At the very end of the mental message, Perfected Hanyu briefly accounted for the relics within the cave abode.
She described herself merely as an impoverished rogue cultivator down on her luck who had lived a life of frugality, leaving behind little of great value in the cave abode.
Her lifelong collection was nothing more than some cultivation manuals, miscellaneous notes, and reflections—just several chests of beast-hide scrolls and jade slips. If future generations were interested, they could peruse them at leisure.
Most of her medicinal pills had been exhausted while attempting to break through bottlenecks, leaving behind only some worthless Fasting Pills and unneeded Qi Refining pills. The most precious among them was merely a Marrow Cleansing Pill left over from her early body-refining days, but with the passage of many years, most had likely lost their efficacy, so there was no need to hold high hopes.
The lotus bronze mirror by the cold jade bed was a mid-grade dharma artifact named “Frost Splendor.” It was an item she had frequently used for self-defense in her youth, later set aside as her cultivation deepened, left behind for posterity’s protection.
On the desk was a jade pendant engraved with the character “Han,” which she had retrieved from an abandoned sect ruin. Crafted from a peculiar material, wearing it nurtured one’s spirit meridians and steadied the mind. Though not an extraordinary treasure, wearing it daily was quite beneficial.
The small pouch on the desk was a storage bag she had refined herself, containing some clothing, accessories, and utensils—none of which were particularly valuable.
By this point, the mental intent grew increasingly faint, like a candle burning down to its end.
As the final words came through, Jiang Zhaoye felt a faint, almost vanishing sliver of emotion, like an ethereal sigh traversing long years to fall desolately upon his ear.
“Junior, our meeting is fate. Throughout this wandering life of mine, belonging to no sect, with all kin long dead and leaving behind no descendants, I sat in forgotten solitude, reduced to ash. If your cultivation achieves success in the future and you have strength to spare, could you gather my garments and take my remains back to my homeland? I was born in Cold Pool Town of the Northern Region. If convenient, bury me by the side of the cold pool. If inconvenient, then let it be; do not force yourself.”
The intent vanished completely.
Holding the jade slip, Jiang Zhaoye sat quietly for a long time.
He felt his eyes stinging slightly.
After a long while, Jiang Zhaoye stood up, carefully slipped the jade slip and bronze mirror into the pockets on either side of his pants, walked over to the skeleton, and bowed deeply with utmost sincerity.
“Senior, thank you for your gifts. Cold Pool Town, was it? I’ve committed it to memory. Even though I don’t even know how to get out of here right now, rest assured: as long as I have the ability, I will definitely bring you back to your native soil so fallen leaves may return to their roots.”
Naturally, the skeleton did not answer him.
Silence reigned within the ice cave, save for the steady dripping from distant icicles, tirelessly counting the passage of years in this forgotten corner.
...
The jade slip had mentioned that the cave abode was equipped with a simple spirit-gathering array and a storage area. The spirit-gathering array was within the cold jade bed, while the storage area lay behind it.
Jiang Zhaoye circled around the platform, but the stone wall was completely smooth, devoid of any seams. He crouched down, felt around for a while, and pressed a stone brick. With a rumble, a narrow passage appeared out of thin air.
The passage was neither too high nor too low; standing just over 1.7 meters tall, Jiang Zhaoye could walk through with his back straight. After about a dozen steps, the space before him opened up.
This was a side chamber much smaller than the main ice chamber, about ten square meters in area. In the corner sat several wooden chests, covered in a thin layer of frost. Two of the chests were open, their contents showing faint traces of having been rummaged through, likely when the cave abode’s master had accessed them herself.
He hurried over and checked the open wooden chests first.
Inside lay several neatly stacked piles of beast-hide scrolls, along with some scattered jade slips.
He picked up a scroll at random and unrolled it. It was densely covered in characters, interspersed with diagrams of human meridians—it appeared to be a cultivation manual.
However, Jiang Zhaoye couldn’t read these characters, so he had no choice but to put the beast-hide scroll back and turn to the other wooden chest beside it.
This chest held miscellaneous items.
It was filled with bottles, jars, and several cloth bags of various sizes. He picked up a jade bottle, opened it, and looked inside; there were several dark brown pills. He poured one out onto his palm, lifted it up, and sniffed it. There seemed to be a faint medicinal fragrance mixed with the aroma of cooked rice.
Jiang Zhaoye’s eyes lit up, recognizing it as the Fasting Pill described in the jade slip. Since it still carried a fresh aroma, according to the jade slip, that meant it hadn’t gone bad.
The ravenously starving boy hesitated for only half a second before gulping it down. It melted the moment it entered his mouth.
A warm current slipped smoothly down his esophagus and into his stomach. In mere moments, a wondrous, gentle sensation of fullness filled the stomach that had been cramping with hunger just moments ago. Following that, even his limbs and bones slowly gave rise to the cozy warmth that came after eating one’s fill.
A sense of happiness from being full welled up from the bottom of his heart, bringing tears to Jiang Zhaoye’s eyes.
At this moment, his gratitude toward Perfected Hanyu reached its peak.
Had it been any other cultivator, they wouldn’t have provided such meticulous descriptions, going so far as to explain what the pills looked like and how to tell if they had expired. Otherwise, with student Little Jiang’s completely illiterate, blind state, he wouldn’t have been able to tell what was edible from what wasn’t.
Such kindness was truly beyond repayment!
With teary eyes, Jiang Zhaoye corked the bottle, stuffed it into his pocket, and struck while the iron was hot to search through the bag previously pressed under the jade bottles. The bag was quite large and felt heavy when lifted. He pulled open the opening, and the light reflected from within abruptly dazzled his eyes.
Inside were dozens of transparent crystals of various sizes, reflecting a somewhat dazzling glare beneath the luminescent pearls embedded in the ceiling.
Jiang Zhaoye felt his eyes burning with excitement. He took one out, examined it closely for a moment, and his heart pounded wildly.
Spirit stones.
To be precise, in the jade slip’s terminology, they were called spirit stones. Identical objects existed on Blue Star where Jiang Zhaoye lived, though school textbooks referred to them as spirit ore.
During the century of spiritual energy recovery, psionicists used this kind of ore for cultivation and crafting energy cores. In modern times, however, spirit mines had long been thoroughly exploited, and high-purity psionic energy was scientifically refined, giving rise to countless applications just like petroleum. Raw spirit stones in their natural state were virtually unseen on the market, just as very few people ever came into contact with crude oil fresh from the ground...
If these pieces were genuine, their value was certainly not low.
In the psionic era, this stuff was a veritable precious mineral.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Jiang Zhaoye carefully tied the cloth bag shut and placed it back into the chest.
He rummaged through the remaining chests, which mostly held bottles, jars, and jade boxes. Many of the bottles and jars were empty, and on the few that still contained pills, the labels had mostly fallen off. The dozen or so jade boxes he dug out did contain some unfamiliar medicinal herbs, but he didn’t dare touch them recklessly for fear that they might be poisonous.
Another chest contained metal implements that looked like unfinished component parts. Unable to identify their purpose, he didn’t dare touch those either.
After painstakingly going through all the chests, Jiang Zhaoye hadn’t found a single garment to cover himself or wrap around his body. Near tears, he walked out of the side chamber to search for the storage bag mentioned in the jade slip.
Supposedly, that thing required divine sense to open... which probably meant mental energy?
Yet Jiang Zhaoye had not even reached the standard for awakening. According to articles pushed on Xuexin.com, mental energy could only be released in tiny wisps after reaching Psionic Rank 2. His earlier attempt to probe the jade slip had merely been an imitation, a shot in the dark.
Yet he was simply too cold. Faced with his last chance to find something to ward off the chill, he had to bite the bullet and try.
Having swallowed a Fasting Pill, Jiang Zhaoye’s physical strength was far better than before. Before long, he made his way back to the desk—the stone desk he had first discovered. He picked up the intricately embroidered pouch. Its handsome tassels brushed against his arm, elegant and refined, bringing an inexplicable touch of solace to his mind.
Rate on N.U.
