Chapter 34 - Expired Elixirs, Just Make Do With Them
Seeing the twenty prompts pop up in his head, Chen Chen felt instantly reassured, and his stern, somber expression began to loosen up as well.
"Brother, I feel that there are some great things around here, do you dare to go venture with me?"
Chen Chen looked at Zhang Ji with a smile. He was only afraid that they would find nothing after the search, which would be really awkward. Fortunately, things like that didn't happen.
"Of course I do!" Zhang Ji agreed decisively, looking determined.
He would not bear a grudge if he were to venture through the raging fire and surf the high tides for Chen Chen, let alone going on a treasure hunt with him.
"Alright! Follow me then!"
After he spoke, Chen Chen set off on his horse in a certain direction, while Zhang Ji followed closely behind.
After notifying the rest of the squad, the two of them vanished into a forest.
Moments later.
Chen Chen came upon a bush, and without saying a word, he began digging earthward with the iron shovel that he prepared in advance. After digging a meter deep, he finally saw the so-called 'fragment of a treasure.'
"Brother Chen, is this the treasure that you were talking about?" Zhang Ji asked in amazement as he looked at the rusty tip of a sword that Chen Chen held in his hand.
"Yes, I have sensed the ethereality of this thing from afar. This is something extraordinary!"
Chen Chen wore a solemn expression, but deep within, he was lacking confidence. The thing in his hand was no different from iron waste, and it gave no response after he tried to instill it with ethereality.
Was this thing really capable of resisting demons and evil?
Despite his doubts, he had to pretend as if he had found a valuable treasure to astonish Zhang Ji, who was watching at the side.
"Let's go, we'll move on to the next destination."
After storing away the fragment, Chen Chen hurried to the next target with Zhang Ji. This time, they traveled for half an hour before arriving at the location.
Right when Chen Chen was about to start digging blindly, Zhang Ji grabbed the shovel from his hand.
"Brother Chen, leave rough labor like this to me!"
Upon hearing Zhang Ji's words, Chen Chen did not refuse. In a serious manner, he then replied, "Brother, we have to dig six meters deep this time!"
When he heard "six meters", the look on Zhang Ji's face turned awkward. He then handed the shovel back to Chen Chen.
He was only an ordinary man, it could take him an entire day to dig six meters down.
"Brother Chen, I'm kinda useless, right?"
As he watched Chen Chen digging the earth up like a marmot, Zhang Ji asked in a self-condemnation.
Very soon, Chen Chen's voice came through from under the ground.
"Zhang Ji, you'll surely be able to help me once you embark on the path of cultivation! Besides, I won't be calling you brother anymore, it's too alienating. You should also stop calling me Brother Chen, just call me Chen Chen instead."
"Chen Chen..." Zhang Ji mumbled under his breath, but shook his head immediately.
How could he address his big brother directly by his name! It would be a sign of disrespect!
After brooding for a moment, Zhang Ji shouted towards Chen Chen's hole, "Brother Chen, if you find it alienating, how about I call you big brother from now?"
"As you please!"
As Chen Chen finished his sentence, he climbed up from the pit. By this time, he had become completely covered in soil, no longer looking as chivalrous as he previously did. However, there was a one-meter-long piece of wood in his hand, which was giving off a dim glow.
"Brother Chen… big brother, what kind of treasure is that?" Zhang Ji asked curiously.
Compared to the last rusty piece of iron that he dug up, this piece of wood obviously seemed more like a treasure as it glowed, unlike ordinary wood.
Chen Chen instantly became thrilled as he looked at the Dragon-taming Wood in his hand. This particular piece of wood was a real treasure of cultivation. Apart from the fruit he had swallowed at the Black Wind Cliff, this piece of Dragon-taming Wood was probably the most valuable item that he had come across thus far.
"This is called Dragon-taming Wood, it is a world treasure that was nurtured by the dragon veins' essence under the ground. If any powerful immortals come across this, they would want to seize it for their own use."
Chen Chen introduced the artifact. However, it was the system that had provided him with information about the Dragon-taming Wood. Although he didn't quite understand, he knew it was simply phenomenal.
"Big brother, you are telling me about this valuable treasure, but aren't you afraid that I'm going to tell somebody about it?"
When he finished listening to the introduction, the look on Zhang Ji's face grew very complicated.
Upon hearing Zhang Ji's response, Chen Chen tapped him on the shoulder and said, "We are brothers, we have to trust each other."
"Big brother! You'll be my big brother forever!"
"Alright, cut the silly talk, follow me to the next location."
...
Just like that, three hours had passed.
Chen Chen and Zhang Ji arrived at the final location.
It was a cavern, an extremely deep and quiet one. From its outward appearance alone, one wouldn't be able to discern the trails of activity left by others in the past.
However, Chen Chen caught sight of a few vague words written on the green mosses on the stone walls of the cavern.
"Withered Spring Paradise Cavern".
Obviously, it used to be an immortal's cavern, but something had happened and it was eventually forsaken.
Based on just the looks alone, it could have been derelict for several thousand years. If Chen Chen hadn't found it, the paradise cavern might have lain in waste till the end of time.
"Big brother, your sense of ethereality is so sharp that you could sense the treasure from so far away, are all immortals as amazing as you are?"
Having witnessed Chen Chen's prowess, Zhang Ji grew even more envious of him.
When would he ever acquire a skill that would enable him to hunt for treasures anywhere?
Upon hearing Zhang Ji's remarks, Chen Chen smiled sheepishly and responded, "Not necessarily, it's only because some kind of talent has been activated within me after I began cultivation, which makes me particularly sensitive to the vibrations of treasures. However, there's no need for you to be discouraged. Once you embark on the path of cultivation, you will probably acquire some unique talents as well."
Could there really be no special talents at all? If there really weren't any, Chen Chen would still fabricate a talent to give to him.
Zhang Ji followed Chen Chen into the cavern with a face full of anticipation.
The interior of the cavern had become taken over by vines and tendrils by now, and its past history was nowhere to be seen.
When they arrived at the location pinpointed by the system, Chen Chen finally managed to make out the contours of some stone chambers in the surroundings.
On the wall beside the stone chamber was a half-decomposed bookshelf, on which quite a lot of books were placed. Some of the books had fallen to the ground and were covered by green mosses.
"Zhang Ji, search around, and see if there are any useful books."
This stone chamber contained nearly up to a hundred books, so Chen Chen did not hesitate to ask for Zhang Ji's help.
The books scattered around may not have been essential to the former owner of the cavern, but as far as cultivation newbies like him were concerned, they were filled with extremely valuable knowledge.
"Sure! Big brother!" Seeing that he had finally come in handy, Zhang Ji immediately began flipping through the books discreetly.
...
"Big brother, it's a collection of low-grade elixir prescriptions, do you need it?"
"Yes, take it!"
"What about the Gengjin Sword Techniques?"
"Yes!"
"The Transformation of Heavenly Water into Rain?"
"Yes!"
"The Romantic Records of Lingluo Cultivator?"
"... Forget it, just take them all."
Finally, after searching through many books, Chen Chen found the 'Classic of Demon Atonement' that he was looking for at long last, and instantly lost interest in searching through the other books.
Honestly speaking, each of the books were very precious in their own right. It didn't matter that there were nearly a hundred of them, he was a man of cultivation after all, would he not be able to memorize them?
"Alright." As Zhang Ji spoke, he removed the robe that he was wearing and packed up all the books.
Right at that moment, his gaze fell upon a spot on the bookshelf.
"Big brother, come here and have a look. What is this?"
Chen Chen followed his gaze, and came upon an exquisite wooden box on the topmost of the bookshelf. Even after the baptism of time, it showed no signs of decomposition apart from a little dust.
"That's some good stuff."
A thought flashed across Chen Chen's mind. He took a slight leap and retrieved the wooden box.
He then opened it and found two elixirs the size of longans. Even until this day, they emitted a dense, rich air of ethereality.
"System, what is the most valuable item in the nearest twenty meters? Yourself excluded!"
"Host, there are two expired Foundation-building Elixirs. Although they can no longer perform their original functions, ordinary people and cultivators at the stage of qi training can enhance their status of cultivation marginally by consuming them."
"Tsk, doesn't matter if it's expired, I don't mind." Upon hearing the system's explanation, Chen Chen took one of the elixirs and swallowed it down into his stomach.
In an instant, an extremely dense surge of ethereality swept through all his limbs and bones.
"Big brother, what is this? What if it's poisonous?" Zhang Ji questioned in stupefaction.
"It's some expired food, just make do with it!" Chen Chen replied. Before Zhang Ji could respond, he stuffed the other one into Zhang Ji's mouth.
...
In the meantime, back on the path, a few dozen riders who rode tall, robust horses had besieged the carriages where they were parked.
As for Zhang Ji's three drivers and the two bodyguards, they were trembling in fear in the middle of the crowd.
"We finally caught up with you! I'm asking you, did you kill our young master!" The rider in the lead questioned in a fierce voice, his eyes filled with a murderous gleam.
The young master that they were in charge of guarding had died a sudden death. If they couldn't even find the murderer, how were they supposed to report their mission?
Previously, Chen Chen's squad left in haste, moments before sunrise. As far as the following group could see, the carriages on the path were the most suspicious of all.
Following the suspicion, they took the time to chase after the carriages all the way down to the mountains, and only just managed to catch up.