Chapter 209: Magical Creatures in the Ditch
"Found it, that place is just..."
"Can you come out first? You look kind of creepy like that right now."
Li Yueqi frowned, looking at Zhang Ze's current appearance, indicating he didn't need to be so hasty.
"Oh, indeed, I'll come out right away."
At this time, the Profound Identification Treasure Mirror was lying flat on the table, with its surface rippling like water, revealing only Zhang Ze's head when he spoke to everyone.
At a glance, it looked like he had been decapitated and on display.
After pulling his entire body out from the mirror, Zhang Ze placed the Yun'er Root, which had already lost the aura of the Greedy Wolf Taoist, on the table.
Whether it was due to an issue with the Yun'er Root or the Greedy Wolf Taoist himself, after awakening from the dream in the Profound Identification, Zhang Ze only interrogated him for a short while before the Greedy Wolf Taoist went silent.
After the Greedy Wolf Taoist's Divine Soul dissipated, the Yun'er Root shed its golden color, turning into the color of soil, with the infant closing its eyes, curling into a ball.
Sleeping peacefully, without a trace of wickedness.
Little Fuji saw this and quietly sneaked over to Zhang Ze's side, wanting to sneak another bite.
"Don't eat it."
After stopping the little Fuji who intended to sneak a bite, the location of the valley was informed to Elder Han and the others.
Spirit Deer Valley to the west of Wolong Marsh.
Spirit Deer Valley, though named after Spirit Deer, contained no Spirit Beasts. Because the Earth Vein was severed by the peculiar peak there, compared to other locations on Dragon Viewing Mountain, the Spiritual Qi was sparse.
It's normal for the Beast Taming Sect to have overlooked this place during investigation.
"Let's go take a look, I'll inform Zhu Luo over there." Elder Han waved his hand, dissipating the water surface enveloping the room.
By now, the ground floor had been tidied up, and Lily and the others had been invited to the Beast Taming Sect as guests, presumably not causing any trouble.
But Zhang Ze still felt uneasy...
He took out a small walnut.
[Zhang Ze: While visiting others, try to be calm and don't bring shame to our Thousand Mechanism Pavilion and Sword Sect]
[Lily: Rest assured, boss, I promise to bring glory to our Thousand Mechanism Pavilion]
After admonishing Lily, Zhang Ze put away the small walnut, but suddenly thought of something else while passing the counter.
After the Greedy Wolf Taoist woke from the dream, Zhang Ze chatted with him for a while and extracted some secrets.
He also found out that the Greedy Wolf Taoist came here today for the well in the backyard.
What's in the well needs to be retrieved as soon as possible. After all, for an Evil Cultivator like the Greedy Wolf Taoist, it's unlikely anything good is hidden there, and leaving it might cause problems in the future.
Thinking of this, Zhang Ze stopped by the counter and said to the shopkeeper, who was still drinking to calm his nerves.
"Shopkeeper, there's a well in the backyard of your shop, right?"
"Yes, there is." The shopkeeper put down the wine glass, rubbed his face with his chubby hand, as if to calm himself down.
"What's in that well..."
"Are you talking about the treasure?"
Before Zhang Ze could finish, the chubby shopkeeper already understood.
"You know?"
"Yes, I knew when I took over this shop. There's a door below the well, and beyond the door is a passage, at the end is an array, and if you kick it, it lights up..."
"Kick? Light up?"
Hearing the shopkeeper say it so casually, Zhang Ze was taken aback.
"Yeah, the door too, I just fiddled with it a bit, gave it a kick, and the secret door opened."
"No traps on the door or in the passage?" Zhang Ze asked.
The shopkeeper shook his head in confusion.
Li Jue, hearing this, became curious. That was the Greedy Wolf Taoist's treasure hiding place, not some random cellar, how could one just walk in with secret doors and arrays opening with a kick?
Unconvinced, he slipped into the backyard, looked at the deep well connected to the Dark River, and jumped in.
Below the well was a structure similar to a qanat. Li Jue stood by the Dark River, looking around but couldn't find any trace of a secret door.
He took out a torch-like Magical Artifact from the Storage Ring.
The top of the Magical Artifact was carved with four Spirit Elephants, their heads facing the southeast and western directions.
Activating the artifact, the elephant heads raised their trunks, and golden light rippled through the air, revealing a well-hidden secret door in front of Li Jue.
Li Jue walked to the secret door, remembered the shopkeeper's words, and kicked it a couple of times...
A moment later.
Loud bangs echoed from the well in the backyard, shaking the house three times.
After a while.
Li Jue, clothes in tatters, returned to the hall, giving the chubby shopkeeper a thumbs up.
"Impressive, you've got quite the luck, don't go to the well in the backyard anymore, our Beast Taming Sect will send people to handle it."
The shopkeeper, seeing Li Jue's state, also felt a wave of fear and nodded repeatedly in agreement.
"What about the thing?" Zhang Ze asked.
"I sold it." The chubby shopkeeper blinked innocently.
"You sold it? But that's something from an Evil Cultivator." Although it was somewhat expected, Zhang Ze still found the chubby shopkeeper incredibly audacious.
"I sold it to your Beast Taming Sect." The chubby shopkeeper rubbed his hands nervously, "Ten years ago when you opened an auction house in the east of the city, which later closed down, I sold it back then."
After speaking, the shopkeeper took out an account book from under the counter, flipped to a page, and pointed to a record on it.
"You can check, I really sold it to you."
Seeing Zhang Ze's confusion, Li Jue whispered to him via Sound Transmission, "That was my father's, later closed because he often bought high and sold low, and lost interest, so it only lasted five years."
"And what did you do with the Spirit Stones and money from the sale?" Zhang Ze asked again.
Hearing this question, the shopkeeper felt a bit awkward, scratching the back of his head.
"I wanted to cultivate too, so I spent it all at the auction house again..."
The shopkeeper flipped another page of the account book, pointing to an item, "Please take a look."