After resting for a while, Xu Yang finally got to his feet. He stepped forward and helped Ling Feng up, and together they entered the stone door. As soon as they were inside, the door rumbled shut again. At the sight, both Xu Yang and Ling Feng breathed a sigh of relief. Hu Xinrong and the other two shouldn't be able to get in now, right?
Xu Yang and Ling Feng then looked around. The moment they took in their surroundings, they were both astonished. The inner chamber of the cave abode was extravagantly ornate. They were standing in a grand hall of considerable size, with great slabs of white jade embedded in the floor and walls. Four enormous pillars stood inside the hall, their surfaces made of gold and carved with four exquisite phoenixes.
Directly in front of them stood a huge emerald throne, beautiful from top to bottom in its rich green. A graceful woman sat cross-legged upon it, blessed with perfect bone structure and delicate features, her beauty utterly bewitching. A powerful aura radiated from her, making it impossible to feel the slightest desire to profane her.
Behind the emerald throne stood a doorway on either side, likely entrances to two side halls. However, each doorway was blocked by a Restriction.
The moment Xu Yang saw the woman on the throne, his heart lurched. Only after carefully sensing her did he let out the breath he'd been holding. She had already passed away, without the slightest trace of life. She must have been the owner of the cave abode—the great cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm.
Once Xu Yang realized she had passed away, he relaxed. Helping Ling Feng along, he looked around the hall with him. After a thorough search, the two were disappointed to find not a single treasure inside. The hall was completely bare. With no other choice, they turned their attention to the woman seated upon the emerald throne.
After glancing at her, Xu Yang said to Ling Feng, "Fellow Daoist Ling, look at the woman's wrist. Does that bracelet look like a spatial bracelet? I haven't spotted any other treasures besides it."
Ling Feng looked at the bracelet on her wrist and nodded eagerly. "It very well could be a spatial bracelet. Let's take it off right away and see if it has what we're looking for!" As he spoke, he started forward to retrieve it.
Xu Yang hurriedly stopped him. "Wait. We should be careful. This is the remains of a great cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm. Who knows if there's a Restriction in place? If we trigger it, we'll be done for."
Xu Yang's words instantly brought Ling Feng back to his senses. His overheated head felt as if a basin of cold water had been poured over it. He turned to Xu Yang helplessly. "Then what do we do? We're not taking the spatial bracelet?"
Xu Yang helped Ling Feng sit beneath one of the golden pillars. "Of course we're taking it, but I'll go alone. Your injuries are too severe. Hurry and focus on healing. We might have another battle on our hands soon!"
Ling Feng knew Xu Yang was right, so he reluctantly agreed. He swallowed a Greater Qi Recovery Pill and circulated his healing arts, all the while keeping a close eye on Xu Yang.
Xu Yang rose and carefully approached the emerald throne. From up close, he saw that although the woman was beautiful, her eyebrows were unusually long and narrow, stretching straight back to her temples like a pair of swords. They lent her an imposing air.
He cautiously extended his spiritual sense toward the spatial bracelet on the female cultivator's wrist, hoping to pull it free from a distance. But the moment his spiritual sense touched the bracelet, it rebounded. Xu Yang let out a muffled groan from the impact. His mind reeled, and waves of dizziness washed over him.
After quite a while, Xu Yang finally regained his senses. It seemed he couldn't retrieve the bracelet with his spiritual sense, so he reached out with his right hand. The instant he touched it, the female cultivator's remains crumbled into ash. The spatial bracelet floated in midair, radiating white light, and lines of writing appeared within the glow. Xu Yang focused intently on them.
A moment later, the white light faded, and the spatial bracelet fell onto the emerald throne. With an understanding look, Xu Yang picked it up. The bracelet was silvery white, barely a finger's width, and carved with a fluffy jade rabbit so lifelike it seemed almost real.
From the writing he had just seen, Xu Yang already knew the woman's story, and the bracelet had been described as well. It was called the Taiyin Jade Rabbit, a top-tier spatial treasure of the high-grade spirit treasure level.
Spirit treasures were exceedingly rare, surpassing the level of magical treasures. They were usually in the hands of Spirit Transformation cultivators, though some top Nascent Soul cultivators possessed them too.
As far as Xu Yang knew, magical treasures in the cultivation world were divided into three grades: Dharma Artifacts, magical treasures, and spirit treasures. Each grade was further divided into four ranks: lower, middle, upper, and supreme. There was also a separate category called ancient treasures. These were treasures left behind by ancient cultivators, with no set rank. Their power varied greatly: the weakest were only comparable to lower-grade magical treasures, while the strongest could rival supreme-grade spirit treasures.
Ancient treasures had another advantage: they had no attribute restrictions, so any cultivator could refine them and bring out their full power. Magical treasures, by contrast, had strict attribute requirements, while spirit treasures could only be refined using their own unique treasure-refining formula. Without it, even someone who obtained a spirit treasure couldn't refine it.
Treasure-refining formulas were generally hidden in the core of a spirit treasure. Each spirit treasure had its own unique formula, and Xu Yang had never heard of a universal one.
The Taiyin Jade Rabbit in Xu Yang's hand was a high-grade spirit treasure, far beyond what he could refine at his current level. He would need to reach at least the Nascent Soul Early Stage to refine it. However, the spirit treasure bore a Restriction placed by the female cultivator. If it encountered a cultivator with a Yin Spirit Root, it would recognize her as its master and help her refine it.
Holding the Taiyin Jade Rabbit, Xu Yang went over to Ling Feng and handed it to him. "This bracelet is actually a high-grade spirit treasure. I can't refine it, so keep it safe and give it to Senior Qin. Yaoyao has a Yin Spirit Root, and the Restriction on it will help her refine the treasure."
When Ling Feng saw Xu Yang hand him the bracelet without hesitation, he immediately felt relieved. Xu Yang truly meant to help him; he'd been overthinking it. Ling Feng took the bracelet and gave it a brief inspection before nodding to Xu Yang. "There's no other choice. I wonder if it has the cultivation techniques and secret arts we're looking for."
"It should. The writing on the bracelet explained everything. It contains the inheritance of the female cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm. It also described the cave abode. This place is only a secondary residence. The woman's true cave abode is in Yong Province. She returned to Yue Province to break through to Spirit Transformation, but something went wrong, and she passed away here after her breakthrough failed."
"What? This is only a secondary residence, and the female cultivator's true cave abode is in Yong Province?" Ling Feng stared at Xu Yang in shock.
"That's right. She opened this cave abode after advancing to the Golden Core Realm. Later, by chance, she went to Yong Province and advanced to the Nascent Soul Realm there. She returned to Yue Province to break through to Spirit Transformation because she had enemies in Yong Province and feared they would attack her during her breakthrough. She never expected something to go wrong, and she passed away here."
After hearing Xu Yang's explanation, Ling Feng sat stunned, unable to recover for a long while. Seeing this, Xu Yang cleared his throat to bring him back to his senses, then continued, "Though this is only a secondary residence, there are still plenty of treasures, all in the two side halls. We should hurry and take a look. By the way, the Taiyin Jade Rabbit is the key to opening the Restrictions."
At that, Ling Feng quickly rose, and he and Xu Yang headed for the side hall. After a bout of healing, Ling Feng's injuries had finally improved enough that Xu Yang no longer needed to support him.
They arrived at the entrance to one of the side halls. A silver Restriction blocked the way. Ling Feng took out the Lunar Bracelet and held it against the Restriction. A flash of silver light spilled from it, and the Restriction slowly vanished. Xu Yang then led the way into the side hall.
The first thing they saw was a huge pill furnace standing in the center of the side hall. It was bronze, with all sorts of lifelike exotic beasts carved into its walls. Three vents pierced its lid, and wisps of green smoke drifted from them. A wave of scorching heat rolled out, carrying a rich medicinal fragrance.
Xu Yang was immediately startled. From the looks of it, the pill furnace was still refining pills. How could that be? The female cultivator had passed away long ago, and the cave abode was empty. How could the furnace be refining pills on its own?
Xu Yang immediately went on guard and carefully studied the furnace. After a while, his expression shifted as realization dawned. The furnace wasn't refining pills at all; it was spontaneously nourishing the pills inside. Only a pill furnace at the spirit treasure level had such an ability.
All spirit treasures possessed a spirit of their own, and the higher their grade, the stronger that spirit. Some spirit treasures even possessed intelligence, could cultivate on their own, and could take human form to become spirits. The pill furnace before them was clearly a spirit treasure, and its spirit was strong enough to nourish the pills inside by itself.
Once he understood, Xu Yang relaxed and stopped watching the furnace. He turned to the shelves lining both sides of the side hall. One row of shelves held white porcelain bottles; the other held Dharma Artifacts, magical treasures, and materials for crafting them.
Ling Feng was standing before the shelves of porcelain bottles, watching them with excitement. He held one tightly in his hand. Seeing this, Xu Yang hurried over to inspect the shelves as well.
Writing on each bottle made them easy to browse. Xu Yang quickly looked them all over and was delighted. The shelves held rare and precious pills of many different kinds, with all sorts of effects. Excited, Xu Yang picked up a bottle of Explosive Qi Pills and opened it to look inside.
Suddenly, Xu Yang's face stiffened. The bottle was completely empty—not a single pill inside. He immediately came to his senses and realized that many of the bottles on the shelves were probably empty. At that thought, he swept his spiritual sense over the shelves in front of him. A look of disappointment came over Xu Yang: most of the bottles were empty, and only a very few still contained pills.
Next, Xu Yang scanned all three shelves of pills. Together with Ling Feng, he gathered the bottles that still held pills in one place and examined them closely.
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