Cultivating In Secret Beside A Demoness

Mu Qi waved at him. “Junior Brother Jiang, right on time!” he said. “I came here to ask you what kind of reward you wanted for helping me out.”

Jiang Hao desperately wanted to say that he needed spirit stones but held himself back. “It’s up to you, Senior Brother Mu.”

Mu Qi chuckled. “You shouldn’t be so humble, you know. You’ll be at a disadvantage.”

!!

Jiang Hao smiled. He didn’t want to cause trouble unnecessarily. He didn’t lack resources, except spirit stones. He could always get the bubbles in the Spirit Herb Garden.

“Well… I got some pills as a reward. Among them is the Golden Core Pill,” said Mu Qi. “But I can’t give that to you yet because you’re still in the Foundation Establishment Realm. So… I can give you some spirit stones instead. Will that be okay?”

Disciples in the lower realm couldn’t have pills of the higher realm. Jiang Hao was actually in the Golden Core Realm, so he could accept the pill, but he didn’t want to reveal his cultivation.

“That’s perfectly alright!” said Jiang Hao.

Mu Qi chuckled. “It seems you’re in need of spirit stones,” he said. “Well.. Alright. I have another Golden Morning Pill. It isn’t particularly expensive, but again, I can’t give it to you because of your cultivation level. So, I am going to give you 600 spirit stones instead of the Golden Core Pill and 250 for the Golden Morning Pill.”

Mu Qi took out the spirit stones from his pouch, counted them, and handed them to Jiang Hao. “Here, a total of 850 spirit stones.”

Mu Qi took out a bottle of pills. “These are Cleansing Pills. It can help clear out poison or toxins from your body. These are fairly easy to make. I can give these to you directly.” He handed Jiang Hao the bottle of Cleansing Pills.

Jiang Hao had made those pills before. They sold at around 70 to 100 spirit stones each. He had kept some for himself because he was afraid of being poisoned.

“There is this spiritual sword. I can give this to you directly as well.”

Jiang Hao hesitated. “Senior Brother Mu, could you keep the sword and give me spirit stones instead?”

Mu Qi laughed. “Of course! This spirit sword is decent. It will cost around 1000 spirit stones, I think. I can give you that amount.”

Mu Qi took out more spirit stones and handed them to Jiang Hao.

Jiang Hao now had 1,850 spirit stones. If he added 350 spirit stones that he had on himself, he had a total of 2,200 spirit stones. That was a huge sum.

He could finally buy a better saber and tea leaves!

The Primordial Heavenly Blade was too powerful to be used as an ordinary saber.

He admired Mu Qi. Mu Qi was a good sport and was also very strong. He even received great rewards for his missions when compared to Jiang Hao!

Those in the Foundation Establishment Realm didn’t even receive half as much in reward after missions. Having a higher cultivation level was indeed beneficial.

If he didn’t already know that Mu Qi had acquired an inheritance in the mines and that’s why he was being this generous, Jiang Hao would have suspected him of being a spy from another sect.

However, there was still the matter of his affair with the Heavenly Saint Sect’s Saintess-in-training…

Jiang Hao needed to be careful.

“In a few months, there will be a competition. Junior Brother Jiang, do prepare for it,” said Mu Qi.

Jiang Hao was confused. “A competition?”

“Yes. You didn’t hear about it? The sect was victorious against the Azure Mountain, so they brought home a lot of looted treasures. The sect is going to distribute these treasures as rewards in the competition. Disciples from the Foundation Establishment Realm, Golden Core Realm, and Primordial Spirit Realm are all welcome to participate. The top five will get precious treasures as rewards.”

Jiang Hao didn’t respond. He couldn’t care less about the competition and didn’t really want to participate.

“You have made great contributions to the mine and to the sect. I think you’ll be expected to participate in the competition. Usually, the competition would be among one or two branches, but this time, it’s between all twelve branches. Don’t worry, though. It’ll be a simple competition, and no one would be expected to jump realms. But you can if you’re confident enough.”

Mu Qi bid him goodbye and left. Jiang Hao sighed wearily. Now, on top of everything, he needed to figure out a way to lose in the competition.

His “contribution” had done him more harm than good so far. First, he was almost removed from the suspect list, which would have been dangerous. And now, a competition!

‘I wonder what the reward is…’

He asked around out of curiosity. Cheng Chou had somehow found the list of treasures that were to be assigned as rewards for the competition.

“For now, only the rewards for the Foundation Establishment Realm have been decided,” said Cheng Chou. “We still don’t know what the rewards would be for the other cultivation levels. Here… see for yourself.”

Cheng Chou left the list with Jiang Hao and went to play with the spirit beast. There were a total of five items.

The first was the Nine Suns Saber, which was forged from the Nine Suns True Fire Stone. It was compatible with all cultivation techniques. It also had true fire attacks and was suitable for all cultivators below the Return to Void Realm. Overall, it was a powerful weapon.

Jiang Hao knew that this saber was very valuable. If he sold it, it would fetch him a decent price. He wanted it, but he didn’t know if it was possible for him to win first place.

The second reward was a cultivation technique called the Heavenly Dawn Spiritual Technique. This was used to train one’s spiritual energy.

The third was a spell technique, the Nine Suns Flame. It could draw a sea of fire and cause rapid explosions to injure many enemies at once. It had the power to surpass realms and was terrifyingly efficient.

The fourth was a Daoist Robe, which allowed the wearer to float in the air. It also made them impervious to fire and water. It could be used to resist most types of attacks.

Jiang Hao didn’t really care for the rewards, except the saber.

He had the Nine Heavenly Battle Armor for defense, so he didn’t care for the robe. The spells and cultivation techniques were useless for him too.

He glanced at the fifth reward. Jiang Hao felt that this particular reward was very strange.

A seed that contained extraordinary spiritual energy. Carrying it around could increase one’s cultivation speed, and it also had the effect of focusing one’s mind..