Over forty years ago, when he was on his way to the Tao family of Hanshan to discuss the smuggling routes, Wei Tu had unintentionally collided with Sun Yu and other disciples of the Immortal Sect, who were embroiled in a battle with a group of demonic cultivators.

Afterward, he seized the opportunity when Sun Yu tried to flee, struck the drowning dog, and went to Qing Song City to kill his enemy, Sun Yu, settling the grudge in his heart.

However, Wei Tu did not completely give up on the demonic cultivators. Before leaving, he left behind a colorful illusory moth, ordering it to closely follow the group.

This was merely a precautionary measure.

However, after killing Sun Yu, he got busy with his Golden Core cultivation and, fearing the power of the demonic cultivators, plus the fact that the colorful illusory moth was too far away to be sensed, he gradually put the matter out of his mind.

Little did he expect that over forty years later, he would once again sense the presence of that very moth.

“Could it be that the goal of those demonic cultivators is the ancient cultivation cave?” Wei Tu stroked his chin, growing more vigilant.

These demonic cultivators possessed treasures of the Golden Core realm, not ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators. Even with his current strength, Wei Tu needed to be cautious when dealing with them.

Though there were few cases where a Foundation Establishment cultivator could kill a Golden Core cultivator, it was not impossible.

“No, this tomb entrance has a formation set up by Bao Siyan herself. It hasn’t been activated in over two hundred years. How could the colorful illusory moth be inside?” Wei Tu suddenly realized this point, and the mist of confusion only deepened.

With Bao Siyan’s cultivation level, if someone had triggered her formation, she would have detected it immediately.

“Could it be that this ancient cultivation cave has more than one entrance?”

Wei Tu speculated.

Just as Wei Tu was pondering this, Bao Siyan finally opened the entrance to the tomb hidden by the formation.

“Friend Wei, come in. The end of this tomb is where the ancient cultivation inheritance lies,” Bao Siyan said, her face filled with excitement, as though she had set her sights on the treasures inside the cave.

Upon hearing this, Wei Tu shook his head and temporarily suppressed his doubts. He followed Bao Siyan into the tomb.

Now that they had reached the entrance to the ancient cultivation cave, if he were to back out, Bao Siyan would undoubtedly refuse and it would likely delay his plan to leave Zheng Country via the secret passage.

Additionally, since the demonic cultivators hadn’t discovered the colorful illusory moth following them, this was enough to prove that there were no Golden Core demonic cultivators in their group.

— A first-grade colorful illusory moth was not enough to fool the divine sense of a Golden Core cultivator.

Without Golden Core demonic cultivators, his safety was guaranteed. Even if he couldn’t defeat them, he could retreat safely if necessary.

Furthermore, although it might be difficult for him alone to subdue the demonic cultivators, with Bao Siyan’s help, even if the demonic cultivators had immense power, they wouldn’t be able to turn the situation around.

The path under the gray-yellow earth slope was steep, and as Wei Tu walked down the stone stairs for a little over ten minutes, he reached the interior of the tomb.

The architecture of the tomb was ancient, with stone pillars and door beams carved with images of rare birds and beasts. The ceiling of the passage was inlaid with many “Illusory Light Stones” for illumination.

Along the way, Wei Tu used his spiritual power to test the tomb’s walls, discovering that there were many difficult-to-break restrictions inside. Seeing this, he abandoned the idea of using clever methods to bypass the tomb’s traps and retrieve the ancient cultivation inheritance.

“Bao Daoist, now that we’ve reached the ancient cultivation cave, it’s time for you to give me the last secret technique,” Wei Tu spoke, stopping in his tracks and looking ahead at Bao Siyan.

According to their prior agreement, as long as he followed Bao Siyan into the ancient cultivation cave, she should give him the last of the three secret techniques from the Divine Wood Origin Technique.

“This is natural,” Bao Siyan replied without hesitation. She casually threw a jade slip at Wei Tu and walked ahead, continuing deeper into the tomb.

Wei Tu caught the jade slip and inserted his divine sense, starting to contemplate the mysteries of the secret technique within.

The three great secret techniques of the Divine Wood Origin Technique were:

Greenwood Breathing Technique

Divine Tree Longevity Technique

Mayfly Parasitism Technique

The first two techniques were somewhat common in the cultivation world, but the secret techniques of the Divine Wood Origin Technique had their own unique traits.

As for the third technique…

It was the Mayfly Parasitism Technique, a technique that required a Fourth-Grade Spirit Wood to perform, which Bao Siyan had mentioned to Wei Tu earlier as a somewhat useless technique.

The Mayfly Parasitism Technique was an escape technique that used Fourth-Grade Spirit Wood.

— If a cultivator practicing the Divine Wood Origin Technique possessed Fourth-Grade Spirit Wood, they could use the wood’s essence to create a clone with identical aura to themselves and escape freely.

“The three secret techniques don’t even have a single attack technique. Could this Divine Wood Origin Technique be a cultivation art focused solely on health preservation?” Wei Tu thought, inwardly complaining and speculating that the Divine Wood Origin Technique likely still had attack techniques hidden away.

However, these attack techniques were probably concealed by Bao Siyan.

After all, Bao Siyan had invited him to explore the ancient cultivation cave because she considered him weak and easy to control. Why would she help him grow stronger at this point?

As they advanced, Wei Tu, who had fallen behind Bao Siyan, noticed a series of murals on the walls of the tomb corridor.

Wei Tu slowed his pace and examined the content of the murals more carefully.

“These murals depict the life of a cultivator, from birth to decline. This tomb must be the burial site of the ancient cultivator. He buried himself here,” Wei Tu thought as he studied the murals. A sense of melancholy washed over him as he considered the fate of the figure in the murals.

The tomb’s master had been a talented figure among wandering cultivators in life. Before reaching the Nascent Soul stage, he had enjoyed a smooth journey.

However, after breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage, his potential reached its limit. He could only watch helplessly as his lifespan gradually dwindled away, with no way to stop it.

In the last hundred years of his life, the tomb’s master built this very tomb to seclude himself in hopes of breaking through and extending his life.

The murals stopped here.

Wei Tu didn’t need to think much to know the tomb’s master failed. Otherwise, he and Bao Siyan wouldn’t be here today, “opening the coffin to dig for treasure.”

However, the murals confirmed a previous suspicion—this tomb’s master was indeed a talismanic cultivator.

“A Nascent Soul talismanic cultivator’s tomb,” Wei Tu mused, growing more curious.

After entering the Golden Core stage, his potential wasn’t exhausted, but the opportunities on his path had clearly become harder to come by compared to his time in the Foundation Establishment stage.

Despite possessing significant opportunities, such as the Heaven-Mending Bowl and the Ten Thousand Spirits Demon Infant, they didn’t seem to be of use to him now that he had reached the Golden Core stage.

The Heaven-Mending Bowl, when tested with his Golden Core power, seemed to have no effect at all—his spiritual energy entered like a dragon into the sea, unable to stir even the smallest ripple.

Similarly, the Ten Thousand Spirits Demon Infant produced the “Immortal Spirit Dew,” which was very pure, but it was of no use to Golden Core cultivators.

This made Wei Tu feel like a treasure keeper, owning precious items that he could do nothing with, only able to lament his fate.

After a quarter of an hour, Wei Tu and Bao Siyan reached the entrance to a large hall.

Unlike other areas of the tomb, the walls of the hall were decorated with gold and silver patterns, intricately engraved with mysterious formations.

At the center of the hall stood a massive ice crystal rockery. In front of it was a jade-colored stone tablet.

Nearby, there was a broken skeleton wearing tattered robes.

“Chen Lang,” Bao Siyan said when she saw the skeleton. The excitement she had earlier before entering the tomb disappeared, replaced by sorrow.

“Bao Daoist, my condolences,” Wei Tu said in sympathy.

Two hundred years had passed, and Bao Siyan had long moved past her grief. Her expression soon returned to calm as she began explaining the secrets of the mysterious hall.

“I noticed you were absorbed in the murals in the corridor. After spending so long exploring this tomb with my husband, I have some speculations.”

“The tomb’s master should be the wandering cultivator ‘Master Shentu,’ who roamed the cultivation world of Jingguo more than two thousand years ago. Master Shentu was once a prominent figure, even founding the Fire Essence Sect.”

“This hall was set up as a trial for the disciples of the Fire Essence Sect. If they pass the trial, they can enter Master Shentu’s cultivation chamber and obtain his inheritance.”

Bao Siyan spoke slowly.

After she finished speaking, she thought for a moment, then took out an ordinary sword from her robes and casually activated it with her spiritual power, sending it into the hall.

As soon as the sword entered the hall, the walls erupted with countless strands of gold and silver threads. With a single strike, the threads shattered the sword into dust.

“However, my husband and I never expected that Master Shentu would be so ruthless, setting up such a dangerous trial for his disciples. After my husband and I triggered the forbidden formation, the hall turned into such a perilous place,” Bao Siyan gritted her teeth, speaking with resentment.

Hearing this, Wei Tu stood there in silence for a moment.

The inheritance in this tomb was Master Shentu’s legacy to the Fire Essence Sect, not a treasure left for Bao Siyan and her husband. For them to come to the tomb to “open the coffin and dig for treasure” was already morally questionable. How could they blame Master Shentu for setting up such a dangerous trial?

However, he knew better than to get involved in their personal matters. Since Master Shentu had no personal connection to him, Wei Tu didn’t see any reason to make an enemy of Bao Siyan over this.

“Bao Daoist, you mentioned that this trial requires a third-grade talismanic master to break. Do you know how to solve it?” Wei Tu returned to the matter at hand.

He had observed the hall for some time, but he hadn’t seen any talismanic traps in the hall.

“Don’t worry, Wei Daoist.” Bao Siyan had already recovered from her sadness. She gestured for Wei Tu to step back a few steps, then used her spiritual power to strike the jade-colored stone tablet in the center of the hall.

With her spiritual energy, the stone tablet began to change, revealing complex talismanic lines on its surface.

After a moment, a complicated talisman appeared on the tablet.

“The jade tablet is the key to the hall. As long as the talisman on the floor of the hall is drawn in accordance with the talisman on the tablet, the formations and restrictions of the hall will be lifted…” Bao Siyan explained.

“However, the difficulty of this trial lies in the fact that the talismans on the tablet change with time. After a year, the talisman on the tablet will shift to another form.”

“Thus, to break the formations and obtain the inheritance, one must bring along a third-grade talisman master.”

Bao Siyan glanced at Wei Tu and spoke slowly, “Also, this jade tablet likely contains Master Shentu’s talismanic inheritance. This treasure, I am willing to give to Wei Daoist.”

“The rewards from entering the cultivation chamber will still follow our previous agreement.”

This time, when inviting Wei Tu to help break the trial in the ancient cultivator’s tomb, Bao Siyan had not only offered the three secret techniques of the Shenmu Yuan Gong but also the inheritance and treasures within the “Ancient Cultivator Tomb.”

The inheritance was shared equally, with no further discussion needed. This was a standard practice for inviting a cultivator to explore dangerous tombs.

As for the treasures, as the “host,” Bao Siyan had the right to select one first. The remaining treasures would be split equally between the two.

At this moment, Bao Siyan also had concerns that Wei Tu might do little work and gain much. She feared that after learning the tomb’s location, he might pretend the trial was too difficult for her to break, and later come back alone to secretly open the trial and claim the treasure for himself.

Thus, offering the benefit now was Bao Siyan’s insurance for herself.

Wei Tu nodded and agreed. “I’ll give it a try.”

He sat cross-legged on the ground and took out several defensive magical tools from his storage pouch. After activating them, he finally focused on the jade tablet in front of him, which was five steps away.

“He’s quite cautious,” Bao Siyan thought, raising an eyebrow as she observed Wei Tu’s actions.

“However, how many cultivators did he kill when he was in the Foundation Establishment stage to have so many defensive magical tools?” Bao Siyan was surprised.

From what she could see, the defensive magical tools Wei Tu had were all high-quality second-grade artifacts. Even a fake Golden Core cultivator would have difficulty obtaining such fine treasures, yet Wei Tu had as many as seven.

The “Flame Demon Banner,” a top-grade second-tier artifact that formed a blood cocoon shield, especially caught Bao Siyan’s attention.

Third-grade artifacts were rare, and each one was extremely valuable. A cultivator like her, a Golden Core cultivator in the early stage, could not afford to waste resources buying such items. It was better to save spiritual stones to eventually craft a magical treasure.

So, second-grade top-tier artifacts were commonly used by Golden Core cultivators as substitutes before they refined their own magical treasures.

“This Wei Tu doesn’t quite match the description in the reports. As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he’s definitely a fierce figure. I’ll need to be extra cautious around him,” Bao Siyan narrowed her eyes.

Wei Tu, unaware of Bao Siyan’s thoughts, would have paid them no mind even if he did. To him, his safety was of utmost importance, so he did not hesitate to use these defensive magical tools.

In comparison to Bao Siyan’s observations, his own safety took precedence.

“The difficulty of this talisman is roughly at the upper second-grade level. However, to draw it within a year, one must at least have the talismanic skills of a third-grade talisman master,” Wei Tu assessed after studying the talismans on the jade tablet.

Since he didn’t have the Fire Essence Sect’s talismanic inheritance, drawing the talisman would be like starting from scratch, creating something out of nothing.

It was similar to when he had drawn the Demon Refining Talisman in the past.

The Demon Refining Talisman was a non-systematic talisman. Although it was a top-grade first-tier talisman, its difficulty in drawing was on par with second-grade low-tier talismans.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep