After traveling ceaselessly for a day and a night, Xu Changshou arrived at the Great Gorge Waterfall Su Miaomiao had spoken of.

There, he also located the secluded cavern where she had lived as a child.

Stepping inside to investigate, he found it immaculately clean with all the necessary furnishings intact. Clearly, Su Miaomiao had frequently returned to reside here while she was still alive.

The solitary graves of her parents lay not far from the cavern entrance.

Xu Changshou excavated a burial pit beside them and gently laid Su Miaomiao's corpse to rest.

After burying her, he glanced at her parents' tombs, noting they were thoroughly overgrown with weeds.

Deciding to see his good deed to the end, he proceeded to clear the overgrowth from the mounds.

While pulling the weeds, Xu Changshou discovered several stalks of spiritual herbs hidden among them.

He recognized the plant as Snake Immortal Grass. It was not a precious herb and held little general utility, but it possessed miraculous efficacy in neutralizing the venom of the Green Bamboo Viper.

Paying it little mind, Xu Changshou casually harvested the grass and tossed it into his Storage Bag.

With the graves cleared, he returned to the cavern, withdrew an array disk, and laid down an illusion formation at the entrance.

He planned to rest in this immortal cave for a night before departing, and the array would deter any wild beasts from wandering inside.

Finally, Xu Changshou brought out Su Miaomiao's Storage Bag.

He had sworn a Dao oath to her that he would only open it after she was properly buried.

Now that his promise was fulfilled, it was time to claim his harvest.

He examined the pouch. Its make was similar to his own, a relatively high-grade Storage Bag devoid of any restrictive seals, meaning anyone could freely access its contents.

Open!

Xu Changshou channeled Spiritual Qi into his palm and lightly patted the bag.

Swoosh!

Without warning, an emerald Green Bamboo Viper shot out from within, sinking its fangs viciously into the webbing of his hand.

Xu Changshou reacted with lightning speed. His fingers blurred through a hand seal, blasting a Palm Thunder directly at the serpent.

Palm Thunder was a rudimentary art from the Complete Compendium of Spells. Though generally considered useless in combat, it was more than sufficient to obliterate a small viper.

Bang!

An arc of lightning struck the serpent, detonating its head into a mist of blood on the spot.

Though the beast was dead, it left two deep puncture wounds in Xu Changshou's flesh.

Intense agony flared up his arm as dark, sludgy blood oozed from the bite marks.

Soon, his entire palm lost all sensation, and a necrotic black hue began spreading from the wound.

The Green Bamboo Viper was the lowest grade of spiritual snake, not even ranking as a true spirit beast, yet its venom was incredibly lethal. Anyone below the Foundation Establishment realm would undoubtedly perish if bitten.

Under normal circumstances, Storage Bags could not house living creatures. Why, then, had a Green Bamboo Viper been lurking within Su Miaomiao's bag?

The answer was not difficult to deduce.

While standard Storage Bags suffocated the living, Spirit Beast Pouches did not. Certain high-grade Storage Bags were woven with an isolated spatial pocket designed exclusively for housing spirit beasts.

If utilized maliciously, one could hide highly venomous creatures or ferocious beasts within them.

This acted as a lethal countermeasure against looters. The moment a stranger breached the bag, they would suffer a fatal ambush.

Realizing this,

Xu Changshou had to admire Su Miaomiao's ruthless cunning. Even in death, she had nearly dragged him down to the underworld.

Fortunately, the Snake Immortal Grass growing upon her parents' graves happened to be the exact antidote for the viper's venom.

Xu Changshou hastily retrieved the herb, chewed it to a pulp to extract the medicinal juices, and smeared it heavily over the blackened wound.

He squeezed out copious amounts of foul, toxic blood, only stopping when bright, crimson drops began to flow.

A soothing coolness seeped into the wound, halting the spread of the toxin. Only then did he exhale a heavy breath of relief.

Still, it was strange. Why would the specific antidote be growing on her parents' graves? It was too perfect a coincidence.

He suddenly understood.

After a brief moment of contemplation, the truth of the matter dawned on him.

The Snake Immortal Grass had undoubtedly been planted there by Su Miaomiao herself.

Walking a path paved with murder and theft, she had long anticipated the day she would inevitably fall.

Thus, she laid this deadly trap upon her Storage Bag.

Had Xu Changshou reneged on his promise—abandoning her corpse to the wilderness instead of returning it to the Great Gorge Waterfall for burial—he never would have found the antidote.

In that scenario, opening her Storage Bag and suffering the viper's bite would have guaranteed his sudden, agonizing death.

Though Xu Changshou wanted to curse her venomous heart, he remembered her tragic past. Had she not been forced onto the path of a ruthless demonic cultivator?

Leaving those stalks of Snake Immortal Grass by her parents' graves proved that a sliver of humanity had remained within her Dao heart.

Perhaps... this was her final karmic reward for those who showed her honor.

Had her parents not been slaughtered, dragging her into the brutal struggles of the Cultivation world, she might have lived out her mortal days in joy within this paradise.

Sigh.

Xu Changshou smiled bitterly and shook his head. "Once you enter the Immortal Sect, its depths are like the sea; from then on, not even your own fate remains yours to decide."

Pushing aside his thoughts, Xu Changshou withdrew and activated an Earth Stalwart Talisman, conjuring an earthen-yellow spiritual barrier around his body.

Fully shielded, he prepared to delve into the Storage Bag once more.

This ordeal had etched a profound lesson into his bones: no matter whose Storage Bag he claimed in the future, he must never drop his guard.

This time, his divine sense probed the pouch without triggering any further lethal traps.

Soon, he systematically cataloged her accumulated wealth.

Her inventory was small, but every single item was a boutique treasure.

A cyan-green flying boat.

A palm-sized wooden shield.

A wood-attribute willow-leaf sword.

A wood-attribute blunt heavy sword.

A jade bottle containing Appearance-Sustaining Pills.

And five hundred and sixty Spirit Stones.

Heavens, he had struck a massive windfall! Su Miaomiao’s net worth vastly eclipsed his own.

The flying vessel was named the Qingyun Boat. It boasted a terrifying top speed of six thousand li per day, double that of Ye Shanhu's White Jade Boat.

On the open market, this vessel alone would fetch upwards of a thousand Spirit Stones.

The small shield was her defensive Magical Artifact. Carved from ten-thousand-year agarwood, it was a top-tier Pseudo-Artifact.

The willow-leaf sword was her personal weapon, another high-quality Pseudo-Artifact.

As for the blunt heavy sword, it did not belong to her. He vividly recalled seeing Yang Jieyuan wield that exact Pseudo-Artifact.

This definitively confirmed that Yang Jieyuan's Dao had been extinguished at her hands.

After concluding the inventory of her spoils, he recounted his personal stash.

He had exactly four hundred and twenty-three Spirit Stones remaining. Adding her five hundred and sixty...

The sum came to an astonishing nine hundred and eighty-three Spirit Stones.

He was rich! His total liquid wealth had violently skyrocketed, standing on the precipice of a thousand stones.

This expedition had yielded an incomprehensible harvest. Not only had he secured the Moon-Gazing Rhinoceros Horn, but he had also reaped a massive karmic windfall.

Mentally calculating the time, Xu Changshou realized he had been away from the sect for less than a month. He still had over two months before his sect missions were due.

Since there were still matters requiring his attention, he decided against returning immediately. Instead, he would enter secluded cultivation within this cavern for the next two months.