Book 5, Chapter 94: Hidden Treasure
Chapter 94: Hidden Treasure
“Are you referring to the treasure stores of the legendary Harpy Arcana Master Jade Clearmist?” Su Chen asked.
“Who else but him?” Youthful Abundance replied proudly.
The Tenth-Ring was not actually the highest achievable tier for Arcana Masters. Talented individuals could go higher and step into the realm of legendary Arcana Masters.
There were quite a few legendary Arcana Masters during the height of the Arcana Kingdom’s power. Patelocke had been one such legendary Arcana Master who had specialized in a particular profession.
The Harpies, however, were unable to replicate the same success rate of the Arcanists’.
On the other hand, because the Harpies possessed quite a bit of talent, their legendary Arcana Masters were typically more powerful than the original legendary Arcanist Arcana Masters. Or at least, that was what the Harpies said about themselves as there was no way to verify whether their claim was true or not. After all, when the Arcanists had dominated the continent, the Harpies didn’t even have a single Tenth-Ring Arcana Master, let alone a legendary one.
Regardless, legendary was legendary. Any Harpy that could reach this point was definitely at the peak of their race.
Apparently, legendary Harpy Arcana Masters could face off evenly against human Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators with Origin Beast Bloodlines.
However, the Gu Clan only needed to pass down their bloodline, while legendary Arcana Masters could only come about after years of bitter tempering and cultivation, so they were far fewer in number. The Harpies thus had no way of competing with humans; without Sky City and the other floating forts, they would have been wiped out a long time ago.
Jade Clearmist was one of the relatively more well-known legendary Arcana Masters. He had accomplished countless amazing feats in the past, and had liked to travel a lot, so he had apparently managed to store up countless rare treasures. Eventually, he had disappeared while on one of his journeys.
No one knew where he had ended up.
But now, a woman called Youthful Abundance was telling him that she had information on Jade Clearmist’s treasure stores.
Su Chen wasn’t actually that interested in the treasures themselves.
He had seen all kinds of unique treasures at this point, and his standards were much higher than the average adventurer’s.
However, he knew that this Jade Clearmist was a talented scholar — in fact, all Arcana Masters were.
Thus his treasure stores would logically contain mountains of knowledge.
It was fine as long as there was knowledge!
Su Chen’s interest was piqued.
“Tell me more,” he said.
So now you’re interested? Youthful Abundance thought to herself as she gladly obeyed.
Youthful Abundance was from a city located next to the nearby Dragon Mountain. There was a small clan there known as the Wind-Gathering Clan, which Youthful Abundance belonged to.
As for Jade Clearmist’s treasure stores, it was a complicated story.
A small clan had randomly stumbled across a crystal nearly a hundred years ago. A wounded spirit was trapped inside of that crystal.
The wounded spirit had slept in that crystal for a long time, until one day when it suddenly awakened, told the clan that it was a fragment of Jade Clearmist’s soul, and said that he had suffered an accident while traveling through a secret realm. He had only managed to survive by hibernating in this mysterious crystal.
He hoped that the clan would help him find his corpse so that he could revive himself. In exchange, he was willing to hand over all of his treasures to the clan.
This small clan was incredibly happy and began to immediately search for the treasures that Jade Clearmist had mentioned.
“An undeserved fortune may not be as auspicious as they think,” Su Chen coldly commented.
Youthful Abundance said with some admiration, “Prince Azure Mark is absolutely right. The wounded spirit was lying to them.”
“I’m not surprised.”
Patelocke had once done the same in order to try and forcefully seize a host body.
The damaged spirit that this small clan was talking to, on the other hand, didn’t have any hopes of seizing control of a host body. But the spirit did still have an opportunity to come back to life.
That was, through reincarnation.
This was a skill that belonged to the Astrals.
That damaged spirit was actually an Astral.
However, the little clan was unaware of this. After they found the supposed hidden treasure realm by following the damaged spirit’s instructions, they discovered that it was a trap. They had activated a mechanism within the realm, causing them to all be slaughtered. The damaged spirit then relied on this trap to perform a blood sacrifice and complete the reincarnation ritual.
Unexpectedly, the power of the blood sacrifice didn’t actually end up going to the spirit. Instead, all of the power was absorbed and stirred up the secret realm.
This realm had been discovered by this Astral while he was still alive. Before he had died within the realm, he had set up all kinds of failsafes in order to ensure a successful reincarnation. Unexpectedly, just as he was about to succeed, the power of the blood sacrifice was sucked away. His reincarnation failed, and so he turned into ashes, fading away into the wind.
But despite all this, there was a lone survivor from the clan who was able to make it out.
He escaped from the secret realm and watched it disappear, but he could sense that the secret realm’s entrance was still somewhere there in the nearby space.
He memorized the general location of this secret realm so that he could open it in the future. Based on what that Astral had said, this ruin did in fact contain Jade Clearmist’s fortune. He had indeed died in the process of scouting out the ruin.
After making it out of the secret realm, this lone survivor didn’t trust anyone else. He silently nursed his wounds, hoping to bolster his strength before going back in.
Unexpectedly, the wounds he had sustained within the secret realm became a constant source of torment for him, and he found that his overall strength was declining rather than increasing.
This forced him into an incredibly desperate situation.
He tried to inform other Harpies of this, hoping that the other Harpies would be able to help him open the secret realm and regain his strength. Each time, however, he was deceived. Luckily, he had prepared many backup plans, allowing him to escape each time.
After his last escape, he had passed out near Dragon Mountain City. It was the Wind-Gathering Clan that saved him.
Having learned his lesson well, he never said a word about the secret realm, instead choosing to act as a quiet servant.
After many years, his health began to decline due to old age.
He was grateful to the Wind-Gathering Clan for their kindness, which was why he had told them about the secret and handed them a map that he had created on his deathbed.
The Wind-Gathering Clan was incredibly moved, and they immediately began coming up with a plan to explore the secret realm.
“If that’s the case, then how did Fate’s Hands find out about the secret realm?” Su Chen asked.
“It was that survivor’s earlier actions that caused word about this secret realm to leak out. Fate’s Hands knew about this secret realm long before we did, and though they didn’t have a map, through their interactions with him, they had realized that there were some key preparatory materials. These materials are needed to enter the realm, and among them is a plant known as Icy Flame Grass. There aren’t many other uses for this plant, but it is an absolute necessity if we want to get inside the secret realm. As such, Fate’s Hands secretly monitored the sales of any and all Icy Flame Grass very closely, searching for Harpies who knew the way to unlock the realm’s secrets. I came here to harvest Icy Flame Grass, but I didn’t expect to fall into their hands. Thankfully, I was able to make it out…… but there’s no way that they will spare me. I was actually unaware of what was lying in wait for me here, so I accidentally revealed what clan I am from. There is no way that they will spare my clan, so Prince, please help me! I am willing to ask the clan to share anything we find in the secret realm with you!” Youthful Abundance pleaded desperately.
“So that’s how it is.” Su Chen understood.
He lowered his head in thought for some time before he chuckled and replied, “Fine. If that’s the case, then I’m willing to help you out this time.”
“Great!” Youthful Abundance prepared to leave.
Su Chen pushed her back onto the carriage as he dryly stated, “I didn’t say that you could go.”
“But……”
“I said that I would help you, not that you could go. Also, so what even if you notified your clan? Their roots are lain in Dragon Mountain; would they really be able to leave just like that? And even if they ran, wouldn’t Fate’s Hands just chase after them? As long as your clan still has a way to access Jade Clearmist’s hidden treasures, Fate’s Hands won’t let them get away.”
“So what should we do?” Youthful Abundance was stunned by Su Chen’s words.
Su Chen smiled slyly. “Easy. The threat won’t exist once we take that secret away from them all. Let’s set out for Dragon Mountain.”
What?
Youthful Abundance was stunned.
It sounded like Su Chen was planning on taking the map of Jade Clearmist’s secret treasures stores for himself.
“You bastard! Shameless! Despicable!” she howled angrily.
“Well, the curses of my enemies is glory to me,” Su Chen said indifferently.
He was a human, not a Harpy.
As a result, he had no misgivings about what he was about to do.
He wasn’t morally disturbed by robbing or slaughtering — the only question was whether he wanted to do it or not.
Jade Clearmist was a legendary Harpy. His treasure store was truly worth spilling blood over.
In any case, the ones dying would all be Harpies, so he had no problems with it.
This was how Su Chen had made up his mind to turn the carriage around and fly towards Dragon Mountain City.
Dragon Mountain was, as its name implied, a mountain shaped like a dragon.
Dragon Mountain City was near the “head” region. It sat between two tall horn-like peaks mounted on the figurative dragon’s head.
This was a common habit of the Harpies. Because they could fly, they enjoyed building their cities at high elevations.
Apart from Sky City and the other floating castles, the Harpies had basically built all of their cities on top of mountain peaks, so they often had the words “Mountain City” in their name. To them, it didn’t matter how high up the cities were since they could fly.
Su Chen’s flying carriage arrived at Dragon Mountain City without any trouble, landing in front of the Wind-Gathering Clan.
Two of the Harpies standing guard rushed forwards to greet Youthful Abundance.
One of the Harpies asked, “Youthful Abundance, what’s going on? Are you alright?”
As he spoke, he stared at Su Chen.
The Wind-Gathering Clan had kept the matter of Jade Clearmist’s hidden treasure a secret. Most of the clan’s disciples didn’t know about it. However, these two and Youthful Abundance were all core disciples and knew about the secret plan. This was why their gazes at Su Chen weren’t very kind. One of them in particular was exuding a strong killing intent. Obviously, he intended on killing Su Chen right then and there.
Su Chen’s consciousness power was more than sufficient to immediately sense his opponent’s killing intent. He laughed and overbearingly said, “Not bad, not bad! I like opponents like this. That way I feel even more gratified when I kill them.”
As he spoke, he boldly strode forwards through the front gate of the Wind-Gathering Clan.
“How arrogant!” The Harpy that was boiling over with killing intent immediately unleashed a fireball and hurled it at Su Chen quite decisively.
Su Chen’s eyebrows jumped up as he remarked, “You are quite decisive, aren’t you? But since you don’t know the difference between life and death, I’m more than willing to send you along the way.”
The fireball was traveling incredibly quickly, but Su Chen’s words were spoken even more calmly. The contrast was quite stark. Su Chen had started talking as soon as the fireball left the opponent’s hand, but when Su Chen was finished, the fireball still hadn’t reached him. It was as if the fireball were traveling across a distance of tens of thousands of kilometers.
This was a demonstration of Su Chen’s spatial powers. Though they might not necessarily be enough to influence very powerful Arcana Techniques, they were more than sufficient to slow down some fireballs.
The fireball seemed like it was very close to Su Chen, but by that point, it had basically run out of steam. At the very end, it went up in a puff of smoke.
The two Harpies were taken aback. A moment later, they watched on in horror as Su Chen murmured, “Rise,” causing the fireball that had just gone out to suddenly reappear and fly out yet again.
The fireball slammed right into the original attacker’s face.