Chapter 169: The Ancient Sunken Ship

Unbeknownst to all, a month slowly passed.

The Aolai Archipelago appeared remarkably tranquil. The various immortal villages were seizing the time to digest the resources of their main and branch islands, rapidly developing their overall strength and expanding their fleets of battle warships. Occasional friction existed only as minor clashes between immortal villages, falling far short of triggering a full-scale war.

Every village lord understood that this was a tense period of preparation, a time to grasp every single day to strengthen their own immortal village.

Once those formidable immortal villages were fully prepared, a war that would shake the entire Aolai Sea region would erupt.

With the prosperity of the Aolai Sea region, rogue cultivators also began to pour in large numbers, eager to earn spiritual stones in this new domain and seek opportunities for cultivation and growth.

These rogue cultivators practically scoured the entire Aolai Sea region, searching for any possible avenue to acquire spiritual stones.

If each immortal village could be viewed as a stronghold established by human cultivators in the Aolai Sea region, then the rogue cultivators were the tentacles extending outward from each stronghold.

Though individually weak in strength and extracting only modest nutrients, these tentacles possessed the advantage of massive numbers.

They traded the nutrients they harvested with various immortal villages through commerce, which thus flowed into the Immortal City Alliance.

Although the entire world of immortal cultivation was dominated by the Immortal City Alliance, the rogue cultivators also made tremendous contributions to the alliance's development, serving as an indispensable force.

The central district of the Aolai Archipelago.

On this day, near an ordinary immortal village known as the Zhu Clan Immortal Village, there stood an unassuming island.

A hunting party composed of three Qi-condensation stage rogue cultivators was pursuing an extremely cunning spirit beast, a sea badger, on this island.

This type of fierce beast was small in size, weighing only several dozen catties even when fully grown, and possessed a strength of merely the first tier. However, it had a keen sense of smell and possessed a mystical art capable of locating spiritual treasures. The rune seals of this mystical art were exceedingly rare in the marketplace and could fetch a handsome price.

"Second brother, catch it! Don't let it slip away!"

A tall, burly man holding a dark iron fork kept his eyes locked on the sea badger dozens of yards ahead, speaking in a low voice.

The sea badger, adorned with pale blue fur, sprinted frantically through the brush, heading toward a sturdy young cultivator who lay in ambush in the vegetation to the left.

The cultivator hidden deep within the grass instantly tightened his expression. Wielding a Heavenly Silkworm Spirit Net, he lunged forward to cast it over the sea badger.

Seeing the Heavenly Silkworm Spirit Net descending from above, the sea badger let out a squeak and violently pushed off the ground with its sturdy and powerful limbs.

The burly man immediately hurled the dark iron fork in his hand.

The tiny, beastly body of the sea badger abruptly shot forward. At a hair-raising moment, it slid past the edge of the Heavenly Silkworm Spirit Net, executed a nimble turn to evade the swiftly hurtling dark iron fork, and fled deep into the rocky island.

"Damn it, it got away! Third brother, pursue it! Don't let it run too far!"

Before the sturdy cultivator could express his vexation, the burly man shouted harshly.

Beside him stood a short, thin cultivator who instantly erupted with astonishing speed, chasing after the beast at once.

This man was the fastest cultivator in their three-man rogue hunting party, having cultivated the wind-attribute Wind Control Technique.

The three cultivators and the beast chased each other across the rocky island, which spanned over ten miles.

Gradually, the two slightly slower cultivators were left far behind.

A short while later, panting heavily after running several miles, the two finally caught up to the short, thin cultivator.

The short, thin cultivator was guarding a cave entrance about half a yard wide at the foot of a hill. Seeing the other two arrive, he pulled a wry face and said, "Eldest brother, second brother, we lost it. This beast burrowed into this cave. The cave is very deep; when I dropped a stone down, I could hear the sound of water. It very likely connects to the ocean. It might have escaped into the sea!"

The burly man hurriedly peered in, picked up a stone from the ground, and hurled it forcefully inside. After a long while, a dull splash of water echoed, and his expression immediately turned one of disappointment.

It seemed it really did connect to the sea.

Sea badgers excelled in water; once submerged, it would be exceptionally difficult to capture them again.

The three of them had ambushed here for several days, finally waiting for it to appear, yet unfortunately failed to catch it.

To three Qi-condensation stage cultivators, this sea badger represented a not-insignificant fortune. Normally, when hunting fierce beasts, they usually encountered things like sea-monster snakes and sea-monster fish, which yielded very few spiritual stones.

The young cultivator slapped his forehead in vexation, his expression full of regret. "Blame me. I failed to catch it in one net."

The burly man, acting as the leader of the team, sighed and comforted him, "Second brother, you cannot entirely blame yourself either. The sea badger is simply too difficult to catch; even if I had made the move, I might not have caught it. Our main issue is that there are too few of us. Trying to capture such a nimble minor fierce beast with just three people is simply too difficult."

The short, thin cultivator also chimed in, "Eldest brother is right. I am a wind-attribute cultivator, and even with the Wind Control Technique, I couldn't catch this little thing. It's just too hard."

The three cultivators looked toward the deep cave and exchanged wry smiles.

"Forget it, let us brothers rest for a moment, and later we can go hunt ordinary fierce beasts instead. Although the harvest won't be much, it has the advantage of being easy."

The burly man was someone who knew how to let go of things. A moment later, he regained his composure, persuaded his two companions, and walked off to the side, finding a spot near the cave entrance to sit down and rest.

Unexpectedly, the moment he sat down, he paused slightly, his gaze falling upon a blackened object buried in the soil, which appeared to resemble some sort of fragment.

"Eh? Is this a magical tool fragment?"

The burly man picked it up, rubbed it carefully between both hands, finding it exceptionally hard yet feeling not the slightest trace of magical power aura. He could not help feeling somewhat surprised and said with uncertainty.

The other two cultivators were startled and immediately crowded over.

The short, thin cultivator took it and felt it, noting its abnormal hardness. He said with pleasant surprise, "It looks like a magical tool fragment indeed."

"A magical tool fragment? It's impossible for it to have no lingering aura of magical power..."

The burly man was puzzled.

"Let me try."

The sturdy youth directly drew his spirit sword and slashed down with a force of over a thousand catties, producing a resounding clang.

The result was astonishing: the small fragment remained completely unscathed, not even leaving a single mark.

"It really is a magical tool fragment!"

"This is something only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage or above could possibly use. A fierce battle must have been fought here by Foundation Establishment cultivators for such fragments to be left behind!"

"With such a fierce battle, perhaps a high-tier cultivator died here, leaving behind some belongings... What if? We'd be set for life!"

The three exchanged glances, their faces blooming with frantic joy.

Whatever a Foundation Establishment cultivator casually left behind would be more than enough for these lowly Qi-condensation rogue cultivators to strike a massive windfall.

"Search carefully and see what else is nearby."

The burly man immediately commanded.

All three were experienced rogue cultivators who knew well that this was by no means wishful thinking.

The history of the East China Sea region was exceedingly long, and countless cultivators had engaged in battles against sea-monster cultivators there.

On certain islands in the East Sea, people occasionally discovered remnants left behind by cultivators. Discovering ruins was not uncommon either. It was simply that ruins were rather perilous, and few cultivators dared to venture inside.

They searched near the cave entrance, gradually moving deep into the cave. After searching for a full half-shichen, they discovered two or three more small fragments.

Although these magical tool fragments were sufficiently hard, they had lost the spiritual energy of magical tools and were ultimately worth very little.

Yet they were not discouraged and continued their search with great patience.

By evening, the three of them discovered some unusual marks on a stone wall deep within the cave.

Prying away the rocks, a decayed and tattered skeleton appeared before them.

"Indeed, a dead cultivator!"

The burly man was pleasantly surprised. Picking up the dark iron fork in his hand, he cautiously rummaged through the skeleton, fishing out a grayish cloth pouch from its waist.

All three were overjoyed.

The moment the cloth pouch was touched, it crumbled away.

The burly man instantly wore a wry smile.

Under the gazes of the other two, he fished out a few items that had completely lost their spiritual energy, including a jade bottle that had lost its luster. Upon opening it, the pills inside had already turned to powder.

There was also a dagger magical tool, but due to the passage of time and poor preservation, its spiritual nature was entirely lost.

"When on earth was this skeleton left behind? The magical tool has actually lost its spiritual nature entirely! Ordinary magical tools, even after a thousand years, might not necessarily lose their spiritual nature."

The young cultivator stared in astonishment.

Of course, if a magical tool were completely sealed and preserved without spiritual energy leakage, it could still be preserved for a very long time.

"Eh... What is this?"

The short, thin cultivator picked up a flat stone from the ground and noticed that dense characters had been carved onto it using a magical tool.

"Previously obeying an imperial decree, I followed senior cultivators to escort a ship of supplies to the frontline immortal city. After sailing for three months and passing through the waters of the Aolai Archipelago, we were suddenly attacked by sea-monster cultivators. Although all cultivators on board resisted tenaciously, we could not avoid defeat and destruction.

"The ship sank. I fought my way out of the encirclement amidst the chaos and fled to this place to evade the pursuit of the sea-monster cultivators. My injuries have acted up, and my time is running out. I specially record this matter, hoping the finder will swiftly deliver this news to the Heaven Dao Alliance and not delay military affairs!"

After reading, the three cultivators looked at each other in dismay.

This was actually the remains of a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the ancient Heaven Dao Alliance era.

Regarding matters of the ancient immortal cultivation world, the three minor Qi-condensation rogue cultivators had all heard rumors.

That was an event from over ten thousand years ago; by now, the Heaven Dao Alliance had long since dissolved, and there was nowhere to deliver this news.

The burly man was the first to snap back to reality. "Let's re-bury this senior so he can rest in peace."

Filled with a sense of respect, the three worked together to place the skeleton back into the collapsed stone cave, covering it once more with soil and rocks.

"Wait... He said above that the ship transporting supplies sank? Doesn't that mean all those supplies were left behind in this sea region?"

The burly man suddenly paused.

"That's right! That ancient ship sank, and this cultivator fled heavily injured to this island to hide from pursuit; he certainly couldn't have fled too far!"

"Eldest brother, do you mean that sunken ship might be nearby?"

The gazes of all three cultivators lit up brilliantly.

If they could find that ship, there might be a massive harvest. Although most supplies could not endure for ten thousand years, if sealed exceptionally well, they might not have lost their spiritual energy yet.

Once found, the three of them could instantly become wealthy tycoons and never need to fret over cultivation resources again.

"Mmm, I estimate it's in the waters near this island. Let's go rent a small fishing boat and thoroughly search the surrounding dozens of miles of sea."

The burly man said resolutely.

The other two raised no objections. The three immediately departed, heading toward the nearest Zhu Clan Immortal Village to rent a small fishing boat.