Chapter 74

After an unknown amount of time, Du Qian finally regained consciousness. The floor was drenched in sweat, and he was extremely thirsty, but his body was still stiff. The round object in his hand had vanished.

"Damn... I'm finally alive again. What the hell was that? It was terrifying."

Du Qian naturally didn't know that the round object was called a Spirit Pool. A similar object had already formed inside his body.

A Spirit Pool is usually impossible to remove from the body. Once a spirit beast dies, the Spirit Pool is typically the first to be consumed. To extract a complete Spirit Pool, one must capture a live spirit beast and raise it for a period. When the spirit beast is in its best condition, it must be instantly killed, and some unconventional and cruel methods must be used to reverse the flow of spiritual energy from the spirit beast into the Spirit Pool, to obtain a Spirit Pool with abundant energy.

The spiritual energy contained in a Spirit Pool is ten or even a hundred times greater than that in a spirit weapon. Of course, this method also applies to human martial cultivators.

If you are powerful and have a high status, it's relatively easy to buy spirit horns, but it's not so easy to obtain Spirit Pools. Donggua contained 120 boxes, totaling 1,200 Spirit Pools, which were the accumulation of Bald Benning over several decades. Only a pirate leader like him had the opportunity to obtain so many Spirit Pools.

Most of these Spirit Pools came from spirit fish, some from spirit beasts, and many from human martial cultivators. The methods to extract Spirit Pools are extremely cruel. Even as an imperial citizen, no matter how high one's position, it's not convenient to use them publicly. They can only be used in private, and the number is naturally limited. Even Sima Yi, one of the Nine Ministers, couldn't produce many.

At this moment, Benning was almost driven mad. He had organized this operation, and the goal was naturally that treasure. In the previous operation, he had seized half of it, but if it wasn't complete, it was useless.

Knowing that Pingchuan City had set a trap, Benning still decided to act. The pirate intelligence system was far more powerful than the city lords of Pingchuan imagined. The person Benning truly feared was not in Pingchuan City, and the remaining people were of no concern to him.

As a pirate leader, Benning was not only unmatched in combat and powerful, but more importantly, he was very intelligent, not a fool who only knew how to charge and rob.

Pingchuan City had set a trap for him, and Benning turned the tables. As for the loss of pirates, to hell with it; who would care?

Even so, before the operation, he was very careful to hide Donggua in the lining of his clothes, making it both secure and easy to access, even in intense battles or if he was injured.

It must be said that Benning was still overconfident. Pingchuan City was a second-tier city, and with the garrison, it was full of experts. Initially, things went smoothly, but he was too arrogant, toying with the Flying Tiger Team's elders and even trying to kill them.

A few minutes, which would normally be nothing, were truly life-threatening at this moment.

After continuously slaying several battle masters from Pingchuan City and escaping with injuries, it wasn't a big deal to be injured, but the critical issue was that Donggua was gone.

Benning sat on a deserted island, watching his busy subordinates and several fast boats on the shore, his face terrifyingly grim. His subordinates naturally knew their leader's temper and dared not approach him at this moment.

He carefully recalled the entire operation but couldn't remember when he had lost Donggua.

At least a dozen Pingchuan elders had engaged him, four of whom he had slain. As for those below the battle master level, he didn't even consider them. Those small fry who could be killed with a flick of his finger couldn't possibly take Donggua from him.

After continuous battles, his clothes were torn in many places. Recalling when and where each tear occurred was too difficult.

Benning speculated that the most likely scenario was that his clothes were pierced by spiritual energy during the battle, and Donggua fell out. Whether someone picked it up or ignored it in some place was unknown.

"Er Gui."

"Boss." A thin, short man, less than 1.7 meters tall, responded and walked over.

"Activate all our insiders. I need to know everything happening in Pingchuan City." Benning was really in a difficult situation.

At this moment, Pingchuan City must be on high alert. No matter what, he couldn't enter the city in the short term. He had insiders in Pingchuan City, and quite a few, but he didn't dare to tell them.

Apart from a few trusted subordinates, no one knew about Donggua. Even these few people, Benning didn't fully trust.

When wealth accumulates to a certain level, even family members can't be trusted, let alone just subordinates.

Brotherhood and camaraderie are words spoken at banquets to win people over. In critical moments, Benning trusted no one but himself.

It was precisely this mindset that allowed him to stand firm on the high seas while other pirates died in batches. Over the years, there were pirates stronger than him and smarter than him, but none lived as long as he did.

But this was also the most troublesome part. He didn't dare tell his subordinates that Donggua was lost. No one in the pirate group knew how much wealth he had, but after so many years, they could guess some of it.

Donggua was his treasure, and all the good things were inside it. If he spread this news, even if they found Donggua, Benning wouldn't believe anyone would return it to him.

It seemed he would have to stay in the area for a while until Pingchuan City relaxed, and then he would personally enter the city.

This was naturally very dangerous, but if he couldn't retrieve Donggua, decades of effort would be in vain. This loss, Benning couldn't afford.

As for the contents of Donggua, Benning wasn't worried. It was a masterpiece by Master Cui Li, a first-level spatial rune equipment with three layers of secret runes, the last two of which had self-destruct systems.

Forget the last two layers; just activating the secret runes, he believed, few could decipher. Those with the ability to decipher secret runes must be Master-level rune masters, and there were only a few such people in the entire empire.

Benning couldn't have imagined that Donggua would be cracked by Du Qian in just a few hours. Of course, the one who truly cracked Donggua wasn't Du Qian but the mysterious thing on his chest.

Different heights bring different perspectives. Du Qian knew Donggua was valuable but didn't know how precious it was. Benning knew how precious Donggua was but didn't know that compared to the thing on Du Qian's chest, Donggua was nothing.

While Benning was in agony and distress, Du Qian was cleaning the floor. He drank ten cups of water before feeling better. The floor was drenched in sweat, and he had to spend several minutes cleaning it thoroughly.

After cleaning, he sat on the floor, and when he looked at the box again, his eyes were full of fear. This thing was too terrifying, and Du Qian didn't know how he had survived.

He glanced at the photo. There were three people in the photo. The guy on the left looked familiar, a muscular man. Next to him was a beautiful woman with curly hair, smiling sweetly, making one's heart race at first sight. Du Qian licked his lips, and his body reacted.

This woman might not be the most beautiful he had seen. Yao Jing was cute, and the two fierce girls from the Sima family were no less attractive. But Yao Jing, Liu Yan, and the Sima girls were too young, while the woman in the photo was like a ripe peach, full of juice, making one want to bite into her.

In front of the two, there was a little girl who looked only a few years old, with two pigtails, a chubby face, and deep dimples. Her face resembled the woman behind her, and her big eyes were nine-tenths like the muscular man.

This was clearly a standard family photo, and it looked very happy.

"Is... is this Baldy?" After a moment, Du Qian finally recognized the man in the photo. The bald man had black hair neatly combed, and his clothes were nice, clearly a successful man, but the ferocity in his bones couldn't be hidden.

This thing had to be destroyed; it was evidence. If Baldy's subordinates saw it, even a fool would know Donggua was in his hands.

Just as he was about to tear it, Du Qian hesitated. He didn't want to look at Baldy, but the woman was truly beautiful, and the little girl was so pretty that he couldn't bear to part with her.

Forget it, he would put it back in Donggua later. The things in Donggua weren't easy for anyone to take out.

Thinking of this, Du Qian's body stiffened, and he sat motionless, feeling stars in his head.

What the hell? When he touched Donggua, it transmitted its information to the user. As a private spatial rune equipment, it was highly confidential with three layers of secret runes. How did he manage to crack it?

Of course, it was the Nebula, but what the hell was the Nebula?

Du Qian knew that such matters couldn't be understood just by thinking, and he didn't dare ask anyone. He would keep it to himself, even if it meant being confused. Living was the most important thing.

He channeled his combat power into Donggua. He didn't dare keep the things inside, and walking out of the office, the Flying Tiger Team was everywhere. If others saw these things, it would be dangerous.

He activated Donggua again, now more familiar with it. Not only did he open Donggua, but he also modified the last two secret runes. Even if Donggua fell into someone else's hands, they couldn't open it.

The most troublesome part was the Donggua itself, which was just a ring, not very noticeable. But knowing what it was, Du Qian felt uneasy wherever he put it. At this moment, he finally understood why Baldy had hidden it in his clothes instead of wearing it on his hand.

Even if others didn't know, he knew, and he was always worried about it being taken away.

Du Qian didn't have many things on him. He had a sudden idea and took out his identity card. It was a habit of war orphans to hang their identity tags around their necks. He decided to string Donggua with his identity card and find a way to disguise it when he had the chance.

It seemed... this was safer.