Treasure Vault

"Seems the bond between the nine clans isn't all that solid after all..." Wei Yuefu muttered in complaint. Working together, the two of them had dug through the final layer of earth leading into the treasure vault, only to be met by a blast of foul, rotting stench. Medicinal herbs that could survive nearly three hundred years without proper maintenance and still remain intact were rare exceptions at best. Now that an opening had been broken through, the stench billowed out and gradually dispersed along the draft. The ventilation in the secret passage outside had indeed been poor, but this was not the outer tunnel; it was a new space Hong Qiming had ordered craftsmen to construct. The two served entirely different purposes, so the airflow here caused no problems. Once the stench had mostly cleared, the pair carried their torches inside. Everywhere they looked, herbs lay rotting away. Aside from those, vast amounts of gold, silver, weapons, and suits of armor were neatly arranged throughout the chamber. Yet everything was caked in dust, and the arms and armor had even rusted from exposure. Ignoring all of it, they headed straight for the center of the vault, where an intact, sealed stone pedestal stood. The preservation treatment given to this pedestal was worlds apart from the rest of the vault—it was locked away tight inside a bronze chest. "The Daluo Martial Classic should be inside here," Shen Qianjun said, resting one hand on the hilt of his sword. If Wei Yuefu went back on their agreement, he would strike immediately to seize it. Wei Yuefu, on the other hand, looked entirely unconcerned. After all, he was clad in heavy armor; Shen Qianjun had no hope of piercing it anytime soon. Wei reached out to open the bronze chest, but after looking it over, he found no obvious way to unlock it. Seeing this, he drew his golden melon hammer and started bashing it with full force. If the Dragon Marrow Blood-Tempering Pill was inside and got smashed through his doing, his mission would be completed right then and there. And if there was only the Daluo Martial Classic, it mattered even less; he could simply piece it back together afterward. A few cracks wouldn't stop anyone from reading the text or studying the illustrations. Witnessing such brute violence, Shen Qianjun quietly took several steps back. If a hammer like that caught him, even he wouldn't be able to bear it. Before long, the bronze chest was battered open. Inside lay a jade bottle and a thick, heavy tome. With lightning-quick hands, Wei Yuefu snatched the jade bottle and shoved it into his robes, then reached for the book. But this time he was a step too slow, and Shen Qianjun beat him to it. "Bronze Badge Ding, you said it yourself: resources belong to you, and the original Daluo Martial Classic belongs to me," Shen Qianjun said with a smile. Though Shen had no idea what was inside the jade bottle, with only the secret manual left, he would be taking a loss if he didn't grab it. "That's right," Wei Yuefu agreed, nodding. "Except this secret manual isn't the Daluo Martial Classic." "What?" Startled, Shen Qianjun hastily lifted the manual to inspect it. The characters inscribed on the cover truly did not say Daluo Martial Classic, but rather Mount Sumeru King Immovable Divine Art. Shen Qianjun felt a flicker of confusion, but on second thought, nearly three hundred years had passed. Who knew what had transpired back then? "It's still mine," Shen Qianjun said, pocketing it directly. "If you want it, Bronze Badge Ding, you'll have to wait until next time." Wei Yuefu merely gave a nonchalant shrug. "With my aptitude, I could never practice a peerless divine art like this anyway." Unless he was sorely mistaken, practicing this so-called Mount Sumeru King Immovable Divine Art likely required the contents of the jade bottle. Even with the manual in hand, Shen Qianjun would probably be unable to cultivate it. Otherwise, the Descent Mission would never have demanded only the destruction of the Dragon Marrow Blood-Tempering Pill. "Besides, don't celebrate too soon, Bronze Badge Shen," Wei Yuefu added. "Since my jade bottle was placed together with your divine art, don't you think they might be a matching set?" To hold leverage, one first had to lay down the terms. Naturally, Shen Qianjun realized they were a pair, but as a complete manual, it would surely contain the formula for compounding the pill. It would simply be a bit expensive or troublesome, nothing more. Moreover, since there was only a single bottle, it was most likely meant for initiating the technique, not strictly required later on. "If you aren't willing to part with it, Bronze Badge Ding, there's nothing I can do," Shen Qianjun replied. "Now that we've taken the goods, let's head back and regroup with the others. If you ever want this Mount Sumeru King Immovable Divine Art of mine, we can always talk." With that, he put the divine art manual away. Wei Yuefu said nothing further and turned to leave. At the same time, he took out the jade bottle to inspect it discreetly. A line of characters was engraved on its surface, reading precisely Dragon Marrow Blood-Tempering Pill. His guess had been spot-on. From this, Wei Yuefu pieced together the rough sequence of events. If not for his arrival, Shen Qianjun would have obtained the Eight Treasures Golden Body, captured Hong Qiming alive during the rebellion just the same, and then used this artificial passage to acquire both the Mount Sumeru King Immovable Divine Art and the Dragon Marrow Blood-Tempering Pill. He reasoned that the mission had not asked him to destroy the Mount Sumeru King Immovable Divine Art because other copies existed in other vaults; it was not a singular relic like the Eight Treasures Golden Body. Yet without a doubt, the Dragon Marrow Blood-Tempering Pills in those other vaults had spoiled over the past three hundred years due to improper storage. This was the only intact pill left. The Mount Sumeru King Immovable Divine Art might not even contain the recipe for refining the Dragon Marrow Blood-Tempering Pill, and even if it did, the raw materials might already be extinct. Therefore, destroying this single pill was tantamount to barring Shen Qianjun from ever practicing the divine art. Now that Wei Yuefu had acquired the pill, he first needed to find out what it actually did. If it proved useful, taking it himself would be fine. But if it could only be used alongside the Mount Sumeru King Immovable Divine Art, he would definitely destroy it. A pill was still medicine after all; one could not simply swallow it without knowing its nature. Doubling back, the two quickly caught up with the others. The group had not traveled far and stood waiting in a tense standoff. "Where is Hong Qiming?" Shangguan Shutong asked the moment he saw them return. "He got away," Wei Yuefu took the lead in answering. "Ahead is a dead end. The way out lies past the mechanism." Hearing this, Shen Qianjun swallowed the truth. He had thrown Hong Qiming into the moat, and the man had long since floated downstream. "He has abandoned you," Wei Yuefu said, turning toward Hong Qiming's personal guards and family. "Once we get out, you'll have to find your own way to survive." Killing them outright would certainly cause trouble, especially with tensions already running high. "With the prowess of you two gentlemen, how could he possibly..." one of the personal guards questioned, skeptical. Before the man could finish, Wei Yuefu's face darkened. "He... hurled shit." At those words, Hong Qiming's family hung their heads, not daring to utter a sound; the humiliation was simply too great. "Believe it or not, it doesn't matter to me," Wei Yuefu continued. "When you head back and step in it, don't say I didn't warn you." The guard fell silent as well. Given that Hong Qiming already had a track record of soiling himself, he might truly have stooped to such depths just to save his own skin.