When Xiao Lan returned to the bedroom with a basin of water, what greeted her was the sight of Bubai single-handedly sweeping away what remains of the charred mess with a broom.

  She surveyed the room with a quick sweep, taking note of the missing corpse, the torn ends of the once-luxurious silky red bed canopies, and the distinct leftover bloodstains—their thinned-out traces already drying up.

  It’s still a mystery how the one she had chosen made everything vanish in the blink of an eye, but…

  Xiao Lan didn’t bother poking a hole in this paper-thin wall, and simply walked past it.

  Setting the basin down onto the bed, Xiao Lan didn’t even bat an eye when she guessed the story behind the pile of “rags”.

  She simply picked out a cleaner rag and dipped it into the clean water. Rinse… Rinse...

  Hearing the water wringing from the rag, the multi-tasking Bubai returned to reality.

  Setting aside the broom, Bubai crossed the bed over to her side.

  Taking the damp rag Xiao Lan handed over, Bubai disregarded the stains around them and knelt down next to her.

  He then began gently wiping away the stains from her soft skin openly peeking through the bck cloak he temporarily dressed her with.

  While he gave her the delicate care he owed, Bubai urged softly, "Tell me everything. From the start.”

  Xiao Lan’s eyes were anchored on the face of the man, bearing earnestness and solemness that left her in momentary daze.

  But the tremors in the deep sea known as the mind soon returned to calmness, leaving only ripples in the water as another rag took a dunk.

  Shortly after, the rag joined the other, scrubbing away the more sensitive parts while her soft-spoken narrative unfolded like the rags in their hands, wringing every detail of the haunting nightmare out from her heart and into his.

  Whether it be the bruises or the intrusive fluids, she touched upon all of them without a single crack in her expression.

  On the other side, he gave her his attentive care, fully absorbed as if enraptured by a magic show.

  In a rhythm that seemed choreographed, the grimy, blood-soaked rags were exchanged for fresher ones, and the scrubbing never ceased.

  Scrubbing and scrubbing… from her body to his. The pair did their best to banish the stains that were not their own.

  When the used rags piled up in a heap of tragic memories in his storage space, Bubai finally pulled on a fresh set of robes.

  Eyeing the basin shallowly filled with murky, blood-dyed water, Bubai suggested, “We’ve covered most of it. We can deal with the rest in the old bath tub ter. Now, we should clean the remaining blood in the room.”

  With that, Bubai whisked the basin away to his storage space, bringing out a wet but empty basin shortly after and handing it over to Xiao Lan.

  “Time is of the essence, but don’t expose the horse’s leg.”

  “En. I know.” Xiao Lan took the basin and left to get a refill.

  After seeing the beauty off, Bubai turned his face, almost indifferently surveying the drying blood smeared on the cold hard bed, floor, and walls.

  His own blood didn’t matter, but every drop of Long Batian’s fluid must go. Even then, he wasn’t sure if there would be microscopic traces.

  Hopefully, his divine sense can catch everything. Otherwise...

  It won't just be a tug of war between elders but a severe punishment—like the crippling of his dantian or worse, a demotion to the male servants' quarters.

  Living in the world of cultivation was like walking on thin ice. One wrong step can shatter all progress, even ending everything then and there.

  But if he wanted to ascend, he had to keep moving forward, whether it is worth it or not.

  There were no take backsies in this chess game of life. Since his move had already been made, he had to forge ahead and do everything he can to avoid being checkmated.

  That moment wasn’t far off because Long Batian was openly brought into his tower.

  It is unknown how many witnesses there were to that dead man’s visit, but Bubai isn’t naive enough to think there were none.

  This... drastically complicated matters, and it was hard to escape bme this time without careful pnning.

  Fortunately or not, invading the abode of another disciples was a gray area, leaving him some leeway to work with as long as certain chinks were handled properly.

  Bubai has his fair share of confidence in this part.

  After all, not only did he have the support of a grandma outside a ring, he also had an actual cheat to back him up: his storage space!

  Bubai never underestimated the potential of his storage space. It wasn’t just a simple, portable warehouse.

  If there was no difference between his spatial storage and his storage pouch, he would’ve just kept the corpses in his storage pouch because there was no good reason to stink up his hidden storage space.

  But, Bubai has never forgotten a clue from the past: the standard storage pouches can’t cut off the connection with the sect’s disciple tokens, but his personal storage space can!

  This led Bubai to suspect that his space had some mysterious ability to isote items from the outside world!

  Now, he was banking on the fact that it could also shield him from any sort of tracking that targeted the remnants of Long Batian, whether it be his corpse or his relics!

  This was why he tossed everything, dirty and more, into there for ter disposal at a safer time.

  But even this storage space was nearing its limits with the addition of Long Batian's corpse. There were too many secrets to hide, and only so much space to spare.

  "If I don't find a way to expand it soon, I might not even be able to hide the incriminating loot! Now, my only hope is..."

  Bubai’s attention shifted to the blue pouch in his hand, sensing the faint spiritual signature on the verge of fading.

  “Well, everything was for this very moment, I hope it’s worth it…”

  In a breath, the st trace of Long Batian's spirit in this world was wiped away. With that, a strand of Qi was all it took to open the connection between the pouch and the core space within.

  Peering inside the pouch’s opening, what Bubai saw instantly shook his perpetually calm mind!

  The first thing that immediately seized his attention?

  A mound of shimmering, crystalline stones—wealth in its purest form!

  “Merlin’s beard! So much spirit stones!”

  A swift tally revealed an astonishing count of 53 stones! That was more than half of his hard-earned fortune that he took so much risk to accumute!

  His wealth just took another leap, directly into the centennial club!

  And that was just the beginning!

  With each item he withdrew, Bubai’s excitement grew.

  "A vial of... serenity dewdrops? In the Exchange Pavilion, that’s worth 1000 contribution points alone! There's only a drop left, but good stuff, good stuff!"

  "Holy Merlin, so many spiritual pnts! Lingzhi grass, ghost grass, blood rose, ginseng, and... is this... the famous silver lotuses said to aid even Golden Core cultivators in their recovery?! Did this guy rob a disciple from the Silver Lotus Cn or the Millennial Lotus Alchemy sect?"

  “Hey, the rune on this talisman looks exactly like the seal on Xiao Lan… could this be the Essence Core Seal, a high-grade dantian sealing talisman rarely sold even in the market?”

  Merlin, this is expensive stuff, and there’s two to boot, not to mention this stack of low-grade version tailored for Qi-refiners!

  “Oh! Oh! So many low-grade spell talismans! Wow! There’s even two mid-grade lightning bolt talisman, just like the one I used!”

  If that dead guy got the chance to use these, the fight could’ve turned into a dangerous game of whack-a-mole! But since the dead bloke’s arrogance handicapped himself…

  “Haha! Profit in my pockets!” Bubai was almost overwhelmed with euphoria!

  Just these alone was already enough to justify the dead guy’s title, “Survivor of the rge-scale secret realm.”

  Even if there was no more, Bubai would be a happy, happy man.

  Yet, what made Bubai even more excited was that the treasure trove didn't end there!

  By his estimates, this storage pouch space was ten square meters by two and a half meter high.

  This was already bordering a high-grade pouch, with an approximate volume reaching 250 blocks of one cubic meter space, which was even rger than both of his storage spaces combined!

  This left plenty of space to hoard piles and piles of goodies...

  More than a hundred ice jade vials brimming with various poisons, exotic herbs, esoteric pills, drugs, beast cores, jade slips, common magic items and tools, formation arrays and fgs, crates of gold and silver taels, preserved food… the list of unsorted items and sundries went on.

  For a newly promoted inner disciple rising from the grassroots, this was some insane wealth!

  Bubai didn’t know what lengths this Long Batian went to gather all this, but this amassed wealth certainly couldn’t escape the dark side.

  Just how much murder and arson was under this guy’s belt? Who knows.

  But Bubai knows one indisputable fact.

  “Oh Merlin! I’m rich! I’m rich!”