Chapter 33: Entering the Treasure
“I’ve found the entrance to the treasure!”
Somewhere on Hao Cun Star, the elderly leader among the six cried out excitedly.
After receiving a hint from the Divine Tool Spirit, Qu Yi discovered the entrance to the treasure as soon as he arrived on Hao Cun Star. But to play along, he pretended to be weak and revealed the clues to the entrance to the six of them.
Now, the six believed not only that Qu Yi’s cultivation level was not that of a One-Star Tianpo Immortal but also that once inside the treasure, he would never be able to escape their grasp.
It wasn’t long before Qu Yi flew to the entrance of the treasure and found the six of them already gathered there.
“Qu Yi, we’ve found the entrance. Now please tell us how to break this entrance formation,” the old man called out with a smile.
Qu Yi landed and observed his surroundings. The entire ground was made of flat red stones, with a round stone floating slightly back and forth on top. Without close attention, one would hardly notice its movement.
Noticing that the six remained calm, Qu Yi smiled inwardly and said, “Alright, I’ll tell you how to break this formation. You six just need to work together to shatter this round stone. Once it’s broken, the formation that keeps it floating will disintegrate, and the real entrance to the treasure will appear.”
The six were stunned.
“It’s that simple? Just brute force!” They felt frustrated but didn’t attack Qu Yi right away. They were also afraid there might be other barriers at the entrance. If they scared him away, they wouldn’t be able to enter the treasure and would regret it deeply.
Soon, they exchanged glances, nodded, and stood in the six directions surrounding the round stone, each pulling out a top-grade immortal weapon.
“Let’s all work together to shatter this stone!” the old man shouted.
At his words, the six powerful beings of Tianpo Immortal rank swung their weapons, unleashing six spells filled with immense world energy. These spells took the forms of blades, swords, stones, balls, sticks, and rods, all striking the round stone at once.
Boom!
The six spells instantly shattered the stone and dispelled the formation that kept it floating.
As dust swirled and debris fell, the ground beneath the red stone suddenly began to rumble. The entire surface sank, and then a dazzling red beam shot up from beneath the ground.
The beam continued to expand, automatically destroying the ground and reaching a width of a thousand meters.
Soon, the red beam vanished, leaving everything in silence.
A huge pit suddenly appeared, with a red light source at its bottom, constantly emitting red light as if preparing to release a blazing red beam at any moment. Qu Yi, who was at the edge of the pit, didn’t wait for the six others to react. He swiftly dived in, reaching the bottom of the pit before disappearing into the floating red light source.
“Bad! Qu Yi has entered the treasure!” cried the old man among the six gathered there in alarm.
Seeing Qu Yi’s actions, they immediately concluded that the red light source marked the location of the Emperor Hao’s treasure, with no further barriers left. Undoubtedly, Qu Yi had rushed in first to avoid their attacks, intending to seize the treasure and escape using some kind of teleportation artifact.
“We can’t let Qu Yi get away. Let’s go down!”
With that shout, the old man led the way, diving in and disappearing into the red light source as well. Soon after, the other five also descended into the red light source, each maintaining a defensive barrier filled with world energy.
※※※
With the help of the Artifact God, Qu Yi was already thoroughly familiar with the interior of Emperor Hao’s treasure. Once the entrance formation was broken, there were no other barriers inside—only various treasures collected by Emperor Hao. Of course, Emperor Hao’s puppet avatar also existed, but it was hidden among a pile of artifacts, waiting for someone to approach.
As soon as Qu Yi entered the treasure, he began frantically collecting treasures. It was like a shaft leading straight to the planet’s core—every thousand meters below the red light source, there was an entrance, each serving as a treasure vault. Each entrance represented a vault, and due to limitations in his spiritual perception, Qu Yi could only sense objects up to ten miles deep. He already discovered ten such vaults.
Entering the first vault, Qu Yi found it filled with alchemy materials of the Human-Immortal level. Though not of high quality, their quantity was enormous. Without wasting time identifying them, he used his spatial energy to move the materials neatly, sending them into his Dimensional Sphere. Soon, the contents of that vault were completely collected.
“Qu Yi, stop focusing on these low-grade materials. Fly straight to the deepest part of this shaft. In the deepest entrance lie several top-tier immortal artifacts crafted by Emperor Hao, on par with the Heaven-Sword,” came the voice of the Artifact God.
Hearing the reminder from the Artifact God, Qu Yi immediately understood that it was not worth spending time collecting these low-grade materials. “Alright, I’ll have those six people help me gather these low-grade materials. Later, I’ll use them to deal with the Emperor Hao’s puppet avatar, and then I’ll take care of the rest,” Qu Yi said with a smile. Immediately after, Qu Yi vanished in a flash and flew straight down into the bottom of the unknown-depth well.
At that moment, the old man along with the other five also entered the Emperor Hao’s treasure. “Huh, this place is very strange. Our immortal senses are severely restricted; it seems we can only sense things within a range of twenty li,” the old man exclaimed as soon as he entered.
Undoubtedly, without their immortal senses to guide them, these powerful Immortal Souls felt uneasy. “That Qu Yi doesn’t seem to be here. Could he have already entered the deeper parts of the treasure?” another person called out.
Of course, Qu Yi’s speed of movement had already allowed him to fall twenty li downward, far beyond the range that those six people could sense.
“Hmph, look at this first cave entrance. All the items have disappeared, but the materials in the second cave entrance are still there. I think Qu Yi must have been here just now. He’s probably afraid of our attacks and thus doesn’t dare spend time collecting items from the other caves,” another observant man said.
This remark immediately made the six of them smile. Since Qu Yi hadn’t gone elsewhere, things would be easier. “Since Qu Yi is in this well, we won’t waste time searching elsewhere. Everyone, work together to put all the items from this cave entrance into our space rings. Clean each cave entrance one by one to prevent Qu Yi from hiding there,” the old man, who was their leader, ordered coldly.
“Yes, Old Fei,” the five replied with determination.
It turned out that the old man’s surname was Fei.
Soon, the six of them went to each cave entrance and quickly collected the items there. Then, they continued to fly downward, searching through each cave entrance.
※※※
Qu Yi reached the deepest part of Emperor Hao’s treasure, where there indeed was a cave entrance. Moreover, this entrance was different from all the others on the well walls. It emitted a brilliant white light, as if the cave walls were made of luminous jade, constantly shining with white light.
With the reminder from the Artifact God, Qu Yi knew there was no danger in this cave, so he flashed inside right away.
“Qu Yi, in this cave, there is a brocade box on each jade stand, and each iron box is guarded by a formation. If you take these iron boxes carelessly, you will be directly attacked by the formation. However, there is a switch on each jade stand. As long as you can find that switch, you can easily take the brocade box without being attacked by the formation,” came the voice of the Artifact God at that moment.
“I’m dizzy. Artifact God, stop teasing me and quickly tell me where the switches are on each jade stand.” Qu Yi took a glance and saw that there were actually ten jade stands. He replied to the Artifact God, somewhat exasperated.
After all, Qu Yi had only grasped the formation of the “Origin Space Dao” so far and was not yet able to decipher the formations filled with world power set up by Emperor Hao. He could only turn to the Artifact God, a master of formations.
“The first jade stand: there are nine buttons next to the brocade box. Press the first button three times, the third button once, and the eighth button twice,” the Artifact God replied quickly.
Qu Yi immediately went over to the first jade stand happily and found nine buttons arranged in a row next to the layer where the brocade box was placed. He quickly pressed the three buttons as instructed by the Artifact God.
Whoosh.
The brocade box trembled slightly, indicating that the formation had been deciphered. Without hesitation, Qu Yi put the brocade box into his Dimension Ball. He didn’t have the heart to check the magical treasures inside for now; it was better to store it first.
“The second jade stand: there are six rotating pentagrams. Rotate the first pentagram once, the second pentagram half a turn, and the third pentagram two full turns,” the Artifact God transmitted again at just the right time.
Overjoyed, Qu Yi rushed to the second jade stand and rotated the three pentagrams as instructed. Naturally, he obtained the brocade box from that stand as well.
“The third jade stand: there are six flowers. For the first flower, remove the first and second petals; for the second flower, remove the third petal; for the fifth flower, remove the sixth petal.”
“The fourth jade stand: there are six sticks inserted. They may seem the same height, but they’re not. Raise the first stick, lower the second stick, ignore the third stick, raise the fourth stick, lower the fifth stick, and ignore the sixth stick.”
“…”
“The tenth jade stand: there are ten iron balls next to the brocade box. You only have one chance to hit them. Only by accurately hitting the circular ball can you decipher the formation. Well, go hit the third ball.”
Immediately after, the Artifact God kept telling Qu Yi the methods to break each formation, and Qu Yi happily deciphered each one one after another.
Ten jade stands and ten brocade boxes—Qu Yi collected them all one by one.
“God of Vessels, you are truly powerful,” Qu Yi exclaimed sincerely.
Meanwhile, the six people in the courtyard were sweeping through the items in various caves and had now arrived at one of them.