Su Mu wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but it seemed like there was a golden figure standing on the stone bridge, looking at him.

However, when he turned around, he found that it was already gone.

Strange enough, when Su Mu expanded his Divine Sense, he couldn't detect anyone else but himself.

Su Mu shook his head vigorously, wondering if the aftereffects of the mist he inhaled a few days ago were still lingering, causing him to hallucinate.

After sending off the Golden Ant, Su Mu picked two more Lycoris Radiata and prepared to head back.

.....

In front of the stone house, Su Mu sat cross-legged under the willow tree, his body enveloped in a soft holy glow of Daoist charm.

The next second, he slowly opened his eyes, an endless Immortal Light constantly being nurtured and extinguished within his pupils.

He had finally stabilized the floating Spiritual Power and blood within him. Due to the rapid pace of his breakthroughs, he had felt unsteady, but after two days of adjustment, everything had naturally fallen into place.

At this moment, a Spiritual Sense came rippling from the river surface.

It was the Spiritual Sense sent by Little Mahi and Kong Yao!

The two little fellows had been missing for so long, claiming they were off to find treasures for him. Looks like they found a good treasure and came back!

He walked to the riverbank, squinting his eyes, looking over the water.

It appeared to be a corpse floating towards him.

Upon closer inspection, he saw Little Mahi and Kong Yao beneath the corpse, pushing and pulling it towards the shore.

Seeing this, Su Mu's eyes widened.

What?!

I asked you two to go find treasures, spent a month, and all you brought back was a corpse??

This corpse had been soaked in the water until it was pale, and its head was gone, with the silver Willow Armor it wore already rusted and emanating an age-old decayed smell.

Goodness gracious.

They fished a corpse out from the riverbed for me.

As he came closer, Su Mu smelled a strong stench of rot emanating from the body; how long had it been soaking at the river's bottom?

After dragging this headless corpse to the shore, Little Mahi and Kong Yao circled around the water excitedly, looking to claim credit with Su Mu.

It was as if they were saying, "Master, look, look at what treasure we found for you!"

Luckily, I'm in the Otherworld now, with no nosy uncles around. If this were brought back in my past life, and my pets came home with a corpse, it would have been a real headache, at the very least requiring some free tea dates with the authorities.

Such a situation would be akin to being a construction boss, sending someone with a digger to excavate,

only to get a call from the digger operator in the dead of night saying, "Boss, guess what treasure I dug up for you?"

At this point, an experienced boss would already be heading for the airport, phone set to airplane mode, replying, "Guess where I am now?"

....

Looking at the two beasts eager for praise, Su Mu felt a headache coming on.

However, Su Mu quickly noticed the peculiar posture of this headless corpse.

The head was gone, and the legs were severed, yet the hands were tightly guarding its chest, as if protecting something.

Seeing this, Su Mu extended his hand and hoisted the headless corpse onto the shore.

Crouching down, he began prying apart the hands guarding the chest, finding them surprisingly unyielding, even after so long since death.

Su Mu channeled his Cultivation Technique, with Spiritual Power bursting and wrapping around his arm. With a strong yank, he finally managed to tear them apart.

Once apart, he saw that the surface of the Willow Armor over the chest was glimmering softly. Inside this armor, there indeed seemed to be a treasure.

Su Mu punched towards the Willow Armor.

Thunk—

A crisp metallic sound echoed as the next second, he felt a jolt of pain in his fist.

This Willow Armor, even though rusted, still had such high defensive power. It must be a top-grade defensive treasure.

Originally, Su Mu had planned to slice it open with the silver dagger but felt that would be wasteful, so he rolled up his sleeves and took off the set of silver Willow Armor.

After removing it, he discovered the body's torso was nothing but a stark white skeleton.

Despite some rust on the surface, the armor itself was intact.

Removing the armor revealed a circular object on the chest, softly emitting Immortal Light.

Upon seeing this, Su Mu's eyes brightened.

It turned out that this was what the corpse clutched onto even in death.

Picking it up, Su Mu found it quite heavy.

It resembled a compass, with a radius just about the length of a fully spread hand, colored black and white, the left side white, the right black.

Yet, there were no other markings, just black and white.

This appearance looked somewhat familiar, reminiscent of an Eight Trigrams Disc. However, an Eight Trigrams Disc is adorned with runes and characters.

Such as: Qian (☰), Kan (☵), Gen (☶), Zhen (☳), Xun (☴), Li (☲), Kun (☷), Dui (☱).

But this compass bore no such writings.

To verify whether it was a Magical Treasure, Su Mu infused a strand of Spiritual Power into the compass, but it felt like it vanished into thin air, without any response.

His Spiritual Power was completely absorbed, no sense of it left; this indirectly indicated it might be a Magical Treasure.

Su Mu tried various methods, even the universally acknowledged "blood drop" method, but with no success.

Isn't it said that certain magical treasures recognize their owner through a blood ritual?

After tinkering for hours without results, a frustrated Su Mu pulled out his trusty silver dagger, ready to give it a chop!

Alas, a chop did nothing, not even leaving a mark.

Su Mu's eyes sparkled with surprise, for it was the first time he saw something that his silver dagger couldn't cut.

Seems like this treasure isn't ordinary!

"Not bad, it's indeed a treasure."

With that, Su Mu decided to reward them with Favor Points.

[Favor Points -200]

[Favor Points -200]

After spending four hundred Favor Points, he fed them, causing Little Mahi and Kong Yao to grow a little larger, their aura significantly strengthened.

Seeing this, the two beasts happily blew bubbles, conveying their gratitude to Su Mu.

"Alright, go play."

Su Mu waved them off, sending the two Water Beasts away.

His two generals truly seem to bring surprises every so often.

Could this be an attack treasure?

With that, Su Mu took out a set of golden armor from his Space Ring, armor he had tested for durability—everything but the silver dagger couldn't break it.

He aimed the compass at the armor and threw it.

Thunk—

The sound of shattering resonated, as the golden armor was effortlessly smashed.

Goodness, since nothing else worked for now, it could at least be used as a throwing weapon.

At this moment, Su Mu stared at the water before him, inspired with a thought. Could it require some sort of trigger?

When Su Mu placed the compass on the water's surface, a bizarre scene unfolded.

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