Chapter 733: Treasure Hunting, Phantoms (First update, requesting all support)

In terms of treasure-hunting ability, the phoenix is absolutely a top-tier existence.

However, phoenixes rarely land; whenever they do, it often signifies that they have found an extraordinary treasure.

The Crowned Sunlight Luan obtained the locations of three treasure sites, which is actually not a small amount, as the memories it obtained were not many to begin with.

What is strange is that after the phoenix finds a treasure site, aside from occasionally taking treasures useful to itself, it does not take the vast majority of the treasures.

Regarding such strange behavior, Li Zhangsheng feels it is likely related to the rules of heaven and earth, or perhaps the phoenix must pay a certain price to take the treasures; after all, even if the phoenix does not love treasures like the Dragon Clan, it is not the type to treat treasures as mere weeds.

Even after a hundred years, the possibility of these three treasure sites being discovered by others is actually not very high, because most of these treasures are buried in the soil, or they are treasures that look unremarkable on the outside, like stubborn stones or weeds.

Not long after, Li Zhangsheng found a relatively complete world map on the third floor of the Tianlu Pavilion, which allowed the Crowned Sunlight Luan to find the locations of the other two treasure sites.

One is in the Kailing Empire; a country that can be called an empire naturally has an Emperor or an Emperor Rank expert presiding over it, and it possesses the territory of the Nine Provinces.

The Kailing Empire is also located in the south; it is a nation founded by the Spirit Emperor Xiang Donglai, has a history of over eight hundred years, and is also one of the nine host countries competing for spots in the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm.

Come May, Li Zhangsheng and Ning Bizhen will head to the Kailing Empire to compete with the Heavenly Pride of other countries for spots in the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm.

The location of the other treasure site is quite far, situated in the Extreme North, a full tens of thousands of miles away from the Langya Kingdom, and that is just the straight-line distance.

Furthermore, the Extreme North is also known as Beiming, an environment extremely harsh; one wonders which nerve of the phoenix was misfiring back then that it would actually head to the Extreme North.

With such a long distance and a certain level of danger, it is impossible for Li Zhangsheng to go explore it in the short term; he will wait until he becomes a King Rank expert before considering it.

"Could it be that the phoenix went there to meet a lover?"

Li Zhangsheng recalled the four-clawed white dragon; he had seen in a travelogue that many people had personally seen a four-clawed white dragon flying in the sky.

As for whether that four-clawed white dragon was the phoenix's lover, that is hard to say, and Li Zhangsheng has no intention of investigating.

"Let's go explore the first treasure site!"

Li Zhangsheng made his decision; Jushi Ridge is only two or three hundred miles away from the Yuanling Academy, and if Aixi uses the White Tiger Transformation Rainbow Technique, she can arrive in less than ten minutes, which is no different from strolling through one's own backyard.

Besides that, Li Zhangsheng had also been to Jushi Ridge before and was relatively familiar with it; Jushi Ridge is too barren, the energy is sparse, the environment is harsh, the number of wild Spirit Beasts is extremely rare, and there is simply no existence that can pose a threat to him.

This time, Li Zhangsheng intends to go explore Jushi Ridge together with Ning Bizhen.

The two of them, as if by tacit agreement, chose to travel secretly, using the convenience of Ning Bizhen's position to leave the Yuanling Academy without anyone noticing.

In a secluded spot outside the Academy District, Li Zhangsheng summoned Aixi.

Aixi had already used the Law of Heaven and Earth skill in advance to shrink her body size by more than half, and she even restrained her aura, so she would not be discovered by others.

After Li Zhangsheng and Ning Bizhen sat on her, Aixi flapped her wings, and in the blink of an eye, she appeared at an altitude of several hundred meters.

Aixi was still rising rapidly, rushing toward the Gale Layer.

Pop~

In just half a minute, Aixi successfully rushed into the Gale Layer; due to the existence of the gale, it is easy to hide their tracks here, so they would not be discovered by others.

Li Zhangsheng released the Imitation Demon Refining Pot, and the colorful light screen resisted the gale, causing almost no ripples.

Only then did Aixi transform into a golden rainbow, flying toward the direction of Jushi Ridge at an unimaginable speed.

By the time Aixi stopped, they had already arrived at Jushi Ridge, and only a few minutes had passed.

Just like when he came last year, the tall and towering Jushi Ridge remained desolate, with no green to be seen, giving one a feeling of barrenness and loneliness.

A small stream runs through Jushi Ridge; what is strange is that even at the edge of the stream, one still cannot see any green, and only some green algae can be found in the water.

The Imperial Family of the Langya Kingdom had once sent people to inspect the entire Jushi Ridge, but in the end, they did not find the reason.

However, the Imperial Family did not give up and transplanted some vegetation to Jushi Ridge, wanting to improve the land here; after all, Jushi Ridge is at least a hundred miles in radius, and such a large territory is enough to establish a city.

Unfortunately, no one knows what happened, but even with specialists carefully tending to the transplanted green plants, these plants could never last more than three days before they all withered away.

The Imperial Family used many methods and resources, but they could never find the reason, and in the end, they could only let it be and abandon Jushi Ridge.

Thus, Jushi Ridge became a lawless zone, but even the most heinous criminals do not want to hide in Jushi Ridge because it is too barren; just obtaining food is a big problem, and once winter arrives, the small stream dries up completely.

Li Zhangsheng summoned the Crowned Sunlight Luan and asked: "Crowned Sunlight Luan, do you still remember the exact location?"

Over a hundred years have passed, and the terrain has inevitably undergone some changes; whether it can find the exact location is still an unknown.

"I will try!"

After the exchange, the Crowned Sunlight Luan flapped its wings, casting a huge shadow under the sunlight.

The Crowned Sunlight Luan first flew to a high altitude, overlooking the entire Jushi Ridge, carefully comparing it with the Jushi Ridge in the phoenix's memory.

Because it is too barren, Jushi Ridge is rarely visited by people and has almost no traces of human modification; plus, there have been no overly intense crustal movements over these years, so the changes to Jushi Ridge are generally not very large.

Soon, the Crowned Sunlight Luan locked onto the general area.

There are many barren mountains and wild ridges in Jushi Ridge, and between these ridges is a large, flat basin, a full tens of miles in radius, enough to build a not-so-small city.

This basin was also the location where the Imperial Family developed Jushi Ridge back then, but unfortunately, it ended in failure.

The Crowned Sunlight Luan brought Li Zhangsheng and Ning Bizhen to the edge of the basin, next to a mountain a thousand fathoms high; this is also the highest mountain in Jushi Ridge.

Li Zhangsheng could not help but ask: "Is it right around here?"

The Crowned Sunlight Luan nodded; it was precisely because of this mountain a thousand fathoms high that it was not difficult for it to find this place.

The next moment, Li Zhangsheng released his Mental Power, encompassing the entire seven thousand-plus meters in radius.

Unfortunately, no intense energy fluctuations appeared within the range.

Under these circumstances, Li Zhangsheng controlled his Mental Power to explore underground; the geology here is hard, making it difficult for his Mental Power to penetrate deep into the ground.

After penetrating more than twenty meters underground, Li Zhangsheng could no longer continue deeper.

Li Zhangsheng naturally could not give up easily; even if the probability of the treasure existing is not high, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, he will do his best.

In an instant, Li Zhangsheng summoned the Spirit-Devouring Mouse, which had performed a great service yesterday.

"Spirit-Devouring Mouse, dig a hole and look for nearby treasures!"

Following Li Zhangsheng's order, the Spirit-Devouring Mouse squeaked twice and began to dig.

Even the hardest ground was no different from tofu under the claws of the Spirit-Devouring Mouse; in the span of a few breaths, the Spirit-Devouring Mouse dug a small hole and disappeared from Li Zhangsheng's sight.

Li Zhangsheng's Mental Power followed the small hole the Spirit-Devouring Mouse had dug, exploring all the way underground.

With the opened small hole as a support, Li Zhangsheng could also take the opportunity to explore the energy fluctuations around the small hole.

Not long after, in Li Zhangsheng's perception, the Spirit-Eating Rat instantly dropped several dozen meters, seemingly falling into an underground cavern.

Before Li Zhangsheng could continue his investigation, the Spirit-Eating Rat, not knowing what it had encountered, suddenly crawled back from the underground cavern into the small hole, then rapidly drilled its way out along the small hole.

Before Li Zhangsheng could even ask, he felt a wave of energy rushing up from underground along the small hole.

Li Zhangsheng hurriedly retreated a short distance, only to see a green energy beam shoot out of the small hole, rushing upward for over a hundred meters before it barely dissipated.

What surprised Li Zhangsheng greatly was that, judging by the energy intensity, this beam of light had actually reached the Demon King level category.

The Spirit-Eating Rat burrowed into Li Zhangsheng's arms, its whole body trembling; it was clearly badly frightened this time.

Squeak, squeak, squeak~

In just the span of a few breaths, the ground suffered severe cracking; Li Zhangsheng retreated several dozen meters, standing by in full battle array.

The next moment, wild Spirit Beasts shaped like three-year-old children crawled out from underground; they had red eyes, long ears, and were entirely crimson-black.

"Wangliang!"

Li Zhangsheng recognized them at a glance; Wangliang are a type of wild Spirit Beast transformed from wood and stone, which like to imitate human voices to confuse people.

Like most wild Spirit Beasts transformed from plants and stones, as long as the wood and stone transform into a Wangliang, it will reach the Elite level.

"Huh!"

Li Zhangsheng let out a sound of surprise; there were only a dozen or so Wangliang in total, but among them was one Demon King level Wangliang, four Lord level Wangliang, and the rest had all reached the Leader level, with not a single Elite level Wangliang to be found.

After these Wangliang rushed out of the ground, they did not immediately launch an attack; it was not that they were kind-hearted, but rather that they felt the power of Aixi and the Crown Sunlight Luan.

Even so, these Wangliang did not flee, but instead remained in a standoff with Li Zhangsheng.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Zhangsheng's Mental Power began to scan this group of Wangliang, and upon this scan, he was startled once again.

This group of Wangliang were all Superior Quality without exception, and the leading Demon King level Wangliang was even of Top Quality; one must know that although Wangliang belong to the Exotic Beast category, they are not Quasi-Gods and usually only have Medium Grade quality.

"Could the abnormality of this group of Wangliang be related to that treasure?"

While Li Zhangsheng was greatly astonished, he became increasingly expectant regarding that treasure, though he did not know if that treasure was still there.

(End of chapter)