Chapter 218: Hong Tianqi's Treasury

"Alright, now that you're back, get ready for a trip tomorrow. We'll all be heading to Hong Tianqi's personal treasury." Zhang Lie smiled even as Yang Ze cocked his head.

"Hong Tianqi? Who?" Instead of responding, Zhang Lie just grinned and left, while the other hunters of Team Zenith flocked forward and eagerly explained what had happened during the Void Cup, causing Yang Ze to belatedly realize why he had been escorted by no less than General Li himself!

Surrounded by soldiers, the members of Team Zenith safely arrived at the military base closest to the capital.

The next day, right at dawn, Yan Long had someone wake all the hunters up. After a simple breakfast, they, accompanied by Yan Long and Su Feng, headed toward Hong Tianqi's treasury after three or four hops into various teleportation arrays. Ultimately, they arrived at a deep, hidden cave, a place where even their transceivers were unable to receive any signal.

"Wait here while I break the seal to the treasury," Yan Long commanded, then leapt forward as he released all his genetic energy, summoning a glorious, incandescent dragon of fire from his body. As the dragon howled, it shot up into the sky; instead of the resounding crack that the hunters expected, the fiery dragon passed through without any resistance at all.

As the dragon vanished, the ceiling of the cave began to shimmer with light, reminiscent of auroras. Yan Long, who was prepared for this spectacle, immediately shot out rays of light toward hidden locations in the cave, causing runic inscriptions to glow where the rays landed. The light concentrated around the center of the cave, forming a teleportation array around which the runic inscriptions snaked.

Zhang Lie gasped. "As expected, even the security measures alone are—"

"Enter! I can't keep this up for long!" Yan Long interrupted him before he could finish his thoughts.

The hunters rushed through the array, finding themselves in a surprisingly large palace, a palace so large they couldn't see its roof, in a domain so expansive they couldn't see where it ended...

In truth, the hunters could barely believe that such magnificent architecture existed. Even Zhang Lie, who was in his second life, let out a gasp of surprise. The other hunters, even Su Feng, likewise gaped at the sight.

"This is Hong Tianqi's personal treasury. He's given you an opportunity to pick out whatever you like, without any restrictions."

The crowd was shocked into silence again. Whatever they liked?! This seemingly endless palace was filled to the brim with treasure. Just from a passing glance, Zhang Lie noticed a few extremely valuable herbs, with which he could easily brew a batch of Potion #1—or even Potion #2.

He had yet to get used to his new position as the lead researcher of China's limit-fragment development team, and he didn't realize just what benefits that position brought him.

"Any treasure of my choice? Without any restriction on quantity or quality?" Zhang Lie pressed.

"We're rich!"

"Captain, if we really do get to choose whatever we want—"

Yan Long scowled. "Do you need me to repeat myself? Yes, whatever you like, without any restriction whatsoever! Nevertheless, let me remind you to pick out things that are useful to you, rather than waste these resources unnecessarily."

"In that case, we'd better get to work. Our first priority will be herbs, and our second, rare techniques!" Zhang Lie announced, mobilizing the hunters of Team Zenith.

As he reached the shelves, he then turned back to the two commanders. "Commander Su, Commander Yan, you both have copies of the ingredients needed for Potion #1, don't you? Please help me search for them!"

Before they could reply, he headed deep into the treasury. The shelves and cabinets were all made of some dark brown wood, sturdy and aged. The shelf in front of him boasted all manner of techniques, the lowest of which was pinnacle-grade. Zhang Lie didn't have the time to look at them carefully. His gaze swept over the techniques' names. Finding nothing interesting, he rushed toward the next shelf.

The other hunters—even Su Feng and Yan Long—proceeded to do the same. They were quickly able to cover the shelves within a hundred meters of the entrance, but just as they were about to expand their search radius, they found that the shelves farther out contained considerably less treasure.

After all, this was Hong Tianqi's personal treasury, and even though there were quite a number of treasures within, there had to be a limit somewhere. As they gradually walked out of the hundred-meter range, however, robots began to appear beside the hunters, the highest-grade robots available to the military.

Their appearance meant that Martial Sage Hong Tianqi had to be keeping his best treasures nearby. The robots didn't strike; instead, they saluted Yan Long when they noticed him.

"Commander Yan Long!" they shouted.

"Secure the nearby area!"

"Yes, Commander!"

These robots were all equipped with artificial intelligence that made them resemble human beings to a surprising extent. Indeed, as long as their circuitry didn't get destroyed, they would "live" even longer than actual humans.

After hearing Yan Long's command, they swiftly strode toward the entrance of the treasury while the hunters resumed their search, even more carefully than before.

Zhang Lie had found quite a few treasures along the way. In terms of techniques, he had ultimately picked out two techniques that were particularly valuable, the footwork technique [Disorienting Phantoms], and the fist technique [One Punch].

As its name suggested, [Disorienting Phantoms] consumed genetic energy to construct realistic afterimages of a hunter which would disorient the target, whereas [One Punch] was a technique about one lone punch that boasted unparalleled power, converting the user's genetic energy into a devastating blow.

This sounded straightforward, but was extremely difficult to execute in practice. Any ordinary technique could convert genetic energy into force, but this technique was particularly special in terms of augmenting that force.

However, Zhang Lie didn't have time to go through the specifics; after stuffing it into his potbellied-toad pouch, he moved on quickly to other treasures nearby.

Other than techniques, what Zhang Lie was most excited about were herbs. As one of the strongest hunters of Earth, Martial Sage Hong Tianqi's personal treasury was so rich in treasures that even Zhang Lie couldn't help but marvel at the sight. There were large quantities of rare herbs within, along with a few herbs that Zhang Lie hadn't even seen before.

He was particularly excited about having found a few primary ingredients for Potion #4, a potion that would provide a staggering fifty-point increase to the peak gene capacity. Even in his past life, during the golden age of pillmaking, only a scant few hunters had managed to obtain a bottle of Potion #4.

He had anticipated being able to find some rare herbs here, but not in such quantity. Dreamleaf grass, bloodrot fruit, hundred-spriit flower, bark of underworld maple... he had found four of the eight primary ingredients in Hong Tianqi's treasury alone.

His luck in this life was staggering—no, to be precise, this wasn't luck. His prescience from his past life had had overwhelming repercussions on his growth, ones that he could hardly have imagined.

If he weren't so overwhelmingly strong, or if he hadn't been able to demonstrate any results of his research on limit fragments, Martial Sage Hong Tianqi wouldn't have consumed Potion #1 and allowed him access to his personal treasury as recompense.

After finishing searching through the shelves in his area, Zhang Lie turned to Fang Yi. "Fang Yi, quick, show me the herbs that you've found!"

"Captain, what's the matter? Why the urgency?"

"I'll tell you later—show me the herbs! If I can gather them all now, then..." Zhang Lie's eyes were wide open, and the anticipation on his face more intense than Fang Yi had ever seen.

As a result, Fang Yi hastily opened his potbellied-toad pouch and spilled out the herbs within. Zhang Lie's excitement palpably diminished as he looked through Fang Yi's spoils; he hadn't found anything he wanted.

Fang Yi had collected quite a few herbs, some of which were key ingredients needed for Potion #2 and Potion #3, and two of which were herbs he had never seen before, but none of the herbs he had collected were relevant for Potion #4. As a result, Zhang Lie couldn't help but be disappointed.

"Not bad—keep everything and continue searching!"

Zhang Lie ran off in search of the others, leaving Fang Yi on his own. The next person Zhang Lie found was Yang Ze, who was generally rather lucky. After they searched through his gathered herbs, however, they found that Yang Ze, just like Fang Yi, didn't have any herbs that had to do with Potion #4.

Zhang Lie's initial excitement was greatly discounted by these two failures, but the allure of Potion #4 was so large that he still couldn't drop the idea of concocting it entirely. As a result, he continued to look for the other members of Team Zenith to search through their gathered herbs, but neither Sun Mengmeng nor Sun Xiaowu had any relevant herbs either.

Neither did Li Feng; Li Feng did have an auxiliary ingredient, but it was one of thousands that were possible for Potion #4, and it was one of the easier ones to acquire as well.

When Zhang Lie finally found Zhou Ying, he had almost lost all hope, but...