Chapter 069: Ocean of Ancient Pills

  In the pill corridor, Yang Tian's gaze swept across shattered stone portals revealing ransacked chambers - empty shelves stripped bare, even jade display racks looted by ruthless treasure hunters.

  "Though these pills were extraordinary, most have lost their medicinal essence over time," Yang Tian remarked, examining a discarded pellet. Despite its high grade, centuries of decay left it nearly inert, some completely useless.

  "True," Xing Hao agreed with a regretful sigh. "Even perfect preservation couldn't stop the erosion. Who knows how long this Array Sect ruin remained sealed? Countless legendary formulas are lost forever now."

  "Focus on chambers containing pills refined with primordial energy," Yang Tian directed. "These degraded relics hold little value for our current needs."

  Nodding agreement, the group pressed deeper past frantic cultivators hammering at stubborn defensive arrays. Even combined, breaking each barrier would consume precious hours.

  Half an hour's sprint brought them to less crowded corridors, though endless stone portals still stretched before them like some mad architect's nightmare. As Yang Tian ran, the slumbering Xiao Bai twitched in his arms.

  "Hmm?" Yang Tian paused, feeling warm drool seep through his robe. "You gluttonous furball, dreaming of banquets even unconscious?" he chuckled, wiping his chest.

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  "Brother Yang?" The others turned back, perplexed by his sudden stop.

  "Wait..." Yang Tian's senses prickled. His palm pressed against a seemingly ordinary wall section. "There's... something."

  Xing Hao's eyes narrowed. "Energy fluctuations. Faint, but deliberate concealment. Breach it?"

  Yang Tian stepped back, crimson energy coiling around his fist. The thunderous impact left only hairline fractures in the mysteriously resilient stone.

  "By the ancestors!" Xing Hao breathed. "That strike could shatter battlements!"

  "Combined assault!" Yang Tian barked. Purple arrows from Shan Qu's bow joined swirling sword energies and Yang Tian's hammerblows. The wall finally exploded inward in a shower of debris.

  Revealed beyond glimmered a jade-lit passageway of breathtaking craftsmanship. Emerald radiance bathed Yun'er like celestial mist, transforming her into an ethereal sprite.

  "Gorgeous..." she whispered, entranced by the luminous architecture.

  "Less gawking, more looting!" Xing Hao charged ahead, battle instincts overriding aesthetics. The hidden corridor's first jade portal yielded easily...

  ...unleashing a crimson tsunami.

  "Ancestors preserve us!" Shan Qu choked. The vault-sized chamber overflowed with primordial energy pills, their collective aura thickening the air to syrup-sweet density.

  "Harvest swiftly!" Yang Tian commanded, spatial rings flashing. "This energy signature will draw every vulture within miles!"

  They worked with military precision, five chambers stripped bare in minutes. Yang Tian's newly acquired ring bulged dangerously when shouts echoed down the corridor.

  Dozens of red-eyed cultivators froze at the threshold, then descended like locusts. Fistfights erupted over spillage while the original discoverers slipped away.

  At the corridor's end loomed a monolithic jade portal etched with pulsating runes. Yang Tian's punch sparked defensive arrays into blazing countermeasures.

  "Let me," Xing Hao growled, unsheathing his ancestral blade. The weapon's edge thrummed with contained lightning as he assumed a two-handed stance.