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

To onlookers, Li Yue stood calmly, holding the slowly twitching, dark red "living flesh" between his five fingers.

Yet, he exuded a chilling aura of indifference.

Like a demon emerging from the underworld, holding a bloodied human heart, ready to tear open its sharp teeth and devour it at any moment.

Everyone watched in horror as the mass of "living flesh" rapidly shrank and turned white in his hands, gasping and their hearts pounding.

What made their scalps tingle even more was that the man standing on top of the grave mound then slightly raised the corners of his mouth.

This scene is quite similar to the demonic behavior described in the story.

Just as everyone was terrified, they saw Li Yue actually going to use this thing to feed the Angry Sun God Chicken!

Several people instinctively reached out to stop them.

But when they thought of the bizarre way he had just reached into the coffin with his bare hands and stirred up the rotting flesh fungus, they stopped in their tracks, took two steps back, and made way for Li Yue.

—From the bottom of my heart.

Seeing their expressions, Li Yue felt secretly ashamed, but he didn't offer any further explanation.

He went straight to the bamboo basket containing the angry-sun chicken, lifted the lid, and handed the cleaned white-fleshed mushroom to the chicken's beak.

The Angry Rooster was taking a nap with its eyes closed when it suddenly sensed a strange spiritual energy approaching. It opened its eyes in suspicion.

He first looked at Li Yue, then glanced at the clump of fleshy fungus.

Although the spiritual energy was tempting, the lingering stench of blood made it somewhat disliked, so it merely tilted its head slightly and did not peck at it immediately.

Everyone around breathed a sigh of relief.

If this divine rooster eats such an evil thing and something goes wrong, then the tomb raiding team will lose its greatest reliance.

Unexpectedly, Li Yue spoke calmly to the Angry Rooster: "It does have a bit of a fishy smell, but the conditions are simple right now, so I've already cleaned it for you. Don't be picky, we'll find a better one next time."

Everyone was taken aback, exchanging bewildered glances, feeling that something was amiss, but unable to quite put their finger on it.

It's a pity they weren't modern people, otherwise they would know that this behavior has a very apt name—PUA.

Partridge Whistle was afraid that the Angry Rooster might accidentally eat it and harm itself, so he quickly stepped forward to try to dissuade it.

"Brother Li, you..."

Before the words were even finished, the angry-eyed rooster stretched out its neck and decisively pecked at the mushroom a few times before swallowing it, seemingly with some difficulty.

However, just a moment after eating the white mushroom, the rooster shook its head, its eyes brightened slightly, its spirit was more vibrant than before, and its agility became clearer.

The Mountain-Moving Taoist, Partridge Whistle, possesses exceptional spiritual insight, making him more sensitive to spiritual entities or evil spirits than ordinary people.

Looking at the Angry Rooster's state, he immediately noticed the change, his pupils constricting slightly in surprise:

However, a cluster of evil fungi in the coffin actually reawakened the intelligence of this spirit bird. Could this fungus be some kind of precious medicine?

He had only thought the mushrooms smelled terrible.

But for some reason, the scarlet color on it suddenly faded and turned white, and the eerie aura seemed to disappear as well.

In those few short seconds, something must have happened that he was unaware of.

And it must be related to Li Yue.

The mystery surrounding this man was truly unfathomable to him.

Driven by a strong thirst for knowledge, he immediately stepped forward, cupped his hands in greeting to Li Yue, and asked:

"Brother Li, what is this? And why does it so greatly enhance the divine rooster's spiritual power?"

Li Yue glanced at Partridge Whistle with a hint of surprise.

Unexpectedly, this Mountain-Moving Taoist was a person with keen senses, able to see the subtle changes in the Angry Rooster.

He paused, looked at the unfinished coffin, and said:

"This is not a coffin for containing a dead body, but a wooden box used in ancient alchemy palaces to store elixir-making fungi."

Upon hearing this, Partridge Whistle pondered for a moment and then suddenly understood.

He turned to look at the raccoon dog being held in the old foreigner's hand and said in a deep voice:

"It seems that the raccoon was attracted by the fungal liquid in the coffin, licked the black blood that seeped out, but was frightened away by the poisonous toads inside. In its panic, it swam into the pool and accidentally bumped into our bamboo raft."

Hong Guniang listened to their seemingly unrelated yet mutually understood conversation, feeling completely bewildered, and couldn't help but interject with a question:

"The more you two talk, the more confused I get. What's the connection between these things: wooden boxes, mushrooms, and raccoon dogs licking blood?"

Partridge Whistle was also curious about how Li Yue had cleansed the extremely filthy flesh fungus of its malevolent energy. Upon hearing this, he looked at Li Yue, wanting to hear his explanation.

Li Yue said calmly, "This thing is a medicinal material nurtured by corpse energy, and it was originally a spiritual object."

After the coffin is opened, the evil spirits inside will quickly dissipate, but fortunately, the remaining medicinal properties are still worthwhile.

The Angry-Eyed Rooster is a spirit bird; eating it can enhance one's spirit.

Hearing this, the girl nodded, looking somewhat confused.

Then, remembering the egg-shaped bubbles at the bottom of the pool, she frowned slightly and spoke again:

"In that case, those clusters of egg-bearing follicles at the bottom of the water were most likely the eggs of this red sand toad."

Thinking back to the encounters with the Shadow Bats, the Evil Foxes, and the Poisonous Toads since entering the crevice, the perilous nature of Ping Mountain truly lived up to its reputation.

Feeling the chilly atmosphere around them, everyone's expressions were not good.

Unlike the others, Partridge Whistle was not completely ignorant of Yin Sha and evil spirits, so he did not believe Li Yue's explanation at all.

The Yin energy is stagnant; even if it wanted to dissipate, it couldn't be so quick.

What's more, the other party simply held the fleshy fungus in his hand, as if the coldness inside had no effect on him at all, leaving him completely defenseless.

However, since the other party has already fabricated a reason for this, there's not much point in him exposing it.

Furthermore, this is not in line with his usual way of doing things.

Thinking of this, he simply didn't delve into it further and looked at Li Yue, asking:

"Brother Li, what do you think should be done with these remaining evil flesh fungi in the coffin?"

Knowing that his knowledge of these sinister things was limited, he had learned to consult Li Yue first.

"Burn it," Li Yue said, glancing at the wooden boxes resembling tombs around them one last time.

Partridge Whistle already loathed these things, and upon hearing this, he immediately ordered his men to light torches and burn all the fleshy fungi in the coffin to ashes.

Flames roared, and a stench filled the air, causing everyone to cover their noses and back away.

During the burning process, they also inspected the contents inside.

Sure enough, each "coffin" was filled with fleshy fungi oozing black blood, and some even contained maggots and toads.

The medicinal herbs and elixirs had clearly lost their vitality; their colors were extremely dull, like stagnant, foul-smelling water in a box.

The alchemy practices of the Song Dynasty differed from those of the Qin and Han Dynasties. The Song Dynasty placed greater emphasis on the use of medicinal ingredients to create the elixir, often using exotic substances such as mushrooms and rare fungi as the starting point for the elixir.

These types of fungal materials are difficult to preserve, so they are placed in wooden boxes and stored in cool, shady places in the mountains to prevent them from decaying.

These earthen mounds were originally places where wooden boxes were buried, but they were probably washed away by mud and water and exposed to the outside.

However, due to their age, most of them have lost their medicinal properties.

As the saying goes, "Yang gives rise to Yin, and Yin gives rise to Yang," the medicinal herbs and elixirs inside those wooden boxes have long since rotted and dissolved.

Instead, it bred a lot of evil creatures.

After reading it, Partridge Whistle's eyes grew even colder. He looked at the trembling raccoon and said in a chilling voice:

"These beasts are no different from those fools who dream of becoming immortals by refining elixirs; they all want to seek longevity through elixirs and spiritual essences."

The ancients failed to refine the elixir in the Immortal Palace of Ping Mountain. Unexpectedly, the remaining ingredients and herbs were what brought them to fruition. If left to cultivate further, they will surely become a scourge in the future.

Upon hearing this, Li Yue, who had cultivated immortality in his previous life and was still cultivating immortality in this life, immediately felt as if he had been scolded.

"..."