After the trio consisting of the Cane Old Man, the toxic pipe woman, and the black-faced male cultivator were sliced into pieces by the water arrows, their storage bags fell toward the sea along with their remains.
Their fate of being devoured by the sea was sealed, and the two-faced whale's attention remained fixed on the spirit boat.
The opportunity was fleeting, but Jiang Yao and Mu Chenze, who were already prepared, seized it.
Mu Chenze immediately used a water control technique to manipulate the rainwater in the air, wrapping the scattered storage bags together.
Jiang Yao then used his ten-meter-long dip net to scoop up the bundled bags in one go.
To this, Gu Ningyun could only say, “Nice work!”
When she had previously told them to “pick up some scraps if it's convenient,” her emphasis had been on the word “convenient.”
In such a critical moment, she hadn't held much hope for whether there would be a chance or if they could successfully retrieve anything.
She had only mentioned it so they would keep an eye out. After all, what if?
To her surprise, those two had actually pulled it off.
“In that kind of situation, you two actually managed to scavenge something. No, it's not just something—you two practically made off with all their belongings, didn't you?”
“Because of their stunt, we consumed over two thousand low-grade spirit stones, and Ningyun's spirit boat even sustained some minor damage.”
Jiang Yao poked at a few dimmed array patterns on the spirit boat, a hint of heartache flashing in his eyes. “I couldn't have swallowed this grievance if we didn't get something back.”
“I saw Jiang Yao eyeing those storage bags in the air and guessed what he wanted to do. Time was too tight to think, so I just cast a spell to gather them with water. I was just trying it out; I didn't think it would actually work. Perhaps I gained a deeper understanding of water during our fight on the seabed earlier. This time, I just moved with a thought and hurriedly controlled the rain. I didn't expect to successfully gather all eight storage bags.”
Mu Chenze unfurled his folding fan, smiling quite proudly.
Jiang Yao leaned his arm on Mu Chenze's shoulder. “Let me tell you, Chenze and I coordinated perfectly. Ningyun's spirit boat was flying incredibly fast. I even held my breath and didn't blink once. The moment the boat's tail whipped, the black-faced cultivator died, and Chenze's water ball closed in. My dip net reached right into the water ball and scooped the bags up. If there had been even a moment of hesitation, we wouldn't have this much loot now.”
Of the eight storage bags, four belonged to the Cane Old Man, while the toxic pipe woman and the black-faced sword cultivator had two each.
The group chatted and laughed as they opened the storage bags one by one.
After organizing the resources together, their total haul consisted of:
Three rank two peak sea beasts, eight rank two late stage sea beasts, ten rank two middle stage sea beasts, and seventeen rank two early stage sea beasts;
Thirty-nine rank two demon cores extracted from them;
Half a storage bag of rank one sea beasts;
Forty-two bottles and jars containing toxic substances, and one leather-bound 《Poison Scripture》;
One mysterious-rank mid-grade flying sword;
Nine mysterious-rank high-grade Swift-Walk Talismans, eight mysterious-rank high-grade Return-to-Spring Pills, and ten mysterious-rank mid-grade Spirit-Replenishing Pills;
Eight thousand three hundred low-grade spirit stones, two hundred mid-grade spirit stones, and ten high-grade spirit stones;
One storage bag containing unwashed male undergarments of various sizes, styles, and colors;
And various miscellaneous items.
The owner of that bizarre storage bag was the Cane Old Man.
Jun Luo had the misfortune of picking that bag, and his face turned green the moment he opened it.
The other four had never seen his expression fluctuate so violently.
Jiang Yao took it to have a look and was also thoroughly disgusted.
He immediately took out some earth fire and burned the storage bag along with its contents to nothing. He even used the Cleaning Technique repeatedly to clear away any remaining ash.
One's face was green and the other's was black; both were extremely tense.
Without saying a word, they simply kept asking Mu Chenze to use water control to help them wash their hands.
Even after washing thirty times, they still felt uncomfortable, so they cast the Cleaning Technique another ten times.
Seeing the way they acted—as if they didn't even want their hands anymore and wanted to scrape off a layer of skin—Wen Xuan became truly curious.
“What did you see to have such a big reaction?”
Gu Ningyun also cast a puzzled look their way.
Aside from daily necessities and cultivation resources, what else could be in a cultivator's storage bag?
“It's better if you don't know,” Jiang Yao said through gritted teeth, his face contorted.
Jun Luo had an expression that suggested he didn't want to remember, slowly nodding with a heavy heart.
“Could it be that the Cane Old Man was an evil cultivator and those were evil items?”
As Mu Chenze spoke, he immediately denied it. “Probably not. You wouldn't react like this even to evil items. Stop keeping us in suspense and tell us—what was actually in there?”
Jiang Yao looked at him, opened his mouth, and then hesitated.
Mu Chenze: “???”
Jiang Yao: “You won't want to know.”
“What's the big deal? We're not that fragile. Just say it!”
Mu Chenze rubbed Jiang Yao's bald head. “If you don't say it, I won't help you wash your hands anymore.”
“If you don't say it, I'll burn that hair you just grew back with a single fire,” Wen Xuan said with a wicked smile, a small flame flickering from her index finger.
For some reason, Gu Ningyun suddenly had a bad premonition.
She was just about to open her mouth and say she didn't want to hear it anymore, but Jiang Yao had already succumbed to the “pressure from evil forces” and described the contents of that storage bag.
Gu Ningyun's expression looked as if she had just taken a trip through a Red-Spotted Sea Iguana's cloaca.
Her ears were no longer clean.
Wen Xuan and Mu Chenze both fell into silence.
For a while, the only sound on the spirit boat was the rushing water as hands were washed.
The spirit ship had set sail, and although they had only passed through the first sea area—the blue sea coral area—this region and its surroundings were actually within the exploration range of many cultivators.
Besides the rank one sea beasts they had encountered, there were also many rank two sea beasts in the vicinity. The rank two demon beasts they had obtained from the trio were likely what those three peak Foundation Establishment rogue cultivators had hunted during this voyage.
Life was difficult for rogue cultivators, and they didn't have many magic tools. All of their magic tools had been destroyed under the two-faced whale's attacks and were not recovered.
The black-faced cultivator's storage bag was as simple as his demeanor. Aside from fresh sea beast materials, there was only one spare flying sword, ten low-grade spirit stones, and a set of spare clothes.
As for the toxic pipe woman, one of her bags held fresh sea beast materials, while the other contained those toxic items, several talismans and pills, a small number of spirit stones, and some miscellaneous goods.
The vast amount of spirit stones, most of the talismans and pills, the sea beast materials, and the miscellaneous items actually all came from the Cane Old Man.
Based on this situation and the miscellaneous items that clearly belonged to different people, the five of them had initially speculated that the Cane Old Man was a professional bandit who relied primarily on robbery to obtain resources.
But now that they had discovered that bizarre storage bag, they were somewhat confused.
Was the Cane Old Man's primary goal in robbing cultivators the resources, or was it his peculiar hobby?
“I shouldn't have asked,” Wen Xuan said, wrinkling her nose in deep regret.
“If only there were 'what ifs'...” Mu Chenze's tone was exceptionally mournful and wounded.
Gu Ningyun's voice was weak. “This situation tells us that when a friend intentionally doesn't tell you something, there's a high probability it's for your own good. Especially when that friend's face looks particularly wrong.”
The five of them lamented in unison, “Sigh!”
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