“I’m stealing money from home?” Ye Kong had nothing more to say to a shopkeeper with so little sense. He simply tossed down a whole tael of silver, grabbed his five pounds of millet seeds, and prepared to leave.

The customers coming and going from the seed shop were all farmers, the kind who split a single copper coin eight ways. When had the shopkeeper ever seen such a big spender – buying goods worth ten copper coins yet throwing down a whole tael of silver?

The shopkeeper couldn’t help but observe more carefully. Upon closer inspection, he recognized him. Wasn’t this the Ye family’s Eighth Young Master who was making such a splash in Southern Capital City?

“Honored guest, might you be surnamed Ye?” The shopkeeper hurriedly followed him out of the small shop.

“You know me?” Ye Kong, who had already walked out the door, turned back to ask.

“It really is Eighth Young Master!” The shopkeeper was delighted. “The other day at Treasure Spring Pavilion when Eighth Young Master displayed his mighty prowess, this old man went to watch as well. Eighth Young Master’s presence was truly majestic, with the bearing to swallow mountains and rivers…”

Ye Kong slung the cloth bag of seeds over his shoulder and said impatiently, “If you have something to say, just say it.”

“Oh. This is Eighth Young Master’s silver. How could you possibly pay for a bit of millet seeds? [stolen content]And just now…” The shopkeeper actually knelt down right there in the street. “This small person was blind and offended Eighth Young Master just now. I’m making amends to you here and now.”

“Forget it, what does this little matter count for?” Ye Kong tossed the silver back to the shopkeeper and turned to leave.

Unexpectedly, the shopkeeper grabbed onto Ye Kong’s leg and called out loudly, “Eighth Young Master, this small person has one more matter. I hope Eighth Young Master will grant his consent!”

Damn it to hell, once a person becomes famous, troubles come calling.

“Shopkeeper, don’t do this. Actually, I, Ye Kong, am just a young kid. My abilities are limited. If you have difficulties, you should go find the bailiffs. If you want to file a complaint, go to the officials. If you want to borrow money, forget about it. This young master’s family has no surplus grain either.” With one opening statement, Ye Kong blocked off every avenue.

“It’s none of those, none of those.” The shopkeeper smiled mysteriously. “I’ve long heard that Eighth Young Master is young and handsome, elegant and talented. Seeing you today, it’s indeed true… This old man has a daughter, fifteen years old, quite attractive…”

Ye Kong nearly fainted. So it was this kind of thing. Brother here still has two at home he hasn’t sorted out yet. He shook off the shopkeeper and strode away.

The shopkeeper chased after him shouting, “Eighth Young Master, she can be a servant or concubine, either is fine. Even without official status as an outer chamber companion would work…”

Ye Kong lengthened his stride. How could the old man catch [stolen content]up? In no time, he’d vanished without a trace.

The shopkeeper said dejectedly, “Strange. Everyone says Eighth Young Master is dissolute by nature, a regular at Treasure Spring Pavilion since age fourteen. How come now when offered for free, he doesn’t want it?”

Little did Ye Kong know his reputation was already notorious throughout the city. He ducked into a quiet corner and put the bag of seeds into his storage pouch.

“Getting a wife on Earth is such a pain, but who knew on Cangnan Continent women are given away for free. If there could be regular exchanges, that could solve the marriage problems for how many older single men!” Right, this kid really does have a heart for benefiting all humanity.

He’d just stepped onto the main street when someone else approached, though not to harass him, but a young man.

“Eighth Young Master, this small one is Liu Xuebin from the Dragon-Tiger Gang. Greetings to Eighth Young Master.” This fellow had just seen someone kowtowing in the street to a youth and paid attention.

Upon looking, he discovered it was actually the legendary Eighth Young Master. Remembering the gang leader’s earlier instructions, “If you happen to encounter Eighth Young Master, immediately go forward to pay respects and be at his disposal.”

Ye Kong of course had nothing to assign him, but thinking he hadn’t seen Lu Jun and Lu Yi in a while, and that he was about to go back and enter long-term closed-door cultivation, he might as well go see them.

After asking where the Lu brothers were, Ye Kong headed over.

The Lu brothers were still at the tavern eating and bragging. Anyway, with nothing to do, dragging out a meal for several hours was perfectly normal.

Seeing Ye Kong arrive, the two quickly welcomed him in and paid their respects.

“No need for that.” Ye Kong waved his hand. “Is the gang still stable? Has the yamen been giving you any trouble?”

“Thanks to Eighth Young Master’s blessings, since the last incident, the yamen doesn’t dare trouble us anymore. Those bailiffs all bow and scrape when they see us.” What Lu Jun said was true. The officials were so polite to the Dragon-Tiger Gang entirely because they felt Ye Kong was not to be trifled with. If Ye Kong weren’t backing them, that Magistrate Chen would have used the Dragon-Tiger Gang as an example long ago.

Lu Yi also added, “The gang’s morale is very unified too. Everyone knows you’re standing behind us, so they’re all full of energy…”

“Full of energy to do what? Full of energy to drink, chase women, and visit brothels?” Each time he saw these two, Ye Kong liked to knock them down a peg. This was a habit from his Earth days. He continued, “Running a triad organization requires culture too. When you have time, read more books. Don’t just spend an entire afternoon drinking. What about that thing I asked you to do last time, that Young and Dangerous series drama – have you done it? You need to improve everyone’s image of you.”

“We know, we’re working on it. Those scholars are writing the script. When the time comes, we’ll invite Eighth Young Master to attend that… what was it?” Ye Kong used too many new terms. Lu Jun often forgot.

“Premier performance,” Lu Yi reminded him.

“Right, right, right, premier performance. Eighth Young Master, you’re so brilliant and cunning…”

“See, no culture. Can’t even use words properly. Still ‘cunning’… You’re the cunning one!” Ye Kong gave Lu Jun a rap on the head. “You guys keep working on it. If I have time I’ll come watch. If not, forget it. Don’t bother me over nothing. If something comes up, have Little Qin pass the message.”

Ye Kong finished giving instructions and was about to leave, but the Lu brothers held him back, reporting that they’d recently collected quite a few family heirlooms from among the common people, waiting for Ye Kong to examine them.

This too was something Ye Kong had arranged. His Five Elements Ascension Scripture and Shadow Dance both came from family treasures that others had considered completely useless garbage.

So Ye Kong took an interest in these treasures scattered among the common folk. Cangnan Continent had hundreds of thousands of years of legacy. Many families had ancestral treasures, though most were deemed worthless by everyone.

Ye Kong was delighted to hear this and immediately followed the Lu brothers back. They came to a small room where the floor was covered with all sorts of miscellaneous items.

“These are all family heirlooms from citizens in the city. They had no use for them, so with a bit of money, they sold them all. We don’t know if there are actually any treasures among them. We ask Eighth Young Master to use his discerning eye to identify them.” Lu Jun led Ye Kong into the interior of the room.

“Spirit stones.” Ye Kong immediately spotted a few glowing objects amid the jumbled mess.

There were five spirit stones in total. Though not many, something was better than nothing. Ye Kong directly put them in his storage pouch.

But after that, Ye Kong had no idea what was good. There were pots and jars, wooden sticks and roots, fans, books, mirrors – in short, a dazzling array of everything. There were many things Ye Kong really couldn’t name or identify.

Ye Kong didn’t know, but someone did. He immediately called for Old Ancestor Yellow Springs. After shouting for a while, he finally woke the old bastard up.

“What’s all this noise? Is it nighttime yet?” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs was quite displeased at being woken by Ye Kong.

“Old Ancestor, open your eyes wide and look. So many treasures.” Ye Kong said proudly.

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs released his divine sense, then said with a very surprised expression, “Wow! So much garbage!”

“No way. These are all treasures collected from among the common people. Don’t underestimate them. The Shadow Jade and my Five Elements Ascension Scripture I cultivate were both items appraised as garbage.” Ye Kong said.

“That’s because you had good luck, stumbled onto dog shit!” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs pointed with his finger. “Look at this room full of garbage. Three-leaf orchids grown for less than ten years were already picked, and stored in such luxurious thousand-year-old peachwood. What’s the damn point! And that black stone – it’s the lowest grade, lowest content iron essence ore. It’s the kind of stuff nobody wants even if you give it away. You could buy a hundred pieces with one spirit [noodles]stone… And those fragments are all remnants of magical artifacts. Those artifacts were low-grade junk when they were made. The fragments are even more useless than dog shit.”

After Old Ancestor Yellow Springs dismissed the entire room as worthless, Ye Kong refused to believe it. “With so many things, there must be one or two that are useful, right?”

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs cackled. “There are indeed one or two, but… this old ancestor isn’t your laborer. Why should I tell you?”

“No way, you’re being this petty? It’s just asking you to take a look. You still want benefits for this?” Ye Kong was somewhat displeased. This old bastard was too stingy. He wanted benefits even for such a small thing.

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs snorted coldly. “Although helping you look at treasures is simple, among them the best item is excellent material for refining armor. Since this old ancestor is helping you select it, naturally I should help you to the end and refine a suit of armor for you. But since you don’t know what’s good for you, forget it. Wait until you reach Golden Core and have pill fire, then refine it yourself.”

Ye Kong was stunned. The Five Elements Ascension Scripture advanced extremely slowly. By the time he reached Golden Core, his beard would be white.

“Old Ancestor, Old Ancestor. Hehe, this junior was truly rude just now. I apologize to you here.” Ye Kong thickened his face and pleaded for quite a while.

Finally Old Ancestor Yellow Springs reluctantly agreed. “Fine, considering you’ll still need to guarantee my ascension in the future, this old ancestor will help you once.”

Then the Old Ancestor pointed to a most inconspicuous animal hide in the corner of the room. “That’s the hide. If I’m not mistaken, that’s inkshark skin.”

“Inkshark?” Ye Kong went over and picked up the rolled-up hide. No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem valuable – grayish-black in color, covered with grooves, the grooves filled with dried mud. It looked exactly like something pulled out of a garbage heap.

“No way, Old Ancestor? For the sake of Inedia, you made me eat starvation grain that even poor people won’t eat. Now you want me to wear this ragged thing pulled from a garbage heap. Cultivating immortality really is miserable!” Ye Kong complained.

“You understand shit!” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs cursed. “This inkshark is a strange fish from the Vast Ocean. This fish normally likes to float on the ocean surface absorbing heaven and earth spiritual energy. It absorbs spiritual energy mainly through this strange hide. Even after being skinned from the inkshark’s body, the hide will naturally absorb spiritual energy. You could say the older it is, the more valuable it becomes.”

“Oh, I see. Then this inkshark fish must be very formidable, right?” Ye Kong quickly threw the ragged hide into his storage pouch.

“This fish isn’t formidable at all. Precisely because it’s not formidable, it’s very rare. They’ve all been caught, which is why it’s valuable. A hundred thousand years ago they were already nearly extinct. You’re really lucky to see one today. This hide you just put away has been preserved for at least ten thousand years. If refined into armor, its defensive power would be extremely strong. Even a natal magical treasure at Golden Core stage hitting it could be withstood!”

Ye Kong’s heart raced at Old Ancestor Yellow Springs’ words. Among immortal cultivators, offensive artifacts were relatively common and therefore not valuable, while defensive artifacts cost considerably more than offensive ones. Armor that could withstand even natal magical treasures would be astronomically expensive.

Of course, Ye Kong wouldn’t sell it. This was something to preserve his life. No amount of money could buy it.

“Then Old Ancestor comrade, I wonder if there are any other treasures in this garbage pile comparable ​unauthorized copy​to the inkshark hide?” Ye Kong’s tone toward Old Ancestor Yellow Springs became much more polite.

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs cursed, “Kid! Don’t be so greedy! Inkshark hide is something you can encounter but never seek. Having this one good item among all this garbage is already your good fortune! Still want more – you really have an insatiable appetite!”

Ye Kong grinned and asked again, “Then what other things are there that I can take? You know, I’m a newbie. Things you look down on might be useful to me.”

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs’ divine sense swept over everything again before saying, “Since you like drawing talismans so much, there’s a row of brushes on that table. The third one is a Spirit-Communicating Talisman Brush that can still be used.”

“Spirit-Communicating Talisman Brush!” That was the brush specifically for drawing spirit talismans. Ye Kong had been looking forward to this for so long.

Walking over to look, this Spirit-Communicating Talisman Brush appeared much better than the inkshark hide. Among a row of writing brushes it stood tall and outstanding. Not only was its shape unique, but the brush tip was also carved with two vigorous small characters: “Wolf Eyebrow.”