"Alright, then. I’ll ask you, why did you show up in the Southern Barbarian lands?"

Lightning flickered in Lü Zhong’s palm. "Explain everything from start to finish," he said, his expression blank. "I advise you to think carefully before you speak. Don’t make yourself suffer needlessly!"

"Well..." The Sea Slave felt apprehensive.

With his Divine Soul severely wounded, he was now nothing more than a fish on the chopping block.

Not daring to hide a single detail, he quickly recounted the whole story: how he had vied for the "Perfect Demon Core Refining Art," been hunted down, and ended up in the Southern Barbarian lands.

"Oh? The Demon Core Refining Art over in the East Sea still hasn’t been perfected?" Lü Zhong asked in surprise.

"How could it be that easy?" the Sea Slave transmitted with a bitter laugh. "This matter involves the transformation of Spiritual Qi. We need to revert Demon Spiritual Qi back to Spiritual Qi’s original state, which is why the East Sea Cultivation Realm has yet to perfect it."

"In that case, give me a copy of that alchemy art and the sea chart you used to get to the Southern Barbarian lands."

Soon, a copy of the Demon Core Refining Art was in hand. But when it came to the sea chart, the Sea Slave hemmed and hawed for a long time without saying anything.

"Sir, it’s not that I won’t give you the sea chart, it’s just that this sea chart..."

The Sea Slave hesitated for a moment, but seeing Lü Zhong’s expression turn cold, he immediately explained, "Actually, only the captain knows. I was just a passenger fleeing for my life, how would I know the detailed sea chart?"

Lü Zhong was undeniably disappointed to hear this.

"If that’s the case, then there’s no use in keeping you alive..."

"No, no, no!" the Sea Slave hurriedly interrupted.

He could tell that Lü Zhong truly intended to kill him.

Having achieved Core Formation only after immense difficulty, the Sea Slave had no desire to die. He hastily said, "I don’t know the route we took coming here, but it must have been a public one, or my enemies wouldn’t have been able to follow me. I do know a secret route, but the information for it is partially incomplete. Sir, you’ll need to be mentally prepared."

Afterward, he told Lü Zhong the information about the secret route without hiding a single detail.

From the Southern Barbarian lands to the East Sea was a distance of hundreds of thousands of li.

The route details were numerous and complex, covering everything from sea tides and celestial navigation to reaching supply points and avoiding potential threats.

The Sea Slave had learned of this sea chart from a Southern Barbarian Cultivator.

The man had been a member of an exploration crew. He set out from the Southern Barbarian lands and barely survived the journey to the East Sea.

During his brush with death, the man had unfortunately lost some of his memories. He only remembered the latter half of the sea chart. As for when he had departed from Changchun Immortal City, those few months of memory were gone for good.

"Even so, this sea chart is still extremely valuable." This, the Sea Slave said from the bottom of his heart.

"Is that so? I’ve heard a principle before: the easiest lies to fool people with are those mixed with truth. Of the information you just gave me, is it seventy percent truth and thirty percent lies? Or ninety percent truth and ten percent lies?" Lü Zhong stared at the Golden Core housing the Sea Slave’s soul, his expression icy.

The other party had tried to possess him first, so he didn’t believe a single word the Sea Slave said.

He had originally thought the man’s Storage Bag would contain a nautical chart, but unexpectedly, he was just a passenger fleeing for his life.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Firing three consecutive Palm Thunders, Lü Zhong shattered the Golden Core.

The man had tried to possess him, so there was no question of sparing his life. However, a quick death was punishment enough; Lü Zhong saw no need to torture him. As far as he was concerned, they were even.

Without a soul inhabiting it, the Golden Core immediately began to crumble, turning into wisps of Pure Spiritual Energy before dissipating into the world after a short moment.

In its place, a light gauze remained. It was nearly transparent and felt like nothing to the touch.

"Is this Spiritual Protection Equipment?" Lü Zhong said in pleasant surprise.

When his earlier attack failed to annihilate the man’s Divine Soul, he had already guessed that the Sea Slave’s Divine Soul must have been protected by Spiritual Protection Equipment. Now, he had indeed obtained such a treasure.

Unfortunately, because it had been attacked by the Shocking God Needle, there was now a small hole in it.

’When I get back, I’ll ask around about how to repair it.’

With this thought in mind, Lü Zhong performed a simple refinement on the light gauze in his hand and learned its name.

God-Caging Gauze.

Its function was not only to block damage from Divine Sense Secret Techniques, but also to nourish the Divine Soul. Although it couldn’t strengthen the Divine Soul, it could eliminate accumulated fatigue.

’Not bad. A fine treasure!’

With a single thought, Lü Zhong received it into his Sea of Consciousness. A wave of warmth immediately spread through his Divine Soul, as comfortable as soaking in a hot bath.

Shifting his gaze to the Sea Slave’s corpse, he did not rashly touch it.

Instead, he closed his eyes and ran a simulation in the Gray Mist Space.

Opening his eyes, Lü Zhong felt a surge of relief. The man had been truly vicious—he had actually coated his own body in a potent poison. If Lü Zhong had touched it unprepared, he would have been completely paralyzed.

At that point, the Sea Slave would have taken advantage of his weakness to initiate the possession.

If that situation had occurred, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.

’Thank goodness I have the Gray Mist Space.’ Lü Zhong couldn’t help but feel relieved again. He then took out a whole stack of Cleaning Talismans and threw them all onto the corpse, cleansing the poison from its surface.

Only after doing all this did he pull the Storage Bag over to him.

It was another storage bag with a Hundred-Cubic Volume.

Lü Zhong had gotten another storage bag this large from Lady Butterfly before, but that Hundred Directions Storage Bag was too conspicuous to be used openly.

’This one will be perfect for my own use!’

He suppressed his excitement and, with great anticipation, extended his Divine Sense into the bag to carefully inspect its contents.

The first thing that met his eyes was a mountain-like pile of Spirit Stones.

Exactly fifty thousand Lower-grade spirit stones.

Opening a small wooden box, he found five goose-egg-sized Spirit Stones lying quietly inside. They were currently emitting intense Spiritual Qi fluctuations—all five were shockingly High-grade spirit stones.