Chapter 552: The Fisherman's Profit

"You go get that delicacy."

In the end, the five pale‑faced people handed over the Six‑Turn Delicacy, were rescued by the drunken monks, each of them wounded all over, and fled the place.

The drunken monk smiled, "Wasn't it fine earlier? You had to suffer a bit before you were willing to give up."

"That may be so, but there are far too many beasts here. How can we obtain the delicacy?"

"Just charge in and dig out the delicacy!"

"Alright!"

The few just now gave their all and almost failed to block the beasts' assault; fortunately, after the last few suffered severe injuries, they finally came to their senses, still valuing their lives, and begged for mercy.

A few drunken monks rushed in, drawing away some of the beasts to create an escape chance for them; after paying a price, those people managed to leave alive.

But at this moment, the drunken monks arrived at those people's positions and also felt uncomfortable.

A horde of demon‑king beasts charged forward; the drunken monks, though looking out of place, were indeed powerful and surged in to fight.

"Hold them back first; I'll dig out the delicacy!"

"Hurry, senior brother!"

As the Six‑Turn Delicacy was taken, the drunken monk shouted:

"Get out!!"

The drunken monks instantly gathered, pressed their palms together to invoke a Buddhist secret technique, and vanished from the spot in an instant.

Elsewhere.

The five escaped Golden Core Cultivators, clutching their wounds, arrived at the outskirts of the Treasure Ground, each sitting down to recover their mana.

"Damn drunken monks, taking advantage of our peril!"

"Say that here and be done with it; if you keep complaining outside, don't blame us for cutting you off."

"Is it wrong to vent a little?"

Come to think of it, if those drunken monks hadn't meant no harm, they'd probably have perished today.

While they were restoring mana and injuries, a figure suddenly approached.

"Who?!"

"Fellow Daoists, why are you so badly wounded?" The newcomer was none other than Yan Buji.

He sensed an odd wine fragrance here, came to see the situation, and unexpectedly found five wounded Golden Core Cultivators.

"None of your business; the sensible ones should leave!"

Yan Buji gave a slight smile and asked, "Fellow Daoists, I too am a connoisseur of wine. Sensing the wine aroma here, may I know if you have any fine wine? If you do, I'm willing to pay a high price to purchase it!!"

Speaking so, Yan Buji took out a sack of Spiritual Stones and poured them onto the ground.

Seeing those medium‑grade Spiritual Stones, the five at the Golden Core stage widened their eyes, their gazes betraying greed.

So many medium‑grade Spiritual Stones? At the very least, there must be several hundred thousand low‑grade Spiritual Stones, right?

What is this person's background, to have so many medium‑grade Spiritual Stones?!

"Who are you?"

"I am Ji Bu, a wandering cultivator. I entered the Treasure Ground by chance because I heard there was fine wine and came specifically to search for it," Yan Buji said with a smile.

"Then you have come to the right place. Not to keep you in the dark, we discovered a Drunken Immortal Wine Pool deep inside; I suppose you, Daoist Ji, have heard of it."

"So it's the fragrance of Drunken Immortal Wine; no wonder it's so strong. Did you manage to obtain any of it?"

"We didn't. We were ambushed by beasts; not only did we fail to get the wine, we were severely wounded. If you wish to go, it's a thousand li ahead."

"I see, thank you all."

Just as Yan Buji was putting away the Spiritual Stones, the five exchanged glances and acted in an instant!

"Kill him!!"

Yan Buji looked up, seeing the five charging, and laughed, "Are you disregarding your own wounds before you strike?"

"Five of us are enough to deal with you, Armament!"

The Golden Core cultivators hesitated not; once they decided to strike, they gave no chance for a response. Even though their mana hadn't fully recovered, wielding their Armament was still no problem.

Seeing the five in Armament form, various high‑power spells hurled at him, Yan Buji raised an eyebrow.

"All five have Armament? Impressive. But if you weren't injured, you might still give me some trouble…"

Crack!

Bang!

Yan Buji, wielding the Rift Staff, suddenly appeared behind a Golden Core cultivator.

"What?!"

With a swing of the staff, the Rift emitted a wasp‑sting that pierced him, even his Armament couldn't withstand the penetration!

Immediately after, Yan Buji flashed behind another, replicating the method, and in just a few seconds instantly killed four.

"You! Cosmic Dao Instant Movement Technique? Who are you?!"

Suddenly, the Golden Core cultivator recalled a rumor: a Golden Core cultivator with the Instant Movement Technique had killed monks of the Lotus Temple; could it be…?

"You know too much."

"I'll blow up with you!!" The cultivator, realizing he couldn't evade, chose to self‑detonate.

Yan Buji teleported again, dodging the last one's self‑detonation, and with a regretful expression gathered the remaining people's Storage Accumulation Devices and mana Golden Cores.

"The Rift Staff is still formidable; it easily pierces Armament defenses. Though it caught them off guard, the Rift Staff truly is a killing weapon."

Truly miserly.

Looking at their storage bags, there wasn't much of value, but he did find two wine jars filled with liquor.

He opened one, and a refreshing wine fragrance flooded his mind, making Yan Buji feel a bit dizzy.

He shook his head, quickly dispelled the drunkenness, and sealed the lid.

"Is this the Drunken Immortal Wine?"

"The aroma of this wine is incredibly strong; just sniffing it makes me feel drunk—if I were to drink it..."

"Interesting, this liquor seems to completely ignore a cultivator's magical shield; if I didn't have Immortal Essence, I would have already collapsed drunk just now."

"Yan Buji's face lit up with delight; he too is a lover of wine, otherwise he wouldn't have taken out many spiritual materials to experiment and upgrade his gentleman's wine formula. The gentleman's wine in his waist wine gourd has already gone through three generations, reaching the level of fourfold transformation spiritual wine!"

"But even so, it cannot compare to this Drunken Immortal Wine at all."

"This is truly fine wine!"

"What is this again?"

"Yan Buji searched and found that a storage bag actually contained a map."

"Upon opening it, he discovered it resembled the places he had passed through."

"Is this a map of the treasure land of the Wine Pool and Meat Forest? How could these people have it?"

"Afterward, Yan Buji carefully searched and found that these people seemed to have accepted a mission from a senior figure of the Chamber of Commerce, entering this place to seek the Drunken Immortal Wine."

"Yan Buji stroked his chin, looked at the marked locations on the map, and calculated on his fingers."

"The area ahead is the central region of the Wine Pool and Meat Forest, where the Drunken Immortal Wine Pool is also located, but this whole region is blank on the map—it seems the map isn't very complete."

"Too bad."

"But thinking about it, the senior figures of the Chamber of Commerce are probably busy and don't have much time to come treasure hunting, so it's normal for them to send someone to obtain the Drunken Immortal Wine."

"Even if they knew all the locations of the Wine Pool and Meat Forest, they couldn't possibly mark every detail for this group's mission, so they merely plotted the optimal route to obtain the Drunken Immortal Wine."

"But when Yan Buji entered, he had also heard the wine-and-meat monk say that the Wine Pool and Meat Forest isn't limited to just this Drunken Immortal Wine Pool; there are other spiritual wine pools, even celestial wine pools, not to mention the edible celestial materials that can increase magical power and Dao marks!"

"Should we go in and take a look? With this map, at least I can enter the depths from a safe place, but if we avoid conflict, it will slow down the search speed...."

"Thinking about it, Yan Buji hesitated a bit—not because he fears fighting people, but because he doesn't want to reveal his identity as a martial cultivator here."

"If he could find the edible celestial material, that would be fine; but if he couldn't find it and ended up in a conflict that exposed his strength, it would be completely not worth the loss."

"Thinking this over, Yan Buji shook his head: 'Forget it, there's no need to waste time here. After all, if I were to use the Instant Movement Technique, I would surely be targeted by that Nascent Soul cultivator surnamed Lin.'"

"Having thought this through, Yan Buji chose to leave the Wine Pool and Meat Forest; after all, this harvest wasn't small either."