North District. Early Evening.

Bubai lifted his gaze, capturing the reddish hues painted across the skies. “Still plenty of time before I usually end my work.”

Yet, the timing for his return still felt rather awkward...

His original plan was to stay deep into the night, engaging in discussions about cultivation with the Jia family. In the end, he departed earlier than intended.

It wasn't due to being kicked out or a lack of delight in stealing fuel from the expensive cars. Quite the opposite really, as his harvest this time was exceptionally good.

In just a mere couple of hours, he secured 12 high-quality strands and 13 medium-quality strands, adding more than two percent to his progress toward his collection goal.

This level of efficiency only lost out to WeiWei! With this bountiful harvest, he was already a quarter of the way done with his gathering of his memory Qi!

Not only that, beyond his haul of memory Qi, he also switched to the Sun Furnace Carp method, shamelessly reaping as much as he could.

Even as he wantonly expended a significant load of green Qi to saturate his body, almost completing the saturation of an entire meridian network, he still successfully filled his large dantian to its maximum capacity, essentially achieving level six of Qi-refinement!

However, it was here that Bubai discovered an unexpected issue

When his dantian reached its full capacity, absorbing more Qi posed no problem.

Unfortunately, all the excess Qi no longer stayed in his dantian. Instead, they were all devoured by his seed!

To his utter dismay, none of these consumed Qi was returned to him, even upon opening up additional space in his dantian! They were just gone, all devoured by his greedy golden glutton, adding to his seed’s track record of not spitting anything back out.

Of course, Bubai had a hunch: None of these gobbled Qi would go to waste, probably playing some role in his future upgrades.

However, this situation still meant he couldn’t store up surplus Qi for later cultivation sessions.

In contrast, excessively plundering cultivation from women resulted in diminishing returns and delayed their recovery for subsequent harvests.

Thus, despite the Jia family's generosity and the free cauldron being at his disposal, further cultivation with them seemed wasteful.

Sometimes, he must avoid taking the excessive approach. Moderation is the key to maintaining an advantage.

Unlike the first encounter, where his mind was unwittingly affected, this time, Bubai kept his guard up and was able to extricate himself, keeping himself composed regardless of the devil’s tricks.

Only then could he seek the most benefits for himself.

“Fortunately, this time, I shouldn’t have fallen into any of his traps…”

Bubai's words trailed off abruptly, his steps freezing as an ominous darkness rapidly engulfed the sect, advancing towards him. He only took a single step backward before his surroundings were swallowed by the encroaching shadows!

Soon after, street lamps flickered to life, revealing the serene expressions on the faces of passersby, some gazing upward with curiosity.

Bubai followed their line of sight, directing his eyes toward the sky.

The reddish skies was gone.

In its place, an immense sea of sand obscured the heavens, enveloping the entire sect and battering against an imperceptible protective eggshell.

In that moment, Bubai was reminded of the invisible barrier guarding the sect, and this abnormal weather was one of the enemies it was meant to keep out.

“It’s the first time I’ve experienced a sandstorm like this...”

Unsurprisingly, sandstorms were a common occurrence in the Sunrise desert.

Were it not for the barrier, perhaps all the farms might have withered, and the sect grounds could have become uninhabitable. Yet, the cost of maintaining this barrier likely came at a steep price.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Bubai shook his head, “Of all the places, why choose to build in a desert…”

Certainly, there were probably secrets he wasn't privy to.

Nonetheless, he at least understood that the barren terrain was one of the reasons dissuading other sects from conquering the Sun Furnace Sect. Wars between sects don't ignite without enough vested interests.

Regaining his composure, Bubai pressed on toward the Book Pavilion. Night descended early, but there was still time for him to catch up on his work under the cover of darkness.

Book Pavilion. Classified Room.

Having invested a substantial portion of his day in cultivation, Bubai was now wholly dedicated to his current task, intending to complete the transcription of the quaint booklet he had been working on.

The book in question bore the title "Strange Cases of the Century”. It described many of the strange deaths occurring within the sect, with some cases still unresolved till this day.

Of course, it became his task due to its age. So, the book actually chronicled events that transpired over five centuries ago.

However, don’t judge a book by its cover.

A genius might not have cared too much regarding these small details, but Bubai knew himself well.

Unlike the typical protagonist that just rides the rocket of fortune to meet Chang’Ge, Bubai had noticed his fortune was rather… unpalatable. Thus, to acquire the resources necessary to pave the way for his ascent, outside of his golden finger, Bubai knew he will have to rely on hard work and big data.

Therefore, even books like these served as important supplements to his knowledge bank. Who knows when they would come in handy.

For example, from "Strange Cases of the Century", Bubai had learned a lot of interesting tidbits, unraveling the mysteries behind some of things he had found strange in the sect.

One particular case recounted the story of a Foundation Establishment cultivator who had inadvertently trapped himself inside his own tower after losing his key slip.

By the time the problem was noticed, the inner disciple had starved to death, embracing the lifeless body of his lover until his last breath. It wasn’t until later that the missing key was found... inside the woman's stomach.

In the bygone era, the towers were constructed solely from white jade, forming sealed environments ideal for cultivation. However, this heart-wrenching incident prompted a change in the design of the towers.

Nowadays, each tower had the superfluous addition of a window, a modification that allowed trapped disciples to call for help.

Lesson learned. Other tales entailed a similar effect.

For example, there was another tale of a golden core elder who dual cultivated with a mortal woman, and died festering not long after. It turns out the woman awakened a rare poisonous king physique.

This served as a stark reminder to readers about the importance of remaining vigilant, even when cultivating with seemingly ordinary mortal partners.

Some of the cases even delved into the sect's checkered history, hinting at some of its shameful past and dark secrets.

One such unsettling dark chapter revealed a time when the sect's farms were not walled-off, allowing unscrupulous disciples to secretly bury the corpses of women in the fields to avoid the body disposal fees.

The overseeing elder turned a blind eye to this practice, deeming it a form of fertilizer and dismissing it as a non-issue… until a powerful, vengeful female spirit was born.

Fueled by the injustice, she wreaked havoc across multiple fields before being ultimately suppressed. For decades after that, those fields became dead fields, unable to grow even the most basic spirit rice.

Though the exact number of individuals punished for this transgression remained unknown, a lasting rule emerged from the incident: corpses must now be brought to the South District's crematorium.

Reading these tales, Bubai understood that while the sect may appear ruthless and unscrupulous in the present, its past harbored even darker shadows.

Yet, these secrets and darkness were not concealed from those eager to seek knowledge.

Clearly, this book was left to let future generations learn from the mistakes of their predecessors.

It was a treasure trove, yet it was one of the books that had been gathering dust.

East District. Late night.

As Bubai walked back to his tower, he stole a glance at the darkness looming over the sect. The sandstorm was still raging.

“Well, it’ll probably go away in a day or two, at most a week.”

It won’t affect his plans much. At most, it was just lacking sunlight for a week.

And... in a week, he would probably have enough contribution points to redeem his second basic formation.

“After acquiring that, it would just be a matter of time before I become a formation apprentice.” A subtle smile played on Bubai's lips as he retrieved his jade slip from the key slot.

As he tucked the slip into his storage pouch, with a deft sleight of hand, he discreetly stashed the slip into his personal space.

Some matters must be guarded against, no matter how slim the possibility.

As the tower's heavy door rumbled shut behind him, Bubai’s attention shifted to Xiao Lan, who was sliding open the storage room door.

WeiWei's words surfaced in Bubai's mind. Two weeks had passed, yet he hadn't broached the subject of the tower's secrets with Xiao Lan.

For Bubai, if Xiao Lan was unwilling to say, he just won’t ask. He had no plans of amassing more women or falling victim to WeiWei's trick of sowing discord.

So, he chose to just go with the flow. He believed that when Xiao Lan further integrated into his essence and eventually began thinking on his behalf, she would naturally reveal everything, even if he didn't explicitly inquire.

Well, he knew progress had definitely been made.

Wearing an expressionless mask, the aloof beauty reported in a neutral voice, “I’ve recovered.”

His eyes met hers, and a subtle smile arose on his face.

Xiao Lan, seemingly grasping something, pursed her lips slightly and pointed towards the stairs, “Dinner?”

No response.

She pointed towards the double doors across from her, “Bath?”

She then looked over. “...”

Receiving no response, she waltzed up to the smiling Bubai, her aloof countenance coming face to face with him. As she lifted his hand and guided it towards her bosom, she leaned in, her cool lips hovering temptingly close to his, her soft whisper reverberating in his ears, “Or me?”