Martial Peak

Chapter 1451, Hidden Cave Mansion

One day, if Yang Kai could successfully refine an Origin King Grade pill, it would mean his Alchemy skills had reached the peak of the Star Field!

He already had a number of Origin King Grade herbs on hand, all of which were essentially collected from the floating continent he had been stranded on after first entering the Star Field, but he had not touched them all these years because his Alchemy skill had been insufficient.

However, no one would dislike having more of such treasures.

In particular, an Origin Grade High-Rank Alchemist who wanted to become an Origin King Grade Alchemist would no doubt suffer great difficulties and consume a large number of herbs. Considering all this, Yang Kai began collecting the herbs in front of him with even greater zeal.

Time passed by, and although there were several large Medicine Gardens in this mountain valley with several thousand spirit grasses and herbs planted here, the group of four was by no means slow with their collection. Half a day later, Yang Kai stood up and looked around, quickly discovering that almost all of the herbs had now been harvested. As for the few that were left, the three young women from Ice Heart Valley were busy collecting them.

With a slight smile, Yang Kai showed no intention to interfere, instead standing back and calmly waiting.

Now idle, Yang Kai began examining the mountain valley more carefully. This place was no doubt a secluded home leftover from ten thousand years ago, and since that was the case, there should be some traces of someone living here. Just now, the four of them had all their attention attracted by the bountiful spirit herbs though, so they hadn’t taken the time to investigate their surroundings meticulously.

But now that Yang Kai was taking a look around, to his puzzlement, he didn’t find any traces of habitation here, not even a house.

[Could it be…]

Yang Kai began scanning the sides of the valley with a look of scrutiny. After some careful observation, he soon made a discovery and walked over to a smooth section of a mountain wall.

Reaching out and knocking on this mountain wall, he didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, but Yang Kai was not a naive, inexperienced boy anymore, so how could he be deceived by such a simple trick? Rapping on the mountain wall a few more times with his fingers, Yang Kai paid close attention to the sounds which came from inside it while also releasing his Divine Sense to scan its interior.

After a while, Yang Kai smiled happily and without hesitation palmed the mountain wall.

Yang Kai didn’t use his Saint Qi for this palm, but when he hit the mountain wall, a rumbling sound rang out and it immediately began to crumble, exposing a long, dark tunnel.

Yang Kai raised his brow and swiftly stepped inside.

This corridor leading into the mountainside was not very spacious, less than two metres across, barely spacious enough for two people to walk side by side through it.

Yang Kai proceeded a kilometre or two before finally spotting some faint rays of light up ahead!

Seeing this scene, Yang Kai smiled even wider and sped up his pace.

A moment later, Yang Kai arrived at a mid-sized stone room about a hundred metres or so in diameter. The layout and decoration of this room was very simple. One table, one chair, one bed, all made from stone, nothing more, nothing less.

However, when Yang Kai arrived here, his eyes were instantly attracted to a certain location.

Before Yang Kai’s eyes was a metre-high pill furnace quietly sitting on the ground. This pill furnace looked extremely simple and gave off a desolate aura, clearly indicating how ancient it was; however, from its markings, it was clearly an Origin King Grade Alchemy furnace!

Next to this Alchemy furnace was a skeleton that maintained a cross-legged sitting posture, and looking from its posture, before dying, this skeleton’s owner seemed to have been pouring their Saint Qi into this pill furnace!

In other words, as this person died, he was still performing Alchemy!

Yang Kai was instantly able to deduce the truth of this matter. With so many spirit grasses and medicines planted in the mountain valley outside, this person’s identity was quite obvious.

An Alchemist!

Only an Alchemist would plant so many herbs in his secluded home, and inferring from the posture this man assumed before death, it was quite clear they were a character completely obsessed with Alchemy, otherwise, they would not have still been refining a pill while dying.

The only question was whether they succeeded or not…

Thinking like this, Yang Kai released his Divine Sense curiously and swept the inside of the Alchemy furnace. After a quick scan, he discovered that there truly was a pill inside.

This Alchemist had actually succeeded! Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling some admiration. Although he didn’t know whether the master of this secluded home died from exhaustion due to Alchemy, or because they wanted to refine one last pill before dying, such determination was worthy of Yang Kai’s respect.

Yang Kai was also an Alchemist so he somewhat understood; whether this person was good or evil, male or female, there was no doubt they considered Alchemy to be more important than even their own life, otherwise this scene would not have appeared.

Just as he was sighing with emotion though, Yang Kai heard light footsteps coming from the tunnel behind him and frowned. Without even thinking about it, he immediately leapt forward, reached into the pill furnace, took out the pill inside, threw it into a jade bottle, and stuffed it into his Space Ring.

During this lightning-quick process, Yang Kai didn’t even stop to examine what kind of pill it was.

Just after Yang Kai finished this, a beautiful figure appeared behind him.

“Little brother, is this the cave mansion of the owner of this place?” The young female leader of Ice Heart Valley’s group arrived and began glancing around in shock.

“It should be,” Yang Kai gently nodded, remaining calm and composed on the surface.

“Oh, there’s an Alchemy furnace here, does that mean that the owner of this place was an Alchemist?” The young woman looked overjoyed and hurried over to Yang Kai’s side as she carefully scrutinized her surroundings. Not seeing any signs of things being disturbed, she next focused her gaze on the Space Ring on the skeleton’s hand with great interest.

“Please go ahead, Sister!” Yang Kai could easily tell what this woman had in mind so he smiled lightly and gestured to her.

Although she wore a slightly embarrassed look on her face, the young woman didn’t refuse and simply nodded, “In that case, this Mistress won’t stand on ceremony.”

Saying so, she quietly condensed her Saint Qi to protect herself before reaching out and grabbing the Space Ring.

Unexpectedly, there was no danger at all and the young woman easily collected the Space Ring from this skeleton’s hand. Sweeping the contents of this ring with her Divine Sense, she immediately became extremely happy.

A moment later, she tossed the Space Ring to Yang Kai somewhat reluctantly and said, “Little Brother should also take a look!”

Yang Kai caught this ring and also released his Divine Sense to inspect it. After withdrawing his Divine Sense, he pondered for a moment before turning to the young woman and saying, “Does Sister have any objections to dividing the things inside evenly as well?”

“Hehe, since we reached an agreement in advance, this Mistress naturally has no objections,” The young woman said through a forced smile.

“Good, since that’s the case, let’s first inspect the things inside.” Saying so, Yang Kai began casually taking out the contents of the Space Ring.

First, there were many Saint Crystals, at least tens of millions, all of them High-Rank.

Such a fortune would be quite extraordinary for an average cultivator, but considering the identity of this Space Ring’s owner, it wasn’t all that surprising; after all, Alchemists were always wealthy.

These Saint Crystals were very easy to allocate, with Yang Kai and the young woman each quickly taking half.

However, what came next was the real highlight, because inside this ring there were a hundred or so jade bottles of varying shapes and sizes.

Yang Kai took out the jade bottles one by one and placed them on the floor. During the whole process, the young women stared at them without blinking, obviously guarding against Yang Kai engaging in mischief.

As for what was inside these jade bottles, that was obvious.

Since the owner of this place had been an Alchemist before their death, these jade bottles surely contained pills! So when the hundred or so jade bottles were laid out in front of them, the young woman’s breathing became noticeably more rapid.

Yang Kai on the other hand just smiled lightly and said, “Sister, although these bottles are certainly filled with pills, after so many years, it’s hard to say how many of these pills are still usable. There’s even a chance that all of them have degraded into trash, so it’s probably best to not get your hopes up too high.”

Listening to Yang Kai’s words, the excitement on the young woman’s face immediately converged and she nodded lightly, “What Little Brother said is true, let’s check them first.”

“Please go first!” Yang Kai reached out and gestured.

After nodding her head, the young woman picked up one of the jade bottles in front of her, unsealed it, and poured eight pills out from it onto her palm. However, when these pills appeared before her eyes, the young woman couldn’t help showing a disappointed look.

Because all eight of these pills had turned into blackened misshapen pellets with only a weak residual fragrance and absolutely no medicinal efficacy!

These pills were clearly all scrap.

“Seems my luck isn’t very good!” The young woman laughed helplessly before turning her beautiful eyes to Yang Kai.

Yang Kai picked up another jade bottle, opened it, and poured out another seven pills; however, as soon as they saw these pills, the two people present both became excited.

Because one of the pills was exuding a fragrant aroma and had a bright, fiery red colour. Most noticeably though, this pill had many fine lines across its surface that resembled human meridians.

Pill Veins!

Only when a pill formed Pill Veins could it be stored indefinitely. Without Pills Veins, no matter how carefully a pill was stored, its medicinal properties would still fade with time.

Although only one of the seven pills had formed Pill Veins, this was still a good start; after all, even though the young woman couldn’t recognize what kind of pill this was, it was clear its grade was not low.

“A Grand Yuan Fusing Pill!” Yang Kai raised his brow and revealed a look of shock.

“What?” The young woman’s complexion changed abruptly, “Little Brother, are you certain this is a Grand Yuan Fusing Pill?”

Obviously she had heard of this pill.

“Yeah, I’m certain because I’m an Alchemist myself, so I understand more about pills than ordinary cultivators. This is indeed a Grand Yuan Fusing Pill!” Yang Kai explained casually.

The young woman’s eyes swept over Yang Kai again in shock upon hearing this before hurriedly saying, “This Mistress’s vision was insufficient, failed to recognize that Little Brother was actually an Alchemist, and acted rudely previously, I hope little brother will not take offence.”

After learning that Yang Kai was an Alchemist, the young woman’s attitude towards him changed quite noticeably; after all, an Alchemist’s status was far higher than an average cultivator’s.

“Haha, Sister is too serious. This one has only dabbled a bit in Alchemy and only has some minor accomplishments, nothing worthy of note,” Yang Kai said in modest.