Is it finally time to see what the storage pouch has in stall for Bubai? Well, well, well. After stalling for so long… still nope.

  Haha. This might feel like a kick in the balls, but how can a cultivator plunder the quintessence of a world without world building mas?

  Here, Bubai has to draw upon his wealth of knowledge regarding storage pouches.

  Before any cultivator can dream of plundering the treasures in a storage pouch, they obviously must get rid of the spiritual brand first.

  To access the storage space of a pouch, Qi needs to be channeled into the core control built into the pouch.

  As long as a cultivator entered Qi-refinement level four and unlocks the capability to circute Qi, any unrefined storage pouch can be accessible just like any other unrefined magic tool.

  However, once a storage pouch is refined with a spiritual brand, the core control will become a fortress in its own right, with the spiritual brand being the only gate of passage.

  Therein, any Qi that doesn’t match the spiritual brand’s unique Qi signature will be rejected, and in turn, denying access to the core!

  Without removing this spiritual brand, even if Bubai were to tear open the pouch, he still won’t be able to access the content stored in the space opened up in the rock-hard core.

  Of course, with Long Batian dead, his spiritual brand should dissipate on its own over time, but who knows how long that could take?

  The higher the realm of a cultivator, the longer it takes for their spiritual brand to deteriorate after their death.

  If the core had a spiritual brand preservation functionality installed, the wait could be even longer!

  Patience is always the key to many problems, but time waits for no one when it comes to handling incriminating evidence.

  So, Bubai honestly put his cheating green dew to good use. Unfortunately…

  Sensing the strong resistance against his green dew’s invasive washing, Bubai’s divine sense probed the core nestled within the pouch.

  "There seems to be the basic security measure customized on this pouch to protect the spiritual brand from external Qi… Looks like a miniature version of the Qi isotion formation? Should be a rather high quality one at that."

  The Qi isotion formation – one of the prominent barriers installed on most inner sect constructs.

  This was a barrier that even the average te-stage foundation establishment cultivator’s Qi wouldn’t be able to bypass!

  So, having such a formation installed on the storage pouch’s core was a good preventative measure.

  Even if the pouch was stolen or lost, there would be sufficient time for recovery.

  During battle against fellow inner disciples at the same realm or below, there was also no need to worry about the core being damaged from stray attacks.

  Of course, no security was foolproof.

  Simple preventative measures like these weren’t very effective against cultivators of golden core or above, and for those mastering mysterious cultivation methods simir to mind control…

  Er… Security simply no longer applied.

  It goes without saying that this security also didn’t apply to...

  Cheater Bubai’s face lit up with a smile while he observed his Qi seeping through.

  Even though a great part of his dew’s energy is lost when squeezing through the isotion barrier, the sliver left is still enough to impact the spiritual brand to speed up its dissipation!

  Better yet, there were no self-destruction runes triggered—a good news, as some jerks really do enjoy pying that scorched-earth game.

  Then again, rarely would normal cultivators install a detonator on their storage pouches. Why?

  Well, what if it gets accidentally triggered during battle or targeted by their opponent to deliberately sabotage their storage pouch?

  It would be too te to cry if they lost their entire fortune just for some extra security!

  Moreover, though a bit naive, everyone always has a hopeful mentality. Even if the storage pouch is lost, as long as they find and sy the culprit, everything can be taken back... plus interest!

  Thus, most cultivators find it better to have higher quality barriers to prevent the core from being damaged or special beacons and signal enhancers to make it easier to track down a lost pouch.

  Some even opt for spiritual force retention or bloodline restrictions to prevent the lock from being cracked after their death, either to leave an inheritance or earn time for their cns to track down the lost wealth.

  And these were just the tip of the iceberg!

  Eras of progress in this world of cultivation have led to various customizations for storage pouches, catering to all sorts of needs.

  For instance, self-destruction runes might not be popur for everyday storage pouches but are essential for secret missives or transferring dangerous items.

  All sorts of self-destruction runes would be inid over the core just to ensure the contents either reach the right hands or disappear into a spatial crack forever.

  On the safer slice-of-life side, there are air circution formations to facilitate the storage of life, item manipution formations tailored to assist users in sifting through or moving items with spiritual sense, sensory formations to detect unwanted, nasty surprises that sneaked in...

  Just the list avaible in the Exchange Pavilion alone was enough to fill up a long roll of parchment!

  Needless to say, none of these customizations come cheaply.

  Moreover, the core of magical tools can only bear a finite number of runes and formations, a concept known as the load of a core.

  Higher-grade cores naturally have a higher load capacity and could accept all sorts of customizations.

  In contrast, tools of lower grades often forgo eborate security to focus on functionality, depending on what type of artifact they are.

  A combat tool will bristle with combat-oriented runes and formations to match its characteristics, while a storage pouch is mainly defensive-oriented.

  This is why erasing the brand on combat tools like the Shadow Sun doll and the flying dagger is easier than breaking into the storage pouch in his hand.

  Sensing his Qi flowing into the pouch, drop by drop, and the spiritual brand eroding at the pace of an ant’s crawl, Bubai sighed, “Well, this will take a while.”

  This didn’t come as much of a surprise though. Don’t think wiping away a spiritual brand is easy at all.

  For most cultivators, attempting to erase a brand during battle is nearly impossible without overwhelming cultivation and sharp insight.

  Finding the core is one thing, but wrecking it is an entirely different challenge.

  In the foundation establishment realm, refining a magical tool and wiping away a spiritual brand is not something that can be accomplished in mere minutes or even hours, let alone doing it in the midst of battle.

  Plus, the defensive party typically holds the home ground advantage.

  With the Qi of an opponent at the same realm constantly interfering, even geniuses find it difficult to do much else except py interference and temporarily hamper the use of an opponent’s magical tool.

  This is why Long Batian was stricken with shock when Bubai wiped away the spiritual brand on his flying dagger.

  The backsh was one thing, but the ease of his act was the real killer!

  This infinitely magnified the uniqueness of his green dew.

  As… even though his green dew is a powerful cheat, brute-force hacking any type of security is a borious process.

  To top it off, too much haste makes waste. There were drawbacks to his green dew’s erosive power.

  Yes, his washing method was fast, but it was essentially an application of brute force.

  Whether or not security formations were installed, brute-forcing would undoubtedly wear down and possibly even damage the core due to the csh of spiritual wills.

  This phenomenon reflected the damage done to the integrity of the material after repeatedly failing to imprint runes on formation ptes or fgs.

  This was the reason why most plunderers simply wait it out because using brute force compromises the integrity of the storage pouch itself.

  But this didn’t matter to Bubai.

  He never intended to keep Long Batian’s pouch because it could serve as evidence of his crime.

  His only worries were two sides of a coin: Do it quickly enough before any investigators come knocking, but carefully enough to preserve what’s inside, or at least, as much as possible.

  It all comes down to bance. This was sometimes hard to manage, but it was just a matter of time with all the cheating he was doing...

  Suppressing his hype over opening the locked treasure box, Bubai looked away from the dull hacking process and scanned the chaotic mess in the bed chamber.

  An identity token smeared with blood and marked with a spiritual brand that still needed to be destroyed.

  Chipped shurikens littering the ground, broken metal remnants of his dagger.

  Charred flesh, gooey brain matter, bloody puddles, and other bodily fluids…

  Oh... the clothes of the dead minions finally has their pce to be reused.

  Consuming another drop of dew to keep his machine mind on, Bubai suppressed the discomfort and steeled himself like a battle-hardened monk. "Well, it isn’t going to clean itself."

  And it’s best he gets started. Time was ticking.

  Hopefully he can get everything cleaned… before trouble comes knocking on their door.