Chapter 845: Familiar unfamiliar people

“How much longer is it going to take?! Are we waiting for the whole area to gather here?”, an impatient, frustrated shout reached Wu Long’s group from the corridors ahead, followed by more voices that had the same sentiments.

“That’s right! We’ve lost four days just searching for this damn ruin! Four days!!! A time we could’ve used exploring the Secret Realm! We only got a few benefits off of those we met on the way!”

“Not to mention, it doesn’t even look like a treasury! It’s been noting but empty corridors and stone chambers up to here!”

“Are you even sure there is something behind that door Old Man?!”

And then a more mature but still vigorous voice spoke, “I am absolutely sure, just give me a bit more time to open this. The formations we passed through reactivated behind us, so there is no need to worry about anyone coming after us. As for empty passages… this place is intact after who knows how long precisely because the outer shell of the structure that we passed through so far is so vast, made of many layers of hardened walls reinforced with arrays and ancient formations on all sides with only a single path that we came through…”

“You better be right Old Man!”, the first voice grumbled, not letting the older man finish his words.

“D-don’t pressure Senior Dong! You wouldn’t even know this ruin was here, let alone come this far if not for him! You weren’t even supposed to be here with us!”, another younger but somehow weak-sounding voice resounded, sounding nervous, immediately receiving several hostile remarks back.

“Shut up! You two are in no position to defend anyone, let alone this old guy”

“That’s right, all three of you’d be dead in that first day skirmish at the entrance”

“You two, especially, are only alive because the Old Man’s adamant he’ll kill himself without leading us to the treasure if you weren’t safe”

“Hehe, blame the guards that your family sent with you for being so pathetic!”

Wu Long turned his eyes to the three beauties with him, signaling them that they weren’t going to reveal themselves for now.

It looked like a stronger large group took a weaker small one hostage in exchange for the secret to explore this ancient ruin, which the smaller group knew about in advance, or even likely came inside this Secret Realm for.

A few talismans made with Liang Yuhan’s help floated around them, as Wu Long also used the Sound Rune to erase their sounds. His intercepting Spiritual Qi already was preventing the Spiritual Senses of those ahead from noticing their approach, so now with all sounds and even the sight of them gone, they completely disappeared.

The large group seemingly consisted of three different factions, each with 20-30 people, for a total of around 80, while the one held hostage had only three.

But all three factions were very familiar to Wu Long, as they were Disciples of the Crystal Wood Sect, Ember Palm Pavilion, and the Seven Extreme Swords Sect which were fighting over the control of the Battle God’s Cradle World Stone on the Soft Meadow Continent.

They were supposed to be clashing with each other, and there was air of hostility between the three factions, but they seemingly had come to some kind of temporary agreement.

“I-it’s fine Young Master, do not worry for this Old Man”, a late middle age-looking man, who seemingly reached the peak of the Nine Mortal Realms quite late into the Mortal Transcendence Realm lifespan was fiddling by the large stone door, a token-looking piece of ancient carved jade in one hand, while the other was drawing characters in the air with glowing Spiritual Qi.

“Less talk, more work!”, one of the people from the Seven Extreme Swords Sect shouted.

Two young people, a pale and sickly-looking young man and a young woman resembling his caretaker servant, who turned into his lover, stood a bit behind the middle-aged man, but held in check by all three factions surrounding them.

The young woman shuddered in her lover’s arms while looking around, seeing signs that these people were not just going to let them go after this all was over.

“Y-Young Master Muyang…”, she whispered as she looked up at the young man.

“It’s fine, Meifang”, the young man held her closer, though with his sickly constitution that reassurance was not strong. His gaze was also traveling around the people surrounding them with a look of nervousness, but at the same time defiant.

A sudden light illuminated the stone chamber, as the characters the middle-aged man drew flew into the door, along with the ancient-looking carved jade token rising into the air, a glowing link forming between the door and the token.

“Oooh, now we’re getting somewhere…”, one of the three apparent leaders the three Sects, from the Ember Palm Pavilion, whose frustrated voice was heard first by Wu Long’s group, spoke with satisfaction.

The stone door started drifting open to the two sides, and a red and orange glow as well as intense heat were released from the gap.

Murmurs and excited exclamations followed as the thought of ancient treasures being within reach filled the heads of the group.

But as they entered inside, it turned out to be a large, spacious, but mostly empty hall with high ceiling.

At the sides were 12 large pools of liquid glowing with the color of molten metal, giving off the heat they felt and the glow they saw earlier, as well as stone statues of Dragons above those pools from the mouths of which the liquid continuously flowed into the pools.

There were two square platforms in the center of the room, which looked more like a ceremonial chamber than a treasury. One platform was larger, taking up most of the entire hall’s center, and empty, resembling an arena or podium, the other one further into the room was smaller and had a large stone monolith.

“What the heck is this, Old Man?!?!”, the leader of the Ember Palm Pavilion’s Disciples shouted.

“It’s supposed to be filled with riches! There’s nothing but lava here!”, the leader of Seven Extreme Swords Sect’s Disciples lashed out as well, taking out his weapon.

“I-It is! It is filled with riches! T-th-that i-is not lava… i-it is ancient texts…! T-this is the Ancient Sect’s Secret Knowledge Vault! T-the Heart of any Sect!”, the old man frantically pointed to the pools of glowing liquid.

“…!? Bullshit! Are you taking us for fools?! What kind of texts are a liquid?! Besides it’s lava no matter how you look at it!”, the leader of the disciple group from the Crystal Wood Sect shouted, angrily grabbing the older man’s robes near his chest, and slightly raising them.

“Senior Dong! … L-let go of him!”, the Young Master spoke with alarm, the people around showing hostile gazes at the ’empty’ room.

“Well I’ll be damned… the old fart’s telling the truth, these are texts”, the Ember Palm Pavilion’s Disciple Leader was already by the side of one of the pools, looking intently into the liquid.

He could see that it was made of incredibly tiny glowing characters, that were flowing like liquid.

“It is, but how in the Seven Heavens are we supposed to read that?!”, the one from the Seven Extreme Swords Sect shouted, also checking the pool and confirming, but also noting that it was all jumbled together because of its liquid form.

“Tell us!”, the one holding the old man slightly shook him as he insisted.

“T-The monolith… I-I just have to operate the monolith…”, the older man spoke while pointing to the monolith on the smaller platform further into the room.

“Alright, let’s go”, the Crystal Wood Sect’s leading Disciple didn’t let go, dragging the one called Senior Dong in the direction of the second platform.

“Hold on!”, the leader of the Ember Palm Pavilion’s disciple faction spoke, “Let’s hear the details first”

“Enough with talking and explanations already! He’s been dragging us around for four days for this! And all with explanations and talks!”, the one grabbing the older man roared, seemingly still enraged.

This wasn’t exactly what they thought when the old man spoke about treasure.

As cultivators all of them understood the importance of ancient knowledge, and if they happened to obtain some powerful techniques of some ancient clan here it was already worth all the trouble.

They could either exchange it for enormous benefits in their respective Sects, or, if it was something they could use, keep some of the techniques to themselves.

But most of them still felt betrayed it wasn’t some treasure-trove of ancient artifacts which were more tangible.

“Calm down”, the Seven Extreme Swords Sect’s faction’s leader chimed in, taking the side of the Ember Palm Pavilion.

The Crystal Wood Sect’s Disciple clenched his jaws, seeing how instantly precarious the situation got for him.

Giving the other two factions the pretext to unite against him and his group wasn’t the best strategy, so he just clicked his tongue and forcefully pushed away Senior Dong, with a disgruntled “Fine”

“The first platform you see here is called the Throne of the Taker, while the platform there is called the Throne of the Giver… the idea is that the person who operates the latter, gives the opportunity to learn to those on the former”, Senior Dong explained.

“Heh, not so fast… what if you try to pull something…”, the Ember Palm Pavilion’s Disciple wagged his finger with a sly smile.

“If you want to test it, why doesn’t the Ember Palm Pavilion sit it out while we get in and get the inheritance. He won’t be able to do anything funny if you’re still around him”, the Crystal Wood Sect’s faction leader grinned, crossing his arms.

“Tsk, and let you then deny us the chance after you got everything?”, the Ember Palm Pavilion’s disciple showed an annoyed expression.

“What are you proposing then?”, the Seven Extreme Swords Sect’s disciple leader made an opportunistic look, seemingly teetering between leaning to the Ember Palm Pavilion or the Crystal Wood Sect against the other.

“I’m just saying that we three should receive the inheritance first”, the one from the Ember Palm Pavilion spoke, “That way all three sides have a stake, and the Old Man can’t do anything”

“S-senior Apprentice-Brother…”, one of the disciples behind him seemingly wasn’t completely satisfied as this arrangement concentrated all benefits on the three most senior disciples leading them, leaving the rest with basically nothing, or scraps if the ones receiving the inheritance decide to be generous.

He was given a stern look, shutting him down, but it was apparent from the expressions of those around him that none of them liked that idea.

The other two faction leaders seemed to like the idea, but the disciples behind them similarly had their doubts as did the disciples of the Ember Palm Pavilion.

There was not only a lot of tensions and scheming between the disciples of the three Sects, but also within each faction as well, as each of them did not fully trust the others, especially when it came to such things as Ancient Secret Knowledge. No one wanted to be left out, so everyone wanted to be in that group which received inheritance, since a battle was likely to start right after that, and then those who were left out would be very likely left with nothing at all.

“I know what we should do, we’ll have the brat and his girl with us on the platform, t-then everyone could receive the inheritance!”, one of the other disciples exclaimed, receiving a slap on the back of his head from the leader of his faction for speaking out of turn.

But it was already too late, the disciples of all three factions already had eyes filling with greed, and if their three leaders opposed this in this situation filled with tension, there was a danger of mutiny and total chaos.

“Tsk, we’ll do that then”, the Ember Palm Pavilion’s disciple leader spoke first, as the other two nodded one by one.

“You hear that, Old Man?! Your precious Young Master and his little miss are going to be with us on this platform. So don’t even think of anything funny!”, the Crystal Wood Sect’s disciple leader spoke to Senior Dong.

“B-but that’s not what you promised! You were supposed to let the two go before taking the treasure!”, Senior Dong protested, as he seemingly understood what would happen when the three factions obtained all they could gain here.

“You also didn’t tell us it was a Secret Knowledge Vault, so we are even”, the Ember Palm Pavilion’s disciple leader spoke.

“W-what guarantees do I have then, that you will let them go eventually?”. Senior Dong wasn’t in a hurry to let go of his only bargaining chip, in being the one standing between the factions and the treasure.

“You want us to kill one of them first? So you know how serious we are?”, the Seven Extreme Swords Sect’s disciple leader narrowed his eyes with a cold tone.

“Y-You’ll never get anything then!!!”, the Old Man shouted in slight panic as several disciples got closer to the couple.

“Fine, fine. We’ll let one of them go now, how about that? It’s a gesture of goodwill”, the Ember Palm Pavilion’s disciple spoke up, seeing that Senior Dong was also on edge.

“That won’t do”, Senior Dong shook his head, “Let them both go, and I’ll give you the inheritance then”

“Then how the heck do we know you won’t try to pull one over us?!”, the Crystal Wood Sect’s leading Disciple growled in frustration.

“S-Senior Dong, let them let Meifang go, I’ll remain. I won’t have long without this inheritance anyway”, the Young Master spoke up amid the heating up situation, his condition seemingly worsening even more as he was now heavily leaning on the girl next to him.

“N-No, You-…”

“Meifang”, he turned a gaze that cut her words off, a myriad of words seemingly fleeting between the two.

“Ah, how sweet”, the Seven Extreme Swords Sect’s disciple leader spoke with a sarcastic smile, and then turning to Senior Dong, added “So? What will it be, Old Man? It’s not like we need to kill off this guy for him to die soon, so we’ll let him live”

Senior Dong’s expression turned into a grimace as he was agonizing over the decision, but seeing his Young Master’s gaze, begrudgingly nodded with a defeated sigh.

The couple started saying their goodbyes, with the young man reassuring the girl he would be fine.

But the disciples of the three Sects didn’t have much patience for that, separating the two, as the young man fell to his knees without her support.

The girl was shoved out of the room unharmed, and before she could return, Senior Dong closed the stone doors.

To be honest, I didn’t want to leave you all on the cliffhanger, which delayed the update of the chapter. but it was getting too long lol, and the time was also going fast, so I will finish this one here and continue in the next. ^^

I hope you are all doing great my dear readers!

Thank you for reading and your incredible support!!!