Months passed by and the city of Acirema experienced a big change. The six great sects and families other than the Tian Family were completely demolished. Not a trace of them were left. What was planned to replace them was one huge sect. It was the famous Great Dragon Sect. Although it was only a branch of the main branch down further west, it would take up the space of the five of the previous Great sects and families. Previously, each great sect and family took up roughly 1000 kilometers squared of land area. Now that a huge sect of 5000 square kilometers is appearing in Acirema, everybody was having mixed feelings toward the new occupants. Should they feel proud or disapproving? As everybody discussed the matter with hushed whispers, somebody voiced out their opinion publicly.

"Everybody let's not disapprove of them. At a wave of their hand, they destroyed the previous rulers of our beloved city. Clearly, they are more than powerful enough to restore it. In fact, I believe that repair every nook and cranny, not leaving a spot unrecognizable!"

The man that spoke out had a head full of unkempt hair, a stubble under his chin and his clothes were tattered in certain acceptable areas. To others, this man was a normal homeless man. However, if Jian Yu were here, he would definitely recognize the man as his father.

During the battle known to the commoners as the Siege of Acirema, Jian Yu's father had hid in his house. A worried look was plastered all over his face which only grew worse with every sound and shaking of battle. He was worried for Jian Yu. Unfortunately, his house was in the line of fire along with many unfortunate others and was destroyed. It burned down as a result of the fire tornado that ended the battle. Luckily, it got burned down by the drifting flames that got carried away by the wind. The people that were directly below the tornado were obliterated. Not a single corpse remained.

Jian Yu's father wasn't aware of Jian Yu's location. He was hoping that it was out of the city. After all, he still hasn't found a trace of him left in the city...

Many others in the area agreed with the opinion of Jian Yu's father and knew of his son's disappearance so they didn't say much. Many had lost loved ones that day.

"Come brother Jian, let's continue with our work. Let's not think about it anymore."

After the city had been taken over, the local residents had been tasked with destroying or throwing away any useless treasures and medicinal pills. How they did it was left to their own creativity. Some tried burning them down, others whacked at them until they broke, and the rest just disposed of them through different channels leading out of the city. They were strictly prohibited from using them as they were 'not of high quality'. Most grumbled about it in their sleep and none dared to talk back.

Meanwhile, Jian Yu was still in the gorge with the polluted water as he cultivated atop a rock, high enough to not be drenched in the disgusting water. He had sat like this for months as he recovered with time. In fact, he had actually reached the 3rd level of qi condensation!

Unfortunately, after he broke through in his cultivation, his injuries had only recovered partially from the increased vitality he obtained. Nonetheless, at this point of time, he was nearly fully recovered.

As his eyes slowly opened, the senses that he had shut out before meditation came back to him. Contrary to before he entered the state of meditation, the view of the gorge was completely different!

Medicinal pills and magical equipments bobbed about in the water of faeces and urine. However, mere waste of mortals could never taint the glow of these pills and equipment.

If Jian Yu had to guess, he would probably say that there were hundreds of medicinal pills here and tens of magical equipments!

Although it was a meager amount to any sect or powerful cultivator, to a mere qi condensation cultivator, it was a huge amount of wealth.

"Are my eyes not working right?" Jian Yu wondered. "Perhaps this is a dream. Hahaha, of course it is! Look there's even a pill there that looks super beneficial!"

Jian Yu laughed at the situation he found himself in, utterly convinced it was a happy dream. Stretching his arm outwards to the nearest medicinal pill, he casually comments, "Might as well leave a lasting memory."

He tossed it into his mouth without bothering to wash it and as soon as it touched the back of his throat, he regretted. He spat it back out and began to vomit.

"This ain't a fucking dream! I nearly ate shit!" Jian Yu cursed as he glared daggers into the medicinal pill he nearly swallowed.

As he was knocked back into reality, he was also greeted by the sweet truth. He was rich!

"Oh my heavenly goodness, I-I'm rich! Look at all this! One of those stupid qi gathering pills costed 6,000 gold coins. Hah! Now, I think I can consider myself a millionaire!"

Joyous laughter rang out from Jian Yu as if he had never even experienced a life threatening situation before. This lasted for an entire minute as he imaged himself standing atop the neighborhood with his wealth. Then, he thought back to one crucial detail.

"Wait, but I can't carry it all at once..."

Looking down at the sea of treasures beneath him, a bittersweet feeling rose up inside him. To utilize it all, did he have to consume the pills and leave most of the equipments...?

Shaking his head, he tried to look for an alternative method with tears welling up in his eyes. He thought back to the Pinnacle Pavilion and that young man who introduced him to various types of pills. Wasn't there something that was used to keep treasures?

"Oh yes! The bag!" Jian Yu exclaimed as he recalled the young man handing the bag which contained 10 qi gathering pills to Tian Yu. "It should be with me... Found it!"

Grabbing the bag that he still kept with him since being abducted from his very home, he inspected it very closely.

"This, is a normal bag..."

Jian Yu's brows furrowed as he realised that, with how far it could stretch, the bag he had could carry something no bigger than, perhaps a greatsword? It was tough to guess...

But with this bag, Jian Yu could only bring with him a miniscule amount of treasures with him out of the gorge. He could always just leave them there and come back to collect them whenever he could but how long would that take? Probably, by the time he could come back and collect them all, they would've been found by some other lucky guy.

"To lose one's riches knowingly... I will not let that happen!"

Jian Yu put away his bag and picked up another pill floating about. Looking around, he estimated that it would take a few months to slowly absorb the pills if he continued to use them all up. After using his forearm to wipe away any traces of excrement off of the pill, he popped it into his mouth.

...

Months quickly passed as Jian Yu routinely kept using up the pills. Much to his shock, pills kept entering the gorge via the sewage system. At times, he would bow down towards a random direction and thank the 'God of Sewage' for taking the time to know that he deserved better from his life...

As expected, Jian Yu quickly advanced in his cultivation as he quietly absorbed the pills. Now, he had reached the 5th level of qi condensation. If anybody had heard this back in the city of Acirema, they would probably think that Jian Yu was showing off, again, as this was a feat rarely seen by even disciples doted upon by the sect Elders.

However, Jian Yu realised that as he continued to absorb the pills, the efficacy of the consecutive pills would drop. This baffled him as he imagined himself climbing to the peak of cultivation with the never ending supply of pills that he had obtained.

Time has come for him to look past this mountain of wealth and climb out of the gorge. However, before doing so, Jian Yu looked around at some potential magical equipments to take with him.

Preferably equipments that are small yet useful or ones that he could equip immediately.

Boots, breastplates, gauntlets

Soon, Jian Yu was decked out in a full set of shit stained armor that was made up of different colours. A yellow breastplate, azure leggings, green boots, and red gauntlets. The armor looked hideous but to Jian Yu, it was perfect.

In his bag were dozens of paper talismans that could be used to create powerful attacks. Throughout his time in the gorge, he has tested out a few treasures to kill time and discovered that by infusing the talismans with his qi, he could activate them and unleash attacks or temporarily buff himself with different effects. It was a pleasant discovery which left him in awe towards talisman crafters.

To him, those talismans were much more useful than any weapon he could find. At the end of the day, he hasn't practiced any form of martial arts to use the weapons efficiently but he did know how to infuse items with his qi, making talismans the best item to carry with him.

Just as he was about to climb the rope, he caught sight of a magnificent jade pendant with a carving of an azure dragon stuck in a crack on the walls of the gorge. Seeing that he hasn't got anything around his neck, he might as well take it. Even if it wasn't a treasure, it must be worth a ton of money right?

Using his bare arms which had long recovered, he widened the crack on the wall and snatched the jade pendant. After inspecting the pendant closely, he determined that it was not a magical item and that it just looked pretty.

Finally, Jian Yu latched onto the rope and stared back at the dirty water in the gorge with an expression of regret. It was as if he were silently lamenting the fact that he couldn't carry the entire gorge with him.

Jian Yu turned back to the rope and started climbing. With his new cultivation base, he was much stronger than before which made the armor seem much lighter than it actually was.

Back in the city of Acirema, Jian Yu's father was gazing at the starry sky with an obvious pained look on his face. He had come to terms with his son being dead. The city had been rebuilt with new facilities but there was still no sign of Jian Yu. After asking around, he found out about Jian Yu being abducted to the Ferocity Sect which had been utterly destroyed. This caused him to lose himself in grief of his son's early death.

In front of him, on the bank of the Moon River outside the city where he found Jian Yu, was a tombstone. On it read, "Here lies Jian Yu. Although he was unfillial, he was a splendid son who dedicated all he had to what was on his mind."

"Brother Jian, let's go."

Jian Ting silently nodded and followed his closest friend back to the city. No words were needed to express his grief, his actions were enough.

At the same time that Jian Yu had been proclaimed dead, his arm reached upwards and grabbed onto the rocky surface. Then, with a final push, he launched himself out of the gorge and landed on his back. He was out!

Although he was dirty all over and a single sniff would send others scurrying back to their homes, he was now out of the gorge. As he looked up at the sky, a mountain seemed to accompany the clouds. It looked as if a giant sword was piercing the sky.

Pushing that glorious image out of his mind, Jian Yu looked toward the Black Beast Forest to the east. It was time to head to the Blood Reaches Sect.