Two hours later, Song Yan returned to Green Leaf Peak.

There were no sound transmission talismans at the entrance of the Immortal Cave, so it seemed these past few days had been peaceful.

He thought about it, and it was true; in a vast Cave Abyss Sect with tens of thousands of Disciples, how could everything concern him?

The feeling of not being noticed actually gave him a strange sense of peace.

Since the trip to the Foundation Establishment Immortal Cave, many incidents had weighed on his heart like a heavy stone.

He had pondered daily and schemed nightly.

Not a moment of relaxation.

Now that Dan Zifeng was eliminated, his heart felt unburdened, and his thoughts were clear.

Even the other unfinished matters now seemed to hold no anxiety.

He sat cross-legged in his Immortal Cave, not taking Medicinal Pills, nor absorbing Spirit Stones.

He merely relied on the natural Spiritual Qi of Green Leaf Peak to slowly restore his spiritual power.

His body was currently weak, and it was not advisable to replenish his spiritual power too abruptly.

Although this great battle had been sustained by Qi Replenishing Pills, the dual rapid consumption of spiritual power and Sword Qi still caused his Meridians to throb faintly.

This was a sign that his Physical Body had exceeded its load.

Song Yan occasionally wondered if it would be slightly better to have a Body Refining Cultivation Technique to strengthen his Physical Body.

However, the Body Refining Immortal Path was much more difficult than ordinary Cultivation.

He thought that he probably didn’t have the Aptitude or the mental fortitude for it.

The Qi Condensation Scroll slowly circulated, its spiritual power balanced and harmonious, perfectly suited for healing his body.

Recalling it carefully, he hadn’t actually suffered any injuries in this great battle.

He had prepared for so long, using all his trump cards.

Fortunately, it was a close call, and he had killed the opponent on the spot.

However, if Dan Zifeng had had the mental energy to wield a few more powerful defensive Spiritual Artifacts, it would have been very dangerous.

In fact, Song Yan had roughly glanced at Dan Zifeng’s qiankun bag.

It did contain a few more offensive and defensive Spiritual Artifacts.

However, none of them were as good as the small bronze bell.

His Meridian spiritual power circulation had recovered about seventy to eighty percent.

He slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a mouthful of turbid Qi.

After being tense for dozens of days, now that he relaxed, an irresistible sense of fatigue overwhelmed his mind.

Without resisting, Song Yan fell into a deep sleep.

He slept for five hours.

When he woke up, he washed and bathed, feeling refreshed.

He laid out all of Dan Zifeng’s items on the table and began to examine them one by one.

His qiankun bag was different from the ordinary qiankun bags Song Yan had seen.

It was somewhat similar to Wang Xi’s previous one.

However, the patterns on it were different, and they were fiery red.

The space within this qiankun bag was also very large.

Song Yan first looked at the fiery red bronze bell.

During the previous fight, the powerful defensive ability of this small bell had made him secretly click his tongue in amazement.

Unfortunately, this small bell had already been sliced apart by sword essence; unless a large amount of Spirit Stones were spent to repair it, it could no longer be used.

Although he couldn’t determine the specific grade of the small bronze bell at this time, based on his guess, it was at least a Medium Grade Spiritual Artifact.

"What a pity..."

While sorting through other Spiritual Artifacts and spiritual items, one item among the spoils of war caught his attention.

It was a strange mask.

During the battle, this mask had not appeared on Dan Zifeng’s face.

But when Dan Zifeng died, this mask was not in his qiankun bag but had fallen beside him.

Later, Xiao He had retrieved it.

"What is this thing?"

Song Yan had never seen a mask-type Spiritual Artifact before.

This mask was very exquisite.

It covered half the face, and the pattern carved on it was a hideous ghost face.

A faint azure spiritual light emanated from the ghost’s mouth and nose.

He examined it up and down and found a few small characters carved on the very edge of the mask.

"Xuan’e Worships Spirits..."

Song Yan was somewhat bewildered.

So he began to search among the other miscellaneous items for anything related to this face covering.

In fact, directly refining it wouldn’t be a problem.

But he still decided to look first to see if there was any information about this mask.

After all, this mask looked strange; if it was an item of a demonic Cultivator, it would be very troublesome.

He had heard that some demonic Cultivators’ Spiritual Artifacts, once refined, would affect the host until death.

It was better to be careful with such strange items.

After searching for a long time, he did not find any content about this face covering in any Jade Slip.

However, one item did catch his attention.

It was an ancient book about two or three inches thick.

The cover seemed to be made of the hide of some Demon Beast, and it felt very substantial to the touch.

How could a Cultivator’s qiankun bag contain a paper book?

He held it in his hand and examined it carefully.

The side of the ancient book was yellowed and old, indicating that its previous owners had frequently read it.

Song Yan opened the cover.

On the very center of the first page, the four characters "heretical Cultivator’s notes" were written crookedly in crimson ink.

"It looks quite sinister..."

With the idea of finding clues about "Xuan’e Worships Spirits," he flipped through the first few pages.

This seemed to be some insights and records from a former Golden Core Realm Cultivator who called himself a "heretical Cultivator," detailing his struggles in the Cultivation World.

He didn’t know if it was for boasting or to pass on to future generations.

Most of it recounted his "great achievements" of killing and plundering by unscrupulous means.

It even included detailed explanations and instructions on how to select targets, how to ambush and sneak attack, how to dispose of bodies and traces, and so on... Song Yan was dumbfounded as he read.

After roughly flipping through a few pages, he quickly found information about the "Xuan’e Worships Spirits" face covering in this book.

"Spirit Seeking?"

The book mentioned that this face covering was also obtained by the "heretical Cultivator" Senior by chance.

Its effect was not complicated.

Draw out a wisp of Spiritual Qi and incorporate it, then when a Cultivator approaches an item containing this type of Spiritual Qi, the mask will give a prompt.

"Is this effect... a bit too rudimentary?"

At first glance at this function, Song Yan felt a bit scornful.

This seemed to be a very simple effect.

However, when he flipped further and read about the usage by this "heretical Cultivator" Senior... he became increasingly alarmed.

Whenever his Cultivation encountered an obstacle and he needed a spiritual item of a certain attribute, he would introduce a wisp of Spiritual Qi with a similar attribute to the spiritual item.

Then he would put on the face covering and look for a target to "deal with."

Whatever he wanted, he would directly snatch it from other Cultivators.

Items in a qiankun bag could not be sensed by the mask.

But most Cultivators, when acquiring spiritual items, would inevitably get some scattered Spiritual Qi on their bodies.

This was the basis for the mask to lock onto his targets.

This trick "never failed."

When traveling normally, incorporating mixed elemental Spiritual Qi could not only find some ordinary spiritual items and Spirit Medicine but also prevent being ambushed and killed.

Upon seeing this, Song Yan suddenly realized.

Perhaps, this was why he was still exposed by Dan Zifeng, even though he believed he had done everything perfectly.

He didn’t immediately deal with the face covering; instead, he settled down and began to seriously read the book.

Although he wouldn’t go so far as to learn the content and methods in this evil book.

However, reading it more would allow him to be more vigilant if he encountered similar situations in the future.

Who knows, it might save his life.

One should not harbor intentions to harm others, but one must guard against others harming oneself.

"To think that even after killing and plundering, he could dispose of the stolen goods without anyone knowing..."

How Dan Zifeng obtained this ancient book, Song Yan had no way of knowing.

Perhaps his ruthless and cunning style of action was inseparable from this ancient book.

However, it was clear that Dan Zifeng had overlooked the most important point.

That was to be low-key.

If one did not master the methods of a heretical Cultivator, it would lead to a dead end.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed.

In these written records, he saw a familiar term.

"Sword Cultivator..."