Chapter 378 - 378: Home Sweet Home

East District. Tower 44.

As soon as the tower entrance rumbled open, two lines of sight met.

There she was—like a heroine waiting for the return of the general.

Only half a day passed since they last saw each other, but it felt like a lifetime.

He walked up to her, and she walked up to him…

All he saw was that cold poker face, but Bubai felt a strange feeling bubbling like spring beneath ice and a blink later, they were in each other's arms.

"I'm back."

"En."

No more words were needed. Just let heartbeats sync and enjoy the breath of peace...

It wasn't until the exit groaned shut behind that Bubai blinked back to reality—Oh right, there were still affairs to handle.

Reluctantly, he drew back from the gentle embrace, coming face to face with her questioning eyes. "Fine?"

"Yeah, all good!" Bubai grinned and flexed his muscle. "See? Not even a scratch!"

Clearly a white lie, but Xiao Lan didn't call him out on it.

Instead, she turned to gaze past him. To be more precise, at the new consort shadowing her man with eyes-lowered like a docile bunny.

Wuh oh. Bubai's heart did a flip and he quickly took the initiative in his hands.

"Let me introduce you. This is Reiko—a… gift bestowed by Elder Mo."

Right on cue, the mature oriental beauty followed traditional etiquette, folding her hands and dipping in a slight bow.

"Reiko meets the mistress."

Xiao Lan didn't acknowledge her, only staring back at him with that same poker face.

Bubai sheepishly took her hands and rubbed away to warm them up. "Lan'er, you can set up a room for her downstairs and arrange the rest as you see fit."

A beat passed. Then his waifu nodded. "En."

A smart woman understood the clues. She knew what to do.

Still with that cold face, Xiao Lan glanced at Reiko. "Follow."

Without sparing her a second glance, Xiao Lan glided away towards the stairs.

The female prisoner hesitated only for a beat before timidly trailing behind.

The key he gave to his waifu soon came into play—Shhk…

A panel of the wall slid away to reveal the stairwell leading down to... the dungeons.

The lowest level of treatment, but the safest.

Can't just leave a Qi-refinement-level spy roaming in his tower like the mortal twins, right?

As for what his new toy's role will be in the tower?

Bubai spared no further thought on it.

His back court—that was his main waifu's job now.

His job was to focus on what needs to be done.

A few steps later, Bubai was already inside the tower's pool room.

He plopped down on the floor and lined up the recently-acquired storage pouches like suspects awaiting judgment.

"There will be more battles ahead. Instead of letting it all sit there locked up, I should utilize all resources I have on hand. But first…"

Bubai grabbed the low-grade pouch that he received from Mo Tianhe.

"Minus the 25 I used to pay the tab... there's still 225 low-grade spirit stones in here! This much wealth… it's too dangerous for it to stay out here!"

That's what he truly felt.

So Bubai didn't hesitate to dump those spirit stones out.

His hands flashed then around like a phantom, vanishing handful after handful of spirit stones...

"Done."

Bubai sensed the pile of crystalline stones that appeared in his private storage space and pinged a message to a certain hard-working doll in the corner.

"Jali, there will be a new piles for you to sort soon. You can start by moving the pile of spirit stones to its shelf."

The mature, olive-skinned priestess zealously bowed her head. "By your command, my king."

With that out of the way, Bubai's consciousness hopped back to reality and his attention fell on the other two storage pouches.

"Hmm… Let's start with that Wu Clan water boy first."

Bubai picked up the right storage pouch and tried prying it open, but… no dice.

"Locked? Of course it is." He wasn't surprised.

His divine sense flowed out and locked onto the spiritual brand fixed on the bag's core.

A thought summoned forth his essence dew and he pumped it into there.

One wash, two wash, then another…

The special Qi's brutal tide didn't take long to crack the low-level security.

"No self-destruction sequence got triggered. That's good news…"

Bubai happily opened the pouch. A glance inside made his heart leap with joy!

"This size... another mid-grade storage bag! Even bigger than his younger brother's!"

But what was even sweeter was the heap of glittering spirit stones.

"Holy Merlin... that water boy actually carried 69 spirit stones!"

If the battle didn't drag on for the full two hours, perhaps there would've been even more!

"As expected of a big clan's foundation-building prodigy! How rich!"

And this—this was just the tip of the mountain. Counting all the other combat supplements...

"Seed of pleasure, eight. Spirit beans, thirteen. A bunch of other containers... recovery pill, recovery pill, talisman, poison, recovery..."

"Oh hey, there's even a Blood Sage Explosion Pill! Looks like that water boy never got the chance to use this since I managed to grab his bag. Lucky me!"

That meant another trump card for him.

But unless it comes down to certain death, Bubai didn't plan to use this.

Sure, his life span was as high as 400 years, but that didn't mean he should splurge it, especially since he got better alternatives than burning lifespan.

Bubai set that forbidden pill aside in his combat pouch. The talismans and spirit beans also went in there.

As for the spirit stones? That naturally got added to the growing pile in his private treasury.

Seed of pleasures? That box joined the collection on the shelf.

As for the rest of the unidentified but probably generic loot?

Bubai left those aside.

"Appraisal and sorting can be done later. For now, just clean out the bags for combat supplies that I can immediately put to use."

The mid-grade pouch got set aside and Bubai turned his attention to the last loot bag.

"Hey, will I get another free mid-grade pouch?"

He rubbed his hands together to pray to the RNG god...

Alas, he was hoping for too much. That loot bag cracked open to a low-grade storage space—two by three by one meters big.

"A poor man's attic." Bubai sighed. "Well… at least this bag is at the upper-tiers of lower grade, and…"

When he saw the small pile of 23 spirit stones, Bubai smiled.

"Eyyy, that Gui Gouqi was actually pretty honest? He quoted exactly what he had."

Of course, can't rule out that the sneaky bugger had a hidden stash.

Alas, whether he slayed that Taiyin clan lapdog or not, that stash wasn't something he could get.

This set-in-stone ending was already quite the decent one, especially since this pouch carried other generic loot.

Most importantly: spirit beans x6.

"Well, well, this is already considered quite rich by grassroots disciple standards. Of course, poor bloke should be quite broke now since he lost all his wealth in one go. Haha."

But so long as that Ge Tianqi worked for the wealthy Taiyin Clan, someone will fill his purse back up.

Sooner or later, his pockets will fatten up.

"Once that happens, if he ever returns for revenge… it'll be another round of leek harvesting! Haha! How wonderful!"

Speaking of revenge…

The real trouble was not this early-stage foundation realm Ge Tianqi.

It was the mid-stage water boy, Wu Dawei. Now, that's a real grudge. A real tough nut to deal with.

A long life meant more accumulation, a deeper foundation.

Nobody builds that kind of cultivation base without a few killers hidden up their sleeves.

Even after losing an arm, that man clearly hasn't been pushed to the point of desperation.

That's exactly why Bubai didn't force a fight to the death with him.

Always have to stay wary of any possibly-table-flipping cheats possessed by these big clan prodigies, even if it meant temporarily letting them off.

This was a future risk, yes. But a calculated risk.

Bubai was sure the other side won't hunt him like a rabid wolf just yet.

After all, the internal and external struggles of the leaderless Wu faction should play a role in delaying any sort of retaliation.

But even if revenge came swift, Bubai wasn't scared.

"Heh. If that water boy dared ambush me off-stage, I don't mind teaching him why the flowers are so red!"

It's hard to outright kill foundation builders in the same realm, but that doesn't mean he can't!

Once he removed all the restrictions on his cheat-like powers…

Who can match him, Grandpa Fang, in the same realm!

Alas, a stage performance can only be a stage performance.

Well, at least it was well-paid for!

His spirit stone count was now over 400!!! Absolutely loaded!

Just this alone was well worth all his effort! And this was just the opening act!

Now the big question is…

"Should I go hunt for some more?"