Chapter 553: A Wave of Wealth, Ancestor Luo’s Whereabouts

"It’s him, he killed Master… the Patriarch."

At that moment, the Fireburn Sect cultivators rushing from outside also saw Wei Tu’s “true face,” just as Wenyuan had.

An uproar broke out among them. Their faces were full of dread, none daring to advance, none willing to retreat.

After all, the bloody deaths of Wenyuan and the crown-wearing cultivator inside the formation had been witnessed clearly. With their strength, charging forward could mean nothing but following the same fate.

But soon, hesitation became unnecessary.

For the instant they saw his exposed form, Wei Tu had already used the Curse Ghost Blood Escape to vanish from the battlefield. He slipped out of Fireburn Sect, his whereabouts unknown.

"Search! Quickly search!"

"We must find out who this dwarf is, and who sent him to assassinate our Patriarch!"

The few remaining early Nascent Soul cultivators exchanged troubled looks, then began handling the aftermath.

Though none of them truly wanted to provoke this terrifying dwarf again, the master’s death could not go unavenged. For the sake of inheriting Fireburn Sect’s foundation, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and stand firm.

…

What they didn’t know was that Wei Tu hadn’t been forced into revealing his “true face” by Wenyuan’s counterattack.

He had deliberately let Wenyuan land a strike, just to expose an identity he had prepared long ago.

That false identity was one he crafted after using the Joyous Nuo Mask to disguise himself as Zhang Nanqiu.

Even if the Fireburn Sect investigated for ten lifetimes, they would never find a single flaw anywhere on Yuanshi Island, or even across the entire Guixu Sea cultivation world.

Of course, Wei Tu hadn’t planned this disguise with such deep foresight. He simply didn’t want Fireburn Sect’s cultivators to suspect that the "Fellow Daoist Fu" of Five Elder Mountain had taken advantage of their Patriarch’s injuries to strike him down.

"Now then, time to check the spoils."

Taking a detour back to his cave dwelling on Five Elder Mountain, Wei Tu eagerly pulled out two storage treasures from his sleeve.

One was the common storage pouch used in the cultivation world. The other was far more advanced—a storage bracelet.

The pouch had belonged to the crown-wearing cultivator. The bracelet, naturally, to the Fireburn Sect Patriarch.

"Thirty-two spirit crystals."

"A Longevity Pill? The Three-Flame Fire Control Technique?"

In no time, Wei Tu had sorted through the items and found several worth his attention.

The spirit crystals needed no further mention.

The Longevity Pill, though its jade bottle bore no label of effects, was easily identifiable to him. With his fourth-tier alchemy mastery, he only had to look at the Patriarch’s corpse to know it was a high-grade healing pill with cultivation benefits.

"Shame, only one left."

He sighed inwardly. If only he had injured the Patriarch a little less days ago, perhaps more pills would have remained.

Still, that was only a passing thought. If given another chance, he knew he would not have held back.

"As for the Three-Flame Fire Control Technique…"

Wei Tu’s eyes narrowed with faint regret.

This was the Patriarch’s main cultivation art, the foundation of his fire-controlling techniques and his Spirit Flame Incarnation.

Though Wenyuan had lost and died in his hands, that didn’t make him weak. Nor did it mean this technique was worthless.

At mid-stage Nascent Soul, Wenyuan had been a first-rate expert—just a step below top figures like Zhang Nanqiu and Duan Changjing.

In truth, it wasn’t that Wenyuan was weak. It was that Wei Tu, armed with many peak-level secret arts, was too strong.

Likewise, the Three-Flame Fire Control Technique itself was a first-rate cultivation method at the Nascent Soul level, with potential to reach Divine Transformation.

But it carried a fatal flaw.

It had extreme repulsion, difficult to blend with other arts.

For Wei Tu, this was unacceptable. His strength lay in weaving together many top-tier secret arts. Cultivating this method would cripple that foundation.

Yes, if its growth potential had been limitless, he might have forced himself to take the risk.

But the truth was… its ceiling was already visible.

The Fireburn Sect Patriarch had reached that ceiling. He was dead now. Unless Wei Tu lost his mind, he would never waste time switching to a defeated man’s art.

"Still, though its combat edge isn’t outstanding, if I think differently… it could serve as support."

Wei Tu’s thoughts shifted, and a figure appeared in his mind—Cao Mi.

That woman’s realm was only early Nascent Soul.

A hundred years ago, she could still fight alongside him using the Yin-Yang Demon Corpse, but now, with his strength having soared, this woman had slowly shifted from being a comrade-in-arms to becoming a burden on the battlefield.

However, if she were to switch to cultivating the Three-Flame Fire Control Technique, it would be completely different.

The Spirit Flame Incarnation would boost her ability to survive. The Fire Lotus Technique could support him in battle, helping to restrain and control enemies.

And conveniently, for a cultivator like Cao Mi, who came from a small Nascent Soul sect, there was no concern that her sect’s methods would surpass this art.

For her to switch to this technique would be a huge gain!

Besides—

Cultivation methods and secret arts were knowledge, wealth that could be copied. For him, giving them to others was nothing to feel regret over.

Moreover, Cao Mi was his sworn ally, second only to Fu Zhizhou and Kou Hongying.

Strengthening her was, in another sense, strengthening himself as leader of the Righteous Society. Banding together for warmth was always better than fighting alone.

…

After sorting the treasures from the storage items, Wei Tu thought for a moment, then reached into the air with one hand and pulled out his Soul-Refining Banner.

With a shake, two miniature infants appeared on the table, both unconscious.

These were the Nascent Souls of the slain crown-wearing cultivator and the Fireburn Sect Patriarch.

But unlike other Nascent Souls Wei Tu had harvested before, these two had not self-dissolved. They were trapped in a deep sleep.

That was the effect of the Great Evil Art of Spirit-Binding Banner Control, taught to him by Ancestor Chilong.

With this art, it wasn’t just that they couldn’t self-destruct. Even controlling their own thoughts was impossible.

Wei Tu studied the two Nascent Souls briefly, then pressed a hand to each of their heads.

Soon, fragments of memory spilled forth from their souls, flowing into his mind.

"Ruyi Tower…"

"Ruins Pilgrimage…"

Before long, Wei Tu had extracted two particularly noteworthy memories from the Patriarch’s soul.

Especially Ruyi Tower.

That name immediately made him think of Cao Mi’s martial uncle—Ancestor Luo.

According to the Patriarch’s memories, Ruyi Tower was a shadowy force based in the Red Algae Sea.

It looked like a mortal pleasure house, but in truth, it specialized in renting out dual cultivation furnace cauldrons to outsiders for massive profit.

It was extremely well-hidden. Ordinary low- and mid-level cultivators in the Red Algae Sea knew nothing of it. Only high-level cultivators like the Patriarch had the qualifications to deal with them.

This time, after suffering heavy injuries, the Patriarch had summoned the crown-wearing cultivator specifically to rent a Nascent Soul furnace cauldron from Ruyi Tower for dual cultivation to recover.

"Training a Nascent Soul cultivator takes enormous resources. It’s impossible to waste them this way. The only explanation is that these furnace cauldrons were abducted by Ruyi Tower cultivators."

Wei Tu pondered silently.

Ordinary dual cultivation benefited both partners.

But using it the way the Patriarch had—to heal injuries—was pure harvesting.

And the furnace cauldrons being harvested would inevitably suffer hidden wounds like essence loss.

Over time, their cultivation would stagnate or even regress, until finally they might be drained dry and die miserably.

"Still… this force definitely has top-tier experts backing it. Not something I can provoke lightly."

Wei Tu shook his head. He wasn’t sure whether to tell Cao Mi this "good news"—or this "disaster."