Chapter 86

Just as Ding Qi figured out what was inside the jade box, his childhood friend, Zhang Tao, was walking leisurely in a hall deep within the underground palace, taking peculiar steps that did not trigger any mechanisms.

Zhang Tao, it turned out, knew the location of all the mechanisms in the hall and the method to pass through safely.

After walking a section of the hall, Zhang Tao turned around and tapped a certain spot on the wall. Instantly, the mechanisms in the hall were activated. The ground he had just stepped on shattered with a loud noise, revealing a pit over ten meters deep. The pit was filled with black-green toxic gas, reaching nearly ten meters in depth.

If the person who had just passed through the hall had not followed Zhang Tao’s method, they would have surely fallen into the pit and been killed by the highly toxic black-green gas.

However, Zhang Tao did not even spare a glance at the terrifying pit behind him. Instead, he quickly walked towards another hall ahead.

Upon entering the hall, Zhang Tao tapped several concealed corners irregularly. Then, he stood quietly in the center of the hall, as if waiting for something.

Soon, a hidden compartment in the center of the hall popped open.

Only then did a smile appear on Zhang Tao’s face. He walked towards the compartment and took out a jade bottle from inside.

"Jin Xi Dan. With this, I can advance my current third-level cultivation technique to the eighth level, and I will be able to use those few spells," Zhang Tao said to himself, his eyes gleaming as he looked at the jade bottle in his hand.

Finally, he seemed to think of something else, and a very strange smile appeared on his face.

He then opened the jade bottle and poured a translucent pill with a faint seven-color glow into his hand.

"This Jin Xi Dan, which requires the alchemical fire of a Golden Core cultivator and a variety of thousand-year-old spiritual herbs to be refined, can advance my third-level cultivation to the eighth level without any side effects... But it’s a pity to take it now," Zhang Tao thought, his face showing a hint of pain as he looked at the seven-color translucent pill in his hand.

"I wonder who lost the inconspicuous secret manual I left behind in the Qingyun Sect. If I still had the vast magical power I sealed in the Yunjin Handkerchief two hundred years ago, I wouldn’t need to waste this precious Jin Xi Dan. This Jin Xi Dan was originally intended for other purposes!"

...

"Two hundred years ago, I founded the Qingyun Sect and built this underground palace. I never thought that one day I would encounter this legendary unique constitution, giving me a chance to reincarnate and have the possibility to rise again."

...

"People of the Ling Shu Mountain, this time you will wait. The revenge for the extermination of my clan two hundred years ago, I will definitely take. All the cultivation resources within the clan were hidden in this underground palace before my time was up, along with the treasure that brought the clan’s downfall. With these things... hah, heaven has not forsaken me!"

...

Thinking of this, the man who called himself Feng smiled wildly.

The current Zhang Tao was clearly no longer the childhood friend that Ding Qi knew, but a cultivator who had taken over Zhang Tao’s body at some point.

Throughout this journey, although Zhang Tao was still in the same body, his inner self had long been replaced by another person.

What was even more astonishing was that the cultivator who had taken over Zhang Tao’s body was none other than the founder of the Qingyun Sect, who had died two hundred years ago.

After a long while, the cultivator stopped his wild laughter.

He then thought of something that happened two hundred years ago and slightly lowered his head, as if looking at a place deeper in the underground palace: "What I did back then was just to protect myself. Don’t blame me."

Soon, the cultivator recovered from his memories of two hundred years ago and slowly narrowed his eyes: "The matter of the clan’s treasure has been over for two hundred years. Even the Ling Shu Mountain wouldn’t hold onto it for so long. But if the news leaks out this time, I won’t have the same luck as before. For safety, these people who entered the underground palace can only... ."

Thinking of this, the cultivator’s eyes gradually turned cold.

Soon, he carefully swallowed the pill and sat cross-legged in the center of the hall, beginning to refine the Jin Xi Dan.

The cultivator surnamed Feng actually started to cultivate right away.

After swallowing the pill and beginning to refine it, his face showed a strange change, alternating between red and white. Although the Jin Xi Dan could advance his cultivation to the eighth level without side effects, it was clearly not an effortless process.

After a quarter of an hour, the cultivator’s face finally calmed down.

His skin began to show a metallic luster, a sign that Ding Qi would exhibit when cultivating the Jin Ti Shu using his innate cultivation technique.

However, the metallic luster on the cultivator’s skin quickly dissipated and disappeared.

It seemed that he still needed a considerable amount of time to fully refine the Jin Xi Dan and truly advance his cultivation to the eighth level.

...

Ding Qi did not know that the true owner of the underground palace was now recovering his powers and had murderous intentions towards everyone who entered the palace. After leaving the hall with the spirit-locking array, he was extremely happy.

"Fifty Ling Xi Dan. With these pills, I won’t have to worry about my cultivation for a long time," Ding Qi said, his face beaming as he touched the jade box in his hand.

After obtaining the jade box and seeing that it contained a large number of Ling Xi Dan, he carefully counted the exact number of pills inside.

Finally, after counting several times and confirming there were no mistakes, Ding Qi knew that there were exactly fifty pills.

So far, Ding Qi had only taken about ten Ling Xi Dan. If he refined all the hundred-year-old herbs he had into Ling Xi Dan, he could only get about twenty pills.

Over the past year, due to the rarity and value of the hundred-year-old herbs, he had already been reluctant to refine this type of pill.

This time, obtaining fifty pills at once, Ding Qi could no longer hide his excitement.

"With these fifty pills, plus the hundred-year-old herbs growing in the center of the Qixia Mountain, if I refine them all into pills, I wonder if I can advance my innate cultivation technique to the thirteenth level of great perfection."