mu darted to the front of the golden beast and unleashed a flurry of powerful punches to its head.

Already weakened from blood loss, the golden beast succumbed before long.

Lian Mu poked it with a stick—no reaction.

【Congratulations to “Cultivation is Just Money Grab” for successfully hunting a ninth-tier golden beast. Please return to the Star-Plucking Tower to claim your bounty.】

Lian Mu wiped her face—completely covered in blood, but all of it from the golden beast. A message from her bracelet prompted her to return to the Star-Plucking Tower.

Following the instructions, she twisted a small mechanism on her bracelet, and in the blink of an eye, she found herself back inside the Star-Plucking Tower.

The warm atmosphere surrounded her as a black-clad figure handed her a brocade pouch.

“‘Cultivation is Just Money Grab’? Here’s your bounty. Take it.”

Lian Mu opened it—empty. She couldn’t help but ask, “Where are the spirit stones?”

The black-clad figure: “…Use your spiritual energy to check.”

Lian Mu infused spiritual energy into the pouch and immediately sensed a vast amount of spirit energy. This brocade pouch functioned as a spatial storage device, requiring spiritual energy to access its contents.

Having only just learned how to use a Spatial Pouch, Lian Mu showed no embarrassment. She thickened her skin and pretended nothing had happened. “Thank you.”

The black-clad figure twitched at the forehead: “…”

Since when were country bumpkins becoming cultivators?

“You’re a body cultivator?” he asked, noting that she carried no weapons, yet had slain a golden beast.

Lian Mu: “No, I’m a sword cultivator.”

The black-clad figure: “…Then how did you defeat the golden beast?”

“With my fists, of course,” Lian Mu replied casually. “How else?”

With that, she turned and headed toward the dining area.

“…”

Barehanded… she killed a golden beast barehanded?

The black-clad figure stood frozen, staring at her departing back, utterly shocked. Was this how powerful sword cultivators were nowadays?

——

At the dining area, Lian Mu grabbed an armful of pastries and found a place to sit.

She had consumed a great deal of spiritual energy and was now feeling drained. She urgently needed to replenish her reserves.

The pastries, made from spiritual plants, were fragrant and delicious—far superior to the meals at Gui Xian Sect’s dining hall.

She casually wrapped a few strips of cloth around her hands.

The golden beast’s hide had been incredibly tough and uneven, making it easy to get hurt while punching it. Her first strike had nearly shattered her bones. But in the heat of battle, she had no time to worry about pain.

Now that she had time to check—sure enough, all five fingers were broken.

Popping a few of the free healing pills from the Star-Plucking Tower into her mouth, Lian Mu sat to rest. In just fifteen minutes, the pills took effect.

She placed her fractured left hand on the table, waiting for it to heal, while using her still-functional right hand to eat.

By the time she finished a plate of pastries, her left hand had completely recovered. The Star-Plucking Tower’s pills were incredibly effective.

The registration officer had not lied—the demon-hunting competition was indeed dangerous. But…

Lian Mu glanced at the five thousand spirit stones in her Spatial Pouch and suddenly felt that no amount of pain was too much to bear.

A single spiritual plant has many different usable parts. Some bounty notices only specify needing the root or flower of a certain spiritual plant, and the same applies to magical beast bounties.

Lian Mu thought: Doesn’t that mean the remaining unwanted parts can be kept for herself?

She checked the bounty notices she had taken earlier. One of them only required the spiritual armor of the Golden Beast, nothing else.

Lian Mu suddenly felt like she had missed out on a huge fortune. There were many valuable parts on a single magical beast.

When she was reading books on alchemy in the library, she had also flipped through some books on artifact refining out of boredom.

Alchemy relied on spiritual plants, whereas artifact refinement depended on magical beasts. The birth of a spiritual artifact not only required the skills of an artifact refiner but also various materials from magical beasts.

This was precisely why artifact refining was so costly. Obtaining materials from magical beasts was a dangerous process. Even low-grade magical beast materials were incredibly expensive, while high-grade ones were practically priceless and almost impossible to find.

Lian Mu did some calculations in her mind.

To obtain enough spirit stones for just one intact fifth-grade spiritual artifact, she would need to complete at least a thousand bounty missions. By the time she was done, she would probably be too exhausted to walk.

However, she still lacked a sword.

No, she needed more than just one sword. She needed one for the entrance re-examination, and as she progressed in her cultivation, she would require even better swords.

Gui Xian Sect would issue a sword to officially admitted disciples, but Xu Qianxing had mentioned that swords were classified by grade. Only those with Heaven Spiritual Roots or single spiritual roots could use swords above the third grade. Since she had three spiritual roots, she wouldn’t be able to obtain a high-grade sword.

Lian Mu didn’t think having three spiritual roots made her inferior to others. In her view, the only failure in life was not trying; there was no such thing as being born incapable.

She couldn’t afford to hire an artifact refiner to forge a sword for her—so she would learn to do it herself.

The thought took root in Lian Mu’s mind, and she felt it was worth trying. Now that she had unrestricted access to the library, it would be a waste not to learn.

As for the materials she needed…

Lian Mu looked toward the wall covered in bounty notices. In that moment, all the bounties seemed to transform into visible magical beast materials, beckoning to her.

“Go check it out! That loudmouthed body cultivator has responded to the bounty!”

“They’re going to fight!”

“I can’t wait to see him get beaten up! Haha, I almost want to go up and fight him myself.”

The first-floor hall suddenly became chaotic. As soon as the first voice spread, a crowd of people rushed outside to watch the bounty duel.

Lian Mu’s train of thought was interrupted. Seeing that everyone was heading out, she followed along to join in on the excitement.

Outside the Star-Plucking Pavilion, there was a bounty dueling platform specifically for battles between the bounty targets and those who had accepted the bounties.

Unlike magical beast bounties, personal bounties were limited to participants of the Demon Hunt Tournament. Once a bounty was issued, it not only had to be accepted but also needed the target’s response.

It was somewhat like paying someone to beat up someone you didn’t like. If the hired fighter won, they got the money; if they lost, the target got the reward.

On the bounty platform, a talisman cultivator in narrow-sleeved white robes stood, apparently the one who had accepted the bounty.

In the middle stood a man dressed in black. He wasn’t wearing a bracelet, which indicated he was an internal member of the Star-Plucking Pavilion.

“Would ‘Body Cultivator, Eighteen Years Old’ please come up and accept the challenge!” The black-robed man called out, holding a name list.

The crowd below shouted:

“Step up and fight!”

“If you’ve got guts, come out!”

“Haha, scared already? ‘Body Cultivator, Eighteen Years Old’ is a coward!”

Lian Mu: “…”

It seemed this person had made quite a few enemies.

As the crowd continued calling, the targeted body cultivator finally stepped onto the stage.

His appearance did not match his name at all. He was a tall and well-built man, dressed in the attire of a body cultivator. His muscular arms were exposed, and his hair barely reached his ears. On his face, he wore… a pink mask.

“I am ‘Body Cultivator, Eighteen Years Old.’” He stepped onto the stage and took his position.

His voice was crisp and clear—so much so that at first, he sounded like a friendly neighborhood youth.

In the next moment, ‘Body Cultivator, Eighteen Years Old’ made a gesture toward his opponent, the corners of his lips curving up. “So you’re the one who put up the bounty looking for a beating? This young master will gladly oblige.”

Too arrogant!

The spectators glared at him with fury, as if they wanted to tear him apart with their eyes.

At the black-robed man’s command, the duel began—