"Looks like the previous owner of this workshop was no ordinary person either."
He muttered to himself and sat cross-legged on the cushion.
The Bronze Cauldron trembled lightly within his dantian. A wisp of Xuanhuang Qi suddenly spouted from its mouth, condensing into a grain-sized point of light in his palm.
This was a new ability he had comprehended after fusing with the Phoenix Bloodline—"Cauldron Insight," which allowed him to use spiritual power to probe an item's origin aura.
The point of light flew into the pile of discarded ore in the corner, instantly causing dozens of faint green lights to flare up.
Lin Taichu's heart jolted. With a wave of his palm, he blasted aside the ore and found three shattered Jade Slips buried beneath it, wisps of black qi seeping from their fractures.
He wrapped the Jade Slip fragments in Xuanhuang Qi and sent his divine sense inside. A bloody scene immediately appeared before his eyes:
Countless Spirit Devouring Worms covered the sky like black clouds, gnawing at pavilions floating amid the mist. The wind chimes hanging from the eaves bore the same character: "Su."
An Old Man covered in blood stuffed a token into a child's hand and rasped, "Take the Fire Seed to the Floating Palace! Remember, the Myriad Treasures Merchant Guild's Spirit Devouring Eggs fear..." The scene abruptly ended there, and the Jade Slip turned to ash.
"The Fire Seed? The Spirit Devouring Eggs' weakness?" Lin Taichu suddenly opened his eyes. Outside the window came the night watchman's clapper call: "Third watch—beware of fire and thieves—"
The night watchman's clapper carried a peculiar rhythm, three long beats followed by one short. It astonishingly matched the rhythm of the Old Man's final words in the Jade Slip.
Lin Taichu quietly climbed out through the back window