Chapter 734: Chapter 281: A Dead Dragon Cannot Be Resurrected

East of the Compassion Sea.

A colossal Nautilus crawled slowly forward on its tentacles, as if chasing the setting sun.

The water here was a thousand zhang deep, far from any shallow-sea region.

Yet, even as it stood on the ocean floor, half of its body remained exposed above the surface.

Its smooth, disc-like shell with reddish-brown stripes was on full display.

"The Relic has closed."

A middle-aged man in a Crane Cloak stood atop the Nautilus, his hands clasped behind his back.

His gaze drifted toward the horizon, yet seemed to land somewhere far beyond. In a calm, measured voice, he said, "But I still can’t sense Huang’Er’s life lamp."

"It seems he’s never coming back."

His words carried no emotion, neither sadness nor anger.

He was as calm as if he were reading from a script.

The Nautilus beneath his feet, however, faltered for a moment before quickly resuming its forward crawl with a wave of its tentacles.

’I’m just a mount, so why was I cursed with useless organs like ears?’

’Thankfully, there was another poor bastard nearby to draw some of his attention.’

"I have failed in my duty. I could not protect the prince. I await your punishment, Venerable Lord."

It was a lobster, far smaller than the Nautilus, measuring just over six hundred zhang in length.

Its entire body was bowed, making it look like a great cyan sphere from a distance.

It had advanced to Tier Four a thousand years ago, leaving it with virtually no natural predators in the sea.

But right now, the late-September evening wind felt bitingly cold, as if autumn had come early.

Unlike among the Human Race, where cultivators of the same rank are relatively polite to one another.

In the sea, the law of the jungle was followed to its most brutal extreme.

A difference of a single Minor Realm was enough to establish a clear hierarchy.

"Huang’Er was always headstrong. He loved adventuring and challenging others to Magical Combat. I imagine he ran off on his own this time. It has nothing to do with you."

The middle-aged man’s tone remained as placid as an abyss. "A dead dragon cannot be revived."

"But a king should not embark on his final journey alone."

He made no visible movement, yet a small token materialized in mid-air and fell upon the lobster’s head.

"Take this Token and find the Golden Simurgh. He will provide you with the necessary intelligence. Then, find every cultivator who entered the Relic and make them join Huang’Er in death."

"I’m entrusting this to you. Do it cleanly. Don’t let a single one escape, and don’t take too long."

"Go."

The lobster, instantly relieved, replied, "As you command, I will leave at once!"

Before its voice had even faded, it grabbed the Token and shot off toward the Compassion Sea at its fastest speed.

It maintained its top speed with all its might, not daring to slacken in the slightest until it was out of the man’s Range of Divine Sense.

Meanwhile, one of its targets, Xiao Chen, had found a secluded, deserted island nearby.

He skillfully set up an Array Plate and began the Refinement process on the Storage Rings in his possession.

’Now that the expedition into the Relic is over, it’s time to take stock of my gains.’

’Sigh!’

As he broke through the Restrictions, Xiao Chen sighed to himself. ’No Nine Orifice Clear Jade, no Evil Qi... Just a few useless, broken inheritances.’

’The only good thing I got was a Small Shifting Talisman. Otherwise, coming here would have been a total waste.’

’Hopefully, I’ll find something useful in these Storage Rings.’

Ordinarily, breaking into nineteen Storage Rings would take about fifty-seven shichen, which is nearly five days.

Factoring in breaks to recover his Spiritual Power, it would take even longer.

But since this wasn’t Xiao Chen’s first time at this particular task, his practiced movements allowed him to crack all the Storage Rings in just three days.

It was almost twice as fast as it should have been.

As was his custom, he first picked out all the Spirit Stones to sort, inventory, and count them separately.

It was worth noting that while the task might seem tedious, he actually found it quite invigorating and not at all bothersome.

He hissed in surprise. ’So many Middle Grade Spirit Stones. What were they for?’

Inside the Storage Rings belonging to the burly men, Xiao Chen found two thousand Middle Grade Spirit Stones, all packed in identical small wooden boxes.

With ten men, that added up to a whopping twenty thousand Middle Grade Spirit Stones.

Strangely, they didn’t carry a single Low Grade Spirit Stone among them.

The nine Human Race traitors, on the other hand, yielded a combined total of over 1,225,000 Spirit Stones.

The majority of that came from a single Storage Ring, the one with a restriction as complex as the Copper Kui’s, which alone provided a full 430,000 Spirit Stones.

Such vast wealth made it easy to assume this was the money the Sea Race had used to bribe him.

After setting aside the Spirit Stones, Xiao Chen chose to inventory the ten Standard Storage Rings first.

This was mainly because not only were they identical on the outside, but their contents were also nearly indistinguishable.

Aside from a few obviously personal odds and ends.

Each contained a Spirit Shield resembling a fish scale, a spare Flying Sword made of bone, and three oddly shaped stones.

’No Array Plate?’

Xiao Chen found this odd. ’Logically,’ he thought, ’carrying so many Middle Grade Spirit Stones should be for powering an Array.’

’Or could it be that these stones are the Array Plate?’

He examined them carefully, even trying to infuse them with his True Essence.

However, he observed no obvious runes, nor did the stones show any particular reaction to his True Essence. They seemed to be nothing more than ordinary Sea Stones.

’Whatever,’ he thought. ’I’ll put them away for now and find someone to appraise them later.’

Xiao Chen didn’t dwell on it. He organized the items and began to inspect the other nine Storage Rings.

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