Chapter 169 - 168: Leg Bone and Beast Tendon
Yang Shen took a breath of oxygen and composed himself...
The underground passage, the ruined Ancient Tower, the pit of Source Liquid... ’This opportunity for the family... it’s just too immense...’
He didn’t know what was inside the Ancient Tower, but the pit’s untold tons of "Source Liquid" alone were an enormous fortune.
"Source Liquid" wasn’t Source itself. Rather, it was a precious material formed when highly concentrated Source, channeled through a unique Earth Vein, mixed with water and inorganic matter.
It was similar to petroleum—difficult to synthesize, but far more precious.
On Cyan Blue, purified and processed Source Liquid was a raw material for many top-tier medicinal formulas, as well as an indispensable, high-grade material in "biotechnology."
It held an extremely important role in Martial Arts, medicine, and industry, earning it the moniker "liquid gold."
’This whole pool... I wonder how much it’s worth...’
’A hundred million? Or more?’
’Is this the total amount, or is the bottom connected to an Earth Vein, constantly replenishing it?’
’No... For the vast majority of Martial Arts Practitioners, selling it for cash would be the best choice, since they can’t directly absorb "Source."’
’But for the Yang Family, the best method is to use it to create an environment with High Spiritual Energy Concentration for Cultivation.’
’If we could even obtain the legacy of "Alchemy" in the future, that would be truly incredible!’
’At most... I’ll sell a tiny bit...’
After a moment of contemplation, Yang Shen took a light leap, jumping into the pit and landing on the roof of the Ancient Tower.
Though he was as careful as possible, he still broke a tile. The rotten wooden structure couldn’t support the pressure, and a few more tiles and stones went tumbling down into the Source Liquid Pool.
But it also conveniently created an entrance for Yang Shen.
He entered the top floor of the Ancient Tower through the hole. The space was only a few dozen square meters. Despite being decayed and brittle, the special environment had allowed the structure to maintain its original form.
A circle of cabinets lined the octagonal top floor, and inside them were many thin tablets...
At a glance, there had to be several thousand tablets on this floor alone, each one about the size of a palm.
Yang Shen started to reach for one directly, but after a moment’s hesitation, he pulled a plastic bag from his backpack and used it to pick one up.
’I should bring gloves next time... Everything here is incredibly fragile. I need to be more careful.’
Incidentally, the plastic bag had been a freebie with his purchase of the oxygen tank, and he had been too frugal to throw it away.
Upon picking up the tablet, Yang Shen discovered that it was actually a "bone tablet"...
The characters carved on it were the same ancient script as the words "Qi Storage Pavilion" on the tower’s plaque.
The content, however, was far more complex. Through sheer guesswork, Yang Shen could only recognize less than half of it.
Each "bone tablet" contained very little text, only a few dozen characters... Yang Shen was careful not to mix up their order. After deciphering a few of the tablets, he only grew more confused.
These few tablets seemed to record an Ancient Skill, a Cultivation Technique called "Vomiting Valley Qi"...
’What a strange name... And what era’s Cultivation Technique would be recorded on bone tablets in this script? Could it really be from the Pre-Qin Period?’
He couldn’t fully decipher the contents, but he felt that it was somehow at odds with the legacy of Martial Arts...
’And considering the name "Qi Storage Pavilion"... Could it be that thousands of years ago, a group of people walked a path different from Martial Arts?’
’Instead of pursuing "Wu," or the martial, they pursued "Qi"? And were eventually lost to the river of time?’
In Yanhua, the education system included history in elementary and middle school, but it was taught at a superficial level. The curriculum focused on modern history, with little content on ancient times.
By high school, history was removed from the curriculum almost entirely. Martial High Schools didn’t teach it at all. Only Wenhua Highs did, and even there it wasn’t considered a major subject.
Yang Shen needed to fill the gaps in his knowledge before he could hope to understand the secrets of the "Qi Storage Pavilion."
’My oxygen is about to run out. I need to get back up, quickly.’
Yang Shen glanced around and decided to take one "bone tablet" with him. Perhaps he could research its origins in the outside world.
But when he looked up, he froze...
An object was hanging from the ceiling of the Ancient Tower’s top floor.
It was a rope-like object made of some unknown material that had not decayed over countless centuries. Tied to its end was...
A long bone...
Yang Shen leaped up and took it down. The bone resembled a human femur, which sent a slight shiver down his spine. Upon closer inspection, however, it was much thicker than a human’s.
Yang Shen held it up against his own leg. ’If this bone belonged to a person,’ he thought, ’they would have to be four meters tall.’
It was heavy in his hand... and covered in ancient script.
Yang Shen sensed this object was important, but his oxygen was running low. He stuffed the "leg bone" and the "rope-like object" into his backpack and immediately headed back the way he came.
’The secrets of this pit will have to be uncovered slowly, but this place...’
’I must have it!’
’No matter what it takes, I will make this place belong to the Jianghuai Yang Family as soon as possible!’
Leaping out of the deep pit, Yang Shen returned through the passage. Once he was back at the bottom of the well, he formed a Finger Technique to cast "Earth Element Escape." He then made a swift departure.
No one knew he had been there... and no one knew what lay 200 meters underground.
After leaving "Cangwu Garden," Yang Shen didn’t hesitate. He walked two blocks before hailing a taxi back to the Jinshui District.
The return trip took nearly two hours. The entire time, Yang Shen was on his phone, searching for information on Pre-Qin Texts. Frankly, the script was incredibly esoteric; not even one person in a million could recognize it. But in the age of the internet, if you knew what to look for, you could still find something.
By the time he reached the Jinshui District and returned to the familiar Celestial Platform, the sky was already beginning to lighten.
Yang Shen absentmindedly performed maintenance Magic on the "Celestial Platform Spirit Field," his other hand still glued to his phone as he looked up various resources. He even made a special trip home just to grab a power bank.
Finally feeling like he had some leads, Yang Shen took the strange leg bone out of his backpack again to cross-reference the characters one by one.
Time ticked by, and the deciphering process was incredibly difficult. ’It’s hard to imagine,’ he thought, ’if that entire underground Ancient Tower is filled with these "bone tablets," how long would it take me to translate everything?’
However, half an hour later, Yang Shen had finally "translated" the ancient text... but the result was unbelievable.
So much so that, as the sun began to rise, he missed watching the sunrise for the first time since he began his Cultivation.
"The Heavens have cast out the Qi Dao to solely accommodate the Martial Arts. We have gathered all the Qi Dao Fragments of the world and hidden them here, with the sole hope that future generations will know that we, too, once walked this path."
Qi Dao... Martial Arts...
’Are you sure this isn’t talking about Cultivation?’
Yang Shen then took out the rope-like object again. He had been worried it would instantly disintegrate upon contact with the air, but he hadn’t had time to examine it earlier due to his low oxygen supply.
Looking at it closely now... he was shocked to see it was a "tendon."
Like the leg bone, its structure resembled that of a human’s, but it was much, much thicker.
’Are they from the same creature?’
’The Qi Storage Pavilion...’
’What secrets does it truly hold?’
——————
The next morning, the first thing Cao Wei saw after waking up in her enormous, soft bed was a text message from Yang Shen.
She shot out of bed.
After rereading the message several times to make sure it wasn’t an Illusion, Cao Wei leaped out of bed without a second thought and ran barefoot to her closet.
’Master asked to see me!’
’Why did Master ask to see me, and not his other disciples?’
’I knew it! I’m special to Master!’
The dazzling array of clothes in her closet overwhelmed her with choices. Even though she rarely had a chance to wear them between school and martial arts practice, her wardrobe was always stuffed with beautiful outfits.
Of course, this also meant she wasn’t familiar enough with her own wardrobe to ever pick out the most beautiful and satisfying outfit.
’Ugh, what a pain. Why do I have to wear clothes to see my revered Master...’
About half an hour later, Cao Wei rushed out the door and got into her family’s car.
As she gave the driver an address, she made a phone call. "Dad... that Cangwu Garden, are you planning to buy it?"
==Portal==