152: Chapter 152 This isn't a sewer, it's a treasure trove!

The deeper they went into the cave, the drier the air became, and the suffocating smell of sulfur was gradually replaced by an old, metallic, rusted scent.

Gu Yan walked in front, the eerie light from his soul-shattering knuckles illuminating the stone walls on both sides.

The rough, natural rock gradually disappeared, replaced by smooth, dark red metal pipe walls.

Every few steps, they would step on weathered bone fragments, remnants of some unlucky soul who had wandered here in the past.

"We are here."

Gu Yan stopped.

Five meters ahead, the pipe was completely sealed off by a massive black iron grate.

Each bar of the grate was as thick as a thigh and covered in dense runes.

Despite the erosion of time, those runes still flickered with a faint red light, emitting a heart-palpitating Spiritual Pressure.

Jiang Wanrou stepped forward and tentatively tossed out a fluorite used for illumination.

Snap.

As soon as the fluorite approached within three feet of the grate, it was shattered by a suddenly ejected red electric arc, leaving not even a trace behind.

"This is a 'Spirit-Suppressing Lock'." Jiang Wanrou's expression changed slightly, and she stepped back half a pace. "It is specifically used to seal off Qi. If one tries to force the formation, the rebounding force is enough to shatter the inner core of a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator."

"Spirit-Suppressing?"

Gu Yan smiled and raised his right hand.

The spikes on his soul-shattering knuckles appeared exceptionally ferocious in the darkness.

He could feel the artifact spirit within the knuckles trembling with excitement, as if it had caught the scent of food.

"There is no such thing as a Spirit-Suppressing lock in this world, only hammers that aren't hard enough."

Gu Yan took a step forward. He didn't use any fancy Spell; he simply lowered his waist, planted his feet, and tensed the muscles in his right arm instantly, like a python ready to strike.

Boom!

He threw a punch.

The soul-shattering knuckles slammed heavily into the junction of two iron bars.

There was no expected rebound of Qi.

The moment the soul-shattering knuckles made contact with the grate, the red light on it seemed to encounter a black hole, frantically pouring into the interior of the knuckles.

"Screech—" A teeth-grinding sound of metal twisting rang out.

Under Gu Yan's monstrous strength, those two thigh-thick refined iron bars were forcibly bent, pulled, and finally snapped like two noodles.

[Ding! Recovered two pieces of high-purity 'Forbidden Spirit Iron'.]

[System Evaluation: This is a top-tier Material for refining Magic Treasures used to trap people. Don't waste it, dismantle it all and take it away.]

Gu Yan followed the advice readily. He grabbed the remaining grate with both hands and exerted force with his arms.

Snap, snap, snap! Another series of crisp sounds followed.

The once impenetrable "Spirit-Suppressing Lock" was violently dismantled into a pile of scrap iron by Gu Yan within a dozen seconds, revealing the deep, dark passage behind it.

"Let's go."

Gu Yan tossed the few pieces of spirit iron into his storage ring and crawled in first.

Jiang Wanrou looked at the pile of scrap metal twisted into a pretzel, swallowed hard, and quickly followed.

After crawling through the grate, the scene before them suddenly opened up.

This was a giant pipe with a diameter of fully three zhang, sloping downwards and extending into the depths of the darkness.

But what shocked Jiang Wanrou was not the size of the pipe, but the thick layer of crystalline, dark red crystals attached to the inner wall.

These crystals seemed to have a life of their own, emitting a faint fluorescent glow in the darkness, illuminating the entire passage like a dreamlike crystal palace.

"This… this is…"

Jiang Wanrou reached out. As soon as her fingertips touched a crystal, a burst of extremely pure blood energy surged through her finger and into her Meridians, causing the True Qi within her body to instantly boil.

"Blood Marrow Crystal!" she exclaimed involuntarily. "This is a treasure legendary to form only from the heart blood of a Tier 4 or higher Yao Beast after a thousand years of accumulation! A single piece is worth a fortune, and here… it is actually paved all over the ground?"

"Don't be so surprised."

Gu Yan held a dagger confiscated from a Lin family death warrior, scraping hard against the wall.

Crack.

A large piece of Blood Marrow Crystal was pried off by him and tossed into his storage ring.

"To a Soul Transformation powerhouse like Ancestor Blood River, these are merely 'waste' discharged during cultivation, trash washed away down the sewer."

Gu Yan didn't stop working, his movements so fast they left afterimages: "But for us, this is a pie falling from the sky."

[Host, the big one on the left! Yes! That purple-red one! That is 'Blood Essence Soul'! Dig it out quickly!]

[On the right! Don't throw away that black lump in the corner! That is thousand-year-old 'Sinking Evil Mud', using it to plant Spiritual Plants can double their medicinal efficacy!]

[Dig! Dig it all for me! The System space can still hold more! We are going to scrape this place until not even the wall skin is left!]

Gu Yan had completely activated "Locust Mode".

Wherever he passed, the once radiant pipe walls instantly became bare and dusty, as clean as a plate licked by a dog.

Watching this scene, Jiang Wanrou's cold and aloof image as the chief of the Pill Pavilion completely collapsed.

She gritted her teeth, pulled out a medicinal spade, and joined the excavation army.

No one could refuse the temptation of picking up money everywhere.

"Move faster." Gu Yan said without looking back while digging: "That old bastard Lin Canghai is probably already smashing the main gate. We must empty this place before he gets in."

Clang, clang. In the empty pipe, only the crisp sound of metal striking the rock wall remained.

A stick of incense later. The two stood at the end of the pipe.

It was sealed by an even finer golden filter screen.

Through the gaps in the filter, one could see a breathtakingly huge underground palace below.

In the center of the palace, a surging blood-colored river hovered in mid-air, circling a black altar.

Above the altar, a fist-sized bead was emitting a terrifying pressure that suppressed the heavens and earth.

blood river bead.

And in the direction of the palace's main gate, a huge roaring sound was constantly coming.

With every impact, the entire palace trembled slightly, and dust from the ceiling fell down in showers.

"They are about to break in." Jiang Wanrou put away her medicinal spade, looking at the magnificent scene below, her breathing a bit hurried.

Gu Yan, however, did not look at the bead.

He was looking through the filter screen, examining the layout inside the main hall.

A few huge stone pillars, a few dark corners, and a few floating bricks on the only path.

His eyes became deep, as if he were inspecting his own hunting ground.

"Jiang Wanrou." Gu Yan suddenly spoke, his voice kept very low. "Give me those bottles of 'yin thunder bead'."

Jiang Wanrou paused, then quickly took out three black jade bottles from her Storage Pouch: "These were refined using the Earth Pulse Evil Qi collected earlier; they are very unstable, and their power is equivalent to a full-strength strike from a Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator…"

"That's enough."

Gu Yan took the jade bottles and pulled out the modified version of the "Funeral Bell" from his bosom.

He looked at the gate below that was about to be broken open, and the corners of his mouth were finally no longer that business-like indifference, but pulled into a chilling arc.

"This place is nice; it's big enough and imposing enough."

Gu Yan gently pushed open the filter screen, as if opening the gates of Hell.

"It's just perfect to serve as a grave for a Golden Core Elder."

He leaped, like a black bat, sliding silently into the shadows of the main hall.

"Don't just stand there, come down and get to work. Whether it's a Golden Core or scrap iron, we are taking it all today."