“Come on, what’s the rush?” Chen Jingzhai asked as he rubbed his chin. “I wonder, though, how much the white lotus seeds can be sold for? What do I have to pay if I want them?”
“These white lotus seeds are from a Grade 4 magic lotus. It can be used to create the Lotus Potion,” the Golden Sage Core from Elixir Peak replied. “Although we don’t sell the seeds to outsiders at Elixir Peak, two seeds can be exchanged for a beginner-grade magic treasure.”
“What about three seeds?”
“Three are enough for an Intermediate Grade magic treasure. If you have three, you can hand in two to the clan and keep one or exchange it for one high-grade spiritual item.”
“I see.” Chen Jingzhai nodded and turned to Elder Qin. “Senior Brother Qin, is it possible for me to keep all three seeds?”
“It’s impossible.” The elder shook his head. “The rule states that part of the gains from the secret zone belong to the clan. So the peaks act as a medium to help gather all of them.”
“That’s a bummer,” Chen Jingzhai sighed. “I thought I could keep a lot of stuff since we managed to find a lot of treasures in the secret zone. But, well, the rule is the rule, and I can’t do anything about it.”
The boy then approached Cui Chengen and took his storage bag out.
Cui Chengen took the storage bag and started to take everything in it out for everyone to see.
“Eight sets of ingredients for Foundation Establishment Elixir.” Cui Chengen took the herbs out first. “Do you want to keep them?”
“How many can I keep?”
“Normally, the clan will get five sets while you can keep the remaining three,” Cui Chengen said. “But, Master-Uncle, you can keep five sets first and replace the other two sets with other things.”
“I see. Then, I’ll take five.” Chen Jingzhai grinned.
Cui Chengen nodded and gave five sets of ingredients to Chen Jingzhai before taking out the carcass of the Black Ice Dolphin.
“A Grade 3 demonic beast, the Black Ice Dolphin. There’s only half of its carcass, and I found a bone sword in it.”
“Hold up!” Feng Liuyun shouted. “I clearly saw Master-Uncle take the whole carcass by the river. So why is there only half of it left?”
“I was bored in the secret zone, so I used its blood and flesh to try and create some elixirs,” Chen Jingzhai explained. “I then tried to create an item. Thus, there’s the bone sword over there.”
“That’s not a problem,” Sage Cui said. “We only check what is in the storage bag and don’t care where they came from or what happened in the secret zone.”
Feng Liuyun’s face turned red immediately from embarrassment, and he quickly lowered his head.
The face of the Sage from Divine Cloud Peak remained expressionless as if the matter did not bother him.
“I see. Then, I’ll keep the bone sword,” Chen Jingzhai requested.
“Will do. This will be enough to cover the two sets of ingredients you took.”
“Isn’t the carcass more valuable than the two sets of ingredients?” Chen Jingzhai asked as he put the bone sword back.
“Yes, you have two options. You can either get more ingredients, or the clan can pay for the remaining carcass with spiritual stones.”
“I’ll take the ingredients then.”
Cui Chengen nodded and handed the remaining ingredients back to his Master-Uncle.
The rest were some Grade 2 spirit plants, herbs, and a handful of Grade 3 items.
Since none of them were as valuable as the white lotus seeds, Chen Jingzhai decided to let Cui Chengen determine what to do with the rest.
Lin Feiyang and Feng Liuyun could only watch in despair as most of those spirit plants and herbs were originally theirs.
Feng Liuyun’s eyes turned red when Cui Chengen took out three white lotus seeds from the bag.
“Is there a way to exchange these?” Chen Jingzhai asked.
“You’ll be able to get one at the most since any Grade 4 item is considered a priceless treasure. We’ll have to give the rest to the clan.”
Chen Jingzhai sighed and signaled for Cui Chengen to continue.
Next were more than 100 Essence Power Pearls.
The sheer number of the pearls was more than enough to make people drool, and even the Golden Core Sages couldn’t hold themselves back.
It was hard for one to get their hands on the Essence Power Pearl. It was rare, and even a Golden Core Sage could benefit from it.
Naturally, Chen Jingzhai took all of them since he didn’t have to submit them to the clan.
When Cui Chengen took out a mirror next, Elder Qin suddenly opened his eyes.
“This is… a high-grade magic treasure,” Cui Chengen said in a low tone.
“There were two different formations at the fourth Restriction. Since I didn’t have the confidence to break the sixth formation, I decided to break the second one at the fourth after I was done with the fifth. I was surprised to find this in it. It was all thanks to my disciple nephews.”
“Not at all.” Zhao Qinghe smiled. “We should be thanking you instead, Master-Uncle. If not for you, who broke the Restrictions, we would never have filled our bags. So naturally, you should have the mirror.”
“He’s right!” Chu Jingsong and the rest immediately agreed.
They were also shocked to find a high-grade magic treasure in the second formation of the fourth Restriction when there was no such treasure at the fifth. Since there was only one, Chen Jingzhai decided to call dibs on it.
“Looks like not all of our disciples are disrespectful. This is a nice change,” Elder Qin said. “Junior Brother Chen, besides these, you also have the Little Heaven Cloud Forbidden Technique, right?”
“That’s right.” Chen Jingzhai nodded. “However, I have no idea how we will split these.”
“The clan will have to record the technique, or else we will never have the chance to completely break all the Restrictions at the immortal abode,” Elder Qin replied. “How about this? You take the magic treasure, and the clan will pay you another 10,000 spiritual stones for the technique?”
“Isn’t that too little?” Chen Jingzhai frowned as it was different than what he had expected.
“Not at all.” The elder shook his head. “Think about it. If you didn’t break the Restriction, the clan will definitely come and handle it independently. You won’t be able to get the treasure if that happens.”
“I see!” Chen Jingzhai nodded. “So be it.”
The boy then put the mirror, the eight sets of ingredients for the Foundation Establishment Elixir, and one white lotus seed into his bag.
There was also one bone sword, 10,000 spiritual stones, and more than 100 Essence Power Pearls.
Those were all the gains that he had made from the secret zone.
Naturally, he did not show them the items he had kept in the space inside the divine stone.
Just the Absolute Pure Magic Lotus was worth a fortune.
Since the divine stone was inside his upper core, not even Elder Qin could notice it.
Thus, it was expected that Cui Chengen, a Golden Core Sage, could not either.
It also helped mislead Zhao Qinghe and other disciples to believe that the demonic monster in the water was the one who had devoured the magic lotus.
After calculating all the gains from the secret zone, Elder Qin announced that Daoxuan Peak had come in first.
Once the clan thoroughly explored the secret zone, Daoxuan Peak could enjoy 10 percent of the resources from the place.
The scores of the remaining peaks weren’t far from each other.
It was also evident that Divine Flame Peak and Divine Cloud Peak came in the last two spots.
The benefit they had gained from the expedition was nothing compared to what Daoxuan Peak had gotten.
“Alright. It’s time to head back to your peaks. Remember to hand in the spells and methods you have obtained to your masters for appraisal,” Elder Qin said. “I hereby announce that the exploration of the secret zone has ended.”
Everyone bowed to the elder before leaving the place.
Cui Chengen took his token out and led the cultivators of Daoxuan Peak out of Feiliu Valley.
Once they were out, the valley was quickly surrounded by thick white clouds.
Everything, including the secret zone, had suddenly disappeared.
Even a Golden Core Sage would have a hard time finding the exact location of the valley.
It wasn’t surprising that the clan would do such a thing.
No one would’ve expected that the side residence of Hongdu Immortal would be in the newly discovered secret zone.
The best way to protect such a valuable place was to hide it from other people.
It wasn’t as if they were afraid that their disciples would try to steal anything from the place, but they were doing so to prevent the disciples from accidentally destroying something valuable.
Another reason was that there might be danger lurking in the secret zone.
Even though Elder Qin kept a poker face the entire time, he was worried for the disciples’ safety until all of them had come out.
One couldn’t say for sure if an abandoned cave residence that once belonged to an immortal would be safe or not.
