Master of Strange Dao

It so happened that the Jinlan Mushroom grown at home also required connection to the Earthfire Branch, so Yu Ziqing took it and tossed it to Yang at home.

This kind of magical treasure, once planted, was quite difficult to acquire.

All magical treasures related to production were precious in this world, and an alchemy furnace was far more valuable than ordinary pills.

After searching for a while, and obtaining a Heart Protecting Armor, Yu Ziqing decided to stop.

"Brother Qing, don't be like that, how can you take only three items and stop, the most difficult parts were all handled by you."

Lei Yu had quite a substantial gain this time, and after entering, he didn't find it too difficult. The more it was like this, the more he felt he shouldn't let Yu Ziqing take so little.

This was not how one should behave. If he gained a lot this time, he might not have the face to ask Yu Ziqing for help again in the future if a similar situation arose.

Even if he asked, it might not be possible to ask again.

With that thought, Lei Yu glanced around and picked out a few magical treasures.

"I really want these few items, so I'll take them first, and as for the rest, we'll split them equally."

He waved his hand, hastily dividing the leftover miscellaneous items into two piles, putting one pile into a storage bag.

Then, without a word, he forcibly shoved one of the bags into Yu Ziqing's hands.

"Brother Qing, please don't refuse. If you don't take this, next time when I encounter another Grotto Heaven and can't enter, I'll have no face to ask for your help again."

Yu Ziqing recalled that among the remaining things, there seemed to be not many intact ones, not much usable, but with significant research value, so he nodded.

"Alright, I'll take it."

"Good, straightforward," Lei Yu breathed a sigh of relief and had a banquet prepared as a kind of celebration.

After resting for two days, Yu Ziqing returned to Jinlan Mountain.

The miniature volcano could still be used. He tossed it to Yang to plant, and he had always been trying to draw the Earthfire Branch, but dared not make any big moves, fearing he'd accidentally blow Jinlan Mountain into the sky.

Now with a ready-to-use magical treasure, it saved a lot of trouble, and it might not be long before he could grow Jinlan Mushroom.

The task of sorting out that large pile of garbage could only be left to Yu Ziqing himself.

Yang said if he could identify what each item among that pile was, its origin, and its effects when intact, he would have considered completing his training.

Next time, when he went exploring, he wouldn't miss out on treasures just because he couldn't recognize them.

Yu Ziqing looked at that massive pile of items and couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Yang's words translated into a task like identifying each shard in a sack of porcelain fragments, discovering which era it was from, which kiln produced it, its rarity, and the value of a complete version?

Then, when scavenging for treasures in the future, he wouldn't have a blind eye.

If he had such skills, he wouldn't need to consult Yang on anything he didn't understand.

Nevertheless, Yu Ziqing still diligently organized, trying to understand what each fragmented item used to be, then attempted to piece the fragments together to see the rough shape, to decipher the runes and then deduce their past functions.

Learning was still essential.

After a day, when he had sorted through most of it, Yu Ziqing picked out a black metallic book page from that pile, and stacked it with others of the same material.

Those metallic pages had the same material, but each page was a slightly different color—some gold, some gray, others black.

The engraved content was also different for each.

When he finally found all the metallic book pages and tried to sort and assemble them, Yu Ziqing's gaze started to change.

One of the black pages depicted a painting.

A bizarre forest occupied the lower half of the painting, only taking up about one-tenth of its height, and at the very bottom, a few tiny human figures were sketched. From their body language, they appeared frightened by something.

In comparison, the trees in this forest were no less than hundreds of meters tall.

But the highlight of this painting was not those trees, but a leg.

That leg occupied the full height of the painting.

The foot stepped into the forest, making it invisible, and at the top, the upper part of the leg was severed.

A severed limb at least a thousand meters tall.

One could clearly see, from the painting, the uneven cuts at the break, not as if it was sliced by a sharp blade, but rather torn apart by some force.

Just by looking at this painting, one could faintly feel some impact.

Another gray metallic book page depicted all sorts of bizarre and evil creatures.

In the foreground of the painting, there was a monstrous figure with eight arms and a mouth on its abdomen, stuffing a humanoid figure into its mouth.

Another black page illustrated a sequence of transformations.

From a shapeless, twisted sphere, gradually growing limbs, then turning into a vaporous humanoid figure, finally becoming a complete humanoid.

And the final scene showed this humanoid creature turning to look over, with a gloomy gaze and a cold smile.

In an instant, Yu Ziqing understood this was a devil, definitely a devil!

Another page had an entire mountain carved from a single colossal stone, shaped into a tombstone.

Inscribed on it: "Heavenly Monarch Luoge self-buried here."

The handwriting was free and easy, showing no trace of solemnity, as if the person writing it had been in a pretty good mood?

The only golden page had the most people on it.

One person among them held a seal, another laughed to the skies, while the rest were filled with terror.

Yu Ziqing tried to sort them, but looking at the content on these pages, he felt a sense of déjà vu.

His hand stopped involuntarily as he assembled the book pages.

He quickly took out the Seventh Floor ring and directly summoned No. 4.

Moments later, No. 4 arrived, and Yu Ziqing, without any formalities, directly asked.

"Regarding the last matter, I have a situation to ask you, your ancestor visited Sorrow Cave Heaven, was the owner of the mausoleum inside called Heavenly Monarch Luoge?"

"Huh, you actually dare to go there?"

"Damn."

Upon hearing this, Yu Ziqing felt as if everything went dark, dropped a word, and dashed out.