Chapter 1151

He Lingchuan rolled his eyes and casually grabbed a few pebbles to toss into the doorway. He heard the pebbles clattering as they slid downward, as if rolling down a slope, but they soon came to a stop.

It's quite deep.

The two of them waited for a while to let the air inside and outside the cave circulate.

"Please, go ahead!" Dong Rui gestured for He Lingchuan to go first. "Your cultivation base is higher, you lead the way."

He Lingchuan began to miss Zhu Xiuer.

He took out a fluorescent spore to use as a lantern and walked into the door first.

The Ghost Ape remained outside the cave to keep watch.

Back then, He Lingchuan had entered the cave dwelling of True Person Dongli by County Magistrate Lake; inside, it was a small hill with an unknown light source. But here... this was actually just a crude mountain cave, cold, dry, and filled with the musty, moldy stench of something that hadn't been ventilated for years.

This foul, stagnant rot was truly on par with the fishy smell of the docks at Julu Port.

Dong Rui suddenly pointed forward: "Look, your bear!"

There was a shadow deep in the cavern; looking closely, it was a curled-up giant bear.

Walking to this point, the Divine Bone Necklace grew even hotter, practically jumping out of his chest.

Why was this thing so excited? The White Bear King that He Lingchuan had seen in the Panlong world, though severely wounded, still had a thick and rounded body. But the bear before his eyes had skin and flesh that had shriveled away, its fur dry and lusterless, its lips withered to reveal rows of sharp teeth—

This was already a mummified corpse.

But He Lingchuan could still recognize its identity, because it was missing half a front claw and its left eye was blind.

The giant bear lay on its side, facing the cave entrance.

Seeing the bear corpse, He Lingchuan let out a long breath. Fortunately, it had just died quietly here without causing any trouble.

The White Bear King had probably intended to hide in the cave dwelling to escape pursuit, perhaps even hoping to use a long slumber to heal its wounds, as that was a natural talent of bears. Who knew that this place had already been raided by black wolves, with all supplies and inventory carried away.

The White Bear King's injuries were too severe, and without nourishment, it died in frustration.

In life, it had been magnificent, slaughtering its way through armies, yet in the end, it died without a sound.

Dong Rui took out a candle, which ignited without fire with a hiss.

He observed the color of the flame and even blew on it twice before saying, "It's fine, there are no curses or wandering spirits here."

He Lingchuan squatted down beside the bear corpse to observe it carefully: "Its posture is problematic."

The White Bear King's front claw was clutching a dark scale, larger than a human palm, looking both oval and diamond-shaped, smooth all over, and even capable of reflecting the light of the spores.

But there was a bloody hole in the bear corpse's chest. Dong Rui brought the fluorescent spore closer and was also startled: "Hey, how did this bear's heart become like this?"

Having been air-dried here for a hundred years, the White Bear King's internal organs had long since withered along with its skin and flesh. But both of them could see that the bear's heart was like a honeycomb, covered in small holes.

Dong Rui even told a cold joke: "People talk about a heart with seven exquisite openings; I think this bear has thirty-six."

He Lingchuan drew the Fusheng Blade to pry up the scale on the ground.

Who knew that the moment the blade tip touched the scale, a tremor traveled through the blade, shaking He Lingchuan's hand.

The blade tip struck the scale with a clear "clang," resonant and long-lasting, like a bell or a chime.

It was as if two musical instruments had struck each other.

Dong Rui was also taken aback.

Honestly, although the Fusheng Blade shared a connection with He Lingchuan's mind, he could not grasp the emotions of this divine artifact at this moment.

In any case, it was just as excited as the Divine Bone Necklace.

He Lingchuan steadied himself, flipped his wrist, picked the scale up on the tip of his blade, and brought it under the fluorescent spore.

Borrowing the light to look, there were some raised dark patterns on the scale, compact, precise, and full of linear beauty; there were also tiny serrations on the edge of the scale.

Dong Rui asked while looking: "What animal's scale is this? Snake, turtle, or crocodile?"

He was more knowledgeable about monsters than He Lingchuan and saw at a glance that this was not something that grew on the White Bear King itself.

"It's not a turtle scale, nor a crocodile scale." He Lingchuan had dealt with the old turtle at the bottom of County Magistrate Lake and had, of course, also raided its... scales. "Turtle and crocodile scales are not like this."

Dong Rui chuckled: "Dare to touch it with your hand?"

He Lingchuan glanced at him sideways: "This scale originally grew on the White Bear King's chest. It clutched it even in death, so it's clearly not a good thing. You want me to touch it with my hand?"

Dong Rui coughed: "How did this thing end up on the White Bear King's chest?"

"The White Bear King wasn't large in size, but its cultivation was very high. In its peak period, it had thousands of wolves under its command, and even the hundreds of defeated soldiers who fled into the mountains were eaten clean by them. During the Julu Nation era, they even attacked cities and devoured the populace."

Dong Rui was already used to his way of speaking: "You mean, it was only so arrogant because it had the help of this scale?"

"When the White Bear King was defeated and fleeing, other monsters had pursued it, targeting this very scale, calling it the 'Heart Scale'."

Dong Rui was thoughtful: "It rose because of it, and perished because of it. This scale really has a personality."

The Divine Bone Necklace kept heating up, constantly signaling to He Lingchuan that it wanted to eat, eat, eat. But He Lingchuan ignored it entirely, only wrapping the scale in a piece of deerskin and putting it into his storage ring.

This thing seemed very powerful; he couldn't waste it before figuring out its origin and use.

As soon as the scale was put away, the Divine Bone Necklace also quieted down, as if it knew it couldn't eat it and stopped making a fuss.

Next, the two continued to search the cave and found over a dozen magic artifacts, as well as materials like horns, skin, and teeth from monster beasts, which were perhaps all collected by this White Bear King.

During those years when it ran rampant on White Hair Mountain, many cultivators wanted to enter the mountains to hunt the bear, but ended up being killed by it instead, their personal weapons and magic artifacts kept by the White Bear King in the cave as loot.

However, these magic artifacts had not been in contact with spiritual energy for a long time and were already dull and dusty. If one wanted to reuse several of them, they would probably need to be consecrated again.

Just then, a strange sound suddenly came from behind Dong Rui.

He Lingchuan turned his head to look and was surprised to find his backpack moving:

The rarely seen Bat Monster Puppet crawled out of the bag, flapped its wings, and pounced on a large piece of brown soft skin, devouring it greedily.

The manner was as if it hadn't eaten for hundreds of years.

Moreover, the appearance of the Bat Monster Puppet was different from the last time He Lingchuan had seen it.

Come to think of it, this guy's appearance changed every few days; it was the monster puppet Dong Rui tinkered with the most. He Lingchuan was too lazy to ask more; anyway, the next time this bat came out, it might have a new look again.

He pointed at the soft skin: "What is it eating?"

It looked very fragrant and delicious.

Dong Rui also squatted down to check the skin material, rubbing it with his fingers for a long time before suddenly being overjoyed: "Good, good, this is a piece of throat soft skin from a Treasure Lizard! I've been looking for it for a long time, just to feed it to the Monster Bat. I didn't expect to find it in this broken cave!"

He Lingchuan said "Oh," remembering that this ingredient seemed to be on the list Dong Rui had given Fang Canran a month or so ago.

But Fang Canran had never received it; this thing was priceless and unavailable.

(End of chapter)