Chapter 499: An Opportunity To Observe

The person who had just appeared was none other than Shaoyan Qianyu, who was the peak master of the Herb Peak. The woman looked liked she was in her late thirties, yet still had a special charm.

She had no wrinkles on her face, but there were a few strands of white hair on her head that could be seen. She was wearing the robes of a peak master with the symbol of the Herb peak embroidered on them.

On her face, there was a rather calm look as she strolled to the vault. 

~swish~

She waved her hand and a small jade appeared in her palm. As soon as the jade appeared in her hand the formations on the vault started to light up and a wave of spirit Qi fluctuations could be perceived.

Lin Mu instantly knew what was the jade in her hand.

"The key to the vault…" He muttered.

"Quick! Don't waste this opportunity. Look at the formations and observe how they are unraveling. It will make it much easier for you to do it later." Xukong prompted.

"Yes, senior!" Lin Mu responded before focusing on the formations of the vault.

He saw how each layer reacted to the key and the specific waves of spirit Qi that were released from it one by one. Lin Mu memorized the patterns and the order of their movement. The process was rather quick, lasting only two minutes, but even in that Lin Mu reckoned that he had seen at least a hundred layers of formations.

"Thankfully, I get the chance to observe it opening, or I would have had a bad time unlocking them one by one. Not to mention there are three more of these vaults, each with a different formation array." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

After the formations were finally open, the door of the vault moved to the side, giving one the view of what was inside. There were a lot of boxes and containers kept in the vault, each of which was made from special preservative materials. 

Some of them were made out of fragrant wood that helped maintain the qualities of the herbs kept in them, which some were made out of precious blue jade that kept the herbs cool. In addition to this, each of these containers were inscribed with more formations.

Overall, the security was top notch. Thankfully, Lin Mu only needed to enter the vault, as after that he would be able to store everything in the ring at once. The peak master Shaoyan Qianyu entered the vault and went to a specific shelf. 

There was a brocade box kept on it which gleamed with the glow of formations. She traced her finger over it and made a seal before the box opened. Lin Mu couldn't see what was in the box from this angle and neither could he risk using his spirit sense to see it, as there was a chance that the woman would sense him.

Thus he just waited till she was done. Shaoyan Qianyu closed the box and carried it out in her hands, before closing the door of the vault again. Lin Mu didn't waste this chance either and observed how the formations locked the vault. This allowed him to deepen his understanding even more now.

He saw how each node reacted with the other and how the layers intersected with each other. The complexity was profound and it would take a formation master a few months before they would be able to figure it out on their own.

Lin Mu was in luck due to his enchanted perception offered by the mysterious ring. Still, once the formations were all locked again, he couldn't help but sigh at the difficulty. He then saw as Shaoyan Qianyu walked back into her residence.

An idea appeared in Lin Mu's mind, and he followed behind the peak master. There was another barrier that restricted his entry into the residence, but he was able to use fade to bypass that easily. He had expected the interior of the residence to be quite luxurious, but once he saw it he was underwhelmed.

"This… is quite simple…" Lin Mu said upon seeing the plain things in the residence.

There was nary an item that could be called as luxurious here. The furniture was made out of basic wood and some of it was made from stone. He saw the teapot and teacups which were made from clay, and then the set of brushes that were made out of donkey hair.

"Hmm… this woman is rather sober." Xukong said upon witnessing it.

"Indeed. Even the peak master Yi Deng's residence in Wu Lim city was much better than this. Except for the high concentration of spirit Qi in the air, there is no luxury here." Lin Mu agreed.

Lin Mu saw Shaoyan Qianyu enter a pill refinement room and begin her work. There were already a lot of herbs kept in the room along with other materials like minerals, beast parts, and natural treasures.

There was also a black cauldron kept in the center of the room, on which there were many runes carved. The cauldron looked old, but a faint medicinal fragrance could be felt coming from it. It was evident that this was a pill cauldron that had been used for pill refinement for a long time.

"It's a Dark Iron Alchemical Cauldron. It's a rather simple type of a cauldron but it's compatible with nearly any type of pill. Still, with the large number of runes that have been carved into it, the cauldron is no less than a high grade spirit tool." Xukong explained.

"I see…" Lin Mu said as he watched Shaoyan Qianyu begin her work.

She flipped her palm and closed her eyes. A few seconds later wisps of spirit Qi rose from her palm and then started to condense together before forming into ring like shape. The wisps kept on collapsing within themselves and then they ignited.

"Whoa… a blue flame?"