Chapter 497: Chapter 322: Choosing Wisely
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Seeing all the corpses, his friends felt uncomfortable, not knowing why he saved them and arranged them in front of their eyes for this purpose.
After Yan Xiaobao had thoroughly cleaned them up, he discovered that he had managed to kill and store 27 men. He stared at them for a while before picking up a corpse and rummaging through its pocket for jewels and items, panting heavily. He took every stone he came across.
Seeing Yan Xiaobao methodically conduct his actions, the three friends suddenly realized that their storage stones were being kept and maintained by some members of the Dragon Corps who had been with them in the same carriage. If they escaped, their storage stones would be lost forever.
None of the friends wanted this to happen, and it wasn’t long before the three of them joined Yan Xiaobao, one after another, in gathering stones.
Despite the many scattered corpses, it wasn’t long before the four friends managed to pick up every piece of stone lying around. The smell of charred flesh and blood wafted through the unlit tunnel, summoning one monster after another desiring the delicious meat.
As they searched, Xu Biao and Xie Lan stood ready, warding off every approaching beast. However, when the creatures turned into a horde, the six friends quickly decided to retreat. They had found all their storage stones and truly did not need to continue searching.
Returning to a lit section of the tunnel, Yan Xiaobao and his friends soon discovered another descending passage.
The side tunnel contained many small underground caves carved into the walls, used both as bandit hideouts and homes for large groups of magical beasts. For now, Yan Xiaobao hoped to take over one of these dens so they could sit down and examine their loot. Not to mention, he wanted to see if they could find anything of particular interest among the Dragon Corps items they had gathered.
The tunnel they chose to enter was brimming with magical beasts, indicating the absence of bandits nearby. This was because bandits usually ensured to clear the beasts surrounding their territory, but one could never be too careful. Hence, the six friends advanced cautiously, killing one beast after another and storing their carcasses in their storage stones.
Finally, after several days of searching, the group managed to find a resting spot. Upon entering the cave, a loud howl echoed within, but when the beast came close enough to sense Xu Biao and Xie Lan’s aura, it wisely decided to retreat; unwilling to risk its life for a mere cave.
Within Yue Cave, a campfire was set up. Yan Xiaobao sat down and tossed several storage stones toward Xu Biao and Xie Lan. Each of them quickly used Qi chains to bind the stones together, then opened them to examine their contents.
"Oh, this one contains a thousand Demon Cores," Xu Biao said in surprise. "There’s plenty of food here, but no interesting weapons or scrolls."
"This one barely has any money, only seventy Demon Cores," Sha Yun said with a frown, then suddenly exclaimed, "Wait, oh wait!" She waved her hand, and three Memory Stones suddenly appeared. Placing a Memory Gem against her forehead, a bright blue light shone throughout the cave. After a while, she removed the first stone before moving to the second and third.
"Don’t mind them," she sighed. "They’re just maps of the cave system. We’ve seen similar ones in the Demon Dwelling Cave."
Hearing this, everyone held their breath in hope for interesting news, but sighed in disappointment and shook their heads when it didn’t come. A few mocking smirks were exchanged before they continued sorting through the stones.
"It’s here! I found it!" Deng Wu said excitedly, having uncovered a storage stone that contained a collection of various other storage stones. On the ground lay the stones belonging to Deng Wu, Sha Yun, and Wang Julong.
Yan Xiaobao and the others returned the stones to their original owners and pooled together all the loot they acquired. With about 220,000 Demon Cores in total, it was more than enough to sustain the team as they continued their journey.
In addition to Demon Coins, they found plenty of food and wine, likely brought along by the Dragon Clan members for their mission. Besides food and wine, Yan Xiaobao also uncovered a considerable amount of refined materials, not to mention a large number of inscriptions, which were used by cultivators aligned with metal affinities.
Some bags contained weapons, while others were filled with jewels. After thoroughly examining everything, Yan Xiaobao divided all the items evenly among the six members. All the inscriptions ended up with Deng Wu, who eagerly sorted through each inscription pattern, trying to determine the activation ability of each template.
Having distributed the loot, Yan Xiaobao sat down to begin meditation. He was curious to uncover what changes had occurred within him after being momentarily overtaken by the red fog.
At first glance, everything inside his body seemed just as it had been before. None of his meridians were broken, nor had he advanced to a higher rank as a Master Star. The red cloud seemed unchanged as well.
In fact, contrary to its usual behavior, the red cloud appeared incredibly subdued, prompting Yan Xiaobao to look at it cautiously. He wasn’t sure whether this was the calm before the storm or if the earlier battle had exhausted it entirely.