Ever since she witnessed that person turn to dust with her own eyes at the Tai Xuan Monument that day, Ouyang Ye had never been able to believe her eyes. It wasn't until she waited a full year in the Four Great Regions, at the Tai Xuan Monument, and Su Hua personally told her that person was truly dead, that Ouyang Ye gradually accepted the fact—a fact that made her heart ache unbearably and filled her with endless regret and self-blame.
Ouyang Ye regretted and blamed herself because she felt she should never have met that person in Lord Chixiao's mausoleum in the first place.
If she hadn't asked him to impersonate Young Master Chiyan, if she hadn't brought him into Yunxia Sect, if not for...
Perhaps none of this would have happened, and that person wouldn't have inexplicably turned to dust...
Her heart ached, though she didn't know why it ached.
She only knew that over the past three years, that person's figure would flash through her mind for no reason. She only knew that in her idle moments, she would involuntarily think of that person.
She thought of that person's unique twilight-like aura, of the playful, irreverent smile at the corner of his lips.
She thought of that person's free and unrestrained way of doing things.
She thought of that person's laziness and casualness when in a good mood.
She also thought of that person's aloof pride and domineering arrogance when in a bad mood.
She even missed the sight of that person lounging sloppily in a chair, basking in the sun and sipping wine.
Too much, far too much longing had left Ouyang Ye unable to extricate herself.
Therefore, for these three years, she had cultivated incessantly, trained relentlessly—not because she wanted to become an immortal, nor to seek treasures, but simply to avoid thinking of everything about that person during her idle moments.
When Ouyang Ye teleported to the next cave dwelling via the transmission array, she shook her head fiercely, forcibly dispersing the nostalgic emotions in her mind. After deploying her divine sense to investigate, she left alone.
Not long after she departed, the light of the transmission array flickered, and a man in white robes materialized.
With a handsome face, a dashing figure, and a gentle smile—who else could it be but Gu Qingfeng.
He looked leisurely and carefree, completely at ease. Glancing left and right, he proceeded inward.
Compared to the previous cave dwelling, the structure of this one was much more intact. Although it had suffered some impact and the structure was somewhat damaged, it was merely damaged—not a major issue. However, most of the formations within the cave dwelling seemed to have been affected, either scattered and dissipated or incomplete.
Gu Qingfeng deployed his divine sense to sweep the area, then walked up to a stone chamber. With a forceful push on the stone door, the originally incomplete formation enveloping the chamber instantly emitted a series of crisp cracking sounds before scattering and vanishing.
Inside the stone chamber lay several corpses—more precisely, several sets of white bones. Gu Qingfeng gave them a general look. They hadn't died long ago, about five hundred years. However, the cause of death surprised Gu Qingfeng somewhat; it seemed they had died violently after having their souls forcibly devoured.
Who knew what had happened here five hundred years ago, or what creature would devour these people's souls.
An evil cultivator?
Or some demonic monster?
It was really hard to speculate.
These sets of white bones were still clad in robes, clearly extraordinary treasure garments. Even after five hundred years, they remained intact. If taken and refined anew, they would count as decent treasures. The less particular could refine and wear them themselves; the more particular, fearing bad luck, could resell them—definitely a case of killing two birds with one stone.
When Gu Qingfeng cultivated in this world before, he often did this very thing. Back in those resource-scarce times, the reason his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds was precisely by making a fortune off the dead.
Recalling those bygone years, Gu Qingfeng couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.
Back then, he was used to being poor and wasn't particular. Now, forget these tattered robes—even if it were the true-body kasaya of the venerable Tathagata Buddha himself, he wouldn't be interested.
Casually, he also picked up the few remaining storage bags on the white bones.
These things were truly good stuff.
What cultivator didn't have a storage bag?
Whose storage bag didn't contain a few spirit treasures?
Even without spirit treasures, there was at least a large stash of backup cultivation resources—Golden Cores, spirit stones were absolutely indispensable.
However, for any spirit treasure, as long as it had been refined by someone else, if you wanted to use it yourself, you had to personally refine it.
Especially for treasure-holding items like storage bags, they bore the original owner's spirit-blood imprints, even mental imprints, and so on. To open them, you needed to erase all imprints on the storage bag, then refine it anew before you could access it.
For others, erasing another's imprints and re-refining required a very, very long time. However, for Gu Qingfeng, it wasn't any difficult matter. Just as he was about to start, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—three figures flashed into appearance.
It was two young men and an elder. Gu Qingfeng had a somewhat vague impression of these three; they seemed to be cultivators from Hunyuan Gate.
Upon seeing Gu Qingfeng, the three were first startled, as if surprised to find a Golden Core realm cultivator here. Then, when they saw the few worn storage bags in Gu Qingfeng's hands, their eyes immediately gleamed with avarice. Taking another look at the white bones on the ground, the leading elder waved his hand, collecting the treasure garments from the bones into his own possession.
He then turned to look at Gu Qingfeng, narrowing his eyes as he sized him up, and asked, "Young man, did you pick up those storage bags in your hands from these white bones?"
Gu Qingfeng nodded casually. "That's right."
"Oh? Is that so?" The elder stared at the storage bags in Gu Qingfeng's hands, his smile not reaching his eyes. "Young man, your luck is truly not bad. May I ask which sect or school you hail from?"
"Me? I'm just a rogue cultivator!" Gu Qingfeng asked with a grin, "What's the matter? Got some ideas?"
"Oh? A rogue cultivator? Heh heh..." Upon hearing Gu Qingfeng call himself a rogue cultivator, the elder's eyes gleamed once more. Stroking the few strands of beard on his chin, he nodded in praise. "Rogue cultivators are good... Rogue cultivators are good indeed! The younger generation shows remarkable promise, truly remarkable promise!"
With that, the elder turned to leave. As he departed, he shot a meaningful glance at the other two young men, secretly transmitting his voice: "The treasure garments on those white bones are all extraordinary items. Their storage bags must also contain quite a few spirit treasures. It's inconvenient for me to act; I'll stand guard outside. You two, make it quick!"
On the opposite side, Gu Qingfeng felt rather helpless. With his pair of fiery golden eyes that could peer into celestial secrets above and perceive earthly divinations below, how could he not see what these three were scheming?
However, he had some past dealings with a few elders of Hunyuan Gate and didn't really want to fight these three. Seeing the two young men poised to make a move, he spoke up first: "Alright, save your energy, no need to fight. We're all just trying to get by out here, it's not easy. How about this: four storage bags, I'll give you two. Deal?"
As his words fell, Gu Qingfeng tossed two of the storage bags in his hand over to them.
The two young men opposite seemed taken aback that Gu Qingfeng would do this. Not just them—even the elder guarding the stone chamber entrance was momentarily stunned.