Chapter 434

Chapter 434: The Second Battle

Whoosh!

The Fire Crow, engulfed in flames, descended upon the heap of corpses.

With a deafening explosion, the searing heat instantly consumed the bodies, reducing them to mere ashes.

Wang Chen flicked his wrist, casting several talismans to guide the souls of those he had slain, ensuring they transcended peacefully and preventing the rise of new Evil Spirits.

After tidying up, he returned to the grand hall of the City God Temple.

He added dry wood to the dwindling campfire and began to inventory his spoils.

From this encounter, he had seized a total of seven storage bags.

Three of these belonged to Yang Yi.

Wang Chen first opened the storage bag of the so-called Qianghe Three Siblings, only to be met with disappointment.

The trio had four storage bags among them, but the contents were sparse; a few worthless magical tools, some elixirs and talismans, and scarcely any spirit stones.

This was, in fact, to be expected.

Yang Yi was clearly a demon cultivator, and the Qianghe Three Siblings were his pawns.

Demon cultivators are typically selfish, cold-blooded, and ruthless. Struggling for survival in the uncharted territories of the Nine Dragons underground palace, it was unlikely Yang Yi would leave any valuable items for the three.

He must have hoarded the best for himself, sending them out to confront other cultivators, reaping the benefits without lifting a finger.

Had Wang Chen not dealt with the Qianghe Three Siblings, this Purple Palace demon cultivator would not have intervened personally.

The truly valuable items were undoubtedly in his possession.

But the storage bags of demon cultivators…

Wang Chen picked up one of the bags and attempted to infuse it with a sliver of mana.

Suddenly, he sensed something amiss and hurled it forward.

Boom!

The storage bag exploded mid-air, obliterating everything inside.

As expected!

Demon cultivators often set special restrictions within their storage bags or magical tools, ensuring that any attempt to breach them would result in backlash or self-destruction.

This was in keeping with the nature of demon cultivators and the techniques they practiced.

Ordinary cultivators typically avoided such measures, as the frequent use of storage bags made such restrictions risky, potentially causing self-injury and significant losses.

But demon cultivators and evil cultivators, due to the peculiarities of their techniques, faced no such issues.

While there were methods to dismantle these restrictions, Wang Chen was unfamiliar with them. Unless he took the bags back to his sect for proper handling, such outcomes were inevitable.

Considering Yang Yi’s expertise in poisoning, Wang Chen pondered for a moment and decided to destroy the remaining two storage bags as well.

Otherwise, while he himself was unafraid, any mishap could harm others, and that would be It’s a trouble.

Clink!

However, Wang Chen did not expect that when he destroyed the third storage bag, a half-foot-long jade strip unexpectedly fell out!

Wang Chen was somewhat surprised.

If the storage bag had only been damaged, the items inside might still have been able to "explode" out intact.

But if it had self-destructed with restrictions set, it usually meant complete destruction.

This jade strip was surprisingly unharmed, which was truly baffling!

Wang Chen reached out to grasp the jade strip in his hand.

The more he looked at it, the more familiar it appeared—wasn’t this the so-called ancient sealed jade?

The ancient sealed jade referred to the spiritual jade used by ancient immortal sects, families, or loose cultivators to seal items, similar to a storage talisman, and it was used only once.

Those who obtained the ancient sealed jade typically broke the seal to shake out the items inside to examine the contents.

However, the results were often disappointing.

Later, some clever individuals began to sell multiple ancient sealed jades at a marked price, creating a "blind box" business.

The Life Creation Cauldron that Wang Chen wore on his chest had been opened from an ancient sealed jade.

The problem was, he clearly remembered that ancient sealed jades could not be stored in storage bags.

Wang Chen tried and found that it easily fit inside.

He carefully took it out again and noticed that this ancient sealed jade had some differences from the ones he had seen and opened before.

It resembled a jade box more closely.

Wang Chen attempted to open it, but it did not budge, as if it had strong seals inside.

Injecting spiritual energy felt like casting a mud bull into the sea.

The ancient sealed jade appeared very sturdy, impervious to water and fire, and could not be broken by axes or knives.

But in reality, after centuries, the magical seals inside had become quite fragile; any external force could immediately cause its structure to collapse.

This seemed different from the ancient sealed jades he knew.

Could it merely be an ordinary piece of jade?

Wang Chen thought that a Purple Palace cultivator would not store useless items in a storage bag.

Moreover, this jade had withstood the destructive power of the storage bag.

After some thought, Wang Chen decided to put it into his Xumi Ring.

For him, the most important thing now was to find a way to leave the unknown area and find a route back.

As for the secrets of this item, he would explore them after returning to the sect.

If he truly could not go back, possessing a supreme treasure would also be meaningless.

Shaking his head in resignation, Wang Chen took out a leg of lamb from the storage bag and placed it over the campfire to roast.

This leg of lamb certainly did not come from an ordinary sheep but was from a long-horned spirit sheep raised by the West Sea Sect’s beast-taming cultivators, who were said to feed them spirit fruits, spiritual herbs, and spiritual spring water, making them quite expensive.

The long-horned spirit sheep was incredibly delicious and had a strong nourishing effect on body and spiritual energy. Therefore, Wang Chen had spent a high price to purchase ten cleaned sheep and stored them in his storage bag.

Many cultivators, after breaking through to open a house, often refrained from eating meat and indulged in only yellow essence and spiritual spring water, or even lived off the wind and dew.

But Wang Chen never denied himself food.

If cultivating immortality meant losing humanity and desire, then what was the point of living forever?

Before long, a rich aroma of grilled meat filled the grand hall.

Wang Chen carefully controlled the cooking temperature.

The meat of the long-horned spirit sheep had excellent quality, and it had no fishy taste, so there was no need to add any spices during roasting; cooking it to medium was sufficient.

Finally, sprinkling a little fine salt made the flavor irresistible.

When the skin of the leg of lamb turned a beautiful golden brown, the fragrance of the grilled meat reached its peak.

At this moment, Wang Chen did not notice that the City God statue behind him suddenly moved its eyelids.

Originally just a stone sculpture, it seemed to "come to life" in an instant, its eyes gleaming with a faint spiritual light as it looked down at Wang Chen, a hint of ferocity appearing on its face.

The statue slowly raised the great mace tightly grasped in its hand.

Without a sound, when the mace reached its peak, it swung down violently, smashing toward Wang Chen’s head!

Boom!

Just as the mace was about to strike Wang Chen, he abruptly turned, raising his arms to catch the mace.

Crack!

The ground beneath Wang Chen suddenly cracked, and his feet sank nearly a foot into the earth.

The force of that blow exceeded thousands of pounds, but Wang Chen managed to bear it.

It was only at the moment the mace fell that he sensed danger and, with no time to dodge, chose to take the hit.

When the City God statue’s attack failed, it immediately lifted its right foot and aimed to stomp down on Wang Chen!