"Roar of the Mad Lion"

"Roar of the Mad Lion"

The sun rose in the east.

After filling his stomach, Chen Xiao carefully checked over the items he needed to prepare. Once he confirmed nothing had been left out, he shouldered his bundle and hurried toward the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

Perhaps his luck had finally turned, or perhaps his increased strength had made his footwork faster, but the magical beasts blocking Chen Xiao's path today were far fewer than in the previous days.

He trekked over mountains and across rivers, and finally, at around the Shen Hour in the afternoon, Chen Xiao once again arrived at Ten Thousand Medicines Pavilion's herb-gathering area.

Looking at the familiar little basin, a smile of anticipation appeared on Chen Xiao's face.

Immediately after, without any hesitation, he temporarily hid his bundle, then carried his long saber and began searching the surrounding forest.

"Ji!"

A Red Ice Serpent hung upside down from a tree branch, and the moment it saw the intruder, it attacked without the slightest hesitation.

Chen Xiao took a step back to dodge. The long saber in his hand left its sheath, bringing up an icy-blue flash as he killed it in a single strike.

"Huh? There's actually a magic core? This is the first time."

He skillfully split open the Red Ice Serpent's corpse. When he saw that there was actually an icy-blue crystal inside, glowing with a faint radiance and slightly larger than a thumb joint, Chen Xiao was rather surprised.

But after a second thought, he had cut down over a hundred magical beasts these past few days. Even if the probability of low-rank magical beasts producing magic cores was extremely low, it was about time he triggered the pity system.

He wiped clean this commemorative magic core and put it away. Then Chen Xiao continued using his long saber to probe the path as he searched for the cave.

After nearly an hour, using the little basin as his starting point, Chen Xiao searched the surrounding area thoroughly.

At last, Heaven did not disappoint the diligent, and he found a somewhat steep cliff. Beneath the cliff was a lush, verdant forest, quite beautiful to behold.

At the sight, Chen Xiao's expression brightened. This was almost exactly the same as the description of that cave in his memory!

He quickly turned around and went back to retrieve the hidden bundle.

As everyone knew, on this continent, only those who reached above the Dou Ling level could briefly glide through the air.

At the Dou Wang level, one's Dou Qi formed wings, allowing them to truly soar through the sky.

If one could reach the Dou Zong level, crossing the void in midair as though walking on flat ground, that was when one truly looked awesome!

Chen Xiao was only a tiny Dou Zhe. If he wanted to search this kind of cliff, he could not afford to be careless. Otherwise, one misstep would easily leave him smashed to pieces.

Taking a coil of rope from the bundle, Chen Xiao firmly tied one end to a large tree nearby, while the other end he tied securely around himself.

Then, he took two foot-long iron spikes from the bundle. When probing down the cliff, he could stab them into the rock wall to steady his body. That way, even if a magical beast bit through the rope midway, he would not be in danger.

However, according to Chen Xiao's experience, low-rank magical beasts did not have that level of intelligence. He had not encountered such a situation over the past few days either.

When everything was ready, Chen Xiao shouldered his bundle and cautiously lowered his foot toward the cliff below.

The coiled rope loosened bit by bit, and Chen Xiao descended deeper and deeper along the rock wall.

After five or six minutes, Chen Xiao finally saw a small platform that looked extremely abrupt. Many broken rocks and strange trees were piled up on it, tangled together. With this kind of cover, it would easily be overlooked if one looked from afar or from below.

"All the time I spent wasn't wasted. I finally found you!"

Thanks to how close he was, Chen Xiao could see that behind the broken rocks and strange trees, there was something else hidden away.

He immediately confirmed that this was where the cave was!

Pulling out the iron spike embedded in the rock wall, Chen Xiao planted his foot against the cliff and abruptly borrowed force. Like a leopard, he shot out and landed steadily before the pile of broken rocks.

He untied the rope from his body and fixed it to the side.

Looking at the messy pile of rocks and strange trees before him, Chen Xiao took a deep breath. Dou Qi circulated through his entire body, and a fierce force pushed out from his palm.

Crackle, snap—

The sound of tumbling rocks mixed with the sound of wood breaking, leaving the small platform in a complete mess.

Chen Xiao raised his palm again to clear it. After several palm strikes in succession, the broken rocks and wood chips on the small platform were instantly swept away, and even the space suddenly became much wider.

After finishing all this, Chen Xiao turned his gaze toward the cave that had already had its cover removed.

Without the concealment of trees and broken rocks, and with the ample daylight, he could finally make out the scene inside the cave.

The entrance was very narrow, only wide enough for two or three people to pass through. The cave interior was dark, but there was faint light spreading from within, giving it a rather mysterious feeling of leading into the hidden depths.

After carefully recalling the original course of events, in which Xiao Yan and Xiao Yi Xian did not encounter any danger here, Chen Xiao finally groped his way inside with ninety percent vigilance.

After advancing slowly for several minutes, a stone door emitting a faint yellow light blocked the way ahead.

Chen Xiao slapped it hard. Rock solid.

Wanting to break it open by brute force would be somewhat difficult even with his strength.

"Within seven steps, there must be an antidote..."

After recalling it again, Chen Xiao bent down and carefully searched the surroundings.

He did not spend too much effort. In less than five minutes, Chen Xiao found a small protrusion beside the stone door.

Using his saber in place of his hand, he pressed it hard.

Immediately after, amid a series of creaking sounds, the tightly closed stone door rumbled upward, revealing the passage behind it. An even brighter pale-yellow light spread out from within, driving away all the darkness nearby.

Chen Xiao took out a fire starter and blew it alight, then tossed it inside. After half a minute passed and still nothing unexpected happened, Chen Xiao strode in.

After taking another dozen steps, the view before him suddenly opened up.

This was a spacious stone chamber!

The stone chamber looked rather simple and empty. Moonlight Stones used for illumination were embedded in the walls, and in the center of the stone chamber stood a chair. Seated upright on it was a stark-white skeleton.

"Sorry to disturb you so abruptly. Please don't take offense."

Chen Xiao gave the skeleton a slight bow and muttered under his breath before turning his gaze elsewhere.

In front of the chair stood a broad, long bluestone platform. On it were three locked stone boxes, arranged neatly in a row.

In addition, in three corners of the stone chamber, there were large piles of gold coins dumped casually like trash, each pile about a meter high.

With only a rough estimate, Chen Xiao knew there were probably hundreds of thousands of them!

"Mine! They're all mine!"

The smile on his face could no longer be suppressed. Chen Xiao strode forward, scooped up a handful of gold coins, and listened to that pleasant clattering sound, feeling it was simply music to his ears.

There was no helping it. He had been frightened by poverty in the previous years.

After rolling around on the piles of gold coins a few times and venting his wild joy at suddenly becoming rich, Chen Xiao finally gradually calmed down.

Then he turned his gaze toward the last corner of the stone chamber.

There were no gold coins piled there. In their place was a Small Flower Bed built up with soil.

All kinds of medicinal herbs were planted in the flower bed, and a mixed yet rich medicinal fragrance rushed into his nose.

There were many medicinal herbs among them that Chen Xiao could not even name accurately.

Once reason returned, Chen Xiao understood that the value of these medicinal herbs was only higher, not lower, than those gold coins estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands.

Chen Xiao even remembered that one of the essential medicinal herbs Xiao Yan needed to refine the Blood Lotus Pill had been obtained here.

"I'll have to think carefully about how to deal with these medicinal herbs. How to take them all away is also a headache..."

Looking around, Chen Xiao experienced the troubles of happiness for the first time.

Three huge piles of gold coins and dozens of medicinal herbs—he could not fit them all even if he burst his bundle.

Without a Storage Ring on hand, troublesome matters like this were bound to happen.

"I can only bring them back in batches. Once I get to Wu Tan City, I have to get myself a Storage Ring!"

Having made up his mind, Chen Xiao rose and walked over to the bluestone platform.

His gaze shifted, and he soon spotted three black keys hanging from the joints of the withered bone hand behind the stone table.

"Once again, thank you, Senior."

After murmuring this, Chen Xiao took down the keys and tried to open the stone boxes.

Three keys, three stone boxes. Even if he made a mistake along the way, it was easy to match them up.

Very soon, Chen Xiao opened the first stone box.

Inside was a dark-red scroll.

"'Roar of the Mad Lion,' Mystic High-Rank Dou Skill!"