45: Chapter 45 Silver Token

Spiritless Ruins, second floor.

Gu Shen's figure slowly solidified within the dense gray mist.

Light from the outside slanted in through the shattered giant glass windows, casting several white beams of light across the dust-covered refined iron floor. The air was extremely dry, carrying a scent of rust that had been stale for thousands of years.

Gu Shen kept his breathing extremely light. He did not activate the Wood Armor Technique on his body, relying only on the thousand-tough black silk armor worn against his skin for protection, thereby conserving the mana within his Dantian.

He bypassed the storage room for robes that had already been explored and crept along a wide corridor toward the other side of the second floor.

Based on his experience as a low-level Loose Cultivator, Sect storage rooms were often categorized. Since this side stored clothing, the other side was highly likely to store supplies or Medicinal Pill.

Passing through a collapsed load-bearing pillar.

The view ahead suddenly opened up.

Before his eyes were rows upon rows of extremely neat refined iron shelves. Unlike the iron shelves in the robe storage room, the shelves here were thicker, and each shelf was neatly stacked with countless square iron boxes.

"Found it."

Gu Shen's eyes brightened, and he stepped forward quickly.

He swung the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade. Without channeling thunder, relying solely on the sharpness of the Geng Metal Qi, he easily pried open an iron box with relatively little rust.

The lid opened.

Inside, two rows of cylindrical iron cans were neatly arranged, along with several crystal-clear glass bottles.

Gu Shen picked up an iron can and lightly slashed it with the tip of his blade.

The familiar salty, fishy aroma of meat wafted out. It was exactly the iron-sealed meat paste he used to replenish his Physical Body's blood and Qi. And those glass bottles contained pure, flawless drinking water.

"The Ancient Sect's methods for storing mundane food-abstaining items are truly astonishing. These iron boxes were all sealed with moisture-proof secret techniques, remaining uncorroded after the passage of time."

Gu Shen did not stand on ceremony and began to scavenge like a whirlwind sweeping away clouds.

For a full hour, he pried open over a dozen well-preserved iron boxes.

Looking at the small mountain piling up again in the corner of his storage ring, Gu Shen felt much more confident in his plans to lie low in Pingyang City.

Just as he was preparing to pry open the last, extremely huge refined iron cabinet.

Click.

A very faint, strange sound came from the shadows of the shelves behind him.

It sounded like some kind of hard claw scraping against iron skin.

Gu Shen paused but did not turn his head; his Divine Sense had already spread backward like a tidal wave.

Three zhang away, a monster nearly half a zhang long, covered in gray-black bone armor, was silently crouching on an iron box.

Its appearance resembled a mouse, but its snout grew saw-teeth like refined steel, and a pair of scarlet, mung-bean-sized eyes were greedily staring at Gu Shen.

In this Spiritless Ruins, without Spiritual Qi to nourish it, this incredibly tenacious monster survived by gnawing on discarded refined iron and leftover mundane food, its bones and teeth polished to extreme hardness.

Swish!

The mutated mouse exerted force with its four limbs, like a piece of black pig iron shot out, lunging straight for Gu Shen's neck. Its speed was so fast that it even created a sonic boom in the air.

Gu Shen's eyes were cold; he did not turn around, merely pinching a Spell gesture with his left hand.

"Solidify!"

Mana in his Dantian spun, and a layer of cyan wood armor covered in ancient tree patterns instantly appeared on his body. Wood Armor Technique cast instantly!

Bang!

The mutated mouse's sharp incisors bit fiercely into the wood armor on the back of Gu Shen's neck.

The wood armor emitted a teeth-grinding friction sound, the cyan light flickering violently, and two half-inch deep white marks were bitten into the surface, but it firmly blocked this fatal blow.

"Nice teeth, but a pity you can't break my defense."

Gu Shen sneered. Borrowing the force of the collision, his figure slid forward violently, then he turned and drew his saber.

Clang!

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade left its sheath.

The Qi Refinement Level 6 mana within his body surged wildly, and on the blade, the deep blue thunder patterns instantly erupted with blinding electric light.

"Die!"

Gu Shen gripped the saber with both hands, executing an unadorned upward slash.

Sizzle—!

The thunderous saber aura tore through the air, precisely striking the abdomen of the mutated mouse that had nowhere to gain leverage in mid-air.

That hard gray-black bone armor shattered like paper under the dual strangulation of Geng Metal and thunder magnetism. The long saber passed through its body, cleaving this peak Tier 1 Yao Beast directly into two!

Foul-smelling black blood mixed with entrails spilled onto the ground.

Residual thunder and lightning power roamed over the corpse, burning it charred black.

The battle ended.

Gu Shen dissipated the Wood Armor Technique from his body and sheathed his long saber. With his current strength, dealing with such evil spirits was an absolute suppression; he didn't even need to use the black turtle shield or the Soul-Shocking Spike.

He walked to the severed corpse and pressed one hand down.

In his Sea of Consciousness, the [Heaven and Earth Furnace]'s phantom fire curled.

[Refining complete. Obtained: one drop of essence white dew (inferior), one pair of Iron-Eater Mouse incisors.]

He stored the essence white dew and the Yao Beast Materials into his storage ring. These Iron-Eater Mouse incisors were incredibly hard; they would be excellent auxiliary Materials if he ever needed to forge needle-type hidden weapons in the future.

After cleaning up the battlefield, Gu Shen's gaze crossed that pool of black blood and landed behind the huge refined iron cabinet where the Iron-Eater Mouse had been lurking.

There, something seemed wrong.

Gu Shen walked over and kicked away the iron sheet blocking his path.

A withered corpse sitting cross-legged appeared in his line of sight.

Although the robes on this corpse had weathered away, judging from the remaining material and gold thread embroidery, its status while alive was definitely not low, far exceeding that of the steward he had seen in the robe storage room earlier.

What caught Gu Shen's attention even more was the cause of death of this corpse.

The corpse's sternum was completely collapsed, presenting an extremely bizarre charred state. On the surrounding refined iron floor, there also remained a circular, radial charred mark.

"Lightning strike?"

Gu Shen's pupils constricted slightly.

This fatal wound was clearly the mark left by being hit head-on by an extremely violent thunder Spell.

In his mind, he instantly flashed back to the architectural Formation map he had seen on the wall earlier, as well as the striking lightning symbol at the very bottom level.

"Why would a high-ranking Disciple die in a storage room for mundane food-abstaining items? And be killed by thunder magic, at that?"

Gu Shen crouched down and carefully examined the corpse.

In the Cultivation World, the destruction of a Sect usually came down to two things: invasion by external enemies or internal mutiny.

All signs in this Spiritless Ruins indicated that there were no traces of a large-scale Sect-protecting Formation being breached here. Instead, everywhere revealed an eerie, abrupt ending.

Gu Shen's gaze fell on the corpse's tightly clenched right hand.

There, it held a silver token that was neither gold nor jade.

Gu Shen used the tip of his saber to pry open the withered finger bones of the corpse and took the silver token into his hand.

The token was extremely heavy, with no patterns on its surface, only an extremely fine, lightning-like groove.

[Discovered incomplete mechanism token. No Spiritual Qi fluctuation. Contains weak magnetism. Cannot be refined.]

The Great Furnace gave feedback.

"Cannot be refined, which means this thing itself is not a spiritual material, but some kind of key to open a Formation or hub."

Gu Shen examined the silver token in his hand.

The lightning groove on this key was exactly the same as the lightning symbol on the ruins' underground Formation map!

A hidden clue gradually became clear in Gu Shen's mind.

The destruction of this Ancient Sect of mechanisms was highly likely related to the massive thunder-magnetic hub beneath the ruins.

This high-ranking Disciple, perhaps holding the key to open the hub, had tried to hide in this storage room when the rebellion or disaster broke out, only to be pursued and killed by something terrifying.

"This token is the key to going underground in the ruins."

Gu Shen solemnly stored it in his storage ring.

He did not intend to explore the underground space right now. Although he had the clue, with his Qi Refinement Level 6 cultivation, touching such core secrets that caused the Sect's destruction was tantamount to throwing an egg against a rock.

"When I push my cultivation to Late-Stage Qi Refining in Pingyang City and fully master stronger trump cards, I will come back to open this gate of thunder."

Gu Shen stood up and looked around.

The supplies on the second floor had been mostly scavenged.

Rations were sufficient, and the clue was in hand.

He did not linger. With a thought, gray mist surged out from his Sea of Consciousness, completely swallowing his body.

Returning to Pingyang City, he had to go and see what kind of trickery was hidden behind that scent of Cultivator blood drifting in the mundane city.