Chapter 62: The Fragrant Hidden Treasure

The news of the battle with Li Wen was known to only a few. The people of the Ancient Covenant knew little about the specifics, including who was involved and what transpired. They were strictly ordered by Zhang Shen not to spread the news.

However, Zhang Shen didn’t keep the matter from Luo Tian, in fact, he personally sent a message to inform him of the incident.

The implication was clear.

“For the sake of our promise, I went as far as to battle a True Core master. With such sincerity, shouldn’t the remaining payment be made promptly? And by the way, don’t you think you should add a bit more to it? Believe me, I can walk away from this at any moment.”

Of course, the message wasn’t written in those exact words, but that was the gist of it.

Zhang Shen believed that Luo Tian would fully comprehend his meaning. And indeed, that was the case. Luo Tian’s reply came quickly, accompanied by a storage bag.

Inside, there were ample resources.

“Excellent, very sensible,” Zhang Shen remarked with satisfaction as he weighed the storage bag in his hand, pleased with Luo Tian’s cleverness and understanding.

With these resources, along with the previous deposit and the resources that had yet to be used up from the Bone Demon, Zhang Shen had gathered enough to progress his physical body to the late stage of True Core.

“Once my physical body breaks through to the True Core seventh layer, I will have the confidence to explore the hidden treasure in the Vanishing Mountain Sect’s wasteland.”

The hidden treasure recorded in Li Yan’s diary had long piqued Zhang Shen’s interest. His mysterious death had always been a thorn in Zhang Shen’s side, prompting him to proceed with caution.

But once his physical level reached the True Core seventh layer, he felt assured about taking a look. After all, Li Yan had dared to explore the place when he was only at the mid-stage of True Core.

“If Li Yan truly died because of the hidden treasure, the fact that he was able to escape from the treasure site and die outside proves that as long as I’m careful, there shouldn’t be any major problems.”

With that, Zhang Shen entered into seclusion once more, entrusting the matters of the Luo family and the new city to Zhang Yu and Li Zhong.

With each spiritual fruit, spiritual herb, and pill devoured and assimilated into his body, Zhang Shen’s physical progress advanced at a breakneck speed. In just three short years, he had reached the peak of the sixth layer of True Core, a full 100% completion.

With a soft sound, the shackles binding his physical body broke.

Zhang Shen’s physical level solidly advanced into the seventh layer of True Core, greatly increasing his strength.

“Very good, we can start taking action,” Zhang Shen took a few days to familiarize himself with the changes in his strength.

Next, he summoned Li Shuang.

Among those who had earned Zhang Shen’s trust, Li Shuang held a unique position. His soul was in Zhang Shen’s hands, under his complete control. Therefore, Zhang Shen entrusted Li Shuang with many confidential matters.

And so far, Li Shuang was the only one who knew about Zhang Shen’s relationship with Lin Fanyun.

Moving secretly and undetected, Li Shuang arrived.

“Li Shuang, I want you to stay at Shanshui Residence, pay close attention to the movements on the Mainframe Tree network, and report any important information to me,” Zhang Shen instructed.

Zhang Shen was wary of the tracking functionality of the Lin Yuan City token and naturally would not carry it with him this time. He did not want anyone to detect that he had visited the hidden treasure location, even if the likelihood was minimal.

Lin Yuan City disseminated some important information through the token to its official members. But tasks might be assigned through the token. Missing out on this information due to not carrying the token would be a vulnerability.

Thus, Zhang Shen summoned Li Shuang, instructing him to read the messages on the token on his behalf.

He handed over a child talisman to Li Shuang. Zhang Shen could then be informed of any messages through the talisman.

This left Zhang Shen with three remaining child talismans.

Given such a significant responsibility, the loyal and faithful Li Shuang immediately vowed that he would not let Zhang Shen down.

This time, Zhang Shen left without notifying anyone. Once he was away from the Ancient Covenant’s territory, he changed his appearance. Lin Fanyun made his appearance once again.

The diary had only recorded a rough location. It was also in the Endless Wilderness, about five to six thousand miles away from his territory.

Zhang Shen flew across the sky, not speeding along at full pace, and he also avoided some territories of other powers. Even when he came across some delicious-looking spiritual beasts, he did not capture them.

He was low-key, leaving no trace behind.

Unfortunately, after Zhang Shen arrived at that location and searched for several days, he still came up empty-handed. Even when he took out the Vanishing Mountain Sect’s inheritance token, there was no response.

“It’s hidden really damn well,” Zhang Shen cursed, but he didn’t harbor too many suspicions.

The hidden treasures set up by a demi-god sect were not something that could be easily found, after all. However, after wandering around for a few days, Zhang Shen picked up some clues.

“If Li Yan’s master and Li Yan themselves could find it, then it must be related to Vanishing Mountain Sect’s techniques.”

He operated the Mountain of a Thousand Layers technique, and the solidified mana in his body spread out. Indeed, a faint reaction occurred. Not in the air, but underground. Following the reaction, he dived deep into the earth.

“The hidden treasure is actually connected to the earth’s veins.”

Zhang Shen couldn’t help but be astounded. The earth’s veins were the root of the land and the source of spiritual energy. Ordinary methods couldn’t affect it in the slightest.

The breaking of the Endless Wilderness’s earth veins was also due to the countless battles between the human and demon races over the long years.

“It’s an unimaginable method.”

Zhang Shen approached, and the mana in his body became sluggish due to the influence of the earth’s veins. Luckily, the earth’s veins of the Endless Wilderness were broken. Otherwise, he might not even be able to use his mana.

On the other hand, the power of his physical body was not affected.

Standing on top of the earth’s veins, the ancient and heavy air rushed toward him, and the heavy pressure bore down on him.

Simultaneously, Zhang Shen felt the Mountain of a Thousand Layers qi within his body drain away. It was drawn to a point one meter above the earth’s veins, where it converged.

His heart stirred, and he did not resist. Only when close to two-thirds of his internal qi was drained away, and Zhang Shen’s face grew increasingly grim, did it stop.

A door appeared in front of Zhang Shen. He looked at the space behind the door and patted his stomach.

“It seems that back then, Li Yan must have experienced this too.”

Losing two-thirds of his mana didn’t completely rob him of his ability to resist, but it did slash his endurance by more than half, turning him into a ‘quick man.’

Under normal circumstances, the prudent course of action would be to leave. But Zhang Shen was not concerned. Even without his qi, he was still a mighty and enduring ‘strong man’, and even fiercer than before.

He stepped forward and entered.

A fragrant scent assailed his nose, almost choking him.

“What rich spiritual energy. What a sweet fragrance from the spiritual fruits.”

Zhang Shen looked around and saw a small space, about three hundred zhang high, with a land area of approximately fifty thousand mu.

Apart from a conspicuous three-story ancient tower, the rest of the place was a medicinal garden, planted with all sorts of spiritual medicines.

At a cursory glance, Zhang Shen already spotted many True Core grade spiritual medicines growing in patches.

He caught his breath. Here he was, taking care to not waste even the skin when eating a True Core spiritual fruit, yet in this field, there were no less than a hundred True Core spiritual fruits per mu. And there was more than one such True Core medicinal field.

There were even some spiritual medicines emitting a mysterious aura, clearly beyond the True Core grade.

Just as Zhang Shen’s emotions surged, A pair of decayed wooden hands broke through the soil and grabbed onto his ankle.

In the palm of the wooden hand, countless small round blades rotated and cut, and in an instant, fabric flew about.

But in just a moment, the wooden hand grasped nothing.

The two wooden hands seemed to be somewhat confused as they grasped at the air. Indeed, the legs they had once held were now gone, vanished without a trace.

Standing five meters away, Zhang Shen’s face no longer held the slightest bit of joy from before. It was now filled with solemnity. The cloth around his calf was now in tatters, revealing skin covered with white marks.

“To leave a mark on my flesh, what formidable destructive power,” Zhang Shen coldly said. 

If his flesh had not been enhanced, if every cell in his body had not become stronger, he feared that he would have lost his legs.

From within the yellow earth, three humanoid puppets crawled out. Their movements were not very agile, and their spiritual material bodies were stained with black and red blood.

“To think that there are late True Core stage guardian puppets protecting this space.” 

Zhang Shen was slightly shocked. With such powerful puppets guarding this space, it was no wonder that Li Yan’s master and Li Yan had been blown apart.

But why would the guardian puppets attack a successor of their sect?

Zhang Shen’s eyes pierced through the outer shell of the puppets, revealing the array of patterns inside which should have formed a smooth internal circulation, had several cracks. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the spiritual material parts where the array patterns were engraved had some damage.

The puppets charged over, their hands transforming into swords with extremely strange poses.

Zhang Shen dodged their encirclement, retreating while fighting.

Facing the encirclement of three late True Core stage puppets, even Zhang Shen did not want to be surrounded by them.

He did not take out the Flaming Sun Blade, as the True Core lower-grade Flaming Sun Blade was somewhat inadequate for this kind of battle.

These guardian puppets were made of hard, tough materials. If they clashed directly, the Flaming Sun Blade would only end up breaking.

A punch sent a puppet that tried to flank him flying. The force was tremendous, but it did not leave much damage on the puppet’s body.

Zhang Shen felt a headache coming on. Such high defensive power was truly outrageous.

Furthermore, the puppet’s bodies were not like human bodies. They could make many incredible movements, and their attack angles often took one by surprise.

“It’s a pity that I don’t have the puppet control technique of the Vanishing Mountain Sect in my hands.” 

The combined combat power of the three puppets was astonishing, but Zhang Shen did not contend with them head-on. Instead, he relied on his stronger physique to move around, avoiding danger. As a result, he fully understood the data of the three puppets.

Had they not been uncontrolled and relying only on their instincts in battle, they would have been able to unleash their full power and pose a real threat to Zhang Shen.

“It’s truly a pity,” Zhang Shen murmured. 

He estimated that the tower should contain the method to control these puppets. However, the three puppets were in hot pursuit, giving him no time to search for it.

In that case, he had no choice but to destroy them.

His gaze sharpened as he got serious. The muscles in his legs swelled as Zhang Shen instantly disappeared from the sensory range of the three puppets. 

The ground cracked, and several giant pits appeared where Zhang Shen had stepped. The power of his flesh erupted, and his strong physique, combined with explosive power, brought about extreme speed.

Zhang Shen quickly approached one of the three puppets. His divine power erupted tenfold with the meaning of annihilation.

He unleashed a mid-grade True Core martial technique, Sky-Splitting Finger.

“Ha!” 

With a loud shout, his five fingers turned into claws, piercing through the chest of a puppet and shattering its core.

In that instant, a beam of white light shot toward him. Zhang Shen mobilized the remaining spiritual qi in his body and summoned a grey, misty mountain phantom to protect himself.

Thousand Mountains Protection.

However, it only managed to block the light instantly before being pierced through.

The Thousand Mountains Protection, empowered by the first layer of True Core Thousand Heavy Mountain magical power, was still too weak.

But it was enough.

Avoiding the white light by a hair’s breadth, Zhang Shen charged toward the puppet with its gaping mouth exposed as a flaw. His four fingers turned into a knife, piercing into the puppet’s lower jaw and its brain with a stir, causing the entire puppet’s head to shatter into pieces.

Following that, Zhang Shen reached out and grabbed the torn-open neck of the puppet, tearing it apart with a strong pull.

Puppets were unlike humans. They won’t stop until their bodies or cores are destroyed.

In an instant, he resolved two of them, leaving only one puppet that was relatively far from him.

“One-on-one, I can at least keep one.”

The annihilative divine power dissipated. At the same time, maintaining divine power for multiple targets consumed too much energy.

If there was only one left, even if it took a bit more effort to suppress, it could still be considered somewhat of a gain.