To put it simply, Fang Xing had actually arrived a few hours before the Myriad Beasts disciples and their sect master had.

　　He’d been in seclusion deep within these mountains, and he’d headed here with the golden crow as soon as he noticed the strange presence of the awakening Qingqiu Tomb. The golden crow had originally planned for them to sneak their way in after the Myriad Beasts Sect had parted the purple smog, but Fang Xing took a few glances at the smog and directly said, “What the hell are we waiting for? Can’t we just decipher the formation and go in first?”

　　The golden crow was surprised. “Decipher the formation? With just the two of us?”

　　Fang Xing took a few more glances before nodding with certainty. “Looks like this strange purple smog is a poisonous gas, and a rather strong one, too. It has also been integrated into the formation surrounding this valley, making it even more difficult to figure out. However, if we can endure the purple smog and then decipher the formation, we could enter the valley easily….”

　　The golden crow looked at the purple smog and immediately shook his head. “I’d rather die than touch this stuff!”

　　Fang Xing looked at him with disdain. “You boast about your adventurous spirit yet have such little courage?”

　　“How is that related?” the golden crow angrily shot back. “This purple smog is just too strange. I’d say even a Foundation Stage couldn’t endure it, so how could we?”

　　Fang Xing smirked. “It’s true a Foundation Stage cannot block it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean us…. I think you’ve forgotten about something!”

　　“What?”

　　Fang Xing laughed before pouring out a bunch of spirit pellets from his storage sack. “That we’re rich!” He then squatted down and began picking things out from the pile he’d made.

　　These pellets had been stolen from Elder Qin’nyao, and they were incredibly diverse. Although some of the pellets had names inscribed on the outside of the bottle, others had none; let alone the golden crow, not even a standard alchemist could casually appraise such a large number of pellets. Fang Xing, however, didn’t seem to have any worries whatsoever. After using the Book of Revelation to determine the purple smog’s properties, Fang Xing began to quickly search through the pile for a pellet to counter them.

　　Within the realm of cultivators, there were numerous types of poisonous gas, and each had their own characteristics—there wasn’t a single antidote that could resolve them all. Since there was no such thing as an antidote that could cure everything, and Fang Xing didn’t know how to craft pellets, he was unable to directly make one to counter the smog. He did have the Book of Revelation, however, and by studying the special properties of this poisonous gas, he was able to look for a suitable antidote. There were many ready-made antidotes within all these pellets Elder Qin’nyao had saved up, after all; even if he wasn’t able to find one made for this gas specifically, it wouldn’t be too difficult to find one or two that were relatively suitable.

　　“This is it!” Fang Xing took one and swallowed it down before passing another to the golden crow.

　　The golden crow opened his mouth but held on to the pellet and muttered, “Is it really going to work?”

　　Unwilling to explain, Fang Xing just dashed into the purple smog. He came back out a few breaths later, stretching his arms and legs to demonstrate he was still alive and well. “Believe me now?” he asked with a laugh.

　　The golden crow’s eyes lit up. “Not bad! How do you know so many pellets?”

　　“I’m actually a genius of pellets, I just don’t care about alchemy!”

　　The golden crow naturally didn’t believe such words, but he was also too lazy to argue. Seeing Fang Xing take out the Immortal’s Snare, he willingly extended his claws to be fastened with him before the pair entered the strange formation together. Just like how it was back at Mount Desolation, Fang Xing was in charge of locating each of the eight passageways while the golden crow calculated how to break the formation itself.

　　Just like this, the pair broke into the forbidden area. “It’s here!” The golden crow looked around once they’d entered the valley and nodded his head in certainty. “Based on what I read from the Myriad Beasts Sect records, this jade table should be the sacrificial altar used for their ceremonies. After some beast blood is splashed on the altar, the Qingqiu Tomb sends out a reward in return. The more valuable the beast blood, the more valuable the reward….”

　　Fang Xing arrived at the front of the jade altar. After spending some time studying it, he muttered to himself, “It does look like the formation’s main pivot….” Then, as though suddenly thinking of something, he asked, “As long as we splash some beast blood on it?”

　　The golden crow nodded. “That should be it. A pity we didn’t prepare some earlier since we thought we’d leave after sorting out the problem!”

　　Fang Xing suddenly smirked and looked right at the golden crow.

　　Feeling a bad premonition, the golden crow grew cautious and yelled out, “Don’t you dare use me….”

　　Fang Xing laughed. “I remember you said your bloodline is quite unusual, right?”

　　“Little bastard, you even dare to scheme against your companion!” The golden crow began cursing and turned to escape, but he felt a tightening against his claws and was quickly tugged back by Fang Xing. The golden crow yelled out, but since his battle prowess wasn’t as high by comparison, Fang Xing merely had to press down on him with a single hand to keep him from having any chance of escape—the crow could only cry out like a pig waiting to be butchered.

　　After some time of this crying and screaming, Fang Xing kicked the crow and cursed out, “It’s already done. What the hell are you screaming about?”

　　The crow finally stopped. When he looked down, he found there was nothing more than a small slit on his wing, and Fang Xing had only taken a very small amount of blood in a small vial. Despite this, the crow was still quite unhappy. “I demand compensation!”

　　“Fine fine fine. If anything falls in a moment, it’ll be yours!” Fang Xing replied before walking in front of the jade desk. He poured the blood from the vial onto the altar and watched with wide eyes as the blood seeped into the carvings.

　　It didn’t take long before the sky began to move, and a small bottle of pellets dropped. Fang Xing grabbed ahold of it and took a quick look before tossing it to the golden crow. “It’s actually an ordinary Qi Enhancement Pellet for Foundation Stage cultivators. Seems like the blood is still not enough!”

　　The golden crow was on high alert and watched him closely. However, Fang Xing didn’t grab him again and just looked towards the heavy purple smog above with a very thoughtful expression.

　　The golden crow knew Fang Xing’s guts were larger than his, and he tried to talk him out of whatever crazy scheme he was hatching. “The Myriad Beasts people are probably on their way now. We’d best hide so we don’t get caught….”

　　“If any offering has some treasure falling from above, that means there’s a lot of treasure above!” Fang Xing suddenly responded.

　　“Don’t you do anything stupid,” the golden crow began, taken aback. “This place isn’t kind. Based on the Myriad Beasts Sect records, at least two of their sect masters nearing the end of their life crafted detoxifying pellets to counter the poisonous gas in the hopes of seeking the secrets within the Qingqiu Tomb. None of them returned. Because of this, the Myriad Beasts Sect has already given up on uncovering its secrets….”

　　“What if it’s because they’re too stupid?”

　　“How could you be smarter than them when you want to do it alone!”

　　Fang Xing laughed. “Calm down, I’m no idiot!” The golden crow let out a sigh of relief, but Fang Xing soon continued, “If I go up there, I’d certainly bring you with me!”

　　The golden crow immediately began to panic. “If you want to die, then die, but I’m not going!”

　　Fang Xing was silent for a moment before speaking. “I have already studied it. This jade altar is indeed the pivot point for this massive formation, and as long as the beast blood is splashed on it, the formation will activate to bring out some items from within. The more beast essence there is in the blood, the more power the formation can use and the more precious the item you receive in return. There’s no such thing as rewards from the ancient ancestor of the Myriad Beasts Sect—it’s more likely this is nothing more than an abandoned cave estate of an ancient cultivator, and a cave estate with plenty of treasures, at that….”

　　Still somewhat doubtful, the golden crow asked, “How do you know this so clearly?”

　　“I’m in fact a genius of formations. I simply have no desire to learn it!”

　　The golden crow was left speechless. A short while later, he began, “The two sect masters recorded within the Myriad Beasts Sect records were both Foundation Stage cultivators, yet neither of them returned after entering. This shows that within this Qingqiu Tomb, even if there are no dangerous people, there must be some extremely dangerous traps. The two of us are in Spirit Stage. It’d be better if we stay out of all this; our lives are more important!”

　　Fang Xing snickered. “As long as I’m here, I can at the very least guarantee we won’t accidentally activate any traps. Besides, even if there’s any danger, I still have methods to deal with it. Look, what’s this?” As he spoke, he took out a talisman. Seeing this, the golden crow’s eyes lit up and he yelled out, “A Ten Thousand Mile Teleportation Talisman?” He also realized that with this, they would be able to escape if they encountered any danger in that place.

　　Still snickering, Fang Xing poured out more items from his storage sack before picking up a few. “And look at these!” Some of the items revealed were unrecognizable even to the crow, who was left a little dumbfounded.

　　Fang Xing began to explain them one at a time, “These three are Diamond Talismans. They can each only be used once, but they can block a single Foundation Stage strike—one of the best treasures from Shuwen Valley.

　　“This is called the Nine-Turn Qi Replenishment Pellet, and it can provide us with plenty of Qi within a short period of time. Even if we’re injured, this would be enough to keep us alive….

　　“And this incredible thing is Shanhe Valley’s treasure, called the Qi-Seeking Six Puppet Array. It can send six puppets ahead to detect if there’s anything dangerous….”

　　Fang Xing threw all of these things in front of the golden crow one at a time. “So what do you say? With all this stuff, is there anywhere we can’t go?”

　　The golden crow’s eyes began to brighten, but there was still some hesitation in them when he glanced up towards the Qingqiu Tomb.

　　Fang Xing looked at him with disdain. “If you don’t dare to do something even with this much assurance, then don’t you ever boast about how much guts you have!”

　　Inflamed, the golden crow suddenly picked up his courage and spat on the ground. “Damn your uncle, I’m gonna do it!”

　　Fang Xing immediately smiled and began to share the goods with the golden crow. Each had a Diamond Talisman stuck to their chest and a Nine-Turn Qi Replenishment Pellet in their stomach. Their left hand held a Ten Mile Teleportation Talisman—pre-filled with Qi from a mid-grade Spirit Stone—and their right hand was poised to activate the Puppet Array. Finally, in their mouths was a detoxifying pellet used to block out the purple smog. They were practically covered head to toe in treasures, giving off a rather dazzling display.

　　With the preparations complete, Fang Xing jumped onto the golden crow’s back and the pair flew up into the sky, both filled with vigor and spirit. Once these two had been fully outfitted in treasure, they had enough guts to cover the heavens.

　　Just like that, they decided to explore this strange and curious Qingqiu Tomb.