Seeing his actions, the disciple from the mission hall smiled and gave the answer: "Thirty-six." He took out the spirit stones and placed them on the counter.

The children stared at the spirit stones, and Erbao put them all away.

After the group received the spirit stones, Erbao spent another spirit stone to buy ten talismans.

He returned fifteen to Xi Zhuoyu, four to Aji, and six to Sanbao. He had ten left.

He frowned. He had previously promised to give Sanbao double the amount of spirit stones, and then counted out six spirit stones and gave them to Sanbao. He gave the remaining four to Xi Zhuoyu.

Erbao looked at the remaining talismans and spirit liquid in his hand. This trip wasn't entirely fruitless. Although he was out of spirit stones, he could draw more talismans to sell!

As darkness fell, the group decided to head back.

Da Bao smashed the jade slip his father had given him, waiting for Qi Zhiheng to come and take them back.

Qi Zhiheng arrived quickly and took the three children back. Xi Zhuoyu said goodbye to them before getting into Xiao Hua and going back.

Qi Zhiheng, who had brought several children with him, saw that the children were quite excited and asked, "Did you have a good time visiting your classmate's house today?"

Erbao was happy because he earned spirit stones today. Sanbao was happy because he received double the amount of spirit stones today. Dabao's expression was indifferent, and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or not.

Erbao had never been to Xi Zhuoyu's house, so he could only say what he knew: "Ayu has a spirit beast, a Swift Leopard, and he even took us to ride it today."

"Hmm? Is this the kid from today? He hasn't even achieved Qi Induction yet, right? How can he form a contract with a spirit beast?" Qi Zhiheng knew the difference between spirit beasts and demon beasts. Spirit beasts were more intelligent and had a higher chance of reaching the Nascent Soul stage. These spirit beasts could form contracts with cultivators, and there were also beast tamers who specialized in working with spirit beasts.

Demonic beasts typically stop at the Nascent Soul stage and are very reluctant to communicate with cultivators, making it difficult to form contracts with them.

“That’s Ah Ji’s spirit beast. But he said his father will give him a spirit beast in the future. Father, can you give me a spirit beast too? That way I can go to and from school by myself.” Erbao said coquettishly, trying to get a reward for himself.

Qi Zhiheng rolled his eyes and said, "You're too young. Even if I choose a spirit beast for you, it can only be a cub. Don't even think about using a cub as a mount."

He thought for a moment and then asked, "Which peak is his father from? Did you go there today?"

Erbao thought for a moment and said, "Dan, from Danfeng."

"Danfeng?" Qi Zhiheng himself had been at Danfeng all day. "You went to Danfeng today? Then why did you come out? Your father is at Danfeng today, why did you come out and make me go out to meet you?"

Thinking about this, he felt a little strange and looked at Erbao, who looked guilty.

Erbao's eyes darted around, and Qi Zhiheng realized that the child was lying. He picked Erbao up.

Erbao was being held by the back of his neck and suspended in mid-air, looking as timid as a cat.

"Tell me, where did you go today?" Qi Zhiheng's gaze then fell on Da Bao and San Bao. The two children instinctively backed away.

Qi Zhiheng interrogated the children about running off to play behind their families' backs, and also learned that Erbao had learned to draw talismans today and had succeeded. Qi Zhiheng checked Erbao with some concern, because the child was too young, and using spiritual power like this would still have some impact on his meridians. He gave Erbao a pill to repair his meridians. After returning to Panyun Peak, he pulled down the children's pants and slapped each of them on the buttocks. Erbao, who was the ringleader, was slapped twice more.

The children were beaten and cried loudly. Erbao was truly heartbroken this time because his father had confiscated all his talisman-drawing tools. Without his tools to earn spirit stones, Erbao was devastated.

Da Bao and San Bao also cried out a few times, but Qi Zhiheng didn't actually hit them hard. They cried for a while, and then stopped crying when the pain subsided.

Erbao sulked to himself, feeling that his father was blocking his path to wealth.

Seeing his unrepentant attitude, Qi Zhiheng was so angry that he slapped him again. This was the first time he had ever hit a child. In the past, as long as the child didn't hurt himself, he had let him grow up freely—indeed, his father had given him a similar approach. But Erbao was lying and disobeying instructions; Qi Zhiheng felt he had to teach him a lesson!

Erbao had no choice but to submit to his father's tyranny, repeatedly promising to be obedient in the future.

After that, Qi Zhiheng would begin preparing a birthday gift for the sect leader. He had already decided what gift to give and was planning to refine a batch of pills. He could only refine level four pills, so he researched for a while and refined a level four enhanced version of the Cleansing Pill.

It's very difficult for the sect leader to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, so giving him pills to increase spiritual power is impractical. Fourth-level pills are too ineffective for the sect leader. It would be better to use a Cleansing Pill to remove impurities from the sect leader's body. Even if the effect is small, it is still effective.

This gift wasn't the most outstanding, but it wouldn't disgrace his title as a fourth-level alchemist. After collecting the spiritual herbs, he went to refine pills.

Erbao felt uneasy because he couldn't earn spirit stones, but he soon found something to rely on.

During break, Xi Zhuoyu came over mysteriously with a book in her hand.

Erbao was puzzled when he saw him holding a book they used to learn to read.

Xi Zhuoyu smiled mysteriously, then opened the book.

Seeing the patterns on the screen, Erbao was filled with curiosity. During this time, Erbao had learned quite a few characters. Possessing spiritual roots, and being the children of cultivators, their memory was far superior to that of ordinary people, so understanding common characters was no problem for them.

This book is richly illustrated, making it more interesting for children who are just beginning their education than just plain text.

This tells the story of a cultivator, which is also known as a legendary tale!

The protagonist of the story is named Long Chongtian. Long Chongtian's childhood was full of hardships. Before he was even born, his father took a concubine. The concubine was so beautiful that she bewitched his father. Two years after giving birth to him, his mother also died of illness due to the concubine's harm.

After his mother died, his concubine was made the rightful heir.

Two-year-old Long Chongtian lived a difficult life under the care of his stepmother, who secretly mistreated him. His stepmother's son was also a little tyrant who led other children to bully him. Two years passed in this way, and Long Chongtian was tricked into going into the deep mountains by these people.

The deep mountains were teeming with wolves, tigers, and leopards; the stepmother and her people all thought he was doomed.

Unfortunately, the protagonist was destined to survive. He was chased by a wild beast and fell into a river. After being swept away by the current, he arrived at a mysterious place where he received a cultivation inheritance and embarked on the path of cultivation. Unfortunately, although he could cultivate, his aptitude was poor. Even with poor aptitude, he could still easily defeat ordinary people. After cultivating in the mysterious place for two years, he successfully guided Qi into his body.

Having become a cultivator, Long Chongtian found a way out and went to seek revenge on his enemies! After dealing with his stepmother and her sons, he comprehended the great principles of life and made great progress in his cultivation!

After that, Long Chongtian no longer lingered with others. At the tender age of six, he joined the immortal sect with the others and became a member of the immortal cultivation sect.

However, Long Chongtian's aptitude was extremely poor, and he continued to suffer unfair treatment within the sect, being repeatedly trampled and humiliated. By chance, he obtained a spiritual object that could change his aptitude. After consuming the object, his essence and marrow were cleansed, and his aptitude underwent an extraordinary transformation! He soared to great heights within the sect, quickly gaining the favor of a master, and then went on to settle scores with all those who had previously humiliated him…

Erbao was engrossed in reading the storybook and quickly became absorbed in the story, holding the storybook all day long.

With this storybook for amusement, he has become much quieter these days, and has even stopped playing his favorite flying games.

This allowed him to save a few spirit stones. After finishing the storybook, Erbao realized it was actually the first volume! At this point, the story had already reached the point where the protagonist, along with the sect's disciples, entered a secret realm and was then swallowed by a giant beast! There was nothing more after that!

Erbao was getting restless and anxious because he couldn't see the ending of the book. During break, he went to Xi Zhuoyu and asked, "Ah Yu! Was the end of this book torn out? Why is it gone?"

Xi Zhuoyu said, "No, it's just that the first volume is already finished. If you want to read it, you have to buy a copy of the Spirit Pattern book."

"Then go and buy it!" Erbao said somewhat impatiently.

Xi Zhuoyu said, "It's not that simple. This book also costs spirit stones, and quite a lot of them. It costs two spirit stones per book."

"So expensive?" Erbao frowned. Two spirit stones could buy many literacy books!

Xi Zhuoyu said, "I only bought this one copy. If you want it, I can ask Aji to go out and buy it for you."

Erbao nodded quickly and said, "Okay, you buy it for me!" He still had two spirit stones.

"Okay, how many copies do you want?" Xi Zhuoyu asked.

"How many copies are left?" Erbao was dumbfounded, thinking there was only one copy left.

Xi Zhuoyu said, "Fifty-two volumes have already been published, and the author is said to still be writing."

Erbao was completely shocked: "Fifty-two volumes, how many spirit stones would that take!" Thinking this, he started counting on his fingers again.

Xi Zhuoyu said dismissively, "Counting on your fingers won't help. Don't you not have that many spirit stones? Just buy one or two books to read first."

Erbao thought about it and agreed. He counted the spirit stones in his pocket with a bit of heartache. He had only saved six. He took out all six spirit stones and said, "Then you can buy me three books first."

Xi Zhuoyu took the spirit stones and said, "Okay, I'll have Aji go out and buy them for you tonight. These storybooks can only be found outside the sect. Buying them, plus the disguise, will cost two spirit stones."

The next day, Xi Zhuoyu brought three storybooks, each covered with a character learning book cover.

After Erbao got his hands on the storybook, he became completely absorbed in it once again, forgetting all about drawing talismans...