Twenty hours passed in the blink of an eye during the cultivation on the Gold Peak.
During the twenty hours, Fang Chen had a deeper understanding of the Essence of Gold.
Moreover, Fang Chen was able to communicate with the Essence of Gold on the Gold Peak. This was a great progress for Fang Chen.
Fang Chen was very confident that he could successfully perceive the Essence of Gold in a very short time.
Once he perceived the Essence of Gold, he would be able to practice the Gold Sword Technique. With the abnormal power of the golden heart, he would be able to practice the Gold Sword Technique naturally.
Everything was progressing in a good direction.
He stood up, glanced at Jin Yuanliang in the distance, and left the Gold Peak.
Although cultivation was very important on the road of Martial Arts, it was necessary to strike a balance between work and rest.
After cultivating for twenty hours on the Gold Peak, Fang Chen was ready to take a rest.
When he returned to the Sword-hidden Peak, he found that Xiao Mei had been waiting for him.
"Xiao Mei, are you waiting for me?" Fang Chen asked.
When Xiao Mei saw Fang Chen return, she smiled excitedly and said, "Master, you are finally back."
"What's the matter?" Fang Chen asked.
"Master, the Elder of the Mission Hall came to see you today, but you were not there. He left a note for you." After that, Xiao Mei handed the note to Fang Chen.
Fang Chen took the note and glanced at it. He found that the Elder of the Mission Hall came to see him to give him a task.
Newcomers also needed to do tasks. Moreover, Fang Chen had been in the Five Elements Academy for a long time, so this task was mandatory.
Fang Chen nodded and said, "Go and tell the Elder of the Mission Hall that I have accepted the task and will leave tomorrow."
Xiao Mei nodded and left the Sword-hidden Peak.
After returning to his residence, a smile appeared on Fang Chen's face.
"I can finally go down the mountain."
Ever since he entered the Five Elements Academy, Fang Chen had been waiting for an opportunity to leave the mountain.
This was because the students of the Five Elements Academy were not allowed to leave the mountain without permission. Fang Chen had long known about the riches of the Western Region Pirate Sage, so he was eager to find those riches.
After entering the Five Elements Academy, Fang Chen realized that the consumption of Spirit Stones was huge.
A sixth-grade cultivation technique would cost tens of millions of supreme-grade spirit stones.
Of course, the students of the Five Elements Academy had many opportunities to earn Spirit Stones.
The mission this time was to go to a mortal country and act as a supervisor for half a year.
In the eyes of mortals, half a year was a long time. But in the eyes of martial artists, half a year was merely the blink of an eye.
The next day, Fang Chen left the Five Elements Academy.
This mortal kingdom was called the Iron and Blood Empire. It was rather far from the Five Elements Academy and was close to the west.
With Fang Chen's speed, it would take at least half a month to reach the Iron and Blood Empire.
The Iron and Blood Empire should be considered the largest country in the Five Elements State. To be called an empire, its strength was comparable to a five-star Sect.
In the Five Elements State, there were many five-star Sect, but only one six-star Sect.
As a subsidiary country of the Five Elements Academy, the Iron and Blood Empire would provide a huge amount of resources to the Five Elements Academy every year. This was also the reason why the Five Elements Academy wanted to protect the Iron and Blood Empire.
This time, Fang Chen received a mission. The other Sect of the Five Elements State was trying to cause trouble in the Iron and Blood Empire and destroy some resources. Therefore, the Five Elements Academy sent Fang Chen to the Iron and Blood Empire to investigate this matter.
Time passed by slowly as Fang Chen walked leisurely.
One day, Fang Chen found a small inn at the entrance of a mountain range. This inn was very similar to a sword tower, but there were many martial artists inside.
Fang Chen just happened to want to rest, so he entered the inn and sat in a seat near the window.
Seeing Fang Chen enter, the waiter immediately came to Fang Chen's side and asked with a smile, "Dear customer, what would you like to order?"
"Just serve me a little bit," Fang Chen said straightforwardly. He didn't have high standards for these things.
"Dear customer, anyone who enters our store must drink a jug of Dragon Eye Wine. This is a rule of our store," said the waiter.
"Oh, Dragon Eye Wine."
Fang Chen looked at the waiter with astonishment. This inn was a bit interesting. They actually forced their customers to drink their Dragon Eye Wine.
"Alright, go ahead," said Fang Chen.
The waiter left to prepare food for Fang Chen.
There were many martial artists in the inn. Although they had concealed their auras, Fang Chen could sense that these people were all Spirit Vortex Realm martial artists.
"Why are there so many Spirit Vortex Realm experts gathered here?" Fang Chen was very curious as he listened attentively.
At the surrounding tables, some martial artists were happily chatting.
"I wonder if there are any gains this time."
"Sigh, I wonder if the rumors are true. Is there really a Golden Rat here?"
"It should be true. Someone saw a Golden Rat some time ago, but this rat is too cunning. It's impossible to catch it."
"There are more and more martial artists coming here. They are all looking for the Golden Rat."
Fang Chen was very curious as he listened to the discussions of the surrounding martial artists.
"What is a Golden Rat?" Fang Chen thought to himself.
At this moment, the waiter had already prepared everything and brought it over.
"Sir, please enjoy," smiled the waiter.
Fang Chen nodded. He picked up the Dragon Eye Wine that the inn forced its guests to drink and sniffed it.
"Is this Dragon Eye Wine? It's just so-so," thought Fang Chen.
He had originally thought that this Dragon Eye Wine would have something special about it, but he hadn't expected it to be so ordinary.
But why would this inn force its guests to drink Dragon Eye Wine? Furthermore, for an inn to open in such a desolate place was truly strange.
At this moment, an old man appeared at Fang Chen's table and sat down.
"Young man, you must be new," asked the old man as he sat down.
Fang Chen nodded. When the old man saw this, he smiled and said, "Just by looking at your expression, I can tell that you are new. Your face is filled with doubt. I like to explain things to people. Let me explain it to you."
"First of all, you must be very curious as to why there would be an inn in such a desolate place," laughed the old man.
Fang Chen nodded, expressing that he was very curious.
"This is because there is a Golden Rat in this mountain range. Although this Golden Rat is a demonic beast, the Golden Elixir in its body is extremely important to a martial artist. Hence, many Spiritual Vortex Realm experts have come here to search for the Golden Rat."
"The legend of the Golden Rat has been around for a very long time. The owner of this inn has quite a background. He is also one of the martial artists searching for the Golden Rat. He has established an inn here to serve the martial artists searching for the Golden Rat. At the same time, he can earn some spirit stones.
"Think about it. Searching for the Golden Rat here all year round consumes a lot of resources. The spirit stones this inn earns are enough to cover that."
"So that's how it is."
Fang Chen nodded, his heart filled with doubt.
It seemed that the owner of this inn was also a powerful martial artist. Otherwise, how could the martial artists that came to this inn be so obedient and not cause any trouble?
"Senior, what's the deal with this Dragon Eye Wine?" asked Fang Chen.
"The owner of the inn is a martial arts powerhouse. Based on his own experience of hunting down golden rats, he discovered that the golden rats liked the aura of Dragon's Eye wine. In order to attract the golden rats, martial artists would order Dragon's Eye wine in the inn. Over time, this became something that our inn forced our guests to buy," the old man said.
At this moment, a burly man stood up and laughed heartily, "Old Cao, you're swindling wine again."
Hearing the burly man's words, Fang Chen also noticed that the old man's hand was already gripping the Dragon Eye Wine jug. Seeing Fang Chen's gaze, he awkwardly smiled and left.
Fang Chen smiled. This old man was rather interesting.
After the old man left, the burly man looked at Fang Chen and said, "Brother, Old Cao likes to swindle wine from this inn. Don't take offense."
After saying this, the burly man sat down and continued drinking.
Fang Chen nodded and continued drinking the Dragon Eye Wine.
"Golden Rat!"
Fang Chen pondered inwardly.
Just what kind of demonic beast was the Golden Rat? Why did so many Spirit Vortex Realm martial artists want it?
Furthermore, according to the old man, everyone was interested in the Golden Core within the Golden Rat's body. Just what was this Golden Core?
Unknowingly, Fang Chen had already drunk more than half of the Dragon Eye Wine. At this moment, Fang Chen suddenly felt dizzy. He immediately shook his head.
"What's going on?"
With Fang Chen's early Yellow Rank soul, he actually felt dizzy. Fang Chen instantly realized that there was something wrong with this Dragon Eye Wine.
"Damn it!"
Fang Chen looked around and noticed that the burly man was still drinking. As for the surrounding martial artists, some of them had already fainted on the ground.
Fang Chen didn't act rashly. He secretly urged the black flame into his mind and burned the Dragon Eye Wine in his soul.
After a while, the Dragon Eye Wine was completely burned and the dizziness instantly disappeared.
"I almost fell into a trap."
Fang Chen said inwardly. Although he was fine, he was still pretending. He wanted to see what these people were up to.
After a while, everyone fell to the ground. Fang Chen also pretended to lie on the table.
At this moment, the burly man stood up and checked. After noticing that everyone had fainted, he called out, "Old Cao, come out."
As he spoke, Old Cao came out.
"This time, there are a total of fifteen people. We will enter the mountain tomorrow." Old Cao nodded.
The tall and sturdy man nodded. Then, he stuffed a pitch-black medicinal pellet into each of their mouths and left the tavern.
After they left the inn, Fang Chen directly spat out the pill in his mouth.
"Poison!"
Fang Chen realized that the burly man had given them poison. Furthermore, what did Old Cao and the burly man mean when they said they were going into the mountains?
The skilled and bold Fang Chen was prepared to take a look and see what was going on.
Furthermore, he wanted to use these people to understand whether or not the Golden Mice in the mountain range really existed.
In the span of one night, all the martialists in the entire inn were unconscious.
The next morning, all the martial artists woke up. At this time, the burly man and Old Cao appeared.
"Why did I faint?"
"What's going on? Why was I unconscious for an entire night?"
"Could it be that there's something wrong with the Dragon Eye Wine?"