Chapter 348: Treasure Huts
The Saints all looked at the entrance, and each of their eyes were filled with greed. These Saints were from different families and their loyalty did not lay anywhere specific as they were the at the peak of all living things.
Even though the royal family was aware of this they had still invited their Saints to join them on this treasure hunt. Truthfully they knew that if the Saints had to chose between their loyalty for the kingdom and some amazing treasure that could help them improve their powers, nine out of ten Saints would chose the treasure.
Knowing this the royal family gave the Saint full freedom from the moment they opened the grave.
It was the same for the families who had Saints with them. No one assumed that the Saints would be there to protect their families because all of them wanted to improve their own personal strength.
Not many below the Saint rank knew that Saints all more or less knew each other and that they all ranked their strength. A grave like this would make it possible for any Saint to increase their personal strength and rise in the rankings. They were all aiming for the peak of the Saint rank; the rank Wan Qiao and the Frozen General held.
Knowing that all of them were competing against each other the Saints all shot forward like prismatic beams of light.
As soon as the Saints vanished into the grave the royal family from the Taiyang Kingdom swiftly followed behind and with their guards they too vanished into the massive tomb. It did not take long before the families did the same, and some even started fighting to get in ahead of others; however after three families had entered, Hui Yue, wearing his black cloak, managed to easily slip past the fighting and enter the tomb that lay below.
Even before entering the actual hole in the ground chilling air rushed forth making him feel comfortable compared to the weather outside. Looking at the entrance, Hui Yue was surprised to find that this was not a rough path; instead, beautiful steps were carved into the ground, and although they were not crafted by artisans, they were all the same size and none of them were uneven.
Even after thousands of years, these steps were completely perfect. The only thing which did fit the place was the scent of blood which was carried up with the chilled air. It was obvious that although not a lot of families had entered yet, many were already dead. As for whether they had been killed by traps or other experts, Hui Yue did not know, but none the less, he was completely focused on what was happened in front and behind him. His senses were at their best. His eyes had changed to the eyes of the wolf, and the world in front of him became grayscaled as he slowly descended the steps.
The ceiling and the walls were smooth, not rugged as one would expect of a tunnel leading down into the ground. From behind he could hear loud voices of a group which had managed to enter, and from the front he could also hear people running. The closer towards the end of the tunnel he got the more intense the scent of blood became.
As he went further and further into the tunnel he saw corpses scattered over the ground. Some of them had clearly died in battle, while others were killed in traps. Some had arrows sticking out of their bodies, and looking at the wall holes were visible where the arrows had shot out.
No Saints were dead but quite a few of the royal guards had laid down their lives in the face of the arrows. With a glance at the dead, Hui Yue decided to be extra cautious as he moved forward.
Having walked through the dark for around half an hour he finally reached the bottom. In front of him was two massive doors which had been opened by force, the doors were bent in an odd fashion. It was clear that they had taken multiple attacks to force them open. The Saints were clearly still together using brute force to get through the many dangers in the grave.
Moving through the doors multiple tunnels appeared in front of them. These tunnels were as smooth as the staircase had been, but none of them showed any signs of where they led.
‘The Saints have split up,’ Lan Feng said as he sensed the energy ripples coming from the many tunnels. ‘Fortunately they are ignoring the treasures on their way; they are rushing to the center of the grave to gain the main treasure to improve themselves.’ He continued and Hui Yue nodded his head as it made sense.
‘The royal army, on the other hand, is taking anything they can from the tunnel they are in,’ He mused as he sought out each of the tunnels with his consciousness.
Suddenly a frown appeared on his face. ‘I know you want to kill the third prince, but there are some very fine treasures in the tunnel the furthest away. I’m not completely certain what they are but the energy undulations are far stronger than the energy from the other tunnels.’
Not hesitating for a second, Hui Yue rushed into the tunnel that was the furthest away from him, and he was shocked when he found that this tunnel was like a small road. On the side of the road were small huts that had been build into the wall. All of them were sealed with inscriptions, but feeling the power of these inscriptions Hui Yue could sense that even he was capable of breaking it. He just needed to watch out for traps.
Moving to the first hut, Hui Yue summoned his Wu Wei which he threaded into the symbol that was protecting the hut. After a second, a small tremor ran through the symbol then the gate swung open.
Moving inside he saw that all the walls were filled with shelves and on these shelves were jade bottles of various shape and sizes. Casually taking one from the wall, Hui Yue was just about to open it when he felt Lan Feng forcefully taking over his body.
“You idiot!” He yelled at the young man who had almost opened the bottle. With great care he place the bottle in a storage stone while casually glancing at the rest of the bottles within the room. With a sweeping gesture all the jade bottles flew into the bag and Lan Feng slowly returned the body to Hui Yue.
‘We do not know what is within these bottles,’ Lan Feng warned. ‘They could easily contain a curse of some kind. We will look into them after we leave. For now just gather anything that we come across but open nothing if it is sealed.’
Nodding his head, Hui Yue left the hut and headed towards another one. He rushed as much as he could as he knew that it was only a matter of time before the tunnel was flooded with cultivators.
Breaking this seal was as simple as the previous one and entering quickly allowed for him to quickly store yet more jade bottles. The third hut had a majority of herbs but while looking at them he noticed that some of them were divine flowers which had survived the thousands of years by sucking up energy causing them to become as glowing and healthy as they were now. These were even more outstanding than the one he had been given by the Deng family back in Riluo City.
Some of the flowers had withered away while others had dried up. Hui Yue picked up everything he could possible take and once more left the hut. As he exited he heard another group of treasure hunters coming his way and he rushed into the next hut down the tunnel. Within this hut was a strong medicinal aroma and Hui Yue quickly picked up everything before he turned around. On the way out of the hut he heard voices outside.
Trying to leave the hut he found himself face to face with a group of cultivators. This group consisted of three men and a women. All of them had serious expressions on their faces an expression which turned to greed when they eyed Hui Yue.
“Hand over all the storage stones on your body and we will let you live,” One of the men said proud and confident in his ability to defeat Hui Yue. The man felt that Hui Yue had no cultivation base. To defeat someone like this should not be hard at all he thought, but what he did not know was that Hui Yue was in no way easy to bully.
Hui Yue snorted as he looked at the experts in front of him, and instead of attacking, he simply activated Velocity Flow. Moving past them, the experts were incapable of even seeing his movements, and their hearts started beating rapidly. They instantly turned around and when they caught a glimpse of him the young man was already at the next hut pouring his Wu Wei inside and destroying the inscription.
“It would be best not to offend him…” The leader mumbled and then led his friends to another hut which had not been opened just yet. With a glance at the group, Hui Yue rushed into the hut he had just opened. Time and time again, broke cracked the inscription and entered the huts. His speed was many times that of the other group, but soon more and more experts started appearing and entering the huts as well. None of these experts tried to make it hard for Hui Yue, most clearly understood that they should not trouble him; he was too mysterious with his hidden strength and no cultivation base.
Others were not as lucky and some of the weaker groups were forced to either part with their treasures or lay down their lives. Some chose one option, while others couldn’t bare to part with their treasures. The smell of stale air soon changed to a metallic scent of blood.
Without paying too much attention to this, Hui Yue rushed further and further into the tunnel and it did not take long before he reached the end.
Now there was no longer any huts, instead another door had been forced open which led Hui Yue into a large hall. This hall was adorned with multiple stone sculptures, all of which looked alive.
Looking at the floor, Hui Yue saw it was tiled black and white like a chessboard,, and he could not help but wonder whether or not this was some kind of trap. One could not be too careful.
Instead of rushing forward, Hui Yue and Lan Feng stood back and observed the entire stone hall. It did not take long before a few groups of experts appeared. Unlike Hui Yue, they didn’t care at all about the floor as they rushed onto the tiled floor. Their only aim was to reach the other side; the side where there was yet another door that had been forced open.
As soon as the first group set their feet on the ground a low rumble ran through the hall and the energy ripple seemed to be coming from the stone statues. Seeing this, Hui Yue frowned. He did not know if this happened because they stepped on a specific tile, a specific color, or just stepped into the hall in general. He did not know what exactly was the reason for this energy ripple to spread, but he quickly understood that the Saint had not battled any of the stone giants. None of them were crushed as though they had been in battle.
Contemplating for a moment, Hui Yue’s consciousness entered his lower dantian where he looked at the flying Wu Wei wings. A smile appeared on his face as he poured energy into the wings and with a few flaps did he took to the air. He made a beeline straight for the opening on the opposite side.
None of the stone statues which slowly came to life went after Hui Yue; all of them went for the ones who had stepped on the ground. The sounds of screaming and bones breaking were heard behind him. After making it to the other side, Hui Yue had managed to cross yet another dangerous area within the grave.
Thinking back at the many groups who had already suffered casualties, Hui Yue could not help but think about his friends. Gritting his teeth he had to believe that they would all make it out alive, and he forced himself to stop thinking about his friends as he focused on yet another hall that laid before him.