Chapter 401: Chapter 226: Acquiring Treasure Again; Divine Weapon Refining Technique

Cheng Zongyang gave a slight nod at the Mole Beast’s response.

He checked it over and saw that it was still faintly breathing, realizing the Mole Beast had held back. The creature’s body was covered in claw marks, clearly inflicted by the Mole Beast.

Its injuries were extremely severe.

Without even needing to appraise it, Cheng Zongyang could guess this creature was an Exotic Beast. He immediately stored it in the Wilderness World and handed it over to Zhang Jinquan to deal with. He then told Luo Dingran to get ready.

Reemerging, he slowly walked to the edge of the pool, observing his surroundings as he went.

The surrounding area was flat, and there were no other footprints. ’But that makes sense,’ he thought. ’With this huge creature guarding the water, what animal would dare approach?’

Any that got close likely became its next meal.

"The treasure is down there, isn’t it?" Cheng Zongyang asked the Mole Beast, no longer paying attention to his surroundings.

"GRUNT GRUNT." The Mole Beast snorted twice but showed no intention of getting closer. It was clearly afraid of the water.

Seeing this, Cheng Zongyang no longer hesitated. "Wait for me here," he said. "I’m going down to take a look."

But to be safe, he first entered the marketplace hut to retrieve the dagger he had previously found in the cave.

It was also a graded Divine Weapon. Although it couldn’t compare to his Tang Blade, it had the advantage of being small and easy to carry.

SPLOOSH! Cheng Zongyang held his breath and dove in.

He circulated True Qi to his eyes, sharpening his vision and staying alert to his surroundings.

He also noticed that the walls of the pool were extremely smooth, a clear sign that it wasn’t a natural formation.

He continued to descend, paying no mind to the depth. When he reached the bottom, he discovered a bed of countless animal skeletons. Many of the bones were shattered. ’The fish must have eaten these,’ he thought.

Cheng Zongyang frowned. Not knowing if the treasure was buried at the bottom, he could only steel himself and begin turning over the bones.

After turning over the entire mountain-like pile of bones, he immediately saw several exposed chests.

At that moment, Cheng Zongyang’s eyes lit up. He also noticed that the chests were all still intact, which would make it much easier for him to collect them.

He also discovered that these chests were not made of wood, but metal. For them to have not rusted after so long meant this was no ordinary metal.

As Cheng Zongyang stored the chests one by one in the Wilderness World, he gradually discovered that they had all been neatly arranged and stacked.

This confirmed that the pool had been created by the people of the Huangfu Family. They had dug the pool, placed the treasure, filled it with water, and finally, even released an Exotic Beast to guard it.

At this thought, Cheng Zongyang’s hand suddenly paused. He remembered the Exotic Beast python by the stream outside the cave.

’Could the Huangfu Family have placed that snake there, too? No, that can’t be right. If they stationed it there as a guard, why did it flee?’

Cheng Zongyang couldn’t figure it out, so he stopped dwelling on it and refocused on collecting the chests.

As the chests vanished one by one, Cheng Zongyang mentally kept a count.

A few minutes later, all the chests at the bottom of the pool were gone. He made another careful inspection and did, in fact, find a few human skeletons.

But the bones were scattered about in disarray. Even their Armor had been shattered into pieces.

This situation confused Cheng Zongyang. The remains had clearly been destroyed. Upon inspection, he discovered bite marks on the Armor pieces.

Then he understood.

In the end, he found some Weapons, but nothing else of note.

He wasn’t sure if anything else was mixed in with the bones, but there were too many to search through piece by piece. Seeing nothing else of value, he reluctantly swam back to the surface.

He was soaking wet. As he circulated the energy in his body, the water on his skin evaporated, enveloping him in a swirling cloud of steam.

He stared at the pool, his brow deeply furrowed.

He had been looking for what the guards were carrying. They should have had Demon Beast Bones on them, but the fish had destroyed their skeletons, and he couldn’t find the items. This was incredibly frustrating.

’Demon Beast Bones worth ten thousand Points, or even more!’

As for the beast hide with the map on it, he figured it had probably decomposed by now.

’Wait.’ A thought suddenly occurred to Cheng Zongyang. ’What if the fish attacked and ate them *after* they were already dead? In that case, could it have swallowed the Demon Beast Bones?’

But then he remembered that the aura from a Demon Beast Bone could repel animals. ’Would this fish have dared to get close?’

’Or could it be that the fish evolved to the Mutant Beast Level precisely because it swallowed the Demon Beast Bone?’

The Flame Mist Python he had encountered before had also undergone a Mutation under the influence of a Fiery Sun Bird.

Mulling over this possibility, Cheng Zongyang took the Mole Beast and entered the Wilderness World.

Inside the hut, the people Luo Dingran had assigned were rapidly moving things outside. Water leaked from the large metal chests, leaving the hut’s floor covered in puddles.

Cheng Zongyang didn’t pay it any mind; the hut had an automatic cleaning function, so there was no need to worry.

Cheng Zongyang first took the Mole Beast to the apothecary, gave it a bottle of Red Blood Pills, and told it to rest outside. He would have to put it to work later on the hard labor of expanding the Water Rat Field.

By the time he returned, all the chests had been moved to the open space outside. There were thirty-six in total.

"Open them! Open them!" Cheng Zongyang could barely suppress his excitement.

The Soul Slaves took their blades and hacked all the locks open. As the chests were opened one by one, gold and silver ingots, caked in mud and water, were revealed.

The sight of chest after chest of gold and silver made Cheng Zongyang’s eyes shine.

But his gaze quickly swept past the gold and silver, moving on to the other chests being opened.