Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Here, the mountain was sealed off to search for spirit objects. Besides the stationed military and the cultivators responsible for the search, there were also behind-the-scenes support personnel, such as those in charge of coordinating and scheduling. For a mountain this large, a carpet search required efficiency, and such behind-the-scenes planning naturally needed experienced and skilled people.

There were also those responsible for daily life. With several camps set up, food and drink naturally needed to be arranged. Seeing Bai Zhizhi playing with the fish, Jiang Lin remembered that there was a master chef in the kitchen who was particularly good at grilling fish, so he asked if Zhizhi wanted some.

The master chef was more than happy to grill fish for them—they were cultivators, and building a good relationship could only bring benefits.

Grilled fish was the master chef's signature dish. The fish served was fragrant, with a crispy skin and tender, sweet meat, paired with a special sauce. It tasted so good that Bai Zhizhi almost couldn't resist taking out some spirit beast meat to have him grill it too. If ordinary fish could be this delicious, spirit fish would surely taste even better.

Just as they were enjoying the meal, Yue Yanting and Ren Daoan came running over quickly: "Brother Jiang, we found something!"

Jiang Lin put down his chopsticks and stood up to walk over: "What did you find?"

Yue Yanting handed Jiang Lin a bag of ginseng that looked like weeds, and said, "Brother An found some ginseng at a crevice in the mountain. They looked like they'd been gnawed by some animal, and the roots were already dug up. Thinking they probably wouldn't survive, we just dug them out and brought them back. After we dug up the outer ones, there was another one left in the stone crevice."

Ren Daoan added, "I tried to use my spiritual energy to pull the ginseng out of the stone crevice, but unexpectedly, as soon as my spiritual energy probed in, it was absorbed."

Just then, Yue Yanting found him and told him about the Lady Painting and the key treasure, which immediately made him realize that this area might be the place they were looking for.

Jiang Lin said to Yue Yanting, "Go get Xiao Yu. We'll go up and take a look."

Bai Zhizhi, carrying his unfinished grilled fish, also followed along. He needed to keep an eye on things.

After marking the key restricted area, Jiang Lin and Xiao Yu each led a few people up the mountain.

The mountain crevice Ren Daoan had found was at the junction of two mountains. The crevice was so narrow that even a thin child couldn't pass through, making it impossible to enter.

Before Jiang Lin could act, Xiao Yu stepped forward and sent a blast of spiritual energy into the crevice. The energy didn't penetrate the entire gap; instead, it dissipated about halfway in, as if something inside had absorbed it.

Xiao Yu looked at Jiang Lin. Jiang Lin took out the key. Almost instantly, spiritual energy surged out of the key in waves, and the entire key was pulled away by a powerful external force, flying into midair.

Xu Mo, standing behind Xiao Yu, quickly took out an instrument to record the scene for future study and analysis.

The spiritual energy within the key seemed endless as it poured out. The overflow gradually formed a formation in midair. The great array was visibly being filled by the key's spiritual energy. Once the formation was complete, a gap opened in the middle of the massive circular array, but the light inside was so blinding that it was impossible to see within.

Jiang Lin glanced at Xiao Yu, who nodded back and turned to Xu Mo, saying, "Notify the Administration Bureau and have them send people over. Old Jiang and I will go in and investigate."

Xu Mo nodded: "Be careful."

Jiang Lin said, "Dao'an, come with me. Yanting, you stay outside. Hull's people have been watching our movements. This can't be hidden, so the outside is up to you."

Bai Zhizhi, who had been following nearby, said disdainfully, "You guys are so long-winded. I'm going to see what's inside."

With that, he darted in first. Jiang Lin, afraid of danger inside, quickly followed, with Xiao Yu right behind him and Ren Daoan immediately chasing after them.

Passing through the blinding gap, they landed on a pile of rubble. It was clear they had entered a secret realm. The spiritual energy here was much denser than outside, but as far as the eye could see, there was no greenery—only rock walls and rubble.

Jiang Lin stepped forward and grabbed Bai Zhizhi: "We don't know what's inside. Don't run off. If there's a fierce beast in here, we might not be able to handle it."

Bai Zhizhi replied, "I'm not running off. This place is so desolate, just rocks. Can there really be treasure here?"

Ren Daoan, on guard around them, frowned slightly: "Are these just ordinary stones, or are they like the Water Spirit Crystal we saw earlier, only wrapped in a stone shell?"

Hearing this, Xiao Yu picked up a stone from the ground, squeezed it hard, and crushed it to dust. But there was nothing inside—just an ordinary stone.

"Could it be that the spiritual energy here is so scarce that the entire energy field has withered and decayed?"

"That was possible. In some places, secret realms were over-mined until they collapsed. Others, perhaps having lost the support of their core power, could no longer grow any spirit objects, and even if they hadn't collapsed, they had become barren wastelands."

While they were observing their surroundings, Bai Zhizhi looked down at his feet. Jiang Lin noticed his action and asked, "What's wrong?"

Bai Zhizhi stomped his foot a few times, then flung out a Thousand Feather Fan. As the fan unfolded, it instantly expanded under Bai Zhizhi's spiritual energy. The next second, Bai Zhizhi leaped up, sat on the fan, and flew into the air.

The three below were just wondering about his actions when they felt the ground shaking beneath them, nearly losing their balance and falling.

All three were experienced cultivators and immediately sensed danger. They each took out their magic tools and jumped to find stable ground.

Soon, they realized they couldn't escape. No matter where they jumped, the shaking underfoot grew stronger, because the place they were standing on wasn't a pile of rubble at all—it was the back of a giant beast.

The sleeping beast sensed four unfamiliar presences, and these four intruders were standing on its back. Enraged, it lifted its tail and struck hard.

When the slender but thick tail, like a snake's, swept toward them, the three dodged in different directions, rolling and scrambling to avoid it. But the beast was enormous—it looked like a giant serpent. A single twist or turn could crush them with no room to escape.

Bai Zhizhi called down from above: "Left side, it's coming from the left!"

Xiao Yu didn't realize Bai Zhizhi was warning him; he thought he was talking to Jiang Lin. As a result, the giant serpent rolled left and nearly crushed him. Fortunately, Jiang Lin acted quickly and pulled him to safety.

Bai Zhizhi said, "Oh dear, I told you it was coming from the left."

Ren Daoan made several leaps across the serpent's body and ran to Jiang Lin's side. At times like this, they needed to join forces to have a better chance of winning.

Bai Zhizhi shouted, "Tail's coming!"

Jiang Lin sidestepped and raised his longsword to block. With a loud bang, the sword clashed against the serpent's tail as if hitting unyielding stone. His hand went numb from the impact, and the sword nearly flew out of his grip, but the serpent's tail showed no damage at all.

Xiao Yu watched as the serpent seemed to fully awaken, coiling its body tighter and tighter around them. His face grew grim: "This beast's defense is too strong."

They still hadn't even clearly seen what the beast was. It looked like a snake in shape, but it had no scales—instead, its body was covered in hard, protruding stones.

Ren Daoan looked up and shouted to Bai Zhizhi: "Zhizhi, stop watching the show! Give us a hand!"

Bai Zhizhi shook his head helplessly: "You guys are useless."

Despite his disdain, he threw down a strip of white silk: "Hold on tight."

The three immediately grabbed hold of the silk, and Bai Zhizhi pulled hard, lifting them onto his fan.

Below, the giant serpent followed their scent, raised its head, and opened its mouth wide, revealing two rows of sharp fangs that made everyone's scalp tighten.

Ren Daoan hissed: "If it bites, it could swallow a person whole."

Jiang Lin scanned the serpent's body, looking for its weak spot. With such a huge snake coiled at the entrance, they couldn't explore the secret realm further without dealing with it.

Xiao Yu clearly disagreed with fighting head-on: "I think we should retreat first. This snake is too big, and its body is covered in stone, not scales. We don't even know if the 'seven inches' spot is its weakness. My portable camera has recorded it; let's go back and figure out a plan."

Jiang Lin reminded him, "The entrance portal is sustained by the key. The key is filled with spiritual energy, enough to support the opening and closing of such a large secret realm. How many times do you think it can withstand the consumption of going in and out?"

Whether to retreat or continue wasn't Ren Daoan's concern; he only needed to watch the beast below.

The giant beast, sensing their presence above, suddenly reared up. The stones piled on its body clattered down, and even just lifting half its body, it nearly reached them in midair.

Ren Daoan quickly called out: "Fly higher! It's about to get us!"

Seeing that dodging like this wouldn't work, Jiang Lin tightened his grip on his sword and said to Ren Daoan, "Find a chance to go deeper and see what you can. Don't push your luck. If you encounter danger, retreat directly."

Before Jiang Lin could jump down, Bai Zhizhi grabbed him by the collar: "Why make things so complicated? Watch me."

As he spoke, he took out a small porcelain bottle from his storage item, opened it, and with a casual wave, the medicinal powder inside was scattered and drifted away with the wind. The giant stone python that was chasing the Thousand Feather Fan with its mouth wide open, trying to bite it, paused and then sneezed.

The three humans on the Thousand Feather Fan were speechless. It was the first time they had seen a snake sneeze.

The next second, after sneezing, the giant python retracted its body, writhed on the ground a couple of times as if trying to rub off the scent, and when it found it couldn't be rubbed off, it twisted its body and crawled away.

A giant stone python crawled along the rocks into the undulating stone hills, and finally submerged into the lake water until it was out of sight.

All three on the Thousand Feather Fan turned to look at Bai Zhizhi.

Bai Zhizhi put away the porcelain bottle: "It's Beast-Repelling Powder. As long as the beast has no strong aggressive intentions and hasn't tasted blood, it can be driven away."

Ren Daoan gulped: "Are the ingredients rare? Can we make it?"

If they had this, they could go into beast-infested energy fields without any trouble.

Bai Zhizhi shook his head: "Not a chance. Just the Hundred-Beast Grass alone is a thousand-year spiritual herb. Do you have that?"

Hundred-Beast Grass technically takes a thousand years to mature medicinally, but its main use is to repel beasts; it has little other use and doesn't have high requirements for spiritual energy. So in some spiritually rich medicinal gardens, as long as you set up a formation, you can harvest a crop in a dozen years, so it's dirt cheap.

But these humans had no idea about this. Xiao Yu, with a pained expression, said, "Such a precious thing, and you poured a whole bottle?!"

Bai Zhizhi: "What was I supposed to do? You guys couldn't beat that big guy."

That was a Stone Python. Although it was huge and looked terrifying, covered in strange rocks, it was actually a very gentle beast. It only got a little cranky because we woke it up from its nap. Normally, as long as you don't provoke it, it won't attack.

Even if it does attack, if it thinks it can win, it'll eat you; if not, it'll leave. It won't fight to the death. It's considered very gentle.

When Bai Zhizhi was about to control the Thousand Feather Fan to fly down, Xiao Yu suddenly pointed at the big lake where the Stone Python had disappeared and said, "Look over there!"

Jiang Lin and Ren Daoan looked over and saw something golden faintly reflecting in the lake water.

Jiang Lin tapped Bai Zhizhi: "Zhizhi, fly over."

Bai Zhizhi snorted and didn't move. Did everyone think they could order him around?

Jiang Lin: "We're also searching for treasure for you."

Bai Zhizhi gave an "oh", having almost forgotten that he had a thirty percent share of the things here. Only then did he drive the Thousand Feather Fan over.

Once at the lake, the three jumped off the fan, and Bai Zhizhi also landed lightly. Xiao Yu went directly into the lake and picked up an ugly stone. Ren Daoan took a closer look: "Gold? Could this be a gold nugget?"

Jiang Lin said, "No, this is free gold ore, a type of ore with a high gold content. It has obvious natural gold particles on it. In today's environment of over-exploitation, this kind of ore has become rare."

Nowadays, the gold that can be mined on the market has to be extracted from ore through a series of processes. A ton of rock might not even produce a gram of gold. Free gold ore like this is almost a collector's item.

The three looked at the huge mountain across the lake. Finding stones like that in the lake meant there must be more than just this piece of free gold ore. Those stones must have fallen from the mountain and sunk into the water.

Bai Zhizhi followed their gaze to the mountain: "What are you looking at?"

Ren Daoan: "Looking at wealth."

Bai Zhizhi didn't understand: "This kind of stone?"

Ren Daoan: "Not the stone, but the gold in the stone."

Bai Zhizhi was even more baffled: "But isn't gold worthless here?"

The gold leaves he refined himself weren't even valued by the auction house.

Jiang Lin knew his frustration over the gold leaves and said with a smile, "A single gold leaf might not be worth much, but a mountain of gold? That's worth a fortune."