That wild beast soul flinched the moment it was engulfed in the twisting flames. Immediately following this, it charged at Gu Zuo’s side like it had gone crazy. However, while it had gathered as much strength as possible, it could only shrink smaller and smaller amid the shining fire light. In just a single breath of time, it had already been completely cremated!
As for that twisting line of fire, it flew back swiftly.
Not even Gu Zuo expected this kind of spectacle.
— As it turned out, he could dispose of them this quickly?
But there were no doubts that this was a good thing.
Gu Zuo sensed the profound qi being continuously extracted within his qi ocean. Without the slightest hesitation, he shot out embers one after another. These embers transformed into lines of fire without exception, and swept across those wild beast souls that were besieging everyone.
Soon, dozens of wild beast souls were burned to nothing under the weaving flames. No amount of medicinal power and no amount of strength while they were alive could resist the mutually restraining power that wondrous fires had over wild beast souls!
In the wake these fiery threads falling onto the bodies of the wild beast souls, this scene caught the attention of the others. At this moment, Yu Cheng was roused by the brilliant fire light, and abruptly discovered that Pharmacist Gu’s ability to manipulate wondrous fires was so effortless and terrifying!
His heart immediately trembled.
It was worthy of a prodigy’s closely-favored personal pharmacist. This honorable Pharmacist Gu’s potential was extraordinary!
Gongyi Tianheng’s power of the sun was marvelously effective, Gu Zuo’s wondrous fire was extremely powerful and destructive, and the realms of the other battle slaves far exceeded that of the wild beast souls. As a result, when everyone took action, they were able to wipe out large swaths of enemies.
There had been nearly a hundred wild beast souls here, and it was reasonable to say that the challenge was exceptionally formidable. It was enough to cause any impure-bloodline descendants of the Xiao Clan coming to accept these tests to retreat in a three days’ march. However, although they were tired, through their continuous attacks, this test had turned into an ordinary difficulty that couldn’t force them back.
After nearly two hours, these wild beast souls “died” under everyone’s hands.
And following this, no more battle souls appeared.
Obviously, the hundred wild beast souls were already considered by the Xiao Clan remnants back then to be a severe and rigorous test.
Gu Zuo withdrew his wondrous fire. Once the threads of the Earthen Core Flame entwined around his fingertips, they swiftly sank into his flesh and disappeared without a trace. Yet, the might of this wondrous flame as it dealt with the wild beast souls forced everyone to remember it in their hearts.
Meanwhile, within this inner city, the crowded ancient buildings underwent a transformation.
Wave after teeth-aching wave of metal-grinding noises echoed out. It was like these ancient buildings could move on their own. After they shifted and squeezed together, what unexpectedly took shape was a wide and expansive passageway.
Yu Cheng said: “If we go through here, we can enter a place to receive our rewards.”
Gu Zuo asked: “How do you know?”
Yu Cheng replied: “I have a somewhat vague feeling…”
This was relatively subtle.
But when all was said and done, their bloodlines weren’t the same. Indeed, there were some things had no way of recounting. Yu Cheng ought to have said this due to intuition.
No one said anything, and only followed him as they proceeded to walk towards that passageway.
Yu Cheng conscientiously walked at the front of the group, but he also maintained a distance where he could be quickly grabbed and saved by someone else. A battle slave accompanied him close by. As before, in the back were Tianheng and the others.
Once they stepped into that passageway, no unusual changes occurred.
This made everyone breathe sighs of relief, including Yu Cheng.
The group began to walk in large strides.
This passageway looked very long, but it was actually quite short.
After traveling for almost two hundred fifty meters, they reached the end of the passageway. As for the Jade Heart Pendant in Tianheng’s hand, it exuded a certain level of heat.
Shortly thereafter, everyone saw a tall and lofty stone tablet.
On this stone tablet was written in large characters: Palm Strike.
Gu Zuo stared blankly before exchanging glances with Tianheng.
As for Tianheng himself, he raised his head to gaze at that stone tablet. After slightly pondering, he said: “Ao Min, go and give it a try.”
He continued to carefully observe in the back.
Ao Min promptly stepped forward. He raised his palm facing that stone tablet, and struck down with a blow from high in the sky!
The strength of this attack was enormous and its boldness was astonishing. However, after that power entered the stone tablet, not even a ripple graced the tablet’s surface. It completely disappeared.
Yet, immediately following this, a whirlpool emerged on the stone tablet.
This whirlpool seemed to exist halfway between reality and fantasy. Subsequently, it seemed to form a large mouth. With a puffing sound, an object was spat out.
Ao Min extended a hand to catch it.
Everyone saw that it was a spirit weapon.
The spirit weapon was an iron claw sheath. It was just the right size to fit onto Ao Min’s fingers. The claw sheath flickered with a spiritual light. It was like there was a type of spirituality that wanted to split apart and emerge from the claw sheath.
Those with discerning eyes could infer that this item’s spirituality was around fifty-five percent!
This was already a superb profound-level spirit weapon.
Ao Min was adept at claw techniques, and his body’s attribute was metal-aligned. It could be said that this spirit weapon had been made with his measurements in mind. With a single look, he was somewhat unwilling to put it down.
But in the end, he was a member of the loyal and devoted mastiff race. At this moment, he restrained the fondness in his heart, turned around, and offered this item to Gongyi Tianheng.
Tianheng had a pensive look.
Soon after, he nodded his head to Ao Min: “You can put this object away first. If nothing peculiar happens before we leave, I will bestow it to you. At that time, it won’t be too late for you use a drop of blood to refine it.”
There was happiness in Ao Min’s heart. He respectfully answered: “Many thanks, young master.”
In turn, the other Ascendant Realm battle slave also took a step forward under Tianheng’s command. Just as Ao Min had done, he used his greatest strength to strike that stone tablet.
After that, the whirlpool reappeared on the stone tablet. It spat out another object, then faded away.
This time, what the battle slave acquired wasn’t an offensive spirit weapon. Rather, it was a piece of inner armor that similarly had fifty-five percent spirituality. Its defensive power was incredibly high. So long as it was worn on the body, it nearly doubled the wearer’s survivability.
— Though, while one could say this was a battle slave, he was actually one of the two Ascendant Realms of the Shadow-Morphing Black Cat Race. While this racial group was originally categorized as a servile race, they were trained as the Blood Transformation Palace Master’s subordinates. After falling under the jurisdiction of Tianheng, they were directly transferred among his battle slaves.
The bodies of the shadow cat race weren’t as powerful as those of other battle slaves, but their concealment abilities were exceptionally good. Normally, they were experts of assassinations and sneak attacks. With this item for self-protection, it was the most suitable reward.
As before, Tianheng planned to bestow the item to this person.
Afterwards, the several Atomic Realms made attempts one by one. Likewise, they obtained one item each. The majority were spirit weapons, but there were also some precious medicinal pills and rarely-seen heavenly materials and earthly treasures.
Then, the only ones who hadn’t tried yet were Gongyi Tianheng, Gu Zuo, and Yu Cheng.
Gu Zuo glanced at his family’s big brother, and said: “I’ll go next. Big brother, I want to know… If it’s a pharmacist like me, what would I get?”
Tianheng faintly nodded his head: “Ah Zuo, don’t get too close to it. You must be absolutely careful.”
Gu Zuo nodded, and responded with an affirmative.
However, what the stone tablet required was a palm strike. This should’ve been a judgment based on the type of move and internal qi utilized by the martial artist. Then, it would make a decision on the object to appear. But Gu Zuo was a pharmacist. Psychic power and internal qi weren’t the same types of energy. If he was going to send out a palm strike, how was he going to do it?
After pondering for a short while, Gu Zuo formed hand seals facing that stone tablet.
Prompting hand seals required internal qi. Perhaps, this could work?
Facts proved that Gu Zuo’s speculation was correct.
A whirlpool quickly appeared on that stone tablet. What it spat out was a dainty and delicate…pill furnace.
Gu Zuo stretched out a hand to grab it. He stared at it fixedly.
This pill furnace was pitch-black in color and was surrounded by eight malevolent snake heads. Every snake head unhinged its jaws wide open, and inside these jaws were channels filled with darkness. They seemed to lead directly to the pill furnace’s interior.
Gu Zuo soon recognized it.
This was a particular kind of pill-refining furnace — One could say that it was a specialized pill-refining furnace.
It was recorded in the Encyclopedia of the World’s Pill Cauldrons. It was called a soul furnace. As the name implied, it was a pill-refining furnace that could only refine soul pills. After the lid on top of the furnace was opened, one could place other medicinal ingredients inside. As for the eight snake mouths along the sides, they were used for delivering the souls into the chamber.
Using this furnace to refine soul pills, one could prevent the contamination of other medicinal pills. Moreover, the effects of refinement were enhanced due to the qi emissions brought about by utilizing souls for years on end. This allowed the soul furnace to reach even greater heights.
Although Gu Zuo wasn’t picky about pill furnaces, when it came to such a soul furnace… If he wanted to research soul pills, he really needed to have something like this.
Using this vessel would make things even more convenient.
Yet, a notion arose within Gu Zuo’s mind.
Previously, every test couldn’t escape from the utilization of soul pills. And now, he had obtained a soul furnace… Considering this kind of inductive approach, the soul pill pharmacist of that Xiao Clan shouldn’t be looking for a disciple to inherit their own legacy, right?
After shaking his head, Gu Zuo restrained this thought.
Regardless of whether this was the case or not, he would simply take note of it first.
En. So long as it didn’t harm them, it was fine.
Afterwards, Tianheng slightly pondered, took one step forward, and hacked down with a palm strike.
He possessed six qi oceans and numerous types of different abilities. At this moment, his thoughts turned, and the striking qi energy was blood-red. This was the present Blood Palm that was a fusion of many blood-transforming martial disciplines and realm advancements he obtained after joining the Blood Transformation Palace Hall.
An enormous, blood-red palm instantly slammed straight into the stone tablet. In a split second, the Blood Palm smeared the entire stone tablet. The strength of this strike was especially great. Based on the momentum, this attack was no less inferior to the blows of those battle slaves.
After the stone tablet absorbed the Blood Palm, it swiftly formed a whirlpool. After spinning for quite a while, it spat out a chunk of ore that was around the size of a human head.
Gu Zuo blanked.
Tianheng took the ore.
One would see that this ore was also blood-red. The surface emitted a faint, bloody stench, but its color and luster were bright and beautiful. It looked like a lump of crystalized blood — But in fact, it was still a chunk of metal that hadn’t been fully refined yet.
Once Tianheng thought deeply, he said: “If I haven’t remembered wrongly, this thing is a piece of Heavenly Blood-Merging Metal.”
Gu Zuo turned his head to look at Tianheng: “Is this thing useful to big brother?”
Tianheng faintly nodded his head: “The beauty of this object is that it can be turned into a blank weapon, and placed inside one’s qi ocean for nurturing. After many years, it can become a spirit weapon linked to one’s own qi and blood. As the martial artist’s strength increases, so too will the weapon’s spirituality.”
If it was a common spirit weapon, there wouldn’t be this kind of effect. The usefulness of a spirit weapon completely depended on the tacit understanding between the martial artist and spirit weapon — Not every spirit weapon could grow alongside the user.
Of course, all prodigies of extraordinary status would try their best to obtain growth-type blank weapons, and cultivate these weapons starting from the Immortal Realm. Unless they weren’t able to find this type of material, they would settle for the next best thing. As they continued their search, they would be constantly replacing their spirit weapons of varying product grades.
Gu Zuo was delighted: “Since it’s like this, big brother should take it without delay.”
There were many things that failed to meet his expectations before, but this was definitely a good thing! Gaining this here would save lots of trouble in the future!
However, while he thought that this item was good, it probably wasn’t enough for a complete set. His big brother had six qi oceans. At that time, perhaps he would need to find six types of materials…
Tianheng smiled. As expected, he received the object and put it away.
Now wasn’t the time to temper it. He needed to find a quiet and secure location, and it would have to be taken slowly.
At this point, the only one remaining was Yu Cheng.
Right then, Tianheng spoke to him: “You should also give it a try.”
Yu Cheng took a deep breath. He raised his foot, and walked in front of the stone tablet.
To be honest, after seeing everyone’s harvests, he had already been envious for quite a while.
Who knew what he could obtain?
…What Yu Cheng got was a sword and a token.
He put away the sword. But as for the token, the instant he touched it, the token directly flew out of his hands and abruptly slapped into the top of that stone tablet.
In a flash, the stone tablet disintegrated.
At once, the scene in front of the group underwent a change, revealing a vast, landscaped park. There were pavilions and kiosks, artificial lakes and false mountains, medicine gardens and flower orchards…
The permeating fragrances quickly wafted over through the air.
It really seemed that the stone tablet would immediately disappear after Yu Cheng received his reward. If Yu Cheng was allowed to claim his reward first, perhaps everyone else wouldn’t have been able to get anything.
At this moment, Gu Zuo haltingly said: “This is the city within a city?”
Yu Cheng hesitated: “Probably.”
But, why was the city within a city not an actual city? Why did it look like a park instead?
This was just too strange.
Tianheng noticed Gu Zuo’s puzzlement, and walked to his side: “The so-called ‘city within a city’ is nothing but a name. We only need to enter inside, follow the Jade Heart Pendant’s routes, and search for the historical ruin’s hidden treasure troves.”
…These words were very reasonable. Indeed, they didn’t have to wrack their brains about the name right now.
Hence, everyone ventured together towards the landscaped park.
Tianheng took out the Jade Heart Pendant, carefully distinguished the routes, and quickly found the group’s position. Soon after, he took another measuring glance at some of the trails and other footpaths between the trees ahead. Sure enough, he discovered that those directions also coincided with those shown on the map.
Gu Zuo followed him, and looked over for a bit: “Big brother, where shall we go first?”
After Tianheng reckoned for a moment, he said: “We’ll move from the closest to the farthest locations.”
None of the people present had any complaints.
In the landscaped park, each person stayed vigilant.
One had to know that there were already plenty of troublesome things in the preceding checkpoints. If someone came to this historical ruin by themself, unless their realm was very high, the checkpoints would’ve been incredibly difficult to deal with. This city within a city contained the most precious things inside the historical ruin. Who knew what else would suddenly come out?
They had no choice but to keep their guards up.
However, it appeared that they were harboring groundless fears. In this place, there weren’t any soul pills that flew over to transform into beast souls. There also weren’t any ambushes, assassinations, or the like. Once in a while, there were some living creatures, but none were violent or ferocious like wild beasts. Rather, there were only some insects. Furthermore, none were poisonous or bothersome. They were completely harmless.
Not long after, they arrived at the location of the first blood speck on the map.
This was a false mountain.
It was situated right in front of a bamboo forest.
Gu Zuo was a little confused.
What treasure was hidden on such a bare, rocky formation? But no matter what, since it was used to confuse their lines of sight, there had to be something good for people to discover. What’s more, that Xiao Clan was a clan that could create this historical ruin. They wouldn’t go so far as to casually get rid of anyone who found the ruins, right?
They weren’t country bumpkins anymore…
Yu Cheng wasn’t aware of these many thoughts.
He came into the possession of the Jade Heart Pendant, which his mother left behind. It was also from his mother’s mouth that he learned some matters related to the historical ruin. But this was only limited to the facts that the outer circle wouldn’t kill people, the outer circle had tests, and the inner circle had a map. These kinds of things.
The specifics of the tests and the treasures found at the blood specks on the map were basically hidden behind a curtain of fog and mist. These answers were beyond his reach.
Tianheng slightly furrowed his brows. After that, his expression relaxed: “Since it’s used to confuse people, it must certainly have some problems. Otherwise, if it was found easily, the use of confusion would be next to nothing.”
Gu Zuo agreed: “What big brother says is right. We should look around carefully.”
Thus, while an Ascendant Realm powerhouse was placed to the side to guard them, the others split up to examine this false mountain. The “mountain” was thirteen to sixteen meters tall, twenty-three to twenty-six meters long, but less than ten meters thick. Around the structure, there were many open fretworks and odd, stony crags. It had a rather strange and harsh sense of beauty.
However, these stones were so outlandish and strange-looking that it made searching with the naked eye a little difficult.
As a pharmacist whose psychic powers were beyond the normal range of measurement, Gu Zuo didn’t need to use his eyes to find things like those martial artists. He discharged his psychic power, and immediately enveloped up the entire false mountain. He attentively “looked” at every inch with his psychic power. The group’s efficiency was greatly improved.
Yu Cheng was carefully searching, too.
It was because everyone talked it over just now. On the off-chance that they weren’t able to find it in the end, they would try sprinkling Yu Cheng’s blood to see whether every location in this confusing place gave preferential treatment to the Xiao Clan’s descendants. Yu Cheng didn’t particularly want to cut his wrist again. Of course, this wasn’t to say that he was scared of pain. Merely, wasn’t the less blood spilled, the more that was saved? If they could make a concentrated effort to find the entrance, that would be the best outcome.
Perhaps, Yu Cheng’s hopes were useful. After a bit of time passed, that cheat-like Pharmacist Gu discovered an incongruous spot on the false mountain.
Following this, everyone came to that spot.
At first glance, this lump was quite ordinary. But in actuality, this rock was slightly different from the other stones on this false mountain.
Gu Zuo looked at this rock. He reached out a hand in an attempt to break off this rock.
Rumble, rumble —
In a split second, the false mountain separated to either side.
What appeared before the group’s eyes was a pitch-black road that extended downwards.
It looked like it led underground?
After Tianheng gave an order, everyone set off once again. They stepped onto this pitch-black road, and went below the ground.
Gu Zuo tightly held onto Gongyi Tianheng’s sleeve. Within this darkness, one could only listen to the surrounding sounds of faint breathing.
It wasn’t known why a trace of panic appeared, but this feeling of panic quickly vanished. It was because Tianheng’s hand returned the grip and pulled him close. At this time, Gu Zuo detected the temperature and scent radiating from Tianheng’s body, which was pressed against him. A sense of safety sprung up unbidden within his heart.
Without him realizing it, this dark passage came to an end.
Up in front was an iron door. It looked like it had been cast with large quantities of molten iron. It was incredibly thick, and blocked their way ahead.
Everyone’s footsteps came to a halt.
Tianheng said: “Open this door.”
Ao Min promptly moved forward, and his hand made a grabbing motion. He was already gripping a giant hatchet.
Shortly thereafter, he boldly chopped down with this giant hatchet!
A tremendous noise suddenly echoed out.
Nearly everyone’s hearts skipped a beat. A long, trailing mark appeared on that iron door.
Gu Zuo loosened a sigh.
It seemed that this iron door wasn’t going to be hard to deal with.
Sure enough, following dozens of consecutive hatchet strikes, that iron door was chopped into a mangled mess amid Ao Min’s powerful attacks. After that, Ao Min kicked out his leg several times, and knocked the iron door’s wreckage off its hinges. Inside, a blast of heat surged out.
Ao Min instantly took action to withstand it.
At the same time, the others kept their guards up as well.
Immediately following this, everyone realized that this place didn’t have a fearsome prohibition conducting an attack. Instead, because this location had been sealed for too long, a rather high temperature had been fermenting. At this moment, it was all released.
Ao Min’s response was also just a habitual reaction.
Gu Zuo spoke: “Let’s go inside.”
Tianheng replied: “Right, let’s go.”
Thus, the group quickly passed through the iron door’s threshold.
Yu Cheng spoke under his breath: “An underground treasury?”
Indeed. Many families would construct storerooms. The most important storerooms were the secret treasuries. Of course, there were various means to safeguard them. However, there wasn’t only this secret treasury. There were many others that were concealed in hidden locations with all kinds of methods.
An underground treasury was just one of these types.
This place was clearly a storeroom, but it wasn’t known what things were left behind.
Everyone promptly looked around.
Gu Zuo released his psychic power, and took careful precautions.
This treasury was quite large, and there were stacks of thirty to fifty chests. The base of each chest was about ten square feet, and the top of each chest reached a height of five feet.
Gu Zuo wasn’t considered too tall. When he walked in front of those chests, he almost felt that they were about to overtake the height of the average human — At the very least, they reached just below his shoulders! It made him feel uncomfortable.
Tianheng arrived before a chest, and prudently said: “When so many wooden chests are being opened, it’s only necessary to be careful at moment of their opening.”
Gu Zuo answered: “I understand, big brother.”
The others also gave affirmatives.
Ao Min moved forward with his body cloaked in qi energy. He suddenly utilized a clever technique as he lightly swatted at the chest.
In an instant, the wooden lid of the first chest popped open. The resplendent rays of light within that chest immediately burst forth, practically blinding one’s eyes.
Gu Zuo rubbed his eyes, and looked over. He was startled right away.
Unexpectedly, the interior of that chest was densely packed with profound crystals! Although the profound crystals’s black radiance was relatively subdued, it was no match for the sheer number of crystals! Black-colored light was still light!
For the profound crystals in one large chest, a conservative estimate was well into the tens of thousands.
It appeared that just this amount wasn’t enough to shock Gu Zuo like in the past, but it was by no means a small number.
Gu Zuo swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Could it be that the other chests were all full of profound crystals?
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