Chaotic World Book
Chapter 323 - 316 Ancient Alchemy Room

Chapter 323: Chapter 316 Ancient Alchemy Room

Kunlun City was not a city at all; it was just a town that expanded over time. The town lay in a mountain basin surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only the east side having paths leading to the outside.

Therefore, whether it was Sisi earlier or Yang Qianyuan later, down to Chichi and Zhao Changhe nowadays, everyone entered from the eastern part of the city. Liu Tuzhang and Chen Yi also settled down in the eastern district.

However, the locals in the east would go to the mountains on three sides to make a living. They were not looking for any Secret Realm; they were merely engaging in normal activities like logging, mining, and hunting that one typically relies on in mountainous areas. These mountains had long lost the mysterious aura they held in the eyes of outsiders. On entering the mountains, wild boars defecated everywhere and venomous snakes scurried all over the place—what kind of secret realm could there be?

For the towering Kunlun Mountain ranges distant from the town, people didn’t dare say, but the peaks near Kunlun City were genuinely empty. If there was anything, it would be on Yuxu Peak, occupied by the real masters of Yuxu.

However, the essence of a secret realm is that it cannot be found by ordinary means.

Just like the Blood God Sect searching for the Azure Dragon Seal in Beimang. Unless someone spilled a certain amount of fresh blood in the pool, the Array Map inside Shuilian Cave would not appear, making it impossible to find—this was all by fate.

The secret realm discovered by the Flood Dragon and Heavenly Spirit came about for a disturbing reason: both individuals impulsively ventured to the mountains to engage in some carefree revelries. Sadly, an unlucky merchant group happened to pass by at that time. Not only were their possessions plundered by the Heavenly Child, but the merchants themselves were horrifically captured by the Flood Dragon and vivisected to test drugs as part of an Immortality Technique research.

After dissecting a whole merchant group, the poisonous blood seeped into the earth and unexpectedly triggered the opening of the secret realm. What seemed like an ordinary mountain wall suddenly cracked open, revealing a sinister and toxic miasma inside.

It was unknown whether Heavenly Spirit and the Flood Dragon had any internal strife before the fortuitous secret realm appeared... Anyway, the Flood Dragon carefully neutralized the external toxic miasma and after entering, discovered a stone house.

This was not a stone house dug from beneath the earth but one isolated from time and space, belonging to an ancient secret realm. Just like the Sword Room beneath Sword Lake, a solitary stone house existed outside the confines of time.

In such a scenario, there was bound to be a treasure. Either the Alien Power of the treasure itself preserved the spatial isolation, like Bing Po protecting the Sword Room or possibly the work of a Heavenly Book; or someone had set up spatial barriers to protect the treasure, like with the Azure Dragon Seal and Xuanwu Stone.

Both the Flood Dragon and Heavenly Spirit, being well-versed and wide-traveled, were overjoyed at this finding and began to examine the stone house.

What they found was a place for Alchemy, surrounded by ancient vessels containing various kinds of elixirs.

Regrettably, despite their age, the medicinal contents had all deteriorated and were no longer usable. Only the vessels, once washed, could still be of some use, much like the gourd Heavenly Spirit planned to sell to Zhao Changhe, which was used to hold elixirs. Apart from being made of a material that was durable and possibly somewhat preservative, these vessels didn’t hold any exceptional value as treasures.

Heavenly Spirit mentioned that it wasn’t worth haggling over the items and he wasn’t entirely feigning generosity—the uses were indeed limited and no one would be that foolish. The items found here were generally as such, a discrepancy too great for those who had expected treasures, making it difficult for them to accept.

Eventually, after groping around the edge of the stone house for a long while, they discovered a hidden door, which truly led to the core area this time.

Regrettably, when the hidden door was opened, the interior was filled with an intangible and insubstantial poison. Had it not been for the Flood Dragon’s keen sensitivity to toxins, anyone else might have entered unaware that what seemed to be normal air was actually toxic. By the time they would have realized the toxins had permeated their skin, deep inside and out, it would have been too late.

Both individuals quickly retreated. This time, even the Flood Dragon couldn’t counteract the poison, having never encountered this type of toxin before.

The Flood Dragon returned to the city and started capturing live humans to test the poison, studying how to counteract it based on the victims’ reactions. These days, many people had already been quietly procured for testing and the findings were alarming—the poison was ferocious. Based on the Flood Dragon’s estimations, even the Human List would struggle to withstand the infiltration of this poison, and the Earth List would also likely suffer substantial damage.

The Flood Dragon wasn’t able to counteract this unusual poison immediately, but he discovered a more straightforward and brutal method of dealing with it: the poisonous fog was consumptive and did not spread or transmit. Rather, it lingered in the human body. Each person infected would thin the fog slightly, thus, simply luring a large number of people here would solve the problem.

A devious plan naturally emerged. Heavenly Spirit openly displayed the salvaged vessels in the Yukun Gang markets. The sudden appearance of objects suspected to be ancient relics caught the attention of the neighboring Money Gang.

Heavenly Spirit was aware that other forces might also take note, but generally seen, capturing everything wasn’t an issue. Even Thief Saint Ye Wuzong wouldn’t surpass the Flood Dragon in researching poisons... However, what he didn’t expect was that this would attract the attention of the Heavenly List’s intelligence organization, causing a butterfly effect that drew in a Flood Dragon from thousands of miles away.

The force most interested in clues about secret realms was none other than Ying Wu’s power. When this batch of ancient vessels appeared, Chen Yi, stationed there, bought several immediately.

Upon closely examining the remnants on the vessels, he found some nutrient-depleted ginseng roots. After research, Chen Yi suspected they had once contained an extraordinary amount of Blood Qi, which had now dissipated.

At this time, Ying Wu was buried deep in a pile of books, helping Zhao Changhe search for clues about Dragon Elephant Blood Ginseng and was quite overwhelmed. Quaintly, he received a message by Flying Eagle from Chen Yi. Thinking it was quite coincidental, he directly consulted the records related to Kunlun and indeed discovered entries about Dragon Elephant Blood Ginseng having existed in Kunlun. The corroborating evidence was almost conclusive. San Niang conveyed this to Zhao Changhe, leading to this excursion to Kunlun.

In essence, this was all due to one event... If San Niang hadn’t acted the part of the riddler and simply directed Zhao Changhe directly to the tavern to meet Chen Yi, they would have gotten straight to the point, bypassing the need for any secret exploration.

Luckily, it also wasn’t too late... Perhaps San Niang’s greatest significance as a riddler was to facilitate Zhao Changhe’s encounter with their Holy Daughter for a romance, aiding the Holy Daughter in breaking through the Secret Treasure.

At that moment, the couple trailed far behind the crowd of the Money Gang, following Heavenly Spirit along the mountainous terrain until they reached the location. They saw a cave exposed on the rock wall, not even slightly concealed, apparently not afraid of anyone accidentally entering.

"The air is thick with the smell of blood and lingering poison," Zhao Changhe whispered. "How many people have Heavenly Spirit and Poison Spider killed here..."

Xia Chichi turned to look at him, sighed helplessly, and thought, I thought I was following a bandit, but it turns out I’m with a hero... What can I do?

All she could say was, "Anyway, even if Poison Spider isn’t dead, she is captured, so she has received her retribution. As long as we kill Heavenly Spirit, our conscience will be clear. But do you want to stop the people from the Money Gang from entering? From the looks of it, many more will die."

Zhao Changhe chuckled, "While the Money Gang may not have anything good... I’ll try advising them as a way to ease my conscience. Whether they listen or not is their decision."

Looking up, just as he was considering how to discreetly advise them, the people from the Money Gang had already surged into the stone house.

"It truly is a Secret Realm, this sense of spatial isolation is definitely not that of a typical underground stone house!"

The crowd was ecstatic, their expressions ferocious. The leader of the Money Gang, originally skeptical, upon seeing the sense of spatial isolation, had no more doubts and, elated, asked Heavenly Spirit, "Brother Dao, you really intend for us to co-develop the Secret Realm?"

Heavenly Spirit spread his hands, "Our Yukun Gang lacks manpower and strength. Even if we could crack the Secret Realm, we can hardly keep it safe. Hence, we either have to seek help from the Thief Sect or collaborate with our neighbors. Choosing the Thief Sect, I would fear the Thief Saint might plan on taking everything. However, collaborating with you allows us to fairly distribute the gains."

"You make sense! I didn’t expect Brother Dao to see so clearly, haha!" The leader clapped Heavenly Spirit’s shoulder as if they were brothers, forcefully patting him twice, "From now on, we are brothers!"

However, what seemed like a brotherly pat on the shoulder turned out to be a strike with Inner Strength used on the last hit, which might have shattered a shoulder.

Why collaborate when we’ve found the place? Can’t I kill you and monopolize it?

Heavenly Spirit seemed unprepared for an attack from this apparently naive, easily deceived person until he actually felt the forceful slap. He hurriedly dispersed the force, but it was not entirely successful, and his left shoulder dislocated with a "crack."

Heavenly Spirit was quick to respond, suddenly kicking out and drifting backwards while roaring resentfully, "The surname is Qian, just you wait!"

His Qinggong was indeed excellent, and he disappeared in an instant.

The leader of the Money Gang sneered slightly, "This man is injured; he can escape from the monk, but not from the temple. We’ll eradicate his Yukun Gang later. You guys, search inside!"

A swarm from the Money Gang rushed into the stone house while their leader stayed outside, prudently observing. Seeing no traps, he leisurely followed them in.

Zhao Changhe and Xia Chichi watched from a distance, exchanging glances. They had planned to try persuading them, but now there was no point.

Not a single one was thrifty with their lives.

However, this act by the leader of the Money Gang was undoubtedly part of Heavenly Spirit’s plan, only by doing so could he truly let the leader let his guard down and suffer from poison. Zhao Changhe could almost be certain Heavenly Spirit dislocated his shoulder on purpose and had already repositioned it effortlessly... As soon as everyone was inside, Heavenly Spirit would reappear.

"What should we do?" Xia Chichi, finding the drama quite amusing, only asked now, "If we keep watching from outside, he probably won’t show up. Should we leave for now, or..."

"We should go in too," Zhao Changhe whispered. "Heavenly Spirit can’t find Poison Spider and must be anxious. Only if we also lie low inside will he let down his guard."

Xia Chichi asked, "Are you confident about handling the poison inside?"

"Yes," Zhao Changhe smiled slightly. "Poison Spider has already deciphered the poison inside. The Rejuvenation Technique has been tested and can resolve it."

Xia Chichi froze for a moment, then couldn’t help but laugh ruefully, "It seems Poison Spider was also scheming against Heavenly Spirit. She might have secretly taken some core item from inside without him knowing. This place is really fun..."

The two walked slowly forward. Yang Qianyuan, not worthy of entering, was guarding the outside and was startled when he saw Zhao Changhe approaching, "Senior, you..."

Zhao Changhe laughed, "What, afraid that I’ll play an unexpected move and target your gang leader?"

I actually wish you would target our gang leader, but not in front of my subordinates... Yang Qianyuan felt uncomfortable and was about to say something when suddenly, a terrible scream came from the stone house, followed by back-to-back agonizing howls.