Chapter 708: A Sudden Windfall

“Junior brother, who is he, and why does he want to kill you?” Liansuo and Lianxin returned after receiving Lin Miao’s message via the fire qilin.

Seeing the dead Sect Leader of the Green Blade Sect lying on the ground, they couldn’t help but ask.

“Shen Yidao, a wanted criminal by the court, Sect Leader of the Green Blade Sect, a Celestial Essence expert…” Lin Miao was actually exhausted as well, having drained his entire internal energy to kill this guy.

This was because Shen Yidao was injured by Fahai, and with the cooperation of the fire qilin and ice lion, added to his own promotion to the Upper Grade Meridian Passage Realm, he could call upon some of the world’s energy to finish the opponent off.

Otherwise, he would have been the one to die today.

Of course, this guy had just entered the Celestial Essence Realm and hadn’t yet fully adapted to his powers. If given another year or two…

Once he completely stabilized his current realm, it would have been hard to say what might happen.

The Celestial Essence Realm consists of nine layers, but the top experts today haven’t surpassed three layers, likely because the world’s energy is dwindling.

A thousand years ago, there were far more Celestial Essence experts than today, and it was common to find practitioners of the sixth or seventh layer; those at the eighth or ninth were not rare.

Nowadays, just stepping into the Celestial Essence Realm makes one an expert, honored as “True One,” while those reaching the second layer can be addressed as “True Monarch.”

The third-layer experts are scarce; you could count them on one hand. Most of them are in seclusion trying to make a breakthrough, and no one has been heard to reach the fourth layer.

One expert of the second layer can match ten of the first layer; a third-layer expert can easily create a super-first-rate power.

Every additional layer in the Celestial Essence Realm grants a lifespan increase of sixty years, or one complete cycle. A third-layer expert theoretically could live for three hundred years.

A normal lifespan is about one hundred twenty; adding three sixty-year cycles makes it one hundred eighty, adding up to three hundred years.

Yet living to three hundred isn’t easy. Usually, due to various reasons, lifespan doesn’t increase by sixty years per breakthrough, typically only forty to fifty years.

This means, if a third-layer expert isn’t self-destructive, living up to two hundred years is achievable.

Unfortunately, Shen Yidao had only just entered his fifties when he advanced to the Celestial Essence Realm. Even among the top sects, such talent is rare.

If he hadn’t gotten involved with Marquis Lingyang, Consort Xue, and King Qi, he might not have died so soon.

“Young master, you are amazing for killing a Celestial Essence True One,” Liansuo applauded.

“Stop flattering. If he wasn’t injured, had ten parts of his power left instead of three, and wasn’t careless, even I couldn’t have killed him alone,” Lin Miao replied.

“Yet you still killed him. An injured Celestial Essence is still a Celestial Essence,” Liansuo said, eyes filled with admiration.

“Check his belongings. There should be plenty of valuables. As a fugitive, he would likely carry his precious things on him,” Lin Miao instructed, feeling drained and in need of recovery before taking action.

“I excel at searching!”

“Be careful. This guy is sly and cunning; he wouldn’t let his things be easily taken,” Lin Miao warned.

“Got it. I’ll just use my sword to pick them up!”

Liansuo drew her sword, and with a sweep, shredded Shen Yidao’s clothes into strips.

“Liansuo, couldn’t you be more restrained?” Lianxin, suddenly seeing something indecent, bit her lip in frustration. Her younger sister was always so careless and unstable.

“Sorry, sister. I’ve recently made great progress in my skills, and I can’t fully control it…” Liansuo giggled and went ahead picking up the items that had fallen from Shen Yidao.

“Fortunately, those silver notes were in a leather pouch, or they would’ve been ruined. Let’s see how much silver there is?”

“Wow, there’s so much! Young master, we’ve struck it rich!” Liansuo exclaimed upon opening the pouch.

A thick stack of silver notes, each unregistered for a thousand taels—there were three to four hundred of them. On top of that, gold notes worth ten thousand taels each, amounting to thirty of them…

There were property contracts as well from Lingzhou, Dongshan, and even near the capital, all connected to the Green Blade Sect. These were all hidden and privately owned by Shen Yidao.

Combining these things, it’s probably worth millions of taels of silver.

For the past decade, Shen Yidao’s weapon smuggling had indeed raked in a fortune.

Aside from these, there were the Green Blade Sect’s manuals on “Azure Heaven Saber” cultivation techniques and some insights he had on creating the “Heaven-Regretting Saber.”

Additionally, there was a money pouch containing a few dozen taels of loose silver and seven or eight small bottles, one of which was a rosewood box.

A lock needed to be unlocked to open it.

This lock didn’t pose a problem for Lin Miao.

His internal energy could penetrate the lock and find its mechanism, naturally unlocking it within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

The lock clicked open.

Inside was a large jade bottle of mutton fat white jade, shaking it inside made a jingling sound.

It seemed to contain a pill.

To be kept in such an intricate box shows that this jade bottle contains something extraordinary.

“Let’s put it away first, don’t look at it, let’s go back.”

“Alright.”

Gathering everything they could carry, they packed it onto their horses. Then Lin Miao and Sun Youwei rode one horse, while Lianxin and Liansuo shared another.

As for the fire qilin and ice lion, they didn’t need any assistance.

Shen Yidao’s corpse was reduced to ashes by the fire qilin, wiped off the face of the world.

Actually, Lin Miao was injured too. Facing a Celestial Essence opponent, he had exploded his potential, killing the opponent with a do-or-die resolve.

Even his dantian was overloaded. If it wasn’t for the unsuitability of healing outside the city, he’d already be seeking a spot to heal.

After some consideration, heading back to the city was quicker than returning to Miao Manor.

Either way, they had to return.

Lin Miao decided to head home.

Back at home, Lin Miao called Lianxin and Liansuo to his usual practice room. He was injured, and dual cultivation was the fastest way to heal.

The two sisters were both in the mid-grade Meridian Passage Realm, naturally able to help him recover faster.

Xia Zhu, hearing of Lin Miao’s return, came to greet him immediately, but was stopped by Sun Youwei.

“Your master is injured and healing. If you want to see him, wait a bit?”

“Master is injured, who did it?”

“Shen Yidao from the Green Blade Sect,” Sun Youwei explained.

“What! Shen Yidao actually went after my master…” Xia Zhu was shocked, only just learning that Shen Yidao had attempted three assassinations on the Crown Prince and was the court’s most wanted, also a Celestial Essence expert.

“It’s alright, Shen Yidao is dead. Your master killed him, but keep this to yourself, okay? Don’t spread it around.”

“Why not, the court’s offering a reward of two hundred thousand taels!”

“How much, two hundred thousand taels?” Sun Youwei nearly choked. Two hundred thousand taels of silver, that’s a fortune. If she had known, she wouldn’t have let the fire qilin burn the corpse.

Now there’s nothing to claim the reward with.

“Forget it, that money isn’t easy to earn anyway. Your master doesn’t lack for two hundred thousand taels. Let’s leave it at that.” After her initial surprise, Sun Youwei quickly regained composure.

Ever since finding out how wealthy they actually were, she regarded money merely as “a bunch of numbers.” She couldn’t even spend all of her personal allowance.

Meanwhile, Crown Prince Zhao Yuanze had already quietly returned to the imperial city.