Chapter 36

Behind the stone door was another world.

This was actually a massive space several miles in size.

On the dome of the space was embedded a massive pearl that emitted light and heat like the sun, illuminating the entire space as bright as day.

The ground was fertile black soil.

On the soil, it was divided into various areas, planted with all kinds of dazzling and rare flowers and herbs.

Every spiritual herb was growing vigorously and was full of spiritual energy; the youngest one was likely several hundred years old.

This was clearly a massive medicinal garden!

"I'm rich! I'm really rich this time!"

Su Chen looked at this scene, so excited he almost jumped up.

He walked quickly into the medicinal garden, his gaze sweeping over the spiritual herbs one by one, muttering to himself constantly.

"This is... a 5,000-year-old Dragon Blood Vine! Good heavens, the vine is almost as thick as my arm! If this were used for body refining, the effect would be unimaginable!"

"And this, Purple-Veined Mysterious Ginseng! Looking at these veins, it has at least ten thousand years of fire! This is the main ingredient for refining elixirs that greatly replenish vital energy!"

"My god, that patch is... Star Sand? There's actually such a large patch! This is a top-tier auxiliary ingredient for refining primordial spirit elixirs, already extinct in the outside world!"

The more Su Chen looked, the more shocked and excited he became.

The variety and age of the spiritual herbs in this medicinal garden completely exceeded his imagination.

He had only seen diagrams and records of many of these spiritual herbs in Patriarch Puti's scripture library; he never expected to see the real things today.

This Canglang Loose Practitioner was likely an alchemy fanatic during his lifetime; otherwise, it would have been impossible to collect so many rare spiritual herbs.

After he died and vanished, this medicinal garden had been left untended.

Unexpectedly, it was a blessing in disguise; these spiritual herbs had grown freely for thousands of years without being picked, and their age and medicinal properties had reached an astonishing level.

This was simply a mobile treasure vault!

Su Chen resisted the urge to start picking them immediately and first walked carefully through the medicinal garden.

In a corner of the medicinal garden, he discovered a spiritual spring.

The spring eye was not large, only the size of a bowl, and it was bubbling with milky white spring water.

That spring water contained extremely pure spiritual energy.

The irrigation of the entire medicinal garden was clearly dependent on this spiritual spring.

"Earth Vein Spiritual Spring!"

Su Chen looked at the milky white spring water and exclaimed again.

A single drop of this stuff was enough to make a mortal reborn and free from all illnesses.

For a cultivator, it was an supreme treasure for tempering the physical body and washing the magic power.

And here, there was an entire spring eye!

Su Chen felt his heart could hardly bear these successive surprises.

Without a word, he immediately took out all the jade bottles and jade gourds that could hold things from his storage magic treasure and began to carefully collect this spiritual liquid.

He filled over a hundred jade bottles, yet the spiritual liquid in the spring eye did not seem to decrease in the slightest.

Su Chen knew that this spring eye was connected to a small spiritual vein below; as long as the spiritual vein did not dry up, this spiritual liquid would be produced continuously.

He did not drain the pond to catch the fish; after collecting enough for his own use, he stopped.

Then, he cast his gaze toward those spiritual herbs he had been coveting for a long time.

Picking spiritual herbs was also a technical job.

Especially for these high-age spiritual herbs, the roots and stems were extremely fragile; a slight carelessness would damage their medicinal properties.

Fortunately, Su Chen had learned many methods for handling spiritual herbs from that "General Outline of Alchemy."

He took out his axe, wrapped the blade in immortal essence, and carefully dug out those spiritual herbs along with the surrounding soil, then transplanted them into a space magic treasure he carried with him.

This space magic treasure did not have a large space inside, but it had the advantage of being able to simulate the outside environment and maintain the activity of the spiritual herbs.

He worked for a full day and night before picking about one-third of the spiritual herbs in the medicinal garden that he recognized and that had the longest age and highest value.

Looking at the treasure herbs full of spiritual energy in his space magic treasure, Su Chen smiled from ear to ear.

With these spiritual herbs, plus the "General Outline of Alchemy" and the Three-Turn Golden Elixir, his future path of cultivation would be much smoother.

At the very least, before reaching the Heavenly Immortal Realm, he would no longer need to worry about cultivation resources.

He did not empty the entire medicinal garden.

For one thing, the capacity of his space magic treasure was limited and couldn't hold them all.

For another, it was also based on the principle of sustainable development.

After all, he might come back to this cave dwelling in the future.

After finishing all this, Su Chen exited the medicinal garden with satisfaction and closed the stone door again.

He returned to the main karst cave, carefully wrapped the skeleton of Canglang Loose Practitioner in a clean white cloth, and put it into his storage magic treasure.

"Predecessor, I have noted your gift."

He bowed once more toward the empty stone platform.

After that, he prepared to leave this place.

However, before leaving, there was one more thing he had to do.

He walked to the entrance of the cave dwelling, formed seals with his hands, mobilized his immortal essence, and began to re-set up a formation at the entrance.

What he set up was still the "Small Shift Illusion Formation."

However, after his improvements, even without anyone to maintain it, this formation could last for a thousand years without any problems.

After finishing all this, Su Chen finally felt completely at ease.

He believed that with the protection of this new formation, unless a Golden Immortal proficient in formations arrived in person, it would be impossible for anyone to discover the existence of this cave dwelling again.

This place would become his first secret base in this Journey to the West world.

He took one last look at this accidentally obtained cave dwelling, did not linger, flickered his figure, exited the cave dwelling, and appeared on the cliff outside.

The sea breeze brushed his face, and the sunlight was just right.

Su Chen took a deep breath, feeling refreshed.

This unexpected joy had made his foundation even more solid.

Next, it was time to get down to business.

After handling all the matters of the Canglang Cave Dwelling, Su Chen stood on the cliff on the shore of the West Sea, his heart surging.

This unexpected opportunity had brought him massive gains; not only had he obtained the lifelong collection of an ancient Heavenly Immortal, but he had also paved a considerable path for his future cultivation.

He gazed at the vast and misty West Sea and did not hesitate any longer.

"Rise!"

Su Chen gave a light shout, and a green auspicious cloud condensed from immortal essence grew beneath his feet, supporting his body as he slowly rose into the air.

This was not a top-tier escape technique like the Somersault Cloud, but the most basic cloud-riding technique of an immortal.

After becoming a Human Immortal, he had naturally comprehended it.

Although the speed could not compare to the full-power Wind-Riding Technique, let alone "Shrinking the Earth into an Inch," it had the advantage of being stable and consuming very little, making it most suitable for long-distance travel.

The green auspicious cloud carried Su Chen, transforming into a stream of light as it sped toward the east.