Judging by the crack, this was likely left inside the Spirit Pearl unintentionally during a clash between a Demon Cultivator and an Orthodox Cultivator.

Because it was so well-hidden, it wasn’t discovered afterward, eventually making its way to Xianghe Market.

He would have to find the source of this blood-red mist to figure out what it truly was.

’It probably won’t be easy to find. I’ll have to take my time.’

Xiao Chen considered it. Since he hadn’t received any related warnings, this technique had probably gone unnoticed by the allies on the front lines.

From this, he could deduce that it was likely an underdeveloped technique of the Divine Fire Sect, probably only used on a small scale in a specific region.

It might even be a personal technique obtained by a single Demon Cultivator.

Otherwise, a weapon this devastating would have caused a huge stir and become common knowledge by now.

In that case, tracing its source would be no simple matter.

It would be best to wait until he became a Demon-slaying Guard and could act freely. Searching for clues then would be much more efficient and convenient.

Xiao Chen put away the Spirit Pearl and mentally filed the matter away.

Next, he began to refine the Storage Bag from Vendor Zhang.

As expected, while the Storage Bag contained quite a few Artifact Fragments, there were no fragments from a Top Grade Magical Artifact, let alone any Fragments with the blood-red mist.

.

Besides the fragments, it also contained seven hundred twenty-three Spirit Stones, two Upper Grade Magic Shields, one Upper Grade treasure-hunting Compass, seven types of Spiritual Incense of varying grades, and several Profound-grade Cultivation Techniques.

Xiao Chen sifted through the pile of Cultivation Techniques and was surprised to find "Treasure Hunting Introduction" and "Eight Common Treasure Hunting Techniques."

’So he was a degenerate gambler. No wonder he was so poor.’

The so-called Hundred Skills of Cultivation was, of course, a general term; it didn’t mean there were literally one hundred Dao Skills.

However, it certainly wasn’t limited to just Pills, Artifacts, Talismans, and Arrays. These four were simply the most famous, the most popular, and the ones studied by the most Cultivators.

Treasure Hunting was a skill many had heard of, but in practice, it was a very niche one.

The so-called "treasure hunting" was, in essence, using special methods to seek out fortunes and opportunities lost to the world.

It was somewhat related to the art of Divination, but they weren’t the same.

The requirements for becoming a Divination Master were exceptionally high; most Cultivators couldn’t even get their foot in the door.

But becoming a Treasure Hunter was much easier; basically, anyone could do it.

But there was a reason why niche skills remained niche.

For Treasure Hunters, the first major hurdle was the exorbitant cost.

To hunt for treasure, one first needed various pathfinding items, like Spiritual Incense.

Xiao Chen gave the seven types of different-grade Spiritual Incense a cursory inspection. Four of them alone were products of the Hezhou Xiong Clan.

Although he wasn’t an expert on the prices of such things, he estimated they must have cost nearly a thousand Spirit Stones.

According to "Eight Common Treasure Hunting Techniques," the incense method was to light the Spiritual Incense and follow its trail to explore for Treasure.

Such an exploration could easily take ten days to half a month, so the cost of a single expedition would be several hundred Spirit Stones.

The second major hurdle was the actual haul from the hunt.

In theory, Treasure Hunters mainly explored various Secret Realms, Relics, and Blessed Land Grotto Heavens.

Of course, such claims were best taken with a grain of salt.

Most of the time, the majority of Treasure Hunters considered it a great success if they simply found a Magical Artifact lost by a Cultivator or acquired a Cultivation Technique.

But the problem was, throughout history, there were always a few individuals with ridiculously good luck.

They would actually manage to find hidden Relics and reap handsome rewards, which in turn spurred on wave after wave of new Treasure Hunters, all hoping to strike it rich.

In short, as far as Xiao Chen was concerned, it was little different from gambling.

It was worth mentioning that the high demand for Spiritual Incense from these people was precisely why its price remained so high.

For instance, take the Xiong Clan’s Upper Grade Sandalwood Incense that Xiao Chen had received during the New Year with the Chen Family.

Even now, it was still worth one Spirit Stone per stick, and demand far outstripped supply.

The remaining Cultivation Techniques weren’t very interesting—they were just fit to be bundled and sold for Spirit Stones.

Xiao Chen spent a total of two hours studying the Spirit Pearl and sorting through his new acquisitions.

He cultivated for a short while, and then it was 5:00 PM.

"Xiao, everyone has gathered in the back garden."

Qiu Qichen’s voice came from outside the room: "If it’s convenient for you, how about we start our exchange meet a little early?"

Xiao Chen got up and opened the door. "Mr. Qiu, I’m terribly sorry."

"I was just practicing a newly acquired Fire Technique and carelessly destroyed the furniture."

"I’m afraid I’ve wasted your kindness in preparing a Zemu Bed for me. Please, tell me how many Spirit Stones it costs. I must compensate you."

Qiu Qichen glanced inside. "Damaged" was hardly the word for it.

Aside from a floor covered in ashes, only the four bare walls remained.

He hurriedly swept the guest room with his Divine Sense and was inwardly alarmed.

Even the bed legs, forged from the Tier Two Spirit Ore Cold Heart Iron, had melted into a puddle of liquid metal and then solidified on the floor into a pitch-black sheet of iron.

But what astonished Qiu Qichen even more was that despite such a powerful fire erupting in the room, the Defensive Array set up in the courtyard had not reacted at all.

If he hadn’t come over to knock, he, the host, would have remained completely unaware.

To accomplish something like this, there were only two possibilities.

Either Xiao Chen had a way to shield against the array’s monitoring or prevent it from sounding an alarm.

This meant that the Qiu Mansion was practically undefended against him.

Or, the Fire Technique Xiao Chen used was so incredibly powerful that it melted the Cold Heart Iron in a single instant, and it just happened to occur between the Defensive Array’s detection intervals.