Chapter 818: Keep It Up

"This demon core isn’t easy to extract!" said the elder from the Heavenly Wall Sect.

The others nodded in agreement.

Indeed, this wasn’t just one or two cores that they could grab and leave.

Even with their immense strength, they couldn’t ignore the black mist.

Without any protection or preparation, none of them dared venture into the mist alone.

"Everyone, I think we should focus on our main task first," one of the elders suggested. "Let’s leave these demon cores here for now. They’re in the black mist anyway, so no one will take them. We can come back for them after we’ve finished our main mission."

After gaining everyone’s agreement, the spirit boat slowly advanced deeper into the black mist.

What they didn’t expect was that shortly after moving forward, they encountered another hill made of demon corpses.

"What on earth is going on?"

The people on the spirit boat were completely unsettled.

Based on their knowledge and understanding of demons, this was something that had never happened before.

The black mist was the demons' stronghold, and nothing should have been able to threaten them, let alone cause such mass deaths.

Another wave of fire burned the corpses, revealing dense clusters of demon cores.

"Everyone, have you noticed? These piles of corpses are all of the same type—one type per pile. Could it be that the other types are also..." one elder speculated.

This elder’s words alarmed everyone.

They quickly steered the spirit boat toward even deeper parts of the mist.

However, as the spirit boat soared through the sky, a lively figure appeared below, holding a torch in one hand and a shovel in the other, digging in the dirt.

At that moment, Elder Ling Yun from the Cloud Calamity Sect was standing by the spirit boat’s window.

The window had been pitch black, but suddenly, a flash of light illuminated the scene, and he saw it clearly.

Although the spirit boat was moving fast and the sight was fleeting, he had seen enough.

"What the hell!"

Ling Yun choked and nearly fell over in shock.

What had he just seen?

He had spotted Su Yuer, the youngest disciple of the Cloud Calamity Sect, holding a torch and digging in the black mist?

"Hallucination, it must be a hallucination!"

Ling Yun slapped himself twice.

This couldn’t be real.

Digging in the black mist, and it’s their youngest disciple? It was unthinkable.

Meanwhile, Su Yuer dug up a rusty storage ring from the dirt.

Who knew how long the ring had been buried? Along with the others she had found earlier, she was returning with a full harvest.

She happily handed the storage rings to Yi Feng back on Shadow Island.

Yi Feng opened the rings one by one.

The first items to appear were a few divine weapons, followed by a mere handful of immortal crystals.

"What garbage is this?"

Yi Feng tossed the divine weapons aside with a frown.

"But... when I brought things like these back to the sect, my uncles and seniors were always very happy," Su Yuer couldn’t help but say.

"That’s because they don’t know any better. Remember, only money is king. Only money is almighty," Yi Feng lectured Su Yuer. "What’s the use of this junk? Collecting scrap?"

With that, he snapped the divine weapons in half.

"Vision, do you understand?"

Su Yuer listened intently and nodded seriously.

Her admiration for Yi Feng had reached the heavens.

She believed that everything Yi Feng told her was the wisdom of an experienced veteran.

Whether she fully understood it or not, it had to be valuable.

"Pah! Garbage!"

Su Yuer stomped on the weapons with her feet.

"Master, don’t worry. From now on, I’ll only dig for immortal crystals," she said earnestly. "I won’t waste time on this junk."

"Good."

Yi Feng patted her head. "Go and rest now."

After Su Yuer left, Yi Feng stood with his hands behind his back and walked toward the beach.

On the beach, a row of figures lay sprawled out.

At their feet, a wild man was scrubbing their toes.

"Ah, I really miss the outside world, full of beauty and excitement," Kou Benwei sighed.

"Brother, but we’ve already spent all our immortal crystals. We have none left," Gouzi said helplessly. "And this guy here couldn’t even produce a single crystal—just a bunch of useless junk."

As he spoke, Gouzi kicked Zhao Gu away in frustration.

"Beauties, I only want beauties..."

Kou Benwei muttered, moving his jaws.

Suddenly sensing something, he rolled over and tried to run.

"Where do you think you’re going, you mutt?"

Yi Feng, with his hands behind his back, took a swift step forward and grabbed Kou Benwei’s black robe.

"Abababa!"

Kou Benwei looked up at him pitifully.

"Cut that act with me."

Yi Feng held him up and said casually, "I’ll give you a chance to prove yourself. Go get something for me—I’m afraid someone might steal it. If you do this well, I’ll reward you with ten... no, five immortal crystals. A full five of them. Deal?"

"Eight!"

Kou Benwei opened his mouth.

"You mutt, bargaining with me?

"All these years, eating mine, using mine—have I ever complained? Have I ever said a word to you?" Yi Feng scolded.

Seeing Kou Benwei’s pitiful expression, Yi Feng softened his tone and spoke earnestly.

"It’s not that I’m being stingy with you. You know our family’s situation has always been tough. As the head of the household, I’ve been under a lot of pressure. Sure, I might’ve taken some of your gold coins in the past, but I’ve been saving them for you!

"If you need them, I’ll return them to you right now, untouched."

With that, Yi Feng took out a storage bag filled with gold coins and solemnly placed it in Kou Benwei’s hands.

Kou Benwei looked at the storage bag in his hands, his expression unreadable.

"Go on. I won’t argue with you anymore. You said eight immortal crystals, so you’ll get eight. After the task is done, I’ll give you three upfront, and I’ll save the other five for you, just like the gold coins."

Yi Feng then handed Kou Benwei a map he had drawn.

"These four spots have some demon corpses I killed. I don’t need you to do much—just extract the cores from their bodies without missing a single one. It’s not a big job.

"Of course, you can bring your lackeys along.

"Keep it up."

Yi Feng smiled, set Kou Benwei down, straightened his black robe for him, and raised his fist in an encouraging gesture.