Treasure Underground?

The mountain wind at the cliff's edge carried a biting chill, whipping Lu Ze's blue-green martial outfit into a flutter.

He stood beside the cliff, watching the mercenary squad grow more distant along the mountain path below. Only when the youth carrying something pitch-black on his back disappeared completely into the forest did he withdraw his gaze.

With a slight stir of his thoughts, the mysterious state that perfectly blended his presence into the surrounding vegetation quietly faded.

"Don't Observe Me."

Lu Ze murmured softly, raising his hand to look at the trace of gray Qi lingering on his fingertips.

This immortal art from another dimension concealed him on a conceptual level far beyond anything the concealment Dou Techniques of the Dou Qi Continent could match.

Even soul perception on Yao Lao's level would only take him for an ordinary mortal without deliberately probing him.

Of course, the cost was considerable. Maintaining it for half an incense stick had consumed forty percent of his freshly recovered four-star Dou Qi, and even his soul power felt faintly depleted.

"At my current realm, I can use it three times a day at most."

Lu Ze calculated inwardly, clasped his hands behind his back, and turned to dart along the steep mountainside toward the Myriad Medicine Pavilion.

By the time he returned to the Myriad Medicine Pavilion, it was evening.

The setting sun's lingering rays dyed the flagstone streets gold, and the Myriad Medicine Pavilion's sign looked especially timeworn in the dusk.

As soon as he entered the rear courtyard, a rich medicinal scent washed over him. Xiao Yi Xian sat at the stone table in the courtyard, holding a silver balance as she carefully weighed several freshly gathered medicinal herbs.

Hearing his footsteps, she raised her head. A smile spread across her lovely, ethereal face, and the taut line of her shoulders relaxed with it.

"My lord, you're back."

Xiao Yi Xian set down the silver balance and hurried over. She looked him up and down, only breathing a sigh of relief after confirming that he had suffered no new injuries.

"Has there been any movement from the Wolf Head Mercenary Group?"

Lu Ze walked over to the stone table, picked up a cup of tea, and took a sip as he asked casually.

"I don't think so..." Xiao Yi Xian shook her head and offered him a clean cloth.

"After Lang Ya went back, Mu Li stopped troubling me. Everyone in town says the Wolf Head Mercenary Group has recently pulled all its people back to its base."

Lu Ze took the cloth and wiped his hands.

Still waiting? That old fox Mu Li had spent half his life rolling along a knife's edge.

Without knowing what he was up against, he wouldn't readily tear away the facade of civility.

"Then let him keep waiting."

Lu Ze tossed the cloth onto the table.

"Keep refining medicine. I'm going into seclusion in the quiet chamber. Whatever happens over the next few days, don't disturb me."

"Yes, my lord."

Xiao Yi Xian nodded obediently and turned to continue processing the medicinal ingredients.

The quiet chamber in the Myriad Medicine Pavilion's rear courtyard was built from thick blocks of blue stone, with simple soundproofing formations arranged around it. It was exceptionally quiet.

Lu Ze sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion in the middle and slowly closed his eyes.

His awareness sank into his body, and that strange inward view unfolded once more.

The pale-yellow mass of Qi in his lower abdomen, which represented his four-star Dou Zhe realm, circulated slowly along the route of the Jia Lie Family's Breathing Technique.

Although this low Yellow Tier cultivation method had accompanied him for three years, it was ultimately far too crude. The Dou Qi it refined was somewhat impure, which was also the fundamental reason his Dou Qi had recovered slowly during his earlier battles against opponents above his level.

With a stir of his thoughts, he activated "Answer to the Beggar Under the Mulberry."

In an instant, an ancient, desolate sense rippled through his mind.

Under the immortal art's enhancement, the once obscure and incomprehensible meridian circulation route became astonishingly clear.

As though drawn by some supreme force, the pale-yellow Qi vortex abruptly began spinning faster.

"Hiss! Hiss!"

Faint sounds of rushing wind came from within his body. The faint energy drifting through the surrounding air followed his breathing, turning into threads of pure Qi that poured into his meridians.

Filtered through the immortal art's circulation route, the somewhat impure, pale-yellow Dou Qi began undergoing a qualitative change.

Its impurities were stripped away bit by bit. The Dou Qi gradually deepened from pale yellow to dark yellow, until a faint, crystalline jade luster finally appeared over it.

Although the Qi vortex had not grown larger, the Dou Qi within it was several times denser than before.

Was this the depth of an immortal cultivation method?

Lu Ze felt a little pleased. After just one night of circulation, the Dou Qi in his body had become almost ten percent purer.

If he could fully develop this cultivation method to perfection, it would probably leave even Earth Tier Cultivation Methods far behind.

After an unknown length of time, Lu Ze slowly opened his eyes, a deep glimmer flashing through them.

His Dou Qi had returned to its peak condition, and there were even faint signs of a breakthrough to five-star Dou Zhe.

He stood, loosened his somewhat stiff muscles and joints, and looked toward a bamboo basket in the corner of the quiet chamber.

It held the medicinal dregs Xiao Yi Xian had discarded after refining medicine, which still retained faint medicinal potency and traces of magical beast blood.

"I'll try Drinking the Blood of the People."

Lu Ze walked over to the bamboo basket, turned his right palm downward, and gently pressed it onto a pile of waste mixed with Iron-Armored Flame Spider blood.

As his thoughts stirred, an invisible plundering force emerged from his palm.

With a hum, the waste in the bamboo basket trembled slightly. Threads of blood-red Blood Qi barely visible to the naked eye, along with faint medicinal potency, were drawn out and flowed into Lu Ze's body through his palm.

This Blood Qi made one circuit through his meridians before finally becoming a thread of pure Dou Qi and merging into the Qi acupoint in his lower abdomen.

"Although each absorption yields only a little, its advantage is that it nourishes me directly without needing refinement."

Lu Ze looked at the medicinal dregs crumbling into ash beneath his hand and pondered inwardly.

If I used it on a battlefield, I could plunder an enemy's Blood Qi and Dou Qi directly after killing them. Not bad.

Withdrawing his hand, Lu Ze sat cross-legged again.

Next was [Earth Shaman].

This divine ability focused on communicating with the earth's veins and borrowing Earth Qi.

He formed an exceedingly strange seal with both hands, crossing his index fingers and lightly pressing his thumbs together.

Hum!

An invisible ripple spread from him, quietly seeping into the underground layers of rock.

Lu Ze's consciousness seemed to follow the course of the earth's veins, extending continuously through the darkness.

He saw the Qi of the earth's veins flowing steadily beneath the Myriad Medicine Pavilion and sensed the weight of the soil and stone.

Then his perception continued spreading north, crossing the streets and passing beyond the edge of town before finally arriving beneath the Langya Mercenary Group's base.

Suddenly, Lu Ze's brow furrowed slightly.

Dozens of zhang beneath the Wolf Head Mercenary Group's base, a concealed, violent energy fluctuation was actually mixed into the otherwise steady earth veins. That fluctuation carried some of the scorching heat of the fire attribute.

As well as a sharp presence unique to metal.

"What's this?"

Lu Ze's thoughts stirred. He immediately severed his perception and opened his eyes.

There was actually something like this hidden beneath the Wolf Head Mercenary Group?

According to the information Ya Fei had provided, the Wolf Head Mercenary Group had plundered the mountains for years, and quite a few valuable things were hidden in its treasury.

But this energy fluctuation was clearly not something ordinary gold coins or Magic Cores could emit.

Could it be some kind of fire-attribute treasure?

Lu Ze lightly tapped his knee with his fingertips, his gaze gradually deepening.

Originally, he had only intended to use Ya Fei's influence to sweep through the Wolf Head Mercenary Group's treasury and take its wealth and Magic Cores.

But now it seemed these muddy waters ran much deeper than he had thought.

"Mu Li, oh, Mu Li, just what good thing have you hidden underground?"