Cultivation Is Money-Grabbing C27

Chapter 27: Fortune—Someone Has Placed a Bounty on You

For the first time, Lian Mu had accidentally skipped Elder Xin Wanbai’s class. The consequences were obvious. That afternoon, she was forced to spar with Elder Xin until her limbs went numb. A crowd gathered to watch her get beaten and chased all over the sparring ground.

Of course, Guan Shize had it even worse. He had the audacity to skip Elder Murong Yi’s class and was beaten so badly that he was nearly left half-paralyzed.

But he enjoyed it. In fact, he even started recommending this method to anyone who wanted to improve their skills.

Word spread quickly across Hanlai Peak. Soon, a large number of usually diligent disciples started skipping class to nap and wander around Yinxiang Peak, leaving the disciples there utterly confused. The elders of Hanlai Peak had to personally go and drag them back—so many that their hands went numb from the effort.

Among these disciples, Lian Mu somehow became the most normal one.

For a while, the intense screams and the sounds of clashing swords on Hanlai Peak made disciples from Qianling Peak and Suiqiu Peak shake their heads in dismay.

But that was a story for later.

After being thoroughly beaten by Elder Xin Wanbai, Lian Mu climbed over the wall, limping as she escaped.

There were only five days left until the entrance exam retest—time was running out.

Back at Star Plucking Tower, Lian Mu headed straight for the artifact refiners’ workshop.

She had rented this workshop for a month. Everything she needed was stored inside, and she usually kept it locked.

The room was spacious, with a forging platform in the center, various tools neatly arranged on the side, and piles of magical beast materials scattered across the floor, making it nearly impossible to clean up.

Now, Lian Mu understood why Xu Xianxing’s room was always a mess.

Being an Artifact Refiner was truly troublesome. There were too many things to handle, and when inspiration struck during forging, the necessary materials had to be within immediate reach. It was the only way to feel at ease.

Just forging a single sword, she had already considered multiple approaches. The moment she pulled out the magical beast materials, the room felt much smaller—there was barely enough space to stand, making it seem even smaller than the run-down bamboo huts where sword cultivators lived.

Being an Artifact Refiner was exhausting and expensive.

But she had no choice. If she could afford to hire an Artifact Refiner, she wouldn’t have to learn everything herself, running up and down the mountain.

Lian Mu laid out the blueprint she had prepared in advance and began following the forging techniques she had learned.

First, she activated the forge with her spiritual energy, placed the base material, and used the spiritual energy from spirit stones to melt the Flame Gold.

She wasn’t expecting this sword to be of exceptional quality. After all, she was just a beginner. The main goal was to save money and lay the groundwork for forging better swords in the future.

For the entrance exam retest, she just needed a usable sword.

She couldn’t borrow a sword for that kind of event—it had to be one she had attuned to.

Lian Mu added some powdered outer shell of a Five-Tailed Red Scorpion to the forge and suddenly had an idea. She dug out a Green-Clawed Toad’s core, which was covered in dried, unknown liquid.

Using a small knife, she scraped off the dried residue and sprinkled the fine powder into the forge before putting the core away.

Forging a sword was a long process, especially for a beginner like her. Without experience, she had to follow the book step by step, carefully measuring every bit of material.

However, as she progressed, something felt off. When she probed with her spiritual energy, she had an inexplicable sense that something was missing.

She couldn’t pinpoint what it was—it was just an uncomfortable feeling.

Trusting her instincts, she decided to add more spiritual materials to the forge.

An hour later, her spiritual energy was nearly depleted. She finally stopped, her legs wobbling as she stepped back, nearly collapsing.

Shaking her head, she fought off the drowsiness and splashed cold water on her face to wake up before retrieving the sword from the forge.

Surprisingly, the sword’s appearance was quite pleasing. The blade was slender, its edge a cold blue-green hue. Under the light, it shimmered as if adorned with countless tiny stars—an effect from the Green-Clawed Toad’s spiritual armor infusion.

The hilt, made from Flame Gold mixed with the spiritual armor of other metallic beasts, was also a deep blue-green but slightly darker. Midway through forging, she had realized she was running out of spirit stones and had to infuse spiritual energy manually, missing the optimal moment, which resulted in the color difference.

Barely able to stand, Lian Mu still admired her first self-forged sword. She decided to name it “Fortune”—simple, unpretentious, and full of good meaning.

She could barely hold on any longer. Storing the sword in her Spatial Pouch, she left everything else scattered around, slammed the door shut, and sprinted toward the alchemy room.

The black-clothed guard at the door recognized her mask and tried to stop her. “You—!”

She crashed straight into him, sending him flying.

The sword cultivator-turned-guard: “???”

Since when were Alchemy Cultivators this strong?!

No wonder she could punch an alchemy furnace to pieces.

Lian Mu had no time to waste and rushed toward the alchemy room she had used last time. The efficiency of Star-Picking Tower was impressive—the room had already been repaired, and they had even replaced the furnace with a brand-new one that looked better than the previous one.

She threw the spiritual herbs into the furnace and started refining immediately. After first producing a batch of low-grade spirit-replenishing pills, she swallowed them without hesitation, then turned to refining better ones using the Green-Clawed Toad’s inner core.

This time, she unexpectedly refined two snow-white beast pills. Lian Mu guessed it was because the furnace had been replaced with a new one.

Lian Mu swallowed one of the pills and immediately felt her spiritual energy surge, the emptiness in her dantian disappearing.

A single magic beast pill was usually enough to last Lian Mu a month. Unfortunately, she was currently forging a sword, and in less than ten days, she had already consumed the previous one.

She carefully stored away the remaining magic beast pill and was about to stand up to extinguish the fire when she suddenly noticed a piece of paper pressed under the furnace.

Pulling it out, she saw that it was a letter—brief and to the point:

“Hello, I am an Alchemy Cultivator. I found a snow-colored pill near the alchemy room earlier, and I believe it was refined by you. Are you also an Alchemy Cultivator? I would like to meet you. If you’re willing, please come to the Purple Forest behind Star-Plucking Tower. I have left a spiritual butterfly there.”

The letter was signed: I’ll Poison Every Last One of You.

Lian Mu: “?”

She went outside to ask the black-clothed attendant if anyone else had been in this alchemy room before her.

“No one,” the attendant replied. “After you blew up the room last time, it was under repair the whole time. Someone came by yesterday, took a look, and left.”

Lian Mu was now almost certain that the letter was meant for her. But she found the black-clothed attendant’s tone strange, so she responded in the same way, “Ohh, thank youuu, see you laterrr.”

The black-clothed attendant suddenly fell silent: “…”

Lian Mu returned to the alchemy room and read the letter again.

There was only a name, no additional token of goodwill, yet they wanted to meet her—and they didn’t even return her pill.

And inviting her to such a secluded forest? Clearly, they were trying to get something for nothing.

Too bad for her pill—it had ended up in someone else’s hands. No wonder she had refined an extra one this time—there were always supposed to be two.

Lian Mu took out some paper and a brush and wrote a reply, straightforward and blunt: No money, yet you want to meet this grandmaster? Dream on!

She stuffed the reply under the furnace, then tossed the letter she had received directly into the flames before extinguishing the fire and leaving.

Having just received a new sword and replenished her energy, Lian Mu planned to take on a few bounty missions to test her new weapon. But before she could get far, someone stopped her.

“Cultivation Is Just a Money Grab?” A black-clothed person glanced at her and held up a piece of paper.

“There’s a bounty on your head—one million spirit stones.”

Lian Mu didn’t quite catch that: “One million what?”

The black-clothed person: “That’s not the point… Someone has issued a bounty on you, and several people have already accepted it. You can choose whether to respond or not.”

Lian Mu hadn’t expected someone to target her so quickly. Thinking back, she hadn’t offended anyone lately.

And someone was actually willing to spend a million spirit stones to put a bounty on her? Who would go that far for her?

Could it be because she knew the Body Cultivator, Eighteen-Year-Old Fangling? Maybe one of his enemies wanted revenge? But even if that were the case, why put out such a hefty bounty on a nobody like her?

She scanned her surroundings and noticed several cultivators eyeing her like a fat sheep draped in gold.

The black-clothed person asked again, “Cultivation Is Just a Money Grab, do you accept the challenge?”

“No.” Lian Mu refused outright. “Give me the bounty slip.”

The black-clothed person handed it over, and sure enough, it listed Cultivation Is Just a Money Grab as the target—her alias.

Ignoring the contents, she looked directly at the issuer’s name.

—Bai Lingque.

Who?

Lian Mu had no recollection of this name at all.

“I refuse the challenge.” She handed the bounty slip back. “Tell this Bai Lingque to withdraw it.”

The black-clothed person asked, “Are you sure? If you win, you’ll earn a million spirit stones.”

Lian Mu replied, “I don’t have time.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want the million—it was just that this person’s intentions were too obvious. They might as well have written ‘I want to find someone’ on the bounty slip.

Once a bounty was issued, the target had to reveal themselves, while the issuer could remain hidden. She had no idea who this person was or what they wanted, making it far too risky for her to expose herself.

“Alright.” The black-clothed person put the bounty slip away. “Whether the bounty gets withdrawn is up to the issuer, not me. But as long as it stays up, you always have the option to change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

But for the sake of that million, Lian Mu added, “Unless the bounty issuer fights me personally.”

Both parties showing up would be fair.

The black-clothed person had nothing more to say and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

——

Later that night, Lian Mu took on more than twenty magic beast bounty missions and stayed by the Transmission Mirror until dawn.

She wasn’t in the best mood, affected by that bounty slip. As a result, she became more ruthless—every magic beast she encountered was slain in one swift strike, leaving no room for resistance.

After becoming more familiar with the first floor’s bounties, Lian Mu started finding them dull. No matter how she chose, the ranks were all the same.

Though there were many different types of magic beasts, they were similar at their core—too weak to provide any real thrill.

She fought almost mechanically, using every magic beast she encountered as a test subject for her sword. After her sword had tasted blood a few times, her movements became more fluid, and she gradually started to synchronize with it in battle.

Now, she had a sword that truly belonged to her.