The duo of Yin Xiu, and Hu Meng hurried back towards the lake where they had fought their battle. Their steps noticeably lighter than when they had made the journey there in the morning. "The fight ended up going much better than I imagined." Yin Xiu casually expressed his feelings, "I was expecting to at least get injured when we were first told about the plan to go and conquer territory."
Hu Meng nodded in agreement "It honestly only went this well because we all have improved in strength noticeably in such a short time, especially you. I'm still rather shocked by your rate of improvement, both in cultivation and weapons skills."
Yin Xiu smiled in reply "I wouldn't have made it so far without both yours, and Senior Hu Fang's support." Hu Meng rolled his eyes "Talent is talent, being humble all the time just makes you seem pedantic."
Yin Xiu just chuckled in response while inspecting the various remains of the triggered traps along the way. "I really almost suffered quite a loss there at the end." He casually mentioned while inspecting a line of darts that were imbedded in a tree was they passed by. "Those baboons really were quite sinister."
"You're quite sinister yourself, you literally eat poisons to cultivate." Hu Meng threw a jibe playfully "Honestly if we could make something similar we would do the same, but our forms make it difficult to make various traps like these to stall intruders. The baboons have hands that are much more convenient to make human-like tools..." Hu Meng's eyes brightened as he looked at Yin Xiu. "Do you think you can do that for us? We'll pay you for the labor, and I guarantee if you slather them all with toxins they'd be much more deadly than these toys."
Yin Xiu pondered for a few minutes before saying "I'll be honest I have no confidence to make serviceable traps at the moment. I've never made anything similar in my entire life. Plus it's not like I have an abundance of poisons to use on it either." He shrugged helplessly "We've practically cleared out all of your all's territory. Well, besides this new area, but I'm not sure what the baboons have left behind."
Hu Meng sighed in disappointment at his answer. "Well, who needs traps, true strength is what truly matters." he consoled himself.
Yin Xiu patted his friend on the back "Just because I can't do it now doesn't mean I can't in the future. We've got a lot to learn, and the entire Nine Heavens to explore to the fullest." Yin Xiu's eyes practically burned with flames as he imagined the path ahead.
"We'll have to truly become Immortals if we're going to explore the entire Nine Heavens like that Yin Xiu." Hu Meng said in disbelief at the extent of his friends fantasies.
"Hu Meng that's the thing, if you don't have the dream of truly striving for immortality then what is the point of cultivation? To fly freely through the sky? To look down on those weaker than you? To live a life of luxury? All of those are impure and false. When I was tested by the Dao I resolved myself to become strong, truly strong. I resolved myself to seek to walk the path of cultivation to the end, or die trying. My dreams might just be dreams that seem fleeting and fanciful right now, but if I don't even work towards them then they truly will just be delusions forever."
Hu Meng stopped and stared at Yin Xiu in amazement for a few seconds before continuing onwards with a pensive expression. Only breaking the silence a few minutes later with his mind seemingly made up "Well, if you need a friend to walk on that path with, I'll follow you every step of the way." Hu Meng solemnly promised Yin Xiu.
Yin Xiu also stopped and replied back naturally, a hint of a smile on his face. "Of course you will, I thought that was obvious from the start." He laughed good naturedly.
"Enough with the mushy stuff, we can talk about that some other time, we're here." Yin Xiu sped up as the blue water of the lake came into view through the trees.
Hu Meng watched him go for a few seconds 'If that is his true determination, then as his friend I had better step up to the task. I can't be left behind in the future.' Shaking his head Hu Meng then started to sprint after Yin Xiu overtaking him easily while occasionally taunting him. Not long after they arrived beside Hu Fang
The majestic white tiger was standing outside the base of the large tree that the baboons had used as their home. Observing the complex set of underground tunnels, with her divine sense. Not taking long, she had completely mapped out the structure of the tunnel system. Taking note of a strong wave of Qi in the depths. 'Found it.' She smiled contentedly when she felt Yin Xiu, and Hu Meng's auras approaching. She turned to face them.
"I need you two to go down and start taking out all of the goods, we'll divvy up what we all need, and the rest that aren't beneficial to any of us can be sold or exchanged with humans later." The duo nodded excitedly before Hu Fang pointed out the entrance that led to the suspected treasury. "Follow this path closely, and whenever it forks, just keep taking the right turn all the way down, and you should eventually come out into their store room. Be careful of any traps however, I doubt that there will be any, but just in case it doesn't hurt to be cautious."
Taking her warning to heart they both made their way into the indicated tunnel. The tunnel itself was carefully made with smooth granite tones stacked tightly. Tiny holes poked between the roots that made up the ceiling of the system of tunnels allowed the light to shine in sporadically making quite a beautiful structure to be created by spirit beasts.
The duo marveled slightly as they made their way further down, sticking to the right side of the forks in the path. Keeping their guards up for any tricks left behind to guard the treasure.
Eventually they came before an archway leading out to a large, carved out room. It was circular in shape with an arched roof. The floor covered in a variety of materials harvested in the territory of the baboons, and storage bags scavenged from the corpses of dead human cultivators who failed to survive the deeper reaches of the forest.
They excitedly began gathering all of the materials and storage bags before heading straight back out to divide up everything under the supervision of Hu Fang. She would be able to accurately identify a lot more materials than the two of them, and if she didn't know exactly what something was, she would at least be able to glean something from it with her cultivation base.
When they emerged from the tunnel laden with bags, Hu Fang's eyes lit up in anticipation as she sensed a strong metal attributed treasure coming from one of the bags on Hu Meng's back. She raised a paw snatching it away before Hu Meng could even react, the young tiger sat there dumfounded.
Quickly breaking the seal on the bag she rummaged inside before finding a bottle of a silvery liquid metal. It flowed back and forth slowly inside the bottle, occasional flashes of gold light breaking through the silver. "I wasn't expecting such a pleasant surprise! Who would've thought that bastard would be so lucky as to find Qi severing mercury somewhere?"
Hu Meng was pacing back and forth curiously as he observed the metal "Mother what is it used for that would make you so excited?" Yin Xiu's ears also perked up curiously, starving as always for any new information in the cultivation world.
"To explain its importance to you I must first mention that this is a panacea for the vast majority of metal attributed cultivators, but useless to a very small minority. The reason being is I didn't make the technique that I use to cultivate. It wasn't formed by my insights, but the insights of my ancestor. While I can cultivate it, and it suits me extremely well, as I inherited quite a bit of talent from my ancestor. I am not him in the end. Impurities will form in the Qi I absorb, and the same is the case for any cultivator that uses a technique created by another. That's why so many people suffer from such severe bottlenecks in cultivation. It is too impure leading to a stagnant flow, potentially severing any hope for advancement."
She paused to examine the liquid again with a fiery passion in her eyes "That's why this is so precious it can filter and remove the impurities in my Qi. Once I take it I'll be guaranteed to make a great improvement in strength, and my future path will be much easier to walk."
"Senior, so cultivators that create their own techniques don't experience those bottlenecks at all?" Yin Xiu asked with a curious expression.
Hu Fang carefully placed the precious bottle of metal carefully in her personal storage bag before answering Yin Xiu's question. "Not exactly, their bottlenecks lie more in the constant enlightenment needed to upgrade their methods. A Qi refining technique is an order of magnitude simpler than a foundation establishment technique. Every stage must be increasingly complex, as they continue to meet the needs of their current stage. Even then there are techniques that are much more powerful than others in the same stage. Even if the technique they create isn't especially remarkable they are still deserving of the title genius, and will make it far on the path of cultivation if they don't meet with misfortune along the way."