Chapter Seventeen: Ghost

  "Wow, look at all the good stuff!"

  Lucky, in the dim mountain valley, a small flash was found. Li Chen sat by the fire heap, rummaging through the backpacks of three adventurers.

  Splash!

  It fell straight down and a bunch of miscellaneous things spilled out from inside.

  Although there were many things, there were few that could catch Li Chen's eye. He reached out and put several jade boxes containing spiritual medicine into his backpack.

  Then he took out all the good things from several people's Ling Dan, without missing a single one. These were all good things, although he couldn't use them himself, they could be used to curry favor with others.

  These years of being a medicine slave in the Li family, and those months of doing odd jobs in the Xuan Yun Sect, although he was bullied and humiliated, did not make Lei Chen's heart lose its warmth, nor did he seal his inner self.

  It's more about making him realize the coldness and warmth of human relationships, and sometimes it's necessary to learn how to deal with certain interpersonal relationships.

  What's more important is that the pack of wolves that night let him experience a long-lost warmth, although it was very brief and only after he showed his extraordinary strength.

  But none of these matter, people are all living with masks on their faces. He has been suffering and toiling for so many years, he is already used to it, and naturally, he also wears a mask, not just one.

  "Huh?"

  Suddenly, Li Chen pulled out the remaining things and his fingers touched a bulging object in an inner pocket that had not been turned over before.

  Splish-splash!

  He directly pried open the inner pouch with his dagger and felt out a small jade box inside.

  Bang!

  Gently open the lid, inside is a surface that is rough and uneven, no bigger than a walnut, with twinkling starry misty crystal nucleus.

  On one side, there was also a long, dark and old-fashioned key that felt cold to the touch.

  Li Chen's eyes lit up, and he carefully examined it, but couldn't figure out where the key came from. He carefully searched the other two backpacks and found no inner pocket, so he casually threw it away.

  "Haha, it wasn't in vain that I spent so much effort and shed so much blood!"

  Looking at the shape of the demon core in his hand, although it was left by a mid-stage demon beast at most, it still had a significant effect on Li Chen now.

  Especially after he swallowed the demon core and cultivated his inner breath, although the amount of inner breath refined from the spiritual elixir was less than others, but after consuming several bottles of gathering breath dan, he finally made another step forward.

  Now that there is a mid-term demon core like this, it will surely be able to help him in his efforts, and he might even be able to break through to the sixth layer of internal energy.

  Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Li Chen examined the wound on his left hand and found that the scab had formed but the small meridians on top were still not healed.

  "It seems like we have to wait until tomorrow morning!"

  Li Chen secretly estimated and took out the wild fruit he had picked at random, immediately operated the "Rong Yang Jue" heart method, and sat down cross-legged.

  Although swallowing the demon core to refine it now would cause his wound to burst open and bleed again, it wouldn't hinder his stable consumption of internal energy. By dawn tomorrow, he could break through in peak condition.

  As he sat cross-legged, no one could see the dark red birthmark hidden under his hair, and the vortex that converged on the top of his head, invisible to the naked eye. Every time the light flashed, it synchronized with the swirling flow.

  Time flies like water, and it's already dawn in a flash.

  The sunlight in the mountains came late to begin with, and since Li Chen was also in a cave, he naturally couldn't feel it. However, his habit of waking up early that had been cultivated over many years automatically woke him up.

  "It has begun!"

  A flash of insight in his eyes, Li Chen grabbed the demon core and swallowed it directly, rumbling down his throat, and activated the "Rong Yang Jue".

  If someone saw a method of devouring the demon core like this, they would definitely be shocked out of their wits.

  Because even a cultivator in the Refining Realm wouldn't directly swallow and refine a demon core.

  It's hard to swallow, and secondly, it contains the unique demonic power of a demon beast, whose violent impact is enough to cause people's veins to go awry and die.

  But Li Chen relied on his physical body that had been tempered by years of drug addiction, and the mysterious specialness of his body, to endure this pain.

  Buzz!

  In the midst of his meditation, Li Chen didn't notice that at the moment he swallowed the demon core, a surge of blood suddenly burst forth from the birthmark on his temples, making him appear even more sinister in the already dimly lit cave, like an evil spirit.

  Even his whole body emitted a faint foul odor, making people feel nauseous when they smelled it.

  As time passed bit by bit, after a good half an hour, the light hum in Li Chen's body grew more urgent and denser, like bubbles bursting one after another.

  His face was twisted in agony, with blue veins bulging on his temples and a trickle of blood oozing from the tightly clenched teeth, while his eyebrows were furrowed in intense pain.

  Thud! Thud!

  At this moment, several chaotic footsteps suddenly came from outside the cave, accompanied by faint breathing sounds.

  "The trail ends here! Second Brother, Little Sister, I'm certain that scar-faced man is inside the cave!"

  A slightly complacent voice, with a hint of frivolity and naivety, clearly indicating that the speaker is quite young.

  "Sister, don't go in, be careful!"

  Outside the cave entrance, the five young and ignorant ones who had buried three adventurers last night were pulled back by Second Master's steady hand.

  "Everyone's inside, just rush in and kill him, avenge... for them!"

  The girl in green clothes showed a look of dissatisfaction on her face, but more was excitement.

  The other three young men also rubbed their fists and palms, eager to try.

  "You forgot how you promised me last night?"

  Second Master's face sank, his eyes staring at her intensely.

  "Got it!"

  The girl in green clothes suddenly had two red clouds floating on her face, and she lowered her head.

  "Friends inside, come out and have a chat!"

  Seeing this, Second Master took a deep breath and shouted into the cave.

  "A narrative... A narrative... A narrative..."

  But after waiting for a while, except for the echoes in the mountains and caves, there was nothing else.

  He called out three times, but still no one answered.

  "Second Master, isn't it true that people are not in the cave?"

  "I think that scar-faced man has been scared off and is hiding in a cave, too afraid to come out!"

  "If I had to say, it's better for the junior sister to have a clear view, directly rush in and kill that bastard!"

  Three young men with nothing better to do looked on with interest as they watched Second Master shout out, and couldn't help but start talking nonsense in a gloomy and weird tone.

  "Shut up! If you're so brave, go take a look yourself!"

  The girl in green clothes flashed a look of anger on her pretty face and shouted tenderly.

  "Junior sister..."

  Second Master's face changed color. Originally, he didn't take the three young men's words to heart, but now they were allowed in just like that. If there really was danger, what would he do?

  But before he could stop them, the three young men, who had been unable to contain themselves, suddenly darted towards the cave.

  Seeing this, Second Master's brother gritted his teeth and immediately followed up.

  No matter how they three people were hypocritical, but they were all brothers of many years, and no matter what, they couldn't bear to see them take risks.

  "Second Master..."

  The girl in green clothes followed immediately after seeing this.

  "A ghost!"

  Just as the two of them rushed into the cave entrance one after another, they suddenly heard three people exclaiming in surprise and immediately quickened their pace, dashing into the cave with a flash of movement.