"These... these... are all quintessence of the Five Elements!?"
Du Ke looked towards the direction where the spiritual aura was particularly strong, and with just one glance, his eyes widened like copper bells, and his ears perked up like antennas.
Because in that direction, there were five jade boxes placed on five stone pillars.
Each box was as big as a child's school bag, and the spiritual aura of the Five Elements contained inside continuously stirred Du Ke's heartstrings.
The cat, taking three steps and two steps, arrived at the five jade boxes, and just looking at them made his heart excited and his claws tremble.
All five boxes were made of jade, emitting strong qi of the Five Elements.
Du Ke opened a box of earthy yellow jade, immediately making his mouth water with desire.
At the same time, a golden aura surged out along with the opening of the jade box, falling onto Du Ke's head, emitting a tinkling sound.
Du Ke paid no attention to it, only feeling extra excited.
Because upon opening the earthy yellow jade box, what leaked out was the turbulent essence of gold.
Only the quintessence of the Five Elements, rich in spiritual energy, would show such a manifestation.
This earthy yellow jade box belonged to the element of earth among the Five Elements. According to the principle of the generation and conquest of the Five Elements, earth engenders metal. Therefore, this earthy yellow box was chosen to contain the spiritual essence of metal.
Not only would it prevent the essence from dissipating, but it would also nourish it.
"I'm going to be rich, I'm going to be rich!"
Du Ke closed the earthy yellow jade box and turned to hug Thirteen fiercely, giving him two kisses.
"Thirteen, you've helped me a lot!"
Thirteen, who was kissed by the cat for no reason, turned his head away, his face full of shyness.
Master Cat, why are you so bold today!
Come, give me two more kisses!
When Thirteen leaned towards Du Ke, who was not paying attention to his reaction, Du Ke's mind was filled with the quintessence of the Five Elements.
In orthodox internal cultivation, the refinement of the internal organs takes precedence, while internal energy is secondary.
After all, the Su family's cultivation method was to integrate martial arts into Dao, unlike ordinary martial practitioners who pursued rapid enhancement of combat power.
Nourishing the internal organs required the use of the quintessence of the Five Elements.
Du Ke had been worried before about not having the quintessence of the Five Elements to nourish his internal organs, but now he had found the necessary cultivation resources in this treasure trove of the Wutong Temple.
How could he not be excited!
The cat raised his hand and stuffed these jade boxes into his black cauldron space, filled with plans for future cultivation.
"The internal organs, when first refined in the Inner Organs Realm, will affect the innate mystical properties afterward. But if I take a different path and directly induce the qi of the Five Elements into my internal organs, will the innate properties converge?"
After putting away the five jade boxes into the black cauldron space, Du Ke was still thinking about his cultivation. Suddenly, he didn't notice that after removing the jade boxes, the stone pillars where they were placed trembled with a buzz.
The tremor was so slight that Du Ke, immersed in his thoughts, didn't notice it at all.
As for Thirteen?
This dog was still immersed in the kisses he received from Du Ke just now!
Before long, Du Ke came back to his senses, looking at the piles of herbs in front of him, and immediately stood up, rubbing his paws.
"These herbs are extremely rare even outside. Today, they've found their way here by fate. There's no need for them to gather dust here anymore!"
As he spoke, he leaped straight up in place, then plunged into the pile of medicinal herbs.
While Du ke was wandering among the herbs, inside Wutong Temple, the supervisor had already arrived at the No. 5 Law Altar with his disciples.
Seeing the forcibly excavated altar, the supervisor's face darkened like water, and the people around him lowered their heads, not daring to even breathe heavily.
The reason why the supervisor was the supervisor was because the Wutong Great God appointed him as such.
But the supervisor could become the supervisor entirely because of his strength and ruthless personality.
"Has it been inspected?"
The supervisor stood with his hands behind his back, coldly staring at the excavated altar.
"Reporting to the supervisor, it has been inspected."
An old Taoist stepped forward and bowed.
"This altar was forcibly smashed, and the sealed objects inside were squeezed out."
"Squeezed out?"
The supervisor's expression hardened as he asked, "Explain in detail."
"The supervisor should know the principle of water overflowing on its own. These sealed objects..." The old Taoist picked up a skull and then came to the gap in the altar, gesturing, "Originally stacked inside the altar, with very few gaps."
"And taking the sealed objects out of the altar wouldn't look like this. The sealed objects should be underneath the altar, not stacked around it."
"So the old Taoist speculates that someone smashed the altar, then used martial arts like Bone Shrinking Technique to shrink themselves, drilled into the altar, and forcibly squeezed out these sealed objects."
"Are there any practitioners of Bone Shrinking Technique in the temple?"
As soon as the supervisor opened his mouth, a Taoist said, "Yes, supervisor, Lin Yezhi junior brother from the No. 3 room is skilled in Bone Shrinking Technique."
"Summon him..."
The supervisor was about to speak when his expression changed again.
This time, his expression became shocked and angry.
Taking out a cricket cage from his bosom, the supervisor looked at the struggling insect inside the cage, its vitality rapidly fading, and gritted his teeth, "Ring the bell, close the mountain gate, make everyone move!"
"Supervisor, what's happening?"
A Taoist asked, and the supervisor, with a grim face, said, "Thieves have entered the treasury!"
"Ah?!"
"How could this happen?"
"Our Wutong Temple is like an iron wall inside and out, how could thieves get in?"
"That's right!"
"What should we do?"
...........
While the surrounding Taoists were discussing, the supervisor looked at the altar in front of him and struck it with a palm.
With thunderous palm winds and raging winds, the altar immediately exploded, countless skulls soaring into the sky, and a thief hole appeared in front of everyone.
"Is this the thief hole?!"
The old Taoist who had been responsible for the inspection hurried over and scooped up some fresh soil near the thief hole into his mouth.
The Taoist smacked his lips and stood up, saying to the supervisor, "Supervisor, this thief hole must have been dug half an hour ago, the smell of the earth is still fresh!"
"Good, good!"
The supervisor's Taoist robe fluttered without wind, his face distorted, true energy scattered from his body, turning into raging winds.
"In this world, there are still these ignorant thieves daring to cause trouble in our Wutong Temple!"
"All disciples, listen up! Search every nook and cranny of Dasuo Mountain. Even if it's a bird not belonging to our Wutong Temple, bring it to me!"
"Summon the Law Enforcement Team. Follow me to the underground palace. That thief should be inside the treasure vault right now!"
"Also, summon the Spirit Master to communicate with the Wutong Great God and dispatch the Wutong Spirit Generals to patrol the four directions!"
"Yes, Master!"
.................
In the underground palace, within the treasure vault.
"Thirteen, don't leave out a single herb. Not even a whisker should be left behind. Take everything away!"
"Got it!"
Thirteen responded and stuffed all the herbs into his storage pouch.
As Thirteen was packing the herbs, he suddenly paused and then pulled out a roll of animal skin from the herb pile, carrying it in his mouth as he ran towards the cat.
"What have you found again?"
Duke, who had bitten into a century-old mountain ginseng as if it were a radish, took the animal skin from Thirteen's mouth. He then stuffed the remaining mountain ginseng from his claws into the dog's mouth.
The dog chewed the mountain ginseng vigorously, making crunching sounds as juice dripped down its chin, pooling on the ground.
Seeing this, Duke retrieved a calligraphy copybook from the black cauldron space without caring about its origin and used it to wipe the dog's mouth.
After wiping, Duke absorbed the essence of the calligraphy, turning the copybook into ashes.
While refining the essence, Duke unfolded the animal skin. At first glance, his eyes widened.
Because there were six large characters on the animal skin — "Secret Transmission of Stem-Branch Pill Formulas."
"Good heavens, where did you get this?"
Duke looked at Thirteen, who pointed to the herb pile he had just collected. Duke then turned his gaze back to the prescription, examining it carefully.
As he read, Duke's tail stretched straight out, eventually turning into a flagpole.
"The Imperial Beast Sect actually has such a thing passed down. This is... this is... incredibly astonishing!"
Duke put down the animal skin, momentarily speechless.
Because the effect of this prescription was singular: it disrupted the flow of time, subverted the seasons, and returned everything to the lushness of spring.
Though the description was verbose and cryptic, Duke understood the prescription's effects and characteristics.
In simple terms, the prescription recorded on the animal skin was used by the Imperial Beast Sect to breed young beasts and expand the population of animal species.
To put it even more simply, this was the animal version of the 'Applauding Pill for Love'.
After consuming it, certain spiritual or ferocious beasts that only bred offspring during specific seasons could engage in the creation of life year-round, twenty-four hours a day, without rest.
"Huh?"
Thirteen, seeing Duke's reaction, also wanted to take a look.
Duke pushed Thirteen away with a claw while saying, "This isn't something you can look at. This isn't a good thing."
"Really, it's really not a good thing!"
Duke said as he threw the animal skin into his black cauldron space, then turned it into pills while stuffing them into his mouth.
"Trust me, when have I ever deceived you?"
Du ke mumbled vaguely, also swallowing the pill and imprinting the formula in his heart.
"From now on, whenever you find something similar to this, bring it to me, I'll take care of it!"
Thirteen looked at Du ke's stern expression, feeling something amiss but unable to pinpoint it.
Boom!
A sudden tremor made both the cat and the dog look up. The door to the treasure vault was slowly opening, and as it did, several figures slipped inside along the crack.
"Uh-oh!"
Seeing this scene, Du ke immediately jumped onto Thirteen's back, swiftly activating Dust and Light to hide both himself and Thirteen.
Once the door was fully open, the cat and the dog saw a thin figure, with a brewing rage between his brows, entering the vault.
As soon as the Taoist entered, he swung his arm and loudly proclaimed, "Search thoroughly, inch by inch! I want to see who's bold enough to act recklessly on our Wutong Temple's territory!"
With these words, several figures filed in behind the Taoist, beginning to search the vault.
Du ke, hidden away, watched the sudden arrival of the Taoists with a slightly furrowed brow.
Even if the altar he dug up was exposed, it shouldn't warrant these people searching the vault directly.
Because the unearthed altar didn't point to anything specific, at most, it let others know that someone had entered Wutong Temple!
But now these people were directly searching the vault, indicating something more intriguing!
Could it be that they triggered something inside the vault, setting off an alarm and attracting these people?
As for whether there were any unseen guards or the like inside the vault, Du ke deemed it unlikely.
After all, they had been plundering the vault for quite some time, yet these people only arrived now and immediately began searching upon entry.
Clearly, it was the former!
"Huh!"
Du ke suddenly exclaimed softly, looking at the thin Taoist.
Not because he recognized the Taoist, but because he noticed the Taoist emanating the aura of his Sun Essence Pellet.
"This Taoist has my Sun Essence Pellet?"
"Darn, this Taoist is quite audacious!"