"Lying?" Chu Feng didn't quite understand what Bai Ruochen meant.
"You didn't tell the two elders the truth about the supreme-grade Power Gathering Pill," Bai Ruochen said.
"Heh, how did you know I wasn't telling the truth?" Upon learning that Bai Ruochen was talking about this, Chu Feng flashed a mischievous grin.
"Intuition," Bai Ruochen said.
"Fine." Chu Feng spread his hands and shrugged, looking like someone who'd conceded defeat.
"So what's the real story?" Bai Ruochen asked.
"You should know that I've mastered a special barrier technique. This technique is somewhat unique, so I didn't want the two elders to know about it."
"As for the barrier technique itself, it doesn't really have any remarkable abilities, but it can enhance my observational skills to an extraordinary degree — even beyond what ordinary people are capable of."
"Earlier, when Sima Ying was competing against Hei Qing, I used this barrier technique to carefully study Sima Ying's alchemy methods and her formation-crafting approach."
"I learned her alchemy methods and her formation techniques, and I also discovered that while her alchemy was fine, her formations had slight flaws and weren't quite perfect."
"So when I was refining the supreme-grade Power Gathering Pills, I used Sima Ying's alchemy methods as a base, but made some modifications to the formations."
"Back then, I was really being pushed into the deep end — I didn't have much confidence. It was a gamble, a roll of the dice."
"Unexpectedly, it actually succeeded. If anything, rather than saying Sima Ying was unlucky, it's more accurate to say I was just fortunate." Chu Feng smiled with an expression of relief — this time he was telling the truth.
"No, this wasn't luck — it was your strength. To learn something after seeing it only once… that's not something just anyone can do. This shows how powerful your barrier technique is and how deep your comprehension of barrier arts truly is." Bai Ruochen's gaze toward Chu Feng grew increasingly reverent.
Though she had long known that Chu Feng's barrier technique was formidable, she hadn't expected him to be this strong.
Having a photographic memory was one thing, but learning something after a single glance was truly extraordinary.
"It also helped that Sima Ying's supreme-grade Power Gathering Pill was relatively simple to refine. If the alchemy method had been more complicated, I wouldn't have been able to learn it so quickly. After all, alchemy is different from weapon crafting — I rarely use pills to assist myself, so I haven't studied alchemy all that much," Chu Feng said.
"Stop being modest. I know your abilities."
"Chu Feng, since your barrier technique is this powerful, let me bring up something serious," Bai Ruochen said.
"What is it?" Chu Feng asked.
"If there were a hidden treasure here, could you find it?" Bai Ruochen said.
"Treasure? Where? Here in the Nine Spirits Cave Heaven?" At the mention of treasure, Chu Feng's interest was immediately piqued.
"It seems you really don't know much about this place."
"The reason the Nine Spirits Cave Heaven is called the Nine Spirits Cave Heaven is because its master took the title 'Nine Spirits God.'"
"Legend has it that the Nine Spirits God was not human, but a demon beast. However, he was an extraordinarily powerful Spirit World Master, and in his time, he was renowned throughout the entire Sacred Land of Martial Arts."
"Though the Nine Spirits God was a demon beast, his understanding of barrier techniques defied the heavens. When his lifespan was nearing its end, he returned to his original homeland — the Greenwood Domain."
"And he prepared to use his remaining power to seal his understanding of barrier arts, along with certain ineffable mysteries, inside the Nine Spirits Divine Map."
"But this news spread like wildfire throughout the Greenwood Domain, and many people in the region grew covetous…"