Battle Through the Heavens: Starting with Cao Ying as an apprentice

The sky above was not above them, but rather the energy dome of the ruins. At this moment, thick, dark cracks spread out, and violent spatial turbulence permeated in.

"The space is about to collapse!" Little Fairy Doctor exclaimed, instinctively grabbing Cao Ying's arm.

"Go!" Su Baichen shouted, and with a flick of his sleeve, silvery-white spatial power surged out, tearing open a stable spatial rift in front of him.

Without saying a word, he unleashed his powerful battle aura, engulfing the four—Xuan Yi, Cao Ying, Xiao Yi Xian, and Zi Yan—who hadn't fully reacted yet, and stepped inside.

……

The space shifted, and the view before me suddenly opened up.

The group had returned to the edge of the ancient forest where they had first entered the ruins. Soft grass lay beneath their feet, the fresh scent of grass and trees filled their nostrils, and the distant growls of magical beasts could be faintly heard.

“Oh my god…” Zi Yan was the first to cry out, and she turned around sharply to look in the direction of the original entrance to the ruins—although the entrance had disappeared, the aftershocks of the spatial collapse could still be vaguely felt.

Her eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at Su Baichen: "Su Baichen! You...you...what did you do?! Where's that huge altar?!"

Cao Ying and Little Fairy Doctor were equally shaken, patting their chests and staring intently at Su Baichen, waiting for an explanation.

Although Xuan Yi remained calm, his eyes were filled with inquiry.

Su Baichen dusted off non-existent dust from his sleeves, his tone as calm as if he had simply taken away a stone: "I didn't do anything. I just thought the altar was made of a special material and the runes were worth studying, so I just put the whole thing away."

"Oh, right, the complete remains of the two Ancient Void Dragons and Ancient Heavenly Phoenixes that were originally pressed under the altar, whose energy essence has not yet been lost, were also collected."

Seeing the stunned expressions on their faces, he added, "Those two ancient supreme remains were one of the energy cores that maintained the stability of that secondary space. After they were taken away, the space lost an important support and naturally collapsed. It's normal."

"..."

The group fell silent for a moment. They took the entire altar? And incidentally, they took the corpses of two ancient, top-tier magical beasts? And they call it "normal"?

Zi Yan's lips twitched. Underneath that altar, her ancestor, a being of the Taixu Ancient Dragon Clan, was actually buried.

No wonder her bloodline connection was so strong there before.

Su Baichen said no more, took out a new map from his pocket, and handed it to Xuan Yi.

"Xuanyi, take this map. From the fragments of memories left by the Creation Saint, I have roughly reconstructed the main structure of this ruin and some key nodes. It marks several side halls and medicine gardens that may contain opportunities, as well as several relatively dangerous traps and formations."

He glanced at everyone: "We'll be more efficient if we split up."

"Xuanyi, you take Xiaoyixian and Ziyan as a team and explore these places according to the map."

He quickly marked several points on the map.

"Cao Ying, you're with my team, we're going to another area."

"Finally, regardless of the outcome, meet outside the main hall at the center of the ruins. Be careful, and retreat immediately if anything seems amiss."

Xuan Yi took the map, quickly glanced at it, and nodded.

Little Fairy Doctor and Zi Yan suppressed their shock and said they understood.

Cao Ying naturally stayed by Su Baichen's side.

"action."

The two groups of people quickly transformed into streaks of light and flew off in different directions from the ruins.

……

About five hours later.

Deep within the ruins, in front of an ancient hall.

Su Baichen and Cao Ying were the first to appear.

Su Baichen remained calm, while Cao Ying wore a hint of joy at her achievement.

During their journey, they found several rare and high-grade medicinal herbs that were rarely seen in the outside world, including the "Soul Infant Fruit," a rare item that could repair and nourish the soul.

Furthermore, in a cold and gloomy cave, he discovered and captured several high-level serpentine magical beasts with considerable strength and unique bloodlines, which Su Baichen has now sealed into the special space within the Heavenly Profound Pearl for breeding.

Before long, the sound of wind breaking came from the other side of the sky, and Xuan Yi, along with Little Fairy Doctor and Zi Yan, also arrived at the meeting point.

Xuan Yi, Xiao Yi Xian, and Zi Yan also had smiles on their faces.

Clearly, following the map's guidance, they avoided some troublesome traps and successfully found two storage rooms and a small herb garden, harvesting a considerable amount of high-level medicinal herbs and some energy-rich magic cores. Although not as earth-shattering as the Dragon and Phoenix Origin Fruit, they were still quite valuable.

The two groups exchanged a smile, then turned their gazes toward the main hall.

Chapter 281 Zi Yan Enters the Pill Palace!

Stepping into the ancient and magnificent hall, the interior space is extremely vast, and the hall is not a single space, but is divided into several wide corridors leading in different directions.

On both sides of the corridor are separate halls, some open and some closed.

“These corridors lead to different functional areas,” Xuan Yi said, looking around.

"Separate to investigate, be careful, and take everything that is valuable," Su Baichen said succinctly.

As a result, this "house raiding team" was extremely efficient.

Su Baichen and Cao Ying formed one team, Xuan Yi and Xiao Yixian formed another, while Zi Yan, relying on her extraordinary perception of energy and treasures as a Taixu Ancient Dragon, often broke away from the team to explore on her own.

……

"Hmm? It smells so good... It's the smell of medicinal pills! And there are so many more!"

At the end of a rather secluded corridor, Zi Yan sniffed hard with her small nose, and her large, purple-gold eyes suddenly lit up, like a young dragon that had discovered a treasure.

Following the faint, subtle fragrance of cinnabar, which was difficult for ordinary people to detect, she wandered around and finally stopped in front of an ancient stone door.

Above the stone gate, two ancient characters, though faded and worn, are still discernible: Dan Dian (丹殿).

"Hahaha! I finally found it!" Zi Yan stood in front of the stone gate with her hands on her hips, her little face full of pride, as if she were the chosen one.

"I knew it! How could such a huge ruin not have a place to hide elixirs! My luck is truly off the charts!"

After saying that, she couldn't wait to slap the stone door with her palm.

The stone gate was not protected by any powerful restrictions, and it burst open with a bang under Zi Yan's seemingly petite but actually terrifyingly powerful palm strike.

The first floor of the Dan Hall.

The moment the door opened, a fragrance several times stronger than before surged out like a tide. It was not a single scent, but a wonderful aroma composed of hundreds of different medicinal fragrances. It was refreshing and invigorating. Just one whiff of it made one feel the flow of internal energy quicken.

Zi Yan took a deep breath, and her face immediately showed an expression of utter intoxication and near-obsession, with her cheeks flushed with excitement.

"(?ω?) Wow—! I'm rich! I'm really rich!"

What comes into view is an extremely spacious hall.

Around the hall are rows of jade cabinets embedded in the walls, each containing dozens or even hundreds of jade bottles.

The jade bottle is made of superior material. Even after a long period of time, it remains warm and translucent, and the outline of the round pills inside can be vaguely seen.

Zi Yan cheered and rushed in like a happy little butterfly.

She didn't have time to examine the label on the bottle closely, nor did she bother to identify what kind of pill it was. With a wave of her hand, a powerful suction force emanated from the storage ring on her finger.

slam-la-

Like autumn leaves swept away by the wind, the first few rows of jade bottles near the entrance were collected into the storage ring.

Zi Yan moved swiftly through the hall, emptying the closets wherever she went.

She took a moment to open a few jade bottles and looked inside. Most of them contained sixth-grade pills, with the occasional seventh-grade one. Although they weren't considered rare treasures, their quantity and variety were impressive, including those for healing, recovery, detoxification, and cultivation assistance.

For Ziyan, who is a "foodie," this was like entering a buffet restaurant.

"They're all mine!"

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Zi Yan had swept away all the jade bottles containing pills on the first floor of the Pill Hall, not even leaving behind those empty jade bottles that looked decent.

With a satisfied pat on her storage ring, Zi Yan turned her gaze to the stone steps leading to the second floor and skipped up them.

The second floor of the Dan Hall.

The second floor is slightly smaller and has a similar layout to the first floor, but in addition to the fragrance of cinnabar, there is also a thin layer of colorful mist in the air. The mist drifts past the bronze lamp base next to it and makes a slight "sizzling" sound, which means it is obviously poisonous.

"Good heavens, they're even releasing poison gas?" Zi Yan wrinkled her little nose, and the space around her slightly distorted, naturally forming an invisible spatial barrier that pushed all the colorful poison gas away within three zhang of her body, preventing it from penetrating even a little.

The second floor contained far fewer jade bottles of elixirs, but the quality seemed to be higher.

Zi Yan began her "inspection" with great interest, but soon her face fell.

"Tch... how come there's so little?" she muttered in dissatisfaction.

Moreover, a significant portion of the pills here are marked with skulls or poisonous mist symbols, clearly indicating that they are highly toxic pills, greatly diminishing their value for Zi Yan, who is not skilled in using poison.

She picked up several jade bottles containing non-poisonous pills, most of which contained seventh-grade pills, with an occasional bottle containing eighth-grade pills, but in small quantities.

"Never mind, every little bit helps," Zi Yan muttered, but still collected all the jade bottles she saw, including the poison pills.

"These poison pills can be left to Little Fairy Doctor; she should like them."

After clearing the second floor, Zi Yan clapped her hands and looked at the more secluded staircase leading to the third floor, her eyes rekindling with anticipation: "There must be something good up there, right? Otherwise, why bother with all this poison gas?"

She vanished in a flash from the stairs.

Shortly after Zi Yan left, the space at the entrance to the second floor rippled slightly, and the figures of Su Baichen, Cao Ying, Xiao Yixian, and Xuan Yi quietly appeared.

They had obviously explored their respective target areas and found this place by following the faint scent and lingering fragrance of the pills left by Zi Yan.

"You moved really fast." Su Baichen glanced at the empty surroundings and said calmly.

Cao Ying, with her sharp eyes, noticed two jade bottles lying crookedly on the edge of a cupboard in the corner. The bottles had obvious poison pill markings on them, indicating that they had been deliberately left behind.

She couldn't help but chuckle, nudging the Little Fairy Doctor beside her with her elbow: "Junior sister, look, that girl Ziyan is quite kind-hearted, she knows to leave you a 'gift'."

Little Fairy Doctor looked at the two bottles of poison pills, sensing their pure and strange toxicity, and a gentle smile appeared on her face: "Although Ziyan is greedy, she remembers us in her heart."

“That’s right, even I didn’t leave anything specifically.” Cao Ying teased deliberately, but there was no jealousy in her eyes, only a smile.

"Senior Sister is joking. Zi Yan received so many pills, so everyone who saw them should get a share. She's always been generous," Little Fairy Doctor said with a smile.

"That's true." Cao Ying nodded. Knowing Zi Yan's personality, she would never keep all the benefits to herself; at most, she would hide what she thought was the best part...

"Alright, stop chatting. Let's go to the third floor. That girl should be up there by now; she's making quite a commotion."

Su Baichen interrupted the two women's conversation and turned his gaze to the stairs leading to the third floor.

He sensed Zi Yan's presence there, and she seemed... a little exasperated?

Without further delay, the group moved swiftly, concealing their presence once more, and followed.