Chapter 130
After obtaining the Cloud Spirit Pearl, the Cloud Sea became like her own inner room.
As the Cloud Spirit Pearl sucked in the surrounding clouds, she felt much more comfortable.
By continuously infusing it with spiritual energy, she could pierce through the clouds and examine objects with her naked eye.
With her twenty-seven-zhang Divine Sense, there was nothing standing in her way.
“I have to loot everything without leaving a single thing behind.”
Baek-Cheong hummed a tune as she roamed the Cloud Sea.
Even as she rummaged through the clouds as she pleased, nothing blocked her path.
She scoured the area for a long while like that, but the actual harvest she got her hands on was mediocre.
She did not find a second genuine fortuitous encounter that made her small heart pound like the Cloud Spirit Pearl had.
The only thing of value she picked up was a single intact Dharma Treasure.
Upon careful inspection, it was a Supreme-Grade Dharma Treasure that fell into the 2nd-Tier High-Grade.
It was easily the best among the junk she had salvaged from the Secret Realm.
‘Oh, this should fetch a decent price, shouldn’t it?’
It caught her eye for a moment, but her interest soon faded.
In terms of value, she could easily get ten High-High-Grade Spirit Stones for it.
However, a 2nd-tier Dharma Treasure required at least a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to use.
For a Qi Condensation Cultivator like herself, holding onto it was no different from having something useless.
‘It’s a bit much to call it a fortuitous encounter when I can’t even use it myself.’
It was also partly because her standards had risen significantly after getting her hands on the Cloud Spirit Pearl.
The deeper she delved into the Cloud Sea, the harder it became to find intact items.
She had already swept up anything useful, and all that remained was junk.
‘I suppose it’s about time I slowly make my way out.’
Having secured a massive fortuitous encounter like the Cloud Spirit Pearl, there was no reason to be greedy.
She took out the jade token she had received for escaping and fiddled with it.
She could immediately exit the Secret Realm just by breaking it, but…
While absentmindedly looking at the jade token, she narrowed her eyes.
Small text had appeared on the surface of the jade token.
“What is this?”
Looking closely, it displayed the number of items she had picked up in the Secret Realm.
Every time she collected an item, the number increased accordingly.
Checking the number engraved there, Baek-Cheong suddenly froze.
“Over fifty…?”
A number well over fifty was displayed on the jade token.
She had scooped up everything that caught her eye, and before she knew it, they had reached that amount.
The problem was that she could only take two items out of the Secret Realm.
One for advancing to the main tournament, and one for taking the position of Top Ranker.
If she went outside like this, it was obvious that she would be stripped of all the remaining items.
‘I’m going to be robbed of everything except two out of over fifty items?’
Realizing this, Baek-Cheong stuck out her lips in a pout.
It felt like a waste of all the legwork she had done rummaging through the clouds.
Moreover, it was even more regrettable to lose medicinal herbs like the Cloud Root Herb and Cloud Spirit Fruit.
They were precious ingredients used in Pill Refining, so she wanted to hoard them for a long time.
‘Isn’t there a way to smuggle out at least the medicinal herbs…’
While racking her brain this way and that, a brilliant idea suddenly struck her.
“What if I list them on the Nameless Forum Marketplace?”
She had already confirmed earlier that she could connect to the Nameless Forum even inside the Secret Realm.
Figuring she had nothing to lose, she decided to test it right away.
However, it would be troublesome if someone actually bought them.
She couldn’t just hand over the items she was trying so hard to smuggle out for a bargain price.
“I just need to set the price ridiculously high so no one can buy them.”
Baek-Cheong priced a single Cloud Root Herb at 100 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones and listed it on the Marketplace.
It was an item that could normally be bought for a couple of High-High-Grade Spirit Stones, so anyone could see it was an insane price.
The moment she registered that one Cloud Root Herb on the Marketplace.
“Huh?”
The Cloud Root Herb stored in her Storage Platform vanished like a ghost.
At the same time, the number on the jade token in her hand decreased by one.
One had been deducted from the number that had reached over fifty.
“This…!”
When her trick worked, her eyes widened as if she had discovered a massive secret.
The Cloud Root Herb disappeared from the Storage Platform as it was listed on the Nameless Forum Marketplace.
Then, the jade token seemed to consider it something she no longer possessed.
‘So if I register them on the Nameless Forum, the jade token can’t detect them?’
As her thoughts reached that point, her heart pounded.
The restriction of only being able to take two items out didn’t matter anymore.
She just had to list everything on the Marketplace and then retrieve them once she was outside.
“This actually works?”
Baek-Cheong let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.
She had found a way to snatch the best items regardless of the quantity limit.
“As expected, the world is generous to those who use loopholes.”
Suppressing her excitement, she examined her Storage Platform.
Of course, she had no intention of listing every single item she had picked up.
“I should sort out only the useful ones.”
Mediocre Dharma Artifacts or Dharma Treasures weren’t worth the effort to smuggle out.
She couldn’t use them herself, and even selling them off would be a hassle.
It was fine to just leave those kinds of things behind in the Secret Realm.
Instead, she couldn’t afford to miss out on the medicinal herbs she could use for a long time.
She listed the five Cloud Root Herbs she had on the Marketplace one by one.
She set the price for every single one at the absurd level of 100 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones.
Following that, she also put up two Cloud Spirit Fruits on the Marketplace.
Since these were medicinal herbs used for at least the 3rd-tier, she asked for a higher price.
“I should set the Cloud Spirit Fruits at about 1,000 High-High-Grade Spirit Stones each.”
It was a crazy price no matter who looked at it, so no one would even dream of buying them.
The five Cloud Root Herbs and two Cloud Spirit Fruits left her Storage Platform.
The number written on the jade token decreased by that much.
‘With this, I’ve secured the medicinal herbs.’
She could get them all back intact just by canceling the registration later.
“Anyway, I’m only taking two items out, right?”
Baek-Cheong giggled, shamelessly to herself.
After finding such a lucrative loophole, the way she looked at the Secret Realm changed.
‘If it’s like this, there’s no need to be overly greedy.’
Until now, she had been eagerly searching only for genuine fortuitous encounters like the Cloud Spirit Pearl.
Thinking it over carefully, that was actually a losing business.
Genuine fortuitous encounters were as rare as beans sprouting in a drought, and they hardly ever caught the eye.
On the other hand, medicinal herbs like the Cloud Root Herb and Cloud Spirit Fruit could be found just by wandering around a little.
Moreover, as long as she smuggled them out, they were items she could use herself.
“Rather than aiming for one fortuitous encounter, sweeping up medicinal herbs is the more profitable venture.”
Baek-Cheong immediately switched her goal.
She decided to treat genuine fortuitous encounters as a bonus to pick up if she happened to stumble upon one.
Instead, she decided to focus on scraping together medicinal herbs to be used in Pill Refining.
Having made up her mind, there was something that bothered her a little.
Roaming the vast Cloud Sea on her own two feet was sluggish.
“The Concealment Art would be perfect for a time like this.”
As it happened, there was a Cloud Rain Art jade slip in her Storage Platform.
Since it was a Spell whose foundation was the Concealment Art, she had also looked into the jade slip and at least initiated herself into the Concealment Art.
She couldn’t use the Concealment Art inside the Cloud Sea, but the situation had changed thanks to the Cloud Spirit Pearl.
“This is perfect timing. Should I try riding it?”
Baek-Cheong formed a Hand Seal and gathered clouds at her feet.
However, before the clouds could even clump together.
The clouds gathering at her feet were rapidly sucked away somewhere.
“Huh?”
The culprit was none other than the Cloud Spirit Pearl she was holding in her hand.
Every time the Concealment Art called forth clouds, the Cloud Spirit Pearl eagerly swallowed them up.
“Hey, my clouds.”
Dumbfounded, Baek-Cheong looked down at the Cloud Spirit Pearl on her palm.
If she stopped the Cloud Spirit Pearl’s suction, she wouldn’t be able to use the Concealment Art due to the Cloud Sea.
But adjusting the Cloud Spirit Pearl’s suction was impossible since she hadn’t Refined it yet.
Above all, the Cloud Spirit Pearl had only recently been formed, so it needed to be fed even a little bit of clouds to grow.
Stopping the suction meant throwing away the opportunity for the Cloud Spirit Pearl to grow.
‘Ah well, I’ll just walk.’
Baek-Cheong gave up on the Concealment Art without lingering regret and fed the clouds to the Cloud Spirit Pearl.
In the end, she had no choice but to diligently do the legwork and roam the Cloud Sea on her own two feet.
“I tried to get a free ride but ended up suffering.”
Still, seeing the Cloud Spirit Pearl nibbling away at the clouds made her feelings of regret vanish.
* * *
It was while she was diligently sweeping up Cloud Root Herbs and Cloud Spirit Fruits and roaming the Cloud Sea.
Since she listed everything she salvaged on the Nameless Forum Marketplace right away, the number on the jade token didn’t increase either.
‘I could sweep things up endlessly at this rate, couldn’t I?’
Baek-Cheong was even humming a tune as she spread her Divine Sense to its limits.
Something unfamiliar caught the edge of her Divine Sense, which was stretched out in all directions.
It felt different from the trash or spirit herbs she had been picking up so far.
“Hm?”
What caught the edge of her Divine Sense was none other than another Cultivator’s Divine Sense.
They were also stretching out their Divine Sense to examine the surroundings.
‘It’s a person, isn’t it?’
There was no way she was the only Cultivator who had entered the Secret Realm, so it wasn’t anything surprising.
However, it was unsettling that they had gotten close enough for their Divine Senses to touch.
It was fortunate that she, who possessed a Divine Sense of twenty-seven zhang, had noticed it first.
‘It seems they haven’t spotted me yet.’
The other party’s Divine Sense was far smaller than hers.
She quietly observed the other party while maintaining her distance so as not to be discovered.
It didn’t take long for her to identify the owner of the Divine Sense.
‘It’s a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.’
The other party was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator with a higher realm than her.
Since both the Foundation Establishment Group and the Qi Condensation Group had entered the Secret Realm together, it was only natural that there was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
‘If it’s a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, there’s no reason to clash with them.’
She was about to withdraw her Divine Sense, thinking she should slowly slip away.
But there was another presence beside the Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
The person standing next to them was a Qi Condensation Cultivator.
‘They’re bringing a Qi Condensation Cultivator along?’
It was somewhat strange to see two people of different realms paired up together.
Out of curiosity, she extended her Divine Sense toward the Qi Condensation Cultivator.
Beyond the clouds, the appearance of the Qi Condensation Cultivator was clearly visible.
Outwardly, he was an ordinarily dressed man one might run into anywhere.
‘I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before…’
At the familiar face, Baek-Cheong searched her memory.
She pondered for a long time why this ordinary man was catching her eye.
“Ah.”
Soon, a certain memory surfaced in her mind.
It was the person she had faced in the semifinals of the main tournament of the Martial Arts Competition.
The one who had simply looked at her calmly, neither intimidated nor underestimating her.
The one who had collapsed without being able to execute a single move in the end, yet had left behind a strangely unsettling feeling.
“That person, he seemed like he had something up his sleeve back then…”
The sense of incongruity she had dismissed as just her imagination reared its head once again.
Of all things, this suspicious person was roaming the depths of the Cloud Sea with a Foundation Establishment Cultivator in tow.
“Could it be?”
Baek-Cheong stopped withdrawing her Divine Sense.
Then, holding her breath, she quietly watched the two Cultivators.