Unknowingly, he turned the last page and found the booklet had come to an end.
Shen Xiuhan stared at the handwriting—at first full of youthful high spirits, but in the end degenerating into a sloppy scrawl stained with blood. A sudden wave of melancholy washed over him, and he fell silent.
Silence filled the stone chamber.
Water droplets fell from the ceiling, one after another, splashing onto the stone floor with a crisp, hollow sound that echoed like the resentful heartbeat of the deceased.
He raised his head and looked at the seated skeleton, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
“A demonic technique with its own spirituality... capable of shielding itself from perception, rendering even my instincts to avoid danger useless... It seems being a Child of Destiny doesn't make one completely invincible...”
Shen Xiuhan sighed softly. Closing the booklet, he walked over to the skeleton and bowed respectfully.
“Junior Shen Xiuhan pays his respects to Senior Xiao... I will do my utmost to fulfill your request. Since fate has brought me to this opportunity today... please forgive my offense!”
He had already used the 『Muxu Eye』 to inspect the area thoroughly, confirming there were no hidden formations left in the stone chamber.
Though the chamber was quite spacious, it was entirely empty save for the booklet on the stone table.
Thus, the answer was obvious.
Everything of value here... was kept in the moon-white pouch hanging from the skeleton's waist!
A storage treasure!
Delighted, Shen Xiuhan stepped closer to inspect it.
Earlier in the evening, after witnessing Zuo Muxian's miraculous storage methods, he had felt a pang of envy, wondering when he might obtain such a treasure of his own.
He never expected that just a few hours later, a storage treasure would be sitting right in front of him.
He reached out and untied the small pouch.
It felt incredibly light, woven from some unknown material.
Opening the pouch, an inner pocket dimension of about ten feet square instantly came into view.
There weren't many items inside, divided into two small piles, the majority of which were books and scrolls.
Shen Xiuhan pulled them out to look through them. Most were manuals on formations, filled with illustrations and text, incredibly profound and complex.
It was all Greek to him, so after a few quick glances, he stuffed them back inside.
Aside from those, there were also numerous cultivation techniques ranging from the Mingjin Rank to the Gangjin Rank.
Fists, palms, fingers, movement techniques, and body-tempering methods—it was a complete collection of nearly ten different techniques!
There were the 『Mystic Dark Frost-Condensing Finger』, the 『Water-Overturning Palm』, the 『Instant Shadow Step』, the 『Ice Snake Three-Fold Body』, the 『Cold Marrow Bone-Tempering Chapter』, the 『Ice Fiend Wave-Parting Fist』...
Each technique had neat handwriting written on its cover in a sharp, elegant hand, clearly transcribed by Xiao Yan himself.
But when he saw one of the martial techniques, Shen Xiuhan's brow twitched. He pulled it out to examine it closely.
“『Ice Soul Misty Rain Sword』...”
Shen Xiuhan muttered to himself as he flipped through the pages, scanning them one by one. The more he read, the stranger his expression became.
“Isn't this Luo Qiance's 『Misty Rain Blade』? After the Longxiang Tournament, I heard that his blade technique originated from the Raging Sea Sect's ultimate Gangjin Rank martial technique, the 『Ice Soul Misty Rain Blade』... How did it become a sword technique?”
After flipping through it for a moment without understanding the connection, he closed the book and put it back into the pouch along with the other techniques.
“This sword technique is quite profound. I can try cultivating it in the future,” he murmured.
With a sigh of admiration, he continued to inspect the remaining items in the pouch.
Aside from the formations and techniques, the most eye-catching things in the pouch were three jade boxes.
The boxes were all carved from premium mutton-fat white jade, their surfaces as smooth as mirrors and their edges inlaid with silver thread.
Shen Xiuhan casually opened the first one. When he saw the somewhat familiar object inside, his heart leaped.
It was actually a jade plaque!
Its shape, size, and color were identical to the one he had retrieved from the hidden compartment in Tian Erhu's roof beam.
It was because of that very jade plaque that he had later obtained the 『Divine General Muxu Upper Radiance Scripture』 divine ability on Yunyi Island.
“Could it be...”
Shen Xiuhan's heart pounded as he experimentally channeled a sliver of force into it.
The next moment!
Whoosh!
A brilliant azure light erupted, surging from the jade plaque like a rising tide, illuminating the stone cave as bright as day.
Immediately after, thousands of tiny characters materialized in midair, glowing with flowing golden light and hanging silently like a canopy of inverted stars.
Shen Xiuhan held his breath, focusing his gaze, and softly read aloud:
“『Mystic Dark Ice Fiend Sea-Overturning Scripture』!”
It really was!
Every mysterious jade plaque contained a divine ability technique.
And the one before him was precisely the divine ability legacy of Mystic Dark Peak, one of the four peaks of the Diaohai Pavilion.
His eyes burned bright as he quickly scanned the floating golden characters.
Once cultivated to Great Accomplishment, this scripture allowed one to form a spell-type divine ability called the 『Dark Sea Ferry』, possessing terrifying power.
Its lower-tier methods were divided into the secret technique 『Mystic Fiend Gang』 and the cultivation technique 『Mystic Ice Force』.
The former was a peerless Gangjin Rank technique, fierce and overbearing, which he could not cultivate for the time being.
The latter, however, was within his reach, though its exact mysteries would only be revealed once he successfully cultivated it.
After studying it for a brief moment, Shen Xiuhan placed the jade plaque back into the storage pouch and opened the second jade box.
The instant the lid was lifted, a blast of freezing air rushed out, forcing Shen Xiuhan to turn his head away. He waited a brief moment before looking down.
Resting quietly inside the box was an extraordinary lotus.
The lotus was completely translucent, its petals looking as though they were carved from ice and jade, as thin as a cicada's wing. At the center of the flower, a single droplet of icy-blue dew trembled precariously, yet never fell.
The entire flower emitted a crisp, cold fragrance. Inhaling it instantly refreshed the mind, as if his very internal organs had been thoroughly cleansed.
“It seems to be... a high-tier Precious Herb.”
Shen Xiuhan didn't dwell on it and quickly opened the third jade box.
But the moment he opened it and saw the object inside, his expression visibly froze.
Because...
...the shape of the item in the box was truly bizarre!
It was cone-shaped, with a rounded thick end that gradually tapered down, ending in a flat ring.
Shen Xiuhan turned it over and over in his hands. The more he looked at it, the more he felt...
Why does this shape look so incredibly familiar?
It looks exactly like a...
...butt plug?
Shen Xiuhan's face darkened. He quickly shook the bizarre thought out of his head, suppressed his wild imagination, and called out in his mind:
“Intelligence!”
In the void before him, golden characters cascaded down like a waterfall.
【Daily Intelligence System Activated!】
【Intelligence 1: The item you obtained from the second jade box is a Tier Four Precious Herb named 『Frost-Condensed Jade-Stem Lotus』, which is the main ingredient for the secret pill of Diaohai Pavilion's Mystic Dark Peak.】
【Combining this main herb with auxiliary ingredients—three stalks of Snow-Condensing Grass, three mace of Mystic Water Essence, one catty of Cold Moon Spring Water, and one stalk of Frost-Shattering Flower—can refine the 『Ice Soul Condensing Gangqi Pill』.】
【This pill is highly beneficial for martial artists breaking through to the Outer Gang and Inner Gang stages, with its effects doubled for those who primarily cultivate ice or water-attribute techniques.】
Having read this, Shen Xiuhan finally understood.
This Tier Four Precious Herb was undoubtedly something Xiao Yan had prepared for his own breakthrough to the Gangjin Rank.
Unfortunately, fate was cruel. He had died before he could ever use it, leaving it sealed here along with his unfulfilled wishes.
For Shen Xiuhan, however, he didn't need to go through the trouble of refining and consuming this pill.
With 『Deduction』 at his disposal, he could break through cultivation barriers on his own. He only needed to cultivate step-by-step and use pills to replenish his blood qi.
This kind of barrier-breaking elixir could be saved for other purposes in the future.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he shifted his gaze to the second piece of intelligence.
【Intelligence 2: The item you obtained from the third jade box is the spiritual artifact 『Frost-Freezing Spike』, crafted by the seventh-generation sect master of Diaohai Pavilion, Xiao Ling. It possesses two major effects.】
【First: When wielding this spiritual artifact to perform ice or water-attribute martial techniques, your force will concentrate at the tip of the spike. Where its sharp edge points, it can pierce protective Gangqi and physical iron armor.】
【Second: When using this spiritual artifact to attack enemies, freezing cold Anjin will penetrate their bodies, freezing their meridians and slowing down the circulation of their blood qi and Gangqi.】
“So it's not one of Diaohai Pavilion's inheritance spiritual artifacts?”
Shen Xiuhan raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise in his eyes.
When he had first obtained the 『Overturning Sea Bead』, the intelligence had marked it as one of the Four Great Inheritance Spiritual Artifacts of the Diaohai Pavilion.
Back then, he had assumed that the four main lineages of the Diaohai Pavilion each corresponded to one of the four inheritance spiritual artifacts.
But now, it seemed that was not the case.
Hadn't this seventh-generation sect master, Xiao Ling, forged a spiritual artifact of his own?
And compared to the versatile mysteries of the 『Overturning Sea Bead』, which could be used for escaping, concealing, and aiding cultivation...
...the functions of the 『Frost-Freezing Spike』 were clearly much simpler, yet far more pure.
This spiritual artifact, from the very moment of its creation, had been designed purely for slaughter.
Piercing protective Gangqi!
Freezing meridians and blood qi!
Both of its mystical effects were dedicated entirely to attacking enemies.
A spiritual artifact focused purely on combat would be any martial artist's ultimate trump card, capable of turning the tide in a life-or-death struggle.
“Not bad.”
Shen Xiuhan praised inwardly as he put the 『Frost-Freezing Spike』 along with its jade box into his storage pouch.
Although his current cultivation was still shallow and he might not be able to fully unleash the treasure's power, as his realm improved in the future, this spiritual artifact would undoubtedly prove immensely useful.
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