Listening to the commotion from the ground behind him, Su Shi'er did not dare let down his guard in the slightest, using Escape Talismans one after another.
At this moment, he could only secretly rejoice. Fortunately, before coming here, he had deliberately spent time learning and making a pile of talismans. Otherwise, if he encountered a situation like this, he would be utterly doomed.
"That damned bitch runs so fast! She even came after me—she's determined to kill me!"
Su Shi'er looked thoroughly depressed. His plan had succeeded: the female cultivator surnamed Chu had indeed clashed with Zhao Yan.
But he had not expected the female cultivator to disengage so quickly after fighting.
Rapidly weaving through the underground stone forest, he could only keep running, hoping to widen the distance between himself and the two as soon as possible.
Suddenly, his body dropped sharply, and he crashed into an underground cavern.
Su Shi'er was startled. Just as he was about to steady himself, he realized he had already landed.
A ball of fire appeared in his hand. In the next moment, by its light, he clearly saw the situation below.
Before him stood a hall built of stone. It was over ten feet high and two or three dozen feet long and wide.
Two rusted candlesticks stood against each of the four walls. The entire hall was empty, save for a pile of wooden debris reduced to powder.
His gaze swept rapidly over the area. Finding no threat, he finally relaxed somewhat.
He quickly pinched an Escape Talisman between his fingers. Just as he was about to flee again, he hesitated and pressed himself against the stone wall to wait.
Half an hour passed without any sign of movement. Only then did he put away the Escape Talisman and let out a long breath, his heart still pounding with lingering fear.
"I finally picked my life back up. It seems I truly can't underestimate anyone!"
"Judging by the state of this place, there should have been furniture here before, but time reduced it to dust. Could this... once have been a cave dwelling belonging to a cultivator from the Ancient Forbidden Zone?"
Su Shi'er silently speculated. He knew that the place where they were undergoing their trial was an Ancient Forbidden Zone, and cultivators had once been active here in ancient times.
His eyes swept around, and he noticed that one wall on the right connected to a smaller room. Dense earth spiritual qi was emanating from within it.
"Hm? Such dense earth spiritual qi... could this be where the material I tracked before is located?"
Su Shi'er raised an eyebrow and immediately understood.
He casually put the eight candlesticks into his Storage Pouch, then held up the fireball and walked toward the smaller room.
The candlesticks were already rusted, but the material used to make them was clearly spiritual material.
Upon entering the small room, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Before him was a skeleton dressed in a magical robe, sitting cross-legged.
Beneath the skeleton lay a meditation cushion. The dense earth spiritual qi was emanating from that cushion.
Other than that, there was nothing else in the small room.
"It seems my guess was right. This should be this person's cave dwelling. But what kind of person was he? Why did he build his cave dwelling underground, and what caused his death?"
Su Shi'er narrowed his eyes as he stood at the doorway, quietly casting a Wind Calling Technique.
When the wind blew, the skeleton and its clothing instantly turned into flying ash. They had clearly weathered into dust long ago.
Clink!
A blue, ancient-looking ring then rolled onto the ground.
Looking at the meditation cushion and ring on the floor, Su Shi'er hurriedly used the Object Manipulation Technique to draw both items over, then returned to the main hall.
"This meditation cushion is actually a high-grade magical artifact woven from an entire second-grade spiritual plant, Earth Vine! Cultivators in the past were far too extravagant!"
"This magical artifact certainly can't be used in battle. Could it... be of some help in cultivation?"
Remembering the skeleton's posture before it turned to ash, Su Shi'er hurriedly set down the meditation cushion and sat cross-legged on it to give it a try.
As the cultivation technique within his body began circulating, he immediately felt Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi rushing toward him. His speed of refining spiritual qi was several times faster than it had been at Cuihuan Mountain.
"The dense Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi here is one factor, but the key is this meditation cushion. It can actually accelerate the refinement of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. This... this is a real treasure!"
Upon discovering the meditation cushion's marvelous effect, Su Shi'er's face immediately lit up with joy.
Although he had the mysterious Pill Furnace to continuously refine all kinds of pills, his Spiritual Root was truly too poor. Even with the help of pills, he could only barely keep pace with ordinary disciples.
If he had not been diligent enough, reaching the third level of the Qi Refining Stage over these five years would likely have been his limit.
But with this item, his future cultivation speed could become even faster. Only by increasing his strength faster could he take revenge sooner!
After confirming the meditation cushion's use, Su Shi'er sat upon it excitedly before turning his gaze to the ancient ring.
The ring felt extraordinary the moment it entered his hand, and an ancient pattern was carved upon it.
Yet no matter how Su Shi'er examined it, he could not sense even the slightest spiritual energy fluctuation from it. Still, he knew that an object able to endure the passage of time without decay could not be simple.
"Let's try injecting True Yuan into it!"
Unable to make anything of it, Su Shi'er tried channeling True Yuan into it. When the True Yuan touched the ring, it was as though it had struck a thin membrane.
Su Shi'er raised an eyebrow, and his True Yuan surged forward, directly breaking through that membrane.
In the next moment, his mind shook, and a space roughly one hundred cubic feet in size appeared in his consciousness.
"This is actually a storage artifact like a Storage Pouch?! With such a large space, it must at least be a High-grade storage artifact, right?!"
Su Shi'er was greatly shocked and hurriedly focused his attention to inspect the storage ring's interior.
The space was not small, but it was completely empty, containing only a cylindrical tube one finger long and two fingers wide, as well as a jade token half the size of a palm.
With a thought, he removed both items from the storage ring.
After putting the storage ring on his finger, Su Shi'er hurriedly picked up the cylinder to inspect it.
Ancient patterns were carved upon the cylinder, and three small words could vaguely be seen: Jade Eye Tube!
"Hm? A Jade Eye Tube? It seems some miscellaneous record mentioned that this was a medium ancient cultivators used to record cultivation techniques and insights?"
The instant he saw those three words, Su Shi'er recalled it.
Recalling the information mentioned in the miscellaneous record, he pressed the Jade Eye Tube against his forehead.
Several streams of information immediately flashed through his mind. In the blink of an eye, he had absorbed the contents of 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 the Zhou Tian Sect issued to newly admitted disciples. That means the person who died in meditation should have merely been a minor Qi Refiner among the ancient cultivators."
"But... this Minor Heavenly Qi Cultivation Technique actually contains circulation methods for twelve levels of the Qi Refining Stage. What is going on? The sect's Basic Breathing Technique clearly states that the ninth level of the Qi Refining Stage is perfection, doesn't it?"
Su Shi'er blinked, his face full of confusion.
For the moment, he could not figure out the answer to this question and could only set it aside.
"Still, this Minor Heavenly Breath Concealment Technique can conceal one's cultivation. I should learn that."
"And the Lightning Forging Technique is actually a body-tempering cultivation method that strengthens the physique. At its peak, it can grant the body defensive power comparable to a top-grade magical artifact? Unfortunately, this technique requires weak lightning, making it difficult to practice."
As his thoughts turned, Su Shi'er shifted his gaze to the other jade token.
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