Cliffside Cave Treasure

"Rip."

"Not bad. It managed to form a magic core while living in a place like this." Ling Li used Dark Night to slice open Rock Snake's skull between its eyes, dug out a yellow-green crystal, and flipped his hand to store it in the System Space.

The chance of magical beasts forming magic cores was very low. Among magical beasts of each tier, low-star beasts had roughly a one percent chance of forming a magic core, mid-star beasts had roughly a one-in-fifty chance, and high-star beasts had around a one-in-ten chance. For this Rock Snake, living on a barren cliff face made forming a magic core even more difficult.

Just as Ling Li had expected, there really was a cliffside cave behind this stone ledge. It was merely concealed by a strange tree growing above it, making it impossible to see what lay behind.

"Could this be it?" Ling Li, who had always considered himself unlucky, said uncertainly. Finding the right place on his first try was a little hard to believe.

Ling Li snapped off some dead branches from the strange tree and made a simple torch. By its faint light, he walked into the cliffside cave.

At the end of the cave stood a stone door that emitted a pale yellow glow. The light coming from the door vaguely formed the shapes of several runes. It had likely been enhanced with an earth-element mechanism technique to increase its hardness and strength.

"So it really is here!" Ling Li's eyes lit up. With a flip of his hand, he took Dark Night from the System Space. Excitement made his breathing grow heavier.

After a year of cultivation, Ling Li had risen from a one-star Dou Zhe to a two-star Dou Master. To others, such speed was astounding. After all, many people could exhaust their entire lives without ever reaching this realm. Yet Ling Li still felt it was too slow, especially since he possessed the talent to raise his strength simply by Devouring magic cores. To advance only one basic major realm in a year was truly far too slow.

Knowing how difficult cultivation was, Ling Li understood what the opportunity behind this door represented. Those million Gold Coins alone, if exchanged for first-tier magic cores, could equal two or three years of his effort!

"Venom!"

After letting out a soft breath, Ling Li held Dark Night horizontally. A trace of crimson seemed to flash through his eyes as profound black Dou Qi surged from within him, rapidly coiling around Dark Night like a long snake. On the blade's cold gleaming edge, it was as though black Venom on the verge of dripping had condensed.

Ling Li had developed this move based on the corrosive effects of his dark-attribute Dou Qi. After advancing to the Dou Master realm, the most direct change was that Ling Li could release a small amount of Dou Qi outside his body, forming a Dou Qi Garment over his skin. The principle of this move was to cover Dark Night in a layer of Dou Qi Garment. Since Ling Li's dark-attribute Dou Qi was somewhat similar to the symbiote Venom, it had been given this name.

Ling Li remembered that this stone door had an opening mechanism. However, compared to searching everywhere for the mechanism like an idiot, Ling Li preferred a more direct method.

"Clang!"

Ling Li slashed out. The earthy yellow light on the stone door flared brilliantly, and the door seemed to transform into an alloy gate, gaining a faint metallic sheen.

When his first slash failed, surprise flashed through Ling Li's eyes. Then Dark Night began to move at tremendous speed in his hand. The blade lights he unleashed seemed to weave into a dark net, continuously striking the stone door.

After raising his swordsmanship to mastery, Ling Li could unleash more than sixty slashes in a second at his fastest. Of course, the reason his swordsmanship had improved so quickly was not due to his daily training, but the inspiration and opportunity he had gained from a certain low-tier first-tier magical beast he had encountered by chance four months ago.

"Boom!"

Perhaps because too much time had passed, a small crack was cut into the door in just over ten seconds. The runes on the door lost their glow, and the entire stone door turned to dust with the disappearance of the runes.

After the stone door vanished, a faint radiance shone from behind it. This was the light of moonlight stones. Unlike sunlight, which was glaring and unpleasant, the glow of moonlight stones was gentle like moonlight, yet sufficient to dispel the darkness within the cliffside cave.

By the light of the moonlight stones, the interior of the stone chamber came into Ling Li's view. The chamber was quite large, spanning over a hundred square meters. Directly opposite the stone door was a stone throne, upon which sat a skeleton. A path below the throne divided the chamber into left and right sections, each further divided into two parts. On the left lay a considerable number of Gold Coins, nearly a million by the look of them. Beside the pile of Gold Coins stood three treasure chests. On the right was a bookshelf filled with jars and bottles. Beneath the bookshelf was dark fertile soil covered in medicinal herbs. Though Ling Li did not recognize the herbs, he could tell that they were likely worth far more than the Gold Coins on the left.

Ling Li first walked to the skeleton and bowed. Then he took the key from its hand, as well as the Remnant Map of the Pure Lotus Demonic Flame clutched within its finger bones. Afterward, Ling Li walked to the pile of Gold Coins and took a deep breath. This pile should contain as many as a million coins, already heaped into a mountain of gold. Whether in his previous life or this one, Ling Li had never seen so many Gold Coins.

After storing the Gold Coins in the System Space, Ling Li used the key to open the three treasure chests one by one. He took the flying Dou Technique Purple Cloud Wings, the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture, which was similar to a Dou Technique, and the Profound Tier High-Grade Fighting Skill Roaring Lion Chant. Although these three treasures were precious, they were not particularly useful to Ling Li. Roaring Lion Chant was wind-attributed, the Seven-Colored Poison Scripture was wood-attributed, and Purple Cloud Wings was fire-attributed. None of them suited his dark attribute.

Unlike what Ling Li remembered, Dou Qi on the Dou Qi Continent was not limited to a single attribute. There were all kinds of attributes: the most common metal, wood, water, fire, and earth attributes, as well as derived attributes such as wind, lightning, ice, and rock. Beyond those, there were also special types of Dou Qi such as light and darkness. Different Dou Qi attributes possessed different traits, which meant that the Dou Techniques and cultivation methods suited to each attribute differed vastly as well. If one cultivated recklessly—for example, if an ice-attributed cultivator practiced a fire-attributed cultivation method—that would be courting death. At best, their blood would flow in reverse and they would suffer cultivation deviation; at worst, they would die on the spot.

Perhaps because Xiao Huohuo, with his fire and wood attributes, was a transmigrator, he was rather special and could cultivate Dou Techniques of various attributes: the lightning-attributed Three Thousand Lightning Movement, the dark-attributed Great Heavenly Creation Palm, the metal-attributed Adamantine Glazed Body, the dark-water-attributed Yellow Springs Series Dou Techniques, and so on. However, Ling Li, also a transmigrator, did not dare try. Having already found this treasure, Ling Li now had the capital to grow stronger. There was no need to risk his life for two or three scrolls of Dou Techniques.

Beside the three treasure chests stood a bookshelf made of rotten wood. The jars and bottles on it should have contained medicinal pills, but due to being stored for too long, the pills inside had completely turned into powder. They had clearly lost their effects as medicinal pills, though they could probably still be used as medicinal dregs to cultivate herbs.

Finally, Ling Li walked to the small medicinal field, two zhang square. Compared to the Gold Coins and the Dou Techniques in the treasure chests, these medicinal herbs were more valuable to Ling Li. First, the herbs themselves were worth far more than Gold Coins. Second, some cultivation resources could not be bought even with money; they were priceless and unavailable on the market. Moreover, those first few dozen red fruits had been some kind of medicinal herb, and the energy they provided was no less than that of magic cores!

Of course, as a complete outsider, Ling Li did not recognize these medicinal herbs and did not rashly dig them up or harvest them. The more valuable a medicinal herb was, the more delicate it was. Even slight damage could cause it to lose all medicinal efficacy and become worthless. The best choice was to leave them here and only leave after eating all the herbs!

He wondered how much energy this medicinal field could provide him, and how much it could raise his strength.