Volcanic Age

"It's alright if you don't call me that," Zhuge Shengji said, his shoulders drooping.

"Hm, then I will. Anyway, by the time I got back home, I had lost all my siblings as well as my father. Luckily, my mother was still alive, and I wasn't left orphaned. However, my mother was too old and had become sick, so… it's a common story, really."

Despite being a wanderer on the level of First Class, he hadn't saved much money. He had spent it all on weapons or wine.

Being a wanderer meant never settling down. They lived without knowing when they might die, so unless in special circumstances, they spent all their money without saving any.

Wang Yi needed money for medical diagnosis and medicine, but both were expensive. Just as he was despairing about what to do, Li Yicai approached him with an offer.

"I had a son and a daughter, but both of them were afflicted by a rare disease. My deceased husband was also rather weak, perhaps due to his lineage. They've improved a bit now, but earlier, they couldn't even take a few steps outside the door. That's why I need quite a lot of money," Chu Lian said, smiling softly as she rubbed the decoration on her sword.

The cultivators thought of their mothers after seeing her.

"Wow, everyone here's been through something similar. I have a sister like that."

They began sharing their own stories.

"My sister's legs are crippled, so I have to look after her my whole life. My luck with women is pretty much doomed at this point, so I've decided to care for her my whole life."

"Someone I love was sold off to a guy with a not-so-good fetish. I was worried about her and went to see her, but she was in a coma. So I cut off that guy's crotch and ran away with the woman I love in the night. The head merchant is the one who took us in."

"Good job."

"What you did was a good thing."

"Well done."

Everyone applauded when they heard that he cut off that rapist's manhood.

"Well, enough of the boring talk. Let's get up." Wang Yi chuckled, rising to his feet. Contrary to what he said though, he seemed somewhat pleased.

"Haha, you're gonna make the kid cry." Chu Lian laughed, pointing at Zhuge Shengji, who appeared to be on the verge of tears.

He's a good kid.

Zhuge Shengji was a genius when it came to mechanisms. He may have seemed cocky at first, but he wasn't a bad person.

Zhou Xuchuan felt it was a shame that such a person was later exploited by his family and died alone.

But it'll be different in this life, he thought as he looked at Zhuge Shengji.

*

The group continued their investigation. When they walked past the passage where they fought the bronze puppets, they didn't find any rewards like they did with the wooden puppets.

Instead, there were traps that were left for Zhuge Shengji to handle while everyone moved forward calmly.

"Oh!"

Zhou Xuchuan couldn't remember precisely, but about four hours had passed. They seemed to finally be rewarded for triggering and dismantling numerous traps, as they came across a reward.

This time, they were in a room filled with both silver and gold coins, the light reflecting off them was almost blinding.

Taking their time, the group admired the scene and looked around. They had learned their lesson to wait for Zhuge Shengji to speak before taking any action.

"Hm, don't touch that one and that one, and this one's okay, and so is that one and that one."

Zhuge Shengji pointed out, gesturing toward a few hills of coins. When he did, Wang Yi stepped up and marked them with stones.

"Are we not going to take those?"

Lee San, one of the cultivators, pointed to a luminescent light pearl on the ceiling. Luminescent pearls emitted their own light and were quite expensive.

Although they were only as bright as candles, they were in high demand from wealthy families and people in official positions.

They were purely used for luxury to display how much authority or wealth one had.

"It's better to take gold bars instead. The pearls are light but take up too much space," Zhou Xuchuan suggested.

"Okay."

Although there weren't many, gold bars were among the gold coins and silver coins. The group focused on taking gold bars.

"Oh! Captain!" Chu Lian exclaimed, spotting something.

Zhou Xuchuan approached. "Did you find something?"

Last time, he had found a chest of spiritual medicine among the mountains of silver coins. Thinking about that made him anticipate what they might find this time.

"There seems to be something inside, but I haven't opened it yet." Chu Lian shrugged and pulled out a chest the size of a human torso from the mountain of gold coins. The chest itself was also made of gold.

"Sheng."

Zhou Xuchuan called Zhuge Shengji to check if it was safe to open. Zhuge Shengji scurried over and had a look at the chest. After a thorough inspection of the chest, Zhuge Shengji confirmed there were no traps.

"How do we open it?"

The chest was locked. They searched for keys, but they didn't find anything.

Zhou Xuchuan genuinely considered using sword qi to force it open.

"Tsk, tsk. This is the problem with reckless people."

Zhuge Shengji clicked his tongue, rummaging through his bag before taking out a metal wire.

"For something like this…"

He inserted the wire inside the keyhole of the chest and probed around. Soon enough, the chest was open.

"What a skilled thief."

"Even the Three-Eyed Godly Thief would be impressed by your skills."

The cultivators were surprised by what Zhuge Shengji did.

"Where did you learn something like that?" Zhou Xuchuan couldn't help but ask.

"I didn't learn it. Locks are a type of mechanism as well. If you put a wire in there and poke around, it'll open."

"Easy for you to say…" Chu Lian muttered, amazed. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Then let's see what's inside, shall we?" Zhou Xuchuan said, his voice filled with anticipation as he opened the chest.

"Oho."

Inside were four old-looking books and a chest similar to the wooden one he had seen before, along with an elegant-looking sword.

This is a huge jackpot!

A smile spread across his face, his gaze fixed on the books. The items at the top of the priority list to take from the treasury were martial arts manuals and spiritual medicine.

Let's see, let's have a look at the medicine first..

Clack-

As soon as he opened the wooden chest, the distinct smell of spiritual medicine wafted in his nose. The smell was considerably thicker than the ones he discovered before.

"Hup!" Zhou Xuchuan momentarily forgot to breathe after seeing the contents of the chest.

There were numerous pills inside, but it wasn't their quantity that surprised him. It was the characters engraved on the inside of the wooden chest.

Lesser Circulation Pills!

Spiritual medicine was split into naturally occurring medicine and manmade medicine. The Lesser Circulation Pills belonged to the latter. Not only that, these pills were concocted by the Shaolin Temple, who was also called the head of the northern region.

Although these couldn't be compared to the almighty Greater Circulation Pills, the Lesser Circulation Pills were far from mediocre. Consuming it would boost one's qi by about twenty years, which alone was a huge boon. Moreover, as the Shaolin Temple didn't concoct many of these pills, their value was exceptionally high.

The Lesser Circulation Pills were only bestowed to monks of the Shaolin Temple who had made significant contributions to the temple or had exceptional cultivation talent.

Additionally, the temple sometimes used them to settle debts or fulfill requests instead of money.

Here, there weren't just one or two, but ten Lesser Circulation Pills. If news of this got out, there would be a bloodstorm. Unless a huge crisis were to occur in the martial world, the Hundred and Eight Arhats of the temple would make a move themselves.

Just how audacious was he?

He quickly closed the chest before others could see it. Shivers ran down his spine.

Stealing the Lesser Circulation Pills was equivalent to declaring war on the Shaolin Temple, and becoming enemies with the Shaolin Temple meant becoming public enemy number one in the Orthodox Faction.

"Hehehe."

He was taken aback by the discovery of the Lesser Circulation Pills, but he was also very happy. He couldn't help but grin.

"Thanks, Three-Eyed Godly Thief. I mean it."

He felt like the preparations he made were finally paying off. He was agitated, thinking about returning with ten Lesser Circulation Pills.

"Hahaha!"

In the end, he couldn't hold back his laughter. His laughter was heartier than ever.

"Yes, this is it! THIS IS IT!"

In the case of the first chest he obtained, he knew it contained spiritual medicine, but he didn't know what they were, so he didn't think much about it. He planned to have them appraised later by someone who was well-versed in spiritual medicine.

He almost wondered if he had to do the same for these. However, what emerged exceeded his expectations. He couldn't help but burn with excitement.

"Captain Zhou looks like he has gone crazy," Chu Lian said.

"I don't know what's in there, but do you think you'll be able to stay sane after seeing all of this around us?" another cultivator replied.

"Hm." Chu Lian pondered briefly.

"That's just it? It looks like our Captain Zhou is really not that greedy. Did he see a lot of those things?" She added.

"Let's see." Zhou Xuchuan placed the chest in the luggage and examined the books he assumed were martial arts manuals. Despite their yellowed covers, he managed to make out the letters.

Agile Sword Art.

Ten Thousand Divergence Art.

Gale Steps.

Eclipse Divine Archery Art.

"Ehehe." Zhou Xuchuan chuckled unpleasantly, his eyes gleaming with greed.

Finally, I finally got them!

There were a few treasures he had been determined to obtain from the treasury. He got two of them here. They were the Ten Thousand Divergence Art and the Eclipse Divine Archery Art.

The martial arts of the Bow God!

Throughout martial world history, few titles contained "Godly/God/Divine". The Bow God was one of them.

Although he was a figure from so long ago that he was nearly forgotten now, his title was a legend passed down to this day.

The martial world had all sorts of different martial arts. However, bow arts were undervalued. They were considered to be even worse than poison arts and hidden weapons.

Bow and arrows weren't threatening to cultivators at all. As long as they could check the archer's line of sight, and the moment the arrow leaves the bowstring, they would be able to evade the arrow with their footwork techniques.

Not only that, as long as they could evade the first arrow, anything after that wasn't a problem. They could approach the archer at full speed before the archer could fire another one.

However, the person who changed that perception was the Bow God.

The Bow God's archery skills were on another whole new level. Although legends were bound to be exaggerated, a single arrow from his bow was apparently strong enough to split the Yangtze River in two and destroy cliffs.

Also, according to the legends, evading his arrow once wasn't enough, the arrow would circle around to hit the target again, which led to one hundred percent accuracy.

The Bow God's martial art was the Eclipse Divine Archery Art, and this martial art would one day be revived by a certain organization, instilling fear into the hearts of numerous cultivators of the world. The power it displayed was not an exaggerated legend.

And… the Ten Thousand Divergence Art!

From its name, it might sound like some trivial, third-rate martial art. However, if Zhou Xuchuan was asked to choose between the Eclipse Divine Archery At and the Ten Thousand Divergence Art, he would choose the latter without hesitation.

"Let's see, the others are…"

He placed the books in his luggage and grabbed the sword. The sword smoothly fell out of its sheathe.

"Oho."

When he tried placing his hand near the blade, he could feel a chill.

"Frostedge, huh?"

"Frostedge? Did you just say Frostedge?"

Wang Yi asked, surprised.

"If it's the famed sword Frostedge that you're thinking of, then yes."

Zhou Xuchuan put his original sword in the chest and put Frostedge on his waist. He felt reassured.

"Did the Three-Eyed Godly Thief steal the world?" Wang Yi exclaimed in disbelief.