Yuan Ci sighed bitterly, fully realizing the cunning of the Ghost Vine.
Now he deeply regretted it, wondering why he had been so blinded as to conspire with the Ghost Vine for the Purple Vine Secret Stash.
And now, the Ghost Vine had directly inducted, no, more like subdued Jiu Jin, Cong Mang, and Shi Liu.
"How did he do it?"
"How could he possibly do it?"
"There’s someone behind him, there must be someone behind him!"
Yuan Ci felt both angry and bitter, the situation pressing on him, he had no choice but to reply, "I only know about three of them."
He pointed to the golden Magic Storage Bag: "It’s a Time Money Bag; every time some time passes, it condenses some gold in the bag."
"This is an alchemy creation from the goblin era."
"I know it very well because most of the gold coins here are taken from this bag."
"I also had a part in setting up this Purple Vine Secret Stash."
"But the gold coins condensed from the bag are all imprinted with the goblin empire’s insignia. So to use them without exposing this treasure, you’d have to remelt them."
Shi Liu remained expressionless, Cong Mang’s eyes lit up.
Elder Jiu Jin, knowledgeable as he was, showed a shocked expression: "What’s the principle of this alchemical treasure? Could it be transforming time into metal, involving endless transformation of alchemy materials? One of the three ultimate pursuits of alchemy?!"
The so-called three ultimate pursuits of alchemy are the Gold Touching Skill, the Elixir of Immortality, and the Universal Dissolver.
When alchemy was first created and developed, it was all about turning stones into gold for great economic benefit. By now, this research has yielded numerous results. Turning stones into gold has long been achievable and has even impacted other domains: now druids and mages have their own divine arts and spells to perform this transformation.
However, the ultimate pursuit of the Gold Touching Skill has not been reached, or rather, its meaning has deepened.
Technology keeps advancing, building on failures and successes alike, and progression is constant. Once the small goals are met, larger goals emerge naturally.
At first, alchemists could turn stone into gold, but the materials and energy costs far exceeded the gold obtained.
They then began to study how to reduce consumption, lower costs, and increase profits.
Then, during the process, alchemists came into contact with more materials and created more new materials, and naturally began to consider whether other substances could be transformed into gold.
Finally, gold was no longer the common pursuit of alchemists; they started exploring how to convert one substance into another. At this point, the essence of the Gold Touching Skill deepened to the grand proposition of "endless transformation of substances."
The essence of the Gold Touching Skill has deepened along with the development of alchemy and has always been one of the three ultimate pursuits of alchemy.
And the Time Money Bag that Zi Di acquired is a significant achievement in the exploration of the Gold Touching Skill.
This magic bag can transform time into gold and then directly forge it into coins. The step of forging coins is not remarkable; the real core secret is turning "time," this immaterial conceptual resource, into tangible, material gold!
Zi Di was also quite shaken, thinking: As long as we research this alchemy technique and present it at the current Warm Snow Cup competition, it will undoubtedly overwhelm everyone, securing the first place directly!
"To deduce the technology from this magic bag’s technique would probably be beyond the average person’s capability." Zi Di shook her head, speaking with wonder.
Jiu Jin also nodded in admiration: "Indeed. However, having such a result would definitely save a great deal of research and trial-and-error costs. It’s a ready-made guidepost."
"To initiate this research project, the royal family and the guild would definitely support it fully, and funding would be provided readily. But it’s a product of the goblin empire, so we’d at least need to hire a historian knowledgeable in goblin empire studies, an experienced goblin language scholar, and a researcher of goblin magic."
Yet Zi Di suddenly thought of the War Merchant.
Unfortunately, the Legendary Level goblin mage War Merchant was already dead.
Zi Di couldn’t help but expand her thoughts: "If we offered this treasure to the War Merchant, he would definitely be very interested in it."
"At the very least, I found no research data in the Tower Spirit database indicating the War Merchant’s interest in this area."
"For him, this is a new topic."
Thinking of this, Zi Di reassessed the past collaboration between the Purple Vine Chamber of Commerce and the War Merchant.
She previously thought the Purple Vine Chamber of Commerce sought to rely on War Merchant for collaboration. But now, just seeing this Time Money Bag, her previous perception changed.
"The Purple Vine Chamber of Commerce was once so large in scale and possessed astounding wealth, procuring vast materials or rare treasures was well within its capabilities."
"My father sought something from the War Merchant, and the War Merchant could also leverage the Purple Vine Chamber of Commerce to secure what he needed."
Zi Di pondered, then looked at Yuan Ci: "Continue."
Yuan Ci then said: "The second item I recognize is that crown. It’s the Ice Crystal Crown, Holy Domain Level equipment, and a component of the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s royal armament [Ice Sculpture Monarch]."
With these words, others were still fine, but Elder Jiu Jin was once again shocked, exclaiming softly: "Isn’t there some mistake?"
"[Ice Sculpture Monarch] is a Holy Domain Level magic structure. When equipped by a Holy Domain Level superpower user, its combat power surges, allowing it to battle a Legendary Level to a certain extent. It’s one of our country’s Legendary foundations."
"How did you, our Purple Vine Chamber of Commerce, come by it?"
Yuan Ci shook his head: "That I don’t know."
Yuan Ci then pointed to that wooden box: "This is the Gemstone Wish Box. Legend has it that on the spot where a gemstone meteor fell from the sky, an alchemy master crafted the foundation stone, and finally, at the grand festival of the Wish God, it invoked divine blessing and was shaped."
"It is also a Holy Domain Level item, capable of gemstone exchange and synthesis."
Yuan Ci spoke briefly, but this time, the other four all focused their eyes on this seemingly unremarkable wooden box.
Whether it was Jiu Jin, Zi Di, or the rough man Cong Mang and Shi Liu, they all deeply realized the value of this wooden box.
The gemstone exchange allows the gemstones in one’s possession to be transformed into relatively rarer gemstones.
It is important to know, although they are all gemstones, the market prices for Blue Gemstones and Rubies are different. For example, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom is a source of White Gemstones, making Rubies more expensive than Blue Gemstones here. Throughout the Main Plane, Star Dust Gems are the rarest, priced the highest, often with a price that exceeds demand.
If this wooden box were to be mass-produced, with low energy consumption, it would be an excellent gemstone business.
The greatest value of the Gemstone Wish Box is not just this, but also the synthesis of gemstones.
It can use low-level gemstones, through quantity accumulation, to achieve a qualitative change and generate advanced gemstones.
Since it is a Holy Domain Level item, it means it can generate Holy Domain Level gemstones through Golden Level gemstones.
"This is a stable way to acquire Holy Domain Level alchemy materials! Its value is astounding," Elder Jiu Jin sighed.
Yuan Ci painfully closed his eyes.
What he just valued was this Gemstone Wish Box.
"Do you recognize the remaining two treasures?" Zi Di again asked Cong Mang, Jiu Jin, and Shi Liu.
The three all shook their heads.
Zi Di: "Then let’s take them and leave here first."
"Be careful," Elder Yuan Ci quickly warned, "This platform has functions for concealing and restraining aura. Once we take them out, without corresponding measures, these treasures will leak their transcendent aura."
"Holy Domain Level transcendent aura, I’m afraid it will be detected by the formation outside."
Upon hearing this, Elder Jiu Jin also showed a worried expression: "Elder Yuan Ci is very considerate!"
Zi Di smiled slightly, "Rest assured, I will handle it."
After opening the door, the Dragon-man youth and Cang Xu had already followed in. The Dragon-man youth had entered the secret chamber, while Cang Xu stayed outside to coordinate.
Both of them used a Divine Arts of deception, leaving Cong Mang and the others unaware.
Zi Di placed five Level 0 secret orders into the corresponding grooves around the platform, activating it.
The locks inside all issued crisp metallic clicks, then slightly protruded to reveal five treasures.
As the aura was about to leak, Zi Di gently waved her hand, and at the same time, the Dragon-man youth performed the deception Divine Arts.
This Divine Arts was used to conceal aura, truly specialized in the art, with extraordinary effects!
Yuan Ci, Jiu Jin, and others were all shocked in their hearts.
They did not perceive Zi Di using any transcendent means. On the surface, Ghost Vine merely waved her hand, yet managed to cover the transcendent aura of the five treasures completely.
Nothing could be seen!
Unfathomable!
For a moment, Yuan Ci and the others felt even more cautious of Ghost Vine (Zi Di).
The five of them worked together to take away all the cases from the secret chamber.
The Dragon-man youth personally used the Divine Arts multiple times to check and confirmed the secret chamber was empty before confirming with Zi Di.
After receiving confirmation, Zi Di had Yuan Ci reseal this alchemy treasure secret chamber.
"The formation in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom is growing stronger. Yuan Ci, staying in the Ten-thousand-year-old Ice Lake becomes increasingly dangerous, come up with us," Zi Di arranged.
Forced with no choice, Yuan Ci nodded.
Before leaving, the Dragon-man youth gazed into the depths of the Ice Lake.
The treasure chamber of the Purple Vine Secret Stash was built on the Hundred-Year Ice layer. Below it were the thousand-year-old ice layer and the ten-thousand-year-old ice layer.
The Dragon-man youth entered the lake and employed many investigative methods, finding through personal practice that the effectiveness of these methods was uniformly poor.
"The Divinity of Time suppresses all other powers."
"Unless possessing the super formation constructed by the Ice Sculpture Royal Family, only then would there be enough power to counter the Divinity and conduct large-scale investigations in the Ten-thousand-year-old Ice Lake."
"What a pity."
"If only I could use a Blood Core to absorb the corpse of the Time Divine Dragon in the ten-thousand-year-old ice layer, how great it would be!"
But the Dragon-man youth could only think about it.
It was far too difficult for him to accomplish this.
Upon reaching the thousand-year-old ice layer, there are Holy Domain Level aquatic demon beasts.
Near the ten-thousand-year-old ice layer, there are even more Holy Domain Level aquatic demon beasts, sometimes in packs.
Moreover, as one approaches the Dragon Corpse, the Divinity of Time grows stronger, altering the environment. Without specific means to break through, the short hundred-meter distance could take ten years of running and still remain uncrossed.