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

The cave was dark to begin with, and the iron building in front of me was also dark in color. Even with the light of the lamps and my own eyesight, the distant view was still blurry.

The objects outside were fairly clear, but the outlines inside the house were hazy and the boundaries were hard to discern.

Li Yue raised his hand and knocked on the wall. A heavy, dull thud sounded, like hitting an iron plate.

No, this is a steel plate!

"It turns out that all these pavilions were made of cast iron."

Li Yue looked around and felt a sense of novelty.

He knew that the pavilions here were built of iron.

But little did they know that the whole, and even each individual component, was made of pig iron.

The underground palace is cold and damp, and iron is prone to rusting. It is unknown what the purpose was of using this material to build the building.

Moreover, the entire building is made of the same material, with iron walls and iron windows.

The carvings and openwork patterns are modeled after those of ordinary houses, and the styles are exquisite and complete, but the whole piece is hard and heavy, so it is obviously not for people to live in.

He walked around half of the building before finding an iron gate.

The door locks here are very secure.

Moreover, many of them are affected by the cold and dampness, have been neglected for years, and the iron locks are stuck together and cannot be moved by the cold and dampness.

Li Yue then used his five fingers to clench his fist in mid-air, crushing the rusted iron lock, and then pushed open the door.

"Crackling sound—"

The iron gate moved, the rusty scraping sound of the metal scraping together was ear-piercing.

In the dark and eerie environment, this sudden sound inevitably sends a chill down one's spine.

At the same moment the iron gate was forcibly opened, a sickening rusting sound came from above.

It was as if something cold was watching him from there.

Li Yue paused, then looked up at the eaves of the pavilion.

They then discovered that a series of crossbow bolts were hidden there.

It was originally intended to prevent theft by outsiders, but due to its age, the iron has rotted and the mechanism has long since failed.

As the gate moved, the hidden weapons trembled slightly, and several arrows fell to the ground.

Only one was launched, but it lost its momentum halfway through the flight, broke upon landing, and posed no threat whatsoever.

"The iron tower is heavily fortified and sealed off; it must contain valuable items," Li Yue thought to himself.

A bronze furnace for alchemy was set up on the mountaintop, while the finished elixirs were naturally stored in an underground pavilion.

In ancient times, refining Yin Elixir also required boiling corpse oil, so the four pavilions must have served different purposes.

It's just that we can't tell which room is where the corpses are burned.

Upon entering the lobby on the first floor, the floor is entirely covered with iron plates.

In the center stands a jade statue, about two feet tall, with a warm and smooth texture. The statue is barefoot, wearing a robe, with a peaceful expression, holding a pill, and has an ancient and dignified demeanor.

Is it the Medicine King Pavilion where medicinal materials are stored?

Li Yue looked around and saw that the room was filled with wooden shelves and cabinets, piled with various herbs, most of which were old and had lost their medicinal properties and were long gone.

These must have been rare medicinal herbs back then, and quite valuable.

The place where the elixirs are stored in the Dan Palace is collectively called the Dew Pavilion. It is kept warm and protected by the ever-present yin energy of the Corpse Cinnamon Tree, which can prevent the elixirs from deteriorating and thus preserve the medicinal materials.

Knowing that most of the elixirs here were made from yin and evil ingredients and mixed with corpse poison, Li Yue had no intention of trying them at all.

Passing through the main hall and entering the back room, the room was filled with porcelain jars and wooden boxes. Many of the containers were well sealed, and the medicinal herbs inside still retained their potency.

One of the most eye-catching items is a painted jade box, with a design of pine trees, cranes, and immortal herbs on the surface. The box is divided into several compartments, each with a small gold plaque containing different medicinal stones.

Gold medal labels include: Lion's Claw, Spider's Eye, Snake's Eye, Dog's Eye, Turtle's Eye...

They were all strange crystals born from the heavens and earth.

The turtle's treasure is born inside the belly of an old turtle, and it is a rare and precious elixir, best for strengthening the body's foundation and preserving its vital energy.

The Spider Treasure is the inner core of a venomous spider, about the size of a walnut, and is extremely poisonous.

The snake's eye is a hard, solidified stone core within the eye of a giant snake, not the eyeball itself. It constantly gathers yin energy, making it extremely cold and yin.

The turtle's treasure is born inside the belly of an old turtle and is a rare and precious elixir, best for strengthening the body's foundation and preserving its vital energy.

Li Yue gently stroked each item, then probed inside to check the potency of the medicine.

"Most of the medicinal properties remain, although some have dissipated, the efficacy should not be too much different."

In a short while, he had a good understanding of the medicinal materials in the jade box in front of him.

Among them, the Snake Eye and Spider Treasure are suitable for one's Yin-cultivation physique, and refining them can help enhance one's cultivation.

The turtle's rooster's rooster is gentle and reserved, making it an excellent choice to nourish the foundation of the phoenix breed.

After examining each item, Li Yue began to appreciate the thrill of tomb raiding.

This sense of surprise from the unknown is truly captivating.

Looking further, besides the medicine, the containers used to hold it were also exquisitely crafted.

It is entirely decorated with gold and colorful paint, and the materials used are luxurious. It is obviously not an ordinary item.

The container used to hold this medicinal herb must be of considerable value.

Li Yue didn't stand on ceremony. He put everything that was useful for his cultivation, could be kept for later use, or even just something that caught his eye into his storage space.

Then, going up the iron staircase to the second floor, the closer you get to the treetops, the stronger the lingering yin energy becomes.

The black iron walls absorbed the darkness, and when the light shone through, the view became even more hazy.

"The earth's energy flows upwards along the trees, while the yin energy sinks and doesn't dissipate. This can both suppress the dryness of the elixir fire and lock in the medicinal power. No wonder the ancients arranged it this way," Li Yue thought to himself.

As soon as he got to the second floor, he reached out and pushed open the iron door as usual.

The room was filled with mist.

A woman dressed in colorful clothes stood motionless in the shadows, her back to the door. She looked alive in the dark room, but there was no sign of life on her.

The other person wore wooden-soled shoes, a patchwork shirt, and a short vest, all in an old-fashioned style.

Li Yue was slightly taken aback, but quickly realized what was happening.

Remembering that Guanshan Taibao had once infiltrated Ping Mountain, the woman in front of him was a paper puppet controlled by him.

Upon closer inspection, it was indeed made of paper cut out from the front.

Its facial features are realistically depicted, its makeup is gorgeous, and its figure is slender, giving it a strange and eerie beauty.

A wisp of mist drifted in from outside the window, making the paper figure appear hazy and indistinct, like a phantom from a ghost market.

He glanced at it twice, seemingly lost in thought.

The art of paper dolls is not considered a profound secret technique, but it particularly tests the cultivator's sensitivity of divine sense and mental focus, requiring sufficient magical power to be stored within the body for its use.

If one's magical reserves are insufficient, one cannot perfectly control the movements of the paper puppets, and it is even more difficult to maintain the existence of the spell for a long time.

Although his current cultivation level is weak, his dantian and qi sea have already been expanded, making them comparable to the capacity of a golden core.

If he were to use this paper doll technique, he would have a large amount of magical power, which could be used to make up for his current weakness of low cultivation level.

"If I have time, I could make some paper figures and see how they turn out."

Li Yue pondered this in his mind and continued walking into the back room.

Inside, rows of wooden bookshelves were neatly arranged, piled high with ancient books and scrolls.

Li Yue was still holding a group of corpse puppets when he casually flipped through a few scrolls. Inside, he found that they contained all sorts of alchemy recipes and Taoist alchemy manuals.

The Sutra Repository, also known as the Secret Chamber, is the core place in the entire Dan Palace where records of Taoist cultivation and alchemy are preserved.

He gently stroked the pages with his thumb, recalling the past connections with Guanshan Taibao.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Feng family was highly valued by the court and was specially assigned to select sites for the imperial mausoleum, survey the dragon veins, and was granted a waist tag by the emperor to serve as a symbol of loyalty for generations.

Unlike ordinary tomb raiders, they were not after money; they were dedicated to protecting imperial tombs, suppressing tomb raiding sects, and were mortal enemies of the Unloading Ridge and Touching Gold sects.

Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, Feng Shigu, a branch of the clan, abandoned ancestral teachings, became obsessed with immortality, and went around plundering ancient tombs in search of evil arts, attempting to cultivate himself into a corpse immortal.

Ping Mountain was originally a place where ancient emperors refined elixirs, and it has preserved a large number of elixir formulas and secret techniques, which naturally attracted the other party's attention.

The fact that Guanshan Taibao, who was eventually trapped and died in the cave, did not touch any of the treasures he passed by, is enough to show that his purpose was not the wealth.

Perhaps it was in pursuit of immortality through alchemical scriptures.