"Fortunately, I found the antidote inside the storage ring, otherwise."
On the top deck of the mid-sized spirit boat racing through the sky, Zhiran sat in a quiet room, glanced at the fading green mark on his hand, and released a long breath of relief.
Earlier, when he burned the body of the elder, he, of course, did a customary search to find his belongings and found this storage ring.
After all, this was his reward for doing something so dangerous, wasn't it?
'Now that the poison is cured, let's look at what other things are inside.'
Zhiran thought in glee and quickly put the ring on his forehead to scan the items inside.
As a Qi Condensation cultivator, his consciousness was still immature, and he hadn't awakened his Divine Sense yet.
So, he could only put the ring on his forehead and forcefully look at the items inside the ring in such a crude way.
Even to do this out of the view of others, he paid 10 low-grade spirit stones and booked a separate room in this spirit boat.
Of course, it was also because he basically had no safe and cheap place other than this room to check his loot.
After all, he did destroy his cottage in the sect, didn't he?
Not to mention, he couldn't wait due to the poison that was still in his body.
'Hmm? So little?'
As soon as Zhiran looked through the ring with his consciousness, he saw that there was a large space inside, unlike his storage bag.
But precisely because of that, he noticed that the items inside were so few, all shoved into a corner, leaving the rest completely empty.
'Around 100 low-grade and 5 middle-grade spirit stones, a few bottles of pills, a broken halberd, a few fire talismans…'
'...'
"That's it?"
Zhiran couldn't help but doubt his vision and looked through the ring again, only to find the same things.
Well, there were also a few other miscellaneous things like a Sect Elder Token, jade slips, and some personal keepsakes, but they were of no use to him at all.
Especially with his Proficient level of Divine Core technique, all those jade slips recording the experience of the elder became directly redundant.
'Sigh… it seems this elder used everything on him to run from that demon cultivator.'
Only this could explain why the items inside were so few, even though this ring belonged to an elder who was in the late foundation-building realm.
'Hmm?'
Just as Zhiran, a little disappointed, was about to set the ring aside, he noticed one jade slip in the pile that seemed… a little different from the rest.
Unlike the others, the jade slip looked golden and slightly unique from the rest.
'What is this?'
Curious, he drew it out of the ring and, after confirming it was just a jade slip, examined it only to see a dense recording of different places.
'A map?'
Zhiran saw that what was recorded inside was a detailed map, with locations clearly marked, and when he input his Qi, the jade slip floated lightly, pointing in a direction.
But deeper within the slip, he also managed to sense a complex technique hidden inside, which seemed to require a divine sense to access.
'So it holds both a map to a secret realm and a technique… Is this why he was hunted by that demonic cultivator?'
Zhiran couldn't help but guess while playing with the golden slip in his hand. If what he guessed was true, then his gain today couldn't be said to be bad.
After all, secret realms were mostly blessed places teeming with treasures to be discovered. Unless it was a demonic trap, most of the time you could exit such a place with large gains.
So, how could Zhiran not be excited?
Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to go to that place right now with his low level of cultivation.
Since the map was found on the elder's ring, he should at least reach the foundation-building realm.
'Well, it was quite the gain. Let's reach the late stage of the Qi Condensation realm to celebrate this happiness.'
Zhiran smiled with satisfaction, stuffed all the things inside the storage ring, except for one middle-grade spirit stone.
Then, he immediately sat cross-legged, grabbed the spirit stone in his fist, and began to absorb the pure spiritual power inside with the help of his Divine Core Technique.
It would take a while to reach the outer sect at the speed of this spirit boat, and he had decided to jump to the late stage of Qi Condensation during that short time.
If it had been in his previous life, Zhiran wouldn't even have thought about such absurd things.
After all, his talent was so low that he reached the late stage of the Qi Condensation only after ten years in his previous life, that too with the help of a demonic technique he found.
Reaching the late stage of Qi Condensation in one sitting?
Such treatment was something only a genius could enjoy. And now Zhiran was also going to enjoy that in this life, making him feel exhilarated.
To be honest, he couldn't wait to kill a genius, grab his head, and extract his brain to see what he would gain.
But he stopped himself, as being reckless wasn't a good thing.
It was better to be strong while he still could than think about such dangerous things.
'They aren't going to run anyway.'
A faint smile couldn't help but tug at the corners of Zhiran's lips as he finally focused, slowly settling into meditation.
Although he was 100% sure, being focused was the most important thing in any breakthrough during cultivation.