The moment Jiang Chuan stepped into Lesser Red Heaven, he caught a rich medicinal fragrance.
A medicinal field stretching for miles immediately came into view.
Every grain of the yellow-brown soil gleamed like yellow-brown jade paving the earth.
"These are all premium medicinal soil. An inch is worth one Spirit Stone—how many Spirit Stones could all this medicinal soil be exchanged for?" Que Jinling exclaimed in shock.
"Sadly, all the spirit herbs in the medicinal field have been destroyed."
Jiang Chuan looked at the clusters of pitch-black ash scattered across the field, his heart aching.
This was not because cultivators had entered Lesser Red Heaven and destroyed the spirit herbs.
Rather, the spirit herbs had grown for too many years, developed intelligence, and turned into demons, seeking to escape the medicinal field.
The great formation of the medicinal field had activated, bringing down lightning to destroy the spirit herbs.
"It truly is a pity."
Que Jinling nodded gently. "Let's first look for the inheritance and treasures Daoist Lihuo left behind."
"I wonder what Dragon Transformation Venerable's cave abode is like?"
Jiang Chuan once again recalled Dragon Transformation Venerable's cave abode on Chisha Island, then flew with Que Jinling toward the Daoist Temple at the end of the medicinal field.
The Daoist Temple had white walls and black tiles, with an ancient, unadorned design.
A small stream flowed slowly past its front.
A green pill furnace more than twice a man's height stood beside the stream.
Jiang Chuan seemed to see an otherworldly true immortal gathering herbs and refining pills here, quietly chanting Dao scriptures.
"Daoist Lihuo was a cultivator from the Middle Ancient Era. Back then, the human and demon races were locked in conflict. He must have feared that his inheritance and treasures would fall into the Demon Race's hands and bring disaster upon humanity."
Que Jinling looked at the Daoist Temple's gates, her lovely face filled with vigilance and longing. "I guess Daoist Lihuo must have left behind safeguards and trials, so only you can go in and retrieve the treasures."
Jiang Chuan said nothing. He merely raised a hand, pushed open the gates, and entered the main hall.
The hall was paved with gray bricks and stones, and at its center stood a statue.
The statue wore boots that encompassed mountains and rivers, a robe like a galaxy, and a Sun and Moon Crown. Though it was only a statue, it seemed to contain the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth, inspiring involuntary reverence.
"Is this Taixu Daojun, the progenitor of the Immortal Dao?"
Jiang Chuan compared the statue with the records of Taixu Daojun he had seen in his mind.
"Junior."
At that moment, a deep, resonant voice rang out from nowhere in the hall.
The next instant, a Daoist wearing a lotus crown and an yin-yang Daoist robe, with a face as smooth as jade, appeared out of thin air before Taixu Daojun's statue.
"I am Daoist Lihuo. To enter this place means you are fated with me. Three. Nine. Later. Then."
Before he could finish even one sentence, Daoist Lihuo's phantom dispersed once more.
Jiang Chuan: "..."
Senior, couldn't you have spent a few more Spirit Stones on a better-quality recording stone?
You hadn't even finished one sentence, and the image was already gone.
Jiang Chuan sighed softly, walked up to Taixu Daojun's statue, and picked up the recording stone Daoist Lihuo had left behind.
After sweeping through the image within with his Divine Sense, Jiang Chuan's eye twitched slightly as he walked out of the Daoist Temple.
The moment Que Jinling saw Jiang Chuan emerge, she hurriedly asked, "Jiang Chuan, did you get Daoist Lihuo's treasures and inheritance?"
"The treasures and inheritance aren't in the Daoist Temple."
"Not in the Daoist Temple? Where are they?"
"Inside the pill furnace."
"What?"
Jiang Chuan raised a hand and pointed at the pill furnace behind Que Jinling. "In the pill furnace beside the stream behind you."
Que Jinling: "..."
This was nothing like what the storybooks described!
In storybooks, weren't inheritances and treasures supposed to be inside cave abodes, obtained only after passing countless trials?
Why had Daoist Lihuo so openly placed them inside a pill furnace?
And why was there not even a single trial?
To these questions, Jiang Chuan could only say that storybooks could not be trusted.
After all, no one had ever said inheritances and treasures could not be placed inside a pill furnace.
Arriving before the pill furnace, Jiang Chuan poured in his mana and opened it with ease.
Jiang Chuan and Que Jinling looked into the pill furnace with eager expressions.
Crash!
Daoist robes, boots, and Daoist crowns of all different colors continuously shot out from the furnace mouth, landing before them.
Jiang Chuan: "..."
Que Jinling: "..."
What happened to the treasures and inheritance?
They had traveled thousands of miles and risked their lives to come here.
Surely they had not come all this way just to get a pile of clothes and shoes?
Before long, the two turned from bewilderment to delight.
After the robes and boots finished spraying out, three yellow jade books flew forth.
Jiang Chuan raised his hand and caught the three jade books, which seemed to have been carved from yellow jade.
"'Lihuo Dao Scripture,' 'One Qi Dao Sword,' 'Lihuo Alchemy Book.'"
Just as Jiang Chuan finished examining the three jade books, a blue gourd flew out of the pill furnace.
The blue gourd seemed to be carved from blue crystal, clear and translucent.
A golden pill the size of a longan floated within it.
Dense medicinal aura spilled from the pill, manifesting countless phenomena such as auspicious lingzhi exhaling radiance and divine flowers blooming.
One glance was enough to tell that it was an extraordinary pill.
"Bone Remolding Pill!"
Que Jinling excitedly grabbed the Bone Remolding Pill.
Jiang Chuan's face also lit up with joy at the sight.
He was finally getting his reward!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sword cries rang out as one black and one white flying sword shot roaring from the pill furnace like two black-and-white flood dragons.
As sword light flowed around them, they emitted a soul-chilling sharpness that made one shudder.
"Fine swords! Fine swords!"
Jiang Chuan was beside himself with excitement.
The might of either flying sword surpassed his own Flame Sun Needle. Both were Top-grade Treasure Artifacts.
Grasping the two flying swords, Jiang Chuan's gaze instinctively fell upon the four ancient golden characters on their blades.
One Yang, Two Yin.
Jiang Chuan: "..."
Senior Lihuo, if you really had no talent for naming things, then let's just not name them.
These two sword names sounded like a joke.
Thankfully, these two treasured swords were merely Top-grade Treasure Artifacts and not Dao Artifacts.
Otherwise, Jiang Chuan felt that the Artifact Spirits of these two swords would definitely go mad!
"From this day onward, you shall be called Lesser Yang and Lesser Yin."
The moment Jiang Chuan finished speaking, an ancient map flew out of the pill furnace.
Que Jinling took it and discovered that it was a formation map for controlling Lesser Red Heaven's formations.
After obtaining Daoist Lihuo's inheritance and treasures, you did not immediately leave with Que Jinling.
The Bone Remolding Pill was refined from metals and stones combined with spirit herbs. Ordinary cultivators could not refine it after swallowing it.
It had to be tempered with true fire for seven days and seven nights, refining the Bone Remolding Pill into a pool of golden liquid.
Que Jinling entered the golden liquid and circulated the Lihuo Nirvana Method recorded in the "Lihuo Dao Scripture," absorbing the medicinal power and remolding her body.
Meanwhile, you studied the three Dao books Daoist Lihuo had left behind.
Of the three Dao books, the one that interested you most was the "One Qi Dao Sword."
The "One Qi Dao Sword" gathered the primordial qi of heaven and earth to nurture a Dao sword possessing Dao Transformation Power.
You had nearly died from Dao transformation while comprehending the Dao stele left before Bodhi Temple, so you knew full well how terrifying Dao transformation was. Even many experts of the Eighth Realm, Ninth Realm, and even Tenth Realm would transform into Dao laws and merge into heaven and earth after death.
Ordinary cultivators simply could not resist Dao Transformation Power. The slightest touch meant death.
You felt that if you could master the "One Qi Dao Sword," defeating a cultivator of the Fifth Realm would not be impossible.
Ten days later, Que Jinling finished remolding her body. The two of you left Lesser Red Heaven together and prepared to head for Bamboo Immortal Island.
What you had not expected was that just after leaving the Sunfall Sea, you encountered cultivators from Bamboo Immortal Island.
Before you continue