Zhang Zongnian followed Yang San Hu to the outer room of the warehouse.
The first thing that caught his eye was an exceptionally tall figure.
Shu Da stood with his hands behind his back in the outer room.
A squad of Rat Demons stood at attention behind him.
Several low-ranking warehouse demons stood respectfully off to the side.
With these lesser demons being only human height, Shu Da—well over three meters tall—looked every bit an imposing giant.
When Yang San Hu brought Zhang Zongnian over, Shu Da cast a few glances at Zhang Zongnian, whose clothes were ragged and still stained with blood from his punishment a few days ago.
His expression was cold as he ordered, “Old Yang, the man you wanted, I’m giving him to you. Go open the Hong Family’s Inner Treasury now. Quickly register all the inventory inside and hand the list to me.”
Yang San Hu agreed repeatedly, then led Zhang Zongnian further inside the warehouse.
A Rat Demon beside Shu Da immediately followed them, entering the warehouse as well.
Zhang Zongnian understood: Shu Da was eager to take over the Hong Family’s assets, and Yang San Hu, afraid he couldn’t handle it alone, had pleaded with Shu Da to let him bring Zhang Zongnian out to help.
Shu Da obviously didn’t trust Yang San Hu and Zhang Zongnian alone, so he sent a subordinate to watch them.
The Inner Treasury was in the very back of the warehouse, behind a door with two locks and two keyholes.
At the moment, two Rat Demons stood guard at the door.
One of the Rat Demons took out a key and, together with Yang San Hu, unlocked the big door.
This was the first time Zhang Zongnian had entered the Inner Treasury that belonged to the Master of the Cave.
The Inner Treasury was nearly as large as the Waiku, divided into three separate sections, each with its own locked door, belonging to Hong Lao San, Hong Huzhi, and Hong Yanzhi respectively.
The other Rat Demon at the door produced three keys and unlocked all three doors at once.
Zhang Zongnian was instantly dazzled by the sight.
All three Inner Treasuries were filled with exquisite gold, silver, and jade artifacts, precious gems, all sorts of gorgeous garments and ornaments, dazzling to the eyes. Rare materials and medicinal herbs filled the cabinets.
Zhang Zongnian felt as if he had entered the imperial palace.
Yang San Hu had been here many times and was used to it.
He led Zhang Zongnian skillfully and began the inventory.
Zhang Zongnian followed behind with pen and paper, recording the names, quantities, and uses of the items.
Seeing one valuable item after another, he couldn’t help but click his tongue.
Any single item, if taken out and sold, would fetch enough to let him and his mother live well for years.
The Rat Demon followed behind them, staring with wide eyes and diligently supervising, watching to see if they missed anything or tried to sneak something into their clothes.
Zhang Zongnian wrote quickly, so the inventory moved along rapidly.
Soon, the two men and one demon arrived at the section where books and documents were stored.
Several bookshelves held a variety of shuyiju, yaofang, danfang, and some cultivation notes.
Zhang Zongnian was curious—these monsters actually read books?
Could they even understand them?
From Yang San Hu’s explanation, he learned that these things had all been taken from human cultivators who had ventured into demon territory.
Humans and demons had their own territories and usually didn’t interfere with each other.
But some human cultivators, drawn by the materials and demon cores on monsters, risked sneaking into demon lands to ambush lone demons.
Some failed, were captured by the demons, and their belongings naturally became the spoils of the local mountain lord.
These books, prescriptions, and the like were all confiscated from these unfortunate cultivators.
Most mountain lords were powerful demons of the Condensing Core realm, who knew the value of these items.
Even if the demons couldn’t use them, they would keep them as part of their collection.
Suddenly, a folded sheet of paper caught Zhang Zongnian’s eye.
He clearly saw that the paper was titled “Changsheng Jue: Upper Volume.”
He had studied the Changsheng Jue from childhood and could recite its contents from the first to the sixth level of Qi Refinement by heart.
At a glance, he realized that the content recorded in this upper volume of the Changsheng Jue was something he’d never seen before—it was different from the first six levels!
A thought flashed through his mind, and he reached for the sheet, unfolding it to take a look.
What he saw filled him with delight.
This upper volume of the Changsheng Jue contained everything from Qi Refinement level one all the way to Foundation Establishment.
He didn’t know which cultivator had written out the complete upper volume of the Changsheng Jue, only for it to end up in Hong Lao San’s hands and be stored in this room.
Zhang Zongnian’s heart pounded.
Though his right hand was crippled and he could no longer advance his cultivation, he had already resolved to seize the body of a spirit beast, transform it into human form, and once more practice human cultivation techniques.
Previously, he’d only had the first to sixth level of the technique; now, with the full progression to Foundation Establishment before his eyes, how could he not be excited?
He glanced left and right. The Rat Demon was staring at him with wide, unblinking eyes.
Trying to slip the sheet into his clothes was impossible.
He could only stand in front of the paper, silently memorizing it, trying to commit the entire technique to memory as quickly as possible.
“Hey! You, human cultivator, why are you staring at that sheet instead of registering the inventory? Get to work—don’t waste time!” the Rat Demon beside him suddenly barked, walking over to glare at him.
Yang San Hu looked at him in puzzlement as well, asking, “Zongnian, what are you doing?”
Zhang Zongnian flicked the sheet with his finger and said, “I memorized this technique when I was young. Just now, at a glance, it looked like there were some mistakes in it. If the Master of the Cave ever needs it, having the wrong version wouldn’t be good. I’m just checking to make sure. If I find errors, I can correct them for the Master.”
The Rat Demon glared at the sheet but couldn’t read a single word, totally illiterate, so he couldn’t tell what was what.
He thought, as long as the human cultivator wasn’t trying to slip the sheet into his clothes, it was fine.
He impatiently urged, “Hurry up! The Great Master of the Cave is waiting outside!”
Yang San Hu could read, but he didn’t understand human cultivation techniques and had no idea if what Zhang Zongnian said was true.
Zhang Zongnian quickly memorized all the contents from the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth levels of Qi Refinement to the perfect completion, and then Foundation Establishment, locking it all in his mind.
Cultivators’ memories were much stronger than ordinary people’s, and the Changsheng Jue was concise to begin with. It didn’t take him much effort to memorize the whole thing.
Zhang Zongnian let out a sigh of relief, put the paper down, and smiled, “Looks like I remembered wrong. There are no errors on this sheet.”
The Rat Demon scowled and cursed, “You dumbass cultivator, how could you remember it wrong and waste time! Trying to slack off! Think you can fool Rat Grandpa? Get to work! Try any more tricks and Rat Grandpa will break your legs!”
Having obtained the technique, Zhang Zongnian was in an excellent mood and paid no mind to the Rat Demon’s scolding, speeding up to help Yang San Hu finish the inventory.
Before long, everything was registered, and the two men and one demon returned to the warehouse’s outer room.
Shu Da was still standing there.
Yang San Hu presented the list with both hands to Shu Da.
Shu Da glanced at it, then turned and left with the list.
A group of Rat Demons followed behind him as they left the warehouse.
The warehouse became quiet again.
In his heart, Zhang Zongnian recited the latter half of the Changsheng Jue upper volume once more.
After confirming he’d memorized every word, he made his excuses to Yang San Hu, intending to change clothes and go to the hospital to visit Lin Xue.
He returned to the small room in the warehouse where he had previously lived, fetched some water, took off his tattered, bloodstained clothes, washed himself hastily, and changed into a new, clean set of clothes before heading to the hospital.
As soon as he arrived, he saw that Shu Da’s group of guards was stationed at the hospital entrance.
Shu Da himself had actually come to the hospital.
Voices drifted out—it was Shu Da and Elder Huai talking.
“You’re free to use any of the medicines on this list from the inventory. I only have one request—within the next few days, make sure you heal my brother’s leg.”