I, a cultivator, have ended up in the world of tomb raiding.

At this moment, Li Yue was holding a coarse cloth bundle in his hand, inside which was the Blood Heart Ginseng he had obtained from the old herbalist.

The Angry Rooster was carried by the Unloading Ridge brothers who came along.

The Blood Heart Ginseng wasn't very heavy, but the venom and faint spiritual energy it contained surprised Li Yue slightly.

"Given the current state of Ping Mountain, which is rife with evil spirits and poisonous miasma and devoid of spiritual energy, this ginseng must have matured very early, at least before the Yuan Dynasty general invaded Miao territory."

"This Blood Heart Ginseng probably didn't wither and decay because it contains a trace of natural spiritual purity inside."

Li Yue thought to himself that this trip was worthwhile, as he not only successfully subdued the Angry Sun Chicken but also unexpectedly acquired this rare treasure.

He looked up at the panel, where information about the Blood Heart Ginseng was already displayed.

[Unknown Yin-attribute plant detected...]

[Analyzing... Yin energy concentration 5%... Death energy component 4%... Evil energy component 1%...]

[Source: Ping Mountain Thousand-Year-Old Ginseng - Blood Heart Ginseng (Spiritual energy dissipated, mixed with Yin energy)]

[Quality: Low-grade herb]

[Effect: Can be directly absorbed and converted into one's own cultivation level]

[Should we choose to devour it?]

With the mountain road long and nothing else to do, Li Yue simply chose to devour.

Shortly after, a notification popped up on the panel, indicating that the devouring was complete.

Li Yue could clearly feel a cool, slightly gloomy current slowly flowing through his limbs and bones.

Then it flowed directly into the dantian and the sea of ​​qi.

He felt his internal energy rise slightly, and his cultivation at the fourth level of Qi Refining had become more solid and refined, bringing him closer to the next level.

The effect of this one blood ginseng is equivalent to ten days of his cultivation.

Li Yue also gained a better understanding of the control panel.

These kinds of demon core treasures can be directly converted into one's own cultivation level as long as they are absorbed by the panel; they are pure and reliable.

However, if one absorbs Yin energy or evil energy, one must refine and purify it to convert it into usable magical power.

The difference between the two lies in their uses and methods.

Once he had caught his breath, Li Yue looked down at the coarse cloth bundle in his hand, and when he clenched it slightly, he felt that it was almost weightless.

He then knew that the Blood Heart Ginseng had been completely devoured, leaving only a clump of fine powder.

Li Yue looked up and saw Hong Guniang following behind the guide, hitting the roadside grass and trees with a stick while quietly looking around.

After a moment's thought, he guessed that the girl in red was probably thinking about the two red berries that the Angry Sun Chicken had taken a liking to, and he couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

At this moment, the girl in red kept looking to the side of the road as she walked.

Before long, they saw several clumps of bushes bearing bright red wild fruits, exactly the same as the ones Li Yue had picked earlier.

She looked around and saw that everyone else had also noticed the fruit and had picked a large handful, so she quickly reached out and plucked two as well.

The rain has been drizzling for the past few days, falling in the east and stopping in the west, and the vegetation in the mountains has been thoroughly soaked.

So the fruits inside were all washed clean of dust, and each one looked fresh and juicy.

"It looks pretty good." The girl in red picked one up and put it in her mouth.

After only a couple of chews, my brow furrowed slightly. It was somewhat sweet and sour, but the taste was really just so-so.

The bandits from the Unloading Ridge group nearby also took a bite and found the taste too sour and uninteresting.

"This fruit is sour and hard, why would that divine rooster fight over it?"

"Yeah, it's not that tasty either."

The more they thought about it, the more curious they became. So they walked over to the bamboo basket containing the Angry-Eyed Chicken, picked out a few bright red ones, and handed them to the cage: "Divine Chicken, want to try some?"

The angry-eyed rooster, which had been sitting in its cage, merely glanced at the wild fruit offered to it, turned its neck, and showed no intention of paying it any attention.

Upon seeing this, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

The same red fruit, taken from Li Yue's hand, was eaten with great relish by the divine chicken.

They picked it themselves, but the divine rooster didn't even glance at it.

What's the difference?

Everyone was completely baffled.

However, although the fruit didn't taste good, it became a topic of conversation when we talked about the divine rooster with the other brothers after we got back.

The young men from the Unloading Ridge faction exchanged glances and chuckled.

However, the group, who were still heading back towards Old Bear Ridge, were unaware that while they were still picking wild fruits on the mountain path, Old Bear Ridge was already a completely different place.

After Li Yue and the others left, Luo Laowai and Chen Yulou, while alone together, couldn't help but have the idea of ​​going to Ping Mountain again.

Both of them are impatient; how could they possibly have the patience to wait?

Having lost a group of men on the cliff at the mountaintop, he was already seething with anger, and now, after a day's rest, he couldn't contain himself any longer.

The two discussed it all night and both felt that they couldn't just wait for Li Yue and Partridge Whistle to find something to ward off poison.

As the saying goes, "A long night is full of dreams, and delays can lead to unforeseen changes."

They can rest for two days, and then the treasures in the ancient tomb will need to stay for another two days. How can they wait that long?

Furthermore, there were also many warlord forces in the vicinity of Xiangyin.

Their strength was inferior to Luo Laowai's army, and seeing them suffer a crushing defeat last time, they dared not make too many moves.

But as time went on, they couldn't help but get restless, so they decided to start digging up the grave first.

Having failed to enter the mountain from the cliff top last time, Chen Yulou changed his mind and planned to dig a tunnel around Ping Mountain to safely enter the underground palace.

Although it was slow, it was a step-by-step process to eliminate risks, which was quite thorough.

Moreover, the two sides can work separately, one side searching for the entrance to the tunnel and the other side searching for the antidote, so that neither is delayed and the time is saved the most.

And so it was decided, and we went into the mountains to start digging early in the morning!

The engineering corps responsible for digging tunnels were mostly double-wielding soldiers, each carrying a rifle and a pipe.

After digging all night, I was exhausted and yawning constantly.

Several smokers couldn't resist the urge and collapsed on the muddy ground, rolling around in pain. They were immediately dragged into the woods and shot dead.

After making an example of one to warn the others, the remaining soldiers dared not slack off and had no choice but to swing their shovels and dig furiously.

They dug all the way until noon the next day, and sure enough, deep underground where many corpses of barbarians had been found, they unearthed a magnificent blue stone gate.

It turned out that the thunder and rain last night were the perfect opportunity for Chen Yulou to listen to the wind and thunder and to find hidden treasures by listening to the ground.

Listening intently to the echoes from the earth amidst the wind and rain, he determined that the tomb entrance was deep at the foot of the mountain, and only then did he direct the engineers to descend straight down.

Upon seeing the tomb entrance, Luo Laowai was overjoyed and immediately ordered that each of the first engineers to break through should be rewarded with two ounces of longevity ointment.

He and Chen Yulou pushed through the crowd to get a closer look.

There were two dark blue stone doors, each three zhang high and astonishingly wide, like a tightly closed city gate, buried deep underground and weighing at least three to five thousand jin.

Molten lead and iron were poured into the gaps between the doors, making them completely sealed, leaving no room for even a pry bar to move them.

A sharp-eyed group of thieves brushed away the dirt and discovered ancient characters carved on the stone gate.

However, most of the bandits present were illiterate, and even those who knew a few characters couldn't recognize the ancient seal script. They all started commotion, demanding that Chen Yulou come and identify it.

Chen Yulou, who prided himself on his extensive knowledge, stepped forward to examine the object amidst the crowd.

However, after just one glance, my heart skipped a beat.

That wasn't an inscription of the tomb owner's official rank, but a line of Chinese seal script, every word and phrase a vicious curse against the tomb robbers.

He spent his life robbing countless massive tombs and never believed in karma.

Standing before this gloomy stone gate, a strange sense of foreboding arose spontaneously.

It was as if some ferocious creature was lurking in the shadows behind the door, and opening the door would bring utter destruction.

But now that things have come to this, there's no turning back. Hundreds of eyes are on him, and hesitation would be an admission of weakness.

A thought flashed through his mind, and he immediately pointed to the stone gate and laughed at the bandits:

"The inscription on this stele is merely the name and official rank of the deceased, a custom from a foreign land. We need not make a fuss about it."

Upon hearing this, the bandits all nodded in agreement, secretly praising their leader for his exceptional insight.

Luo Laowai laughed heartily: "Chen Batou is truly knowledgeable; I don't recognize a single one of these scribbles!"

After saying that, he turned around and roared, "Come on! Set up the explosives and blow this damn door flat!"