Xu Xiong dashed away from the house, and found a secluded area in the village and brushed off the dust of the book with his hand.
His finger then traced the book and opened it up to the first page.
He began to read the book, his eyes going from left to right, and his finger kept flipping the pages.
'Copper Cave Mansion? Breeding farms of humans? Strange noises coming from the west side of the village?' Xu Xiong's face got more and more serious as time went by.
A lot of things add up with the village chief and the children talking, but he still remained a little sceptical.
For one, how the hell did a Copper Cave Mansion appear in this village?
A Copper Cave Mansions are branches of a Copper Palace, and if there is a Copper Palace, the entire Black Water Sect will be called in for help.
After all, a Copper Palace Master must be at least in the fifth realm, a level 51 master.
Without further hesitation, Xu Xiong brought the copper and gold back to his main base, and started to check out the west side of the village more.
With the west side having less people and more crops, it was a lot easier for Xu Xiong to hide his tracks.
Taking out the artifact given to him by Jin Dong, he scanned the surroundings for any life.
'None- wait, below?'
Xu Xiong was taken aback by this, but instantly thought of the Copper Cave Mansion that the dairy Jin Dong left.
'Could he have been to the Copper Cave Mansion? But why did he lie and say he knew nothing? Could he be trying to deter me? But why be so kind to a man about to kill you.'
Xu Xiong's thoughts were a mess.
He didn't understand the mind of the village chief, and why many things he said are true, but his personal experiences are lies.
'Whatever, find the entrance first. I only detect three life forms, but that could just be because of the distance and how far underground this thing goes.'
Xu Xiong threw away all the distracting thoughts, and started to look inside some of the west houses for any secret rooms.
Since there are life forms coming from underneath, and there aren't any cave entrances that would lead here, Xu Xiong's only option was to check the houses or start digging his way down.
But digging down had its own problems.
One was being caught by the villagers, and another was making too much noise and being found out by the people below.
Hours would pass, and Xu Xiong searched one by one, until he finally found something that led to a deep black basement.
'Finally!' Xu Xiong sighed, his shoulders slumping.
'Three hours! Three hours just to find this shitty cave!' Xu Xiong cursed in his heart.
If it wasn't for the daily reward bonus for clearing this mission, he would've left with the copper and gold!
'Steady! I've already gotten a C- reward. If I complete this mission, I could get a C+ which would boost my cultivation a shit ton.'
With some small encouragement to not back out half way, Xu Xiong made his way down the dark passage.
With his incredible eye sight, he quickly adjusted to the darkness, allowing him to see a few feet in front of him.
His steps were slow and gentle, just like a cat reading to pounce on its prey.
Bit by bit, he finally heard some noises coming from a bit away.
The sound was like a bird, but had few human syllables coming out of its mouth, making it sound strange.
'Peak Dead Birds as guards?' Xu Xiong raised a brow and felt their strength.
He didn't dare to walk out in the open anymore, as Dead Birds can see better in the dark.
'If I use the artifact that Jin Dong gave me, I can roughly pinpoint where they are and use a bit of Qi to kill them.'
With a plan in mind, Xu Xiong kept to the wall, keeping his body temperature as low as possible as he slowly moved closer and closer to his enemies.
Right when he was striking distance with his Qi, he stretched out his arms and blasted both of them with a Qi blade.
The two Dead Birds didn't have a moment to react before a hole appeared on their foreheads.
The two dropped down on the floor, and Xu Xiong quickly rushed towards their bodies, and found a massive door that reached over 20 feet tall right in front of the bodies.
Xu Xiong was frightened when he saw the door, and took three steps back when he saw it.
'C-copper door?'
His body trembled just thinking this.
He didn't think that he'd see a copper door any time soon; let alone in this village!
'Is it truly a Copper Cave Mansion?'
When this thought hit him, he froze slightly.
'No, impossible! This is just some village near the Black Water Sect. It should just be some abandoned Copper Cave Mansion from the past era. Since the system told me there isn't any extreme danger, I can approach it with caution and still live.'
Xu Xiong steadied himself, and used the earring to check for any life forms.
'Four more life forms 250 meters away.' Xu Xiong observed.
With his increase of spiritual power and Qi from today's rewards, the range of the earring has tripled from before.
Not to mention he could use it more freely.
'Before opening the door, I should deal with the bodies before they resurrect somewhere else.' Xu Xiong thought, and took out his gold sword and began stabbing the Dead Birds over and over again.
Considering he killed them using Qi, he didn't know how long it takes for the gold to fully kill their souls, so he'd just slice them up over and over again, making the process quicker yet gruesome.
With that done, Xu Xiong took a deep breath and refocused his attention onto the massive copper door.
He calmly walked up to it and placed his right hand on it, and felt the cold hardness of the copper as he began to push the door open.
Due to the weight and thickness of the door, the opening inevitably made some noise, attacking some attention from the four life forms.
Xu Xiong could feel their life forms getting closer and closer, making him take an off angle to hopefully catch these Dead Birds off guard.