“We’ve arrived. We’ve reached the Ancient Sect Ruins.”
After walking to the end of the Cave and passing through layers of rock walls, arriving at another massive Cave, Li Hai slowly lifted his gaze towards the front, following Qiu Fangzheng’s chilling voice.
There, just a hundred zhang away, a vast and desolate ancient architectural complex was crookedly situated, already intertwined and integrated with countless stalactites.
No, perhaps calling it an ancient ruin would be more appropriate.
Because at a glance, Li Hai couldn’t see any complete buildings in this ruin; whether towering pavilions or spacious halls, all had collapsed into broken walls and rubble.
“It’s already so dilapidated, will there be any Treasure Trove left?” Li Hai was a bit disappointed.
“Yes, Sir, there is.”
Qiu Fangzheng chimed in, “I’ve explored this ruin many times over the past few decades. I know exactly where the treasures are here. I’ll take you.”
With that, his figure flickered and he flew towards the ruin.
Seeing that Qiu Fangzheng had already entered the ruin, Li Hai naturally couldn’t stay behind alone, so he also flew in without haste.
And upon officially stepping into this ruin, he suddenly felt as if he had stumbled into a world forgotten by time.
Broken paths, collapsed stone walls, twisted eaves, shattered window lattices… every brick and tile that formed them spoke of the echoes of time.
The great earthquake over a thousand years ago mercilessly dragged this Martial Dao School into the dark depths of the earth, crushing countless people to death while also turning buildings into shattered tiles and decaying walls, like corpses lying across the crooked and broken ground of the ruin.
Now, as Li Hai looked around, all of these things were covered in thick dust and small pebbles.
Aside from these, there was nothing else.
However, after following Qiu Fangzheng, turning left and right, and flying past numerous collapsed buildings, a dazzling golden light suddenly appeared before Li Hai’s eyes.
“Gold?!”
Li Hai stared blankly ahead, at the collapsed building where Qiu Fangzheng was suspended.
There… a large amount of gold was piled up.
It was a mountain of gold bars, taller than a person, and next to the gold mountain were more than a dozen golden sculptures of various forms.
Finally, supporting the gold mountain and sculptures was a golden ‘foundation’ made of stacked gold cakes the size of dinner plates, gold grains the size of fingernails, and gold chains of varying thickness.
Although Li Hai wasn’t too concerned about money, the sudden appearance of so much gold still couldn’t help but make his heart race.
As the saying goes, small wealth can relieve worries, great wealth can change destiny, and immense wealth can reach Heaven-Defying.
If possible, who wouldn’t want more money in their pockets?
“It just so happens that I’ve been spending a lot recently and am almost running out of money.”
Li Hai slowly walked over, caressing the gold mountain in front of him, and laughed, “With this gold, no matter how extravagantly I spend, it will last for a very long time.”
Then, he asked in confusion, “But… why would just a Martial Dao School possess so much gold?”
“Sir.”
Qiu Fangzheng said, “The stele left behind by this School states that this School discovered a certain Treasure Trove, and this gold came from that Treasure Trove.”
“Is that so.” Li Hai curled his lips and said, “Their luck is too good. Could it be that because their luck was too Heaven-Defying, Heaven sent down a disaster and buried them?”
“Sir, what you said makes sense.” Qiu Fangzheng echoed, “It should be so.”
Immediately, Li Hai continued, “Fangzheng, I guess these gold mountains were accumulated by you little by little over the past few decades, right?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Qiu Fangzheng admitted, “This was accumulated by me, piece by piece, after collecting all the gold in the entire ruin. Now, it’s all yours.”
When he said this, he showed no reluctance, as if he had only given away a pile of useless stones.
“I am just a homeless lone spirit.”
Qiu Fangzheng picked up a gold bar, looked at it, and then casually put it back, “Even if there’s more gold, it’s meaningless to me.”
“Good.”
Li Hai did not say any polite words of refusal. After nodding, he raised his hand, and the words “hell” lit up on his palm, and he collected all the gold in front of him cleanly.
The four people guarding in the Grotto-Heaven, Brother Dao and the others, would naturally stack these gold pieces neatly.
“Sir, there are other things.”
And Qiu Fangzheng, after witnessing Li Hai use some kind of immortal art he didn’t understand to take away all the gold, didn’t ask a single question. He merely said again, “Please follow me.”
With that, he took the lead, transforming into a wisp of black smoke, and flew into the intricate gaps of the ruins in the distance.
Li Hai followed closely behind, also transforming into black smoke and spiraling in.
Before long, Qiu Fangzheng led him to another location hidden deep within the ruins.
There, dozens of Magical Artifacts of various shapes and forms were piled up.
Although most of these Magical Artifacts were already cracked and broken, there were still a few good ones that emitted faint Magical Power fluctuations, which Li Hai naturally accepted with a smile.
In the time that followed, Qiu Fangzheng led Li Hai through many places, allowing him to successively acquire numerous weapons and armor, and two ancient Secret Manuals.
The first Secret Manual was called “Jade Toad Pill Classic,” and it described various methods for refining Medicinal Pills.
However, due to the erosion of time, this Pill Formula book was largely damaged, and now only five Pill Formulas—namely, ‘Tongfu,’ ‘Anshen,’ ‘Jieqi,’ ‘Heshou,’ and ‘Wangsheng’—remained fully recorded.
But even these five Pill Formulas were still extremely valuable.
For example, the Heshou Pill within it was a Medicinal Pill that could help people extend their Lifespan.
According to its records, a person could take three of these pills in their lifetime: the first pill extended Lifespan by fifty-six years, the second pill’s potency was halved, extending it by twenty-eight years, and the third pill was again halved, extending it by fourteen years.
Taking all three pills would extend one’s Lifespan by a total of ninety-eight years, nearly a century.
Furthermore, the Heshou Pill would be effective for anyone who took it. Even a Thousand Army Grade martial artist nearing two hundred years of age, upon taking this pill when their death was imminent, could still gain ninety-eight years of Lifespan on the spot and return to youth.
If this kind of medicine appeared on Earth, who knows how many billions it would sell for.
As for the latter Secret Manual, it was named “True Devil Subjugation Art.”
It contained extensive records on how to use ordinary fierce beasts as materials to cultivate, train, and mutate them into so-called Yao Beasts.
Unfortunately, this book also became incomplete after a thousand years.
Now, only the cultivation methods for six types of Yao Beasts remained: the Six-Eyed Crystal-Winged Moth, the Black Howler Tapir, the Illusory-Scale Demonic Hound, the Soul-Mimicking Ape, the Iron Scale Fungi Cattle, and the Five-Tailed Blue-Winged Snow Fox.
But even with only six types remaining, the abilities of each of these Yao Beasts greatly astonished Li Hai.
He even couldn’t help but mutter to himself, “Is this telling me… to become a Pokémon trainer?”