Cat, I developed a new posture

"These scums!"

Du Ke muttered a few words through his clenched teeth as he watched the skulls rolling out of the pile on the Bagua Platform.

The eye sockets of the skulls were hollow, with a pale and desolate color. It was unclear how long they had been buried here.

A nauseating stench of decay filled the nostrils of Du Ke's cat and Xiao Ha, causing Thirteen to sneeze repeatedly.

With a terrifying gaze, Du Ke's murderous intent began to boil within him.

But soon, he closed his eyes and took deep breaths.

"I can't let my emotions affect me. I can't let my emotions affect me!"

The white cat's mouth moved, murmuring to himself. He was suppressing his murderous intent, but the more he suppressed it, the stronger the anger became.

After a moment, Du Ke opened his eyes, his expression calm.

"Let's go, Thirteen. Let's go to the bottom and see what's there."

"Huh?"

Thirteen widened his eyes. We're going to crawl inside? There are so many skulls!

Ordinary people would run away at the sight, and we're going in?

"Let's go!"

Du Ke grabbed Thirteen and squeezed into the pile of skulls under the Bagua Platform.

There were countless skulls buried beneath, and as the cat and dog burrowed deeper, they squeezed the skulls inside, causing them to surge outward.

As they descended, Du Ke also sensed the aura of the Day Essence Dan Ling that he had recorded.

There were currently sixteen within his perception range, while the rest of the buried Day Essence Dan were too far away to be sensed.

But sixteen was enough.

After Du Ke pulled the dog and reached the bottom of the skull pile, he discovered that the bottom was covered with a layer of jade stone soaked in blood, separating the skull pile and the soil beneath.

Inside the jade stone, wisps of blood-like threads spread like smoke, resembling blood vessels diffusing within the jade.

And this jade stone was not pieced together, but a complete piece of Blood Jade.

Du Ke extended his claws and pressed down on the jade stone below. It felt icy cold, and a chilling sensation seeped into Du Ke's body through the contact with the stone.

But as soon as this chill entered Du Ke's body, the cat's blood energy spontaneously circulated, evaporating it instantly.

"There's something wrong with this jade stone..."

Du Ke pondered for a moment and opened the Black Cauldron Space.

"Never mind, regardless of any issues, let's just move it away!"

As soon as the Black Cauldron Space opened, the jade stone disappeared from under Du Ke's claws, sucked into the Black Cauldron Space.

With the jade stone gone, Du Ke's paw sank downwards.

Underneath the jade stone was a layer of fine white powder, resembling lime. But Du Ke immediately noticed that something was amiss.

This wasn't lime; it was clearly bone ash!

"Skulls as the altar, Blood Jade as the foundation, bone ash as the base. Is this some kind of special formation?"

Du Ke recalled the ghost hand he had seen before, murmuring to himself.

But soon, he plunged his right paw into the bone ash, directly collecting it into the Black Cauldron Space and depositing it within.

The flames rolled up the bone ash, starting to condense into a pill.

Du Ke continuously poured the ashes into the black cauldron without any intention of stopping, diligently refining them into pills.

Soon, the pills took shape, but they were only the size of soybeans. However, as more and more ashes were added, the pills rapidly increased in size, transforming from soybeans to pigeon eggs, and then from pigeon eggs to goose eggs.

At this point, all the ashes had been completely collected by Du Ke, and the bone ash pill flew out of the black cauldron.

The pale white pill, the size of a goose egg, embedded itself in the void, giving off an eerie aura.

After glancing at the bone ash pill, Du Ke paid it no further attention.

Beneath the ashes was normal soil and rocks. Du Ke turned to the figure behind him and said, "Bite onto my tail, we're about to descend quite rapidly."

"Huh?"

Thirteen was puzzled about what Du Ke meant by descending rapidly, but he obediently bit onto Du Ke's tail.

In the next second,

Du Ke began extracting the soil and rocks, refining them into pills in the black cauldron. At the same time, he took a Blood Nourishing Pill to replenish his energy.

As the soil and rocks were continuously drawn out by Du Ke, a tunnel large enough to accommodate Du Ke and Thirteen began to take shape.

The moment the tunnel formed, Du Ke and Thirteen descended into the depths of the underground along the tunnel.

Just as Du Ke was descending, he tossed his other claw backward, throwing out a pigeon egg-sized Sun Essence Pill.

The Sun Essence Pill directly lodged itself in a skull, casting a faint light that illuminated the bones. Du Ke, along with Thirteen, plunged into the underground.

It should be noted that when Du Ke first practiced alchemy, he refined pills using flowing water.

The first pill he ever refined, the Clearwater Pill, saved his and the dog's lives at the most dangerous time.

Without that pill, they would have been in a sorry state.

Since refining the Clearwater Pill, Du Ke discovered that the space inside his black cauldron could collect most basic substances, such as water, soil, air, sunlight, and moonlight.

As for microorganisms and bacteria?

Du Ke didn't consider them. After all, they were too tiny, and he didn't possess the ability to observe the thirty-six thousand creatures in a drop of water.

However, as compensation, he could control the range and direction of the substances he collected when manipulating the black cauldron to collect these basic substances.

The refinement of the Clearwater Pill involved contact with flowing water, which inherently remained in motion, so there wouldn't be significant changes overall.

But if he were to absorb soil and rocks, it would be like a shield tunnel boring machine. Du Ke could effortlessly create a tunnel underground using the black cauldron's spatial properties.

As Du Ke continuously extracted soil and rocks and deposited them into the black cauldron's space, the white cat's energy was also continually drained.

Du Ke could only extract soil and rocks to refine pills while simultaneously consuming Blood Nourishing Pills.

Fortunately, he was accustomed to multitasking, so it had no real impact on him.

In the blink of an eye, Du Ke and the dog had descended more than ten meters underground, and they continued to descend as Du Ke kept extracting soil and rocks.

Thirteen, covered in dirt, bit onto Du Ke's tail, understanding what Du Ke had meant earlier.

If they continued like this, their descent speed would indeed be fast.

Not long after, Duke's paw touched a strand of coldness, causing him to pause and take a breath.

"No good, I've hit a stone. Moreover, we've delved too deep underground, and the air has become thin!"

Duke took a few breaths and glanced at Thirteen, who was still biting his tail without letting go. "How are you feeling now?"

Thirteen let out two muffled sounds, his voice somewhat strained.

Duke nodded upon hearing that. "Hold on a little longer!"

"When we return to the Su family, I'll make sure to get you a set of martial arts cultivation techniques from the Ganzhi Beast Control Sect. Practicing martial arts is truly effective!"

Relying on his powerful internal energy, Duke remained at ease even in this environment with such thin air underground.

However, the dog was starting to have difficulty breathing and had begun to pant.

"This stone is too big; the black cauldron can't contain it!"

Duke tapped the stone beneath his feet and immediately clicked his tongue. The stone was too large, exceeding the limits of the black cauldron's spatial capacity.

"Forget it, let's change direction and continue digging!"

Duke immediately changed direction, and Thirteen continued to hold onto the cat's tail, allowing Duke to pull him along as they dug underground.

This time, while utilizing the black cauldron's spatial properties to dig, Duke also left behind some Sun Essence Pills in the tunnel he created.

By causing an explosion from below, it should attract the Earth Dragon and destroy the Wutong Temple.

Even if it couldn't provoke an earthquake, it would at least cause the Wutong Temple to crack open directly.

Duke excavated sideways for some time, continuously moving along the edges of the massive stone he had discovered and exploring its boundaries.

Half an hour later, Duke realized he had reached the stone's edge and began to dig directly downward, feeling a tremor at the same time.

"Sure enough, it collapsed!"

Duke sighed inwardly; he had been digging so quickly because, apart from buying time, he was also afraid of a collapse.

Now, the tunnel he had left behind had indeed collapsed.

But it didn't matter; he had already planned for this.

"Let's continue down!"

As Duke continued digging downward, the tremors caused by the tunnel collapse alerted the Taoists of the Wutong Temple on the surface.

"What just happened?"

A Taoist wearing only shorts rushed out of his room, and many other Taoists left their rooms and gathered in the courtyard.

"I don't know; I just felt the ground shake suddenly!"

"Could it be the Earth Dragon flipping over?"

"What the hell are you talking about? If it were really the Earth Dragon flipping over, would the Wutong deities not be on guard?"

"That's true!"

"Then what's going on?"

"Maybe it's the Temple Master refining pills again and causing the furnace to explode."

"Ha, the Temple Master hasn't given up yet!"

"Even though he hasn't reached ten failures with the alchemy furnace during this period, he's already had seven or eight."

"Sigh, even though he could rely on the power of the Wutong deities to refine pills, why is the Temple Master so stubborn?"

"Perhaps the old man has his own thoughts!"

...

As a group of Taoists discussed among themselves, a slender figure dressed immaculately and exuding a fierce aura approached them.

"What are you all doing, not resting properly in the middle of the night?"

As soon as the Daoist appeared, everyone fell silent, clearly intimidated by his authority.

"Supervisor, we were discussing the sudden tremor that happened earlier!"

One of the Daoists spoke up, and the others echoed in agreement.

"Yes, Supervisor!"

"The tremor came so suddenly, it was like an earth dragon flipping over!"

"Yes, that's why we came out!"

"We thought it was the Temple Master refining pills again!"

........

"Nonsense! The Temple Master is currently focusing on the Wutong Divine Cauldron, adding fuel to the Five Divine Fires inside. How could he possibly be refining pills?"

"But indeed, the tremor was quite sudden."

"Alright, here's what we'll do. Some of you call for the disciples to inspect both inside and outside the temple, see if there are any loopholes!"

"Huh?"

One Daoist immediately voiced his displeasure, but the Supervisor glared at him and asked, "Is there a problem?"

"No problem, no problem, we'll go check right away!"

All the Daoists in front of the Supervisor scattered like birds and beasts, running to their rooms to put on clothes. It was still a bit cold in this early spring.

Before long, the Daoists who had gathered together were carrying lanterns and searching inside the temple.

Meanwhile, deep underground.

"Why haven't we reached the end yet? Did I dig in the wrong direction?"

Du Ke pondered to himself while collecting the soil and stones under his feet.

But after collecting the soil and stones, his expression suddenly changed because he seemed to have dug up something.

Du Ke expanded the area around the tunnel he was in and then leaned down, getting close to the ground, to take a look at what he had just dug up.

It was a square brick, the size of a human head, and there were many more around it.

So many bricks were fitted together seamlessly.

It looked like a floor, but with a slight curvature.

"Hmm?" Du Ke's eyes widened, and his golden pupils sparkled in the darkness as he grinned, "This isn't a floor, it should be the dome of the underground palace of Wutong Temple!"

"After all this effort, I've finally found the right place!"

Saying this, Du Ke raised his right claw and revealed his claw that could split gold and jade.

Using his internal energy, Du Ke directly pierced the brick and stone as if cutting glass, splitting it open as a whole.

After cutting the brick, Du Ke hooked his claw and lifted it open.

At the same time, fresh air rushed into the tunnel through the gap, and Thirteen took a sudden breath, apparently feeling suffocated before.

Du Ke stuck his head into the gap, but he immediately pulled back.

Then the white cat also stuck its head in for a look, and then pulled it back, repeating this several times.

Thirteen, curious, squeezed next to Du Ke and looked into the gap.

At just one glance, the dog squinted and quickly withdrew its head.

Wow, it's so bright down there that it hurts the eyes.

"Meow?" Master Cat, where did we dig into?

Thirteen rubbed his eyes and asked in confusion.

Du Ke swallowed his saliva and looked at the underground palace below the gap.

Du Ke lowered his head and saw a dazzling light enter his line of sight. At the same time, he also noticed a night pearl, larger than a human head, embedded in the dome not far from him.

But it wasn't just one night pearl, there were around ten of them.

The radiance emitted by the night pearls illuminated a palace filled with piles of gold and silver, with jewelry, jade artifacts, and ancient calligraphy and paintings discarded like rubbish to the side.

After carefully observing for a moment and retracting his head, Du Ke turned to Shi San and said, "We've stumbled upon the treasure vault of Wutong Temple, specifically designed to store wealth!"