223: Chapter 223 There really is a treasure!

"Little Golden Mouse, help me see if there are any treasures here!"

The Little Golden Mouse seemed to understand his words, lifting its small nose and sniffing the surroundings.

Its nostrils twitched slightly, its whiskers trembled, and its head turned left and right as if it were identifying something.

Suddenly, it stopped moving.

Its pair of dark, beady eyes suddenly lit up.

"Zhi zhi zhi! Zhi zhi!"

The Little Golden Mouse raised its two small paws and waved them urgently toward a direction deep in the valley, its small head nodding incessantly, its voice much more hurried than before.

Ye Chen was stunned for a moment, then his eyes widened.

"There really is a treasure!"

He stood up abruptly, turned toward the flying boat, and shouted, "Auntie! Auntie! Come over here quickly! The Little Golden Mouse found a treasure!"

Lu Shiyin stood by the gunwale of the flying boat, gazing blankly at the distant mountains.

Hearing Ye Chen's shout, she withdrew her gaze, her beautiful eyes lifting slightly.

There really was a treasure?

She originally thought the children were just playing around and intended to accompany them down for a walk to stretch their limbs, but she hadn't expected that the Little Golden Mouse would actually sniff something out.

"Auntie, let's go over there quickly!" Ye Chen hopped around anxiously below.

Lu Shiyin smiled slightly and said softly, "Alright, let's go take a look."

Under her control, the flying boat slowly rose and hovered in mid-air, following the children's footsteps as they moved.

Ye Chen walked at the very front, holding the Little Golden Mouse in both hands, occasionally looking down to ask, "Is it this way?" The Little Golden Mouse would respond with "zhi zhi" calls, its small paws pointing forward.

He was incredibly excited, rubbing his hands as he walked.

"I really am the protagonist of a storybook!" Ye Chen said with a beaming face, turning back to Ye Zhenzhen. "Zhenzhen, don't worry. Although This Sword Immortal found this item, I'll give you half once we find the treasure!"

Ye Zhenzhen followed behind him, the little girl waddling as she walked. Hearing this, she tilted her head, her voice soft and sweet:

"Brother, but those are storybooks. Aren't they all just made up?"

"Aiya, Zhenzhen, let me tell you, everything in storybooks is adapted from real events!" Ye Chen explained solemnly.

"Look at our Father—wasn't Xiao Jin brought back from outside? And that Golden Bean of Big Brother Xiao Tian, wasn't that also picked up outside? And this Little Golden Mouse in our hands, wasn't it also picked up!"

He paused, feeling his argument was impeccable, and puffed out his little chest.

"So, going out to find treasure is definitely real!"

Ye Zhenzhen blinked, feeling like something was wrong but unable to put it into words, so she stopped asking.

Ye Chen patted her head with satisfaction and continued walking forward.

After walking about half a mile, the Little Golden Mouse suddenly became agitated, calling "zhi zhi zhi" incessantly and pointing its small paws toward a low slope ahead.

"We're here, we're here!" Ye Chen quickened his pace, almost scrambling up the slope.

Lu Shiyin followed unhurriedly behind, already quietly clutching several second-rank talismans left by Ye Changge before he departed.

Although this valley appeared peaceful and serene, and the Spiritual Qi fluctuations were very stable, not looking like a place where Yao Beasts resided, it was always right to be cautious when away from home.

Especially when bringing children along.

Ye Chen rushed up the slope and stopped in front of a cluster of emerald bamboo.

The cluster of bamboo wasn't large, with about seven or eight stalks huddled together of varying heights, looking lush and green. As the mountain breeze blew past, the bamboo leaves rustled, and a faint bamboo fragrance permeated the air.

Ye Chen squatted down and placed the Little Golden Mouse on the ground. As soon as it touched the ground, it "whooshed" toward the base of the largest bamboo stalk, its two small paws desperately digging at the soil while it let out hurried "zhi zhi" sounds.

"Under here?" Ye Chen leaned in to look.

The Little Golden Mouse nodded vigorously.

Ye Chen didn't hesitate and began to dig with his hands. The soil was soft, and a shallow pit was dug in just a few strokes.

Then, he froze.

Inside the shallow pit, a small bamboo shoot lay quietly.

The bamboo shoot was only about the thickness of a thumb, its entire body a nearly transparent emerald green, its texture like the finest jade, crystal clear.

The most peculiar thing was that at the tip of the bamboo shoot, a speck of golden light was swirling, like a firefly sealed in amber, flickering on and off.

That golden light wasn't a reflection or an illusion; it was truly emanating from within the bamboo shoot.

"What is this thing?"

Ye Chen scratched his head, looking it over for a long time without making any sense of it.

He turned his head and asked Ye Zhenzhen behind him, "Zhenzhen, what is this thing?"

Ye Zhenzhen leaned over, tilted her small head to look for a while, and shook her head.

"Brother, I don't know either."

Although she loved reading and usually curled up in a corner holding various ancient texts to read all day—knowing more than the older brothers and sisters in the academy who were several years her senior—

Most of the books she read were those Ye Changge had brought from the Family's library—geography, spiritual plant catalogs, Yao Beast encyclopedias, records of the Cultivation World...

She enjoyed reading those.

She liked knowing what was on the other side of the mountains, what kind of Yao Beasts lived in the sea, and what those legendary Heaven And Earth Treasures looked like.

But liking to read didn't mean she could remember everything in the books.

Especially things she had never seen with her own eyes; how could she recognize them just from illustrations and text descriptions?

Ye Chen wasn't disappointed. He put the Little Golden Mouse back into the beast-taming bag, tucked it into his robe, grabbed Ye Zhenzhen's hand, and ran toward Lu Shiyin.

"Auntie! Auntie! Look at this!"

He ran too fast and almost tripped over a grass root, stumbling for two steps before steadying himself.

Lu Shiyin then examined it closely.

The emerald shoot, the swirling golden light, the warm touch, and the Spiritual Qi contained within rather than leaking out...

She frowned slightly, searching her memory for information about this object.

She came from the Lu Family of Qingmao Mountain and had been raised as a core member of the Family since childhood, having read many catalogs and texts on various Heaven And Earth Treasures.

After marrying into the Ye Family, she helped Ye Changge manage Family affairs, and the spiritual items she handled were countless.

But this golden bamboo shoot before her...

She actually couldn't recognize it.

It wasn't ordinary spiritual bamboo.

Ordinary spiritual bamboo, no matter how high its grade, only contained Spiritual Qi and would never have such spiritual golden light moving inside it.

This was more like a... variant?

Lu Shiyin pondered for a moment, carefully placed the bamboo shoot into a specially made jade box, and applied several Talismans to isolate the Spiritual Qi before looking up at the expectant Ye Chen.

"Auntie doesn't recognize what this is either. When we get home, let your father take a look. He is very knowledgeable and might know."

Hearing this, Ye Chen's eyes lit up. "Father is coming back?!"

Lu Shiyin paused slightly, looking at his bright eyes, her heart softening.