Chapter 145: The Treasure Trove

But Chen Xiao’s mood calmed down in an instant. If a mere Atlantean sea race, hidden beneath the sea, possessed such strength, then what kind of formidable power could the seven billion humans on land have?
“However, since you’ve set your sights on me, don’t blame me for not being gentle,” Chen Xiao said with a cold smile, silently leaving the grand hall.
Chen Xiao didn’t understand why these merfolk were so certain that their immunity to water-based attacks was due to some so-called protection of the Sea God. But since these Atlantean merfolk had targeted him, Chen Xiao certainly wouldn’t hold back.
“I wonder what the Sea God’s blessing is. Could it really be that there’s a deity here who bestows faith-based power to enhance cultivation?”
With doubts in mind, Chen Xiao followed Haibei to the Temple of the Ocean God behind the palace.
This temple was magnificent and solemn, clearly refined by the Atlanteans over a long time—far beyond comparison to the Glorious Temple, which was built in just three days.
Haibei, accompanied by two guards, arrived at the temple. A priest from Atlantis, also with golden fish tails, welcomed them in, obviously having been informed in advance.
Chen Xiao’s body turned into transparent seawater, clinging closely to Haibei as they entered the Temple of the Ocean God together.
The main hall of the temple seemed to create another space, countless times larger than what could be seen from the outside. The walls above and below resembled the starry sky, vast and boundless.
At the very front of the hall stood a stone statue over a kilometer tall, identical to the Sea God statue in the square. A terrifying pressure emanated from this statue.
“This pressure isn’t divine power. There’s probably no real deity here,” Chen Xiao thought after sensing the pressure from the statue, feeling slightly relieved—though only slightly.
Chen Xiao realized that this temple was extremely extraordinary, seemingly beyond the comprehension of those with supernatural abilities.
“Created using spatial laws? To comprehend spatial laws requires a warrior at the fourth level of Domain Mastery… Could there be such warriors in the Atlantean Empire?”
Chen Xiao closed his eyes slightly, his mental energy instantly merging with the seawater of the entire Atlantean capital. Everything in the city came under his awareness.
“There are five warriors who have broken through to the Origin Realm, but none above that…” Only then did Chen Xiao feel at ease.
Even in the sea, even with the current floating clouds, true warriors at the fourth level of Domain Mastery couldn’t completely hide from Chen Xiao. If there were warriors at that level in the city, he would definitely sense them.
“Either there aren’t any, or they’re somewhere else. Anyway, they can no longer threaten me.”
Buzz!
Suddenly, a dazzling blue light radiated from the statue of the Ocean God, enveloping both Chen Xiao and Haibei.

A powerful and eerie force surged into Chen Xiao’s mind without distinction. As soon as it entered his mind, it transformed into three forms of power: spiritual energy, mental energy, and a force capable of strengthening his physical body. Chen Xiao’s eyes lit up instantly. Without hesitation, he began to absorb this power frantically. In his mind, these three forces were refined by his supreme divine essence and merged back into one, all acting on his physical body. At present, Chen Xiao’s physical strength was at the peak of the second level, without having reached the third level. With the help of this Sea God’s blessing, it was a good opportunity. Under this powerful force, Chen Xiao’s second-level physical strength instantly broke through to the third level, but this wasn’t the end. His mental energy was now at the early stage of the sixth level, and he possessed the power of his supreme divine essence equivalent to that of the sixth level. The only deficiency was his physical strength. Now that his physical strength had been perfected, his overall strength had greatly increased. Fourth level, fifth level, and the peak of the fifth level. Chen Xiao’s physical strength finally reached the peak of the fifth level before stopping further improvement. With his enhanced supreme divine essence, Chen Xiao could now defeat a seventh-level abler without any doubt. …… “Strange, it took Hairel so long to finish?” Outside the temple, two temple priests with golden fish tails watched Hairel inside the hall and grew puzzled. “Hairel currently has the strength of the fourth level. Normally, others at the fourth level can complete the blessing in just a few breaths…” The two priests began to discuss. “Well, whatever. It’s not our strength being used anyway. Let her go through it.” Inside the hall, Hairel was also very puzzled. She could clearly feel that only a small portion of the blessing energy surrounding her entered her body, while the rest seemed to disappear somewhere. But after all, it was the Sea God’s blessing. How could a mere fourth-level mermaid like Hairel dare to doubt anything? She could only devote herself wholeheartedly to absorbing this blessing energy to strengthen her physical body, mental energy, and spiritual power. It took a long time before the blessing energy slowly ceased, and Hairel rose from the fourth level to the fifth. “Really strange. It took half a day to only advance by one level?” The two priests looked at Hairel as she came out of the hall, full of confusion, but they didn’t say much and simply sent her away. “Great stuff, great stuff.” Meanwhile, Chen Xiao remained in the hall, his eyes shining as he stared at the crown with a faint blue glow on top of the statue. From the start, Chen Xiao had realized that the Sea God’s blessing clearly emanated from that crown. “Since you want to capture me to obtain that Sea God’s protection, why not just take your Sea God’s blessing first?” Chen Xiao’s eyes moved, but he didn’t act immediately. Instead, he quietly left the Sea God Temple.

“A guardian of the sea god seems a bit insufficient, doesn’t it?” Chen Xiao glanced at the entire temple with a mischievous look. “My Glorious Temple has never been very grand… Eh, eh eh…”
Chen Xiao sighed several times in a row, then slowly retreated back to the palace before the temple.
“The palace’s treasury contains treasures from the Atlantis Empire accumulated over countless years. I now have a bunch of subordinates, but I’m still extremely poor.”
Chen Xiao was telling the truth. To strengthen his power and promote his Glorious Temple, money was the first thing he lacked. Although he had already discovered three large mineral veins in the Realm of a Thousand Souls, it was still not enough.
Moreover, Chen Xiao didn’t want to dig for minerals in that realm—crystal veins were the source of various primal energies for a realm. Once the veins were extracted, the realm would gradually become barren, hindering its growth.
Now that he was in the Atlantis Empire, if he didn’t plunder extensively, he truly felt it would be a waste of himself.
Chen Xiao’s body transformed into a streak of water and headed straight to the palace’s treasury.
This treasury was protected by various powerful spirit spells, formations, and restrictions. Even ordinary superhumans would be detected as soon as they approached and destroyed by these restrictions.
Even ninth-tier superhumans would find it hard to resist.
Yet oddly, all of these restrictions, spirit spells, and formations were of water attribute or various mutated forms of water energy. Even if some changes occurred and other types of energy emerged, they still stemmed from water.
With a slight activation of the power of the Water Deity within him, these terrifying defenses, capable of destroying a ninth-tier superhuman, became meaningless to Chen Xiao, allowing him to enter and exit freely.
Under the influence of the Water Deity’s power, Chen Xiao’s body condensed into a drop of seawater. It bypassed the merfolk guards patrolling around and slipped through the cracks in the treasury’s door.
“This is…”
As soon as he entered, Chen Xiao’s eyes widened. What caught his gaze first were pearls the size of human heads, glowing with a faint blue light. These pearls were formed over tens of thousands of years by spiritized clams and were almost like water crystals.
The power contained within them was equivalent to that of a Source Realm water attribute superhuman.
There were over twenty such clams in the first layer of this treasury alone.
Next to these pearls were various other rare treasures, extremely uncommon on Earth or in the world of superhumans, protected by water-repelling beads and displayed there.
Compared to these, even the Heart-Revealing Grass, which was coveted by vampires, was nothing but trash. As for the piles of star coins here, Chen Xiao simply ignored them.
“Hmph, this treasury has three layers. If the first layer already has such treasures, what might be in the second and third layers?”
A smile appeared on Chen Xiao’s face. He didn’t touch the treasures in the first layer but headed straight for the second. He knew clearly that there must be some special restrictions in the Atlantis Palace’s treasury—any movement of an item here would immediately trigger an alarm.

If they started plundering from the first level, there was a risk of getting trapped deep in the treasure vault. Upon reaching the second level of the vault, Chen Xiao immediately inhaled some seawater before spitting it out. This second level was another enormous space, clearly created by someone who understood the laws of space. Inside, there were twelve massive, sealed crystal veins. Each of these veins was twice as large as the three Chen Xiao had found in the Thousand Souls Realm, clearly true giant veins. Suppressing his urge to claim these twelve veins, Chen Xiao headed toward the third level of the vault. If the second level already contained treasures beyond measurement in terms of value, then what could be in the third level of the Atlantis Palace’s treasure vault? …