Cultivation Starting from Choosing Augments

Chapter 345 - 183: Obtaining the Core Formation Spiritual Object - Hezhou’s Upheaval

To his surprise, the Huidong Commerce Association had made additional arrangements inside the warehouse.

On shelves in the center of the warehouse sat a full three hundred and sixty-five identical-looking storage boxes.

Each box had been specially treated to block detection by Divine Sense.

Furthermore, each box was locked and could not be opened without its corresponding key.

Moreover, the boxes were forged from Hundred-Forged Grey Refined Iron, so breaking them open by brute force would be no easy feat.

Since Xiao Chen had come for the Five-Colored Jade Coral, he couldn’t just smash them open with his Golden Melon Thunder Hammer.

He risked accidentally shattering the Five-Colored Jade Coral inside.

The boxes were also fused to the shelves, making it impossible to carry them away.

Anyone who came would have no choice but to use their Flying Sword to carefully slice open each box from the edges, one by one, to see what was inside.

Xiao Chen opened more than ten boxes in a row, but they mostly contained ordinary Spirit Stones and Spiritual Objects.

There were even empty boxes mixed in, wasting a good deal of his time.

Faced with this situation, most cultivators would have glanced at the unguarded Spirit Stones and Spirit Ore nearby, grabbed what they could, and fled to avoid being trapped by returning members of the Commerce Association.

Xiao Chen, however, did not retreat. Instead, he took out the array flags for the Yellow Wind Flowing Sand Formation and set up the formation outside the warehouse.

He then resumed slicing open the boxes with his Flying Sword, searching for the Five-Colored Jade Coral.

He sliced open box after box for six hours, working until noon the next day.

Finally, in the 299th box, he found a stalk of coral, brilliantly radiant and as smooth and clear as jade.

Sunlight shone upon it, revealing five swirling, magnificent colors. It was, without a doubt, the Five-Colored Jade Coral.

"Finally found it."

Xiao Chen carefully lifted the coral out and placed it in his Storage Bag. "I was starting to think I’d have to open every last box."

Fortunately, his luck wasn’t quite that bad.

With his main objective complete, he didn’t intend to open the remaining boxes.

He walked out of the warehouse, put away the Yellow Wind Flowing Sand Formation, and looked around.

Aside from some lingering fires burning in a few places, the entire Huidong Commerce Association headquarters was deserted.

Xiao Chen found it a bit strange. At the time of the attack, quite a few Qi Refining cultivators from the Commerce Association had fled in all directions.

Logically speaking, they should have spread the news of the attack long ago.

But so much time had passed, yet no one had returned to stop him.

’Where are the people from the Huidong Commerce Association?’

It wasn’t that Xiao Chen hoped for trouble, but the situation was just too strange. Something was amiss.

This kind of bizarre situation often foreshadowed other complications.

Xiao Chen thought for a moment. Instead of hunting down the other members of the Huidong Commerce Association in the Black Flame Mountain Range, he decided to return to Xianghe Market first.

He hadn’t forgotten the important information he’d overheard last night.

Now that he had the Five-Colored Jade Coral, it seemed best to first get a feel for the current situation.

As everyone knew, the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers currently had only two Golden Core True Men.

If something had truly happened to Master Yaohua, the impact on the entire situation in Hezhou would be immense.

The three major powers were like a three-legged cauldron. If one of those legs suddenly broke, the whole thing might just topple over.

With the Divine Fire Sect as an external enemy, they probably wouldn’t fall to infighting immediately.

But who could say for sure?

The Lingyuan Sect had been taking a beating for so long, and while the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers occasionally lent a hand, the Cyan Cloud Sect hadn’t lifted a finger.

Xiao Chen couldn’t help but feel exasperated at the thought.

The Cyan Cloud Sect made a point of isolating everyone equally.

This made it extremely difficult for him to enter their Main Spirit Vein to search for the Evil Qi.

If the Evil Qi had been in the Lingyuan Sect or the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers, he probably would have already obtained it by now, relying on the Chen Family’s network and his own current reputation.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t so lucky.

Four hours later, Xiao Chen arrived at Xianghe Market.

The entire Marketplace was nearly empty. As far as the eye could see, there wasn’t a single Foundation Establishment Cultivator on the streets.

Clearly, this place had also been greatly affected.

Xiao Chen went to the Qiu Family residence, where only that same clan elder was still standing guard.

"Xiao, it’s wonderful to see you’re alright! If I’d known how dangerous that Yellow Springs Traveling Palace was, I never would have encouraged you to go."

He looked apologetic. He too had been deceived by false information at the time, thinking it was a great opportunity.

"Er..."

Xiao Chen waved his hand. "Mr. Qiu, you’re being too hard on yourself. May I ask, where has everyone else gone?"

Considering the elder’s information wasn’t always reliable, he decided to find other people to gather intelligence from.