Chapter 545: Checking the Treasures
Inside an uninhabited mountain cave, Wanli Dragon lay silently upon the rocks.
Within the mechanical cabin, Ning Zhuo slowly opened his eyes.
He exhaled a long breath of turbid air. His spirit was refreshed, and all the injuries across his body had already healed.
First, Ning Zhuo’s injuries had not been severe to begin with. After all, the Heaven and Earth Twin Ghosts had intended to capture him alive, so they had held back in many places.
Second, credit also went to Lin Bufan. The Myriad Medicines Sect itself was a sect of physicians, and as its leader, Lin Bufan was the finest physician among them. With him personally treating Ning Zhuo’s injuries, the effect was naturally far better than Ning Zhuo merely swallowing pills.
His spiritual sense swept across his body. After confirming everything was in order, Ning Zhuo stood up and opened the cabin door.
He arrived at the Dragon Head Cabin and reunited with Sun Lingtong.
Sun Lingtong had been idly fiddling with the mechanisms inside the Dragon Head Cabin, occasionally glancing toward the storage bag placed on the table.
Seeing Ning Zhuo arrive, Sun Lingtong jumped up happily. “Hahaha, Little Zhuo, you’re finally here! Great! Let’s quickly open the storage bag and see what’s inside.”
A warm feeling rose in Ning Zhuo’s heart.
During the more than ten years in Huoshi Immortal City, similar scenes had occurred many times.
Whenever Sun Lingtong stole something, he would never examine it alone. Instead, he would always split the spoils with Ning Zhuo and enjoy the thrill of the unknown together.
The two sat cross-legged together, placing the storage bag before them.
Sun Lingtong began rubbing his hands.
Ning Zhuo also felt anticipation. After all, this was the lifelong accumulation of the Heaven Ghost, a mighty Nascent Soul–level expert. What exactly did his wealth contain?
Of course, before leaving, Tian Shuang had already taken with him the magical treasures used for combat.
Even so, what remained was still more than worth anticipating.
The storage bag itself alone made the two of them study it for a short while.
This was a Nascent Soul–level storage bag. Its surface was snow-white, made of silk, and faintly emitted a cold, gloomy glow. At a glance, its quality was excellent.
Speaking of which, the two of them had previously seized another Nascent Soul–level storage bag.
But that one had been locked. It came from the transport convoy of Liangzhu Kingdom, and Sun Lingtong had tried many times yet failed to open it.
Tian Shuang’s storage bag, however, had been personally given by its original owner, so it was naturally in an open state.
The two opened the mouth of the bag and poured in their spiritual sense together. Instantly they saw that the bag was packed to the brim, filled with all kinds of treasures.
The largest portion was spirit stones.
Spirit stones!
So many spirit stones that when Sun Lingtong and Ning Zhuo tried to count them with their spiritual sense, they could not determine the number at once.
Next came various treasure materials.
For example: Profound Yin Cold Jade, Ice Silk Mushrooms, Frost Spirit Vines, Extreme Cold Snow Specks, Yin Soul Flowers, Nether Soul Grass, Grievance Stones, and so on.
There were also creatures imprisoned and sealed inside command tokens—such as Snow Imps, Ice Wolves, as well as Crying Souls of the Frozen Prison, Snow-Bone Rakshasas, Ice Crystal Nether Souls, and more.
Sun Lingtong and Ning Zhuo widened their eyes and carefully inspected them one by one.
Wine from the Underworld—Yellow Springs Wine.
Nether Path Guide Pills used to lead travelers along ghostly roads.
Yin Silkworm Soul-Shedding Pills used for Ghost Dao cultivation.
Nether Spirit Soul-Restoring Pills that repaired soul bodies and increased their spirituality.
There were also talismans capable of teleporting to courier stations within a certain range—Nether Courier Pass Talismans; Crying Wall Talismans used to trap enemies; Death Absorption Talismans that enhanced the absorption of Netherworld Yin energy.
A Yin Vein Comb made from white bone, specially used to comb through tangled and chaotic Yin energy within a soul body.
A Forget-River Boat capable of crossing the Nether River of Yellow Springs.
A Soul-Nurturing Box used for cultivating soul bodies and strengthening the foundation of the soul.
A Yin Chessboard whose pieces were condensed skulls.
Large quantities of paper money—Crossing-Yin Coins used for traveling to and from ghost markets.
A Soul-Shaking Bell capable of controlling large numbers of ghosts.
And even a Rebirth Sedan Chair designed specifically for ghost cultivators to seize bodies and gain a chance at rebirth.
Although Tian Shuang had taken away the treasures meant for battle, he had still left behind a massive number of treasures. These items were mainly for daily cultivation or daily life.
“Tian Shuang really was considerate. To make sure we wouldn’t misunderstand the functions of these items, he even included brief introductions for each in jade slips,” Sun Lingtong sighed.
Ning Zhuo said, “Let’s count the spirit stones first.”
On this matter, Tian Shuang had not explained clearly in the jade slips.
Tian Shuang was a top expert among Nascent Soul cultivators, and his reserves of spirit stones were immense. Most were middle-grade spirit stones, with only a smaller portion being high-grade or low-grade.
Generally speaking, cultivators of the Qi Refining Stage and Foundation Establishment stage mainly used low-grade spirit stones. Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators primarily used middle-grade spirit stones.
At the Soul Formation stage and Void Refinement stage, high-grade spirit stones provided the highest efficiency.
After making a rough estimate, Sun Lingtong and Ning Zhuo discovered that the spirit stones inside Tian Shuang’s storage bag, when converted into middle-grade equivalents, exceeded one hundred million.
More than one hundred million middle-grade spirit stones!
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen so many spirit stones.”
“As expected of the wealth of the Heaven and Earth Twin Ghosts.”
The two could not help but marvel.
They looked at each other and saw the same astonishment in the other’s eyes.
Originally, Ning Zhuo had participated in the pacification war of Liangzhu Kingdom merely to look for an opportunity to retrieve his mother’s relic. Unexpectedly, the benefits he had gained along the way far exceeded all expectations.
“Before, when we looted the battlefield, we gained a total value of over ten million middle-grade spirit stones. I didn’t expect this time it would be even more!”
“But when you think about it, one hundred million isn’t actually that much. At most it’s just the equivalent of looting the battlefield nine more times like when we impersonated the Stone Dwelling Old Monster.”
Sun Lingtong spoke casually, but his hands were already on his hips, unable to hide his smug pride.
Ning Zhuo, however, was much calmer. “Actually, the chances we had to impersonate the Stone Dwelling Old Monster and seize battlefield spoils were not many.”
“After that, we never encountered such opportunities again. In fact, pretending to be the Stone Dwelling Old Monster became extremely dangerous—it could provoke suppression from two Soul Formation–level experts.”
“An opportunity like Tian Shuang voluntarily gifting us his wealth is something that can only be encountered by chance.”
“Even if I were to fill someone else’s Sea of Consciousness with Buddhist thoughts in the future, others might not be like Tian Shuang—determined to fight to the death and give away their entire fortune before battle.”
“And this time, I also relied on a trick. First I used the Divine Ability—Life Hanging by a Thread to link with Tian Shuang’s Ghost Mask. Then, through the connection between the mask and his true body, I indirectly influenced him.”
Sun Lingtong nodded, agreeing with Ning Zhuo’s analysis. The joy on his face faded somewhat.
The two continued examining the treasures.
What remained were jade slips, jade disks, and similar items.
These recorded a large amount of information, cultivation techniques, spells, and even divine abilities.
For example, there were many internal records of the Soul-Devouring Sect, improvement records of Soul-Devouring techniques, the forging method of the treasure Ghost Gate Pass, and methods for raising creatures such as Snow-Bone Rakshasas, Earth-Melt Ghosts, and Ice Corpses.
There were also records of cultivation methods. Tian Shuang’s primary technique was the Nine Prisons Cold Soul Record, while the Earth Ghost cultivated the Burning Fiend Soul-Melting Scripture, as well as the combined Heaven-and-Earth attack technique used by the two.
“Too bad. It’s all mostly soul-path cultivation. It’s not very relevant to us—at best it increases our understanding of the Heaven and Earth Twin Ghosts and broadens our horizons,” Sun Lingtong said with regret.
Ning Zhuo reminded him, “Boss, don’t forget—we still have the spoils from the others.”
The Heaven-and-Earth combined attack performed by Tian Shuang and Earth Gray had been extremely powerful, causing space to tremble and distort. Nearly ten Nascent Soul cultivators had died on the spot.
Only three had escaped alive; the rest had perished.
All the treasures they left behind on the battlefield had not been collected by the Heaven and Earth Twin Ghosts, and eventually they fell into the hands of the Three Generals Camp.
When the Three Generals Camp returned to report, they took some of the spoils with them, while the rest were handed to Ning Zhuo.
On one hand, Ning Zhuo already had an agreement with the Three Generals Camp—he was entitled to thirty percent of the spoils.
On the other hand, in the battle against the Heaven and Earth Twin Ghosts, Ning Zhuo had played the main role, so the vast majority of the spoils were given to him.
From True Person Lieyang came the Great Sun Touring Banner.
Only half of the banner remained. On the banner’s surface was a painting of a blazing yellow sun in the sky. When shaken, it could summon sunlight and blazing flames.
From the Yin-Yang Scholar came the Taiji Yin-Yang Cloak.
This black-and-white cloak concealed a world within. The white side depicted the stars of the heavens, while the black side embroidered the Nine Springs of the Yellow Springs. Unfortunately, only thirty percent of it remained.
From the Empty Valley Zither Immortal came the Cloud Radiance Heart-Protecting Mirror.
This one was actually a magical treasure-level mechanism. Inside were twelve pitch reeds. When it suffered an attack, it could unleash sound waves to offset damage.
But it too was badly damaged.
All the spoils picked up from the battlefield shared one common trait—they were damaged.
After all, if they had been intact, their owners would have been the victors rather than the dead or defeated.
Even so, these damaged magical treasures were still quite valuable.
First, any treasure that could survive the Heaven-and-Earth combined attack was extraordinary.
Second, their current damage did not mean they would remain damaged forever. With the right artifact refiner and suitable forging methods, they could be restored to life.
Third, even without repairing them, they could still be sold. Damaged magical treasures also had a stable market.
Sun Lingtong and Ning Zhuo examined these spoils one by one but did not study them deeply.
“If only their storage bags or storage belts had survived too,” Ning Zhuo sighed.
“Hah, in your dreams. Under that Heaven-and-Earth combined attack, most cultivators didn’t even leave behind bone fragments—let alone those things,” Sun Lingtong rolled his eyes.
Then he continued, “But this time, when the Three Generals Camp returns to the main camp, they’re bringing some spoils along with the news that we defeated the Heaven and Earth Twin Ghosts. The military merit from this should be quite impressive.”
The second-to-last gain was the Tian Shuang Ghost Mask.
This Ghost Mask had been deliberately left behind by Tian Shuang as a gift to Ning Zhuo.
Finally, there was the Wood-Within-Fire.
After Lin Bufan reunited with Ning Zhuo, he briefly explained what he had experienced and ultimately handed over the Wood-Within-Fire to him.
Ning Zhuo only made a preliminary inspection before storing it away.
This was the first time in his life that he had obtained such a precious fire seed.
Under normal circumstances, he would certainly study it carefully.
But now was not the right time. He had to replenish his mechanical puppets as soon as possible and restore his combat strength.
“The battle with the Heaven and Earth Twin Ghosts may very well end with the Heaven Ghost recovering and the two reconciling before coming back to trouble me.”
“After all, although there are many Buddhist thoughts, they have become water without a source. Without me continuously replenishing them, once the normal thoughts within Tian Shuang’s Sea of Consciousness reach a certain scale, he will be able to think normally again.”
“Earth Gray understands his condition very well. So as long as he drags the battle out—restraining and exhausting him—eventually Tian Shuang will return to his former self.”
Ning Zhuo had never been optimistic about Tian Shuang’s pursuit of Earth Gray.
But he had no way to persuade him.
Tian Shuang’s Sea of Consciousness was filled with Buddhist thoughts. He was determined to atone for his sins, and Ning Zhuo simply could not stop him. If even a small portion of Tian Shuang’s normal thoughts returned, the risk to Ning Zhuo would become enormous.
Since Tian Shuang was determined to hunt down Earth Gray as redemption, Ning Zhuo could only let events take their course.
Because of this, he had to improve his strength with all his might before the Heaven and Earth Twin Ghosts returned.
“I cannot predict when the Heaven and Earth Twin Ghosts will return.”
“Therefore, the longer I remain on this battlefield, the greater the danger.”
“Sigh… when will the opportunity to attack the Six Caves Sect finally appear?”