Clang, clang, crash...
Zheng Que braced his back, swung his fists, and hammered the Plum Blossom Floor more than a dozen times.
At last, a faint crack appeared on its surface.
Seeing this, he furrowed his brow. There had to be some mechanism he hadn't discovered; otherwise, the town chief, an ordinary mortal, surely wouldn't have been able to get downstairs either.
Just then, seeing that Zheng Que still hadn't broken through the floor, Qing Li said impatiently, "You little Human Race brat, get out of my way!"
As she spoke, her arms suddenly stretched out and clawed at the Plum Blossom Floor like a pair of ghostly limbs.
Boom!!!
With a tremendous crash, Qing Li struck a crack a finger's width across the entire Plum Blossom Floor.
Qing Li continued attacking, her arms whirling like wheels as she battered the floor again and again.
Boom, boom, boom...
Amid flying sand and rolling stones, the Plum Blossom Floor gave off a series of crisp cracking sounds. Before long, the whole floor shattered into pieces and collapsed, revealing a hole in the ground.
Zheng Que's heart leapt with joy. He waved away the dust rushing toward his face and hurried forward to inspect the hole. Beneath it, he saw a passageway!
The passageway was built of blue bricks and sloped downward, apparently leading deeper underground. It had clearly been opened very rarely. Now that its top had been smashed apart, a musty odor and chill—typical of a place sealed away for years—immediately poured out.
Zheng Que didn't jump down at once. Instead, he picked up a piece of rubble nearby and tossed it inside.
Rumble...
The rubble rolled down the passageway and came to a stop after a while. Apart from that, all was quiet; nothing happened.
Zheng Que waited a little longer before cautiously entering and heading down.
Tap, tap, tap...
His footsteps rang especially loudly in the narrow passageway, with Qing Li close behind him.
The passageway was longer than he had expected. The daylight gradually faded behind them, and darkness slowly swallowed their surroundings. But Zheng Que was now a cultivator at the Second Layer of Qi Refining, with extraordinary eyesight, so he could still see clearly.
He followed the passageway for nearly the time it took an incense stick to burn. A stone door appeared ahead.
Intermittent lines covered the door. They seemed to have once formed a complete set of runes, which together had formed a ward, but it had now lost its power. Only a few scattered lines still flickered with a faint light.
Zheng Que immediately recognized it as a ward, much like the one at the town entrance, though there were some subtle differences between them.
It was probably meant to keep outsiders from entering the room beyond. But most of the ward's lines had already faded and blurred, leaving it completely ineffective.
He stepped forward and gently pushed open the stone door. He didn't rush inside, but waited patiently. When no traps or mechanisms stirred beyond the door, he cautiously stepped through.
Beyond the door was a spacious secret chamber.
The chamber was circular, with a person-high Bronze Tripod standing in the center. Its entire surface was mottled with rust, and a faded talisman was pasted over its lid.
On either side of the raised platform stood floor-to-ceiling shelves, crowded with all manner of bottles and jars. Withered branches and leaves were scattered among them, still giving off a faint medicinal fragrance, though they had all shriveled and turned black. Four dusty bags lay piled in a corner.
Behind the Bronze Tripod stood a three-foot-high stone dais. A table and chairs had been set atop it. Dust covered the Four Treasures of the Study on the table, along with an ornate Brocade Box.
By then, Qing Li had already hooked herself over the stone doorway, swinging back and forth as she pointed her chin at the Bronze Tripod and said, "That ghost from Tongue-Pulling Hell is inside there!"
Zheng Que nodded slightly. That Bronze Tripod was probably an alchemist's furnace.
The town chief's ancestor really had been an alchemist!
His thoughts raced, but he wasted no time. He strode straight toward the stone dais behind the Bronze Tripod.
The ornate Brocade Box stood out. It was most likely the Great Medicine he was looking for.
Thud, thud, thud!
Perhaps sensing a living person approaching, the Bronze Tripod, plastered with talismans, suddenly shuddered with a series of violent blows. Even its heavy body trembled slightly, as if something inside were trying to break free.
But perhaps it had been sealed away for too long. The ghost inside the tripod was already terribly weak. The pounding lasted only a few breaths before it stopped struggling.
Zheng Que paid no attention to the ghost inside the Bronze Tripod. In just a few strides, he reached the stone dais and carefully examined the Brocade Box on the table.
The Brocade Box was about a foot long and two inches wide. Its entire body was wrapped in Gold-Embroidered Satin, whose elaborate patterns seemed to faintly outline runes.
Zheng Que picked it up and carefully opened it.
The moment the Brocade Box cracked open, an intense medicinal fragrance, almost tangible, wafted into his nose.
The fragrance brimmed with vigorous life. Just one breath left his whole body indescribably refreshed, while the Spirit Power within him circulated faster.
It was exactly like when the town chief had given him those three Medicine Whiskers, only the effect was much more pronounced.
This was the Great Medicine he had been looking for!
Delighted, Zheng Que opened the lid all the way.
Inside was a bright red lining. A medicinal plant resembling a tuber was secured to it with red-gold threads. One corner had been cut away, leaving a remnant tuber about the size of a goose egg, along with a dozen or so strands of root. Each strand had been carefully fastened to the red cloth with red-gold thread to prevent it from breaking if jostled.
After taking a quick look, Zheng Que immediately closed the Brocade Box to keep its medicinal effects from dissipating.
Only after securing the Great Medicine did he turn his attention to the other items in the underground chamber.
There were many things on the shelves along either side, but after rummaging through them, Zheng Que realized the dried branches and leaves must have been spirit medicines. They had been stored for too long, however, and had completely lost their value. Most of the many bottles and jars were empty. A few bottles held different kinds of pills, but they had no medicinal fragrance at all. Instead, they gave off a stale, rotten odor, clearly having lost their potency.
Only one inconspicuous plain white porcelain bottle seemed different. A label beneath it on the shelf read "Yin-Dispelling Pill." Three dark red pills had spilled out of the bottle, and they still held a faint medicinal fragrance. They didn't seem to have expired yet.
Of course, Zheng Que knew nothing about the Yin-Dispelling Pill, and didn't dare test it on himself.
Next, he turned his attention to the four bags.
Zheng Que casually picked up the bag on the far left. It looked like a black drawstring pouch with a simple pattern, and two cords had been threaded through its mouth so it could hang from a belt. He couldn't tell what it was made of. It felt light as a feather in his hand, limp and shriveled like a dried fruit, and seemed to contain nothing at all.
But after several tries, he still couldn't open the pouch.
Realizing it was a cultivator's possession, Zheng Que immediately infused it with a trace of Spirit Power.
The next instant, the bag suddenly unfurled, and its mouth opened of its own accord. Though it looked no bigger than a fist on the outside, the inside held a space of its own, about the size of a clothes chest, with various odds and ends such as clothing inside.
Watching this, Zheng Que immediately realized it was a Storage Bag used by cultivators!
It contained its own space, where one could store personal belongings. Whenever needed, one could channel Spirit Power into it to retrieve them at will.
Zheng Que quickly took out all the odds and ends inside and put the Great Medicine and the Yin-Dispelling Pills he had just found into the Storage Bag.
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