"Truly impressive! As expected of the Thunder Technique, which stands unrivaled among all magics in terms of power. Such might is nearly comparable to a Tier Three Magic within the Five Elements Magic!"
At the top of the sand slope, Zhouyang looked at the sand bandits' corpses charred on the ground, his face filled with amazement.
He had long heard of the formidable power of Thunder Skills, and among the same tier, there are few other magics that can match the power of the Thunder Technique. Seeing it today, he finally understood that the great reputation of the Thunder Technique was indeed not empty praise.
However, although the power of Thunder Skills is great, the difficulty in cultivating them is equally unmatched by many other magics.
Generally speaking, only cultivators with wind and thunder attributes in their spirit roots can more easily learn Thunder Skills.
For a cultivator like Zhouyang, whose spirit root attributes lean towards the Five Elements, learning Thunder Skills is not impossible. However, the difficulty would be more than ten times that of cultivators with wind and thunder attributes, and even if he learned it, the power exerted would be much lower than that of spirit root cultivators with wind and thunder attributes.
Because of this reason, although many cultivators envy the power of Thunder Skills, those truly willing to waste a large amount of time on them are extremely rare.
To create a Thunder Skill into a spirit talisman not only requires a high degree of mastery in magic and talisman-making skills, it also necessitates using spiritual materials imbued with wind and thunder powers as the carrier.
It is precisely because the conditions are so demanding that Thunder Talismans, which seal the Thunder Skills, always top the price list of all talismans of the same tier, sometimes even reaching the prices of higher-tier talismans.
Yet even so, they are often priced without a market, and buying one depends on luck.
The Tier Two High-Grade "Thunder Strike Technique" spirit talisman in Zhouyang's hand was given by the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, specially entrusted to him before he went down the mountain as a trump card for self-defense.
When the rare Thunder Talisman was handed to him, the old Clan Leader specifically cautioned him not to use the talisman lightly unless absolutely necessary.
Little did he expect that less than a month out from his journey, he had already used the spirit talisman that the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan had treasured for decades.
"What a waste! Had I known the Thunder Talisman's power was so great, I could have spared this guy's life!"
Thinking of the immensely serious expression on the old Clan Leader's face when he handed over the Thunder Talisman, Zhouyang suddenly felt a bit regretful.
Although all sand bandits should die, using up a precious Tier Two High-Grade Thunder Talisman just to kill one sand bandit was a loss no matter how it was looked at!
But what's done is done, and it's too late for regrets. He could only half-comfort himself while hoping expectantly that the storage bags on the sand bandits' bodies would hold some surprises. Otherwise, today's loss would be truly catastrophic!
Strictly speaking, this was his first time killing someone in both lives, and he had killed not one but three, all of whom were cultivators.
Perhaps due to the influence of his upbringing, he had no aversion to killing in magical combat, nor any discomfort upon seeing the sand bandits' corpses.
Back at the Qingping Mountain Oasis, the miners bitten to death by the Gold-Eating Rats were truly pitiful. Many didn't even have a complete body remaining. While he felt uncomfortable witnessing such scenes, there was no particular adverse reaction.
After all, cultivators have magical power protecting them, immune to all diseases. Even if psychological reasons cause adverse physical reactions, they can quickly suppress them with magical power.
Shaking his head and not dwelling on these trivial matters, Zhouyang gathered the corpses of the two sand bandits on the ground. After confirming nothing was left behind, he set them ablaze into ashes, then used "Earth Escape Technique" to delve underground and loot the body of the sand bandit he had ambushed and killed with the "Armor-Piercing Dagger." Satisfied, he returned to his tent at the sand slope to assess his loot.
Unlike sect and clan cultivators who have fixed abodes for storing items without worrying about them being ransacked in their absence, most loose cultivators only feel secure carrying everything they own with them. Therefore, while the storage bags from loose cultivators may differ in capacity, they are always packed to the brim.
Consequently, Zhouyang found not just three storage bags from the three sand bandits but ten.
Of these ten storage bags, three had a capacity of one zhang, six had a capacity of five chi, and one had a capacity of three chi.
Upon opening all ten storage bags, Zhouyang found them filled with various miscellaneous items, ranging from golden cups and jade bowls for eating and drinking to large cowhide tents and jujube wood beds, all sorts of things were available.
The most abundant things are [Golden Pearl Rice] and frozen demon beast meat. It seems like the three sand bandits were afraid of starving to death in the desert. The amount of [Golden Pearl Rice] and demon beast meat each carried could last them alone for three to five years!
"No wonder the elders in the clan always have a strange tone and disdain when talking about loose cultivators, even mockingly calling them beggars and wanderers of the cultivation realm!"
"Carrying all these pots and pans on their bodies, along with a large amount of spirit rice beast meat, aren't they just like beggars and wanderers?"
Zhouyang looked at the storage bags stuffed with items of little use to cultivators, feeling amused yet incredibly disappointed.
He had hoped to find some valuable goods in these storage bags to compensate for the several Tier Two High-Grade Spirit Talismans and one Thunder Talisman he wasted. But now it seems that such an idea might be somewhat challenging to realize.
A loose cultivator is just that; if they were wealthy, they wouldn't have ended up as sand bandits, though not everyone can become a sand bandit either.
But even the smallest mosquito leg is still meat, and even the worst steamed bun is still dry food. After thoroughly scavenging through 10 storage bags, Zhouyang did find some spiritual objects worth considering.
Among these spiritual objects, the most numerous are lower-grade spirit stones, with two to three hundred pieces. There are also several bottles of Tier One and Tier Two spirit pills with various uses, estimated to be worth around a hundred spirit stones.
Then Zhouyang also found several Tier Two Spirit Talismans the three sand bandits hadn't had the chance to use, and some artifact refining and alchemy materials they hadn't managed to sell yet.
These materials, if not refined into magical artifacts or elixirs, would only be worth about ten to twenty spirit stones. However, since Zhouyang himself is an artifact refiner and his father is an alchemist, with proper use, their value can multiply several times over.
Additionally, within the storage bags of the three sand bandits, there are eight volumes of low-tier immortal cultivation techniques, several cultivation insights annotations, and two travel notes by cultivators recording some strange tales of the cultivation realm. Zhouyang glanced at them and saw that six of the eight techniques were already recorded in the Zhou family's Scripture Cave. The remaining two, once donated to the clan, could still earn him a hard-earned fee of twenty lower-grade spirit stones.
Breaking it down, if added to the few Tier Two spiritual artifacts obtained from the sand bandits, as well as the value of the 10 storage bags themselves, the goal of breaking even has surprisingly been achieved, with even considerable profit.
"Murder and arson bring gold belts, building bridges and roads leaves no corpse behind; the ancients were truly not deceiving me!" Zhouyang exclaimed, deciding to retract his earlier words.
Even though loose cultivators are poor, a broken ship still has three pounds of nails!
After all, the three sand bandits were late-stage Qi cultivation cultivators, having engaged in the robbing industry for many years, they did accumulate some wealth.
If not considering the life-saving talismans and elixirs bestowed upon him by elders, his worth might not be significantly higher than the three.
Even extending this comparison to the whole Zhou family, excluding Zhou Minghan and Zhou Xuanhao, the two Foundation Establishment cultivators, only the ninth-layer Qi cultivation elders can definitely surpass the three sand bandits in personal wealth.
After talling up the acquisitions from this venture, Zhouyang set fire to all the useless miscellaneous items, then packed the useful ones into two large-capacity storage bags slung at his waist. The remaining empty storage bags were tied up and hung in a burlap sack on the back of the Shatuo Beast, planning to dispose of them in the family shop once he reached Baisha River Oasis.
Being a clan cultivator has this benefit; treasures acquired outside, as long as their origins are clear and not involved with other clan or sect cultivators, can be listed for sale in the clan's shop, requiring only a half-percent fee once sold.
In contrast, those loose cultivators with treasures, regardless of their origins, when selling in marketplace shops, can hardly expect normal prices. At worst, they have to lower the price by thirty percent to succeed in selling.
If unlucky or inexperienced, taking stolen goods from clan or sect cultivators to a regular shop for sale, once the origin of the stolen goods is discovered, not only will the goods be confiscated, but the person will also be apprehended by market law enforcement cultivators for questioning. Confirming incidents of murder and theft spells a direct death sentence.
Due to these reasons, loose cultivators, when finding spiritual objects outside, sometimes prefer spending considerable time selling at marketplace stalls rather than going to shops to be fleeced. Only when extremely urgent for spirit stones, they will painfully visit the shops to be extortioned.
But loose cultivators staying in the marketplace still have to pay spirit stones to the marketplace administrators, and if the stay is too long without selling their goods, they ultimately must willingly accept exploitation.
Therefore, being a loose cultivator in the cultivation realm is indeed a very arduous life.
Zhouyang feels fortunate to be a clan cultivator. Although the Zhou family is not a major clan, compared to the lowest tier of loose cultivators in the cultivation realm, having a clan as a backing means at least not being excessively exploited.
The fierce battle with the three sand bandits did not take Zhouyang much time; rather it was tallying the spoils from the three sand bandits that consumed a good part of his night.
As dawn broke, after reviewing his acquisitions, Zhouyang did not linger and instead packed up his tent, mounted the Shatuo Beast, and continued his journey.