If it had been any other young human, the Vermilion Bird Divine Beast would have scoffed at such words. But coming from Jiang Chen, they carried a weight that made the Vermilion Bird take them very seriously.
Long Xiaoxuan, as an outside observer, saw things clearly: "Brother Vermilion, you have to admit — on this matter, I support Chen Shao's view. You've been a bit obsessive lately."
Cold sweat broke out across the Vermilion Bird's brow, and it gave a slight nod. "It seems I really have been too hasty."
Jiang Chen chuckled and snapped his fingers. "All right, let's not let that dampen our spirits for this little sweep. Come on — let's go see what treasures are worth taking."
The Eternal Sacred Ground's treasury was extraordinarily well-stocked, almost dazzling in its abundance.
Of course, Jiang Chen had seen far more in his previous life — he had encountered spirit medicine vaults ten times richer than this one.
So he was naturally the most composed of the three.
The one who could barely contain himself, surprisingly, was Long Xiaoxuan. His eyes were practically glowing. "Chen Shao — can we just take whatever we want from here?"
Dragonkind had an innate love of hoarding treasures; it was hardwired into their very bones. The moment Long Xiaoxuan laid eyes on this spirit medicine vault, that primal instinct began to stir.
"Brother Long, you're a descendant of the True Dragon lineage — you can't just indiscriminately grab everything in sight," the Vermilion Bird laughed. "You dragons really do freeze in your tracks the moment you spot something good."
Long Xiaoxuan gave a soft huff but said nothing more. Nevertheless, the way his eyes gleamed with avarice made it abundantly clear that the dazzling array of treasures before him had thoroughly captured his interest.
Jiang Chen, on the other hand, was quite selective. Though this was the Eternal Sacred Nation's treasury, it didn't mean he would find every item worthy of his attention.
There were things he considered worthwhile, yet he didn't lift a finger toward them. Jiang Chen's principle was simple: never be greedy — take only what was truly useful to him. Even things of moderate usefulness didn't interest him.
After wandering through for a while, Long Xiaoxuan had already picked up quite a number of odds and ends, and the Vermilion Bird had taken a few things as well. Jiang Chen, however, had not taken a single item so far — nothing among these was something he absolutely needed.
But when Jiang Chen entered another section, a particular batch of materials caught his eye. It was a type of sand.
Jiang Chen recognized it from his previous life. It was called Moon Pool Silver Sand — a supreme material for inscribing formation arrays. Formations drawn with this sand would have their power boosted by thirty percent unconditionally.
If the formation lines were inscribed perfectly and fused with Moon Pool Silver Sand, the power of a formation could potentially double — and that was no empty boast.
There was no denying it: Moon Pool Silver Sand was the real deal, the kind of treasure Jiang Chen had dreamed of obtaining.
Back in the day, he had obtained a True Spirit Drawing Rod from the Holy One Sect, but had never had occasion to use it. That rod was one of the finest formation-drawing tools in the world.
If the True Spirit Drawing Rod and the Moon Pool Silver Sand were combined, even a mediocre formation blueprint — set up with the most basic formation foundation — could have its power boosted by seventy to eighty percent.
If things went well, doubling or even tripling the power wasn't entirely out of the question.
And yet the Eternal Sacred Ground's treasury actually had such a large quantity of it.
Jiang Chen was genuinely surprised. Gazing at the Moon Pool Silver Sand piled up in small mounds, he made no pretense of courtesy and filled several containers right away.
Good things could never be in surplus.
That said, Jiang Chen wasn't gluttonous about it. Even though the sand was stacked in mountain-like heaps, what he took amounted to less than one percent of the total.
Securing this Moon Pool Silver Sand alone made the entire trip worthwhile.
But Jiang Chen didn't leave just yet. After all, the Sacred Ancestor had personally promised that he could take whatever he wanted from the treasury — as much as he wanted, however much he wanted.
Though Jiang Chen wouldn't actually take everything in sight, he fully intended to take whatever caught his eye. This vast treasury had only been half explored so far — he wasn't about to be satisfied now.
That said, Jiang Chen didn't proceed to strip the place bare. After another round, he took a few more items. Most of them were related to cultivation.
There was also a set of talismans designed for use in combat — Jiang Chen found them quite practical and pocketed them. As for everything else, he left untouched.
As for Long Xiaoxuan, after Jiang Chen's repeated suggestions, the dragon finally reined in his impulse to ransack the place, though he still collected a fair number of items.
Most of what he took was cultivation-related, and none of it was the kind of irreplaceable treasure that would cause the Eternal Sacred Ground significant loss.
The Vermilion Bird's standards were equally high. Even among the treasures of the Eternal Sacred Ground, the vast majority failed to meet its discerning eye. What it did choose was refined to perfection.
When they had finished their rounds, all three could be said to have returned fully laden.
Shortly after Jiang Chen and his companions departed the treasury, the Sacred Ancestor arrived. The guards assigned to watch over the vault delivered their report to him.