A Mountain of Treasures

The treasures within this palace were many and varied, a true collection of everything imaginable.

Given Yan Yun’s personality, she would undoubtedly try to sweep it all away.

These items were ownerless.

Since she had arrived here first, she certainly wouldn’t leave them for others.

With that, Yan Yun raised her hand, intending to collect all the treasures here.

But tragically, she discovered that her power seemed to be suppressed here and could not be released.

“What’s going on?”

“Why can’t I release my power?”

“My storage space won’t open either.”

Yan Yun was stunned.

If she couldn’t use her power or open her storage space here, how much could she possibly carry away with just her two hands?

No wonder that Leng Xinshuang had spoken of taking as much as fate allowed.

“Old Ancestor, what should I do?”

“Can the Heavenly Tome space be opened?” Yan Yun asked anxiously.

With so many good things, even if she didn’t need most of them, many would surely fetch a high price later.

If she could move all the treasures stored by this Tianwu Gate, it would be the best possible outcome.

“This treasure palace is protected by a powerful shielding array.”

“Any cultivator who enters, even a Divine Venerable, will be unable to use their power.”

“In other words, everything here must be taken by hand,” Yan Lingyun explained after a brief scan.

Yan Yun immediately walked over to a chest filled with spirit stones and tried to lift it, but it wouldn’t budge.

However, she had no problem grabbing a handful of spirit stones from the chest.

“Damn it!”

“Old Ancestor, can the Heavenly Tome space be used or not?” Yan Yun asked again.

Yan Yun immediately tried it.

“It can, but because of the suppression here, I can only open a small rift at most.”

“I can’t directly use the Heavenly Tome space to suck everything in.”

“You still have to put things into the Heavenly Tome space one by one.”

This made Yan Yun’s face darken.

With so many items, if she had to move them all by hand, she wouldn’t be able to finish even if she had more than a month.

The problem was, did she have that much time? The group outside would soon pass the three trials and enter this place.

With so many people, they would quickly divide up everything here.

“There’s no time.”

“Old Ancestor, take a look and see which are the good items.”

“I can only pick the best things first and put them into the Heavenly Tome space,” Yan Yun urged.

Among the treasures here, spirit stones were the least valuable.

“Didn’t you want a large-scale spirit mother lode?”

“It’s right beneath this sect.”

Yan Yun couldn’t be bothered with the spirit mother lode for now.

The treasures here were also very important.

If she didn’t take a few, she probably wouldn’t have the heart to go for the spirit mother lode.

“Let’s not worry about the spirit mother lode for now.”

“Let’s take the most valuable things here first.”

“There’s not much time, Old Ancestor, hurry up!”

“We can’t let that group outside get a free lunch.”

Yan Lingyun didn’t waste any more words and began to guide Yan Yun in moving the treasures.

“You two, don’t you like spirit herbs?”

“Go, go get the spirit herbs.”

“Eat whatever you can on the spot.”

Yan Yun then mobilized Xiao Leng and Heiyue.

But a surge of demonic power suddenly emanated from Xiao Leng’s body, and she rapidly grew in size, soon becoming as large as a water buffalo.

“This?”

“Big Sister, you can use your power here?”

Yan Yun was surprised to see Xiao Leng suddenly transform into her beast form.

Xiao Leng nodded.

“The power here doesn’t seem to restrict me.”

“Perhaps it’s because I was born in Tianwu Gate,” Xiao Leng guessed.

‘That’s a possibility. After all, Xiao Leng was born here. Perhaps we can even find something related to her origins here.’

“That’s great.”

“Heiyue, what about you?” Yan Yun looked at the little wolf demon again.

But Heiyue shook her head, indicating that she couldn’t use any of her power here.

From this, it was clear that Xiao Leng might indeed have a close connection to Tianwu Gate.

“Alright then, let’s start moving things,” Yan Yun said, then closed her eyes and activated the Heavenly Tome.

A vortex slowly materialized in front of her.

Xiao Leng and Heiyue were startled by this sight.

“This is?” Xiao Leng was stunned.

“A treasure.”

“Big Sister, you can move any of the treasures here and throw them into this vortex.”

“I have to go find the more valuable items,” Yan Yun instructed.

Xiao Leng didn’t ask any more questions and immediately extended her tails to grab the surrounding treasures, throwing them all into the vortex without a second thought.

This was certainly much faster than Yan Yun moving them by hand alone.

But even so, it was impossible to clear out everything before Jin Mei and the others arrived.

Jin Mei’s group had already reached the third trial.

The first two trials were child’s play for them.

But this third one stumped them.

“How do you view love?”

“It’s asking us to answer this question?”

Jin Mei and the others were speechless.

To be honest, this question was much more difficult for cultivators like them than it had been for Yan Yun.

Most of them, let alone love, would completely abandon their emotions for the sake of cultivation.

“What is this nonsense?”

“We cultivators are all dedicated to the Dao.”

“How many of us would get tangled up in love?”

“I think this Leng Xinshuang is just playing with us.”

“Pavilion Master Jin Mei, step aside, I’ll smash this stone tablet myself,” a hot-tempered Great Accomplishment Divine Venerable said, about to destroy the tablet.

The others didn’t stop him and moved aside.

If they could pass this trial by destroying the stone tablet, it would be a good thing for everyone.

The Great Accomplishment Divine Venerable took out a golden staff, gathered his power, and slammed it into the stone tablet.

But the result was obvious.

A stream of light shot out from the tablet, sending him flying.

Worse still, he was sent flying directly out of the ruins, landing outside.

“This?”

“This stone tablet also has the Five Elements Reversion Restriction.”

“It seems we can’t break it with brute force,” the man surnamed Feng said with a helpless expression.

After some hesitation, Jin Mei was the first to step forward.

She carved her answer below the question on the tablet with a knife.

Her answer was that her view of love was to attach herself to a more powerful male cultivator to go further in her path.

She saw love as a tool.

This answer might be a bit biased, but for a woman like Jin Mei, born into a merchant family, it was her truest understanding.

Because Jin Mei did have a husband.

But there were no feelings or love between them; they were together purely out of necessity.

“Alas! You may enter.”

After Jin Mei finished answering, a sigh came from the stone tablet.

It only sighed once before letting her in.

It seemed that the question on the tablet didn’t necessarily require an answer that satisfied the other party; just answering it was enough.

“Everyone, I shall go in first,” Jin Mei said with a faint smile, walking towards the palace.

Seeing that Jin Mei had passed with such a simple answer, the others rushed to answer as well.

And as long as they answered, the remnant will of Leng Xinshuang left in the stone tablet let them all pass.

It felt like this question was deliberately wasting their time.

“Little one, there’s no time left.”

“The people from outside are coming in,” Yan Lingyun quickly reminded Yan Yun upon sensing their arrival.

Yan Yun looked at the remaining treasures, her heart aching.

“Damn it, there are still so many good things.”

“I… I can’t bear to leave them,” Yan Yun felt that leaving like this was more painful than cutting off her own flesh.

However, the treasures here were not the final hoard.

Behind this palace, there was another door leading underground.

The spirit mother lode and Tianwu Gate’s most valuable items were all down there.

“Don’t be greedy.”

“Greed leads to trouble,” Yan Lingyun said, half-laughing, half-exasperated.

In the end, Yan Yun could only call out to Xiao Leng and Heiyue, signaling them to leave.

Thus, the three of them slipped into the underground passage just as Jin Mei entered.

When Jin Mei came in and saw the mountain of treasures, her eyes lit up.

This was probably her biggest haul since she came to the Qianjin Pavilion in the Royal Capital of Xiang Country.

However, looking at the scattered treasures on the ground, she knew someone had already been here and had certainly taken many things.

“This? Damn it,” Jin Mei said, about to collect the items.

But the problem was, her power couldn’t be released either.

“Can’t use power?”

“Is there a magic-sealing array?”

“Damn it.”

“But, this is actually a good thing.”

“No wonder the other party didn’t take all the treasures; she couldn’t carry much on her own,” Jin Mei felt relieved even as she was annoyed.

She couldn’t leave this place for now, because if she did, the people who came in after her would quickly divide up everything.

She had to wait for her people to arrive and set the rules before she could go search for the more valuable treasures.

Their Qianjin Pavilion had spent nearly ten million spirit stones on the treasure map of the Tianwu Gate ruins.

This was an astronomical price in Xiang Country.

They were determined to take seventy percent of the treasures here, leaving only thirty percent for the others.

This was a rule of their Qianjin Pavilion.

After all, these items were ownerless, and they couldn’t be too greedy, or they would provoke public anger and affect their business.

Soon, cultivators began to walk in, with the first ones being from the Qianjin Pavilion.

“Haha, so many things!”

“Pavilion Master, we’re going to make a fortune this time!” the branch managers said excitedly.

The more valuable items here would be transported to their Xiang Country headquarters, while their branches would also take a portion of the rest.

“Since you’re here, I’ll go look for Tianwu Gate’s most valuable treasures.”

“Hopefully, I’ll run into that little girl who came in just now,” Jin Mei said faintly, then walked forward.

As for the people who came in later, although they were shocked by the mountain of treasures, no one dared to snatch anything, all waiting for the Qianjin Pavilion to take their share first.

Thirty percent was enough for them.

Jin Mei searched several places, but the result was the same: there were clear signs of powerful energy fluctuations left behind, but the storage areas were empty.

“It seems they were taken by the person who came in first.”

“Interesting.”

“I’d like to see who it is that could get in a step ahead of my Qianjin Pavilion.”

After a quick search, Jin Mei soon found the underground passage.

“Venerable Sun, come with me into the underground spirit vein,” Jin Mei called out.

The strongest Divine Venerable from Qianjin Pavilion immediately followed her.

It was certain that Yan Yun would cross paths with the people from Qianjin Pavilion.