Chapter 23: Picking Up Scraps? The Mysterious Black Iron Scroll

Upon hearing the words, the mercenaries were stunned and didn't quite react. For a moment, no one dared to speak, and they all remained silent.

"Does no one know?" Wei Yang frowned upon seeing this.

"My lord..."

A female mercenary, who seemed to be the leader, gritted her teeth, raised her hand, and nervously stepped forward. She said with a slight tremble in her voice: "My lord, I know. We can take you to Shimo City."

Wei Yang's expression softened, and he nodded, "Then lead the way."

At the same time, he decided in his heart to immediately obtain a detailed map of the Tagore Desert upon reaching Shimo City.

"Yes." The leader female mercenary rejoiced upon hearing this, hurriedly turned around, and prepared to call her team members to set off.

On the snake people's side, the leader with triangular eyes became anxious upon seeing this scene. 

He regretted inwardly for his greed, not having sent someone back to inform the leader of their clan but instead choosing to pursue with his men. Initially, it was fine, as their strength was enough to wipe out the human mercenaries, but now an unexpected event had occurred. 

Even though he felt fear, he mustered courage and said, "My lord, these people have stolen treasures from our clan..."

Before he could finish his words.

"You're talking nonsense!" The female mercenary leader turned around and glared angrily, directly interrupting him, while her subordinates also showed their displeasure.

"My lord."

The female mercenary respectfully said to Wei Yang, "That black iron scroll is our team's finding from the underground ancient city ruins, exactly from a crypt there. They saw it and tried to rob us, hence they've been chasing us all the way here."

The triangular-eyed snake man argued, "That underground ancient city has now been occupied by our snake clan. You sneaked in to steal and took away our treasures."

"You, shameless!"

The female mercenary leader was so angry her chest heaved, creating an attractive curve. Hand on hip, she yelled, "That underground ancient city has been here for decades and has been explored numerous times. Usually, anyone could explore it freely. Since when did it become the territory of your snake clan?"

"Our clan only recently decided to occupy it, so now it belongs to us," said the triangular-eyed snake man.

"You..." The female mercenary trembled with anger and was about to speak further.

"Enough." Wei Yang frowned, somewhat impatiently waving his hand to interrupt their quarrel.

The female mercenary immediately fell silent, lowering her head respectfully.

Wei Yang turned to look at the snake people, raised his right hand, and a red fighting spirit appeared in his palm. He then struck forward.

Instantly.

An energy lion king of fiery red color appeared out of thin air, vivid and mighty, with a faint golden hue on its mane, exuding an incredibly strong and terrifying aura, majestic and domineering.

Everyone present, be it the human mercenaries or the snake people, was so overwhelmed by this aura that they could barely stand, nearly falling to their knees.

Roar~

The energy lion king quickly charged towards the snake people, opening its mouth to unleash an angry roar.

Buzz~

The human mercenaries' minds went blank, and their eardrums buzzed, unable to hear any other sound.

And as for the snake people, they were swept away by the sonic ripples, their bodies exploding as if they were a bunch of tattered sacks flying.

The energy lion king followed closely with its attack.

Boom!!!

A violent explosion ensued, kicking up clouds of dust.

Wei Yang lowered his palm expressionlessly, pulling Ye Xian'er into his embrace. A layer of fighting spirit formed a shield over his body, blocking the dust.

Then he waved his hand, and a gust of wind swept the area, quickly calming the dust.

Where the snake people had stood, a large pit appeared, steaming, with some sand melted into crystalline forms.

As for the snake people, they were long gone without a trace.

"Is that not resolved now? They insisted on courting death and were disturbing me," Wei Yang said softly.

The group of human mercenaries covered their still buzzing ears, looking at the scene with extreme fear, their legs trembling.

Wei Yang gestured towards the pit, and a dark-silver storage ring flew into his hand.

A strong soul force surged out, forcibly breaking the remaining mark inside the ring, as he scanned through the internal space.

Soon, Wei Yang withdrew his soul force, pursed his lips.

This was the ring of the triangular-eyed snake man, the lowest-grade storage ring, with only about one square meter of space inside, and there was nothing particularly good in it.

She trembled as she stood forward, "My lord... We, we'll take you to Shimo City now..."

"Alright, let's go." Wei Yang casually tossed the ring to her. "This is your reward."

"Thank you, my lord." The female mercenary's eyes lit up as she received the ring, overjoyed.

It was a storage ring!

The other mercenaries looked on with both joy and envy.

Even a lowest-grade storage ring was worth tens of thousands of gold coins, and if the space inside was slightly larger, the price could double.

Their whole squad of fifteen people couldn't even afford one lowest-grade storage ring if they pooled their resources.

Once back, selling this ring and splitting the money would ensure their entire team wouldn't have to worry about food for three to five years.

To their surprise, not only did their team escape the snake people this time, they also obtained such a great reward.

The female mercenary leader, with joy on her face, carefully stowed away the ring and quickly called her team to set off. She then promptly came over to personally guide Wei Yang.

"My lord, from here to Shimo City, it's about a hundred miles. At our speed, we can arrive by dusk," the female mercenary said.

"Mm." Wei Yang nodded ambiguously, holding Ye Xian'er, enjoying the desert scenery along the way.

In fact, there wasn't much to see, just endless yellow sand, with the occasional small oasis dotting the landscape like green gems in a sea of sand.

After watching for a while, Wei Yang lost some interest and withdrew his gaze.

Ye Xian'er, however, remained curious, continuing to observe.

"My lord, my name is Annie," the female mercenary leader cautiously said.

"Oh." Wei Yang glanced at her and nodded lightly.

Annie?

Darn!

Sensing Ye Xian'er's gaze subtly shifting towards them and the hand in his slightly tightening, Wei Yang almost felt like smiting this Annie.

She's causing trouble.

The female mercenary named Annie, perhaps because she saw Wei Yang acting amiable along the way, regained a bit of courage. She concentrated her thoughts, then took a deep breath and pulled a black iron scroll from a pouch at her waist.

"My lord, this is what we found this time in that underground dilapidated ancient city ruins, from a hidden crypt altar below. We don't know what it is specifically. If you're interested, I'd like to offer it to you," Annie said, presenting the black iron scroll with both hands respectfully.

"Oh?" Wei Yang casually glanced at the black iron scroll upon hearing this.

Initially, he didn't care much, as from their conversation with the snake people earlier, it was clear that the underground ancient city ruins had been around for decades and had been explored innumerable times. What good things could be left for this mercenary squad, whose highest strength was at the nine-star Dou Zhe level, to find?

How could it be so easy to stumble upon treasures?

But when Wei Yang's gaze fell on the black iron scroll, he paused.

"Hmm?"

Wei Yang was somewhat surprised, reaching out to take the black iron scroll, carefully examining it.

Because he found that his soul force, when casually sweeping over the black iron scroll, disappeared!

So he became a bit more serious, probing with soul force into the black iron scroll again, but once the soul force entered, it still mysteriously vanished.

Vanished without a trace.

The black iron scroll seemed like a bottomless abyss, devouring all the soul force he probed into it!

This?

Wei Yang's eyes turned serious, truly paying attention, and continued to channel soul force.

Suddenly, a surge of soul force poured into the black iron scroll through his palm.

Moments later, he had to stop, somewhat fatigued and helpless.

Looking at the old, simple, seemingly unremarkable black iron scroll in his hand, Wei Yang couldn't help but take a deep breath, filled with surprise and excitement internally.

Did he really stumble upon treasure?!

It's worth noting that although he is now only at the one-star Dou Ling level, if he were to measure purely by soul strength, it would be comparable to a typical Dou Huang strongman, possibly even surpassing it.

Yet, when such a powerful soul force surged into the black iron scroll, it vanished like clay oxen entering the sea, with no trace!

(End of this chapter)