Chapter 394: First ’Visit’ to a Qi Refining Mountain Gate, and What a Warm Welcome

His vision went dark.

A sense of weightlessness washed over him. The next second, he landed. Wan Ze quickly steadied himself and immediately began his Qi Concealment, suppressing all the Qi that had been pent up inside him for so long.

After several life-or-death battles, Wan Ze was all too familiar with the dangers of Huangliang.

With a thought, the Qi vortex in his Dantian began to contract, its rotation slowing.

In the blink of an eye, his aura had diminished to almost nothing.

Then, Wan Ze quickly scanned his surroundings.

This arrival point was different from the previous ones.

This time, he was in a stone chamber.

The stone chamber wasn’t large, about ten square meters. The floor was rough, paved with old stone slabs, the cracks between them filled with dust and rubble.

The walls had been hewn directly from solid mountain rock. They hadn’t been polished, still bearing the chisel marks from their creation.

‘This is strange… This place is full of Qi Refiners, yet they still build houses by hand?’

Doubt grew in Wan Ze’s mind.

A quick glance around revealed signs that someone had lived in the chamber.

In the corner was a stone bed, covered with several layers of dry straw. On top of the straw lay a piece of coarse cloth.

The edges of the cloth were frayed and worn, with holes in some places… The sight left Wan Ze dumbfounded.

‘A dignified Qi Refiner lives in a dump like this?’

‘Isn’t this just like being a workhorse in a different place?’

Next to the stone bed was a stone table, and beside the table was a stone chair. A piece of animal hide was draped over the chair, but most of its fur had fallen out, leaving only the bald surface of the leather. The leather was cracked, revealing a sponge-like inner layer underneath.

Wan Ze’s gaze shifted, then suddenly froze.

There were several items on the table.

His eyes immediately lit up.

A coarse earthenware bowl, a small stone water jug, an oil lamp… The lamp still held a small amount of oil, its wick charred black.

In Huangliang, Wan Ze was the type to touch everything he saw.

‘Best case, I can Steal a Celestial Secret. If not, it’s no skin off my back.’

He was about to move closer.

Suddenly, Wan Ze stopped, his head snapping up to stare intently at a hand-drawn map hanging on the wall. The characters on it were clearly modern.

‘Could it be Xiao Yunkai?’

Wan Ze silently moved closer.

He carefully memorized the handwriting. Later, he just needed to compare it with Xiao Yunkai’s to be sure.

The map on the wall was about a meter square, made from some kind of animal hide. It was just… the handwriting on the map was so damn ugly. The characters were crooked, with neither horizontal nor vertical strokes drawn straight. Some characters looked as if the writer had forgotten how to finish them halfway through and just sloppily fudged the rest.

Wan Ze sighed several times.

However, he could barely make out the two words at the very top… Litian City.

There were also three red dots on the map.

Wan Ze stared for a long time, nearly going blind from the effort, before he could finally identify the words written by the dots… “Mo River Forest,” “Day Heaven Sect,” and “Me.”

‘Damn it, people with ugly handwriting should be banned from Huangliang!’

Muttering curses, Wan Ze leaned in for a closer look.

The area marked “Me” was very close to the Mo River Forest.

Judging by the scale on the map, the “Me” location was within the Mo River’s domain.

North of the Mo River Forest, a mountain range was drawn. The peaks were outlined with thick, dense lines, one after another. A four-word note next to them read, “Demon Beasts appear here,” the handwriting even sloppier.

Below the Day Heaven Sect was an ocean, represented by wavy lines.

‘So, does the owner of this stone house come from the Mo River Forest… or is that the name of their Sect?’

Wan Ze was lost in thought.

Based on the map’s annotations, the “Me” location was between the Mo River Forest and the Day Heaven Sect, but closer to the Mo River Forest.

The map’s creator had marked their own position, which suggested they also considered the Mo River Forest as something other than their own kind.

‘Mo River Forest… Ah, forget it. I’ll ask Brother Feng about it later.’

Brother Feng had spent far more time in Huangliang Village than he had, and surely knew far more people.

If the Mo River Forest was a faction of any note, Brother Feng should have heard of it.

Wan Ze reached out and touched the map.

As his fingertip touched the surface of the hide, a burst of cold energy erupted.

Stealing Celestial Secret successful.

…

[Magic Sense +6%]

…

The corner of Wan Ze’s mouth twitched slightly.

‘Six percent Magic Sense… Well, every little bit counts.’

It was indeed equivalent to what he’d gain from an hour or two of hard cultivation in Huangliang Village.

Wan Ze had just averted his gaze and was scanning the room again when his eyes suddenly landed on the wall.

He let out a small “huh?” and walked over.

Several “zheng” characters were carved into the wall.

Each stroke was carved with great force.

Wan Ze moved closer, crouched down, and leaned in to count.

There were seventeen complete “zheng” characters in total, and next to them, an incomplete one that was two strokes short of being finished.

Eighty-five plus three equals eighty-eight.

‘This person… has been in Huangliang for eighty-eight days?’

If they carved one stroke each day, then this person truly had an extreme obsession with keeping track of time.

There was still no direct evidence that the owner of this room was Xiao Yunkai.

But Xiao Yunkai placed immense importance on that pendant.

If Xiao Yunkai was the owner of this stone chamber, then his attachment to the pendant would have a logical explanation.

‘Perhaps that pendant is his medium for entering and exiting Huangliang, the key to traveling between these two worlds? If he lost the pendant, maybe he could never return?’

Wan Ze fell into deep thought.

‘A medium…’

‘Perhaps my line of thinking is correct.’

He pulled his gaze away and walked back to the table.

The old books on the table varied in size and thickness. Some had corners so badly worn that you could see the inner lining.

Most were piled together haphazardly, as if their owner had left in a hurry, with no time to tidy up.