While numerous Foundation Establishment forces from the outside world were gathering due to the recent pill auction, all hoping to meet with Li Ye but failing to do so...
Li Ye was, in fact, still in seclusion atop Mount Pingyang not venturing back into the Lava Palace for further exploration.
Thanks to the unique geography of the Chidi Mountains, where the three bordering nations intersected, communication and interaction among nearby factions had become much more convenient.
Even setting aside those factions that had no need for Firecloud or Earthcalm Pills and had never intended to buy such expensive pills many of which only sent Qi Refining disciples there were still quite a few Foundation Establishment cultivators who had made the trip.
Roughly counting, there were close to ten of them scattered throughout the area!
With so many Foundation Establishment cultivators gathering, if Li Ye were to sneak off to the Lava Palace now to scavenge, and if even one of them possessed a unique technique that could detect his movements...
Wouldn't that mean he had exposed the secret of the Lava Palace to the world?
Now that he had reached Foundation Establishment and had his protective formation over his territory, he was perfectly safe as long as he stayed within the Chidi Mountains.
As for his expertise in alchemy, Li Ye had no plans to hide it any longer. He intended to use it as a means of acquiring the resources he needed from various factions laying the groundwork for a peaceful life of farming and cultivation in the future.
But the Lava Palace was a different matter of such importance that even the slightest risk of exposure was unacceptable to him.
As long as he didn't reveal it himself, with his current cultivation, there was no way a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators could detect him through layers of solid earth and molten lava. He had nothing to worry about.
That said, while Li Ye had remained in the mountain this whole time and had no plans to leave...
Over the past month or so, despite being busy refining a batch of pills for the auction, he had still made two short trips to the Lava Palace.
With the safety zone provided by his array setup, he had not only expanded the cleared perimeter further outward but had also begun using puppets to explore several of the smaller building islands deeper within.
During these explorations, the frequency of fire beasts appearing had noticeably increased, and he had finally begun encountering some valuable items along the way.
He gradually started collecting more fire-element spirit herbs and materials, and the "trash" found on the building islands had also begun to improve in quality.
Compared to the early stages where he had found nothing more than unusable fragments of discarded magical artifacts he was now seeing items that still retained a trace of spiritual essence.
Some of them could be salvaged for materials, while others were mostly intact; with proper repairs and restoration of their broken inscriptions, they might even shine with spiritual light once again!
Of course, most of these were good only for fun Li Ye mainly used them as expendable materials for training his crafting techniques.
But aside from those, the most valuable find came during his discovery of a corpse, buried so tightly beneath the ruins of a building that it was nearly indistinguishable from fossilized rock.
Beside the remains, Li Ye found a mostly broken spiritual longsword and a disciple's token!
The spiritual sword's inscriptions were damaged beyond repair without the corresponding formation patterns, there was no way to restore it. At best, it could be broken down for raw materials.
But the token... that was another matter entirely.
Whether by design or custom, it seemed that the craftsmen of the Heavenly Craft Hall had built jade-slip functionality into their tokens, turning them into common vessels for storing information.
This particular token still retained a message inside!
At first, Li Ye was slightly disappointed that he hadn't found any storage tools on the deceased cultivator. But after using his old trick to activate the token and access its contents, his mood quickly turned around.
What was stored inside the token wasn't a dying message, but rather something akin to a guide for newcomers to the Lava Palace a detailed introduction to the place.
After reading through it, not only were many of Li Ye's lingering questions answered, but he now also had a much clearer idea of how to "scavenge" more effectively.
To begin with, the Lava Palace wasn't the true headquarters of the Heavenly Craft Hall. Instead, it was a grand mechanical palace constructed with the full might of the sect, meant to serve as a mobile fortress for deploying cultivators during expeditions.
It retained all the functions of a main sect base and was equipped with powerful mechanisms and puppets essentially, a war fortress.
This palace was the sect's greatest asset when they journeyed from the Western Desert to aid the Southern Frontier in suppressing the demon race and seeking the sacred tree inheritance of the Wood God Sect.
But, in the end, their plan failed.
The puppet palace was left behind in the Southern Frontier, buried in slumber for thousands almost ten thousand years...
Until it was eventually unearthed by Xu Pingyang and his team, ultimately falling into Li Ye's hands.
"Looks like the owner of that token was just a disciple newly transferred here. The token's contents must've been intended to help them quickly get familiar with the palace..." Li Ye remarked casually, lounging against his bed and fiddling with the token.
Before him, the air shimmered as the token projected a light-based display of text and maps, forming an introduction to the Lava Palace.
It detailed the distribution of various functional zones, important precautions, and numerous restricted areas everything a sect disciple was expected to know was laid out.
Even though much of the Lava Palace had since collapsed, with most of the powerful mechanisms nowhere to be found and many of the buildings warped beyond recognition from centuries of molten lava erosion...
By comparing what he had seen with the map recorded in the jade slip, Li Ye was still able to make some progress.
"It looks like the area I've been exploring is not too far off just about a dozen building islands away from a few key structures," Li Ye murmured as his eyes lit up. "That's where parts of the Machinery Pavilion and Assessment Hall are located…"
As he began matching the ruined buildings with the map, Li Ye's gaze grew brighter.
Although those places weren't like the Spirit Herb Garden, Alchemy Hall, or Refinement Halls locations most likely to offer direct and valuable opportunities...
The Machinery Pavilion was where the Heavenly Craft Hall stored a vast collection of techniques and inheritances!
And the Assessment Hall was designed to test disciples' talent and combat abilities. If a disciple could pass a challenge, the mechanisms would automatically grant a corresponding reward.
That part was a bit of a gamble there was no telling if any of the assessment systems or rewards still remained.
But the Machinery Pavilion, regardless of what techniques or inheritances might still be there, would certainly hold great value for Li Ye!
Whether it be multidisciplinary arts or combat techniques, anything worthy of being preserved by a Nascent Soul-level sect was bound to be extraordinary!
If he found something that suited him, all the better.
Given that his path was destined to delve deeply into the various disciplines of cultivation thanks to his unique panel system, obtaining the Heavenly Craft Hall's foundational techniques could make his entire journey far smoother.
All those scattered disciplines could be tied together through a shared foundation, turning them into a cohesive and powerful system for both cultivation and combat a priceless benefit.
Even if nothing directly useful turned up, it would still broaden his horizons and offer valuable insight for future advancement.
No matter what, he couldn't lose!
"Judging by my current progress, even if everything goes smoothly, I'll still need to open up at least one or two more safe zones before I can reach that area…" Li Ye calculated silently. "The deeper I go, the harder it gets it's bound to take a lot of time, so there's no need to rush it…"
"I should focus on wrapping up the auction first, see if I can trade for some pill recipes and spiritual plant seedlings, and start making use of my spirit fields."
"Only by gaining enough hands-on experience and further improving my formation and puppet crafting skills will I have a real shot at claiming the Machinery Pavilion and Assessment Hall."
With a glint in his eyes, Li Ye had already made up his mind he was going to squeeze every last resource he could from the visiting cultivators!
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