Chapter 81: Poisonous Treasure, Buried Corpse, And Gained Will
In the cave.
Fang Shu held the Lead Essence Treasure Bead, his qi and blood continuously merging into the bead, the two quickly blending together without much effort.
At this time, he opened his eyes, hesitated for a moment, then squeezed his waterskin and took out the Lead Essence Treasure Bead.
After fusing with his qi, the bead’s appearance had greatly changed, becoming dull gray, with no ghost fire burning on its surface and no dense metal and stone poison emanating from it; at first glance, it looked just like an ordinary stone bead.
Stroking the item, Fang Shu felt even more amazed.
A magic treasure was truly magical; after sacrifice and refinement, without needing any cultivation method, incantation, or restriction, simply fusing with an immortal cultivator’s qi allowed complete control, and the divine item could conceal itself.
Of course, the main reason Fang Shu could so easily subdue this magic treasure embryo was that the Lead Essence Treasure Bead had just been born and had not been tainted by anyone else’s qi.
As soon as his qi and blood entered, without needing to polish the bead, it was filled with his qi, with no other impurities, making it extremely easy to subdue.
This was just like how coaxing a three-year-old child was simple, but subduing an adult was extremely difficult.
Moreover, according to rumors in the workshop, a magic treasure did not require sacrifice and refinement, but rather nurturing.
It would be influenced by the user through wearing and nurturing, gradually developing wondrous uses over time, with effects even more suited to the user.
By nurturing it with his own qi, in the future, this treasure bead would be even more responsive to Fang Shu’s intentions, enhancing his cultivation, spellcasting, and more.
His heart filled with joy, Fang Shu gathered his spirit and carefully sensed the treasure bead in his hand.
In the haze, he learned a bit about the item’s basic uses from the treasure bead.
Immediately, he held up the treasure bead and walked in the cave, especially toward those stalactite pillars emitting fluorescent light.
With a twitch of his mind, the Lead Essence Treasure Bead shook, emitting an invisible force.
This force could not affect Fang Shu, nor even the dust in the air, but it could affect the surrounding stray metal and stone poison.
The nearest stalactite pillar immediately dimmed its surface fluorescence and underwent a strange scene like flowing fire, turning into ghost fire that continuously poured into the Lead Essence Treasure Bead, swallowed by it.
Watching this scene, Fang Shu felt even more amazed.
Indeed, one of the treasure bead’s functions was to absorb and collect external metal and stone poison, confining it within.
Without further hesitation, he held the Lead Essence Treasure Bead, urged his qi and blood, walked left and right, and in one go absorbed all the metal and stone poison from every stalactite pillar in the cave, leaving not a trace.
In any case, after losing the altar array, this cave was already abandoned, and the toxins in the cave would dissipate on their own, spreading throughout the underground mine vein.
After the metal and stone poison was reduced to almost nothing, the cave immediately dimmed, with only the faint toxins on the ground and rock walls still emitting ghostly light.
The Lead Essence Treasure Bead in Fang Shu’s hand also became scorching hot and red, as if stuffed full in one go.
At this moment, his heart stirred again.
Silently, the Lead Essence Treasure Bead shook once more, visibly producing fluorescent ghost fire in the air, which spread outward, turning the area within several paces into a poisonous land again.
This was the treasure bead’s other simple function: releasing the metal and stone poison within it to infect the surroundings, turning them into a poisonous land.
Holding the treasure bead, Fang Shu played with it in the cave, absorbing and releasing repeatedly for a long time.
In the end, as the toxins in the cave grew thinner, he simply removed his cumbersome lead stone armor and shed the fox fur, nurturing and studying the treasure bead in the cave in his human form.
After many attempts.
He discovered that when holding the treasure bead, whether casting spells or driving gu worms, his spells and gu worms would be tainted, carrying a toxicity.
Especially the gu worms; their ferocity and sensitivity would greatly increase.
However, correspondingly, their aura would drop sharply afterward, as if their lifespan was affected.
Additionally, when Fang Shu held the treasure bead and used the talismans on him, some like clean clothes talisman and silent step talisman would directly fail or have greatly reduced effects, while others like corpse dissolving talisman would have greatly enhanced effects.
Some like water drawing talisman and smoke barrier talisman would turn the originally drawn clear water and blinding smoke into poisonous water and poisonous smoke, damaging intestines and causing tears!
After sorting it out.
Fang Shu roughly understood the magic treasure functions of the Lead Essence Treasure Bead.
It was a poison treasure, remarkably able to add an extra layer of metal and stone toxicity to the effects of certain spells he cast, increasing their power!
And not just spells; Fang Shu walked to the rock wall, without using tongue sword, but circulated his qi and blood, using brute force to scratch three marks on the rock wall with his fingers.
These three marks all showed faint fluorescence, clearly tainted by metal and stone poison.
In short, as long as Fang Shu wished, every action of his now could carry metal and stone poison, as if his body itself was a weapon forged from metal and stone poison.
This way, in future gu refining or fights with others, he would undoubtedly gain extra power!
This made the joy in Fang Shu’s heart even stronger, and he couldn’t help but secretly exclaim:
“What a treasure.”
He also immediately understood why people in the world were so obsessed with magic treasures.
This ability to add an extra layer of toxicity to magic tools, spells, talismans, and even fists and feet was truly profound, worthy of being a “Dao” treasure.
After practicing and trying a few more times in the cave, Fang Shu promptly stored the treasure bead.
With this magic treasure at his side, his various gu techniques should advance more boldly and diligently.
After organizing his gains, Fang Shu prepared to leave this place.
But before setting off, he wandered the cave again, breaking rocks and handling various traces in the cave, especially the abandoned altar deeply buried in the ground, to avoid exposing information that shouldn’t be revealed.
While handling the traces, he suddenly discovered some petrified-like corpses at the edge of the cave, and there were quite a few of them.
Earlier, because the metal and stone poison was still present, Fang Shu hadn’t noticed them; now with some free time, he discovered them.
After examining them closely, Fang Shu couldn’t help but shake his head.
The clothes on these corpses had long rotted away, their bodies curled into various grotesque poses, skin shriveled; they must have suffered immense pain before death.
No need to think much; these people must have been trapped in the cave due to a passage collapse, all perishing from the erosion of metal and stone poison, with bodies rotting completely, even bones melting-like in agony.
As for the origin of this group of corpses, it should be the same as the few outside the cave: all former paper workshop neighbors, but with even worse luck.
Wandering to each corpse, Fang Shu also found various marks they had clawed into the rock wall in desperation before death, sunk three inches into the stone.
Especially one of them, using hand as pen, had scribbled lines of words crookedly, like a last testament.
Due to the ravages of metal and stone poison, the writing on the wall was mostly obliterated. Fortunately, Fang Shu had a dao talisman, and by comparing, he could barely make out many words.
He examined it, and suddenly his gaze shifted slightly.
In these last words, the words “Fu Niang” appeared several times in a row, written with the most care and effort; from the lines alone, Fang Shu could sense the dead man’s unwillingness and guilt in life.
Coincidentally, Fang Shu knew someone named “Fu Niang” in the paper workshop, with whom he had some acquaintance, and it was from her mouth that he learned Cheng Guanzi had once teamed up with many paper workshop neighbors to leave town treasure hunting.
“In other words, this person is most likely Dou Su Fu’s husband from back then.”
Fang Shu pondered, a look of emotion on his face for a moment.
But he had no intention of taking the corpse back to give to Dou Su Fu, to avoid exposing this place and to spare her the last shred of hope in her heart from fading.
After hesitating, Fang Shu simply moved, planning to separate the half-melted corpse bones as intact as possible from the rock and bury them aside, committing to the earth.
Crack! But even though his actions were as careful as possible, the corpse bones still shattered into several pieces.
At the same time, a booklet fell from the curled chest and abdomen, scattered and broken, equally fragile, but immediately attracting Fang Shu’s attention.
He stopped collecting the corpse, squatted down, held his breath, and flipped through the booklet page by page.
After reading the contents, a thick look of surprise appeared on Fang Shu’s face.
