Returning Laden

In the corner behind the skeleton stood a wooden rack nearly as tall as an adult.

The rack had several shelves, scattered with books.

Jiang Fu'an leaned closer for a look, and his heart immediately sank halfway.

The covers of those books were all coated in mold, giving off a stale, rotten smell.

He extended two fingers and carefully pinched a corner of one book's cover, intending to open it and take a look.

But the moment his fingertips touched the inner pages, the paper burst apart like bubbles, crumbling into powder with a rustle before he could even make out the writing.

He froze for a moment, regret welling up in his heart.

These were things collected by a Foundation Establishment cultivator...

He shook his head, flicking the mold powder from his fingertips. Unwilling to give up so easily, he carefully examined the books on the shelf one by one.

As it turned out, he really did find something new amid the moldy, rotting books.

They were several scrolls bound in beast hide.

The hides had hardened and darkened with age, but they still felt sturdy to the touch, neither broken nor rotten.

He drew out one of the scrolls and slowly unrolled it with the utmost care.

The first thing that met his eyes was three characters written in the script of the Song Kingdom—Cloud-Soaring Steps.

What followed were diagrams of human movements, accompanied by densely packed written explanations.

Jiang Fu'an gave them a quick scan, and his brows gradually furrowed.

This is a mundane lightness skill!

He was rather disappointed.

He had originally hoped to find an immortal cultivation technique like the Eternal Spring Technique.

But on second thought, it made sense.

How could truly precious cultivation manuals be casually left out on a bookshelf?

They would surely be stored somewhere secure, such as a Storage Ring.

With that thought, his heart settled somewhat. He did not look further, casually stuffed the beast-hide scroll into the basket on his back, and continued feeling around the shelves.

Afterward, he found several more beast-hide scrolls. Without exception, they recorded mundane martial arts involving fists, kicks, sabers, and swords.

The remaining paper books had long since decayed beyond recognition and could not even be touched.

It seemed that this rack had nothing more to offer.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, the corner of his eye caught sight of a round outline in the innermost corner of the bottom shelf, half-buried in dust.

He bent down and brushed aside the loose dust, only to discover that it was an egg.

The egg was as large as his palm. Its shell was grayish-white and rough, several times larger than an egg laid by the big white geese raised at home.

An egg hidden inside a cultivator's dwelling... it can't possibly be an ordinary bird egg, can it?

Though he could not identify it, he had already concluded that it was no ordinary object.

He intended to put the egg into his basket as well.

But the moment he picked it up, a hole was revealed where the egg had originally rested.

It was about as thick as a thigh, pitch-black, its depths impossible to see at a glance.

Afraid that some ferocious beast might be hiding inside, Jiang Fu'an did not dare look any longer and silently stepped back two paces.

He took out the cloak from his basket, carefully wrapped the egg in several layers, then gently placed it at the bottom of the basket.

On the other side of the bookshelf, a wooden desk stood against the wall.

A brush rack, an inkstone, and a stack of paper had been neatly arranged on it.

Under the erosion of time, the inkstone had cracked and the paper had yellowed and grown moldy. Only one writing brush resting at an angle on the brush rack faintly glimmered with a layer of light.

Jiang Fu'an's gaze was drawn to it, and he reached out to take it.

The instant the brush entered his hand, he immediately sensed that something was wrong.

It was far heavier than an ordinary writing brush.

The brush handle was icy-cold and hard to the touch, possessing the distinctive texture of metal. Fine patterns had also been carved across its surface.

He had never seen such a brush before.

Another good thing...

He muttered under his breath and, without hesitation, tucked the brush into his clothes, keeping it close to his body.

As for the other ordinary brushes on the rack, along with the cracked inkstone, he did not disdain them either and collected them all into his basket.

Next, his attention fell upon that stack of moldy blank paper.

The paper had been badly damaged by dampness, sticking together, its edges already rotted into wispy fibers.

Yet he refused to give up, carefully lifting them apart layer by layer with his fingers.

When he reached the middle, his fingertips suddenly touched a completely different texture.

His spirits lifted, and he gently pulled that stack of items out.

There were more than ten palm-sized sheets of paper, pale yellow in color, with an even, crisp texture, as though they had just been made.

He suddenly recalled the metal writing brush tucked in his clothes, and a thought stirred in his heart.

Could these be talisman paper? Is that brush a talisman brush?

Unfortunately, he knew nothing whatsoever about talismans and had no way to confirm it.

So he carefully folded up the small stack of paper and tucked it into his clothes with the brush, intending to study them after returning.

Every place in the cave that could be searched had already been checked once.

Jiang Fu'an shouldered his considerably heavier basket and prepared to leave.

When he reached the area near the cave entrance, he suddenly stopped and looked back into the cave.

If that transparent wall that had blocked him outside earlier truly was a formation, then might the artifact that set up the formation still be hidden somewhere in the dwelling?

Once that thought arose, he could no longer hold himself back.

He set down his basket, crouched, and began feeling along the cave walls inch by inch.

Sure enough, in the corner of the wall to the right of the entrance, his fingertips touched something hard.

After brushing aside the loose soil, the tip of a finger-thick metal rod was revealed.

Jiang Fu'an hurriedly pulled a small iron shovel from the side pocket of his basket and carefully dug around the rod.

The soil was loose, and it did not take much effort for him to dig the entire thing out.

It turned out to be a metal rod roughly half a meter long, dull and dark all over, icy-cold in his hand.

He did not inspect it closely. He set it aside, then repeated the process and continued searching the other corners of the dwelling.

After about a quarter of an hour, he had found six similar metal rods and a circular compass as large as a washbasin.

The compass seemed to be made of copper, yet not copper. Five gray stones the size of quail eggs were embedded in its surface.

He reached out, wanting to pry one loose for a look. But the instant his fingertips touched the stone's surface, it silently turned into a pinch of powder and fell away with a rustle.

The other four crumbled at a touch as well. In the blink of an eye, only five sunken pits remained on the compass.

Jiang Fu'an stared blankly for a moment, then understood.

Those stones were likely the Spirit Stones that had sustained the formation. After the passage of countless years, their spiritual power had long since dissipated.

He stuffed the compass and the six metal rods into his basket, looked around the dwelling once more, and only after confirming that nothing had been overlooked did he finally rise and leave.

Outside the cave, the wind and snow had not ceased, but the sky had already begun to show a hazy gray-white.

Jiang Fu'an estimated that there were less than two hours left before the roosters crowed.

He had to hurry back. Otherwise, Su Wanqing would worry if she woke and could not find him.

On the way back, he remained alert to the movements around him, but his thoughts could not help drifting to the ring worn on the skeleton's finger bone.

If it truly was a Storage Ring, there was no way he could open it in his current state.

Forcing it open was even less possible. What if the ring contained a self-destruct restriction? Would that not mean drawing water with a bamboo basket and coming up empty?

As for finding someone to help...

He did know a cultivator—Ma Ping, whom he had met at the Wang Family last time.

Like him, Ma Ping possessed a Five-Element Spiritual Root, but his luck had been far better. In his early years, he had encountered an immortal opportunity and embarked on the path of cultivation.

Although no great sect had taken a fancy to him, the Wang Family of Clear Dew Mountain had favored him. He married the Wang Family's eldest young lady, said to possess peerless beauty, and became a live-in son-in-law.

When cultivators joined together, their descendants had a greater chance of possessing Spiritual Roots.

The two of them really had borne a daughter with a Three-Element Spiritual Root—the female cultivator who had now successfully reached Foundation Establishment in the Melodious Sound Sect.

The last time they drank together, Ma Ping had spoken frankly and carried no airs, leaving Jiang Fu'an with a fairly good impression.

But handing the Storage Ring over to him to help open it...

Jiang Fu'an shook his head.

A person's heart was hidden behind their belly; the risk was too great.

As for other ways to open the Storage Ring, he would either have to wait until Seedling attained success in cultivation someday, or walk the path of cultivation himself.

Neither path was anything he could count on right now.

Thinking it over, the cloak he had obtained this time, the suspected talisman brush and talisman paper, that giant egg, and the formation artifacts he had just dug up would likely be of no use in the short term.

The things he could use right now were instead those martial arts manuals copied onto beast hide.

Back in the cave, he had not thought much of mundane martial arts.

But when he considered it carefully now, if a Foundation Establishment cultivator had specifically collected them and copied them onto durable beast hide, how could they possibly be ordinary goods found everywhere?

He made up his mind to study them carefully after he returned.

Just as he was thinking this, a chill suddenly shot up his back, as though something were staring at him with unblinking eyes.

He instantly came back to his senses and whirled around—

On a snowy slope dozens of meters away, three pairs of faint green lights glowed in the darkness, motionlessly staring in his direction.