The last time he returned to Jia Nan Academy, Su Qian was in a hurry to go into seclusion to break through his realm, and neither Chen Xiao nor Zi Yan had a chance to properly catch up with him.
This time, taking the opportunity to bring Medusa Queen in, they could sit down and have a good chat.
The change of ownership in Maple City and the shifting situation in the Black-Corner Region had some impact on Jia Nan Academy.
The most direct impact was that the students who went to the Black-Corner Region for training could now seek refuge in Maple City if they encountered danger, greatly reducing casualties.
"This is a great thing for the academy. To be honest, when Han Feng was still around, I was a bit worried about him. After all, he was the only sixth-grade Alchemist in the entire Black-Corner Region, and the attraction of Heavenly Flames to Alchemists goes without saying. Now it's good, Han Feng is gone, and I can feel much more at ease."
"You have just established yourselves in Maple City. You have enough Dou Wang and above combat power, but you probably don't have many usable people at the middle and lower levels. Every year, a batch of students will graduate from the Inner Academy. At that time, I will tell them that those who don't know where to go can come and join you. This way, they will temporarily have a place to settle down, and you will also have people to use."
Listening to Su Qian's suggestion, Chen Xiao nodded in agreement.
This was a win-win situation, and there was no reason to refuse.
After catching up with the Grand Elder for over an hour, Chen Xiao left Zi Yan behind, took a batch of ancient books he hadn't read, and went alone to the pavilion where he used to live, taking the opportunity to see his former roommates.
Especially Cao Hui, who was a friend before, and now with the connection to the Cao Family, if nothing unexpected happened in the future, it could basically be said that they were related.
A night of casual talk, not worth mentioning.
...
The next day, early morning.
Chen Xiao, who was cultivating, was woken up by Zi Yan's crunching sounds.
"Where are we going to look for treasure?"
Seeing Chen Xiao open his eyes and look at her, Zi Yan quickly swallowed the pill in her mouth, wiped her small hands, put away the Jade Bottle, stood up, and asked.
"Heavenly Yin Mountain Range!"
...
The mountains stretched endlessly, like giant dragons lying dormant on the earth. This mountain range was filled with miasma and was covered by dark clouds all year round. Sunlight could hardly penetrate, making the entire mountain range appear dark and oppressive.
The Heavenly Yin Mountain Range got its name from this.
At the foot of the mountain in the southeast direction of the Heavenly Yin Mountain Range, there was an old force in the Black-Corner Region, the Heavenly Yin Sect.
Its Sect Master, Yin Gu Lao, was also a famous five-star Dou Huang expert on the Black Ranking.
"This Heavenly Yin Mountain Range feels even larger than the Magical Beast Mountain Range in the Jia Ma Empire. What exactly are we looking for?"
Stopping high in the sky, Zi Yan looked down at the hazy mountains below, very curious about the purpose of this trip.
"To be precise, it should be considered a legacy," Chen Xiao replied after a slight pause.
"I can't help with that. I can only sense natural treasures."
Zi Yan spread her hands, indicating that she couldn't help.
Being able to sense natural treasures and having innate control over spatial power was already enough to make people envious. If she could even sense legacies, then how would others live?
Chen Xiao shook his head and chuckled, "It's okay, we have plenty of time to search. Just pay more attention to hidden places, such as caves and the like."
Searching for a skeleton in the vast Heavenly Yin Mountain Range was like looking for a needle in a haystack for ordinary people.
But Chen Xiao and Zi Yan were both Dou Wang experts. If they were determined to search, finding it was only a matter of time.
What's more, Chen Xiao had a similar experience before.
The opportunity in the cave in the Magical Beast Mountain Range back then was very similar to this.
Based on the current situation, it is known that Xiao Li was being pursued and fled into the Heavenly Yin Mountain Range. By chance, he obtained the Life Devouring Pill and, after consuming it, leaped from a Da Dou Shi to a Dou Wang expert.
Therefore, from this information, the direction where the Heavenly Yin Sect is located can be excluded first.
After all, with Xiao Li's strength, he had neither the ability nor the courage to enter the Heavenly Yin Mountain Range from the direction of the Heavenly Yin Sect.
Furthermore, with so many people in the Heavenly Yin Sect, the area near their sect would be extremely familiar to them, making the possibility of a legacy being there extremely slim.
Also because of Xiao Li's low strength, the areas in the Heavenly Yin Mountain Range with Magical Beasts of rank four or higher can also be excluded first.
Just like this, after a simple screening, the search area instantly shrank several times.
"Let's conceal our aura a bit, don't scare the Magical Beasts inside. We should pay more attention to areas where low-level Magical Beasts are active..." Chen Xiao briefly explained the search plan to Zi Yan.
Zi Yan nodded heavily and concealed her aura as instructed.
After identifying the direction, the two immediately began searching deep from the southwest direction of the Heavenly Yin Mountain Range. This was because this direction faced the center of the Black-Corner Region. Chen Xiao, putting himself in Xiao Li's shoes during the pursuit, figured the probability of escaping into the deep mountains from here was the greatest.
Chen Xiao originally thought that even with a lot of information, it would take the two of them ten days to half a month to find their target.
However, the surprise came incredibly suddenly.
In less than three days, he sensed a mountain crevice in a small mountain valley that was buried by rocks and almost impossible to see from the outside.
"This simple?!"
Zi Yan smashed the piled-up rocks to pieces with a punch, looking at the revealed narrow crevice with a look of astonishment.
Since entering the Heavenly Yin Mountain Range, the two of them hadn't encountered any threats. The strongest Magical Beast was only rank three, equivalent to a human Da Dou Shi.
In the past, even when searching for medicinal herbs in the mountains, she had to fight with those Magical Beasts every time she harvested, expending a lot of effort. Now, suddenly having such an unbelievably smooth experience made her feel quite unaccustomed.
"Let's go in and see. We're not sure if it's the place we're looking for yet."
Chen Xiao was somewhat mentally prepared. After all, this was an opportunity that even Xiao Li could obtain, so the risks along the way couldn't possibly be very high. Luck played a larger role in it.
Zi Yan nodded slightly and squeezed into the dark cave first, sideways.
Chen Xiao took out a Moonlight Stone for illumination and followed closely behind.
This passage was extremely narrow, only wide enough for an adult to pass sideways. Fortunately, both of them had relatively normal builds. If it were a large person with a prominent figure like the Medusa Queen, they would probably get stuck at the entrance.
After walking sideways like a crab for dozens of steps, the passage inside gradually became normal, allowing people to walk normally.
Following the winding passage for a few more minutes, the two finally reached the end and arrived at a doorless stone chamber of about twenty square meters.
With the soft light emitted by the Moonlight Stone, the two could see the situation inside clearly.
A stone table, a stone chair, and a stone bed.
The stone table was empty, while a pale white skeleton was slumped on the stone bed.
Next to the skeleton's right arm, there were some miscellaneous items and two jade bottles emitting a faint red glow.
Other than that, there was nothing else!
"That's it?"
Looking at the simple furnishings in the room, Zi Yan felt a little disappointed.
Chen Xiao embedded the Moonlight Stone he held into the stone wall for illumination and stepped forward.
From the moment he first saw the skeleton, he was already certain that this was the place he was looking for.
"Don't underestimate this person. He was at least a seventh-grade high-level Alchemist."
Waving a burst of Dou Qi to sweep away the dust, Chen Xiao rummaged through the pile of miscellaneous items.
However, while he found a Storage Ring, Chen Xiao was strangely surprised to find that the collection inside could only be described as impoverished, not even one percent of his own wealth.
As for cultivation methods and Dou Skills, there were only some below Earth-tier, which were completely unremarkable. The pill formulas were all common ones, and he didn't even see the essential medicine cauldron for an Alchemist.
Apart from a blood-red scroll, there was nothing in the entire Storage Ring that attracted Chen Xiao.
"This doesn't seem like the wealth of a high-level Alchemist."
Chen Xiao felt very strange. He immediately released his soul power and meticulously searched the entire stone room, but still found nothing.
"Hehe, I actually know why. Look at this."
Just as he was feeling puzzled, Zi Yan chuckled foolishly and threw over a handwritten note.
Chen Xiao opened it, and what came into view were some jottings made by the skeleton's owner before his death.
To briefly summarize, he was not from the Black-Corner Region. Because some things he possessed were coveted, he fled to the Black-Corner Region, already severely injured and unable to even refine medicine to save himself. To survive, he auctioned off all his most valuable Dou Skills, cultivation methods, and even pill formulas and medicine cauldrons in the Black-Corner Region, exchanging them for healing items. Unfortunately, he was ultimately unable to recover.
The helpless owner of the handwritten note could only accept this outcome and desperately entered the Heavenly Yin Mountain Range, eventually passing away here.
"Unexpected, but it seems reasonable."
Chen Xiao sighed softly and put the handwritten note aside.
In the original trajectory, Xiao Li had coincidentally come here, but among the things he obtained, the most valuable were only two Life Devouring Pills and the Life Devouring Pill formula.
This was far from the wealth of a high-level Alchemist. Upon careful thought, one could find the anomaly, and there must be a reason behind it.
This handwritten note now provided a somewhat reasonable explanation.
It was plausible that the owner of the handwritten note suffered misfortune because he created the Life Devouring Pill formula and brought this 'inauspicious item' underground.
As for the soul cultivation method, this item was too precious, even in the Central State. No one in the Black-Corner Region could afford the corresponding price.
Perhaps it was for this reason that it was left behind.
"These two pills look so strange. They feel completely different from ordinary pills, but I can't quite say where the difference is."
Zi Yan picked up the two Jade Bottles on the stone bed, examined them, and frowned.
Opening one Jade Bottle, one could see that the pill inside was entirely blood-red, about the size of a longan. This pill looked extremely mysterious. At a glance, it was like a transparent bead filled with blood. Looking closely, it resembled a tiny eye, exuding a sense of strangeness overall.
"This is a seventh-grade pill, the Life Devouring Pill. It has no effect on us. Its effect is..."
Chen Xiao briefly explained to Zi Yan the wondrous uses of the Life Devouring Pill, which even Yao Chen marveled at and which had caused a stir on the Central State continent.
After listening, Zi Yan was indifferent.
"Rely on it to create an army of Dou Wang level death warriors? Are those people in Central State stupid? How can a seventh-grade pill be mass-produced so easily? Instead of relying on this Life Devouring Pill, wouldn't it be easier to cultivate using pills like the Dou Ling Pill and Royal Extreme Pill?"
There was indeed some truth to these words.
However, the Life Devouring Pill wasn't entirely useless. The most astonishing thing about this pill was that it disregarded the user's talent. Even a pig could be raised to the Dou Wang level with it.
Although the side effects were significant.
"You're absolutely right. Let's go, it's time to head back. Getting two Life Devouring Pills and the pill formula makes this trip worthwhile."
Rubbing Zi Yan's head, Chen Xiao waved his hand and put away the skeleton on the bed.
The moment the skeleton entered the storage ring, it actually dissipated like light smoke.
At the same time, a notification of the subsequent completion came from his mind.
This cycle was even shorter than expected!
-----------
This high quality machine translation is powered by: https:// randomtranslator.com/
To read the full translation, as well as more than 444+ fanfic and original translations or request new translations, check out: https:// randomtranslator.com/
You can also join the RandomTranslator community on Discord to connect with other readers: https:// discord.gg/NSWvfN7vua
-----------