Zi Tianjun had just returned to Xuantian Sect when a Golden Core–stage inner disciple who served at his side rushed over, face full of excitement.
“Sect Master, Senior Bao is back!”
Hearing “Senior Bao,” Zi Tianjun instinctively thought of Bao Gu, but immediately dismissed it. Impossible. He had just seen Bao Gu at the Order Envoy’s Residence in Youying City.
“Which Senior Bao?” he asked.
The inner disciple bowed.
“The one from Lingyun Peak, the Cleaver Order’s Master Bao Gu.”
Zi Tianjun thought, That’s impossible!
“Where is she? When did she return?”
“Reporting to Sect Master, she just came back. She suddenly appeared in Xuantian Square, right beside this disciple, and asked where the sect treasury was.”
Zi Tianjun waved his hand.
“Go.”
He brooded for a moment, then headed straight back to his residence.
He had already spoken publicly, and he’d handed both the key and the authority token to Bao Gu. There was no reason to slap himself in the face and go back on it. Even if Bao Gu emptied Xuantian Sect’s vaults, in exchange for an inter‑realm gate that would benefit future generations and bring glory to Xuantian Sect, that would still be a profit. At worst, the sect would have to tighten its belt and live like paupers for quite a while.
Besides, from what he knew of Bao Gu, she would never really clean out the sect treasury. No matter what, she’d at least leave half.
Using the treasury key and resource token Zi Tianjun had given her, Bao Gu entered the sect vaults without a hitch.
Xuantian Sect had more than one treasury. The Xuantian Scripture Repository counted as one; that entire repository was currently suppressed within the Green Mountain Grand Array. There was also a Library Pavilion, a new scripture vault built over the years by Zi Tianjun, Zi Yunshu, the Demon Saint, Yu Mi and the others, who had painstakingly copied and duplicated texts from the original repository.
Beyond that were specialized vaults divided by category: pills, artifacts, spirit stones, rare spiritual treasures and herbs, demonic beast materials, metallic ores, spirit wines, and so on.
Bao Gu strolled through the vaults one by one.
The pill treasury ranged from low‑grade pills for Qi Refining cultivators, all the way up to high‑grade treasures like Soul Formation Pills, Nirvana Pills, and Resurrection Pills. The pill vault went layer after layer; the deeper within, the higher the grade of the pills. Each level was sealed behind a thick, heavy gate. Without the key and the authority token, to open any of those doors you’d basically have to blast down the entire formation and the wall of the vault itself.
The pill treasury had an attendant on duty. Her cultivation wasn’t that high—only at the Void Tearing stage. He addressed her as “Junior Sister Bao Gu,” clearly a fellow disciple of the same generation. It was just that she’d never socialized much with her peers. Among her same‑generation senior brothers, the only names she still remembered were Hua Sheng and Feng Menglong.
Feng Menglong she remembered because on her first day joining Xuantian Sect in Cloud City, he’d borrowed spirit stones from Yu Mi to stay at an inn, and Yu Mi had said something about inns being too extravagant and actually made him sleep on the street.
Hua Sheng she remembered because they’d had more interactions, and because his name was so easy to remember—just like “Baogu” and “Yumi,” all of them sounding like grains. It felt friendly.
As for the others, in the past she could at least match faces, but after several hundred years without contact, she couldn’t even remember if their faces had been round or long. That senior brother treated Bao Gu with full respect, and Bao Gu was polite in return.
As she walked deeper, the senior brother followed beside her, introducing the various pills and asking what category she wanted.
Bao Gu had no interest in pills for Golden Core, Nascent Soul, or even Soul Formation. She employed her own alchemists; anything below Void Tearing stage, she could have them refine in whatever quantity she pleased. As for pills above Void Tearing, she could refine those herself.
From the jade boxes and pill bottles, it was obvious almost all of these high‑grade pills and treasure medicines were the Demon Saint’s handiwork. Only a tiny portion were not. Those non–Demon Saint pills were very few, in both variety and quantity, some with only a single pill or just a few—a truly unique stock.
The Demon Saint’s pills she could refine herself; there was no need to take them from here. As for those one‑of‑a‑kind treasures—if she took them, Xuantian Sect would have none left.
Bao Gu wandered around the pill vault, then left without taking anything.
Next she went to the artifact vault. Its layout was much like the pill treasury. Almost everything inside was below Soul Formation grade. Soul Formation–level artifacts were already scarce; in total there were fewer than a thousand. Void Tearing–level artifacts amounted to only a few dozen. As for Tribulation‑stage and above, Bao Gu didn’t see a single piece.
Looking over the nearly one hundred thousand artifacts of Xuantian Sect, she found that not a single one could really be called eye‑catching. She knew Xuantian Sect possessed Holy Artifacts; she just didn’t know whose hands they were in now. They certainly weren’t sitting here gathering dust.
The spirit stone treasury was divided into four levels: low‑grade, mid‑grade, high‑grade, and top‑grade.
Low‑grade stones were piled the highest, stacked box upon box, neatly arranged. The huge vault was filled all the way to the ceiling, leaving only a six‑foot‑wide aisle down the middle; on both sides, nothing but mountains of low‑grade spirit stones and low‑grade spirit herbs.
The mid‑grade spirit stone vault was much sparser, only about a third of the low‑grade stones in quantity.
The high‑grade treasury held roughly seven million‑plus stones.
She went all the way inside and opened the innermost top‑grade treasury. When the door swung open, what appeared was a heavily warded chamber even smaller than her own bedroom. Inside, there were only three measly chests.
Two of them were sealed with talisman seals and held ten thousand top‑grade stones each. The last chest had no seal. She opened it to find only a thin layer at the bottom. A sweep of her divine sense gave a rough count—just over three thousand stones.
The entire Xuantian Sect had barely more than twenty thousand top‑grade spirit stones!
Bao Gu felt such poverty from the sect that she almost wanted to make a donation to her own sect. But then she remembered how much she’d burned through on tea alone over the last few hundred years. Right now she was actually poorer than Xuantian Sect. For the sake of having tea in the future…
She tore the seal off one of the chests, carefully confirmed that it contained exactly ten thousand top‑grade stones of uniform size, closed the lid, and with a light flick of her jade‑pale hand, a sweep of spiritual power sent the entire chest into her massive storage pouch.
To the steward who had been following her with an account ledger in his hands, she said,
“Put it on the books.”
How would he dare object? He hurried to record it, and even had Bao Gu leave her spiritual brand as verification for future audits.
Bao Gu had little interest in the rare spiritual treasures and herbs treasury. Almost all of Xuantian Sect’s high‑end rare herbs had once passed through her own hands. Even if the sect had acquired more over the years, they couldn’t compare to what she possessed herself.
She went straight to the vault that stored all kinds of refining and array materials. There, she directly took away more than half of all materials used for setting up high‑grade formations, leaving the sect only enough to handle emergencies and basic rotation of arrays. It was almost fair to call it a clean sweep.
As for the metallic ore treasury, Bao Gu took a look, then dumped out a pile of metals she’d obtained in the starry void, filling the vault to the brim. She’d consider that trading those metals at an extremely generous price in exchange for the sect’s high‑grade array materials.
Once she had everything she needed, Bao Gu went to pay her respects to Zi Tianjun and return the key and token.
Zi Tianjun accepted them without asking a single question.
Bao Gu cupped her fists.
“Sect Master, I still have important matters to deal with, so I’ll take my leave.”
Zi Tianjun gave a light nod.
“Go.”
He watched her depart with a calm expression. Only after she had gone far did that seemingly unconcerned Zi Tianjun move at his fastest speed toward the sect vaults.
He went through the vaults one by one, checking the ledgers and seeing what Bao Gu had taken. When he saw that the formation materials vault had been almost emptied, his heart twisted in pain. But then he thought of how she had left the other treasuries mostly intact and felt somewhat comforted.
Arriving at the metallic materials treasury, he pushed open the door—and the moment he stepped in, a blinding wall of Da Luo Red Gold blocked the way.
He shifted aside the block of Da Luo Red Gold blocking the entrance, only to find more Da Luo Red Gold behind it. One block after another, each six feet long and three feet tall and wide, stacked layer upon layer, at least a thousand slabs in total.
Zi Tianjun felt as if happiness had come too suddenly. The surprise was almost unreal.
After he finally cleared a path through the Da Luo Red Gold, he saw inside piles of Purple Gold refined to the Red Gold grade. Moving those aside, he uncovered Red Gold–grade Black Gold, and behind that, a full chest of Black Gold’s even rarer companion ore—Dragon Essence Charcoal, which was even more expensive than Da Luo Red Gold and simply never seen on the market.
As for the rest—mystic iron, meteoric gold, and nearly a thousand other varieties—if it was something used anywhere in the cultivation world, it was almost certainly here. The once empty metallic ore treasury had been stuffed full. If he didn’t physically move things aside, then aside from being able to push the door open, he wouldn’t even have a place to put his feet down.
By the time Zi Tianjun finished taking inventory of all the metallic materials, he was completely dumbstruck—scared silly by the sheer wealth.
After returning from Xuantian Sect, Bao Gu began tallying up the Cleaver Gang’s own assets.
First on the list was the main treasury at the Cleaver Gang headquarters in Youying City. If this were the mortal world, that would be equivalent to the national treasury.
She didn’t look at the ledgers at first, but went straight to the vault itself. She had mentally prepared herself beforehand. Wang Ding, Sun Dilong, and Kuang Mo had been bickering over military provisions earlier. If the treasury could cover those expenses, Wang Ding wouldn’t need to argue with Kuang Mo and Sun Dilong.
She had assumed the amount would be pitifully small.
But when she opened the stone door of the spirit stone vault and saw the emptiness inside, she almost thought she had gone to the wrong place.
The enormous treasury that had once, when she left years ago, overflowed with hundreds of millions of spirit stones, stacked higher than they could be stored—was empty.
Low‑grade stones, mid‑grade stones, high‑grade stones, top‑grade stones—she toured each section in turn.
All that was left was thirty‑two top‑grade spirit stones, fifty thousand high‑grade stones, seventy thousand mid‑grade stones, and three hundred thousand low‑grade stones.
This amount didn’t even match the pocket money she’d once tossed to Yu Mi.
Yu Mi had just told her that the Cleaver Gang’s money had all been spent. Bao Gu had believed that even if the gang had bled itself dry, the main treasury should still have several hundred million high‑grade stones as a bottom line. She’d estimated it would be about comparable to Xuantian Sect’s current vault.
After all, the Cleaver Gang was many times richer than Xuantian Sect.
Reality left Bao Gu stunned, as if a basin of ice water had been dumped over her from head to toe, chilling her to the core.
The place that was supposed to hold the most spirit stones in the entire Cleaver Gang was nearly empty.
Where had the stones gone? She didn’t even need to think about it.
Bao Gu turned around and checked the other vaults. Most of them were almost bare.
She spun on her heel and went straight to the Left Envoy’s Residence.
The Left Envoy’s compound wasn’t as large as the Order Envoy’s Residence, nor as outwardly grand. But once inside, luxury radiated from every detail. Even the floor tiles faintly exuded the aura of an artifact. She stomped down hard with one foot; the tile didn’t crack. The force of her step was transmitted into the residence’s protective formation and dispersed without a trace.
Wang Ding received the news and hurried out, trembling.
“Subordinate did not know the Order Master would grace us with your presence and failed to welcome you from afar. I beg the Order Master’s forgiveness.”
He kept his head lowered, but his eyes were filled with fear.
He had just received word that the Order Master had gone to the treasury and inspected every vault one by one. The vaults were empty, yet the accounts were spotless. Every expenditure was clearly recorded and could withstand scrutiny.
But he had followed Bao Gu for many years and knew her methods all too well. He knew she wouldn’t audit his ledgers or interrogate him on how he had spent the treasury dry. She would only pursue one point—
The treasury had run empty on his watch.
He had considered filling the vaults back up. But the wealth bled out over more than five hundred years—what could he possibly use to refill it in a short time? Even if he requisitioned resources and goods from below, there wouldn’t be time.
Wang Ding guided Bao Gu into the main hall with utmost deference and ordered the maids to serve the finest spirit tea. Then he stood before Bao Gu, shaking, not even daring to raise his head.
Bao Gu stared at Wang Ding expressionlessly, saying nothing.
Wang Ding had no idea how she would deal with him. When this Order Master was gentle, she could be extremely lenient. But when she erupted, she wouldn’t even spare herself—utterly terrifying.
After a long silence, Bao Gu let out a soft sigh.
“When a person leaves, even the tea goes cold.”
Wang Ding dropped to one knee, then fully prostrated himself, knocking his head against the floor.
“Order Master, this subordinate has never harbored the slightest disloyalty toward you!”
Bao Gu rose and walked slowly toward the door. Only when she reached the threshold did she speak, voice cold.
“I’ll give you three days. However the treasury was emptied, that’s how you’ll fill it back up. If you can’t… then pay with your life.”
Bao Gu left the Left Envoy’s Residence and, once back at her own Order Master’s Residence, sent a sound‑transmission jade talisman to the Hall Master of the Punishment Hall aboard the main flagship, issuing an edict:
He was to personally lead people to secretly investigate the Cleaver Gang from top to bottom, starting with the Left, Right, and Finance Envoys.
At the same time, she ordered three hundred thousand cultivators to prepare for war and stand by for deployment at any moment.
