Chapter 456 - 431: Resist Greed, Act Cautiously, Winds and Clouds of the World

Song Ciwan placed Steward Luo’s corpse into the Heaven and Earth Scale, along with all his belongings—including the so-called "Treasure Map" he had mentioned.

What was interesting was that Song Ciwan had originally assumed the so-called "Treasure Map" was merely false bait Steward Luo had dangled to get her to lower her guard. Even if such a thing truly existed, she figured he was unlikely to carry it on his person.

After all, unlike Song Ciwan, who was solitary and untethered, Steward Luo was a Steward of the Seven Treasures Tower. He had a family and a career; he was an established man.

Generally, only Loose Cultivators would carry their entire fortune on their person. Someone with a home, a career, and a stable position... would be highly unlikely to do such a thing.

And yet, when Song Ciwan swept the entire area’s contents into the Heaven and Earth Scale and took inventory of the items within, she discovered that the Treasure Map was real!

It was certainly a curious thing, for Steward Luo to have carried it on his person, only for it to end up in her hands.

However, Song Ciwan’s modus operandi had always been to sell off all her loot. So, even though Steward Luo had been carrying the Treasure Map, the moment she acquired it, she tossed it straight into the Heaven and Earth Scale without a second glance.

Once something was put into the Heaven and Earth Scale, it was impossible to retrieve unless it was sold.

The only things that could be freely deposited and withdrawn from the Heaven and Earth Scale were the proceeds from such sales.

Therefore, even though the Treasure Map had come into her possession, she had no way of retrieving it. As for following it to find the so-called "Celestial Immortal Secret Collection," that was now completely out of the question.

The whole situation... was rather hard to describe.

If one were to ask whether Song Ciwan regretted acting so quickly and tossing the Treasure Map into the Heaven and Earth Scale?

Her answer would be that she did not. If she had to do it a hundred times over, she would do the exact same thing every time.

Avoid greed!

This was a principle she had understood from the very beginning of her Cultivation. One must be bold and advance when the time is right, but one must be even more cautious when caution is required. The two must coexist in a delicate balance.

In short, on the path of Cultivation, one could never afford to get arrogant.

Otherwise, ten thousand moments of caution were no match for a single instance of negligence!

’I need to fuse certain principles into my habits, making them so natural that they require no conscious effort—as if they were an innate part of me.’

’Once I reach that stage, my fearlessness will be even more unshakable.’

Song Ciwan scoured the area. In addition to taking Steward Luo’s corpse and all his personal belongings, she also collected a large patch of the surrounding snow, which was marred with traces of their battle—scooping it up along with the soil underneath and placing it all into the Heaven and Earth Scale.

Immediately after, she used the Great Derivation Birth Skill to cleanse the area of their auras.

Next, she executed the Thousand Illusions Divine Palm, guiding the wind and snow to drift over and cover the patch of missing ground, restoring it to its original state.

Only then did Song Ciwan gracefully depart.

The black-clad, saber-carrying youth journeyed far, but ultimately, she had missed a few things: a bird flying over a distant snowy peak, an insect or snake stirring deep within the earth, a monkey peering out from the treetops, a wood frog leaping from beneath a pile of withered leaves...

Song Ciwan couldn’t possibly exterminate every living creature in the surrounding hundred miles after every single battle.

At the very moment she drifted away, far off in the Capital, the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List stirred once more.

However, this change was not nearly as earth-shattering as the last.

Although the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List only had a hundred spots in total, and in theory, every single one should be noteworthy...

...the reality was that there were different degrees of "noteworthy."

If Song Zhao’s previous appearance at number three on the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List had sent the world into a frenzy, then "Lu Bell’s" new entry on the list was, in comparison, at least ten times less dazzling.

The first to notice was the List Guardian, the man stationed year-round beneath the Jade Stele of the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List.

On that twilight evening of swirling wind and snow, the List Guardian, feeling both chilled and drowsy, lifted his head. He froze for a second, then muttered, "Huh? The person who was in one-hundredth place is gone?"

The words had barely left his lips when the realization hit him.

He instantly understood what "the hundredth place is gone" meant. "Is there a newcomer on the list?" he exclaimed in shock. "Did they push the last one off?"

Then he sighed. "Hah, these days... the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List is changing every other day. For the past couple of years, it wouldn’t change for months at a time, but lately, it’s been in constant flux. What is this world coming to?"

The List Guardian’s words startled the other onlookers gathered beneath the stele—

—though "onlookers" wasn’t quite the right word.

Most of them were low-ranking members from various factions, runners tasked with nothing more than standing guard beneath the Jade Stele of the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List to get first-hand news of any changes.

It was a task that was both incredibly boring and, at times, incredibly important.

It all depended on how frequently the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List changed.

The crowd of watchers swarmed over. They first scanned from the top down, seeing no changes in the upper ranks. Someone with quicker wits immediately started scanning from the bottom up.

Then, a voice finally cried out, "I see it! I see it! There’s a newcomer on the list, at number eighty-two!"

WHOOSH!

In unison, the crowd shifted their gaze toward the lower section of the list.

Someone began to read the newly added entry aloud: "Lu Bell, an Innate Third Transformation Martial Artist of mysterious origins, travels with a saber.

Primary Martial Technique: Life-taking Finger. Its killing intent is palpable, capable of overturning life and death in an instant."