Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 316: Ancient Pill Refinery

Kunlun City was not originally a city, it was just a town that kept on expanding. It was nestled in a rather cozy spot, surrounded on three sides by mountains, with only the eastern side having access to the outside world.

Thus, whether it was Sisi or Yang Qianyuan in the past or Chichi and Zhao Changhe more recently, they all entered through the eastern part of the city. Both the Earth Deer of Liu and Chen One were also rooted in the eastern part of the city.

However, those in the eastern part of the city also had to make a living by going into the mountains surrounding the city on three sides and engaging in logging, mining, hunting, and other typical mountain-related activities. They never really got to search for any secret realms. These mountains, where people had lived for a long time, had long since lost the mysterious veil that outsiders believed them to have. When the locals went up the mountains, all they found were wild boars defecating everywhere and venomous snakes slithering around. They never saw any secret realms.

Of course, when it came to the distant peaks of the vast Kunlun Mountains, no one could claim they knew everything. But when it came to the nearby peaks around Kunlun City, the locals were almost completely certain that they had nothing of interest left to them. If there really was anything, then it would be on Yuxu Peak, but that was occupied by Daoist Yuxu.

However, a secret realm was called a secret realm precisely because it was not something that could be found through conventional means.

Just like the Blood God Cult searching for long the Azure Dragon Seal in Beimang, unless someone dropped a specific amount of blood in the pool, the formation in the cave behind the waterfall would not appear. The discovery of such secret realms was, more often than not, a matter of fate.

The secret realm discovered by Tarantula and Tian Lingzi was a few peaks away. The reason for the discovery was rather unsettling: the two had gone to this mountain for a tryst. Unfortunately, some unlucky merchants happened to pass by. They were captured and robbed by Tian Lingzi and then taken away by Tarantula so that she could test some of her poison and study more about immortality. Those merchants were truly unfortunate.

She dissected an entire merchant caravan, and their poisoned blood spread across the ground, unexpectedly triggering the opening of the secret realm. A previously solid-looking mountain wall suddenly cracked open, revealing a sinister poisonous mist within.

Who knew if there was any internal conflict that went on between Tian Lingzi and Tarantula right after the discovery of the secret realm... In any case, Tarantula carefully dispelled the poisonous mist at the entrance, leading to the discovery of a stone chamber inside.

This was not just a stone chamber dug out of the ground but one isolated in time and space. Similar to the sword chamber at the bottom of Ancient Sword Lake, it was a solitary stone chamber existing in its independent space-time.

Whenever such a situation arose, there had to be a rare treasure within. It was either that the unique power of the treasure helped maintain the spatial isolation—such as Iceheart, aided by the page of the Heavenly Tome, maintaining the sword chamber back at Ancient Sword Lake—or that someone had set up the spatial barrier to protect a treasure, such as with the Azure Dragon Seal and the Black Tortoise Gemstone.

Tarantula and Tian Lingzi were both well-informed and experienced, so they were overjoyed at the sight and began exploring the stone chamber.

They discovered that it was an ancient medicine-refinement laboratory filled with various ancient containers containing medicines.

Unfortunately, the passage of countless years had degraded all the medicines, rendering them useless. Only the containers could still be used after cleaning, such as the gourd that Tian Lingzi intended to sell Zhao Changhe, which had actually been used to store medicinal pills. Apart from their special, durable material and possible preservation properties, they really did not hold significant value as a treasure.

When Tian Lingzi said that it was not something worth bargaining for, he was not just pretending to be generous. The item’s use was indeed limited, and no one would be foolish enough to overpay for it. The items they found in the stone chamber were generally like this, and thus a disappointment for the two who thought they had discovered a treasure trove.

After searching around the stone chamber for a long time, they finally found a secret door leading to the core area of the secret realm.

Unfortunately, when they opened the secret door, they were met with an invisible, insubstantial poison. If it was not for Tarantula’s extreme sensitivity to poisons, anyone else entering would have most likely failed to realize that the seemingly normal air was poisonous until it was too late.

They quickly retreated. This time, even with Tarantula’s skills, they could not completely neutralize the poison. It was simply unlike anything she had ever encountered.

When they returned to the city, Tarantula immediately began capturing people to study how to deal with the strange poison. Over time, she had secretly experimented on quite a few people. The results showed that the poison was extremely lethal. According to her assessment, even those on the Ranking of Man would not be able to withstand it if it infiltrated their bodies, and even those on the Ranking of Earth would suffer significant harm.

Tarantula could not immediately find a solution to the strange poison, but she did discover a crude and simple way to deal with it. The poison mist was limited, and there didn’t seem to be anything generating more of it. In other words, every time someone absorbed a bit of poison, there would be that much less poison remaining. So, all they needed to do was to trick a large number of people into coming into contact with it to exhaust the poison.

Thus, a devious plan was born. Tian Lingzi openly displayed the items they had found in the outer area of the secret realm and began selling them through the Yukun Gang. The appearance of many seemingly ancient items naturally attracted the attention of the neighboring Jinqian Gang.

Tian Lingzi knew that other forces might also take notice, but he did not mind. He believed that he could simply deal with all of them at once. Even Ye Wuzong of the Thieves Guild could not surpass Tarantula in the study of poison... However, what he did not anticipate was catching the attention of an intelligence organization under a Ranking of Heaven expert, ultimately leading to the arrival of a powerful figure from afar.

No one in the world was more interested in secret realms than Ying Five. When these ancient items appeared, Chen One, who was Ying Five’s representative in the area, was the first to buy a few of them.

After carefully extracting the medicinal residues from the containers, Chen One found some dried ginseng roots. His analysis suggested that they once contained extremely potent blood qi, which had since dissipated.

At that time, Ying Five had been busy searching through a mountain of ancient texts to help Zhao Changhe find clues about the Dragon Elephant Blood Ginseng. Upon receiving Chen One’s message, Ying Five secretly wondered how such a timely coincidence had come to be. He directly reviewed the records related to Kunlun, discovering historical mentions of the Dragon Elephant Blood Ginseng. The two pieces of evidence aligned perfectly, and he then conveyed this to Zhao Changhe, leading to his trip to Kunlun.

From beginning to end, it was all part of the same story... If Lady Three had not been so cryptic and had simply directed Zhao Changhe to the restaurant where Chen One was, they would have gotten straight to the point much sooner, without all the detours and hidden explorations.

Fortunately, they had not met too late... Perhaps the reason why Lady Three had been so cryptic was to lead Zhao Changhe to meet their cult’s saintess and help the saintess break through to the Profound Mysteries.

In any case, the young couple trailed behind the Jinqian Gang’s group from a distance, following Tian Lingzi past nearby mountains through valleys until they reached the location. They saw the cave exposed on the stone wall, completely unhidden. It was as if they were not afraid of anyone accidentally entering it.

“There’s such a strong smell of blood and lingering poison in the air,” Zhao Changhe whispered. “Just how many people did Tian Lingzi and Tarantula kill here?”

Xia Chichi glanced at him and sighed a bit helplessly. She was supposed to be a demonic cult’s witch, and she thought she was with a mountain bandit, but it turned out that he was a hero... What could she do, though?

She could only say, “Well, even if Tarantula isn’t dead, she’s been captured and is facing retribution. As long as we kill Tian Lingzi, everything will be settled. But do you want to stop the Jinqian Gang from going in? If they do go in, it looks like many of them are going to die.”

Zhao Changhe smiled and said, “Although the Jinqian Gang aren’t really filled with good people... I’d still like to warn them for peace of mind, but whether they listen to me or not is up to them.”

As he was considering how to discreetly warn them, the Jinqian Gang was already rushing into the stone chamber.

“It really is a secret realm! This feeling of spatial isolation is definitely not something you’d feel in an ordinary underground stone chamber!”

The faces of the gang members twisted with the. Gang Leader Qian, who had been skeptical at first, now had no doubts upon seeing the isolated space. Overjoyed, he asked Tian Lingzi, “Brother, are you really letting us develop this secret realm together?”

Tian Lingzi shrugged, “Our Yukun Gang lacks the manpower and strength to do so on our own. Even if we can crack the secret realm, we might not be able to keep it. So, we either need the backing of the Thieves Guild, or we can simply cooperate with our neighbors. If we seek the Thieves Guild’s help, though, I’m afraid that Thief Saint Ye Wuzong might just take everything for himself. At least by cooperating with you, I can have some of the gains for myself.”

“Hahaha! You’re absolutely right! I didn’t expect you to be so insightful! Hahaha!” Gang Leader Qian was so excited that he patted Tian Lingzi’s shoulder heartily twice. “From now on, we’re brothers!”

However, what seemed like a friendly pat on the shoulder was actually a powerful strike with internal energy, intending to crush Tian Lingzi’s shoulder.

Why should we cooperate? Since you’ve already shown us where the treasures are, can’t we just kill you and take everything for ourselves?

Caught off guard by the sudden attack of someone who had seemed easy to deceive until now, Tian Lingzi reacted too late. He managed to deflect some of the force but not all, resulting in his left shoulder dislocating with a loud crack.

With a sudden kick, he propelled himself backward, retreating while shouting furiously, “You bastard, you just wait!”

He had a fairly impressive movement art, and he was gone in an instant.

Gang Leader Qian sneered. “He’s injured. Even if he manages to escape now, we can just take down the entire Yukun Gang later. Men, search the stone chamber!”

A swarm of Jinqian Gang members surged into the stone chamber, but Gang Leader Qian stayed outside, cautiously observing. Seeing no traps, he leisurely followed them in.

Zhao Changhe and Xia Chichi watched from afar. After the entire spectacle took place, they exchanged glances. They had been thinking of warning the gang, but now it seemed pointless to do so.

None of these people were good.

However, Gang Leader Qian’s actions were likely a part of Tian Lingzi’s plan. It was likely that only in this way would Gang Leader Qian truly drop his guard and go in to get poisoned. Zhao Changhe was almost certain that Tian Lingzi had dislocated his shoulder on purpose and could easily set it back in place. Once everyone was inside, he was sure that Tian Lingzi would reappear.

“What should we do?” Xia Chichi asked, amused by the show. “If we keep watching from out here, he probably won’t show up. Should we leave for now, or...”

“Let’s go in too,” Zhao Changhe whispered. “Tian Lingzi can’t find Tarantula, so he’ll be suspicious. He’ll only relax if he sees us inside as well.”

Xia Chichi asked, “Are you confident about handling the poison inside?”

“Yes,” Zhao Changhe smiled slightly. “Tarantula has already neutralized the poison in the outer chamber, and that last trap we fell for was Tarantula making use of the poison in the inner chamber. I’ve already tested it and found that my Rejuvenation Art can neutralize it.”

Xia Chichi blinked in surprise, then chuckled. “It seems that Tarantula is also playing Tian Lingzi. She might have secretly taken some core item from inside already, but Tian Lingzi just doesn’t know about it. Hah, this place is really interesting.“

The two walked forward slowly. Yang Qianyuan, who was left outside to keep watch, saw Zhao Changhe and was startled. “Senior, you...”

Zhao Changhe smiled and said, “What, afraid I’d play the role of the oriole and ambush your gang leader?”

Yang Qianyuan almost rolled his eyes. I actually want you to ambush the gang leader, but I can’t just say that in front of his other subordinates...

He felt a headache coming on and was about to say something when piercing screams echoed from inside the stone chamber, followed by a chorus of wails and cries.