Chapter 146: Treasure
As he flew along, Su Chen didn’t forget to look through and categorize the treasures that he had managed to loot from the Mother Goddess Sect. After all, he now had some free time to look through exactly what he had taken.
Not too many items had fallen out of the Mother Goddess statue. Apart from the Divine Feather, there were only five other items.
The first was a chunk of metal that appeared to absorb all light.
Su Chen carefully inspected it for a long time but couldn’t figure out what it was in this short period of time.
But just because he didn’t know what it was didn’t mean know that no one knew. Su Chen called up Patelocke and began to describe the metal to him.
This old guy had been around for so long that his knowledge base really was incredibly vast.
After a moment’s contemplation, he told Su Chen, “There are a number of metals that match what you just described. However, there’s no way that the Mother Goddess Sect would guard a common metal so closely. I imagine that it must be a chunk of Refined Stargod Metal.”
“Refined Stargod Metal? What is that?”
“Apparently, Refined Stargod Metal was produced by the Forerunners in a bygone era. Allegedly, those powerful individuals could refine stars into metal.”
“Refine stars?” Su Chen was stunned by this explanation.
Currently, the upper limit of this continent’s transportation was a thousand kilometers. That was already considered an incredible feat. But compared to the bygone ancient eras, even one as recent as the Arcana Kingdom’s, the current brilliance of this field was quite lacking.
In other words, throughout the Primordial Continent’s millennia of history, its lifeform’s average intelligence had gone up while pure strength had gone down.
The human race’s development, however, generally ran counter to this overall trend. They had gone from not being able to cultivate at all to having the Light Shaking Realm as their upper limit, and from there continued advancing until they reached the current limit today, the Ultimate Emperor Realm. This was an obvious upward trend, and was one of the major reasons why humans were one of the five major powers inhabiting the continent today.
Even so, they were far, far away from reaching the power level of those ancient powers.
Refining stars…… To Su Chen, this was simply inconceivable.
“Yes. Whether or not they actually refined stars into metal, I do not know. All I know is that this metal’s sturdiness and tolerance must be astronomically high to be worthy of that backstory,” Patelocke said.
“But then shouldn’t this piece of metal be very heavy? Why does it almost feel weightless in my hands?” Su Chen asked.
But before Patelocke could reply, Su Chen found the answer himself. “Wait a minute…… I can sense spatial power on its surface! This chunk of metal is actually sealed through some kind of spatial power. Patelocke, you’re right; this item’s actual mass is probably located in a different spatial realm. Otherwise, it couldn’t possibly be this light. But how can it simultaneously be in a different spatial realm and here in my hand? How is the connection still intact? And even though it’s already under something else’s spatial effects, it can still be placed inside an Origin Ring without any conflict. This is simply too incredible…… This must be due to a profound…… an incredibly profound and deep understanding of spatial method power! This is not just one treasure but two! The presence of this method power is a peerless treasure in its own right!”
Others might only view spatial method power as a way to store this Refined Stargod Metal, but to Su Chen, having this profound method power in front of him was probably even more valuable than the metal itself.
Patelocke knew that Su Chen was already deeply engrossed in his thought experiments, so he gently reminded, “I don’t think that you’ve reached a level where you can study this item yet.”
“Oh, you’re right.” Patelocke seemed to have awakened Su Chen from a daydream. “Right, what uses does Refined Stargod Metal have?”
“Refined Stargod Metal was used by the ancient Forerunners to forge their weapons. It can only be used by a member of the Forerunner race, so we have no way of bringing out its full power.”
“So it’s useless?” Su Chen was greatly disappointed by Patelocke’s explanation.
Indeed. If an item was too good, then sometimes that meant that it was impossible to draw out its full value.
Already, Su Chen had the Desolate Beast’s Blood and the Origin Beast’s essence, but he had no way of using them. Now, it seemed that this chunk of Refined Stargod Metal was going to fall into that category as well.
“That might not be entirely true.” Unexpectedly, Patelocke’s next words gave Su Chen a bit of hope. “Don’t you have the Flowing Gold Blade?”
“Hm? Are you saying that I should let the Flowing Gold Blade absorb it?” Su Chen was taken aback. “Is that even possible?”
The Flowing Gold Blade was incredibly powerful. At full power, it was definitely one of the strongest weapons in Su Chen’s current arsenal.
However, the rate at which it consumed metals was simply too rapid. Su Chen basically needed to constantly scour his surroundings to satisfy its appetite.
But now, Su Chen had this piece of Refined Stargod Metal in his hands. Even though it didn’t appear that large, the mere fact that it had been refined from stars meant that the Flowing Gold Blade wouldn’t be as greedy in the future.
“It should work, but you will need to take some time and slowly work out the best way to research and use it. I think that, as long as it is still a piece of metal, you should be able to find some way to use it,” Patelocke replied.
“So there’s nothing you can do about it either?” Su Chen asked.
“We’ll be fine as long as the Origin Bone Scepter can do something about it,” Patelocke replied lightly.
When he heard this, Su Chen couldn’t help but chuckle.
Yes, with the Origin Bone Scepter’s help, he would likely be able to find an answer — unless, of course, there was no answer in the first place.
The cost of making this kind of prediction wouldn’t be too high either.
After putting the metal away, Su Chen glanced at the next item.
This next item was a plant suspended in a piece of jade. The jade itself was quite valuable and was known as Congealed Fat Jade. Su Chen had only ever seen one other plant that had been preserved in such a high-quality jade before, which was the Scarlet Heart’s River Source Grass. That plant could improve an environment’s hospitability greatly as it was a source of abundant Origin Energy that would nourish any plants and vegetation around it. Even though Su Chen hadn’t managed to find much use for it himself, it was incredibly important to the Boundless Sect’s development. At this point, it was a treasure that was closely guarded by all the members of the Boundless Sect.
This plant before him, however, had been planted in a much more valuable treasure than the Boundless Dirt that the River Source Grass had been found in. It was obviously incredibly valuable.
Su Chen suspected that this was most likely a Divine-class medicinal ingredient.
Medicinal ingredients and medicines were split into five tiers: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, and Divine.
The Corpse Spirit Flowers he had used long ago were Legendary-class medicinal ingredients. The Immortal Temple had likely expended a large amount of time and energy in their planning and attempts to claim them all for themselves.
But even then, these ingredients were at least obtainable.
Divine-class medicinal ingredients were nearly impossible to obtain.
The value of these ingredients was simply far too high, which meant that almost all of medicinal ingredients at this tier had basically already been harvested. There was nowhere to look for new patches of these ingredients.
There was only one place where one could hope to find any more of these resources — deep in Beast territory. Only that place remained pristine and primal, and many naturally-existing treasures could be found there. It was precisely because of these barbaric beasts that the place hadn’t been ransacked by the Intelligent Races yet. Thus, these valuable resources were essentially off-limits to the humans. This was quite an ironic situation.
Su Chen didn’t know whether the Harpies had traveled deep into Beast territory to obtain this ingredient, but he was highly confident that it was at least a Divine-class medicinal ingredient.
“This plant is probably Moonglow,” Patelocke quickly deduced its identity when he heard Su Chen’s description. “Is there a water droplet on its surface that can’t be shaken off no matter how hard you try?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Su Chen said as he shook the plant in his hand. Its most eye-catching characteristic was the droplet of dew on its surface that would not fall off.
Patelocke explained, “That’s not water; it’s Moonglow Dew. This plant must be placed underneath moonlight every night to absorb the moonlight and gather dew. It will produce one droplet of Moonglow Dew every hundred nights or so, and then it must recuperate for another hundred days. The stalk in your hand is probably in the recovery phase. Before it fully recovers, do not place it under moonlight; otherwise, it will begin to degrade in quality, and its lifespan will also decrease. Right, Moonglow Dew is an absolutely necessary ingredient for a few Divine Medicines.”
“Isn’t this plant a bit like the Hourglass of Time?”
“It’s exactly like the Hourglass of Time.”
When he heard this answer, Su Chen chuckled.
Getting a chicken was always better than getting an egg.
Su Chen was already a Master Alchemist, and had only never broken through because he had no opportunities to refine any Divine-class medicines.
He simply didn’t have the ingredients!
Legendary Alchemists were basically impossible to find.
But now, Su Chen would be able to harvest Moonglow Dew and concoct some Divine-class medicines now.
Even though he only had one Divine-class ingredient, that nonetheless opened up were a number of low-tier Divine-class medicines that he could now concoct.
And Divine-class medicines were still Divine-class medicines. Regardless of what their effects were, they would definitely be very strong.
Su Chen had relied on the Corpse Spirit Flowers to vastly improve his consciousness power in the past. Now, with Moonglow Dew, he was excited for his future prospects.
The third item was a piece of armor.
This armor was flaming red and covered in ornate inscriptions. It was incredibly beautiful, and it glowed with a faintly divine aura. Obviously, it had been imbued with quite a bit of strength. Unfortunately, it was clearly designed for a female wearer.
Su Chen felt that this was quite a shame. He could sense just how powerful this armor was, and it was far more so than his Algae Coral Thread Robe. It was probably even stronger than a Grade One Origin Tool. The Algae Coral Thread Robe had been with Su Chen for a long time now. Though it had more than served its usefulness, Su Chen’s growth was starting to outstrip its defensive abilities.
The Algae Coral Thread Robe proportionally minimized damage, but the stronger an attack it had to endure, the lower this proportionality constant would be.
At the beginning, it had probably been able to nullify around thirty percent of an attack’s strength. Now, however, it was difficult for it to even nullify ten percent.
When faced with truly powerful attacks, Su Chen couldn’t rely on the Algae Coral Thread Robe to protect him anymore. Instead, he relied on his powerful, Ravager-like body.
But now, just when he had managed to find an incredibly powerful piece of armor, it ended up being made for a woman to wear.
Well, the Harpies did exalt women more, and the Sect Master herself was female as well.
This armor was most likely hers.
However, when Patelocke heard about this piece of armor, he said after a moment’s thought, “This is most likely the Mother Goddess Sect’s Sky Armor, but it’s probably not finished yet.”
“Not finished?”
“Yes. Apparently, the Sky Armor was formerly worn by the Mother Goddess herself, and disappeared along with her. However, the blueprints for the armor were left behind. The Mother Goddess Sect followed those blueprints and reconstructed the armor, but even a miniature version of the armor was quite hard to forge,” Patelocke replied.
He was waiting for Su Chen to ask him how he had determined that this Sky Armor was incomplete, but Su Chen unexpectedly asked a completely different question after a moment’s pause.
“Patelocke, tell me…… Do you think that there really is a god in this universe?”
