Impatiently Wu Qi hastened his pace and came before the entrance to the secret chamber, which had been violently breached by four Ghost Immortals.
The secret chamber of Shi Tianmo was indeed well-concealed. Its entrance was actually a deep well, built underneath an artificial hill that was placed in the backyard. The well went at least one thousand feet deep into the ground, and was merely three feet in diameter. If anyone without a sufficient cultivation base accidentally fell into it, he would definitely be crushed into a meat paste. The wall in the well was smooth and slippery, and there wasn't anything or anywhere that could let people hold on. On top of that, over a few hundred bizarre runes were engraved on the wall, glinting with peculiar dark green, azure blue, and other kinds of colored glow. According to the Ghost Immortals who breached this place, these runes contained deadly poisons, and if any ordinary living being touched them, he or she or it would immediately turn into a puddle of pus and blood.
Fortunately, Wu Qi had ordered four Ghost Immortals to sneak into this place. For these Ghost Immortals without a physical and corporeal body, no deadly poison under the heaven could have hurt them. As the well bore deep into the ground, it was filled with dense Yin energies, and it prevented four Ghost Immortals from being exposed directly to the sunlight, which eventually allowed them to bring their strongest strength into play. With a round of violent explosions using their ghostly flames and Yin thunderbolts, they had damaged every single defensive mechanism in the well, and ventured deep into the bottom of the well.
As these Ghost Immortals were the experts of traveling through walls and barriers with their incorporeal body, no matter it was flower or grass, earth or wood, artificial hill or rock wall, they could walk past them like nothing. As a result, it only took them a brief moment before they finally found this secret chamber. If it were some other person, even if the person were the most experienced investigator, it would not be an easy task to find the entrance to the secret chamber underneath this artificial hill with over one thousand feet circumference.
Before Wu Qi could enter the well, Princess Zhang Le took a step before him and became the first to dive into the deep hole, rushing forward into the secret chambers built deep in the ground. And very soon, an echo of her voice came buzzing out from down under, "Aye, so many beautiful things! They are all mine, all mine! Tsk, this Shi Tianmo is pretty wealthy, huh? Why does he own so much jewelry and ornaments?"
Wu Qi plunged into the deep-well immediately after her. With quick steps, he passed a secret passage that stretched nearly one mile in length and came to a secret chamber with over a couple hundred feet in both width and length. It was a room with numerous wooden racks arranged closely to each other. Just as what Princess Zhang Le said from her cheering and yelling just now, there was countless jewelry placed on these wooden racks. There wasn't any common item of value such as gold or silver that could be found here. Instead, it was filled with corals, tortoise shells, pearls, jade stones, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and some other rare treasures. He also saw a few hundred wooden chests placed at a corner in the secret chamber, each filled with piles of upper tier or even supreme tier energy stones of various elements.
A bright gleam shone from Wu Qi's eyes. Amidst these upper tier or even some supreme tier energy stones, he saw energy stones of all five elements. On top of that, he also saw a couple dozens of rare energy stones that contained none of the five elements, but the purest nature essence of the Sun and Moon. He could not help himself and swallowed a lump in his throat, turned to Princess Zhang Le, who had her face kindled with joy and was holding a box of gemstones, and asked, "For these energy stones, what ratio are we following to split between us?"
From the corners of her eyes, Princess Zhang Le gazed at the pile of energy stones that occupied nearly one hundred feet of area, shook her head and said with some contempt, "What is the use of them? These things are rotting in the secret vaults of Imperial Palace. You can just take them all. If that is not enough, I'll bring you some more a few days later."
Wu Qi was left speechless. Suddenly, he reasoned that this young girl in front of him was the Princess of Great Yan Dynasty. Although the quality of these energy stones was premium and they came in great number, but for Great Yan Dynasty, which had been established for over two thousand years, they were just a grain of corn in the wide sea. Princess Zhang Le did not attach any importance to them, but Wu Qi regarded them as a heavy treasure. Hastily, he rushed over to them, threw away the wooden chests and placed all the energy stones into his storage ring.
Eight Ghost Immortals, their bodies enshrouding in intense Yin energies, were lining up in a straight line outside the entrance to the secret chamber, casting stern glances at Zhao Chenzui, Meng Xiaobai and a few other men who followed down into the secret place. With these eight Ghost Immortals standing guard, no one dared to strike out at random, allowing Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le to have ample time in looting the enormous treasures stored in the secret chamber.
Wu Qi had targeted on all kinds of energy stones and rare treasures that contained spirit energy. On the other side, Princess Zhang Le was seen grinning from ear to ear, focusing on collecting the most dazzling and the finest designed jewelry that she could find. On both her left and right wrist was a half-transparent, light purple jade bangle, vaguely with shimmering runes on them. They were two storage bangles with extra large storage space. Smilingly, Princess Zhang Le roamed from racks to racks, looting every single treasure that caught her eyes and placed them into her bangle.
While looting all sorts of rare treasures, Princess Zhang Le kept laughing out loud and said, "What a surprise, how can a mere Shi Martial Club possess such a handsome wealth? Wu Qi, now I can finally understand why you are stirring up trouble here. How about this? Tomorrow, I'll deploy the army in my fief and loot every single martial club in the Mighty Martial Street? Tsk... Tsk... this is a big peach that is carved out from one whole ruby stone! I wonder where did they find it?"
With her face melting in a smile, Princess Zhang Le cupped up a large red peach the size of a cow's head, flawless and glinting splendidly. It was a peach that was carved from one whole ruby stone, and its value could no longer be measured with money. Besides from the peach itself, the tray holding it from underneath, which took the design of leaves, was also carved from a large, flawless jade stone. A couple dozens of perfectly rounded silver beads, the size of a human thumb, were rolling around quickly on the surface of the leaves. They looked exactly like the beads of dew on a peach.
Wu Qi's eyes glinted when he saw such a huge peach. He sensed a very powerful Fire element energy contained inside this red gemstone. It was not an ordinary ruby stone, but instead, it could be classified as a rare natural treasure. Faintly, he also detected a tiny thread of Wood element aura from the jade stone that was carved into leaves. It was a rare treasure as well. As Wood element gave birth to Fire element, the jade stone had nourished the peach, and eventually made it glint with an extraordinary red hue and look like the real thing.
As for the couple dozens of silver beads that kept rolling about on the leaves, they were giving off a vague essence energy that felt extremely cold and piercing to the bone. To his surprise, the core of these silver beads actually contained a tiny thread of innate Water element energy essence. Not only the energy essence had nourished the clefts carved out from jade stone and made it extra glossy and brilliant, but it also trapped the fire energies in the ruby, preventing them from leaking freely. The water vapor, wood essence, fire spirit, the energies of white, green, and red were interweaving with each other in this extraordinary treasure, transforming into a layer of beautiful mist that completely enshrouded the entire peach.
"What a treasure! I like it so much!" Princess Zhang Le's eyes narrowed into two curvy lines as a big smile bloomed on her face.
Wu Qi perceived that this large peach was not merely an ordinary treasure of decoration, but a magical treasure that had gone through a preliminary refining. As long as it was processed with a few last steps of treatment, it would become a magical treasure which merged the power of Water, Wood and Fire element, and could unleash true water, wooden thunder and flame to hurt someone. Judging from the overall strength which Shi Tianmo had shown, he did not have the ability to craft a treasure such as this. In addition to that, it seemed that the technique he cultivated with did not require any support from external objects as well.
Suddenly, from the secret passage came the careful voice of Yan Bugui, "Your Highness, Yan Bugui remembers this peach. Three months ago, Yan Qingchen the Prince of Yi was celebrating his six-hundredth birthday, and the youngest son of his, who had been enfeoffed with the land in An Qiu, offered this peach to his father. However, in the Mount Jia Yin three thousand miles away from Ji City, all the offerings were robbed by someone. Three thousand soldiers who escorted the offerings were killed. Currently, Scouting Office is investigating this case."
While laughing out loud pleasingly, Princess Zhang Le's eyes went wide, turned to Yan Bugui, who was poking his head from the secret passage and snapped, "What are you trying to tell me? This treasure belongs to me now! Since it was robbed by some criminals, it is an unowned property. Now, I've seized it back from the criminal, and I've all the rights and reasons to own it. Who dares to say anything about this? Get Yan Qingchen to talk to me in the Imperial Palace!"
Yan Bugui coughed briefly, then carefully said again, "I just wish to inform Your Highness that since this peach is found here, then Shi Tianmo is most probably the culprit behind that case. Also, it is highly possible that all the other rare treasures in this secret chamber are also robbed by him. I'm sure Your Highness understands that the value of all the rare treasures in this place is immeasurable. No matter how large the scale of this Shi Martial Club may be, it is still a martial club. How could they have the wealth to purchase so many rare and precious treasures?"
Princess Zhang Le narrowed her eyes, carefully fondled the peach held in her arms, then nodded thoughtfully, "So this is your reason? All the treasures here are stolen goods? In any case, we can't find the victim. Then let's forfeit them and turn them into national treasure. And since they are now part of the national treasure, it is no different than belonging to me. Thus, it is natural and right if I take it away now. If the minister of criminal and justice, Haoying Zhengqi, is not convinced with my decision, ask him to look for me!"
Holding the rare peach in her arms tightly and praising its magnificence, Princess Zhang Le simply shoved it into her bangle.
In terms of their seniority in the Imperial Clan, Yan Qingchen, the Prince of Yi, was actually the lineage nephew of Princess Zhang Le. However, to Princess Zhang Le, robbing the offering for her nephew's birthday was something natural and right, and she did not feel embarrassed in doing it. To her, anything that caught her eyes would eventually become hers. She did not care whatever Eight Princes this Yan Qingchen was a part of, as she would simply ask them to stand aside.
Wu Qi shook his head. He did not pay any attention to this case of robbery. Since Shi Tianmo was brave enough to kill Yan Buji, how could the robbery of some offerings be a serious matter?
He ignored all the shining, glittering, and splendid jewelry, but had his eyes resting on two wooden racks that were placed at the far end of the chamber. He saw a small pile of strange crystals, silvery-white and half-transparent. There were some starlights vaguely swirling inside of them. He rubbed his eyes and couldn't believe what he saw, then quickly strode in front of the crystals. Taking the opportunity that Princess Zhang Le did not notice him, Wu Qi waved his arm, shoving this pile of roughly two hundred silvery-white crystals, ranging from the size of a human head to a fist, all into his storage ring, and placing them in the deepest areas inside of the ring. Then, he placed a large pile of energy stones around them.
While holding back the great excitement in his mind, Wu Qi pretended as if nothing happened and turned to other racks, picked up some materials such as Ice Essence of ten thousand years old, and tucked them into his storage ring. These materials were useless for ordinary people, and they brought great harm if touched by accident. However, for cultivators, no matter it was crafting a flying sword or some extraordinary magical treasures, these materials would come in handy.
At last, Wu Qi finally had his mind calmed down.
Those silvery-white crystals were actually a kind of mutated mineral produced after some kind of Gold element minerals ertr contaminated by the aura emanating from spatial ripples. It was called 'Spirit Gold of Spatial Breaching', a combined material between metal and crystal. It contained a very unique power, and was the core material for cultivators to construct their Immortal's Cave, or building the Minor Universal Teleportation Array that could travel a super-long distance.
A Minor Universal Teleportation Array that used the Spirit Gold of Spatial Breaching as its core could teleport a person to a distance of a couple dozen thousands, or even a few million miles away, yet not consume too much of the energy, while the energy ripple produced was the minimum. Yet, the same teleportation array without the Spirit Gold of Spatial Breaching as its core would be like what happened to Princess Ying Chuan, who had to use up all the higher tier energy stones in the national treasury of Lu Kingdom to be able to teleport from the Lu Kingdom to Ji City.
With these over two hundred pieces of Spirit Gold of Spatial Breaching, if Wu Qi could cut them into reasonable size and used them with caution, they was more than enough for him to construct over one thousand single-person Minor Universal Teleportation Arrays, or a few hundred teleportation arrays that could carry one hundred people at a time. By owning these Spirit Gold of Spatial Breaching, some of Wu Qi's plans could finally be realized.
For example, he could construct a few Immortal's Caves in secret places at the depth and remote areas of Meng Mountains!
A cunning rabbit had three holes to his burrow, this was a teaching that had been emphasized in Scroll of Stealing. For any qualified grand thief, how could they not have a couple dozens of escape routes as their backup?
These Spirit Gold of Spatial Breaching were the greatest loot that Wu Qi found today. With them, he finally had the confidence to survive and develop further in this world.