Chapter 858
[The Treasure-Hunting Rat], The Chen Family Treasure
Any cultivator from a remote border region who crosses that formidable barrier will exclaim from the bottom of their heart that the world inside and outside the Tianshan Mountains is truly two completely different worlds.
It turns out that the human race is not a small, insignificant race that can barely survive the endless beast tides by relying on a piece of paper. It is so powerful that all races need to form alliances to fight against it.
The power of the human race alone is already comparable to that of all other races.
This is a great and brilliant civilization, but its brilliance has never reached the long buffer zone on the border.
The Eastern Heaven Cultivation Realm, located in the eastern part of the Southern Wilderness Continent, is only slightly larger than the Great Qi Cultivation Realm before it expanded to the banks of the Canglan River, and is not as vast as the Great Qi Cultivation Realm is now.
Among the dozens of cultivation worlds on the border, it could only be ranked in the middle, not even comparable to the Suzhou cultivation world, let alone the Great Qian cultivation world.
However, this land has given birth to several powerful forces at the Nascent Soul level, and countless Golden Core forces.
Their population and number of cultivators are greater than those of the four cultivation worlds of Lu, Qi, Yu, and even Gusu combined, and their resources seem inexhaustible.
The previous owner of this land was the Chen Clan of the Eastern Heaven, who were once extremely powerful. After the passing of the True Lord of Reincarnation, the Chen Clan gradually declined and eventually became a Golden Core family, which was destroyed by their enemy, the True Lord of Giant Sun Clan.
The end of one glorious era has ushered in an even greater era of glory.
After destroying the Chen clan, Juyang Zhenjun dominated the entire Eastern Heaven cultivation world. He established the Eastern Heaven Alliance with his own bloodline and his old followers as the main force, and its development momentum in recent years has been extremely fierce.
In a short period of time, the name "Chen Family of Dongtian" was almost never mentioned again.
The landscape of the Eastern Heaven Cultivation World has undergone tremendous changes, with many places welcoming new masters, which has caused considerable trouble for Song Changsheng.
He has more than a dozen resource points at his disposal. Excluding the places in the original Chen clan territory, there are five remaining.
Of these five locations, Song Changsheng was most optimistic about three. These three locations had the highest level of secrecy and were all far away from the Chen clan's territory. Some were located thousands of feet underground, some were beneath a large lake, and one was even located in a small world with a hidden entrance.
As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows. These three places are the escape routes prepared by the Chen family of Dongtian for the family, so that if the family suffers a major change one day, they can preserve some of their strength and make a comeback.
This contains not only various cultivation resources, but also backups of key scriptures and traditions, which need to be replenished periodically according to clan rules.
To prevent traitors from appearing, the exact locations of these three hiding places are known only to the clan leader, the guardian elders, and the young clan leader. The other elders with real power may only know one of them at most, and they do not have the authority to enter.
Song Changsheng wasn't worried about the access issue. He had the waist token of the Reincarnation True Monarch, and although many years had passed, his access was still the highest in the Chen family. As long as there were no large-scale changes, opening the gate would not be a problem.
just.
The destruction of a family, the emergence of traitors, or the search of souls are all very common occurrences. Golden Core cultivators have no ability to resist Nascent Soul True Monarchs. He had no idea whether these hiding places had survived.
However, from the memories of the corpse raiser, it was learned that the patriarch and guardian elders of the Chen clan were among the first to die in battle.
The young clan chief sacrificed himself to cover the retreat of his people, perishing together with the pursuers.
Therefore, it is highly likely that these three hiding places did not fall into the hands of the Eastern Heaven Alliance; at most, they were taken by the surviving bloodline of the Chen family.
However, it's hard to say for sure. According to what the corpse raiser knows, the Great Sun True Lord personally took action and used spatial magic to seal off the entire Chen clan territory. All spatial teleportation arrays were rendered ineffective, and it's highly likely that they were wiped out in one fell swoop.
However, Song Changsheng still leans towards the idea that the Chen family's bloodline has survived. The reason is simple: the container storing the soul of the Reincarnation True Monarch has not fallen into the hands of the Eastern Heaven Alliance. The Eastern Heaven Alliance doesn't even know about this, otherwise the Corpse Raiser would never have been able to take away the Reincarnation True Monarch's spirit body.
If any descendants of the Chen family are still alive, they are most likely in one of these three hiding places, because these places are safe enough and have enough resources for them to accumulate strength and rise again.
Song Changsheng still preferred to find these "remnants" of the Chen family. As long as he could get some benefits, returning the spirit body of the Reincarnation True Lord to them would be a good thing.
If the Reincarnation True Lord can truly reverse the extreme of Yin to Yang, then this good fortune will be transferred to him. As long as the other party has even the slightest bit of affection for him, it will be priceless.
"It's already taken. So they really only left me with three choices?"
Looking down at the bustling city of cultivators, Song Changsheng frowned slightly.
This is the second hiding place he has come to since arriving in the Eastern Heaven Cultivation World. During the Reincarnation True Monarch period, this place should have been a hilly area with only a few low-level spiritual veins. On the surface, it has always been used by the Chen family to grow spiritual rice and low-level spiritual herbs.
In fact, beneath these hills, the Chen family constructed a stable underground space to store some rare resources, which also served as an escape route. Above the underground space was an underground river, which was said to lead directly to the outside of the Eastern Heaven Cultivation World.
Compared to the previous one, this place is undoubtedly much more hidden. Unexpectedly, the hills were leveled and a huge city of cultivators was built. There are still many parts of this city that are not yet completed. The flag of the Eastern Heaven Alliance is also hanging on the city tower. It is likely that after the Chen family was destroyed, some of the old subordinates who followed True Monarch Juyang were assigned here.
This place is relatively remote and not very resource-rich. Since the other party chose to spend so much time building a city here, they must have obtained the resources from that hiding place. He couldn't think of any other explanation.
This was the second location where he had come up empty-handed. Many powerful elders of the Chen family knew about these two places. The current situation was not surprising, but it was still a bit of a pity, as it meant that he had gained less wealth.
"Let's go here next..."
Song Changsheng chose the Great Wilderness Mountain, which was closest to him. As its name suggests, it was a barren mountain with nothing but rocks and very sparse vegetation. It was often used as a road sign because of its exceptional height.
In such a place, most people would never imagine that a treasure trove of the Chen family is hidden beneath this desolate mountain.
He followed his memory to the foot of the mountain and used his earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows one to burrow underground) to go deep underground. Before he even got close to his destination, his heart sank.
According to the memories of the True Monarch of Reincarnation's spirit body, there should be a large concealment array here, but he has not detected any array aura. Unwilling to give up, he comforted himself that the array's grade was too high for him to notice. He even used the [Eye of Illusion] in the hope of finding out, but then he completely gave up, as the array had been broken.
When he arrived at the underground space, it was indeed empty. Even the shelves and floor where items were stored had been scraped clean, leaving only messy footprints and a large hole.
"Monster?"
Song Changsheng immediately understood that the culprit was a demon beast, most likely one with the ability to find treasure. Judging from the surrounding traces, it must have happened in the last few years. He was a step too late.
"This demonic beast is clearly not strong, yet it was able to break through a fifth-level concealment formation. Could it be a relative of Silver Ring?"
The silver ring he mentioned was naturally the Silver Ring Treasure-Seeking Rat that Song Youfu had unintentionally tamed.
Able to find treasure, not strong but able to break through array restrictions, and likes to move underground, these three characteristics perfectly match the group of "treasure-hunting rats".
"What a pity, we arrived a step too late."
Song Changsheng's lament wasn't that the treasure had been snatched away first, but rather that he hadn't been able to catch the [Treasure-Seeking Rat].
This [Treasure-Seeking Rat] is much stronger than the one in Song Youfu's hands. Just the fact that it can break through a fifth-order formation makes it extremely valuable.
Of course, its harm is as great as its value. For the surrounding forces, it is a nightmare. The treasure trove of the Purple Mansion forces cannot withstand it at all, and ordinary Golden Core forces would probably be in trouble as well.
The key is that this thing is slippery, so it takes a lot of effort to catch it.
With a slight thought, Song Changsheng took out a jade bottle from his bosom, broke the seal, placed it at the entrance of the cave, and set up a small concealment array around it.
The Treasure-Hunting Mouse will clearly remember every secret passage it digs and will occasionally go back to check on it.
This is a habit of their group, because they used to mostly destroy wild resource sites, where resources would regrow, and a surprise attack now and then could bring unexpected gains. That's why he did it this way; it's essentially fishing with a straight hook.
The Treasure-Hunting Mouse is very clever and usually won't take the bait, but if you can arouse its greed, you still have a good chance of getting it.
Greed will lead one to take risks.
The jade bottle contained a drop of [Thunder Essence], and also left a mark of his soul, which would mark his location whenever he returned.
"Hopefully, I'll find something." Song Changsheng erased all traces of his presence and then set off for the second hiding place.
This time, he chose a large lake called Crescent Lake, which is quite far from here and shouldn't be destroyed by the Treasure-Hunting Rat so quickly.
After failing to reach his destination three times in a row, Song Changsheng couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. He rushed to Crescent Lake as quickly as possible, only to find that a cluster of buildings of varying heights had appeared on the lakeside at some point, and there were many Qi Refining cultivators fishing in small boats in Crescent Lake.
"Am I too late again?"
Song Changsheng extended his divine sense and scanned the area inside and out. He discovered that this was just a weak Foundation Establishment family with only three Foundation Establishment cultivators in total. The strongest of them was only at the late Foundation Establishment stage. He was immediately relieved.
Unless they are descendants of the Chen family, with their cultivation level, they wouldn't even be able to find the location of the hiding place, let alone break through the outer array and restrictions.
"The fact that the Eastern Heaven Alliance's flag wasn't flying might just be a coincidence."
The Song family's ancestor, Song Taiyi, happened to arrive at the Wangyue Mountain Range and established the Song family. After the Chen family was destroyed, this place became a no-man's land. The lake was home to a large number of low-level spirit fish, which was very attractive to Foundation Establishment families.
Concealing his presence and aura, Song Changsheng submerged into the emerald green lake without alerting anyone.
After diving deep into the lake, the [Insightful Eye] directly detected the location of the concealment formation. Seeing that it was still operating normally, he was overjoyed.
As long as the concealment formation remains, it is highly likely that it has not been affected.
"A fourth-tier, top-grade concealment formation, is it?"
Breaking this level of formation was not a problem for him to begin with. After his trip to the Myriad Formation Cave, his formation skills had improved a lot, and he directly broke through to the fourth-tier upper grade. With the assistance of the [Eye of Illusion], he broke the formation in less than half an hour.
In an instant, a large gate made of fine iron appeared in front of him.
At this point, he had only passed the first hurdle. The outer restrictions were clearly set up by a Nascent Soul True Monarch himself, making it impossible to break through them silently.
"Hopefully they haven't changed the permissions later." Song Changsheng took out the identity token he obtained from the spirit body of the Reincarnation True Monarch and gently touched it. A ripple like water spread out and formed a semi-transparent water film in front of him, separating the lake water.
Upon opening the gate forged from refined iron, a torrent of rich spiritual energy burst forth.
"Finally, we've made some progress." Song Changsheng smiled, as this had met his expectations.
Although the first attempt failed, it wasn't caused by human intervention. So, it's likely that no one touched the last place either.
That hiding place was located in a small world, the most secretive place. Most importantly, it was the last escape route prepared by the Chen family, and only the Chen family patriarch knew its exact location.
That was originally Song Changsheng's "safety net," but now it seems there's an unexpected surprise.
Stepping into the secret chamber at the bottom of the lake, a bright light immediately greeted me.
This secret room is not large, but it contains a great deal of resources.
In the center were rows of tall iron and wooden shelves, densely packed with porcelain bottles and jade slips.
Around the walls were piles of large bronze boxes, each ten feet long, tightly sealed by a restriction, and there were at least dozens of them.
Song Changsheng casually took a porcelain bottle from the ironwood shelf and found that it was covered with nine layers of restrictions, aiming for a storage life of over a thousand years.
Upon opening it, they found a Tier 3 top-grade [Essence Pill] inside. This is a pill that can enhance the cultivation level of a Purple Mansion cultivator, and the materials used are extremely rare.
Song Changsheng frowned and murmured, "It seems that the resources that were originally stored have been used by the Chen family. In the past, apart from some pills with special effects, the stored items here were all fourth-grade or higher pills."
The destruction of the Chen clan occurred two hundred years after the fall of their last Nascent Soul True Monarch.
During this period of vacuum, under external pressure, they must have used all available resources and means to cultivate Nascent Soul True Monarchs, and the resources in these hiding places were most likely replaced.
Although it was slightly different from what he had expected, Song Changsheng was not very disappointed. As the saying goes, contentment brings happiness. These resources were still a valuable asset to the Song family, especially the classics and books, which could be easily copied.
Song Changsheng casually picked up the two scrolls on the outer side. One scroll contained his cultivation insights, and the other scroll recorded a minor supernatural ability called "Tendon Splitting Hand." According to the description, it was a supernatural ability specifically designed to deal with body cultivators, which piqued his interest quite a bit.
After a closer look, I found that there were still quite a few commendable aspects, so I put them directly into my storage bag.
“Most of these boxes should contain spirit stones.” Song Changsheng casually opened a few copper boxes against the wall, and sure enough, they were filled with neatly stacked spirit stones. Unfortunately, they were all mid-grade spirit stones, three in a row. In the past, most of these boxes contained high-grade spirit stones.
After nearly ten thousand years of decline, the Chen family's potential has been almost completely exhausted.
Fortunately, they had a solid foundation; otherwise, with such a wasteful approach, they would have been wiped out long ago.
"One box costs five thousand yuan, which is five hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones. Fortunately, there are enough of them."
After taking stock, they found that there were ten large bronze boxes containing spirit stones, totaling five million low-grade spirit stones, and one small box a few feet long containing one hundred high-grade spirit stones.
The spirit stones together are worth six million low-grade spirit stones.
Considering that the Chen family set up at least a dozen such hiding places, the spirit stones stored there alone are estimated to be worth 100 million.
"Even a starved camel is bigger than a horse," Song Changsheng couldn't help but exclaim.
Despite having been defeated for so many years, it still possesses a foundation far exceeding that of ordinary Golden Core forces. If it hadn't provoked the formidable enemy, True Monarch Giant Sun, with this foundation, given enough time, it would still have a chance to rise again once a genius emerges.
He quickly flipped through the items and found nothing of interest except for three pieces of [Amethyst Jade] and a few [Body Tempering Pills]. In the end, he lost interest in continuing to look.
"I hope the next one will bring me some surprises."
With a wave of his sleeve, he swept the secret room clean.
He transformed into a streak of sword light and arrived above Crescent Lake, only to find that three figures riding swords had already surrounded him in the air...
……
P.S.: Today's chapter is 5,000 words long. I originally planned to write 7,000, but after get off work I was called in by my boss for almost an hour. Two more people were laid off, both of whom joined the company around the same time as me. I have a feeling I'm next. It's so tough, fellow Daoists.
Eight thousand words are still needed. (End of Chapter)