Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Tattered Ancient Scroll

  In the center of this map is an extremely large palace, occupying about one-fifth of the space. Inside the palace, there are no decorations at all, only some strange and complex symbols marked in fixed places, which I don't understand what they mean.

  Outside the palace is a simple topographic map with mountains and rivers, but there are no textual labels, nor can it be seen what place it is.

  Xia Chen rubbed the map, he could feel that the texture of the map was very tough, even the explosive Yuan Qi Dan couldn't damage it in the slightest, and he didn't know what material it was made of.

  At first glance, this map seems ordinary, but the things used to wrap up storage bags and short sword talismans can't be ordinary items.

  At this moment, the聚宝盆 in Xia Chen's body suddenly moved slightly, producing a strange feeling once again. Xia Chen's mind was shocked, and he looked at the map, only to see the symbols inside the palace flashing for an instant before returning to normal, as if it had just been an optical illusion.

  The feeling of the聚宝盆 couldn't be wrong, Xia Chen's spirit lifted, and he stared intently at the map, but no matter how he examined it, the map never showed any abnormalities again.

  Xia Chen murmured to himself, this map must have some unusual place, although there is a hint of the treasure basin, but he can't see it for himself, this should be due to his own insufficient cultivation.

  He put away the map and looked at the storage bag and the black short sword again. Although he was very curious about what was inside the storage bag, it had a seal on it that prevented him from opening it with his current cultivation level.

  As for the black short sword, although it was an extraordinary magic treasure, because of insufficient cultivation, it could not be driven, and Xia Chen could only sigh with emotion.

  The cultivators of the day after tomorrow are also cultivators, but in essence they are still ordinary people. As for the use of magical artifacts, it can only be limited to a part of the use of true energy.

  Innate, Drive, Spell... These truly transcendent powers belong only to the realm of divine communication.

  Xia Chen couldn't help but smile bitterly, watching as he harvested three treasures, yet none of them were usable. This feeling was truly distressing.

  But anyway, having something is better than nothing. Xia Chen put the map, storage bag and short sword into his storage space, waiting for the day when he would break through to the Divine Realm.

  This strange creature with a split tooth is unknown where it came from... Xia Chen thought, he didn't plan to tell the sect about the appearance of monsters in the back mountain.

  Returning to the Medicine Garden, Xia Chen changed into a new set of clothes and took out the internal elixir of the Lizard King, slowly reciting the incantation for the Great Golden Body in his mind.

  Now only this demon beast's inner elixir can be refined, as for the map, storage bag and short sword, even if taken out, it's just a waste of time.

  Half a moment later, Xia Chen put away the demon beast's inner dan and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

  The Mahayana Golden Body Technique is divided into ten layers, each layer being more powerful than the last. Although the demon beast's inner elixir can be used to break through the first layer of the Mahayana Golden Body, it cannot be consumed directly. Most of them contain the demon beast's violent will, and some even have toxic properties. They need to be assisted by spiritual medicine to neutralize the toxicity, eliminate the violent will, and bring out their maximum effect.

  The inner elixir is now available, but the spiritual medicine that assists in refining it is still lacking. This spiritual medicine cannot be found in the external medicine garden, and although it may exist in the internal garden, Han Dongyu is almost always by its side, so how can one enter?

  It's best to find a way to get Han Dongyu to leave... Xia Chen thought hard, suddenly her eyes lit up, and she quickly came up with an idea.

  "Xia Chen, are you there?" Coincidentally, Han Dongyu's voice sounded from outside the door.

  "Master, I'm in the middle of cultivation!" Xia Chen hastily stepped forward and opened the door.

  Han Dongyu looked at him and smiled slightly: "The master knows that you are very diligent, afraid that you will be tired, and your progress is too fast, also wasting your vitality. So the master specially refined a bottle of nourishing pills for you to supplement your body. You take one first and see how it works?"

  As he spoke, Han Dongyu took out a bottle of dan medicine and handed it to Xia Chen.

  "Thank you, Master!" Xia Chen sneered inwardly, but his face showed gratitude. He poured out a pill from the medicine bottle and swallowed it without even looking at it.

  After the four factions meeting ended, Han Dongyu gave him more dan medicine, and each time he had to watch him take it in person, apparently afraid that his cultivation would grow too fast and get out of control.

  Xia Chen swallowed each time without hesitation, anyway, with the Aggregation Basin, these poisonous pills would not enter his own stomach. His hatred for Han Dongyu was getting deeper and deeper, but on the surface, he remained calm and composed, pretending to be weak.

  After a moment, Xia Chen's face lit up with joy: "Master, this nourishing pill is very effective, I feel warm and full of energy all over my body. Thank you for your trouble, Master."

  Han Dongyu showed a satisfied smile: "As long as you think it's effective, that's fine, nothing else, I'll go back to the inner courtyard now. You don't have to work too hard either, go out and socialize with your fellow disciples, balance is key to making faster progress."

  "Yes, Master. I've been going out a lot recently." Xia Chen said, suddenly revealing an unusual expression, "And also, I heard something strange, that someone found the tracks of a demon beast in the back mountain of our Zhengxuan Sect."

  "Yao beast?" Han Dongyu was taken aback, shaking his head and saying, "Nonsense! Within the thousands of miles of the Zhengxuan mountain range, it's impossible to have any traces of a yao beast. Who told you this?"

  "It was something I and some of my disciples were joking about," Xia Chen said with a smile, "It must be nonsense, how could there possibly be any demonic beasts around here." But in his heart, he thought, Of course it's possible, I've seen several with my own eyes.

  Han Dongyu's eyes flashed, and he nodded calmly: "I'll go first."

  Xia Chen saw him off at the door and didn't return inside until Han Dongyu had walked far away.

  He didn't dare to be certain whether Han Dongyu would go to the back mountain to find the trail of the monster after hearing this, but with Han Dongyu's personality, he would rather believe it existed than not, and it was very likely that he would go and track it down.

  After several months of daily interactions, Xia Chen also figured out a bit about Han Dongyu's personality.

  As for the cave where the Lizard Bear was buried, Xia Chen had already blown up the entrance with an Exploding Yuan Qi Pill when he left. Even if Han Dongyu was extremely powerful, it would be impossible for him to turn over the entire mountain.

  After a while, Xia Chen started to operate the air seat, he was slapped by that underage cracked bear, although the injury was not serious, but also need to be carefully adjusted.

  On the second day, early in the morning, Xia Chen stood at the outer garden gate, pretending to pick herbs, secretly observing.

  Half a response later, as expected, Han Dongyu was seen dressed neatly and hastily about to go out.

  "Master, are you going out?" Xia Chen asked seemingly casually.

  "I'll be right back!" Han Dongyu hesitated for a moment, responding with his mouth, and his feet didn't stop as he walked out of the medicine garden gate.

  Xia Chen remained expressionless and silent until Han Dongyu disappeared, then quickly crossed the cave mansion to arrive at the inner garden gate.

  The inner courtyard is a closed small valley, about hundreds of acres in circumference, surrounded by mountains on all sides to play a protective role. Although the gate is tightly locked and the wall is high, it is impossible to block Xia Chen.

  With a bound, Xia Chen leaped onto the wall several zhang high and then slipped silently into the inner garden.

  A thick fragrance of medicine wafted over, intoxicating and enchanting!

  Xia Chen gazed at the dazzling array of medicinal herbs, his eyes widening in surprise and delight. The spiritual medicines within this inner garden were indeed far superior to those in the outer garden, which now seemed like mere radishes and greens by comparison.

  Xia Chen didn't hesitate, took big strides and went over. After a short while, he found the two spiritual herbs needed to assist in refining the demon beast's inner elixir. He picked one of each and was about to leave.

  Suddenly, Xia Chen stopped in her tracks and thought to herself: Since Han Dongyu wants to harm me, why should I make it easy for him? I might as well go all out...

  He walked back and forth in the inner courtyard, his hands moving non-stop, almost taking a portion of each spiritual medicine.

  In order to avoid being discovered by Han Dongyu, Xia Chen picked up very few spiritual medicines each time. Anyway, there was the Aggregation Basin, which could infinitely replicate and recreate them.

  After putting the spiritual medicine into the storage space, Xia Chen looked around again and saw a recessed area on the mountain wall that formed a fairly spacious stone room. The door was half-covered and half-hidden, but it wasn't locked.

  Xia Chen hesitated for a moment, then walked over. This stone room should be Han Dongyu's alchemy room, and there might be better things inside.

  Entering the stone room, only to see dozens of cauldrons lined up in the center, with many of them having a black patch at the bottom, it's clear that Han Dongyu has refined quite a few elixirs. At first glance, these cauldrons are not ordinary goods.

  However, Xia Chen only took a brief glance and stopped looking. These tripods were not bad, but compared to the Moonfall Tripod given by the mysterious woman Tang Qianbei, they were far inferior.

  Apart from the tripod furnace, there is also a stone table against the wall, on which a row of medicine bottles are neatly arranged.

  Xia Chen picked up the medicine bottles one by one, pulled out the corks and smelled them, then put them down again. These medicine bottles were filled with basic dan medicines, which Xia Chen could refine at his level, so there was no need to use the聚宝盆 (聚宝盆 is a type of alchemy equipment) to replicate them.

  And knowing that Han Dongyu had given him a poisonous heart-piercing needle in the afternoon, Xia Chen also didn't dare to touch these medicinal pills easily again.

  Apart from the medicine bottles, there was nothing else on the table. Xia Chen couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He had thought that Han Dongyu's alchemy room would have some good things, but it turned out to be empty-handed.

  He casually pulled open several drawers under the table, and the top ones were all empty, with only a tattered book scroll placed at the very bottom.

  Xia Chen picked up the tattered book volume, its cover was completely gone, and many pages were also incomplete. Xia Chen flipped through it casually, and his heart suddenly started racing wildly.

  What's recorded here are all elixir formulas! And they're all precious elixir formulas!

  Qian Tian Bao Dan, Chun Yang Bao Dan... Xia Chen flipped through the pages one by one, his hands couldn't help but tremble with excitement.

  He was quite knowledgeable about alchemy after being taught by a mysterious woman.

  Bao Dan is also divided into grades, generally divided into four types: lower, middle, upper and extreme. The pure Yang Bao Dan is so precious, but it's only the most ordinary lower-grade Bao Dan.

  The mysterious woman's memories passed on to him contained many pill information, but most of them were just names without specific pill formulas.

  But in this tattered book, not only were the memory information's precious pill formulas all complete, there were also many pills that Xia Chen had never heard of before. In the back, there was even a formula for an extremely rare and precious pill!

  Although Xia Chen can't even touch the edge of the low-grade treasure pill now, if he breaks through the divine realm, when refining the treasure pill, these pill formulas will be extremely useful, and some top-grade treasure pills even have unimaginable effects.

  However, behind the Dan Fang of the Extreme Treasure Pill, the book was torn off, and what content was behind it is unknown.

  Xia Chen's face showed extreme regret. If it were a complete scroll, it might have recorded the legendary elixir formula!

  Put the damaged book into the聚宝盆, after a moment, a wisp of fog rose, and immediately a replica was produced. Xia Chen put the original damaged book back into the drawer, his heart extremely excited, this trip sneaking into the inner garden was indeed worthwhile.

  He was just about to leave immediately, but as soon as he walked to the door, a series of footsteps sounded outside the wall, followed by the sound of pushing open the door.