Chapter 359: No Need to Rush
As soon as the two, Hui Yue and Xiao Ning, picked a tunnel and started to walk inside the speed with which they started off at quickly died out. Hui Yue started walking incredibly slow as he, observed everything around him looking for hidden traps or doorways leading to more treasure. Now that they had entered the inner grave every treasure they came across would be priceless, and no one was dumb enough to leave them behind. To be honest, even leaving behind treasure in the outer grave was rather stupid.
Seeing Hui Yue slow his pace, Xiao Ning copied his actions as he too started to observe their surroundings. Unfortunately, he did not have the same assistance Hui Yue did. While the white-haired young man managed to avoid every trap so far thanks to Lan Feng’s keen senses, Xiao Ning was not as fortunate. Time and again he had to use his Wu Wei to create shields to protect himself, and Hui Yue, from traps he set off.
Neither of the two experts spoke, instead, they slowly advanced yet so far all they had found were traps. Though even so they did not feel very disappointed by this, but were becoming more and more excited as time went by.
“Can you smell the heavy medicinal aroma in the air?” Xiao Ning asked excitedly as he almost jumped up and down in excitement. His eyes were glazed with a fervent look, and his mouth was slightly open. Had he not been an esteemed Saint, then Hui Yue was completely sure that the expert in front of him would have been drooling uncontrollably thinking about the herbs awaiting them further down the tunnel.
“I can smell it,” Hui Yue agreed with slight laughter. The scent that permeated the air and wafted down the corridor they were in was familiar to the two experts; it was the smell of the golden pills.
Although this scent drifted towards them, promising them great rewards just around the corner, neither Hui Yue nor Xiao Ning forgot that they were currently in the middle of a grave filled with traps. Neither of them wished to die from a stupid mistake and as a result, both of them were even more careful than they had been before. They could not afford to let their greed overwhelm them; this place was simply too dangerous.
It did not take long before the scent had grown immensely, but the odd thing was none of the treasure huts from the outer area were visible here, nor were there anything else indicating that there was anything hidden nearby. Nothing other than that scent which could make even Saint go insane with greed.
Looking around, Hui Yue frowned. The scent had become so overwhelming that the pills had to be right next to them, but no matter where he looked, all he saw was the tunnel wall with a light stone placed here and there at seemingly random intervals. They let a dim light shine over the stone floor.
These light stones had been shining for who knew how long and their light had dimmed considerably. To the point where it was almost completely dark within the tunnel. Hui Yue had the sight and senses of a wolf, and he had no problems seeing everything in front of him, this was, however, slightly harder for the defense type Saint Xiao Ning. He was not used to having to pay so much attention to his surroundings; he was used to just rushing through everything and relying on his defenses to get him through everything alive.
‘Stop!’ Lan Feng suddenly yelled out from within the dantian cave. Hui Yue, on instinct, stopped in his tracks not moving even an inch. Noticing this, Xiao Ning stopped dead in his tracks as well, and the two of them were completely silent as they looked around. One of them scoured the ground looking for something specific while the other was confused and shifting his weight from side to side looking uncertain.
‘It’s here,’ Lan Feng said with a certainty Hui Yue had not heard for a long time. ‘There has to be a hidden chamber under this tunnel floor, and if I am correct then there will be a small mountain of pills. This is definitely not something we pass up.’
Nodding his head, Hui Yue withdrew his sword and started to slash at the ground beneath him. At first, Xiao Ning was completely shocked, but as time passed, he looked at his new friend’s actions with a new light. His eyes brightened, and he summoned a Wu Wei shield which he slammed into the floor causing it to chip and fracture. Their attacks caused debris to fly everywhere and soon the sword and shield had created a small hole in the tunnel floor. After breaking through the scent of the medicinal pills were countless times stronger than ever before.
The scent made both Hui Yue and Xiao Ning take in a deep breath as their eyes widened and their hands started digging harder than they had done before. The poor sword which was known as a sovereign of weapons, created by the Nine Heaven’s Blood Devouring Metal, was being used as a shovel. Had Cou Ling seen this, she would have coughed up blood. Although digging had no effect on the sharpness of the sword, nor the durability, however, it was an outstanding weapon and should have been used with dignity.
Right now neither Hui Yue nor Xiao Ning really cared about their disgraceful behavior or the abilities they were using; all they cared about was entering the hidden room beneath the tunnel.
It took them astonishingly an hour to break through enough for the two of them to enter the hidden chamber under the floor. Entering the hole both held their breath, shocked to see just how many treasures they had found.
The room was stacked with mountain after mountain of medicinal pills. There were purple pills, white pills, golden pills, blue pills, and black pills. Some of these pills Hui Yue had not seen before while he also noticed that none of the red pills were present.
Xiao Ning and Hui Yue looked at each other and nodded their heads at the same time. Neither had the urge to steal from the other, and they easily split the mountains of pills into their storage stones before they jumped up from the room and slowly but steadily moved further into the tunnel.
Despite them taking everything, the scent of pills had not vanished, as a matter of fact, the scent had branded itself to the two experts after they had bathed in it in the hidden room. Smiling slyly neither of them could change this, but they also both knew that they might as well have signs on their heads saying, ‘We found some pills.’
Knowing they could do nothing to change it, Hui Yue just heaved a sigh before they continued forward. He also remembered to thank Lan Feng for reminding him of the hidden room. “We need to be even more careful now,” Hui Yue said with a sigh. “Who knows how much treasure we have left behind,” He continued, and Xiao Ning nodded his head. He knew what Hui Yue was referring to. “In the outer grave the treasures were all placed right in front of us, for us to pick up like one would take fruits from a tree, but here in the inner grave, everything is far more difficult. I imagine that some treasures are even impossible for us to sense. We need to keep an eye on both traps and treasures in the future.”
Although Xiao Ning already knew what Hui Yue was going to say, he did not get upset that Hui Yue said it. It was important if the two of them wished to gain a great deal during their trip.
“It is not only the treasures that are different,” The older cultivator grumbled. “We also need to keep in mind that in the outer grave there were rooms testing our abilities time; however, now what we are walking down is one massive tunnel. This is nothing like what we expected and nothing like what that spirit imprint said. While we are here, we need to forget everything about the outer grave and focus fully on reaching the inner one.”
Hui Yue nodded his head as the words Xiao Ning said made perfect sense. It was so obvious that it was easily overlooked. Following Hui Yue’s advice, the two slowly started to examine every single inch of the tunnel moving forward at a snail’s pace.
After having been in the tunnel for almost a day the two experts were still nowhere near the end and the speed with which they were moving was incredibly slow.
“Wait!” Hui Yue suddenly called out. His hearing was sharpened as though he was in wolf form as he had heard rustling from behind them. He heard the sounds of someone heading their way. At first, Xiao Ning was surprised as to why Hui Yue called out, but moments later he too heard the sounds of steps within the tunnel steps that were rapidly coming their way.
It took less than a minute before the experts reached Hui Yue and Xiao Ning. It was a group of three Saints, all of them moved together and their eyes filled with disdain as they arrived behind the Emperor and the Saint in front of him. Looking at these three experts it was clear that they had not been in the chamber when the Heaven’s Door had been opened; instead, they had clearly arrived later and then picked a random tunnel to head down.
“Hey, little boy why don’t the two of you hand over the treasures you’ve found so far?” One of the experts asked with a sinister smile on his face as crackling laughter escaping the two experts by his side.
Looking at the three of them, Hui Yue and Xiao Ning quickly exchanged a glance. Both of their eyes were filled with pity. Looking back at the three experts Hui Yue could only sigh as he once more released the locked up aura from Lan Feng, and the ripples surged outwards at the same time as golden Wu Wei gathered around Xiao Ning.
The more his strength rose, the paler the three experts before them became.
“Wait, wait, wait!” The one who had spoken first said once more while backing away, “We misunderstood; we had eyes but could not recognize Mt. Tai, pardon us,” He said while his hands trembled, and he bowed deeply to the two Saints in front of him. The Saints who had been laughing before had turned completely silent. Their eyes widened in shock, and they quickly bowed as deeply as they could while seeking forgiveness.
Looking at the three experts in front of him, Hui Yue contemplated for some time. He knew that Xiao Ning was awaiting his decision but he was unsure of what to do. Releasing them would undoubtedly bring trouble later on, but killing weaklings like them for just threatening him was not his style.
‘What should we do?’ Hui Yue sighed to Lan Feng, and fortunately, the bird was willing to answer. ‘Although you don’t want to kill them, who says you cannot give them a good beating. I would definitely kill them, but a good thrashing works too.’
Hearing this Hui Yue nodded his head and cracked his neck; he rolled his shoulders and pounced at the man speaking.
Seeing the sudden advance and the shocking speed with which it was carried out, everyone was too stunned to react. Even Xiao Ning had issues following the speed that Hui Yue used to attack, but he following behind the white-haired young man.
Looking at the faces of the two, they were completely expressionless as they let their hits and kicks rain down upon the three experts who had expressions of shock and horror.