Seeing this, Liang Jie could only raise his sword in front of him, channeling all his spiritual energy into his defense.
At first, he managed to block some of the attacks, but as more and more meteoric sword qi rained down, he found himself unable to withstand it.
His spiritual barrier was quickly shattered by the dense barrage of sword qi, and in a matter of moments, Liang Jie was riddled with blood holes. His body was covered in gashes, and there was no part of him that was uninjured.
Even his left eye, the one that had been spared, was pierced.
His soul was also damaged by the first strike; it couldn’t even form a proper ghostly figure. Only a few strands of his soul slowly drifted out.
His body remained stiff for a while before collapsing to the ground.
Nanli watched silently, her heart unmoved.
The information from the intel was accurate. It wasn’t in vain that she had spent time researching it.
With the Dark Moon Sword, she flipped Liang Jie’s body over, and with a flick of her finger, his Qiankun Bag fell from his waist.
The Qiankun Bag was also stained with blood.
Nanli used a talisman to cleanse the bloodstains before picking it up.
She then noticed that the contract spell on the Qiankun Bag was different. Clearly, Liang Jie had not intended for others to benefit from his Qiankun Bag. So, upon his death, the contract spell would burn everything inside it.
The burning process had already begun.
Nanli examined it carefully and quickly understood. She drew a talisman on the Dark Moon Sword and thrust it forward.
A gust of wind swirled around them.
The Qiankun Bag exploded, and everything inside that had not yet been burned scattered in all directions.
Nanli quickly collected the items and began to count them.
As expected of an elder, apart from about a thousand low-grade spirit stones, there were thirty medium-grade spirit stones and even a single high-grade spirit stone!
It seemed that in the Upper Realm, pill cultivation wasn’t scarce, and there were few powerful cultivators, so the pills weren’t rare or particularly high-grade. They were insignificant, so she ignored them.
There were also a few cultivation manuals, which might be worth looking at.
What delighted her the most, however, was the Soul-Breaking Crystal.
She had mentioned before that she wanted to forge the Golden Hairpin into a magical weapon to deal with cultivators. Now, with the Soul-Breaking Crystal in hand and her spiritual energy ready, forging it was only a matter of time.
After putting everything back into the Qiankun Bag, she was in high spirits. But suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her stomach.
She frowned, realizing that after using the first sword technique, she had drained a lot of her spiritual energy. The little ones inside her had just reached the stage where they were absorbing nutrients, and now they were fighting over food.
She quickly found a safe spot and sat down to circulate her energy.
However, even though the barrier to the Lower Realm had been broken and spiritual energy could now flow into the Human World, the energy was extremely thin here.
This was taking too long.
Nanli had learned how to absorb spiritual energy from spirit stones. She poured out the spirit stones from the Qiankun Bag, formed a hand seal, and began to absorb their energy into her body.
Spiritual energy extracted from spirit stones didn’t need much refining.
After about the time it took to brew a cup of tea, Nanli’s spiritual energy had fully recovered, and the little ones had enough energy to stop causing trouble in her belly.
But when she looked at the pile of spirit stones, she froze in disbelief.
The spirit stones she had painstakingly gathered over the last couple of days were nearly half gone!
She felt a wave of dizziness and leaned against a nearby tree in a daze.
The Hairpin Elf came back after cleaning itself up.
Seeing the pile of ordinary stones that had lost their spiritual energy, it exclaimed, "Is your Dantian that big? How did you use up so many spirit stones in one go?"
At first glance, at least five thousand low-grade spirit stones and ten medium-grade spirit stones were gone.
Nanli rubbed her belly, nearly in tears. "It wasn’t me, it was my three little ones."
The Hairpin Elf’s eyes widened. It swallowed nervously. "One would be excessive, but three... well, that’s probably acceptable. But the appetite you’ve got... They’re only a month old and already using up so many spirit stones. I can’t imagine how much more they’ll consume later."
Their appetite was so large. How could their master possibly keep up?
"I know," Nanli sighed and rubbed her belly, feeling the three souls inside. She suddenly gathered her spirits again. "For them, I must work harder! I need to earn more spirit stones!"
The Hairpin Elf mumbled, "The spiritual energy in the ten major cities is so thin, and each one is poorer than the last. How much can you possibly earn?"
Nanli knocked it on the head. "Don’t be so negative. We’ll just go to the Upper Realm."
"Upper Realm? Yan Buxiu and Qingwu are there. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"The Upper Realm isn’t just controlled by the major sects. There are other families and smaller sects." Nanli explained. "Take the largest town in the Upper Realm. It’s home to four major families, which control eighty percent of the spirit mines in the Upper Realm. Even the sects have to watch their faces when dealing with them."
The Hairpin Elf responded, "They’re no different. The major sects and families probably have their own connections. They won’t be your friends."
Nanli raised an eyebrow and started changing her clothes.
"There are no permanent friends or enemies, only interests and power." She spoke as she dressed. "It’s all about gaining power."
She would find a way to infiltrate the Upper Realm and act according to the situation.
The only ones who could stand up to the major sects were these few big families, after all. They had deep bloodline inheritances and controlled the spirit mines, making them a force to be reckoned with.
Once she finished dressing, she collected the remaining spirit stones.
Luckily, after this one, it should take the little ones about three days to drain her spiritual energy.
Sigh, being a mother is hard.
Being a single mother is even harder.
Siheng, you told me not to change the price for others, but if you’re not going to be responsible, don’t blame me when the little ones don’t recognize you as their father.
It was still afternoon, and after some thinking, Nanli decided to use a Transfer Talisman to return.
As soon as she landed, it wasn’t the Chu family who spoke first, but Emperor Muwu.
"Sixth girl!" Emperor Muwu, dressed in his usual clothes, saw that she was unharmed and his eyes reddened.
He quickly approached and grabbed her hand. "You’re fine, that’s good. But where is Ninth Brother? Why isn’t he with you?"
Upon hearing that both of them had gone missing in the Border Nation, Emperor Muwu had immediately sent people to investigate.
However, the reports he received were absurd.
Some said they had grown tired of court intrigue, abandoned their identities, and gone into hiding.
Others claimed that something had gone wrong, provoking the wrath of heaven, causing an anomaly in the skies: a hurricane and thunderstorm—both of them were struck by heavenly punishment and had vanished without a trace.
Some even said that the Ninth Princess had attained enlightenment and ascended, and the Ninth Prince, unwilling to leave his beloved wife, had held onto her sleeve, so the gods took pity on his love and allowed him to enter the heavens. They had both ascended and were living as gods.
Emperor Muwu couldn’t believe any of these, but after several days with no concrete news, even the Supervisory Office couldn’t find anything, his remaining black hair had turned white.
Seeing the worry and urgency in his eyes, Nanli said, "Your Majesty, let’s speak inside."
Emperor Muwu’s heart skipped a beat, a bad premonition creeping up on him.
Fortunately, as soon as Emperor Muwu had heard the news, he rushed over, and the Imperial Guard helped clear the front yard. Now, there was no visible blood, but the lingering stench of it was still there.