A hundred years ago, when the Withered-Bone Old Devil refined his demonic skull, he rampaged almost unhindered across the State of Chu, setting off a sweeping tide of demonic chaos.
When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact. Yang Yuanqing had also joined the Chu cultivation world's war against the demonic cultivators, and in the end, he fell in that calamity.
Another century passed, until a little over ten years ago, when this cave abode was discovered by those three by sheer accident—and from then on, it became their lair.
To be fair, the three of them were cautious enough. All these years they had only ever used those half-maps to fish for prey, and they only sold them to people who looked young and inexperienced.
Precisely because of that, this "fishing law-enforcement" murder business of theirs had gone on for over a decade without being exposed.
But if you walk along the riverbank often, you're bound to get your shoes wet. Now that the three of them had capsized in Chen Nianzhi's hands, you could say this tribulation was long overdue.
"A pity… there aren't any other treasures in this cave abode."
"The spirit vein is a fine thing, though. Shame it's in the midst of this hundred-thousand-li great wilderness."
Chen Nianzhi couldn't help but shake his head. With a second-rank spirit vein, if the location were decent, it might have been enough to nurture a new Foundation Establishment cultivation clan.
But here, in the hundred-thousand-li Great Wilderness where demon beasts roamed rampant, every beast tide turned this place into the buffer battlefield between humans and monsters. It was practically impossible for mortals to survive and thrive here.
"I can only abandon this place for now."
"When the Chen clan grows stronger in the future, then we can think about putting it to use."
Having settled his thoughts, Chen Nianzhi collected the array flags of the Leaving-Fire Soul-Scorching Formation, sealed the cave entrance, disguised it properly, and then continued on his way toward Yu Commandery.
Another month slipped by. On the road, he finally took the time to open the three men's storage pouches.
What he found stunned him—between the three pouches there were over twenty mid- and low-grade first-rank artifacts, more than six hundred spirit stones, and over a dozen copied jade slip techniques.
It was obvious that most of these things had come from the cultivators those three had lured in and killed.
Most of the techniques only covered the Qi-training stage; there was only a single Foundation Establishment art. That one alone lit excitement in Chen Nianzhi's eyes.
This technique was called the Leaving-Fire Ruins Art, a rather profound Foundation Establishment cultivation method. Not only could it be cultivated all the way to the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment, it even recorded the method to refine a life-bound magic treasure.
You had to know—though the Chen clan had three Foundation Establishment techniques, only one of them, the Blazing Sun Void-Soaring Art, could reach the ninth layer.
The clan's Blazing Sun Void-Soaring Art was an extremely good Foundation technique in its own right, and it carried the Blazing Heaven Sword Talisman divine ability. But what it didn't have was a dedicated method to refine a life-bound magic treasure.
The Clan Head's old Flaming Spirit Blade was also a life-bound artifact, but it was just a generic, widely-known life-bound weapon. Its power couldn't be considered top-tier.
By contrast, while the Leaving-Fire Ruins Art didn't record any divine abilities, it did record an exceedingly superior life-bound immortal sword: the Leaving-Fire Returning-Ruins Sword.
According to the text, this sword required Millennial Red Iron as its main material, fused with Leaving-Fire Crystal, then tempered day and night for forty-nine days with two strands of five-element essence qi—Leaving-Fire and Geng-Metal—before it could take shape.
Its offensive might was terrifying. Upon first completion, it could already unleash a three-zhang sword radiance. Among life-bound treasures of the same realm, its power was counted among the very best—enough to slay demons and butcher devils. With such a sword in hand, one could roam the world, with few peers in the same cultivation realm.
"Millennial Red Iron…"
Looking at his blade embryo, Chen Nianzhi couldn't help but show delight.
This Millennial Red Iron was an extremely rare treasure. The essence of ten thousand irons formed Profound Iron.
If Profound Iron fell into an underground fire vein and was tempered night and day by earth-fire for a thousand years, burning away every impurity within and absorbing the power of the subterranean flames, it would transform into Millennial Red Iron.
When Old Devil Zhang had obtained this Millennial Red Iron, he'd been ecstatic, wanting to forge it into a top-tier life-bound demonic treasure, the Blood-Melting Demon Blade. Now that the material had fallen into Chen Nianzhi's hands, and he had encountered this superior immortal sword refining method… that truly was a fortunate coincidence.
"I just don't know where I'm supposed to get this Leaving-Fire Crystal…"
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Chen Nianzhi continued on his way home, and before long, he finally arrived at Qingyuan Mountain.
Upon returning, he went straight to the back mountain to request an audience with the old Clan Head.
The moment Chen Changxuan saw him, a flash of excitement crossed his face. He looked over with a hint of nervousness.
"Was your trip to Tianxu Mountain smooth?"
"This journey to Tianxu Mountain… I can be considered to have lived up to the task."
Chen Nianzhi nodded, took out the Meridian-Nurturing Pill, and handed it over.
The old Clan Head snatched up the pill and cracked open the jade bottle for a look. A smile immediately crept into his brows.
A few years ago, he had broken through the bottleneck to late-stage Foundation Establishment. He'd thought his path had finally smoothed out, that he might even, within this lifetime, catch a glimpse of the Purple Mansion realm.
He hadn't expected that one sudden decline would cripple him, nearly cutting off his dao path entirely. Now, with this Meridian-Nurturing Pill in hand, he finally picked up a sliver of hope again.
"With this pill, I'm confident I can restore ninety percent of my injuries within five years. After that, when I strike again, there'll be no major problems."
He couldn't help but caress the jade bottle, reluctant to let go. Only after a moment did he realize he was losing composure before his junior; he hurriedly set the pill down and asked with a smile:
"Tell me about this trip."
"Mm."
Chen Nianzhi didn't hesitate. He recounted everything that had happened on the journey.
At first, Chen Changxuan sat calm and quiet. But when he heard that the pill had been purchased from Lin Qianshu for only fifteen hundred spirit stones, his brows knitted slightly.
"I know this Lin Qianshu. She's Elder Jiang's only personal disciple."
"Her cultivation is unfathomable. They say she reached perfect Foundation Establishment many years ago already."
"A life-saving pill like the Meridian-Nurturing Pill—there'd be no shortage of people willing to pay twenty-five hundred spirit stones for it. Why would she sell it to us so cheaply?"
"I couldn't make sense of it either," Chen Nianzhi said, shaking his head. "But she didn't seem like someone with ill intent."
Chen Changxuan couldn't figure it out either, and could only nod slowly.
"Although Elder Jiang is a woman, she has guarded Chu's frontier for two hundred years. She's known as a sternly upright person who cannot stomach even a grain of sand in her eye. She shouldn't be setting up a plot against this old man."
"Perhaps it really was just looking after the younger generation. Once my injuries are healed, I'll pay my respects and thank them in person."
With that matter set aside, Chen Nianzhi went on to describe the map, Yang Yuanqing's cave, and the three "fishing" cultivators.
When he was done, the old Clan Head felt a chill run across his scalp; a hint of lingering fear crossed his face.
"Fortunately, you acted cautiously. If it had been some hot-blooded youth whose eyes were dazzled by the words 'ancient cave abode,' he'd have left his life there for sure."
"In the future, whenever you run into incidents like this, you must think long and hard. If you don't have sufficient confidence, don't act rashly."
"Back when I was traveling the cultivation world, I also ran into situations just as perilous as this…"
Chen Changxuan nagged on for quite a while, telling story after story from his century of roaming.
Chen Nianzhi listened carefully the whole time, despite the long lecture. This was experience accumulated over a hundred years by his elder—each lesson could save him from countless avoidable troubles in the days to come.