Lordi began his examination with Krogh Hanz's storage pouch. Opening the spiritual container by mental force and spreading its contents across the worktable, Lordi found a modest but valuable collection.
Thirty-some C-grade Spirit $tones that glowed with concentrated spirit energy.
Two jade slips that presumably contained cultivation knowledge or technique records.
An ornate staff identified as the Venomflame Blood Wyrm Staff, its surface carved with intricate serpentine patterns and radiating a subtle aura of dangerous power.
A palm-sized shuttle carved from black stone that felt unnaturally cold to the touch, the shape clearly some form of flying artifact.
And various other miscellaneous items of lesser obvious value—entry level Dao Fulus, common grade elixirs, clothes, belts and other personal stuff.
Lordi picked up the first jade slip and carefully pressed it against his forehead, allowing his spiritual consciousness to flow into the artifact and access the information recorded within.
The knowledge contained in this particular slip consisted entirely of sword skill cultivation insights and comprehensions—detailed observations about Sword Intent, sword move, slash techniques, and philosophical approaches to the sword.
The second jade slip proved to contain extensive documentation related to artifact forging skill and tool refinement technique—accumulated experience, theoretical frameworks, experimental notes, and half-formed ideas about metallurgy and spirit metal treatment.
Though no AllFullOS notification appears, the system had already recorded these insights days ago.
Next came Donovan Valdez's storage pouch, which proved to be by far the most substantial in terms of sheer volume of contents. Spirit $tones represented only a minor portion of the haul. The vast majority of items contained within this particular pouch had clearly originated from the Hanz Clan Treasure House. Martial technique manuals and cultivation art method scrolls accounted for more than ninety percent of the total contents, a small but veritable library of martial knowledge covering various sword techniques, footwork arts, defensive methods, and meditation practices.
Beyond the treasure house plunder, there were also various items that had obviously been Donovan's personal possessions before that Outer Sect task began.
The item that surprised Lordi most among this Mister First Dominator's effects was an ancient bronze mirror. When he held it up to examine, the mirror's face remained perfectly smooth and polished, yet it utterly failed to reflect his image or any other physical objects in its vicinity. Instead, the mirror's surface displayed something far more disturbing: the image of a lady vengeful wraith. The hateful being was violently thrashing about within the confines of the bronze mirror, as though trapped in an invisible cage from which she desperately sought escape. The moment the ghost noticed Lordi observing her, she immediately fixed him with a gaze filled with such concentrated malevolence and poisonous hatred that it made his skin crawl. Blood-like tears streamed continuously from her eyes, painting crimson tracks down her pale, ghostly cheeks.
With a bitter smile, he tucked the bronze mirror away into his own primary storage pouch. An ghost surpressing Dao artifact capable of imprisoning and containing a ninth-layer Qi Refinement strength vengeful wraith almost certainly possessed considerable value in the right markets.
Moving on to the next, Lordi examined Emma Dawson's storage pouch. Its contents proved broadly similar to Donovan's collection, with comparable quantities of technique manuals, elixirs, and Dao Fulus obtained from the Hanz Clan treasure house. Well, this pouch also contained numerous items that clearly reflected its previous owner's gender and personal interests.
Several sets of elegant female cultivator gauze dresses in various styles and colors. Cosmetic preparations and rouge for enhancing natural beauty, ornamental hairpins crafted from precious materials. Jade earrings, decorative hair combs, and other accessories favored by female cultivators who maintained attention to appearance despite their Dao pursuits.
Krogh Hanz, Donovan Valdez and Emma Dawson. These three sect comrades's storage pouch had clearly been the wealthiest. The remaining storage pouches of other sect comrades contained far more modest collections when their contents were tallied together.
Various supportive items, common-grade weapons and equipment, basic supplies, and accumulated D grade Spirit $tones from all these lesser pouches combined to represent approximately 100k D$t in total value when everything was calculated at market prices.
Lordi experienced a moment of satisfaction as he performed the mathematical accounting: those legendary level Bone Tempering Pills that he'd generously provided to his Thorn Squad members before the task, could now be considered fully recovered along with accumulated interest.
After careful consideration of how to handle all these miscellaneous items, Lordi made several organizational decisions.
The majority of random miscellaneous objects that held no particular interest to him, along with large quantities of common entry and mid level elixir pills that didn't meet his current standards for personal use, were all transferred into several separate storage pouches that he designated specifically for resale.
The Dao Fulus presented a different consideration. While Lordi theoretically possessed the ability to use the AllFullOS system's one-click-cultivation function to produce Dao Fulus himself through automated crafting, he realistically had severely limited time and energy to devote to such secondary pursuits. More importantly, when it came to Qi Refinement Stage grade Dao Fulus, quantity proved far more important than individual quality—having dozens of entry level attack Dao Fulus was vastly superior to having three premium level ones. These consumable items that could directly and immediately enhance combat effectiveness had proven their utility time and again during actual battle situations. After weighing the strategic value, Lordi decided to retain every single Fulus from the collected haul, storing them for his own future use rather than selling them off for short-term profit.
The item that presented the most difficult decision was the question of what to do with the Venomflame Blood Wyrm Staff. Before departing for the Hanz Clan Estate on this lethal task, Lordi had overheard Garrick Blackthorn and several other squad mates discussing this very artifact weapon.
According to their conversation, this was a genuine Foundation Stage weapoon artifact that Soren Langley had borrowed from the Inner Sect.
If Soren had survived the task and returned to the sect alive, the proper and expected course of action would naturally have been to return this artifact to its rightful owner.
However, Lordi absolutely refused to follow that seemingly straightforward path of honorable conduct, well his refusal was grounded in cold pragmatic reality rather than simple greed.
The fundamental problem was that he had no knowledge whatsoever of the artifact owner's identity—Soren Langley or Thorn Squad's members had never mentioned specifically who within the Inner Sect had been generous enough to loan such a valuable item.
Furthermore, and this was the truly damning aspect of the situation, so many Outer Sect disciples had departed for the Hanz Estate, yet only two had returned alive: himself and Ruru Rosa.
Who could predict how this vicious look Venomflame Blood Wyrm Staff's true owner would react to such circumstances?
How would they interpret the fact that everyone died except the lowest-cultivation member of the group?
Foundation Stage weapon artifacts weren't cheap trinkets that anyone would casually loan out to acquaintances. They represented significant investments of resources and often carried personal or familial significance.
Such items were only entrusted to others in the context of very close relationships, deep bonds of trust between individuals who had proven their reliability over extended periods.
Given these facts, how would the staff's owner respond to learning that the person they'd done this enormous favor for—Soren Langley—had perished horribly in the mission, while some petty nobody had survived?
What if grief and suspicion clouded their judgment? Like in their sorrow and rage over their friend's death, they began entertaining dark theories that perhaps that Lordi Payne had actually murdered Soren to steal the powerful weapon?
If Lordi risk to voluntarily go to the Inner Sect and present himself at their door, artifact in hand, saying "Here, I found this among the possessions of your dead friend, thought you might want it back"—wouldn't that be the height of stupidity?
Wouldn't he essentially be painting a target on his own back and inviting investigation, suspicion, and potential revenge?
The more Lordi considered the scenario, the more convinced he became that returning the staff proactively would be suicide.
After mulling over the problem from multiple angles, carefully weighing various possible courses of action and their likely outcomes, Lordi reached a firm decision.
He would hide the Venomflame Blood Wyrm Staff securely among his possessions. Then he would adopt a wait-and-see approach, carefully observing how events unfolded over the coming weeks and months. Maybe no one came looking for it, maybe the artifact's owner either didn't care enough to investigate or couldn't trace the weapon to him.
If, on the other hand, serious inquiries began or dangerous attention focused in his direction, he could always "discover" the artifact later and turn it in, claiming he'd only just found it mixed among items he hadn't properly sorted yet. The strategy of hiding and waiting offered maximum flexibility while minimizing immediate risk.
The black stone like shuttle presented a similar dilemma. The artifact appeared deceptively simple at first glance—just a palm-sized carved shuttle—but closer examination revealed subtle rune formations and energy patterns that marked it as something far more sophisticated than a common flying tool.
Lordi couldn't determine whether this shuttle had originally belonged to Krogh Hanz as part of his personal collection, or whether the sword master had acquired it by looting the corpse of some unfortunate sect comrades who had arrived earlier.
Given this uncertainty about provenance, and wanting to exercise maximum caution to protect himself from any potential accusations or investigations, Lordi decided to store the black shuttle together with the Staff. Both artifacts would remain concealed and unused until he could absolutely confirm their safety.
After completing his thorough organizational effort and tallying up the total value of everything he'd acquired, Lordi performed his final accounting calculations.
His current liquid assets, converting all currencies to a common standard, amounted to approximately 40 C$t—which, when converted to the D-grade Spirit $tones that most transactions used as the standard currency, represented more than enough wealth to completely pay off his debt to the Punishment Crypt.
The 70K D$t penalty that had been hanging over his head like a death sentence, threatening his future in the sect, could now be cleared entirely. This realization finally allowed him to experience a profound sense of relief. He could breathe freely again.
To make full use of his prepaid rental of the lab room, Lordi called out AllFullOS System. Activate its one-click-cultivation function to craft a batch of Jade Tempering Pills.
By the time the automated refinement process completed its cycle, his paid rental period was nearly expired anyway. Lordi collected his finished pills, packed away all his various storage pouches and newly organized possessions, and departed from the Lab Hotel.
Without delay, he set course directly for the Punishment Crypt, eager to settle his debt and remove that legal liability from his record.
——
Meanwhile, Alchemy Peak. In a secluded cave dwelling far from the Lab Hotel...
Kim Simona once again immersed her naked body in a bathtub filled with dark blue Nether Chill Spring, the frigid liquid sending shock waves of cold through her dantian's core as the treasure water began to support the female cultivator's body tempering process.
This time, mercifully, no uninvited intruders burst through her defenses to interrupt the delicate procedure. No thieves appeared to steal her resources at the critical moment.
She was able to endure the excruciating ordeal from beginning to end without interruption, suffering through wave after wave of bone-deep cold that felt like it would shatter her from within. The pain was nearly unbearable, pushing her to the absolute limits of her endurance, but she gritted her teeth and persevered through every agonizing moment. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of torment, she successfully advanced her cultivation level and broke through to the Eighth Layer of Qi Refinement Stage.
As the spiritual properties of the Nether Chill Spring were gradually absorbed into her body and meridians, depleting its potency through the tempering process, the water's color slowly transformed. What had been mystical cold spring water infused with concentrated spirit energy became nothing more than ordinary clear water.
Sensing that the process had fully completed, Simona slowly rose from the bathtub, water cascading from her curvy body. She gestured with one hand, using a thread of spirit energy to summon her robe from the clothing rack positioned nearby. As she began dressing herself, methodically donning her garments piece by piece, her jaw clenched and her teeth ground together with such force that she could hear them creaking. The fury that had been building throughout her recovery process now came flooding back with renewed intensity.
That absolutely despicable bastard from last time had robbed her carefully prepared premium level Jade Tempering Pill. He'd also snatched her precious supply of Nether Chill Spring. Those thefts alone which happened right in front of her eyes had caused her initial body tempering attempt to catastrophically fail, and she'd nearly died right there on the spot.
The failure of body tempering and near-death experience would have been bad enough as isolated incidents, but the violations didn't stop there. Before departing her place, that shameless thief had methodically swept through her entire dwelling and stolen every single medicinal pill she'd painstakingly accumulated over her years as an alchemist.
And as if all those crimes weren't sufficiently outrageous, the intruder had carried her sect identification nameplate away. Demonstrated absolutely malicious intent and forward planning that suggested he might return to violate her place again whenever it suited his purposes.
If it weren't for certain precautions that her Clan Sister Selena had insisted on implementing years ago—back when Simona had become so obsessed with elixir refinement that she'd begun ignoring the outside world completely, failing to respond to visitors or messages—she would still be trapped in her own place and dead.
Selena worried about potential emergencies where this younger sister might be injured or incapacitated during elixir refinement and unable to call for help, had specifically requested a drop of her essence blood.
Using that blood, Selena had refined a backup identification nameplate that would grant access to the courtyard dwelling. That spare nameplate had turned out to be Simona's salvation. Without it, if Simona had awakened afterward the theft and assault, she would have found herself a prisoner in her own courtyard dwelling, unable to exit because she lacked the proper authorization token!
"Fucking bastard! That complete and utter piece of nasty scoundrel!"
Simona ground her teeth together furiously for an extended period, her rage undiminished even after venting verbally.
But eventually, as her fury partially subsided into something more manageable, confusion began seeping in to replace some of the anger. Her brow furrowed as she contemplated a mystery that had been bothering her since she first regained consciousness and discovered what had happened.
"The defensive ward surrounding this grotto courtyard was completely intact and undamaged when I examined it afterward. There were no signs of forced breach, no indications that anyone had broken through the protective barriers by force or disabled them through technical means."
The question haunted her, a puzzle that she couldn't solve no matter how much she analyzed the problem from different angles.
"So how did that intruder manage to enter my place that night? How did he bypass the defensive ward that should have been impossible to penetrate without the proper authorization token?"