Chapter 501 - There is Danger in the Divine Chests, Be Careful When Cutting the Stone (2/2)

The extreme toughness of that bluestone could even withstand Ning Fan’s full-powered attack. Why couldn’t it withstand a gentle cut from the dark golden dagger?

He observed that dagger carefully. Suddenly, he looked like he had seen something surprising and exclaimed.

“This is… Dao Armament!”

Dao Armament was an armament of Great Dao that only cultivators whose intent realm cultivation had reached the Second Step could condense using their intent realm power.

The bluestone on the divine chest could withstand magic attacks but it might not necessarily be able to withstand a cut of the Great Dao.

This dark golden dagger was none other than Ning Fan’s Dao Armament – Memory Severing Dao Sword.

After discovering that his Memory Severing Dao Sword could cut open the divine chest, Ning Fan guessed inwardly.

Could it be that the correct method of opening a divine chest in ancient times is by peeling off the layer of stone using a Dao Armament?

While his mind was deep in thought, the movement of his hands did not cease. A short moment later, the layer of stone enveloping the first divine chest was completely peeled off.

The edge of a wooden box was partly exposed under the thick stone marks. It was made out of purple sandalwood.

Ning Fan then cut the bluestone following the edge of the wooden box. The surface of the box was slightly damaged by his sword but eventually, he still managed to take out the wooden box in good condition.

Afterward, he continued cutting the stone, taking out an exquisite clay jar. He did not find anything else from within the bluestone other than these two items.

Looking at the wooden box and the clay jug, Venerated Pill’s breathing started to become faster. He turned to Ning Fan and said with an excited tone.

“Quick! Let’s find out what treasures these two items are!”

From Venerated Pill’s perspective, the items stored inside a divine chest must be special items.

Ning Fan opened the wooden box while Venerated Pill opened the clay jug. At the same time, both of them wore a confused look.

The clay jug contained a pile of bone ash.

As for the wooden box, it contained a wooden tablet made out of sandalwood. It looked to be the nameplate which served as a cultivator’s proof of identity in a sect. What made Venerated Pill feel helpless was that the name of the cultivator and the sect were written in ancient seal script which he did not know.

“I didn’t expect for the first divine chest to actually have the nameplate and bone ash of an ancient cultivator… How unlucky!” Venerated Pill felt extremely upset. A jar full of bone ash and a nameplate did not have any value at all.

Ning Fan also felt a little disappointed. However, when his eyes scanned past the nameplate, a jolt ran across his body.

“Divine Seal Writing!?”

Venerated Pill did not recognize this ancient writing but Ning Fan who was more knowledgeable in writing knew it.

There were only five characters written on the nameplate.

Shedding Orchid Sect, Wei Yang…

Apparently, the owner of the bone ash was once a disciple of an ancient sect called the Shedding Orchid Sect and his name was Wei Yang.

About the Shedding Orchid Sect, it wasn’t strange that Ning Fan had never heard of it.

“Fellow Daoist, please continue cutting the second divine chest! I don’t believe that the second divine chest is also just a jar full of bone ash…” Venerated Pill urged.

“Alright.”

Ning Fan nodded. He was prepared to equally share the treasures of the divine chests with Venerated Pill. Thus, he certainly also hoped to get something good out of the divine chests instead of just a jar of bone ash.

He wielded his Memory Severing Dao Sword again and carefully peeled the stone layer of the second divine chest.

Inside this divine chest, there was a thumb ring used for storing items and a variety of things which consisted of a pill cauldron, Dao Crystals, pills, pill recipes, ancient scriptures and a palm-leaf fan that had purple flames circling around it.

Inside the thumb ring, there were only forty-two tufts of spiritual herbs but all of them were one hundred thousand years old!

Even though it was rare to find a thumb ring that could be used for storing items, it was worthless. The one hundred thousand years old spiritual herbs inside the ring, however, filled Venerated Pill’s eyes with excitement.

But when he inspected those spiritual herbs, he realized that all of them had actually been contaminated by devil qi, making them unsuitable for consumption or pill refinement… This discovery greatly vexed him.

As for the pill recipes and ancient scriptures, all of them were written in Divine Seal Writing. Venerated Pill did not know a single character. Thus, all of them were useless to him.

There were also two hundred Dao Crystals. This amount of Dao Crystals was equivalent to one billion immortal jade but money could not arouse Venerated Pill’s interest either.

The pill cauldron, Sixth Revolution Pills and the palm-leaf fan, on the other hand, made Venerated Pill smile with his brows raised in delight. Obviously, he was pretty satisfied with these items.

“This pill cauldron is a ‘divine cauldron’ that only ancient divine pill refinement masters would use. It’s much more impressive than the pill cauldrons condensed from common intent realm power. This palm-leaf fan is a Low Grade Mortal Void Treasure. Even though its grade isn’t very high, fanning the flames using this palm-leaf fan during pill refinement can slightly increase the quality of the flames. These two magic treasures are items that only existed in ancient times. It’s beyond my expectations for me to have the chance to see them. This really is… *Cough* There are even twelve Sixth Revolution Pills here. These pills, however, aren’t that precious… Fellow Daoist, how should we share these items equally?”

Venerated Pill only considered the pill cauldron, palm-leaf fan and the Sixth Revolution Pills into the list of items for distribution. The other items were useless to him. Thus, he did not care much about them.

What Venerated Pill meant was that he had the intention of taking the pill cauldron and the palm-leaf fan.

To Ning Fan, those two items were something of little value like chicken ribs. He wanted to take the Sixth Revolution Pills but they weren’t something extremely necessary to him.

In stark contrast, the pill recipes, the ancient scripture and the contaminated spiritual herbs which Venerated Pill did not want were what caught Ning Fan’s interest.

Ming Que had the ability to purify pills. Who knows if she could purify one hundred thousand years old spiritual herbs as well? If she could, Ning Fan would then have enough spiritual herbs to awaken Luo You in one go and have a Void Fragmentation Realm expert by his side!

The pill recipes and ancient scriptures were all in Divine Seal Writing. Venerated Pill could not read the ancient writing but Ning Fan could. If he took the scriptures, it was unknown what kind of information he would obtain from them…

“Fellow Daoist seems to have taken a liking to the pill cauldron and palm-leaf fan… A gentleman always helps fulfill other’s cherished hopes but not their evil plans… Let’s do it this way. You take the pill cauldron and the palm-leaf fan while I take the pills and the other items. What do you think?” Ning Fan suggested with a smile.

“Are you sure?!” Venerated Pill’s expression was filled with surprise.

If he could obtain the two pill refinement magic treasures that were used by ancient pill refinement masters, perhaps he could comprehend the great Dao of Alchemy that the ancient cultivators walked. To him, these two treasures were related to his Dao of Alchemy. Thus, they were much more precious than any other items.

He was worried that Ning Fan would take these treasures. Thus, after hearing that Ning Fan wanted to distribute the items according to what he wanted, he could not help but feel extremely grateful.

“Fellow Daoist sure is a big-hearted person!”

“Is that so…?” Ning Fan wore a faint smile. The saying which goes, ‘each takes what he needs and be happy’ was the best description for this situation.

“Fellow Daoist, if you don’t mind, you might as well open the third divine chest to see what treasures it contains” Venerated Dan said with excitement.

“Mm.”

Ning Fan wielded his Memory Severing Dao Sword, beginning to peel off the stone layer of the third divine chest.

This time, however, he felt a mild sense of unease. He did not have this feeling while he was cutting the first two divine chests.

“What exactly is inside this divine chest…?”

Ning Fan hesitated for a while. Then, he decided to cut the third divine chest from the bottom to the top.

When he had peeled off one quarter of the stone layer, a beast hoof was actually revealed from the gigantic rock.

Just as it was exposed to the air, the hoof trembled gently. Apparently, it was still alive.

“This is bad. What the third divine chest preserved is an ancient living creature! Judging from this qi, it is at the Void Inquiry Stage!” Venerated Pill suddenly warned loudly. He did not expect that the divine chest would actually contain such a powerful living creature.

As the saying goes, there is danger in the divine chests. One has to be careful when cutting the stones. The old saying really was true. If they let out a Void Fragmentation Realm living creature, wouldn’t all of them be done for?

*Roar*

A beast roar echoed from the third divine chest.

As the beast hoof made a stomp, the rest of the stone layer was broken into pieces from the inside, exposing the massive body of that ancient living creature which was also growing rapidly at the same time.

It was a strange half-man, half-horse creature. Both of its hands held a bronze bow and arrow. The moment it revealed itself, it glared at Ning Fan and Venerated Pill with its blood-red eyes and shot a green arrow at each of them.

The power of that green flying arrow was equivalent to a Void Inquiry Stage attack. Its destructive power was significant.

Venerated Pill who was already panicking was suddenly attacked by that strange creature. His expression changed greatly when he was faced with a Void Inquiry Stage attack. He hurriedly used his Soul Transforming Dragon Technique to withstand that Void Inquiry Stage arrow with all his might. However, how could he withstand such a powerful attack?

The arrow penetrated right through his body, making him cough out mouthfuls of blood. That attack had already severely injured him. There was no way he could withstand an arrow from that beast.

In desperation, he yelled, “Revered Ming, save me!”

However, as soon as his voice fell, the remaining force of the arrow struck him, directly knocking him unconscious.

In his mind, only Ning Fan had the strength to withstand this Void Inquiry Stage beast. As he had already passed out, the rest could only depend on Ning Fan.

Faced with the Void Inquiry Stage arrow, Ning Fan undoubtedly would not be as battered as Venerated Pill. By just casually flicking his sleeve, he produced a massive rush of essence qi which literally crushed the Void Inquiry Stage arrow into powder.

Then, he coldly stared at that beast and took out a golden handheld furnace.

As he made a hand seal, the small handheld furnace gave off faint golden halos of spirit wheels. Their power was immeasurable.

When the faint golden halos struck the beast, it could not defend itself against them at all despite having a frightening Void Inquiry Stage cultivation base. After wailing in pain several times, it let out an angry roar.

“Those who seize the Shedding Orchid Key… shall die!”

In the next moment, it actually wanted to detonate itself. Its body began to convulse and exploded into waves of raging flames.

Ning Fan quickly summoned his Primordial Lightning Armor to block the force of the explosion from the beast.

The light from the explosion gradually diminished. After some time, there were only countless chunks of meat and a bronze key at the spot where the beast stood earlier.

Ning Fan picked up the key. The bronze key was carved with the mark of the Great Dao. It looked quite extraordinary but Ning Fan had no idea where this key was for.

“What is a… Shedding Orchid Key…?”

Ning Fan kept the key. With a flick of his sleeve, he summoned a gust of wind, trying to save the unconscious Venerated Pill using his magic technique.

“*Cough*… I didn’t expect that the third divine chest would actually have an ancient living creature. It’s truly terrifying… Er… Where is the beast?”

While sighing with emotion, Venerated Dan was looking around his surroundings.

When he saw the scattered meat chunks on the ground, his face was filled with awe.

“Fellow Daoist has actually killed that Void Inquiry Stage creature!?” Venerated Pill found it extremely unbelievable.

“It’s merely an evil creature that has just reached the Void Inquiry Stage.” Ning Fan replied with a neutral expression.

It was not his first time killing a Void Inquiry Stage expert. Moreover, he had even killed a Void Pierce Stage ancient demon before. This strange creature had just attained the standard of the Void Inquiry Stage. Thus, it was not very strong. If Su Yan were to handle it, she could also eliminate it easily.

“‘Merely’ an evil creature that has just reached the Void Inquiry Stage…” Venerated Pill immediately looked at Ning Fan like he was looking at a monster.

Well, that beast could only blame its luck for encountering Ning Fan…

Venerated Pill was completely unaware that Ning Fan had also obtained a bronze key after killing the beast.

At this moment, he was looking at Ning Fan with eyes full of gratitude. If it wasn’t for Ning Fan, he would have died in the hands of that beast for sure.

“Thank you for saving my life, Fellow Daoist. I will never forget your kindness!” Venerated Pill gratefully said.

Translated by Tommy, edited by Roel

[1] Just like the shape of the word. There are two squares with a smaller square inside a larger square.

[2] In this context, Dao doesn’t mean the way. The Dao means the law of heaven and earth. In colloquial use, it’s used to describe something that has already achieved a level greater than the highest standard.