Raise a sword!

After entering the underground ruins, and going only a few dozen steps deeper, a fork in the road appeared ahead.

Guided by the Heavenly Crippled Taoist, Jiang Peng kept walking forward and had already bypassed several intersections in less than a quarter of an hour.

The surrounding environment immediately became quiet.

"This place was originally a natural underground cave. I chose to live here because it was quiet and peaceful."

Jiang Peng used her divine sense to explore her surroundings, and at the same time, she voiced the doubts in her heart.

"Besides its tranquility, I see no other advantages this place has that would earn the favor of a Nascent Soul senior."

A Nascent Soul cultivator's cave dwelling should at least occupy a spiritual vein.

In Jiang Peng's opinion, this underground cavern, apart from its complex and interconnected terrain, was utterly useless.

Even in terms of spiritual energy, it is not as rich as the valley outside.

"Heh, ignorant brat," Tiancan Daoist chuckled. "Do you think Nascent Soul cultivators cultivate by absorbing qi into their bodies like Qi refining?"

Jiang Peng asked curiously, "Please enlighten me, senior."

"Once a cultivator reaches the Nascent Soul stage, they already possess a degree of ability to merge with heaven and earth. Not to mention this underground cave, even if they were to find a mortal place, it wouldn't affect their cultivation."

"We Nascent Soul True Monarchs are all cultivators who have touched upon the 'Dao,' but as for what the 'Dao' is, I cannot tell you."

Why?

"Knowing some things too early will only disturb your mind... Before you form your Golden Core, you only need to follow the steps in your cultivation. Knowing things you shouldn't know will only hinder you."

Jiang Peng was always one to listen to advice, and besides, the Nascent Soul stage was far too distant, so he suppressed his curiosity.

"I will always remember your guidance, senior."

"Tsk tsk, now that I'm about to get my hands on this treasure, you've finally learned a few manners... quite different from how you used to torment me every now and then."

Jiang Peng smiled without changing his expression and said, "Things change."

As they spoke, Jiang Peng followed the guidance of the Heavenly Crippled Taoist and went deeper into the area.

Gradually, he entered an extremely secluded path, the final fork in the road hidden in the shadows overhead.

Upon arriving at this point, Tiancan Daoren called out to Jiang Peng, causing her to stop.

"Lighting Talisman."

Jiang Peng took out a lighting talisman and activated it, and the surroundings immediately became bright.

There were no signs of exploration left in the area, and it was clear that no one had ever discovered this side path in the past hundred years.

Jiang Peng felt this was unreasonable and wondered to herself.

Tiancan Daoren laughed and said, "I have set up an illusion on the top of the cave outside. If I hadn't given you a hint, even a Golden Core cultivator would have had no chance of discovering this place."

"While I was speaking with you, I already checked the area outside the cave. The setup is still intact... Boy, you can take out the puppet now."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Peng quickly took the puppet out of her storage bag and skillfully began to control it.

At the same time, the Heavenly Crippled Daoist also laughed and said, "The cave dwelling is not far away. Do you need me to help you control the puppet?"

"Senior, please show me the way." Jiang Peng shook his head slightly. While controlling the puppet, he also activated a wisp of purple fire, which began to burn slowly in his left hand, surrounding the remnant soul of the Heavenly Crippled Daoist.

Seeing this, Tiancan Daoren's tone finally lost its previous ease.

"Although I knew you wouldn't let me off easily, seeing how cautious you are, I knew I had no chance of escaping... Sigh."

Seeing that Jiang Peng did not respond, Tiancan Daoren could only vaguely sense the puppet's situation through Jiang Peng's divine sense, and then pointed out: "Go forward, turn left."

"Take three more steps, and you'll reach the core of the formation. Shatter the stone pillar."

"There's a light on the wall, you can turn it on."

After controlling the puppet for a long time, when the puppet was nearly a hundred feet away and almost at the limit of Jiang Peng's control, a simple stone chamber finally appeared in front of her.

"We've arrived." Tiancan Daoren's tone was full of sighs.

Jiang Peng explored the stone chamber through the puppet.

The stone chamber was only ten feet long and wide, and in the very center was a furnace the size of a palm, which looked like an alchemy furnace.

To the side was a stone table, on which sat a dusty longsword and a small bottle the size of a palm.

Not far from the stone table, there was a futon on the ground, which also looked dusty.

This is all that's in the entire stone chamber.

Jiang Peng recounted everything she had discovered, and Tiancan Daoren immediately responded.

"That furnace was the one I used when I was studying alchemy. It was a mid-grade second-level furnace, and I don't know what it was called. I took it from a third-level alchemist."

Upon hearing that it was a second-tier alchemy furnace, Jiang Peng's eyes lit up.

Controlling the puppet to pick up the alchemy furnace, he casually asked, "What else did that third-tier alchemist lose to you, senior?"

"There are also some random pill formulas and such, all common pills that I don't care about and I don't remember them anymore," Tiancan Daoren explained. "They're all in my old storage bag."

"Where are the storage bags?"

"Then you'll have to find that old thief, Luo Chen."

Jiang Peng then remembered that Tiancan Daoren had not died a normal death; he had been dealt with by someone on his way, and his treasures had long been stolen.

"There is also a sword and a small jar on the stone table, and a futon next to it."

"That sword was forged from Tianchen Steel."

Jiang Peng's spirits lifted, and she quickly manipulated the puppet to carefully sheath the longsword, then asked, "What about the remaining two?"

"The futon is a second-tier magic artifact with a calming effect, which should be of some use to you, but for me back then, it was just something to use as a pillow."

"As for that jar..."

The Heavenly Crippled Daoist hesitated, a rare occurrence for him. Instead of directly explaining the jar, he said, "Now that you have the Heavenly Chen Steel, you wouldn't want to torment this old man for no reason, would you?"

"No," Jiang Peng raised an eyebrow. "What's so special about that jar?"

Tiancan Daoist said, "Do you still remember when you read about my deeds in the sect's records... it was about spreading plague to test poisons?"

Jiang Peng nodded gently.

"Of course I remember."

"That jar is nothing special, just a nice container. However, what it contains is the miasma poison that I refined in this underground cave."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Peng recalled what he had mentioned before: hundreds of years ago, when Tiancan Daoren was still alive, this valley was a place of yin and miasma.

Tian Can continued, "The miasma in that jar was extracted by me from this underground cave. This poison is colorless and odorless, and if it takes effect, it can even deal with Golden Core cultivators."

As she spoke, Jiang Peng had already manipulated the puppet to pack up all four items in the stone chamber.

"They can even handle Golden Core cultivators?"

"Not bad. I'll teach you how to use it later. It will give you an extremely powerful trump card."