Cultivation Is Money-Grabbing C20

Chapter 20: Your Name Is Unique—More Tasteful Than ‘Azure Dragon’

Nighttime, with no one around.

Lian Mu had just left Yinxiang Peak, carrying freshly refined pills, and sneaked away quietly.

The first time was unfamiliar, the second time was easier, and by the third time, it felt like walking through her own front door. She had already memorized all the paths and hidden shortcuts of Yinxiang Peak, making it easy to avoid patrolling alchemists.

She had refined a large batch of Qi-replenishing pills—enough to last her a while—so she wouldn’t need to return to Yinxiang Peak anytime soon.

Low-grade Qi-replenishing pills were still a bit inconvenient since they required large batches and took a long time to refine. It would be better if she could make higher-grade ones…

The thought crossed her mind, but she wasn’t in a hurry. She would make do for now and learn how to refine higher-tier pills after passing the entrance exam’s second round.

For now, she had a more urgent task: learning artifact forging and crafting a sword.

On the day of the entrance exam’s second round, if she couldn’t even bring out a sword, there would be no point in competing.

Lian Mu spent an entire day and night studying the basics of artifact forging, not even taking time to eat. She liked to finish a book in one go, and after being dragged away by Murong Yi for a lecture today, she had rushed to the library with her injuries and finished the remaining half of Introduction to Artifact Forging.

It wasn’t until she entered the alchemy chamber that she remembered her hand was still broken. It was too late to buy medicine from an alchemist now, so with the pill furnace right in front of her, she simply refined the medicine herself.

Honestly, it was embarrassing—she was a sword cultivator, yet over the past half month, she had spent more time refining pills than practicing her sword.

At first, she had planned to only refine Qi-replenishing pills. Now, somehow, she had learned how to make dozens of different kinds.

Still, there were benefits. Refining her own pills had saved her a lot of spirit stones, leaving her with more resources—a win-win situation.

Lian Mu weighed her current spirit stone reserves and decided to head to Star-Plucking Tower to take on a few bounty missions. She needed to gather materials from demon beasts to try artifact forging.

While Thousand Spirit Peak of Gui Xian Sect also had artifact forgers, its peak master was highly vigilant and had placed many barriers around the artifact-forging pavilion. Unlike Yinxiang Peak, it wasn’t freely accessible.

Reading books wasn’t enough—Lian Mu preferred to learn through hands-on practice. She had even borrowed a few key books on artifact forging under her registered nameplate.

At night, Gui Xian Sect imposed a curfew, prohibiting disciples from going out freely. But Lian Mu couldn’t afford to waste time, so she planned to sneak out.

She knew that when curfew began, the sect would be enveloped in an invisible barrier, allowing only those with a Night Pass—personally issued by an elder—to enter and exit freely. She had no way of obtaining one.

However, at the foot of Suiqiu Peak, there were several spots not covered by the barrier but blocked off with stone walls. These areas had once been inhabited by demon beasts, and a strong spiritual energy barrier would only attract more attacks.

Fortune favored the bold—Lian Mu decided to take a gamble.

She changed into black clothing, took the least-traveled route, and headed toward the foot of Suiqiu Peak.

There were no lamps here, and the darkness was absolute. Lian Mu didn’t dare to light a flame, relying on her sense of touch to navigate. After two incense sticks’ time, she finally felt a rough stone wall.

She pressed against the wall, searching for a foothold. But when she reached out, her hand landed on something warm…?

She couldn’t tell what it was at first, so she curled her fingers and gave it a squeeze—soft, with some elasticity.

Just as she was about to light a flame to check, another hand suddenly covered the back of hers.

It wasn’t her own.

Lian Mu: “…”

“…”

Silence filled the air. The other person remained silent as well.

After a brief moment of stillness, they tacitly reached an unspoken agreement and quietly stepped away from each other, saying nothing. Only they knew their respective feelings in that moment.

Sneaking out in the middle of the night—neither of them wanted to be exposed. The other person clearly understood this, too.

…

Lian Mu easily climbed over the wall. Despite it being her first time, she moved with surprising familiarity.

She arrived at a secluded shop, retrieved a teleportation talisman from the designated spot, activated it with her spiritual energy, and in the blink of an eye, arrived at Star-Plucking Tower.

She went to the northern wall to check for any available bounties. After circling a few times, she found nothing suitable.

So she pawned her bracelet to a black-clothed guardian, instructing him to secure any newly posted bounty missions for her.

She wasn’t the only one struggling to find a bounty.

“Damn it! So ruthless—someone took all the low-tier demon beast bounties! There’s nothing left that we can actually fight!”

“You can still take one—bounties allow multiple contenders. It’s not first come, first served. You can still compete for it now.”

The cultivator who had been cursing suddenly stammered, “I, I…!”

Lian Mu knew what he was worried about. Tonight, the one who had taken on all the low-level demonic beast bounty missions was the same body cultivator, eighteen years old, who had kicked a dual-spiritual root talisman cultivator flying last time.

The eighteen-year-old body cultivator had accepted all the bounty missions on the first floor of Zhaixing Tower—a total of 180 missions, covering demonic beasts of the metal, wood, water, fire, and earth elements.

Because he had taken too many bounties, many people on the first floor who had wanted to take missions had nothing to do. Yet, they didn’t dare to compete with him and could only watch as the number of available bounties on the wall dwindled.

Aside from the three walls used for accepting bounty missions, there was also a central wall that displayed the status of accepted missions. Tonight, the entire floor was monopolized by the eighteen-year-old body cultivator, so the only name floating on the wall was his, along with the number of bounties he had taken.

Lian Mu stared at the numbers on the wall and couldn’t help but sigh—having strength really was an advantage.

Even though the eighteen-year-old body cultivator had taken on 180 missions at once, the number next to his name had been steadily decreasing since he entered. He had been almost continuously killing demonic beasts for half an hour.

Of course, there were still other demon hunters’ names floating on the wall—those who had dared to compete with him. Among them was Qinglong, who had fought him last time.

Yet, from the start until now, all the kills had gone to the eighteen-year-old body cultivator. The others hadn’t managed to claim a single demonic beast.

Qinglong had even ended up fighting the body cultivator again. Their names on the wall were now linked by a blood-red line, indicating an ongoing battle.

Not even a quarter of an hour later, a figure suddenly flew out from the Transmission Mirror and crashed straight into the northern wall near Lian Mu.

The person flew past Lian Mu and embedded directly into the wall. When the crowd turned to look, they saw that it was none other than Qinglong.

Once again, he had been punched into the wall by the eighteen-year-old body cultivator—this time, he was hit so hard that he was sent flying out of the Transmission Mirror.

Qinglong coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, unable to move his limbs. Soon after, he was pried off the wall and taken away by the black-clad enforcers of the Tower.

The crowd shuddered. “!”

This eighteen-year-old body cultivator was terrifying.

Even though he had been fighting Qinglong, he had still continued killing demonic beasts. It was even possible that he had found Qinglong annoying for disrupting his hunt and had simply finished him off in one move.

Lian Mu swallowed a few qi-replenishing pills. She felt nothing in particular about Qinglong being beaten—if he was weak yet still provoked others, getting beaten was inevitable.

If she ever encountered the eighteen-year-old body cultivator, she would just avoid him if she couldn’t win. As the saying goes, “As long as the green hills remain, there will be wood to burn,” and “A gentleman’s revenge can wait ten years.”

However, she was more interested in the money he was making. At this point, he had already slain two-thirds of the demonic beasts, and the bounty total next to his name was climbing rapidly.

It had probably reached 500,000 spirit stones.

Tsk tsk, earning 500,000 in one night. Adding that to the 200,000 he made the other day, that was a total of 700,000.

Fighters really did make the most money.

Tonight, the eighteen-year-old body cultivator was on a rampage. Even with just her toes, Lian Mu could guess that he would claim the highest bounty of the night.

The wall only displayed numbers, not battle scenes. Lian Mu found it a bit dull. No matter how much money he earned, it wasn’t hers, so she might as well do something else.

She wandered around the first floor, ate and drank to her heart’s content, then found a place to take out a book on refining tools and began reading.

Meanwhile, the eighteen-year-old body cultivator had finished his hunt and returned from the Transmission Mirror. He was covered in a fierce, blood-soaked aura, yet there was no killing intent in his expression—on the contrary, he seemed relaxed and at ease, as if he had just taken a casual stroll.

Instantly, he became the focus of everyone on the first floor.

Lian Mu didn’t pay attention to the commotion. Just as she sat down with her book Art of Tool Refining, she heard a black-clad enforcer by the northern wall calling her name.

“‘Cultivation is Just Money Grab,’ you have a bounty mission!”

The black-clad enforcer guarding the wall had actually helped her snatch a bounty.

At the thought of making money, Lian Mu immediately rushed over, accepted the jade bracelet and the bounty mission slip, and glanced at it.

【Bounty Target: Tier Eight Earth Beast, Five-Tailed Red Scorpion

Bounty Reward: 30,000 Spirit Stones

Requirement: Five-Tailed Red Scorpion’s Poison Gland

Current Bounty Hunters: Cultivation is Just Money Grab】

A Tier Eight Earth Beast—it wasn’t a high rank. Over the past few days, Lian Mu had been reading up on demonic beasts and had learned that most earth beasts were poisonous but generally lazy and docile, making them relatively easy to deal with.

Just as she was about to look up what this particular earth beast looked like, another name suddenly appeared on the bounty mission slip.

【Bounty Target: Tier Eight Earth Beast, Five-Tailed Red Scorpion

Bounty Reward: 30,000 Spirit Stones

Requirement: Five-Tailed Red Scorpion’s Poison Gland

Current Bounty Hunters: Cultivation is Just Money Grab, Eighteen-Year-Old Body Cultivator】

“……”

No way.

Lian Mu’s fingers froze slightly. When she looked up, she saw the eighteen-year-old body cultivator standing not far away, directly across from her.

He seemed to have sensed her gaze and looked up to meet her eyes.

He glanced at the bounty slip, then at her, and realized who she was. “‘Cultivation is Just Money Grab’? Your name is quite unique. I like it—much more tasteful than ‘Qinglong.’”

Lian Mu: “……”

Speak of the devil. Sometimes luck really wasn’t necessary to this extent.

Just having swallowed some pills and returned to the arena, the badly beaten Qinglong nearly coughed up blood again upon hearing this remark: “……”

When the new bounty slip was posted on the central wall, everyone had initially assumed that the eighteen-year-old body cultivator had taken another mission. But when they looked up, they saw another name alongside his.

“Someone actually dares to compete with him for a bounty? So bold!”

“I’m curious who will win. What if it’s another hidden expert?”

“Do you think experts are like cabbages on the roadside, just appearing whenever? I bet that body cultivator will complete 181 missions tonight. No one on this floor is his match.”

Near the Transmission Mirror, a black-clad enforcer responsible for handing out bounties overheard the discussion and curiously glanced over.

To his surprise, the two people competing for the bounty were none other than the eighteen-year-old body cultivator who had been rampaging through the competition and… the sword cultivator who had once killed a Gold Beast barehanded?!

The name was too unique. The black-clad enforcer recognized it at a glance.

“……”

Now this was interesting.