I am in Yellow Maple Valley, and I have a demonic beast clone!

Chapter Nine: The Fallen Cultivator's Cave! "The Purple Sun Elixir Explained"!

Time passes unnoticed in the mountains; the passing of winter leaves one unaware of the years.

In the blink of an eye, a year has passed.

In the quiet room of the small courtyard on Xuankun Mountain, Zhou Ding slowly finished his practice, a glint of light appearing in his eyes.

After a year of arduous training, coupled with an abundance of elixirs, he felt that he was not far from reaching the threshold of the thirteenth level of Qi Refining (the pinnacle of Qi Refining).

"At this rate, I should be able to attempt to reach the Qi Refining Perfection realm in a few more months at most," he estimated to himself, quite satisfied.

That year, he did not go out frequently, spending most of his time in seclusion. He only occasionally went to the market to sell one or two less troublesome treasures in exchange for the pills needed for cultivation and Xiao Jin's "rations".

Switch your attention to Xiao Jin.

After a year of continuous exploration, Xiao Jin is now more than a thousand miles away from the gate of Huangfeng Valley, which can be considered as entering the relatively remote and desolate edge area of ​​the Taiyue Mountains.

The spiritual energy here is noticeably less abundant than that near the sect, and it is also sparsely populated.

Over the past year, with the greatly expanded scope of exploration and the increasingly sophisticated use of earth-listening and burrowing techniques, the overall gains have been quite considerable.

More than a dozen medicinal herbs were discovered, ranging in age from just over a hundred years to nearly five hundred years.

There are also several rare spiritual materials such as "Dragon Pattern Crystal", "Mysterious Iron Heart" and "Glassy Stone", all of which are excellent for refining top-level magic weapons, and each one is very valuable.

Most of these gains were processed by Zhou Ding in batches and exchanged for tangible cultivation resources and spare spirit stones.

…………

At this moment, Xiao Jin is resting in a crevice in the underground rock strata, recovering the demonic power he has consumed.

The Earth Listening Technique passively receives the surrounding earth vein fluctuations.

Suddenly, a fluctuation coming from one direction caught Zhou Ding's attention.

It was not a natural flow of earth energy or the spiritual light of a mineral vein, but a faint spiritual energy pattern with regularity and obvious traces of human construction!

"Array fluctuations?" Zhou Ding's heart skipped a beat, and he carefully controlled Little Gold to escape in that direction.

As you get closer, the feedback from the Earth Hearing Technique becomes even clearer.

Several hundred meters ahead, there is a small space shrouded by a simple array.

The array's spiritual power was extremely weak, and its light was dim, clearly indicating that it had not been maintained for a long time and was on the verge of collapse.

Through the faint glow of the array and the blurry outline of the interior created by the Earth Listening Technique, one could vaguely make out the silhouette of a seated human figure...

No life force was sensed from this humanoid silhouette.

"A cave dwelling?"

"A fallen cultivator?"

Zhou Ding's heart skipped a beat.

He did not act rashly.

Out of caution, Zhou Ding controlled Xiao Jin to hide in a secluded crevice dozens of feet away from the cave entrance, using his geomantic abilities to silently monitor the cave's movements every day.

For half a month, the humanoid silhouette inside the cave showed no signs of moving, and the array's fluctuations did not increase; on the contrary, they weakened slightly.

There were no signs of any living creatures entering or leaving the cave.

"It seems that he most likely passed away here," Zhou Ding concluded.

Moreover, judging from the degree of decay of the formation, the cave owner must have been dead for quite some time.

Even so, he still did not allow Xiao Jin to try to enter directly.

Even a broken formation is still a formation. Although Xiao Jin has the ability to burrow underground, he is not good at breaking restrictions. Forcibly breaking in may trigger unknown consequences.

…………

The following day, Zhou Ding, in his true form, piloted the Willow Leaf Shuttle and quietly left Yellow Maple Valley.

He flew discreetly all the way, taking nearly half a day to reach the remote mountain area that Xiao Jin was monitoring.

Following the guidance of his clone, he quickly found the cave entrance, cleverly concealed by vines and rocks at the bottom of a steep mountain wall.

The array light barrier at the cave entrance was almost transparent, and the fluctuations of spiritual energy were barely perceptible.

Zhou Ding did not act immediately.

He first pushed his divine sense to its limit, carefully scanning the surrounding area, while simultaneously having Xiao Jin keep his hearing ability fully activated underground, providing dual surveillance.

He was only slightly relieved after confirming that there was no other cultivator nearby.

Zhou Ding drew his Wood Spirit Sword, took a deep breath, and poured his Green Wood magic into it.

The jade sword shone brightly, transforming into a sharp azure rainbow several meters long, which slashed fiercely at the broken array light screen!

"Sizzle—Bang!"

The already fragile formation could only withstand Zhou Ding's all-out attack with the Azure Rainbow Sword Light for less than three breaths before letting out a mournful cry, the light barrier shattering and dissipating into specks of spiritual light.

The sound of the formation breaking carried far through the silent mountains and forests.

Zhou Ding's heart tightened, and he immediately ordered Xiao Jin to be on full alert of the surroundings, while he himself flashed and rushed into the cave without hesitation!

The cave was small, consisting of only one stone chamber, simply furnished and covered in dust.

On the stone bed in the very center, there sat a skeleton dressed in a gray Taoist robe, its flesh and blood long since turned to dust, leaving only stark white bones.

Zhou Ding glanced around and immediately noticed a dusty gray storage bag hanging from the skeleton's waist.

He suppressed his excitement, stepped forward to take the storage bag, and quickly scanned the stone chamber. After confirming that there was nothing else of value, he turned around and rushed out of the cave without lingering.

As soon as he emerged from the cave, he immediately recalled Xiao Jin, who was on guard nearby, and at the same time, he rode the Willow Leaf Shuttle into the sky, speeding towards the Yellow Maple Valley without looking back!

Only after he had flown far away from that area and back into the territory of his sect did his tense nerves relax slightly.

Back at the small courtyard on Xuankun Mountain, after closing the doors and activating all the warning restrictions, Zhou Ding opened the storage bag he had obtained from the nameless cave in the quiet room, with anticipation and caution.

wow-

The contents were poured out.

The first thing that catches the eye is a small pile of spirit stones, roughly counted as more than 1,200 low-grade spirit stones!

This is a considerable fortune.

Next was a short blade with an ancient design and flowing golden light all over its body. It was a top-level metal-attribute attack magic weapon called "Golden Light Blade".

A small, palm-sized, three-legged, two-eared, crimson cauldron engraved with intricate cloud patterns exudes a faint medicinal fragrance and fire-elemental spiritual energy; it is a high-quality magical alchemy furnace.

There were more than a dozen talismans of various colors, most of which were low- or mid-level talismans, but one talisman that was entirely emerald green and had patterns that looked like living vines entwined around it caught Zhou Ding's attention.

Intermediate-level beginner talisman "Imprisoned Wood Talisman"!

Once activated, this talisman can instantly generate tough vines to imprison enemies, making it an excellent control talisman.

Finally, there was a jade scroll, dark purple in color and warm to the touch.

Zhou Ding immersed his consciousness into the text, and the first few words gave him a jolt.

The Explanation of the Purple Yang Elixir!

This is not a cultivation technique, but a collection of alchemy insights and formulas left by an alchemist who called himself "Ziyang Sanren"!

It contains detailed records of the refining methods, insights and experiences of more than a dozen commonly used pills from the Qi Refining stage to the Foundation Establishment stage, and even includes several pill formulas marked as "ancient formulas" with rare or peculiar ingredients!

Its value, for cultivators aspiring to alchemy or needing specific elixirs, is probably difficult to measure simply with spirit stones.

"It seems that the owner of this cave who passed away was a Foundation Establishment stage alchemist, and quite wealthy." Looking at his harvest, Zhou Ding finally showed a relieved and delighted smile.

This adventure was worth it!

The Golden Blade can enhance attack methods, the alchemy furnace and the "Purple Sun Alchemy Explanation" may open up alchemy and assist cultivation in the future, and spirit stones and talismans are real resources.

He carefully packed away all his belongings, and his plans for the future became clearer and richer.

With the opening of the Crimson Forbidden Land drawing ever closer, he needs to transform these gains into his own strength as quickly and reliably as possible.