Chapter 257: Eating Away the Foundation

The passage was pitch black.

Liang Qu lit up his golden eyes and saw kerosene lamps hanging on the walls.

He took the fire starter Ke Wenbin handed over, unscrewed the cap, and blew off the sparks.

The sparks splashed onto the oil surface, igniting a flame.

Ke Wenbin looked at Liang Qu, who was moving freely in the darkness without any obstruction, and clicked his tongue in wonder.

"How many techniques have you practiced, kid? How come you seem to know everything?"

Night, house, tunnel—triple the weakening, without a shred of light; even for him, seeing things here was slightly difficult.

Coupled with the previous warding technique and that strange hearing, none of these techniques were easy to practice.

Yet they were all concentrated on Liang Qu, who hadn't even reached adulthood. If it were a middle-aged man, he wouldn't be this surprised.

"I'm naturally gifted."

"That's true."

Ke Wenbin rubbed his chin, lost in thought.

He didn't take this as a joke; he truly felt that way.

"Don't space out. It gets light early now; we need to hurry back before dawn."

Xiang Fang Su handed over a torch.

Liang Qu also took one.

The corner after entering the passage was full of torches wrapped with cloth strips at the top, clearly left by the Ghost Mother Sect for their own use, which made things convenient for them.

The firelight flickered, and the blue bricks reflected a clear white light.

Xiang Fang Su walked at the very front, Ke Wenbin brought up the rear, and Liang Qu walked in the middle.

The entire tunnel was not wide; one could touch the ceiling by reaching out. The terrain sloped downward, and occasionally one could see one or two steps, meaning they were constantly going deeper underground.

Liang Qu silently estimated the distance; after walking about five hundred steps, the firelight illuminated a pitch-black opening.

Ke Wenbin passed Liang Qu and leaned against the two sides of the passage with Xiang Fang Su.

They exchanged a look and rushed out at the same time.

"No problem."

The voices of the two came from the darkness, and only then did Liang Qu follow.

He looked around; the end of the tunnel was a huge space, and the torchlight could only illuminate the blue bricks under their feet.

Half-steps protruded from the walls, inside which were oil grooves. Liang Qu lowered his torch and ignited the cotton ropes soaked in oil.

The flames spread along the oil path, the Jinming oil burned violently, and light as bright as a flood splashed out, illuminating the empty, pitch-black hall.

The first thing that caught the eye was a pill-refining cauldron a full zhang high.

The cauldron body was square and round, pitch black all over, the lid tightly closed, with nine black dragons carved around the body, all biting onto a round pearl at the very top.

The black dragons were extremely lifelike; if one didn't stare at them constantly, in a trance, one would really think they were alive!

"Black Dragon Wanfang Cauldron!"

Xiang Fang Su looked up, his gaze filled with awe.

"I only saw it in a painter's album in the sect school before; I didn't expect to see the real thing today." Ke Wenbin couldn't help but reach out to touch it. Unexpectedly, upon touching it, his expression changed slightly, his gaze revealing disbelief: "There's dust on it?"

He raised his hand in surprise, rubbed the black ash on his fingertips, doubting if he was hallucinating.

Following that, he grabbed his sleeve and wiped it against the cauldron body; a large black smudge was particularly striking, as if piercing Ke Wenbin's childhood longing.

Xiang Fang Su followed suit and wiped it, also bringing down a black smudge.

"There is no pill refiner in the Ghost Mother Sect worthy of it; it has been abandoned."

More than just abandoned—there wasn't even a servant to come and wipe it!

Liang Qu hadn't attended a sect school, but he could guess that the big cauldron in front of him was some kind of heirloom treasure.

He stepped over the black cauldron; further away were several other big cauldrons, each with different shapes.

On the other side of the pill furnace were the tools for weapon refining.

Square hammers with mysterious patterns, melting furnaces several zhang high—even after decades of neglect, they still carried a heart-stirring magnificence.

Any single item in this hall, if it flowed into the outside world, would probably cause pill refiners and blacksmiths to pursue it crazily.

It was just that they were now following the Ghost Mother Sect, buried on a small, neglected island for decades.

One could imagine the decline of the Ghost Mother Sect in recent years.

The "big goods" in Xu Yuelong's mouth should refer to these things.

"The Ghost Mother Sect we fought and the one Duke Xu fought back then are probably not the same thing."

"The tide has turned; the Ghost Mother Sect lost half to us and half to time."

Liang Qu suddenly asked: "How many branches of the Ghost Mother Sect fled to the Great Marsh?"

"Verified, there are eighteen branches." Xiang Fang Su replied: "The branch we fought was also of the Duke's generation back then, surnamed Huang, so many of the direct descendants here are surnamed Huang."

"There are seventeen more branches like this?"

Liang Qu gasped. The wealth of one branch was so huge; adding eighteen branches together...

"Wrong!" Ke Wenbin shook his head: "There are only nine branches like this. Of the remaining eight, five are vassal kings, two are princes, and one is the main family, far stronger than the branch we wiped out. Perhaps it would require a Martial Saint to come in person.

But now it's different from before. Before, the Ghost Mother Sect was twisted into a rope; sixty years later, it's hard to say.

Maybe the credit for completely eradicating the Ghost Mother Sect will fall on you and me, and then I can get my father a title."

After the three marveled for a while, they continued walking inward along the passage behind the hall.

When they reached the second hall, the style suddenly became eerie.

Several corpses leaned in the corners, their faces showing a mottled grayish-yellow color, their muscles and skin shriveled and stuck to their bones, even their eyeballs dehydrated, empty and hollow, their gazes cast toward the infinite darkness.

The most striking among them was the corpse whose open ribs looked like two crumbling doors.

Liang Qu was all too familiar with this.

Mountain Ghost.

After being sucked by a Mountain Ghost, they would appear like this.

There was also a stone door on the left side of the hall. Pushing it open, the inside was full of corpses lying in disarray.

Liang Qu couldn't count how many there were; there might be dozens, or maybe hundreds. Dried blood was splashed on the brick floor, leaving no desire to explore inside.

The three browsed through it hurriedly and came to the third hall, where the contents made their spirits lift.

Long swords, broad knives, armor, bracers, long robes...

Liang Qu released his perception and could detect that nearly half of the things inside were spiritual weapons!

Ke Wenbin passed the two and rushed to a robe.

"Phoenix Cry Neon Feather Wind! Damn, one of the last few treasures from the end of Master Shao Jiyi's life! It's so damn beautiful, better than in the paintings!"

Ke Wenbin couldn't put it down and reached out to take it off.

Xiang Fang Su was surprised: "Two items per person; you aren't going to take this, are you? To give to your fiancée? You better think it through."

Ke Wenbin became conflicted upon hearing this.

"Listen to a brother's advice: look further back before deciding. If there's nothing suitable, you can come back and take it."

Ke Wenbin was persuaded and put down the clothes in his hand.

Love makes people blind.

Liang Qu sighed.

The group came to the fourth room. Pushing open the door, a faint exotic fragrance drifted over. Cabinets were lined up, and many shelves held small medicine bottles.

Precious plants, precious pills!

The most valuable things!

Weapons and armor were good, but ultimately external objects; the foundation of everything lay in strength!

The three rushed toward a cabinet each.

Liang Qu pulled one open; it was empty.

He was stunned, thinking it was a coincidence, but when he opened another, it was still empty!

Liang Qu hurriedly pulled open several nearby.

Empty.

Empty.

All empty!

He turned his head to look at Xiang Fang Su and Ke Wenbin; the gazes of the three met in mid-air.

"How come they're all empty?"

"Used up?"

The group was stunned, and thinking of the dusty pill furnace, their expressions twisted.

Only going out and not coming in—isn't that just empty?

Metals and weapons could still have plenty left, after all, spiritual weapons could self-repair and grow, consuming far less than medicine-type items.

Precious plants and precious pills were completely eating away the foundation!

Not even enough for themselves to eat, let alone leave for latecomers like them.

Liang Qu and the others wouldn't give up; they rummaged through boxes and cabinets, searching one by one, and finally only found two cabinet rows that had things in them. ===== CHAPTER 258 =====