The days in the forest had turned into weeks. Hunting, fighting, training—this life had hardened me. I had pushed my body to the limit, reaching the eighth layer of body tempering, but I knew I still had much further to go.
One morning, while tracking a nimble beast through the thick woods, something strange caught my eye.
Half-hidden beneath twisting vines and broken stone was an ancient ruin, its entrance barely visible against the overgrown foliage. It wasn't grand, nor was it majestic. In fact, if I hadn't been paying attention, I might have walked right past it.
Curiosity tugged at me.
> "Could there still be something left in a place like this?"
Carefully, I stepped inside.
The ruin was mostly a decaying husk—crumbling stone halls, roots breaking through walls, and the lingering silence of a place long abandoned. There was no trial, no ancient guardian. But as I ventured deeper, the true danger revealed itself.
Traps.
Spikes shot from the walls, the ground gave way to pits, and poison darts flew from hidden slits. These traps weren't complex—they were old and crude—but they were still deadly. My senses, honed by countless battles with beasts, saved me more than once.
Eventually, I reached a small stone chamber.
There wasn't much inside—just a rotting wooden chest, barely intact. I carefully forced it open and found several dusty jade slips, brittle scrolls, and a few dried medicinal herbs that had miraculously survived the passage of time.
The jade slips were not grand martial arts legacies. Instead, they held simple pill recipes and basic refining guidelines. Among them were instructions for creating low-grade body refining pills and basic healing salves.
I flipped through them carefully.
> "So this is… an alchemist's notebook?"
It wasn't a grand inheritance, but it was still something useful.
If I could learn to craft my own pills, even basic ones, it would save me a fortune and give me an edge in future battles.
The herbs I found were mostly common, but there was one rare stalk—a Fire Spirit Grass, enough to brew at least one strong body refining pill.
> "Not bad… not bad at all."
I gathered everything and carefully stored it in my pack before making my way out of the ruin.
Perhaps this small discovery would mark the beginning of another path—one I hadn't considered before