Qin Chuan's brows furrowed. As he looked across the crowd, he stayed silent, thinking deeply.

These people can see auras—they just said so.

But, as an immortal cultivator, I can't see them. So why can these martial artists see it?

Qin Chuan found it incredulous.

Therefore, he asked the system what it took for him to see auras.

The system replied, "Host, you need to cultivate the Aura Examination Technique."

Qin Chuan decisively exchanged points for it.

After learning it, he immediately put the technique to use.

For a moment, the world in front of him changed completely. It became colorful.

The ancient trees in front of him were surrounded by faint green smoke that resembled flames.

This was aura.

Moreover, the auras of the ancient trees differed.

The older trees had a stronger aura.

An aura also surrounded the weeds under the ancient trees, but it was small, like a matchstick flame.

The people in the arena had different auras of varying sizes lingering around them.

Although the 12 Great Grandmasters in front of him had restrained their auras, Qin Chuan was able to see them clearly.

Gu Hongtao and the rest seemed to have sensed something. Their bodies felt chilly, as if they were naked.

Qin Chuan retracted his Aura Examination Technique.

Now that he had figured out the reason, there was no need for him to stay here.

He waved his arm and instantly disappeared without a word.

Everyone in the arena was dumbfounded.

A living person had suddenly vanished in front of everyone.

Was it magic?

Was it a supernatural phenomenon?

Or was it an illusion?

It was thought-provoking.

…

Qin Chuan flew through the air, and within a few minutes, he was back at Cloud Mountain Guesthouse.

Now that he was in the second class of the Golden Core realm, circling the entire planet would take him about an hour. Of course, if he used Sword Kinesis Flight, it would be even faster.

Cloud Mountain Guesthouse was less than a thousand miles away from Flag Mountain, so the journey was naturally a fast one.

…

Just as Qin Chuan landed on the ground, someone happened to call him.

An unknown number appeared on the screen.

Qin Chuan didn't pick up.

He knew that it was probably Vice President Liu.

A week ago, Qin Chuan returned to the outside world and was preparing to take care of the utilities for the guesthouse.

During that time, he received a call from Vice President Liu.

On the phone, he asked Qin Chuan if he wanted to trade any gold recently.

Qin Chuan naturally didn't. After all, the money he had earned from the previous transaction was still lying quietly in the system space.

Moreover, he didn't need to buy a house or a car. Who knew when he would be able to finish spending all that money.

If he were to trade again, he would only get another pile of paper waste.

After rejecting him, Vice President Liu became all fired up. He had been either calling or texting almost every day.

Qin Chuan had had enough and blocked him.

However, Vice President Liu was very persistent. He changed his number and continued calling.

For a moment, Qin Chuan wanted to curse Vice President Liu and make him suffer.

However, after calming down, he still let him off.

Qin Chuan felt that the other party was doing this for the sake of his sales performance, so he didn't lower himself to his level.

In any case, he would not pick up any unknown numbers in the future.

Just like that, as his phone rang, Qin Chuan entered the sect.

The sect and the outside world were two different worlds, and his cell phone signal was cut off.

…

At the bank, in the office, Vice President Liu was sitting on the sofa. His face was red, and he looked furious.

"Damn it!"

He cursed angrily.

Suddenly, his cell phone rang.

He got very excited, thinking that Qin Chuan had returned his call.

But when he saw the number, his face fell again.

A string of strange numbers and letters was on his phone screen. It had gone through a special encoding process. As a result, even the telephone company would not be able to trace the source of the number, much less monitor the call.

Vice President Liu took a deep breath before picking up the phone and greeting respectfully, "Boss!"

A voice came from the other end of the call.

"Did he agree to trade?"

"Boss, please give me a little more time. I will definitely get him to agree."

Vice President Liu did not answer the question directly, but his reply was enough.

The person on the other end of the call was silent for a while. He knew that he had failed.

"Since you can't do this, go and work on another thing."

Judging from his tone, the person on the other end of the phone wasn't very angry. Instead, he sounded just a bit harsher.

Vice President Liu heaved a sigh of relief. Then, he asked, "Boss, what do you need me to do?"

"A few years ago, we found a gold mine in the mountains south of Beichuan.

"At the time, in order not to attract the government's attention, we did not begin mining.

"But now, things have changed. It's time to take action."

"Boss, privately mining gold mines is a serious crime. You can be sentenced to life imprisonment or even death for it.

"This is the time when the country is strictest when it comes to natural resources. We will be right in the middle of the storm. We shouldn't risk it, right?" Vice President Liu was a little afraid.

"You don't have to worry about this. I've decided to begin mining. I have made sufficient preparations.

"I'll contact you in about half a month. When the time comes, just follow my instructions."

"I… I understand." Vice President Liu knew the other party's capabilities very well. He didn't dare to refuse and could only agree.

…

Time passed quickly, and half a month passed.

Many things had happened in the past two weeks.

First, the world remained anxious. The wars between the various parties grew bigger and bigger. The tension between other parties grew.

This caused the prices of various raw materials to skyrocket.

This brought an immeasurable impact on the world economy.

In just a few days, several of the world's top 500 companies declared bankruptcy.

Second, many people reported sightings of enormous, mysterious creatures—sea monsters in many places in the world—most of them by the beaches.

Some people even took photos and videos and uploaded them online.

However, these photos and videos were very blurry. They could only see a huge shadow in the sea.

Although it was impossible to determine what the sea monster looked like, it still caused a huge commotion.

Scientists immediately came forward to explain that such a huge shadow could be due to the refraction of light, or it could be a group of fish or algae.

The scientists also provided many examples as evidence.

Many people weren't convinced and firmly believed that they were sea monsters.

Thirdly, there were many cases of violent and disturbing murders in Xia country—where entire families were targeted and killed. The culprit was still under investigation.

Because of this, the relevant departments had mobilized many police forces to crack these few cases.

…

In the sect, people were still working hard.

Ever since they moved to Cloud Mountain Guesthouse, everyone managed to cultivate even more.

In the past, they would cultivate for at most ten hours a day. Now, apart from eating, the rest of the day was spent on cultivation.

Through their own hard work, every specialization completed their second stage of learning in half a month.

At the same time, Qin Chuan had changed his 'teaching' plan.

Now that he had more time, he could better guide everyone to cultivate.

For this, he spent a large number of points to increase the number of rooms so that everyone could participate in the learning of the various specializations.

For a time, his immortal cultivation career was flourishing, and everything was progressing well.