After the cave entrance had completely closed, Gu An continued onward along the passage.
With the divine sense of the seventh layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm, Gu An walked as though beneath broad daylight, unhindered. The farther he went, the wider the passage became, as though it had no end.
Gu An grew even more curious about Cheng Xuandan's master. What kind of extraordinary person could have built such an immense underground passageway?
The passage wound downward. After traveling more than a dozen miles, Gu An still had not reached its end.
He could now confirm that the place beneath the stone slab was connected to this underground passageway.
A gust of spiritual wind drifted out from the passage ahead and washed over Gu An's face, leaving him refreshed and at ease.
Light began to appear in the passage ahead. Crystals of varying colors were embedded in the walls. Gu An sensed them carefully and found that they were not Spirit Stones, leaving him greatly disappointed.
If they had all been Spirit Stones, he would have struck it rich!
Thinking this, Gu An continued onward.
His senses remained taut. Although Cheng Xuandan had treated him extremely well in the end, recalling how Cheng Xuandan had dealt with Meng Lang, he did not dare let down his guard.
What if Cheng Xuandan had merely been putting on an act?
After walking another few miles or so, Gu An saw that the passage ahead had become exceptionally bright. He heard the sound of water.
The exit was here!
Gu An cautiously felt his way over. Reaching the cave entrance, he looked into the underground space ahead, and his eyes widened.
"I've really hit the jackpot..."
Gu An muttered, delight spilling into his eyes.
Following his gaze, there lay a vast underground space ahead, several times larger than Mystic Valley. It stretched over a hundred zhang from floor to ceiling. A gigantic tree over a hundred meters tall stood at its center, its trunk requiring more than a dozen people to encircle it. Its branches and leaves were not overly dense, yet lantern-like fruits hung from them one after another. The fruits were crystal-clear throughout and glowed with blue light.
Beneath the tree was a dense meadow. Beside it ran an underground river two zhang wide, right along the edge of the underground space against the mountain wall.
[Azure Vine Tree (Seventh-rank): 245/9999/87600]
An upper limit of eighty-seven thousand years!
A current lifespan of nearly ten thousand years!
Seeing this prompt, Gu An immediately had the urge to uproot the tree, but he restrained himself.
According to Cheng Xuandan, this Seventh-rank Spirit Tree was the key to the underground Formation. It presided over the entire Formation, allowing the other heavenly treasures to grow freely. The spiritual energy gathered by those heavenly treasures then activated the Formation, which in turn nourished the Seventh-rank Spirit Tree.
If he uprooted the Azure Vine Tree, Gu An would lose a planting ground of tremendous potential.
At the same time, this place could serve as his Cave Mansion. The Formation Cheng Xuandan's master had set up was exceptionally comprehensive. Cultivating and breaking through here would cause no disturbance to leak outside.
Gu An swept his gaze around and spotted distinctive stone statues embedded in the cave walls in every direction, several dozen in all. Special runes lay between the statues, profound and mysterious.
He stepped out of the cave entrance. The moment he entered, he caught sight of a Stone Stele standing nearby, engraved with four words:
Eight Sceneries Grotto-Heaven!
Gu An gave it a glance, then continued deeper into the Grotto-Heaven.
Along the way, he frantically used Lifespan Inspection.
Third-rank and fourth-rank spirit grasses and spirit flowers carpeted the ground. The closer they were to the Azure Vine Tree, the higher their rank. The sight left him dazzled.
With such a massive treasury hidden away, Cheng Xuandan still could not achieve Foundation Establishment?
Gu An did not know whether to pity Cheng Xuandan for his poor aptitude or for his inadequate Alchemy.
Even if his Alchemy was lacking, he could sell some medicinal herbs for Spirit Stones, or have the Taixuan Sect's alchemists refine pills for him.
In Gu An's view, for a sect like the Taixuan Sect, if it truly wanted to pour in resources, producing a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator should not have been difficult.
Of course, there was another possibility: Cheng Xuandan feared exposing his identity.
Gu An walked beneath the Azure Vine Tree. Standing under it, he could better sense its ancient grandeur and vigorous vitality.
He circled the Azure Vine Tree once and discovered that the Eight Sceneries Grotto-Heaven had more than one entrance—there were eight in total.
He suspected that one of those entrances connected to the stone slab he had discovered earlier.
For now, he had no intention of exploring the other entrances. Turning around, he took the Record of Hundred Herbs from his Storage Bag and began comparing them one by one.
If they were already mature, he would harvest them directly!
Some of the harvested medicinal herbs could be taken to the Outer Sect and exchanged for more high-rank seeds, allowing for continuous growth!
The thought alone thrilled Gu An.
Half an hour passed in a flash. Gu An had already harvested more than a hundred and thirty third-rank medicinal herbs, crazily reaping over nine hundred years of lifespan and sending his total lifespan soaring past the five-thousand-year mark.
This identity as a Demonic Path spy had truly been worth it!
Gu An was exhilarated. The Eight Sceneries Grotto-Heaven contained an enormous number of medicinal herbs. He had harvested only a tenth of them so far, and those had been the lowest-rank herbs.
From now on, this would be his Cave Mansion—his secret base!
Just as Gu An bent down to pick the next medicinal herb, he suddenly heard movement. He immediately turned, his gaze fixing on an entrance in the distance.
The entrance was pitch-black, terrifying to behold.
Gu An shifted to the side.
The meadow was not filled entirely with medicinal herbs; there were ordinary weeds as well. He suspected a battle was about to break out, so he had to move away and could not let his medicinal herbs get caught in it.
Those were all his life!
Gu An headed toward the underground river, his eyes never leaving that entrance.
Before long, footsteps and heavy panting came from within, as though a wild beast were about to charge out.
A foot stepped from the darkness. When Gu An fully saw the true appearance of the person in the cave, he could not help frowning.
It was actually Meng Lang!
Meng Lang's hair was disheveled, his clothes ragged, and his feet bare. Blood-red veins covered his neck, while his face was crimson, as though it had been scalded. His eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, and white vapor spilled from his mouth.
"Roar—"
Meng Lang roared at Gu An, then charged at him.
He was incredibly fast, rapidly closing the distance.
Instead of retreating, Gu An advanced and rushed forward.
The distance between them swiftly shrank, scattering bits of grass along the way.
Meng Lang leaped into the air, trying to pounce on Gu An. Gu An shifted aside and drove a knee into his abdomen, sending him flying back.
Gu An's brow furrowed even more tightly. His right leg had actually gone a little numb.
Well, damn!
How had Meng Lang become so hard?
Gu An felt that even Greed-Hatred Demon Ghost was not as tough as him. Though he had not used his full strength or any spiritual power, he could still make a rough judgment.
The reason he had held back was because he wanted to see whether Meng Lang could still be saved.
He shook his right leg and charged Meng Lang again.
Meng Lang fell onto the grass, but he seemed unable to feel pain. He immediately scrambled back up and lunged at Gu An.
Gu An planted his right foot forward and forcibly halted his body. His left leg then rose, spiritual power pouring into it as he unleashed the Gale Absolute Shadow Leg.
A fierce wind rose from the ground. One after another, leg shadows crashed down upon Meng Lang, blasting him away again. After hitting the ground, he rolled more than a dozen times before finally stopping.
His limbs were visibly twisted. He tried to rise, but collapsed the next instant, his forehead slamming heavily into the grass.
Gu An lowered his leg, curiosity appearing on his face.
Cheng Xuandan's medicinal gu was this formidable?
A mere first-rank gu had given him such a tyrannical physique. He seemed no weaker than Greed-Hatred Demon Ghost!
How could Cheng Xuandan possibly compare to the Great Cultivator behind Greed-Hatred Demon Ghost?
Gu An became even more certain that Cheng Xuandan had concealed something, most likely connected to his master.
He walked over to Meng Lang and looked down at his vicious, demon-like body, falling into hesitation over how to handle him.
"He's already dead anyway. Why should I care about who he was in life?"
Gu An's eyes flickered. Grass clippings and dust around his feet slowly began to swirl, a sign that he was circulating his technique.
Just then!
Gu An noticed the corner of a book peeking out from Meng Lang's chest. He immediately reached out and pulled from a distance with spiritual power, causing the book to fly swiftly into his hand.
"Myriad Gu Profound Technique..."
Gu An murmured. He flipped through it briefly. It was a cultivation technique, and an incomplete one at that. The final page had an obvious break in its contents.
Besides the cultivation method at the beginning, it also recorded five gu arts afterward, each with illustrations. After comparing them, he eventually found the gu art that Meng Lang had been afflicted with.
Flame Corpse Gu!
"Those afflicted by the gu nurture flame qi in their bodies. Their flesh becomes as hard as deep rock, and their strength becomes boundless... No medicine can save them, no technique can undo it, until they are smashed to pieces..."
After reading this aloud, Gu An could not help looking at Meng Lang, pity surfacing in his eyes.
How pitiful.
The Myriad Gu Profound Technique recorded a method to restrain the Flame Corpse Gu. He only needed to seal its seven orifices, preventing its gu worms from consuming spiritual energy, and the worms would enter a state of false death, leaving the gu body unable to move.
He immediately sealed Meng Lang's seven orifices with mud, then rose and looked toward the entrance Meng Lang had emerged from.
He did not immediately go in to explore. Instead, he stored the Myriad Gu Profound Technique in his Storage Bag, turned around, and continued harvesting medicinal herbs.
Even if Cheng Xuandan's master was still alive, the other party had not attacked him, a Qi Refining Realm cultivator. Either the other party had no intention of killing him, or could not act. Since that was the case, why should he stir the grass and startle the snake?
The longer time dragged on, the more advantageous it was for Gu An.
Half an hour later.
Gu An left the Eight Sceneries Grotto-Heaven with satisfaction. His lifespan had reached an astonishing seven thousand years!
He had harvested all the third-rank medicinal herbs that could be harvested. Next, he needed to sow seeds. Once the new seeds matured, it would take many more years.
After harvesting the third-rank medicinal herbs, it would be time to harvest the fourth-rank ones!
To prevent the Formation's ecology from being damaged, Gu An did not harvest every mature medicinal herb in one breath. Harvesting some and planting some was the lasting, effective path of healthy development!
Moreover, even mature medicinal herbs could be left alone. The longer they lived, the more lifespan could be taken from them. Naturally, there was some critical threshold involved, and Gu An was still observing it.
Early the next morning, Gu An, the new master of Mystic Valley, left his room bright and early. The moment he came out, he urged his junior brothers to come out as well.
After hearing Xiao Chuan's response, he headed toward Ye Lan's courtyard.
"Junior Sister, it's time to come out," Gu An called.
"Alright, Eldest Senior Brother."
Ye Lan answered swiftly, even more eagerly than the junior brothers.
Before long, everyone was standing before Gu An.
Gu An swept his gaze across them and smiled. "Congratulations. From now on, you'll become uncles and aunts. If I recruit Handyman Disciples again, they'll be my disciples—and your martial nephews and nieces."
The moment he said this, everyone became excited and eagerly discussed the future. No one mentioned Cheng Xuandan. It was not that they were cold or unfeeling; they had privately agreed not to bring up Cheng Xuandan for the next month.
After offering a few words of encouragement, Gu An began leading his junior brothers and sister through exercises to loosen their muscles and bones. Afterward, he still needed to go to the Eight Sceneries Grotto-Heaven to plant flowers and herbs.
Life was about to get busy!
Thanks to Cigarette Integrity for the 500 Qidian Coin reward, Fierce Dragon for the 100 Qidian Coin reward, and Golden Lotus of Creation for the 100 Qidian Coin reward~~
Updates every day at midnight and noon, for a total of six thousand characters. Stop chasing me for extra chapters—I've only been publishing for a week! I'll release extra chapters after it goes premium~~
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