Longevity starts with choosing Hextech enhancement

Chapter 335 Searching the Sect's Warehouse
Xiao Chen then patiently searched the entire fourth floor before descending to the fifth floor.

From here on, a number of relatively rare Tier 3 spiritual items appeared, along with more than forty ordinary spiritual artifacts.

The most valuable items are the last six boxes containing twelve exquisite spiritual artifacts in their ascended form.

Considering that these items are brand new, their total value is at least five million spirit stones, almost equivalent to the previous low-grade spirit stones.

After thinking for a moment, Xiao Chen let go of those third-tier spiritual items that were neither useful to him nor easy to resell.

He simply put away all the magical artifacts.

He wanted to keep the storage space first and see if there was anything more valuable.

Follow the stairs to the last floor.

There were many large wooden boxes at the entrance, which appeared to be made of spirit-exorcising wood.

Xiao Chen curiously opened it and found that it contained different types of fourth-order spirit ore.

The spirit ore in each box is the same type, to prevent them from affecting each other over time.

However, the ore piled up outside is all crude ore, which has not been refined or compressed and contains a considerable amount of impurities.

This is different from the one above.

The third-tier and second-tier spirit ores that Xiao Chen saw before were all refined, square, high-quality ore blocks.

Ordinary crude ore simply won't be accepted.

"Hmm, could it be that there's a shortage of weapon refiners within the current generation of the Zhaokong Sect?"

Although Xiao Chen didn't understand weapon crafting, he often heard that some independent weapon crafters would earn money by helping to process low-grade spirit ores.

In particular, some third-tier weapon refiners, as long as they are willing to work hard, will hardly have to worry about not having work.

This is because many sect weapon refiners do not want to do such hard labor.

However, if the processor's skill level is insufficient or their technique is inadequate, they will be unable to refine spirit ores of the same or higher grade with minimal loss.

Therefore, they often outsource the tasks assigned by the sect.

Spend a little money to save time, either to rest or to craft magical artifacts to earn more spirit stones.

If the Zhaokong Sect has fourth-tier weapon refiners who aren't slacking off, then these spirit ores should have been purified.

Xiao Chen guessed correctly on this point; the Zhaokong Sect did indeed experience a shortage of fourth-tier weapon refiners in this generation.

As a result, the likes of Jianying Zhenjun used spiritual artifacts left behind by their predecessors, rather than their own custom-made spiritual artifacts.

"This box is full of crude minerals, this box is too, and this box..."

Xiao Chen inspected the various boxes one by one and found that there were quite a lot of crude minerals here, and he estimated that there were at least a hundred of them.

He was initially a little annoyed, since this thing was really useless to him.

But soon he had a sudden realization that this might not be a bad thing.

As is well known, although third-tier weapon refiners can forge spiritual weapons, only fourth-tier weapon refiners can fully develop the potential of fourth-tier spiritual materials.

If the Zhaokong Sect does not have its own fourth-tier weapon refiner.

Then they wouldn't be able to forge custom-made spiritual weapons, and therefore wouldn't consume fourth-tier spiritual materials.

Moreover, the relationship between the Zhaokong Sect and other sects is generally not good.

Therefore, it's highly likely that not many in-depth transactions were ever completed.

In other words, the fourth-order rare spiritual materials they have collected in the last few hundred years, besides spiritual mines, should all be stored in warehouses and not yet used.

This is undoubtedly bad news for the True Lord of Mirror Image and the True Lord of Deception.

But for Xiao Chen, it was good news.

However, he still searched through the boxes one by one to make sure there was nothing hidden inside.

First, from the middle, I saw nine small boxes in a row, containing eighty-two pieces of refined fourth-order spirit ore.

Xiao Chen noticed that the shapes of these spirit ores were slightly irregular.

It seems very likely that it was forcibly extracted by the True Lord of Mirror Image using his true essence.

I guess he needed it for some reason, but lacked external channels, so he spent a lot of time and effort to create it himself.

In this respect, the major sects are still better.

Whatever their own prodigy cultivators need, they can obtain support from specially trained personnel in alchemy, artifact crafting, talisman arrays, and even spirit pets.

There's no need to waste your precious time on this; you can focus on cultivation and improving your realm.

Immediately afterwards, Xiao Chen saw eight large boxes behind him.

It contains a total of thirty-six array base embryos, which have not yet been fully processed and inscribed with array patterns.

However, precisely because of this, judging from the materials of these semi-finished products that are still easily distinguishable, it is not difficult to recognize that True Monarch Jianying refined the spirit ore in order to create these fourth-order array bases.

"Another formation master?"

Xiao Chen noticed that the Nascent Soul True Monarch was indeed exactly the same as the rumors suggested.

They had ample time to cultivate Taoist arts, and most of them were very interested in formations.

"Should I, like everyone else, try to study formations in detail?"

Xiao Chen felt that since everyone was doing it this way, there must be a reason for it.

If you can obtain a more detailed lineage later, or a better lineage of array techniques in the new cultivation world, you might as well practice it seriously.

Anyway, I have to start learning from the low-level formations, and it won't cost me many spirit stones before I can break through to the fourth level.

Becoming a third-tier array master should require accumulating around one million spirit stones. If you can't learn it, then you're considered to lack talent.

This amount of money might be a lot for others, but it's not much for Xiao Chen; he could definitely invest it.

If you happen to be an unparalleled genius in the art of array formations, you must not let that talent go to waste.

After making up his mind, he continued to look ahead.

We had now arrived at the middle of the warehouse, where a row of upright crates were placed.

Xiao Chen opened it and took a look; inside was a finely crafted array flag.

Upon further inspection, he discovered that there was actually a complete fourth-order mountain-protecting formation here.

It consists of eight core array bases, one hundred and eight ordinary array bases, twenty-four spare array bases, forty-nine small array flags, six large array flags, five spare array flags, and one main array flag.

A complete set!
With these things, a skilled array master can set up a brand-new fourth-order mountain-protecting array within a day, relying on the spiritual veins.

Now all that's missing is the array diagram, but I don't know where it's placed.

If Xiao Chen can find the corresponding array diagram, he can use this array to trade resources with other sects.

This thing should be worth at least tens of millions when calculating its value.

It's more valuable than everything he owns right now, including the spiritual items that were just found.

This formation alone can be summed up in two words—get rich!
Xiao Chen doesn't even need to worry about not finding a suitable buyer.

After all, the Compassion Sea is currently engulfed in war, and there is a severe lack of suitable large formations to protect important strongholds located in key areas.

Given the current situation, even if those sects are somewhat reluctant, they should still offer spiritual items of corresponding value in exchange.

After all, making it from scratch is too much trouble, so it's better to pay extra to buy a ready-made product that can be used immediately.

If Xiao Chen wanted, he could even negotiate prices with multiple parties and then choose the most suitable buyer to complete the transaction, depending on his mood.

Or, you could keep this for your own use.

After all, if he were to recruit a group of people in the new cultivation world to help with the transactions, he would need a fixed base.

If a fourth-order formation is set up at the base, it will definitely be several times more effective than a third-order formation.

However, on the other hand, things don't seem to be very peaceful in the new cultivation world either.

Whether or not to establish a permanent base needs further consideration.

However, this is something Xiao Chen will think about later; he doesn't need to think about it too much right now.

Moreover, in any case, the array he has now acquired is a truly valuable asset.

"Let's search first, there's bound to be other good stuff."

Xiao Chen put away the formation and continued opening the boxes behind him.

Behind the formation, there was a large pile of small purple wooden boxes, each only three feet long and two feet wide.

Upon opening it, they found a box full of mid-grade spirit stones.

"Good heavens, finally I see a mid-grade spirit stone."

Xiao Chen had been looking for this ever since he came in, and he finally found it.

Compared to spiritual objects that may not be suitable for their use, spirit stones are not large in size and are liked by most cultivators, making them undoubtedly a very good form of hard currency.

He scanned it with his divine sense.

Surprisingly, there were quite a few of these small purple wooden boxes.

"Oh, could it be that..."

Xiao Chen immediately opened and inspected the boxes of spirit stones one by one and put them into his storage ring.

To his surprise, all the purple wooden boxes here were actually filled with mid-grade spirit stones.

From beginning to end, the car was packed full of people.

After careful counting, there were a total of 388,000 mid-grade spirit stones!

In terms of conversion, that's equivalent to 38.8 million low-grade spirit stones!
Its total value is nearly eight times that of the low-grade spirit stones on the third floor.

It can be described as a truly enormous sum of money.

Xiao Chen really didn't expect there to be so many mid-grade spirit stones here.

It seems that the Zhaokong Sect doesn't dislike saving money; they just haven't deliberately accumulated low-grade spirit stones.

In fact, most sects are like this.

Normally, the low-grade spirit stones are spent as needed, and they are not collected specifically but used to encourage sect disciples to cultivate and work.

When it came to the Flower Spirit Stone, the same principle was followed.

That is, anything that can be purchased with low-grade spirit stones should never be purchased with mid-grade spirit stones.

They stored all the saved mid-grade spirit stones as war reserves.

When necessary, supply the mountain-protecting formation with all available resources to play a crucial defensive role.

"Tsk tsk tsk, if you want to wear them down by simply besieging them, it probably won't work in less than three or four years."

Xiao Chen couldn't help but sigh.

In this light, it's no wonder that major battles rarely occur between sects unless they can gain an absolute advantage in high-end combat power.

The time frame would be far too long once a conflict broke out.

Moreover, if the siege drags on, it becomes easy to encounter unexpected external changes during the siege.

It should be noted that the Zhaokong Sect is actually a sect with a relatively less profound history.

Although they had accumulated wealth from their ancestors, they did not have the influence of a major sect.

If it were an established sect like the Mozhang Sect, their original reserves of mid-grade spirit stones would be even greater.

However, a significant amount has likely been consumed in the past two years, so the remaining amount may not be as much.

After all, during the period when they were under the protection of the sea tribe, the Zhaokong Sect had hardly spent any large sums of spirit stones.

From this perspective, perhaps Xiao Chen is now truly "rich enough to rival a clan".

I'm not quite sure how many spirit stones are stored at Pudu Temple.

Therefore, it's difficult to estimate where it would rank within the entire Ocean of Compassion. However, it's certain that it has already entered the forefront.

"Hiss~, suddenly I don't really want to do business anymore."

It should be noted that Xiao Chen had saved up for several years and only managed to accumulate 96,250 mid-grade spirit stones.

As a result, this time they came and gained more than four times the amount.

"How about we go and investigate the Yin Corpse Sect's warehouse next?"

Xiao Chen narrowed his eyes; he hadn't forgotten the old scores from before.

In other words, the two sides are far apart, and there are still many things to deal with here first, otherwise he would have fought back long ago.

Objectively speaking, the Yin Corpse Sect is much stronger than the Zhaokong Sect.

If Xiao Chen were to rush over alone now, he might not be able to take it down in one fell swoop.

The main problem is that even if he wins, it will be difficult to capture all the fleeing enemies, and some will easily escape.

Or perhaps the opponent might retreat into the protective mountain formation and refuse to come out.

Then, facing a fourth-order formation, it wouldn't be easy for him to force his way in, since this thing is indeed quite powerful.

The best approach is to bring a custom-made magical artifact, a fourth-tier formation-breaking talisman or similar means, preferably along with a tracking technique and companions invited to help.

Then, on another auspicious day, they suddenly rushed over and destroyed the entire mountain gate along with the people inside.

Although Xiao Chen didn't know many people, it didn't matter.

Once things settle down at the Sea of ​​Compassion, True Monarch Gangyuan and the others probably wouldn't mind going there to lend a hand.

Then we can unleash a sudden attack, catching the Yin Corpse Sect completely off guard.

Of course, that happened later.

After collecting all the spirit stones, Xiao Chen arrived at the deepest part of the warehouse.

At the very back, there was only a large pile of coarse porcelain jars, each with different seals on it.

He leaned closer to take a look and discovered that the wine here was actually the spiritual wine stored up by True Monarch Jianying.

Xiao Chen counted them; there were a total of 506 sealed jars of spirit wine here.

He reached out and grabbed a jar, weighing it in his hand; each one weighed over two hundred pounds.

Different sealing times are also marked on the seals.

Two of the bottles are the oldest, and they are roughly estimated to have been stored for over five hundred years.

The ten most recent bottles were only put into storage less than six years ago.

The rest are also produced in batches every ten years, with a maximum of ten bottles stored per batch.

In some years, there may be two or three fewer bottles, and the number decreases more as time goes on.

It seems that every ten years, they would use fourth-tier spiritual artifacts to make a batch of spiritual wine and store it, gradually accumulating this much.

Although the wine was in the jar, Xiao Chen did not open it to check.

However, judging from the quantity alone, this thing is not very valuable.

After all, if rare spiritual items were to be used, it would be impossible to maintain such a stable output.

In other words, the cost of the spirit wine in the jar is not very high, and the ingredients used are not very precious.

It should be that the Zhaokong Sect can reliably obtain a batch of ordinary fourth-tier spiritual items every ten years.

However, the value of Lingjiu depends not only on the ingredients but also on the vintage.

For example, those two bottles of aged wine, which have been stored for over five hundred years, are not comparable to top-tier spirit wines like Zui Shan Chuan.

However, in the case of the Compassionate Sea, it is definitely a top-notch wine.

"Great, now it's all mine."

Starting from the years listed later, Xiao Chen collected all the spirit wines that had been stored for more than fifty years.

These five hundred or so large wine jars almost filled the storage ring in his hand.

Luckily, he had reserved some storage space on the third floor beforehand, otherwise there definitely wouldn't have been enough room to store it all.

"Very good. One shouldn't be too greedy. Taking a little is enough."

Xiao Chen generously decided to leave all the remaining spirit wine (less than fifty years old) and fourth-grade crude minerals, including a large number of low-grade spiritual items on the second and third floors, to the Tiangang Sect and Mozhang Sect cultivators who arrived later.

Actually, just look at those third-tier spiritual items on the third floor, especially that huge pile of refined spiritual ores.

Although each item is only worth a few thousand spirit stones, all the materials together should be worth around three million spirit stones.

If the spiritual items on the second floor are calculated according to market prices, their total value would be close to one million spirit stones.

After all, there are just too many of them.

However, if Xiao Chen really tries to move them all out to resell them, it will take many years to slowly unload them.

Alternatively, they can have to offer low-price promotions, which would take half a year of hard work, but the spirit stones they would actually receive would be reduced by at least half.

Therefore, he was too lazy to deal with those miscellaneous items.

"However, isn't something still missing from such a large sect warehouse?"

Although Xiao Chen had already obtained a complete mountain-protecting formation, a large amount of mid-grade spirit stones, and a large quantity of spirit wine.

But he always felt that there should be something else here.

Especially considering the deep-sea core that was previously hidden inside the primordial magnet.

He had every reason to suspect that the True Lord of Shadow Observation was hiding something good at the bottom.

"So, could there be another secret room here?"

Xiao Chen released his divine sense to carefully explore the surroundings.

After many things were taken away, the sixth floor became relatively empty.

Therefore, he quickly searched back and forth three times with his divine sense, but found nothing unusual.

"No? Really not?"

Unable to find anything unusual, Xiao Chen decided to resort to a brute-force method.

It all boils down to one word—demolish!

He drew his Wind and Thunder Sword after a long absence, walked directly to the back of the sixth floor, and stabbed at the walls, floor tiles, and ceiling inch by inch.

Although the materials used to build the warehouse were of pretty good quality.

However, they were not designed to prevent attacks from flying swords.

Therefore, when Xiao Chen wrapped the sword blade with his true essence, stabbing it was as easy as stabbing tofu.

However, after searching the entire rear area, he was surprised to find that there really was no secret room or secret passage.

"Huh, am I overthinking this?"

Xiao Chen frowned slightly, wondering if he was being too sensitive.

Perhaps he was overthinking it; in fact, the Zhaokong Sect never prepared a secret chamber.

"No, something still feels off!"

Xiao Chen felt a strange feeling that he couldn't quite put his finger on at first.

After careful consideration, he finally realized the source of this anomaly: "Right, True Monarch Jianying is a demonic cultivator."

"Didn't he really prepare a secret hideout to store magical materials?"

"There must be some, after all, his level of cultivation seems quite extraordinary."

Xiao Chen suddenly realized: "I knew something was wrong, so that's where the problem lies."

He had dealt with demonic cultivators quite a bit in the past; these guys often employed the strategy of having multiple burrows.

He has a particular fondness for creating secret passages; it's almost an instinct.

At the same time, as a successor of the Yellow Springs Path, Xiao Chen had also seen the Black Abyss Demon Sect's legacy, so he naturally knew about many special materials needed for cultivating demonic arts.

This includes how to obtain these items and various clever disguise methods.

He had just subconsciously sensed something was wrong because he hadn't seen those magical items in the warehouse.

"So, where could that place be?"

Xiao Chen immediately picked up the Wind and Thunder Sword and continued to probe forward inch by inch from behind, not missing any corner.

However, after searching all six floors, they found nothing.

"Hmm? I don't believe it. I'll just turn it upside down."

Xiao Chen strode towards the fifth floor, but after taking two steps, he suddenly turned back: "If we're going to investigate, let's investigate thoroughly. We can't overlook this staircase in the middle."

He thrust his sword into the steps, but unexpectedly heard a faint, dull thud.

He swung his sword again in that direction, and the feel of it was noticeably different from before.

It seemed as if there was something particularly solid inside the stairs.

"Soaring Palm!"

Xiao Chen raised his hand and struck out with a palm. He hadn't hit like this before because he didn't want to dismantle the entire sixth floor.

Now that the abnormal location has been discovered, he deliberately concentrated his palm force, blasting a crater about ten feet in size in front of him.

"Boom!"

As a large amount of soil and hidden divine ore splashed out, a narrow secret passage was revealed below the steps.

Xiao Chen immediately noticed that the walls of the entire secret passage were made of a special spiritual mineral called Hidden God Mine, which could passively conceal divine sense.

It led to a smaller, more secluded room deeper inside.

He wasn't afraid of any traps inside, so he immediately jumped down and followed the secret passage into the secret chamber.

Pushing open the door to the secret room, one is immediately greeted by a pungent, foul stench of blood.

The space inside was actually quite large, but the items were placed very sparsely, with several feet between each other.

Based on the large table in the center, the area can be roughly divided into three sections.

On the far left is the materials area, where many bottles and jars are placed on the ground, each containing different magical offerings.

Xiao Chen could even recognize most of them.

In the middle stood more than a dozen wooden frames, seven of which had dead cultivators tied to them, while the rest were temporarily empty.

On that large table, there was a Golden Core cultivator who was nailed directly to it.

It had already been disemboweled, leaving only an empty shell.

On the far right wall, there is a rather conspicuous tooth hanging.

That single tooth was a full ten feet long, and its root was about six feet thick.

Xiao Chen didn't recognize which spirit beast's tooth it came from.

However, he could clearly sense a faint pressure emanating from it.

The oppressive aura even made him instinctively feel uncomfortable, and he felt a slight urge to retreat and get away.

That's right, this is a tooth of a fifth-tier demon beast.

Moreover, it must be a vital area, otherwise it wouldn't have caused him even a slight sense of crisis.

"I knew it! How could a rat from the sewers like a demonic cultivator not secretly hide things!"

Xiao Chen's lips curled up slightly: "As expected, I found it after all."

(End of this chapter)