Chapter 32 (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

After double- and triple-confirming that there was nothing wrong with Li Ang’s body and mind, the team headed back to the temple courtyard and took turns keeping watch at night. They slept on the clean bluestone floor and started searching the temple when they woke up the following morning.

“Is this the place?”

Li Ang looked up at the pagoda and murmured.

A beautiful woman’s head peeked out of his neck and said, “That’s right. The basement below the Buddha pagoda is where all the surrounding Spirit Qi gathers. The mandrill realized this, which is why it impersonated Grand Master Dao Zhi to become the Abbot instead. It also carved numerous Qi-Gathering Arrays on the basement walls and placed many jars of wine in the center of the array to marinate.

“These wines contain Spirit Qi and could make even the most resilient man get drunk. The demons will get high on it as well. Every year during this period, the mandrill will personally come to the basement to collect the wine for the banquet. This is hence the best ambush spot.”

Li Ang nodded and walked into the temple. Following the instructions of Chai Cuiqiao, he used the multi-functional shovel he had purchased from Taobao to prise up many tiles. He brushed off the dust and revealed a wooden door hidden under the tiles.

Li Ang pried open the wooden door. After waiting 20 minutes for the place to air out, he lifted a candlestick and headed down to the basement with his teammates following him.

The basement itself was relatively spacious and not as dirty as one would have expected. There were no spiderwebs or insects in sight.

Li Ang lit the oil lamps hanging on the brick walls using the candlestick. Some random items had been placed in the corners of the basement. A number of bluestone wine jars had also been placed in the center with red paper slips pasted on them.

The team swarmed into the basement and started inspecting it. Chai Cuiqiao reminded them softly, “Be careful not to leave any footprints behind. The mandrill is extremely vigilant. It will immediately raise its guard if it discovers the footprints left behind on the dust here.”

“Don’t worry,” Li Ang said. “The portable electric motor can be modified to become a reverse vacuum cleaner. Pumping dust into the basement will erase the footprints.”

Xing Hechou’s eyelids twitched. The backpack slots were limited, so who would actually bring an electric motor along on a quest? Also, are your hands itching to use a vacuum cleaner without a reason?

Li Ang swaggered toward the center of the basement and moved the wine jars, revealing the strange symbol-like ink mark below.

Everyone else crowded around. Xing Hechou silently took out a professional-looking DSLR camera, activated the flash, and took a picture of the rune on the floor.

The ink was common pine-soot ink. The brush used to draw the array had most likely been an ordinary-quality weasel bristle brush.

The calligraphy exuded no aura, and the rune looked completely different from the beautiful magic circles of Western alchemy.

However, this simple and crude Qi-Gathering Array shocked the team, who felt as though they could see a systematic, complete, easy-to-understand cultivation system through these runes.

Avoiding the ink marks, Li Ang stood upright in the middle of the array and focused on trying to sense something.

However, he sensed nothing other than his body temperature increasing by around 0.25 degrees Celsius.

It was no wonder the mandrill would come there to collect the wine once a year. The Spirit Qi gathered by the array seemed like a dripping tap that required a long time to provide any benefits for one’s cultivation.

Li Ang walked out of the array in disappointment and let the others get a feel of it as well. After taking all the necessary photos, they moved the wine jar back to its original spot.

“Oh, yes.”