Chapter Sixteen: The Remains of the Senior Immortal and the Sealed Supreme Treasure
The group descended about forty to fifty meters along the tunnel left by the mutated two-headed worm’s body, only to find below them an invisible force field holding back the lake water. Through this unseen barrier, they saw a waterless space beneath. Inside...
“It looks like there’s someone in there.”
“No, those are remains.”
Shi Ning, filled with excitement, said to them, “There’s the remains of a senior wandering immortal here.”
“Really?”
The group quickly jumped down, passing through the invisible force field into the interior.
The space was about a hundred meters in diameter, completely devoid of water, surrounded by soil on all sides, and enclosed by an invisible force field.
At the bottom of this waterless chamber lay a formation. In the center sat the skeleton of a Taoist clad in exquisite robes, long since reduced to dry bones. Subtle spiritual energy flowed from the remains into the grand formation, powering the invisible force field that filled the entire space.
“An ancient immortal’s remains—this is a fortune for us.”
Several of them approached the Taoist’s remains and could clearly see the treasures around him.
The Taoist’s robe emitted a faint spiritual glow, evidently of high quality.
In front of him was planted a sixth-grade magical treasure: the Thousand-Insect Banner. Although damaged, it was repairable.
To the right of the banner rested a bronze ancient urn, its surface intricately carved with various strange insect reliefs—another magical treasure.
On the left lay a jade slip, likely a Taoist manual.
The Taoist also held an object in his hands—a gray bead clenched between his palms.
“Let’s inspect these first.”
They took turns examining the items. Zhuang Zhuo first took the bronze urn, infused it with magic power, and immediately his face lit up with joy.
“By the heavens, Golden-Winged Flying Centipedes!”
Stone Ning and the others looked over in surprise.
“What? Golden-Winged Flying Centipedes? There are Golden-Winged Flying Centipedes inside?”
“Yes, there are several.”
He shared the bronze urn’s properties with everyone:
Bronze Ancient Urn (Fifth-grade magical treasure): Cast from Chishan bronze, capable of nurturing spiritual insect treasures.
Attributes: Contains four Golden-Winged Flying Centipedes, requires blood feeding daily, breeds one every seven days, with an upper limit of 360. If all die in battle, breeding ceases.
Golden-Winged Flying Centipede (Elite): Insect species, level 40, a hybrid of golden centipede and flying insect with flight ability.
Stats: Vitality 7,500, demonic power 500, attack 600, poison damage 300, speed 400 km/h. Skills: Golden Beam, Golden Poison Mist.
“Heavens! Real Golden-Winged Flying Centipedes!”
“We are about to rise!”
The group gathered around, their joy uncontainable.
Su Yu, however, felt indifferent. Since he didn’t cultivate the insect path, this held little appeal. His interest was piqued by other items.
He casually picked up the jade slip and, upon seeing its cultivation method rated at the ‘Exquisite’ level, his eyes brightened.
The Ten-Thousand Insects Spirit Gathering Scripture (Exquisite): A side-path Qi refining technique, comprising thirty levels.
Each level grants: +40 vitality, +80 mana, +40 spell power, +0.1 mana regeneration per second, +10 insect vitality, +5 insect attack, +2 km/h insect speed.
Training requirements: 15 innate bone points, 18 innate comprehension points.
Contains 17 secret insect refining techniques.
“Damn!”
After reading it, Su Yu was speechless.
The good news: it was an exquisite-level Qi refining technique.
The bad news: it was for insect cultivators only, useless to him.
Though Qi refining techniques could be converted, the process was costly—each conversion greatly reduced the levels and power achieved with much effort.
For example, converting a mid-level Qi refining method to an exquisite one caused a significant drop in layers; even converting to the same mid-level technique saw a fall from thirty-three layers to just over twenty.
Loss varied depending on the type of technique.
Converting similar Xuanmen Qi refining techniques caused only about a ten percent loss.
But switching from Xuanmen to side-path or Buddhist methods cost twenty to thirty percent.
Converting from Xuanmen to demonic cultivation caused a staggering fifty percent loss—half the cultivation wasted.
Su Yu was currently too poor to afford such a loss.
He wordlessly handed the jade slip to Zhuang Zhuo.
“Here, it’s yours.”
Zhuang Zhuo took it with puzzlement, then his eyes widened in shock.
“What the hell!”
The others took it, each reacting with disbelief.
Su Yu ignored them and turned back to the Taoist’s remains, pressing on the robe.
Upon contact, the remains suddenly crumbled to dust and vanished, startling everyone.
“Not good! The force field maintaining this space is shrinking. Everyone grab your items and leave.”
Su Yu waved his hand to blow the ashes away, then picked up the robe to examine its attributes.
Spirit Gathering Robe (Fifth-grade): Crafted from thousand-year spiritual silkworm silk, resistant to water and fire.
Attributes: +200 physique, +200 strength.
Additional properties: Resists water, fire, wind, dust, and poison.
Defense aura: Upon receiving predetermined damage, automatically activates a defensive shield with 20,000 defense power lasting 15 minutes. Can activate once daily, with configurable damage threshold or manual activation.
“Good stuff!”
Su Yu was immediately tempted.
With five items, each person could take one. The others were insect cultivator tools—they likely wouldn’t compete for this robe.
Just then, Gu Zhiqiu casually picked up the gray bead that had fallen to the ground, flipping it over with a puzzled expression.
“This thing has no attributes?”
Everyone looked up. Shi Ning took it, equally puzzled.
“Indeed, no attributes at all.”
Meng Chen and Zhuang Zhuo examined it in turn, both shaking their heads.
Finally, Su Yu held it, and attributes appeared:
Nameless Bead.
And that was all.
“No way. This was between the skeleton’s hands—logically, it should be the most precious. How come...”
Before he finished, a sudden bright flash illuminated his mind. An indescribable spiritual light surged into the bead. The bead heated, fine, hair-like light patterns appeared upon its surface, and it slowly floated, glowing brighter before transforming into a bead emitting deep blue flowing light. Then it dove into Su Yu’s forehead and disappeared.
“What is that?”
They all looked at Su Yu, who spread his hands helplessly.
“I don’t know either. It lit up and activated on its own—I didn’t do anything.”
Shi Ning rubbed his chin.
“Indeed, we were right beside it; it lit up all by itself.”
Gu Zhiqiu nodded.
“I saw it too. It activated suddenly.”
Zhuang Zhuo laughed.
“It must be fated to you, Brother Su. The four of us handled it with no reaction, but when you held it, it responded. I’ve heard that sixth-grade or above magical treasures possess spirits and recognize their masters automatically. This isn’t unusual.”
Shi Ning waved his hand.
“That one’s yours. Plus, you can pick one more item.”
Su Yu quickly declined.
“There are exactly five spoils—one each.”
Though Zhuang Zhuo envied Su Yu’s fortune, he shook his head seriously.
“That’s not how it works. Even brothers keep accounts clear. You discovered this place and were a main force in the battle. By all rights, you deserve to pick an extra item.”
Shi Ning, Meng Chen, and Gu Zhiqiu all nodded in agreement.
“For us, the Golden-Winged Flying Centipedes are the real jackpot. The four of us are insect cultivators; these are top-tier insects. Once refined, each of us will have hundreds or thousands—who could stand against us?”
“Hmm…”
“Alright!”
“I’ll take the robe then.”
Zhuang Zhuo handed the robe to him with a grin.
“Here, it’s yours.”
Then he smiled at Shi Ning and the others.
“We’ll split the centipedes when refined. How about the bronze urn, Thousand-Insect Banner, and the Ten-Thousand Insects Spirit Gathering Scripture?”
They exchanged looks, silent for a dozen seconds before Zhuang Zhuo spoke.
“I want the bronze urn. I don’t have innate attributes to learn the scripture. Who else can?”
Gu Zhiqiu raised his hand.
“I can.”
Shi Ning and Meng Chen shook their heads.
“The scripture is the most valuable,” Zhuang Zhuo pointed out. “Zhiqiu, you’ll need to pay something extra, and share the secret insect refining techniques contained within.”
Gu Zhiqiu agreed immediately.
“No problem. It allows sharing with ten people, so everyone benefits. I’ll also give 10 taels of gold per person, and 40 taels to those without anything now. Though I’m broke now, I’ll pay later.”
“Agreed.”
They quickly settled the division. Before leaving, Shi Ning asked,
“There’s a spiritual vein here. Should we build an insect pit?”
Su Yu shook his head.
“Building underwater is costly. Not possible now, but we can mark it for later when we have funds.”
“Alright.”
They shot up along the original tunnel and emerged.
Shortly after their departure, the area began collapsing, burying the ancient wandering immortal’s hidden underground relic.
“We’re so lucky.”
“I always hear stories of someone striking it rich with an ancient immortal’s treasure. Didn’t think we’d be so fortunate.”
“It’s Brother Su Yu’s good fortune. We’re just benefiting.”
“Indeed.”
They set off joyfully on their return journey.
Su Yu immediately noticed the invisible water-repelling space around him had expanded to a diameter of seven or eight meters. Apparently, the robe’s water resistance combined with the Black Water Mysterious Bead’s effect.
Back at the base, the group eagerly studied their haul.
Those with new cultivation methods researched them; those with magical treasures prepared repairs; those with Golden-Winged Flying Centipedes began studying refining techniques.
Su Yu returned to his room to inspect his acquisitions.
The robe was straightforward—life-saving.
It granted +200 physique and +200 strength. Physique represented absolute defense—attacks under 200 would not penetrate the robe’s protection. Strength enhanced physical attacks; even barehanded, he now had 200 attack power.
After a quick glance, his attention returned to the spirit-recognizing bead.
He summoned it with a hand gesture. Blue light condensed into a crystal-clear bead in his palm. Wisps of cool, azure smoke rose and merged into his body, vastly different from its previous dull gray appearance.
Sea-Calming Bead (Unknown Artifact): Sealed, relic of the Dragon Palace, capable of controlling infinite water vapor to divide and calm seas.
Attributes: Water-element spell power +100%, water-element mana consumption -50%, water-element spell damage reduction 50%.
Additional properties: Sea-calming—can control infinite water vapor, dividing water, calming seas, whirlpools, tsunamis.
Note: The Sea-Calming Bead’s essence is altering your nature.
Equip requirements: Bound to owner.
“???”
“What kind of magical treasure is this?”
Su Yu held the deep blue bead, mouth slightly agape, utterly astonished.
A 100% boost to water-element spell power, 50% damage reduction for water spells...
This was beyond belief, surpassing all his expectations.
Watching the rising blue smoke, he pondered briefly, then inhaled, drawing the bead into his mouth where it vanished.
He made a grasping motion; water vapor gathered rapidly, forming a clear orb suspended in his palm.
Fingers moved, and the water shifted shape—triangle, square, sphere, then irregular forms.
He exhaled a water orb, which transformed into a lifelike water snake that struck the wall and dissolved into a puddle.
After several trials, Su Yu understood the treasure’s power. Theoretically, with enough mana and mastery over water principles, he could conjure nearly any water elemental spell at will.
“Such power—this is no ordinary treasure.”
He summoned the Sea-Calming Bead again, a bold thought forming.
“Could this be a sealed top-grade magical treasure? A ninth or tenth-grade supreme artifact?”
It had only partially unsealed in his sensing, yet its attributes were already so extraordinary.
If fully unsealed, its power would exceed imagination.
“This is insane!”
Who would have guessed that a mere side-path wandering immortal could possess such a super artifact?
Unfortunately, this unknown side-path immortal lacked the fate and ability to fully unlock the seal and claim the treasure.
Had it been a complete top-tier artifact, the immortal would not have quietly perished here.
Then again, none of them had fate with it either. Neither Zhuang Zhuo, Shi Ning, nor the others reacted to the treasure.
Su Yu initially felt nothing, too, but the golden finger that accompanied his transmigration bestowed him the fate to unlock it.
Forcibly unlocking the seal, the treasure recognized him as master.
But at his current cultivation, only a fragment of the treasure’s power was accessible. The rest would unlock gradually as he advanced.
His consciousness sank, seeing a deep blue sun suspended above his sea of consciousness. Soft blue light radiated from it, merging into his mind.
Su Yu understood—this blue light was the treasure’s essence, slowly altering his innate attributes.
Put simply, the treasure’s power was enhancing his innate nature.
Though slow—about one point per month—and with limits due to the incomplete unsealing, what did it matter?
It increased innate attributes!
“With this treasure, my main cultivation will be Qi refining techniques. For flying sword treasures, I must prioritize water-element.”
“Also, my previous Fire Element True Explanation conflicts with the Sea-Calming Bead. I need to discard fire and switch to water...”
“No, I don’t need to study water-element True Explanation. As long as I grasp the Dao of Water deeply, I can master various water spells without it.”
The key was that converting to water-element True Explanation would cost cultivation points and Dao merit.
Thinking this through, Su Yu opened his interface, chose to forget the ten-level Fire Element True Explanation, and regained 210,000 cultivation points and 6 Dao merit.
A slight loss, but acceptable.
Closing the interface, Su Yu left for the insect refining field. Only Zhuang Zhuo was tinkering there. Shi Ning, Gu Zhiqiu, and Meng Chen were absent.
He asked curiously,
“Where are the others?”
Without turning, Zhuang Zhuo replied,
“Gu Zhiqiu is in seclusion converting techniques. Shi Ning and Meng Chen went back to the guild headquarters—Shi Ning to repair the Thousand-Insect Banner, Meng Chen to purchase golden and flying centipedes, preparing to refine several Golden-Winged Flying Centipedes.”
“Oh!”