Looked down upon from above, the external heaven established by the Duanchen Sect was a modest island mountain nestled within a vast lake-sea.
The island was covered in all manner of mutated flora imbued with an ethereal grace, making the place feel like a transcendent realm far removed from the mortal world.
The secret vaults were hidden on Three-Finger Peak. A soaring stone pillar rose sheer from each of the three summits, corresponding respectively to the three secret caches buried here.
Pilingzi led Chen Chuan toward the first secret vault. Because the island's territory was only so large, and everything lay within easy reach amid scenery that was thoroughly pleasing to the eye, the two chose to proceed on foot.
Along the way, Pilingzi remarked, "I have entered and inspected all three of these secret vaults. The first two contain more wealth and goods, and the items stored in their depths should be of considerable value as well.
"As for the final vault, it holds somewhat less material wealth, consisting mostly of classical canons and scriptures from both ancient and modern times, home and abroad, dating to the Chang Dynasty, along with calligraphy and paintings by famous figures. I suspect what is sealed in the depths of that third vault is very likely pledged favors."
Chen Chuan was slightly surprised. "Favors?"
Pilingzi said, "The imperial house of every dynasty has had some entanglement with ancient deities. If I am not mistaken, those should be covenants between the Chang Dynasty imperial house and the deities, meant to call upon them to intervene in times of peril and secure the continuation of the Cao clan's realm."
He shook his head and sighed. "Yet whenever an imperial court falls into collapse, the general tide of the world is already irrecoverable. Even if one manages to summon these ancient deities, they will hardly exert themselves in earnest."
Recalling the deities that had guarded Emperor Wenguang, Chen Chuan thoroughly agreed. Even if such entities were coerced into coming, under the sweeping tide of the times, the effect they could produce remained limited.
Not to mention that after antiquity, imperial courts worshiping ancient deities were virtually non-existent. Both the Xuan and Chan sects had always maintained high vigilance and wariness toward such entities, suppressing them whenever they appeared.
Since the Sheng Dynasty, several short-lived regional courts had emerged during periods of warfare, and the downfall of most of them was tied to this very reason.
Pilingzi continued, "Taizong of the Ding Dynasty probably foresaw such a possibility back then. Thus, asking me for wealth and goods was merely a pretext; his true desire was to take these things out and destroy them. Yet even without them, could the Ding Dynasty truly have endured for ten thousand generations?
"In the rise and fall of dynasties, ills inevitably fester within while external evils encroach from without. But if one's own virtue remains forever steadfast, why fear such things?"
As he spoke, the two arrived before a sheer cliff, the roaring rush of cascading water filling their ears.
Pilingzi looked ahead. "Xuanji, this first secret vault is right here."
Chen Chuan stood there and looked across; a plank bridge suspended between two lofty cliffs appeared before them.
Twenty to thirty meters to his left was a cascading waterfall, through whose surging spray one could see bands of prismatic rainbow light.
Across the suspension plank bridge was a stone door set halfway into the cliff face. From its exterior, it looked nothing like the entrance to a secret vault.
Pilingzi said, "To claim the secret vault, one must pass through here. Such is the ritual order. Xuanji, please follow me across."
As he spoke, he tapped and traced in the empty air several times, unraveling an esoteric guardian ritual, before taking the lead onto the bridge.
Chen Chuan observed for a few moments. While the ritual here seemed simple on the surface, it was actually linked to the entire airspace.
If not for Pilingzi, the host of this domain, leading the way, even knowing the exact location of the secret vault would have required tremendous effort, and it would have been hard to guarantee that its contents wouldn't be destroyed upon opening.
The two crossed the plank bridge. Pilingzi stepped forward and pushed open the door to the grotto. After traversing a pathway about a dozen zhang long, they finally reached the interior.
Inside lay a cavernous grotto, its floor paved with neat, even flagstones. What caught the eye first were rows of orderly stone figures and stone horses, all life-sized.
A place like this would not house useless objects; it was not hard to discern that they had to be tied to the internal ritual.
Chen Chuan looked elsewhere. Crates were stacked atop one another against the walls and on the floor, their seams pasted with paper seals. Those against the walls were piled almost to the ceiling.
Pilingzi said, "A batch of the earlier wealth and goods was taken long ago. These were brought in successively by the Ding Dynasty later on, with the most recent shipment delivered by Emperor Wenguang. Because they come from different eras, they were never sorted into categories and were all simply piled here. Though I imagine you have little patience to examine such things, Xuanji."
He gestured toward the rear. "Over there is where items beneficial to our cultivation are kept." Saying so, he turned sideways with an inviting gesture. "Xuanji, please."
Chen Chuan nodded and followed him along the aisle left between the crates. After thirty to forty paces, a set of double stone doors appeared ahead, bearing a pair of beast-head door knockers.
"The true legacies of the previous dynasty are all kept within. Because it requires a unique ritual talisman, I have never entered before. Xuanji, you may use your token to open it. I shall wait outside; once you have finished inspecting it, we will proceed to the next site."
Pilingzi smiled faintly, cupped his hands in a polite salute, and withdrew along the path they had come.
Chen Chuan walked up to the stone doors alone. Without question, a layer of ritual power was attached to them.
An esoteric ritual did not necessarily need to be indestructible; so long as it could destroy what lay inside upon being triggered, that was sufficient to serve its defensive purpose.
He took out the tooth ornament Empress Cao had given him, held it by its bone chain, and swung it gently toward the door.
A small hole immediately appeared on the stone doors, steadily expanding as the heavy stone dissolved like an illusion, finally vanishing entirely to reveal a passageway leading deeper inside.
At that exact moment, Chen Chuan suddenly felt the relic he carried on his person turn scalding hot, reaching a temperature higher than ever before.
Evidently, something he needed was here.
Wrapping the carved tooth pendant around his wrist, he walked inside.
The passage was only some twenty meters long, lined with small alcoves holding everlasting lamps that illuminated the space brightly.
After turning a corner, he stepped into a chamber of roughly a hundred square meters. To the left and right stood two massive vermilion-lacquered pillars carved with dragons, the coiling dragon motifs so vivid they seemed alive.
Directly ahead was a grand gilded bronze wall worked with taotie patterns, inlaid with pearls that radiated shimmering luminescence.
A long table draped in red brocade sat atop a flight of steps ahead. Resting upon it were two bulbous lacquer caskets of different colors and stout silhouettes. Both bore a lustrous, silk-smooth lacquer finish, their edges dusted with inlaid gold and silver powder that, upon closer inspection, formed clusters of delicate snowflake-like patterns—a testament to consummate craftsmanship.
Chen Chuan could sense that the heat was emanating from those lacquer caskets. Crossing the relief-carved flagstone floor, he climbed the steps and came before the first casket on the right, which was lacquered in black and red.
He probed it briefly. Although the casket's material was unique enough to shield it from spiritual and field probing, there were no special traps or mechanisms upon it. Even so, to be cautious, he reached out with the hand wrapped in the tooth ornament and lifted the lid.
Something inside was revealed instantly. In that moment, an intense craving surged within his body.
Unlike the gnawing hunger of mutated tissue, this was an urgent yearning born from the promise of immense benefit to himself.
He cast his gaze downward. It was a teardrop-shaped object resembling soft jade. A pinpoint of crystalline blue radiance swirled within, and as he watched, a dense white mist began to drift around its surface.
At first glance, he understood: this was an advanced relic of a tier higher than a Grade 1 relic, and an exceedingly rare "proto-relic" that had not yet fully condensed into form.
According to the canons of the Tianji Sect, a "proto-relic" was a wisp of primordial qi before a sacred relic took physical shape. If one employed unique methods paired with sufficient spiritual power, there was a certain chance of condensing it into the specific relic one desired.
Furthermore, multiple wisps of proto-relic qi could be gathered together to enhance the efficacy of the final condensed product. It was said that many treasures within the Xuan and Chan sects had been forged using this very method.
However, he acknowledged that he could not achieve this at present, as it likely involved higher-level power.
For him now, this object was raw material to aid his breakthrough to a higher realm.
He set the lid back in place.
He then turned his gaze toward the casket on the left. Since the two were set side by side, whatever lay inside was surely remarkable as well.
What could it be?
He rather hoped for another wisp of proto-relic qi of the same kind. With that and the Cloud-Touching Lotus Root he had acquired earlier, the relics on hand would be sufficient, sparing him any further search.
Even if it were a Grade 1 relic, it would still be welcome, though that depended on its specific function. If it proved useful in combat, he might keep it for the time being and see what else he acquired later.
Walking to the other end of the long table, he lifted the lid and found a pearl-like pill inside, though it was roughly the size of a goose egg.
What was this...?
Chen Chuan scrutinized it for a few moments, a sudden realization striking him. This object seemed to match the "divine embryo" recorded in the ancient canons.
According to the Xuan Sect, such things were born when otherworldly gods, ghosts, demons, and fiends merged with the qi of heaven and earth. Modern research, on the other hand, held that when entities from the world across fell into the material world, they formed a unique, newborn higher life-form in order to better adapt to this reality.
A few of the native spirits and deities worshiped in the old era were born this way. After arriving in this world, under the influence of the material plane, they would first transform into such a "divine embryo."
This process usually lasted only a fleeting instant before the spirits broke from their shells and transformed. Yet due to certain factors, some failed to complete the transformation and remained locked in this form indefinitely.
It was said to contain a wisp of divine qi brought from the world across, an essential prize sought by many emperors of antiquity in their pursuit of immortality.
Yet his intuition told him that it was of little use to him personally. Not because it lacked value, but because it ran contrary to the path of his Visage of Man. Perhaps it was better suited for the Visage of the Divine or the Visage of the Aberrant.
Yet just as he was pondering this, he suddenly sensed that Hongfu's spiritual activity had surged with noticeable vigor.
A spark of realization struck his heart. Was this object of use to Hongfu?
……
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Chapter 1452