Treasure Map

First came the currency and banknotes.

There were only a little over thirty silver coins.

They were presumably carried around as pocket change.

There were a total of one hundred and thirteen gold coins.

There were also more than thirty gray crystal coins.

Crystal coins were a high-grade currency ranked above copper, silver, and gold coins.

If those currencies were the common tender used among ordinary people, suitable for most situations,

then crystal coins existed as the common currency used between high-level cultivators.

Ordinary people basically had no chance to own or use them.

Crystal coins were divided into low-grade crystal coins (gray), mid-grade crystal coins (green), high-grade crystal coins (earth-yellow), and top-grade crystal coins (golden). The exchange rate between each grade was one hundred to one.

The exchange rate between gold coins and low-grade crystal coins was likewise one hundred to one.

In other words, the thirty-odd low-grade crystal coins in Ling Wuyuan's hands alone were worth more than three thousand gold coins.

This cash alone had already caused Ling Wuyuan's wealth to take a leap.

As for the banknotes that could be exchanged for vast sums of money at domestic banks, they were worth tens of thousands of gold coins!

To be honest, as he looked at the money before him, although he knew it was likely far less precious than those martial arts manuals, Ling Wuyuan still could not help feeling his heart surge with excitement.

It was like suddenly achieving financial freedom...

"No way I'm going out to grind anymore."

"I can lie flat and take it easy for years."

At this moment,

he finally understood deeply what it meant to say, [Those who kill and burn wear belts of gold, while those who build bridges and mend roads leave no corpses behind].

How could working honestly compare to the money earned through burning, killing, and plundering?

If he had relied on gathering herbs and hunting, who knew how many years it would have taken him to earn this much?

Yet,

as the saying went, take a gamble and a bicycle becomes a motorcycle.

He had earned it all in a single day!

After silently calming his thoughts,

Ling Wuyuan turned his gaze toward the five martial arts manuals.

<Chasing Wind and Transforming Rain Sword—high-grade martial skill>, Moon Shadow Silent Saber—high-grade martial skill, <Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique—high-grade foundational cultivation method>, <Afterimage Spiral Steps—high-grade movement technique>, Six Harmonies Finger—high-grade martial skill.

Among them, the Chasing Wind and Transforming Rain Sword and Afterimage Spiral Steps had been taken from the man Ling Wuyuan had personally killed. The Moon Shadow Silent Saber had been taken from the second of the three men to die. As for the Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique and Six Harmonies Finger, they had come from the first victim.

How should he put it...

Cultivation methods that increased defense and unarmed martial skills were certainly quite good.

But when facing opponents of the same level armed with high-grade weapons, they really were not all that useful...

Using flesh and blood to clash head-on with high-grade weapons was honestly rather tragic...

Thinking of how the first man to die had only been able to barely fend off his opponents' successive attacks with weapon skills far inferior to those of the other two, Ling Wuyuan suddenly felt that body-tempering cultivation methods had a rather bleak future...

Still, he knew that was merely because the user had been inadequate.

It did not mean the cultivation method itself was inadequate.

Besides, his innate ability desperately required a sufficiently strong body before it could display any real effect.

Thus, he sincerely liked the Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique.

The Tiger Bone Body Strengthening Technique he currently cultivated was a mid-grade foundational cultivation method, while the Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique was a high-grade foundational cultivation method. Moreover, the Tiger Bone Body Strengthening Technique he had previously possessed was incomplete, and he still needed to slowly find a way to exchange for the missing portions. The Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique, on the other hand, was complete and contained all its contents.

Beyond that,

their effects also differed significantly!

If the Tiger Bone Body Strengthening Technique had relatively balanced training effects, noticeably enhancing strength, speed, and defense without any clear bias,

then the Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique primarily specialized in defense, followed by strength, with speed coming last. It was the most typical body-tempering external art.

To describe it in gaming terms, cultivating the Tiger Bone Body Strengthening Technique would let one change class into a warrior with high attack and high speed, while cultivating the Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique would let one change class into a tank with high defense and high stamina.

Though both were body-tempering cultivation methods, not only were their grades different, their effects were completely different as well. They did not overlap!

"Although cultivating multiple methods at once will drastically increase the actual difficulty of cultivation, since these two methods can complement each other, I have no reason to give either one up."

"Besides, I'm not short on money now~"

"When resources are abundant and time is no concern, advancing side by side is the best possible strategy..."

In short,

although the other four manuals were equally precious and could make up for Ling Wuyuan's weaknesses in other areas,

the Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique, which could increase the upper limit of his innate ability's practical use, was undoubtedly the most important to him!

Now, after carefully reading through the Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique, he had also gained some understanding of the purposes of certain bottles and jars of medicine gathered from the corpses. He realized that those medicines were necessities for cultivating the Iron Statue Body Tempering Technique and had to be taken internally and applied externally in fixed amounts during cultivation.

Finally, there was the treasure map.

Ling Wuyuan had already examined the treasure map carefully once when he had still been near the many corpses.

Now, by the light of the candle, after scrutinizing every word and every diagram on the map again and again,

he reached exactly the same conclusion as before.

[I can't understand it.]

[I basically can't understand it.]

[Although I can understand every word when taken separately, once they are put together, I can't understand them.]

Because his knowledge was insufficient,

he was truly at a loss regarding the place names and terrain described on the map.

Furthermore, the map itself was incomplete.

It lacked much crucial information. Trying to make sense of it would undoubtedly be a massive undertaking...

However,

from what he had overheard earlier, he still knew one thing.

[The treasure marked on this map is hidden somewhere in the surrounding region.]

Therefore,

just as one could skip stages while clearing a game,

his gaze skipped directly over the many details at the beginning and middle, going straight to the end of the treasure map.

It was a lake.

A lake with a Black Observatory on its shore.

Based on the information recorded on the treasure map and the intelligence he had overheard before, he only needed to find that Black Observatory within a radius of several dozen li to pinpoint the lake that served as the final treasure site.

At that time,

he would only need to dive to the bottom of the lake to find a special statue there.

The so-called treasure was hidden deep within that statue.

"...Although there are many lakes of all sizes nearby, there definitely won't be a whole bunch of lakes with a Black Observatory on their shores."

"If I'm willing to spend more time on it, I might really have a chance of finding this treasure."

"Provided that lake and that Black Observatory still exist after all these years..."

He could only think that, but when he considered the fact that this treasure map had a history of at least a thousand years, he honestly did not place much hope in finding the treasure.

A thousand years of time

was simply far too long...

In the world of his previous life, several dynasties could have risen and fallen in that span...

Put bluntly,

if this treasure had truly been easy to find, the trio who had dropped all that loot would have found it long ago.

Right now,

in Ling Wuyuan's view,

compared with this somewhat illusory treasure map,

the huge pile of equipment and wealth dropped by those three was far more worthwhile!