Tree Hollow White Bones

Qin Huaian saw the Mountain-Pushing Beast charging at them as if it had gone mad. He hesitated no longer. When they were only about thirty meters apart, the fireball he had been gathering for so long shot out in an instant.

At this distance, the Mountain-Pushing Beast had nowhere to dodge. The fireball struck its body once more. As it exploded, the Mountain-Pushing Beast was blasted back several steps before crashing to the ground.

At that moment, a flock of white-headed vultures swooped down from the sky and surrounded the Mountain-Pushing Beast. It struggled faintly a few times, then went still.

What a pity. The materials on the Mountain-Pushing Beast alone were probably worth quite a few spirit stones.

Before Qin Huaian had much time to lament, several white-headed vultures that had failed to squeeze onto the Mountain-Pushing Beast's corpse turned their heads toward him and Wang Baole.

Damn! Not only did they steal my spoils, now they want a piece of me too? Seeing that things were going wrong, Qin Huaian hurriedly ran off with the fat man.

When they looked back and saw that the white-headed vultures had not pursued them, both of them immediately sighed in relief. Only after running for a while longer did they slow down.

"Fatty, let's find a place to rest and recover our spiritual power first. The Million Mountains are dangerous everywhere."

"All right. Brother Qin, look over there. There's a patch of woods. Let's see if there are any secluded places there."

Qin Huaian saw a relatively dense patch of woods not far ahead. Within the Million Mountains, dense forests did not cover every inch of land; the trees were unevenly distributed.

There were many towering trees in the Million Mountains. Trees more than ten meters in diameter might have been rare in his previous life, but here, they were everywhere.

Qin Huaian and the others entered that patch of dense woods, intending to find a relatively safe tree hollow to rest in.

"Brother Qin, look at that tree hollow over there. It seems to have traces of human modification."

Qin Huaian spotted the tree hollow as well. The tree was enormous and thick, with a diameter of eleven or twelve meters. About three meters above the ground, its trunk had a hollow nearly three meters wide and five or six meters tall.

Both sides of the hollow had been artificially trimmed, and other pieces of wood had been used to block up its entrance. A doorway tall enough for one person had been left in the middle.

Qin Huaian signaled Wang Baole to keep quiet, then carefully observed their surroundings. Only the tree hollow bore traces of human modification. The weeds and small shrubs around the tree had grown thick and lush, so no one had likely come here for a long time.

Qin Huaian slowly walked over, secretly gripping the Seven-Star Bone-Piercing Needle in his hand. When he was more than ten meters from the tree, he called out, "Is there a fellow cultivator residing here?"

There was no response for a long while. Qin Huaian picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it through the doorway, but there was still no reaction.

At that moment, the fat Wang Baole came to Qin Huaian's side and whispered, "Brother Qin, judging by the look of it, no one has been here for a long time."

"It looks like an abandoned tree hollow. Let's go in and take a look, but stay cautious."

After saying that, Qin Huaian activated the defensive formation of the Heavenly Silkworm Jade Robe and gripped the Seven-Star Bone-Piercing Needle. With a leap, he jumped up into the tree hollow.

In the corner of the tree hollow lay a set of white bones. The Daoist robe on the skeleton had long since rotted away, but the soft armor on its upper body remained intact. The soft armor was likely a defensive Dharma Artifact.

Wang Baole followed closely behind and leaped into the tree hollow as well. At a glance, he saw the skeleton and asked in surprise, "Brother Qin, this skeleton is...?"

"It should be a cultivator who passed away while meditating here. Let's go take a look."

Qin Huaian walked up to the bones, but found no information that could identify the person. Then, beside the skeleton, he discovered a storage bag lying on the ground.

After checking it, he found no restrictions on it. Its owner had likely been a Qi Refining Stage cultivator. Since Qi Refining Stage cultivators could not project their divine sense beyond their bodies, storage bags were not fitted with restrictions. Instead, items were stored and retrieved by channeling spiritual power into them.

"Only this storage bag was left behind." Qin Huaian spoke to the little fat man.

"There's actually a storage bag!" The little fat man exclaimed. He did not have a storage bag himself. Generally speaking, early Qi Refining cultivators, and even many mid Qi Refining cultivators, did not possess one. In his eyes, only wealthy cultivators owned storage bags.

"Let's see what's inside first." Qin Huaian channeled spiritual power into it. This storage bag was about the same size as the basic storage bag Qin Huaian had bought at Precious Splendor Tower. He took out the items inside.

First, he took out more than a dozen mid-grade spirit stones and several hundred low-grade spirit stones. Since this cultivator had owned a storage bag, he had most likely been at the mid or Late Qi Refinement Realm. In Qin Huaian's eyes, however, he did not have many spirit stones.

Next came a mid-grade flying sword Dharma Artifact. It was a little better than the standard-issue flying swords provided by the Yellow Mountain Sword Sect, and could be considered a fine Dharma Artifact.

The remaining items were several books, which made Qin Huaian's eyes light up. Books are the ladder of human progress! Knowledge is power! Those words flashed through his mind one by one.

Ever since coming to this world, he had been constantly on the move. The cultivation markets only sold cultivation manuals and secret arts, and their prices were exorbitant. Thus, apart from the small booklet of the Azure Splendor Art that the original owner had obtained and the Introduction to Medicinal Herbs, he had never read any other books.

He understood the importance of knowledge. Hadn't Wang Baole relied on the books left behind by his great-grandfather to begin cultivating and come to Cloudfield Market in search of an opportunity? So no matter which world one was in, knowledge changed one's fate.

When Wang Baole saw the excitement on Qin Huaian's face after he took out those books, he was greatly puzzled. Brother Qin had shown no emotional reaction even when taking out those spirit stones. Could these books be even more important? Or had Brother Qin already come to regard money as filth?

"Brother Qin, what do these books record?"

"I don't know. Let's open them and see."