Chapter 258: Collecting Treasures

The underground treasure vault of the Treasure Pavilion.
Shui Yue had already received the sect’s inheritance. To open the vault, she didn’t need to painstakingly break the protective restrictions on the door—she only had to use a special method to activate the key, and a beam of white light shone on the door…
The door opened.
This time, the two of them stepped into the vault side by side, unimpeded by any forces, and smoothly made their way to the white jade pool.
“Five Elements Heavenly Spirit Fire, Tianyuan Heavy Water…”
Shui Yue said softly, “At the tenth level, water and fire counteract each other. Senior brother, please put away the spirit fire first so that I can collect the Tianyuan Heavy Water.”
“Okay.”
Su Che took out the bronze treasure gourd and exerted suppressing and absorbing forces toward the oil lamp floating in midair.
Though this ball of tenth-level spirit fire was only the size of a fist, it was the purest top-tier flame. To collect it bit by bit into the treasure gourd would take at least twenty minutes.
However, there was a simpler way: suck in the entire oil lamp, and the spirit fire would naturally follow. An oil lamp capable of holding tenth-level spirit fire must be a high-grade magical artifact, but it had a single function and no offensive capabilities.
As an excellent spiritual treasure, the bronze treasure gourd absorbed the oil lamp into its internal space in just over ten breaths and suppressed it there.
Su Che finally obtained the tenth-level yang fire he needed.
Looking at the pool, without the counteraction of the spirit fire, the deep blue Tianyuan Heavy Water immediately became active, transforming into a tiny creature with arms and legs in an instant. It leaped out of the pool and turned to Su Che and Shui Yue, showing its teeth—whether as a threat or a mischievous grin, it was hard to tell.
Whatever the case, its goal was clear: to escape!
Tianyuan Heavy Water was equally crucial to Shui Yue, who had already made preparations and wasn’t about to let it get away.
With a few hand gestures, she used a privilege as the head of Tianya Hai Ge to borrow the power of the secret realm’s formation. Instantly, an invisible force pinned Tianyuan Heavy Water in midair.
“Gurgle…”
The tiny creature formed from Tianyuan Heavy Water spoke to Shui Yue, but its words were incomprehensible murmurs, like someone speaking indistinctly with water in their mouth.
“The little guy has developed consciousness and some instinctive life traits?” Su Che was secretly amazed. As the saying goes, it had become sentient.
Shui Yue, however, wasn’t surprised. Through the sect’s inheritance ritual, she already knew everything about everything in the secret realm.
“Little one, don’t worry. I won’t hurt you.”

Shui Yue stepped forward and communicated with it gently for a while, then used a method passed down from Tianya Hai Ge to put this intelligent mass of Tianyuan Heavy Water into a porcelain bottle. This porcelain bottle must be a high-quality storage vessel, with enough internal space for that little guy to move around. Of course, this had nothing to do with Su Che anymore, and he didn’t need to worry about it. After putting away the two most important treasures, the two of them went over to the display rack filled with various artifacts. Shui Yue said with a smile, “It’s time to divide the loot. Senior brother, you go first.” In this treasure hunt, Su Che had done the most work. Shui Yue believed she only had the basic conditions of a Water Spirit body and a key; without Su Che, they would never have succeeded. Su Che nodded without being modest. After a quick assessment, he realized that the dozen or so magical artifacts on the rack were all water-type and not very useful to him. However, he could take a few of them for the Snake Woman Ye Lan or the little dragon. They were all at the treasure level, with none being spiritual treasures. Su Che randomly chose two offensive and two defensive artifacts and said to her, “Keep the rest of these artifacts for yourself. But I hope to get the majority of those high-grade spiritual stones.” “There’s no need to take the majority,” Shui Yue said softly. “Senior brother, just take them all. If I need anything in the future, I can still ask you for help.” “Thank you,” Su Che said with a smile. “But keep those water-type spiritual stones for yourself. There’s no need to be so precise between us. The most important thing is to get what each of us needs. Give them to whoever can use them.” “Mm,” Shui Yue nodded gently. She already admired Su Che’s character greatly and trusted him completely. So, Su Che took all the more than 300 high-grade spiritual stones of other attributes and left behind over 80 water-type spiritual stones untouched. A water-based sect like Tianya Hai Ge must originally have had the largest reserve of water-type spiritual stones. Presumably, the past sect-destroying conflicts had consumed most of them, leaving only these behind. After collecting the magical artifacts and spiritual stones, the two of them went to another display rack, which held fifteen bottles over a foot tall. They looked like porcelain bottles, but like the one Shui Yue had used to store Tianyuan Heavy Water, they were all high-grade container magical artifacts. Shui Yue, the temporary sect leader, explained in a low voice, “Originally, Tianya Hai Ge collected a total of 67 types of spiritual water. After the great disaster, only these fifteen remain. Of course, the most important one, Tianyuan Heavy Water, was fortunate enough to be preserved.”

“Are all of these spiritual waters?” Su Che was secretly disappointed. What use could such things be to me?
Shui Yue noticed his disappointment but still picked up two bottles and handed them to Su Che, explaining, “This is the ninth-grade ‘Xuanji Jade Liquid,’ the highest-grade among these spiritual waters. Senior brother still lacks a ninth-grade Yin Fire, right? Perhaps using a spiritual water of the same grade could help obtain it.”
“Hmm, that makes sense.” Without hesitation, Su Che took the bottle of spiritual water.
Shui Yue added, “The other bottle is an eighth-grade spiritual water with a cold attribute. Since senior brother specializes in fire, you’ll need a high-grade spiritual water to balance your vital energy sooner or later, won’t you?”
“Thank you, junior sister, for thinking so carefully.”
Su Che certainly knew he needed spiritual waters, but that was a problem that would arise only in the middle stage of the Yuan Ying phase, and the requirements for their grade weren’t very high. By then, he would be in the Yuan Ying phase, and finding any spiritual water above the seventh grade wouldn’t be difficult. So today, he didn’t want to take what belonged to others or take advantage of her.
Of course, since she was offering them to him voluntarily, there was no need to be polite anymore. This showed that she wasn’t absolutely dependent on these spiritual waters.
Su Che didn’t know that aside from these two ninth- and eighth-grade spiritual waters, the remaining thirteen bottles were all below the sixth grade. In terms of value, he had gained the most from the spiritual waters.
This was Shui Yue’s way of expressing gratitude, though she didn’t want to be too direct.
There was another row of shelves with items. Just as Su Che was about to go over, Shui Yue said, “Those are all pills—pills from seventy thousand years ago. Who would dare take them? It’s better not to even look.”
Su Che nodded, thinking, “Unless it’s a true immortal pill, the pills in the cultivation world would turn into deadly poisons even after seventy thousand years… Besides, if I took a water-type immortal pill, it would only make things worse for me.”
With that, all the items in the underground treasure vault had been thoroughly searched. After all, it was a sect that had been destroyed seventy thousand years ago and was practically out of everything. It was already quite remarkable that so many items had survived.
After leaving the treasure hall, the two went to the Skill Transmission Pavilion.
Su Che didn’t want any water-type cultivation techniques. He simply took all the ancient books that could still be preserved. Knowledge was also wealth; perhaps he could gain great benefits from them.

Shui Yue put away all the skill jade slips and took the initiative to say, “Senior brother, I’ll sort through these skills slowly once we return. I’ll re-encode all the advanced skills and give them to you.”
Su Che nodded, not paying too much attention. Tianxuan Sect was a super sect with an endless array of skills. He had the right to practice over a dozen top-tier skills, but he never had enough time. How could he be interested in Tianya Hai Ge, which focused mainly on water-based skills?
Having checked both the Treasure Pavilion and the Skill Transmission Pavilion, was this the end of their treasure-hunting journey at Tianya Hai Ge?
Without Shui Yue needing to explain, Su Che could guess that if they didn’t want to be lazy and searched the entire secret realm, they would surely find many miscellaneous items. Their value might not be high, but their quantity would definitely be substantial.
Yet, Shui Yue’s eyes showed a hint of cunning. “Senior brother, Tianya Hai Ge has one more treasure that symbolizes the sect. Guess what it is?”
“I guess…” Su Che thought for a moment before saying, “It’s either that key or the sect leader’s main hall, right?”
“Wrong!”
Shui Yue smiled softly, flew into the air, and waved. “Follow me.”
Su Che followed her. With her as their temporary sect leader guiding the way, they didn’t have to worry about the arrays and restrictions in the air. Soon, they arrived at the arena at the heart of the sect’s secret realm.
The arena was the most magnificent building in the secret realm, with a vast interior space—its height alone exceeding sixty zhang. There were eighteen various fighting platforms surrounding the area, with a giant golden dragon statue standing at the center.
At that moment, Su Che and Shui Yue stood in front of the golden dragon statue. They saw that the dragon, which resembled a soaring creature, was actually broken into pieces. The last section of its tail was completely missing, its whereabouts unknown.
Shui Yue slowly explained, “This golden dragon statue is Tianya Hai Ge’s sacred treasure. Generations of disciples have believed it carries the sect’s fate… Seventy thousand years ago, for some unknown reason, the statue was destroyed, and its tail disappeared, signaling the loss of fortune and the impending of great disaster…”
Su Che listened quietly, offering no comments. The concept of fate was too abstract; it was beyond his current understanding.
Only after Shui Yue finished recounting the past did Su Che say, “Since this statue is already in such ruins, what use could it be to us?”
“Don’t rush. Look…”

Shui Yue chanted a few incantations and murmured words under her breath. Soon, the dragon’s head of the golden dragon statue began to turn slowly… Eventually, the dragon’s mouth faced Shui Yue, and a faint glow could be seen there…
“This is…” Su Che was secretly amazed.
Next, a light blue pearl was spat out from the dragon’s mouth and gently landed in Shui Yue’s palm.
“A dragon pearl!”
Su Che blurted out. Though he had never seen such a treasure before, he could sense a sacred and ancient aura approaching, and naturally, the image of a giant dragon soaring through the clouds appeared in his mind.