With matters in Luoshui City settled, Lin Wuming and his little junior sister set out on the journey to the imperial capital after resting for two days.
The route to the capital followed an official road, which was relatively safe.
Still, the Luoshui City Lord remained uneasy and arranged for a group of elite guards to escort them the entire way.
The imperial capital was located in the north of the empire, quite far from Luoshui City in the southeastern region.
However, thanks to the spirit beast-drawn carriage “generously and willingly” provided by the city lord, their travel speed was swift.
Though the carriage was pulled by only low-tier spirit horses, they were incredibly valuable and many times faster than ordinary horses.
In fact, the value of these two spirit horses exceeded even the pouch of spirit stones that Lin Wuming extorted from the city lord.
So they were only borrowing them; once they reached the capital, the guards would return them to Luoshui.
Spirit horses were intelligent and didn’t need to be actively driven.
They would automatically follow the path to the capital.
With guards protecting them outside, Lin Wuming had no need to stay alert and instead used the opportunity to cultivate.
With his Immaculate Physique, all he needed was enough spiritual energy to raise his realm rapidly.
His cultivation proceeded unusually smoothly.
After consuming about ten mid-grade spirit stones, he effortlessly reached the peak of the Qi Condensation Realm—equaling He Yingying’s cultivation.
He Yingying watched her senior brother’s cultivation soar like a rocket the whole way, her emotions incredibly mixed.
She was happy for him, but also filled with envy.
She couldn’t help but mutter that people’s constitutions really weren’t comparable.
However, once Lin Wuming reached the peak of Qi Condensation, he finally encountered a bottleneck.
Beyond Qi Condensation was the Essence Return Realm, where spiritual energy was further refined and condensed into true essence.
Most advanced techniques could only be truly used once one had true essence.
Compared to Qi Condensation, Essence Return was a massive leap.
But forming true essence wasn’t that easy—especially in Lin Wuming’s case…
“What the hell? Is this Basic Vitality Cultivation Technique cursed or something!?”
After consuming two entire mid-grade spirit stones and barely condensing a sliver of true essence, Lin Wuming couldn’t help cursing.
For him, the process itself wasn’t difficult—his spiritual energy was pure and untainted—but because of the Basic Vitality Cultivation Technique, his true essence was absurdly dense.
Far denser than average.
After estimating roughly, Lin Wuming figured that to completely convert his inner spiritual energy to true essence and officially step into the Essence Return Realm, he’d need…
About one hundred mid-grade spirit stones!?
What the hell!?
The Luoshui City Lord’s half-year salary only added up to around sixty mid-grade stones, and he needed a hundred just to break through?
And this was just to enter Essence Return.
To fully cultivate through it, he might need over a thousand mid-grade stones.
That was at least ten times the consumption of a normal cultivator…
Though admittedly, the resulting true essence was absurdly powerful.
Comparing with Lady Liu of the Liu family, his true essence was at least two to three times denser.
Compared to an average cultivator, over ten times stronger.
That kind of consumption was just barely justified.
Still… where the hell was he supposed to get that many spirit stones?
He couldn’t really just rely on mooching off his junior sister forever, could he?
Even though she was a princess and surely had a decent monthly allowance, she had her own cultivation to maintain, plus the expenses of her palace and maidservants, which she had to cover herself.
He could shamelessly ask for a few stones each month—but hundreds, or thousands?
That’d be a heavy burden even for her.
Going out to perform or do odd jobs… wouldn’t earn much.
He’d barely afford even a low-grade spirit stone.
Was there some other way to make money?
Lin Wuming fell deep into thought.
Opening a clinic?
That could work… or maybe…
He remembered the strange, round thing he refined while healing his junior sister earlier.
If that thing was actually a pill, pills could fetch a fortune.
Once they got to the capital, he could try refining again and see…
“Princess, Young Master Lin…”
Just as Lin Wuming was lost in thought, a guard’s voice came from outside.
“What is it?”
Lin Wuming immediately asked.
“Um… Young Master Lin, it’s best if you come out and see for yourself.”
The guard hesitated, not saying much.
Lin Wuming shrugged.
What was with the mystery?
He pulled back the carriage curtain and stepped down—only to spot a girl collapsed by the roadside, leaning against a tree.
Her body was covered in wounds, and she looked barely alive.
What was this situation?
Lin Wuming scratched his head in confusion.
What, you could just find pretty girls lying on the roadside nowadays?
The girl spotted them too and tensed up immediately.
“W-What do you want!?”
She had been sent by her master to train in the forest but had encountered a powerful beast halfway through.
Though she barely escaped, she was seriously injured and collapsed by the road.
She had intended to rest a while and move again when her injuries improved, but she hadn’t even rested long before strangers passed by.
Meeting someone deep in the wilderness… she had no idea whether they were kind or wicked.
Injured as she was, of course she was nervous.
But Lin Wuming stared at her, lost in thought.
After a while, he raised his head with a dawning realization.
“Wait… don’t tell me you’re trying to scam us?”
“…”
“Not talking? So you admit it? Listen here—this is broad daylight, alright? There are officials in this region. If you try anything shady, you’re going to jail!”
“I… I’m not!”
Zhao Ke’er puffed up her cheeks, glaring indignantly.
Inside the carriage, He Yingying twitched at the corners of her mouth.
Sometimes, she really couldn’t tell whether her senior brother was genuinely dumb or just playing dumb.
You’d think he was dumb, but it was impossible to trick him.
But if he was smart, his thinking was always a bit… off.
Who, in this kind of situation, would immediately assume someone was faking injuries to scam them!?
From the looks of it, this little vixen clearly got herself injured on purpose to play the pitiful card and seduce her senior brother!
“Anyway, let’s bring the young lady into the carriage first,” the guard finally stepped in, clearly unable to watch any longer.
“We’re almost at the capital—it’ll be easier to get her treated there…”