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Chapter 181: Collecting Fees
🕑 Added 2024-09-13 06:49:23 +0000 UTCLuckily, the person was only at the early Foundation Establishment stage. Otherwise, Lin Xiao wasn't sure if that blow would have knocked her out since he wasn't a body cultivator.
He glanced around at the cultivators lying on the ground, satisfied with his work. After confirming that no one else was awake, he pulled out the Icefield Secret Realm Key, ready to open the exit.
However, just as he was about to act, a thought struck him. He stopped, crouched down, and started rummaging through everyone's storage bags.
Collecting fees was important.
He was fair and impartial, only taking spirit stones from each person's storage bag, regardless of the amount of treasure they had. He didn't take much—just fifty spirit stones per person.
It was a small fee for his troubles; he wasn’t greedy for anything more. After all, this wasn't his path to riches.
However, while collecting fees from Jiang Cheng and a few other cultivators, Lin Xiao noticed that they had several old, worn-out storage bags that looked quite different from the ones hanging on their waists.
He immediately knew these must be the bags they had looted from other people's remains in the ice cave.
Hu Guanyu had one as well. However, unlike the others, Hu Guanyu's old storage bag contained a skeleton and a will, while the others' bags only held wealth, with no remains or last messages.
Clearly, they didn't plan to bring the remains or news of the original owners back out, unlike Hu Guanyu.
Lin Xiao paused for a moment, silent. Then, he collected all the old storage bags from these people and stored them in his private stash before taking fifty spirit stones from their storage bags.
When he reached Yuan Zhiyun, just as he opened her storage bag, the system suddenly spoke.
Ding! Congratulations, host, you have discovered a Heart-Testing Stone.
Huh? A Heart-Testing Stone?
Lin Xiao carefully examined the contents of her storage bag and indeed found a large stone inside.
He hadn’t expected Yuan Zhiyun to carry something like this.
Lin Xiao was tempted. If he took this Heart-Testing Stone now, he could easily set up the Heart-Testing Path for his sect without much effort.
But taking something without asking was theft, and in two lifetimes, he had never stooped to being a thief.
Even if he wanted to trade something for it, he couldn't wake her up now to ask for her permission.
It didn’t feel right to swap it out without knowing if she had any particular use for it. If it was important to her and he took it, it could cause her trouble later.
Though he was saving her life, that didn’t give him the right to take whatever he wanted from her.
After much internal debate, Lin Xiao finally decided to only take fifty spirit stones and returned Yuan Zhiyun's storage bag.
After all, she lived in Yuanling City. If he needed to, he could find her later to trade for the stone. Plus, he might even find one at the market.
Feeling much lighter after resolving his internal struggle, Lin Xiao stood up and continued collecting fees from the remaining cultivators.
Once he had finished collecting from everyone, Lin Xiao used the secret realm key to open the exit and began tossing everyone out one by one.
Since he didn't use the Icefield Secret Realm Connector, the exit he opened was the original entrance through which they had all entered.
By now, several days had passed since the secret realm first opened, and everyone knew the situation inside. Most of the resource gathering had been done in the first few days, and the remaining days were spent hunting beasts. However, the beasts in the Icefield Secret Realm were notoriously more ferocious with each passing day, so most people came during the first few days. Only those with specific needs entered later. As a result, there weren't many people at the entrance now.
Only two Foundation Establishment cultivators from Tianxuan Sect were stationed at the entrance.
These two cultivators were just Foundation Establishment disciples. The Golden Core cultivators only showed up on the first day to make an appearance, and then it was up to these Foundation Establishment disciples to guard the entrance in shifts.
In truth, "guarding" wasn’t really required. They were more like gatekeepers since people couldn’t leave the secret realm on their own until the fifteen-day limit was up.
One of the two disciples was meditating while the other kept watch. Suddenly, they heard a thud, and a person fell to the ground, unconscious.
Both were startled and hadn’t yet figured out where the person had come from when they saw another person fly out of the secret realm’s entrance.
One of the disciples turned to the other and quietly asked, "Isn’t this secret realm supposed to keep people inside for fifteen days? Today’s only the eighth day, right? Did I get the date wrong?"
The other disciple shook his head and whispered back, "No, you're right. Today is the eighth day."
While they spoke, the entrance continued to spit out more people with repeated thuds.
Seeing this constant stream of bodies being thrown out, they hesitated to approach.
It wasn’t until dozens of people had been ejected and the entrance finally quieted that they moved closer to investigate.
"These people aren’t dead. They’re all alive!"
"Hey! Look at this one. Isn’t that Junior Brother Hu, the one who always follows Senior Brother Xi from Qixing Peak?"
"And this one, isn't that Yuan Zhiyun, the Yuan family’s young mistress?"
"Quick, wake them up! We need to find out what happened!"
...
While the two guards outside were busy trying to revive the dozens of people Lin Xiao had tossed out, Lin Xiao had already moved on to the next gray area to continue rescuing people.
Of course, the process remained the same.
Knock everyone out, then toss them out.
By the time the two guards managed to move the unconscious cultivators to a clearing so they wouldn't be stacked like a mountain of bodies, they turned around and found yet another pile of people outside the entrance.
Eventually, after tossing out the last person, Lin Xiao threw himself out as well, landing on top of the heap, pretending to be unconscious.
The two Foundation Establishment disciples diligently carried everyone over to the clearing, laying them out one by one.
As for their belongings, the disciples didn’t even glance at them.
They weren’t interested in the meager belongings of lower-level cultivators. After all, they were members of a proper sect and wouldn’t tarnish their reputation for a few small gains.
As for the more valuable items likely in Yuan Zhiyun’s possession, they did sneak a peek into her storage bag but didn’t dare take anything.
Unless they could ensure there was no trace left of Yuan Zhiyun or the other cultivators, it would only bring trouble upon themselves.
After all, the Yuan family was one of the leading families in Yuanling City and had close ties with Tianxuan Sect. Yuan Zhiyun was their young mistress and wasn’t someone they could afford to offend.
In fact, properly taking care of her and notifying the Yuan family would likely earn them a handsome reward. Given their status as disciples of Tianxuan Sect, the reward might even be substantial.
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