Treasure Hunting in the Cave Abode

Hearing the commotion from the ground behind him, Su Shi'er dared not let his guard down, activating one Escape Talisman after another in his hand.

At this moment, he could only secretly count his blessings. Thank goodness he had taken the time to learn and craft a batch of talismans before coming; otherwise, running into a situation like this would have been disastrous.

"This damned bitch ran so fast and still chased after me—she's dead set on finishing me off!"

Su Shi'er wore a grim expression. His plan had already succeeded; the female cultivator surnamed Chu had indeed engaged Zhao Yan in battle.

But that female cultivator broke off the fight and fled, her speed far beyond what he had anticipated.

Weaving swiftly through the underground stone forest, he could only keep running, hoping to put as much distance between them as possible.

Suddenly, his body lurched downward, crashing into an underground cavern.

Startled, Su Shi'er tried to steady himself, only to find he had already landed.

A ball of flame flickered to life in his hand, and in its light, he took in his surroundings.

What met his eyes was a hall built of piled stone. The hall stood over ten feet high, stretching twenty to thirty feet in both length and width.

On each of the four walls sat two rusted candlesticks. The entire hall was empty, save for a pile of wood shavings reduced to dust.

His gaze swept quickly; sensing no threat, he allowed himself a moment of relief.

A talisman clutched in his hand, he was about to flee again when he hesitated, pressing himself against the stone wall to wait.

Half an hour passed with no sound. Only then did he stow the talisman, letting out a long, relieved breath.

"Barely scraped by with my life. Guess I really can't underestimate anyone."

"Judging by the look of this place, there must have been furniture here once, but time turned it all to dust. Could this have been... the cave dwelling of some cultivator from the Ancient Forbidden Zone?"

Su Shi'er speculated silently, knowing full well that their trial grounds were part of an Ancient Forbidden Zone. And here, cultivators had once lived in ancient times.

His eyes swept the room, and he noticed a smaller chamber connected to the wall on his right. From that small room emanated a dense Earth Spiritual Qi.

"Hmm? Such thick Earth Spiritual Qi—could this be the location of the materials I was tracking earlier?"

Raising an eyebrow, Su Shi'er quickly pieced it together.

Casually pocketing the eight candlesticks into his Storage Pouch, he raised the flame and walked toward the small room.

The candlesticks were rusted, but the material they were made of was clearly spiritual material.

Entering the small room, his pupils dilated sharply.

Before him sat a skeleton draped in a Dharma robe, legs crossed in meditation.

Beneath the skeleton lay a meditation cushion, from which the dense Earth Spiritual Qi emanated.

Other than that, the small room held nothing else.

"So I was right—this must have been this person's cave dwelling. But I wonder what they did, why they built their home underground, and what killed them?"

Su Shi'er squinted from the doorway, silently casting a Wind Calling Technique.

A gust of wind blew, and the skeleton, along with its robes, crumbled to ash, clearly long since decayed.

Clink!

A simple, ancient blue ring rolled to the ground.

Eyeing the cushion and the ring, Su Shi'er quickly used his Object Manipulation Technique to retrieve both, then returned to the main hall.

"This cushion is actually a High-grade Magical Artifact woven from an entire second-grade spiritual plant, Earth Vine! Cultivators back then must have been ridiculously extravagant!"

"This artifact can't be used for combat... could it help with cultivation?"

Recalling the skeleton's state before it turned to dust, Su Shi'er quickly set down the cushion and sat cross-legged to test it.

As he cycled his cultivation technique, he immediately felt Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi rushing toward him. The speed at which he refined the qi was several times faster than on Cuihuan Mountain.

"The dense spiritual qi here is one thing, but the real key is this cushion—it actually accelerates the refinement of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. This... this is a treasure!"

Realizing the cushion's value, Su Shi'er's face lit up with joy.

Though he had the mysterious Pill Furnace constantly refining various pills, his spiritual root was simply too poor. Even with the pills, he could barely keep up with ordinary disciples.

If not for his relentless diligence, reaching the third level of the Qi Refining Stage in these five years would have been his limit.

But with this item, his future cultivation speed could increase further. The faster he grew stronger, the sooner he could take revenge!

After confirming the cushion's usefulness, Su Shi'er sat on it excitedly, then turned his attention to the ancient ring.

The ring felt remarkably refined in his hand, carved with intricate, archaic patterns.

Yet no matter how he examined it, Su Shi'er could detect not a trace of spiritual energy fluctuation. Still, he knew that something that had endured the ages without decaying could not be simple.

"Let's try infusing it with true essence!"

Seeing no obvious trick, Su Shi'er attempted to channel his true essence into the ring. The true essence met a thin, membranous barrier.

Raising an eyebrow, he pushed his true essence forcefully, breaking through the barrier.

In the next instant, his mind jolted, and a space of about a hundred square feet materialized in his thoughts.

"This is a storage artifact just like a Storage Pouch?! With this much space, it has to be at least a High-grade Storage Artifact, doesn't it?!"

Su Shi'er was greatly startled and quickly focused his attention to investigate.

The storage ring's space was not small, but it was completely empty inside, containing only a single cylinder about one finger long and two fingers wide, along with a jade token half the size of a palm.

With a thought, he retrieved both items from the storage ring.

Putting the storage ring on his finger, Su Shi'er hurriedly picked up the cylinder to examine it.

The cylinder was carved with ancient patterns, and three small characters were faintly visible on it: Jade Eye Tube!

"Hmm? Jade Eye Tube? I think I recall from some miscellaneous record that this was a medium used by ancient cultivators to record techniques and insights?"

Seeing those three small characters, Su Shi'er immediately remembered.

Recalling the information from that record, he pressed the Jade Eye Tube against his brow.

Instantly, several streams of information flashed through his mind. In the blink of an eye, he had absorbed all the data within the Jade Eye Tube.

"Minor Heavenly Qi Cultivation Technique? Minor Heavenly Breath Concealment Technique? Lightning Forging Technique?"

"Zhou Tian Sect! So this Jade Eye Tube was an item distributed to entry-level disciples of the Zhou Tian Sect. That means the one who sat in meditation and passed away here must have been a minor Qi Refiner among the ancient cultivators."

"But... how is it that the Minor Heavenly Qi Cultivation Technique contains twelve layers of Qi Refining Stage cultivation methods? The sect's Basic Breathing Technique clearly states that nine layers of the Qi Refining Stage mark perfection, right?"

Su Shi'er blinked, his face full of confusion.

He couldn't figure this out for now, so he had to set it aside.

"As for the Minor Heavenly Breath Concealment Technique, it can conceal one's cultivation level—that's definitely worth practicing."

"And the Lightning Forging Technique is a body-tempering method to strengthen the physique. At its peak, it can grant the body defensive power comparable to a top-grade magical artifact? Unfortunately, this technique requires the aid of weak lightning, which is not easy to manage."

With these thoughts passing through his mind, Su Shi'er turned his gaze to the other jade token.