Chapter 13: Spiritual Fortune

Li Mochen continued to kneel cross-legged, entering meditation to nourish his spirit. Only after his energy had somewhat recovered did he rise from the floor and begin to tally up all his gains.

The first thing he examined was naturally the 'Divine Sky Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Pagoda'. As Li Mochen had expected, it was now covered in scars and in an extremely weakened state, hardly better than when he first obtained it back then.

It was obvious that the reason his 'Qiankun Divine Seal' had survived was not because the self-created void space was sturdy enough, but because of the protection of this 'Divine Sky Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Pagoda'.

However, the main cause of this treasure's weakness was not the ubiquitous violent storms of the boundless void, but rather its own characteristics.

The strength of this 'Divine Sky Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Pagoda' was closely tied to its owner's 'fortune'.

So-called 'fortune' refers to the combination of luck and personal circumstances. The former simply means luck, while the latter includes personal martial power, authority, wealth, status, and so on.

If Li Mochen's overall 'fortune' was strong enough, then the power of the 'Divine Sky Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Pagoda' would naturally be formidable.

But unfortunately, at this moment, not only had his vital energy been severely depleted and his spirit heavily injured, but he had also fallen from grace, descending from the dignified leader of a sect to a powerless American middle school student who could face death at any time.

It was easy to imagine that the function of his 'Divine Sky Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Pagoda' could not be very strong now.

Thus, Li Mochen was not discouraged at all. When he was in the Primordial Dome Realm, he had cultivated the 'Divine Sky Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Pagoda' to the point where it manifested a halo of merit. In this world, where the spiritual energy was several times richer than the Primordial Dome Realm, the future prospects of this treasure would certainly not be poor.

Next were the two silver-white mirrored discs. These were actually one object, divided into yin and yang sides, called the 'Yin-Yang Life-Death Mirror'. The yang mirror bore the pattern of the Big Dipper's seven stars, while the yin mirror bore the Southern Dipper's six stars. Their function was to govern life and death. They were a dharma artifact Li Mochen used during his Nascent Soul stage. Because of their powerful effects and great assistance to Li Mochen, he cherished them deeply and had kept them in the 'Qiankun Divine Seal' until now.

Unfortunately, Li Mochen now had no magical power at all, so he couldn't use this item for a long time.

After the mirror came six gold ingots, seven multicolored gemstones, five spirit jade talismans, and nine pieces of medium-grade spirit stones.

He could make use of the jade talismans. Once he gathered certain materials, Li Mochen could craft them into simple magical tools, providing him with magical power equivalent to the later stage of Biqu (Abstinence from Grains).

In the Primordial Dome Realm, spiritual objects were scarce. Over ten thousand years ago, they began processing high-grade spirit jade into special talisman plaques, used to absorb and store spiritual energy for repeated use. They no longer discarded them after depleting the spiritual energy within, as before. The same applied to spirit stones. Unfortunately, the ones he had taken out of the 'Qiankun Divine Seal' were only medium-grade, usable as single-use consumables.

Nevertheless, these were still of great value to him. When setting up formations in the future, he could consider stronger formations and wouldn't have to go through as much trouble as today.

In comparison, the gold ingots and gemstones were the least valuable, but these yellow and white items were exactly what he urgently needed now, like charcoal in the snow.

Each of the six gold ingots weighed one jin, equivalent to about 3000 grams in this world.

The current gold price in America was 42 gold shields per gram of gold, but his few glittering little items were of extremely high purity, directly usable for tool forging. They were also scarce here, far exceeding the limits of industrial refining. So they were quite valuable, worth at least 200,000 to 280,000 gold shields.

Of course, if he actually sold them, he definitely wouldn't get that price. No merchant would pay according to market value.

The gemstones were even more valuable. Based on the shallow knowledge of the original owner, Li Mochen estimated that each one was worth at least over 200,000 gold shields.

But selling them was a problem. The gold ingots could be cut up and sold piecemeal to various jewelry stores in Atlanta, or even on the black market. But these gemstones—given Li Mochen's current age and situation, if he dared to take them out in a legitimate jewelry store, most merchants would choose to call the police rather than buy them at face value.

Moreover, wealth moves people's hearts, and the risks involved were beyond what he could bear now.

However, Li Mochen was not anxious. He could wait until his personal strength improved before dealing with these items.

The only thing troubling him now was that he obviously couldn't carry these things around. But hiding them in this apartment was also extremely unsafe.

According to his cheap sister, his room had been visited by a thief today. The damaged door lock was that person's handiwork.

So after pondering for a moment, Li Mochen spent another half hour, as quietly as possible, digging a hole in the right wall near the door. He temporarily buried everything except the 'Divine Sky Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Pagoda' inside, then covered the outside with brick wallpaper and added a few illusion talismans as camouflage.

This should fool magic energy professionals below level seven. For level seven and above, it would depend on luck.

But that was enough. Li Mochen believed that magic energy professionals above level seven would not stoop to being thieves in a slum.

At this moment, however, Li Mochen also set his first life goal since his rebirth. He thought that, no matter how he looked at it, he had to move out of here as soon as possible.

But that required money. The rent for this semi-basement room was only 150 gold shields per month, while slightly better apartment buildings in the adjacent City Forest neighborhood started at at least 300 gold shields.

It was now close to midnight, but Li Mochen still had no sleep. He continued to kneel cross-legged in the center of the room, eyes slightly closed, entering a meditative state, meticulously sensing the condition of his own body.

This was the thing he had most wanted to do since coming to this world.

Although Tao Ran of the Primordial Dome Realm was limited by the thinness of heaven and earth's spiritual energy and could only stop at the peak of the Mahayana stage, his lifetime accumulation of Dao foundation had far exceeded that level.

This was not Li Mochen's conceit, but a fact. The fact that he could single-handedly suppress the Nine Heavens Demon Lord Dugu Tianyi was proof. One must know that this person was not native to the Primordial Dome Realm but an external demon, whose magical power and cultivation had reached the level of a Spirit Demon, comparable to the legendary Spirit Immortals of the Primordial Dome Realm.

Although in that decisive battle, this person was suppressed by the will of the Heavenly Dao of the Primordial Dome Realm, able to exert only seventy percent of his strength, wasn't it worthy of pride that Li Mochen, at the Mahayana stage, could defeat and severely wound this demon?

Li Mochen had full confidence that he could achieve glory again in this world, even surpassing his previous foundation and cultivation.

But as the saying goes, to do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. Before that, he had to understand what was inside this body: what were its strengths, and what were its weaknesses? Only by truly 'knowing himself' could he tailor his approach to the individual and rapidly improve his cultivation level without leaving future troubles.

And after a moment, Li Mochen suddenly let out a surprised exclamation, a hint of unexpectedness appearing on his face.

He thought that the original owner's father, Li Chunchu, was probably not just a mere apostate disciple of a major sect. How could this world possess such a miraculous cultivation method? It was utterly unconventional and brilliantly imaginative, making Li Mochen feel inferior.

The key was that the system of this technique had already been established, capable of directly reaching the Spirit Immortal realm—but could this really be a legacy obtained by an Eastern cultivator below the Nascent Soul stage, an apostate disciple of a sect?