72: Chapter 72 Unknown Red Crystal

Walking twice around the corpse of the Blood Demon Immortal, Wang Shouren gradually sensed that something was amiss.

According to the lingering memories of the Blood Demon Elder, when Ning Chuan and Yin Chuan and others came here, they were only allowed to wander near the cave entrance and had never stepped foot into this inner chamber even once.

With that old monster's suspicious and vicious temperament, whatever could cause him to bar even Ning Chuan from the door could not possibly be just a mummified corpse and a few broken walls.

Yet he searched through every single memory fragment regarding this place in his Sea of Consciousness, and found no specific information whatsoever about what was hidden deep within this inner chamber.

Wang Shouren stopped in his tracks, closed his eyes, and spread out his perception.

The Fiery Evil Qi in this inner chamber was unusually dense, almost condensing into substance, continuously seeping out from the cracks deep within the cave walls and entirely repelling the Blood Evil Qi at the entrance.

Yet strangely enough, even with such intense Fiery Evil Qi, there was still an extremely minute trace of Blood Evil Qi lingering within the room.

It did not drift in from the cave entrance, but was emitted from a certain specific location.

As someone who practiced Thunder Arts, his perception of demonic and evil auras was naturally several times sharper than that of ordinary Cultivators; this trace of lingering Blood Evil Qi was like a blot of ink on a sheet of white paper within his perception, impossible to hide.

He lowered his gaze, following the direction of the lingering Blood Evil Qi.

It was that mummified corpse—no, it was beneath the mummified corpse.

Wang Shouren gave the corpse of the Blood Demon Immortal a shove, pushing it aside.

The mummified corpse toppled over beside the stone platform, kicking up a cloud of aged dust.

He squatted down and carefully scrutinized the meditation cushion.

The cushion was grayish in color, its edges worn and frayed with loose threads, looking indistinguishable from the woven straw cushions used by ordinary Loose Cultivators for meditation.

Yet when he pressed his palm against it, the Thunder Spiritual Qi in his palm was gently bounced back by an extremely subtle force.

"This meditation cushion turns out to be a Magical Artifact, and its grade is not low. Even though it is severely damaged, the remaining Restriction is still operating."

Wang Shouren simply sat cross-legged directly, placed the cushion on his knees, and covered it with both hands. Crimson-gold thunder light lit up in his palms, and his Spiritual Qi probed into the interior of the cushion like fine threads.

Refining a damaged Magical Artifact logically should not take much effort, but the moment his Spiritual Qi probed in, a thick wave of Blood Evil Qi surged out from the cushion, pushing his Spiritual Qi outward.

That trace of Blood Evil Qi was extremely stubborn, identical to what he had seen on Ning Chuan, yet purer and more condensed, resembling old blood that had settled for an unknown number of years.

"The Blood Demon Elder is already dead, yet refining this is still so arduous. Could this treasure not belong to the Blood Demon Elder in the first place?"

Wang Shouren opened his eyes, a look of shock still lingering.

"That possibility is very high. Anything that the Blood Demon Elder could regard as important as his own life is definitely not some simple cargo."

As for whether this would offend the true owner behind the cushion Magical Artifact, that was not within Wang Shouren's scope of consideration; how could he just leave a treasure to gather dust?

He increased his Spiritual Qi output, and the crimson-gold thunder light and Blood Evil Qi engaged in a repeated tug-of-war inside the cushion. After deadlocking for nearly half an hour, that resistance finally began to weaken.

After about the time it takes to burn two incense sticks, the last trace of the remaining Divine Sense mark was ground away by the thunder light. The cushion trembled slightly, and a very faint layer of blood-colored patterns emerged on its grayish surface.

Wang Shouren probed his Divine Sense into it, his pupils contracting slightly.

"This turns out to be a storage-type treasure."

However, unlike a Storage Pouch which can only store lifeless objects, what was sealed inside this cushion was actually a massive amount of Blood Evil Qi.

The Blood Evil Qi was so dense that it had almost condensed into a liquid state, resembling a lake, churning and surging endlessly within the Magical Artifact space.

Even though he had seen quite a few treasures, at this moment he could not help but feel secretly startled.

"To be able to seal a massive amount of Evil Qi, its grade must have reached the level of a High Grade Magical Artifact."

"Even if it is severely damaged, solely in terms of capacity and airtightness, it is more valuable than any Magical Artifact of the same rank I have ever seen."

Soon he shook his head again; although Evil Qi was helpful for his cultivation, Blood Evil Qi was definitely not within his scope of need.

Once one started becoming tainted with this kind of thing, not to mention that the Lightning Tribulation would worsen, it would inevitably attract enormous trouble.

"I certainly don't think I am a son of Luck. I've heard that when evil Cultivators cross their Core Formation and Nascent Soul Lightning Tribulations in the future, the success rate is terrifyingly low; since one can win steadily, why take desperate risks?"

Lowering his head to look at the cushion in his palm that had shrunk to the size of a palm, he had already roughly guessed the plan of the Blood Demon Immortal.

"That old monster most likely snatched this cushion, counting on the massive amount of Blood Evil Qi stored within it to quickly recover his strength."

"As long as he refined all the Blood Evil Qi within after Possession, he could quickly recover his cultivation level without incurring Karmic Obstruction due to massive slaughter."

"It's just that this wishful thinking ultimately came to naught, benefiting someone else for nothing."

A lifetime of painstaking effort making wedding clothes for another—how laughable.

"Keep it. Although useless, it is after all a High Grade Magical Artifact, and the Blood Evil Qi within might find some other use eventually."

He put the cushion away into his storage ring, stood up, and cast his gaze deeper into the cave.

Inside, the Fiery Evil Qi steamed and churned, dyeing the cave walls a dark red with visibility less than three zhang.

"Since I've come, I might as well go in and see what's going on."

Wang Shouren condensed crimson-gold thunder light to suspend by his side and clear the path. The Fiery Evil Qi collided with the thunder light, producing subtle cracking sounds.

The deeper he walked, the narrower the tunnel became. Scattered red crystals began to appear on the cave walls on both sides, refracting an eerie crimson glow under the illumination of the thunder light.

He used the tip of his sword to pry one off the cave wall and cradled it in his palm to examine it.

The crystal was about the size of a thumb, irregular prismatic in shape, and crimson throughout, with faint flowing lights wandering within, feeling warm to the touch.

He probed his Divine Sense into it, his pupils contracting slightly. This fingernail-sized spar actually sealed an extremely pure Fiery Spiritual Qi within, and the concentration of that Spiritual Qi far exceeded a Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

"Such rich Spiritual Qi! What is this?" He had never seen this kind of mineral in any ancient texts.

Spirit Stone veins would produce Spirit Stones, but those were pure crystals of Spiritual Qi without any attributes, making them easy to absorb.

However, inside the spar before his eyes, Spiritual Qi and fire energy coexisted, the two reaching a certain delicate balance. Solely judging by the fire-attribute might contained within it, a single fingernail-sized piece was worth several Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

It was undoubtedly thick.

He tried to absorb a trace of Spiritual Qi from it using the Qi-guiding method of the Ten Directions Fierce Thunder Transformation.

As soon as that wisp of crimson Spiritual Qi entered his Meridians, a burning sensation violently exploded, feeling as though someone had jammed a red-hot iron rod into his arm.

He let out a muffled groan and quickly cut off the absorption. Lowering his head to look, the skin on his palm that had touched the crystal had already turned slightly red.

This was only because he had undergone Heavenly Thunder Body Refining, and his flesh, skin, muscles, and bones far surpassed Cultivators of the same realm. If an ordinary Qi Refining Cultivator were to touch it barehanded, they would likely have their Meridians burned by the Fiery Evil Qi before long.

"I don't know what it is, but I'll take it first and ask Sixth Grandpa when I get back to the clan."

He put this crystal away into his storage ring and used the tip of his sword to pry off the remaining crystals on the cave walls.

The crystals varied in size; the large ones were like an infant's fist, while the small ones were no bigger than a fingernail. Embedded in the cave walls like scattered stars, they looked as though someone had casually scattered a handful of fire seeds.

He spent nearly half an hour thoroughly looting the crystals along the way, counting a total of thirty-one of them.