Book 4: Near Blood - 173: Six Treasures
Book 4: Near Blood - 173: Six Treasures
Su Chen’s group left the palace in a hurry and headed straight to the nearby forest. It wasn’t until the palace was out of vision that they let out a collective sigh of relief.
He Xu plopped himself onto the ground. “That scared me half to death. Su Chen, let’s just all agree to not let Night Demon participate next time when we go on an infiltration mission, okay? She’s not suited for this line of work.”
Su Chen was reminded of what had just occurred and nodded. “You’re right, she’s not suited for it.”
Night Demon pouted, “Sorry, I just got too excited there for a moment.”
Shi Mingfeng wiped off the sweat on his forehead. “A moment? You mean the whole time!”
Su Chen chuckled. “Forget about it, at least nothing bad came of it. We’ll just pay a little more attention in the future.”
His main sentiment here was naturally not that Night Demon should pay more attention but rather that he wouldn’t let Night Demon participate in these kinds of missions in the future.
Shi Mingfeng’s rush of adrenaline hadn’t dissipated quite yet. He angrily continued, remarking, “You’re feeling quite generous today, huh?”
Su Chen said, “Fine. I’ll make it up to you by giving you a few more items from the Scarlet Heart’s treasury. Will that work for you?”
Shi Mingfeng’s ears immediately perked up. “You offered, not me!”
Su Chen nodded. “Everyone gets three items from the outer treasury, and you get six. What do you think?”
“Fine!” Shi Mingfeng slapped his thigh in excitement.
Su Chen was the one doing all the planning and execution. The other people were just tagging along, so Shi Mingfeng was already very satisfied that he was even getting an extra cut.
“When are we going to make a move then?” He Xu asked excitedly.
“Right now.”
Su Chen had already made an appropriate plan, and they had set it in motion as soon as they had walked out of the palace.
He pulled out an Origin Formation Disk from his clothes.
This Origin Formation Disk was a spatial-type Origin Formation, and it allowed one to undergo small-distance teleportation. However, the user first needed to set an anchor point. Su Chen had prepared a number of different techniques to use while infiltrating the Ferocious Race’s territory, and this was one of them.
However, the emperor’s palace was heavily restricted, and there were formations present locking down the space inside. Trying to enter a castle like that with just this measly Origin Formation Disk was laughable.
Under normal circumstances, this would have been completely impossible.
However, that would have only been true if Su Chen hadn’t placed the Sky-Rending feather within the storehouse.
The Sky-Rending Feather was a miraculous spatial object that had the ability to guide and channel spatial transportation techniques. Even the Scarlet Heart Emperor placed immense value on that feather, demonstrating just how powerful it was. With that feather inside the castle, breaking through the spatial restrictions of the castle wouldn’t be that difficult.
The most disgusting part in the entire plan was that Su Chen had set up this anchor point right in front of the old pangolin’s nose. The old pangolin was completely oblivious and had no idea what Su Chen had been doing.
The reason Su Chen dared to do something like this was partly because the white paper doll had given him tons of information. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to think of a solution so quickly.
The Origin Formation Disk activated. A brilliant white light began to shine forth before a small void vortex gradually appeared. It was possible to see the interior of the storehouse on the other side of the vortex.
“Let’s go!” Su Chen took the lead and walked through the vortex.
The Flowing Light Silver covering the Sky-Rending Feather had completely disappeared, and the feather was in the preliminary process of emitting void energy. The void energy connected with the vortex in midair, causing Su Chen to appear directly above the Sky-Rending Feather.
Su Chen gently took a few steps in midair, landing gracefully on the ground.
Shi Mingfeng, He Xu, and the others slowly came through after him.
“Hey! This place......” Night Demon hadn’t even finished speaking when Su Chen hurriedly covered up her mouth. He urgently whispered, “Don’t be so loud! This storehouse is guarded by a Demonic Lord. Even though I’ve set up an isolation Origin Formation, if we make too much commotion it will still notice. Also, don’t just take anything in this place. Follow the order in which I say to take them.”
Night Demon apprehensively blinked her large eyes and nodded.
Su Chen slowly pulled his hand back. Now that she had finally calmed down, he walked towards a corner and tapped it a few times. The wall creaked open.
The Scarlet Heart’s storehouse had a complete set of defenses and traps, but now that Su Chen had entered from the inside, many of these defenses wouldn’t have any effects.
The treasures in the outer storehouse weren’t as valuable as the ones in the inner one, but there were more treasures here.
Su Chen grabbed his own Origin Ring. Once he confirmed that nothing was wrong with it, he shot out a few streaks of light towards the ones in the storehouse. “These few items have restrictions. Don’t touch these yet. Take the other ones first. We don’t have much time; no dilly-dallying around.”
Breaking the seal on the Sky-Rending Feather hadn’t come without a price. As the void energy contained inside was slowly consumed, the feather itself was also slowly degrading.
There wasn’t much time. They didn’t waste any time talking and immediately began plundering the Demonic Emperor’s storehouses.
Su Chen turned around and headed for the inner treasury.
In comparison to the outer treasury, there were much fewer treasures here. Apart from the Sky-Rending Feather, there were only six in total, but each one of them was exceedingly rare.
The first was a crystal hourglass that shimmered and glowed with profound light.
The hourglass was made of an unknown material. It seemed metallic, but wasn’t copper, silver, or gold. It was simple and unadorned, but it carried with it a boundless aura.
Golden sand flowed through the hourglass, but it flowed in reverse from bottom to top, giving it a profound aesthetic.
These grains of sand were the same as the ones that Chu Yingwan had used at Aurora City.
Accordingly, this hourglass was called the Hourglass of Time.
The Hourglass of Time was originally the Ferocious Race’s most important treasure. As for where they had gotten it from, no one knew. Roughly eight thousand years ago, the Beast Race infiltrated the Ferocious Race’s territory and stole it away, only leaving behind a small amount of the Sands of Time. Then, while the Heavenly Might Army was trapped in the Ferocious Race’s territory and recklessly snatching anything they found, they had unexpectedly grabbed a small handful of the Sands of Time, which proved to be extremely useful during the battle of Aurora City.
The Hourglass of Time produced Sands of Time. With this item, it was possible to have an endless source of Sands of Time. Of course, the rate of production of the sand was limited, and it could only produce a small pinch every year. Even so, that was more than enough to make this item a peerless treasure.
The Scarlet Heart had fought bitterly for it and even killed a Demonic Emperor of the same tier to obtain the treasure.
However, Su Chen was now going to be the one to ultimately benefit.
The second item was a Demonic Emperor Origin Crystal, but this one was not from the Demonic Emperor that had fought him for the Sands of Time. Rather, it was from another Demonic Emperor that it had managed to kill around that point in time. Obtaining an Origin Crystal wasn’t that hard, but obtaining an Origin Crystal whose energy had been so well-preserved and wasn’t damaged or depleted was extremely difficult.
The only way to accomplish this would be to kill the target with a single blow.
For this, the Scarlet Heart had investigated its target for decades, constantly looking for opportunities, and it had also procured a powerful one-time-use Origin Tool and a camouflaging treasure. It had then disguised itself, bought out the opponent’s subordinates with massive sums, and activated its powerful single-use treasure to finish off its foe in a single attack.
After unleashing that attack, the Scarlet Heart had underwent three years of closed-door cultivation.
It was obvious how difficult it had been to obtain this intact Demonic Emperor Origin Crystal.
The third treasure was a Thunder Spirit Totem.
The Thunder Spirit Totem again came from the Ferocious Race. Every race possessed their own unique culture and history. There had been a few fortuitous occurrences over the tens of thousands of years of history that the Ferocious Race had. One of these was the Sands of Time, and the Nine Great Totems were another. The Nine Great Totems consisted of the Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, Light, Thunder, Darkness, Spirit, and Life totems. Each totem contained an ancient, formidable power.
The Ferocious Race’s totemic system of cultivation had actually evolved from the Nine Great Totems as a template.
However, as time passed and the Ferocious Race continued fighting with the Beast Race over and over again, they suffered tremendous losses even as they made gains. The Nine Great Totems were one of the losses suffered. Apparently, there were now only three totems remaining in the Ferocious Race’s possession; the other six had been scattered across the lands.
This Thunder Spirit Totem, which represented the power of thunder, had landed in the hands of the Scarlet Heart.
As the chief of the border region, Scarlet Heart had a lot of treasures from the Ferocious Race. One of his favorite pastimes was to invade the border. If it weren’t for the fact that the Beast Race also needed to reproduce, the border would never have been at peace. The Scarlet Heart was even fine if a small Beast Wave started every three days and a large one every five days.
The fourth item was some River Source Grass.
This was probably the only precious treasure amongst the six great treasures the Scarlet Heart possessed that actually came from the Beast Race’s territory.
River Source Grass grew on the Beast Race’s Sky-Breaching Mountain Range.
In comparison to the other treasures, this one wasn’t particularly useful in battle, but its practical value wasn’t diminished in the slightest.
That was because its main use was to improve the fertility of the nearby soil.
River Source Grass grew at the riverhead on the mountain.
Apparently, wherever River Source Grass was planted, even in a desolate area, it could create a spring of water within a year and cause the surroundings to flourish beautifully in ten. If it were planted in a place where resources were already abundant, it would further sculpt the environment to increase the quality of Origin Energy produced there. It was really quite a miraculous grass.
In simpler terms, this treasure had an extremely high affinity for Origin Energy. Even though it couldn’t compare to the legend of a single droplet causing life to flourish, it was an exceptionally precious resource nonetheless.
However, this River Source Grass couldn’t be used as one pleased; every so often, it needed to be placed in an environment rich in Origin Energy to recover. At the moment, this grass had been planted in some Boundless Dirt. If River Source Grass was an emperor-grade treasure, then this Boundless Dirt was at least a king-grade treasure. It was obvious how much importance the Scarlet Heart placed on this stalk of grass.
Of course, the Boundless Dirt wasn’t one of the six great treasures contained in the storeroom. It was like the Flowing Light Silver that the Sky-Rending Feather had been immersed in; at this point, it was merely a carrier.
The fifth treasure was a stone statue of a white goose singing to the sky. However, this white goose hadn’t been carved by a sculptor; rather, it had naturally been formed by nature. Actually, this white goose was a strange lifeform. Every year, it would awaken once. If placed in water during this time, it would suck up the water and then sing to the skies. Apparently, its songs contained profound mysteries of nature. Anyone who heard its songs would receive incredible enlightenment.
In other words, it could improve the listener’s cultivation base, temperament, strength, perception, and consciousness. The exact effects depended on who was listening.
As a result, this stone sculpture was known as the Heavenly Truth Songstone.
The Heavenly Truth Songstone was apparently the foundation of the Scarlet Heart’s accomplishments, and a major reason as to why it had been able to ascend to the Demonic Emperor Rank.
By the time the Scarlet Heart had reached the Demonic Emperor realm, it had used the songstone too many times, so the effect the songstone had on it was quite small. Even so, it hadn’t exchanged the songstone for another treasure but had instead kept it in here to serve as a memento.
The last item was a sparkling, crystal bottle.
When looking through the glass surface of the bottle, it appeared to contain blood.
Desolate Beast Blood!
Demonic Emperors were at the peak of the Demonic Beast realm, but that was not the peak in their eyes.
No matter how tall of a peak you stood on, there would always be the sky above you when you looked up.
Under these circumstances, if you wanted to take another step forward, you would have to look and observe those existences even more powerful than yourself.
That was why the Scarlet Heart had worked so hard to obtain this vial of Desolate Beast blood.
For this, it had organized 128 massacres, 31 different plots and schemes, and taken the lives of millions, comrades or not!
It could be said that each of these six great treasures had taken the Scarlet Heart an incredible amount of energy, brainpower, time, and sacrifice to obtain. They did not belong to a nobody; in fact, they were a testimony of the Scarlet Heart’s outstanding valor and accomplishment, and they painted a picture of unrivalled power and authority.
And now, these items all belonged to Su Chen, even the Boundless Dirt. Su Chen wasn’t planning on even letting the scraps on the floor slip by him.