The Dragon Palace was bathed in golden rays.
Walking along the pavement, one could see many Bright Moon Pearls radiating a brilliant glow.
Apart from that, there was also the Water Evading Pearl, Dust Evading Pearl and many other treasures conveniently placed in each and every corner. Any of these pearls would be highly sought after in the mortal world, but they were relegated to mere decorations in this fancy palace.
"There should be other deities in the dragon palace…"
Fang Yuan squatted in front of a pile of ashes and was deep in thought "The Golden Dragon G.o.d"s realm energy was split into 3. Could they have fled the palace knowing that they have lost their pillar of support? But what about the water folks? Could it be that the Golden Dragon G.o.d was a very cautious person and would only let his subordinate the Yin Spirit stay in the palace and tend to him?"
This appeared rather curious to Fang Yuan. But he too had no one even though he was of a talented and courageous person.
On the flip side, if there was a tribe of dragon descendants and water folks, it would be a ha.s.sle to kill them all.
He arrived at the study and casually flipped open a book.
The Golden Dragon G.o.d had a vast collection. Some of the martial arts manuals were even inscribed onto bone or sh.e.l.l plates, then bound together. Every book could be considered a work of art.
"Rain Cloud Evoking formula?"
Fang Yuan teased out the gist out the formula. "Only a person with dragon properties could cultivate this technique… Specifically meant for demons… This book has indeed broadened my horizons."
He browsed through the manual and placed it down, picking up a roll of inscribed steel leaves.
This unknown leaf was wide and had a glossy surface. Inscribed on it was a tightly packed cl.u.s.ter of small words. Every stroke seemed to be filled with a rich history.
"Green Spiritual Sword Formula? Finally a martial arts technique for humans."
Fang Yuan glanced through it. The energy circulation techniques were crude and focused on rough sensations of the energy flow. The last few sword techniques were fairly unique and slightly interesting.
"After all, even Zodiac or s.h.i.+nto cultivators" strength boils down to the strength of one"s realm energy as well as the absorption of realm energy. One could achieve everything even without obtaining a high status in the society. As such, techniques of Hui Realm were biased towards utility."
"Mmm, such an interesting train of thought."
He firmly remembered the teachings of the Green Spiritual Sword Formula. These insights would aid him in completing his techniques or think on his toes in future situations.
In the blink of an eye, half a day has pa.s.sed and Fang Yuan returned to the treasure vault of the Dragon Palace.
The vault was well hidden and it took Fang Yuan some effort to finally locate it.
In front of the broad and st.u.r.dy gate, stood statues of two spiritual beasts. They had black jewels as eyes and were very lifelike.
"Pi Xiu? [1]"
Fang Yuan stared at the spiritual beast and muttered to himself.
The statues had the form of a lion, a head of a dragon, a body of a horse, legs of a unicorn, and a pair of wings sprouted from its back. It had a very fierce expression and looked similar to a Pi Xiu.
"ROAR"
He stepped forward to touch the door handle when the two Pi Xiu roared to life.
"Hmph, trying to stop me with a simple static array?!"
The corners of Fang Yuan"s eye curled, and the Leaving Fire Sword appeared in his hands.
Roar!
In that instant, there was a warmth radiating from his clothes. The Inverse Scale of the Golden Dragon G.o.d appeared with a pure gold hue and was pulsating with life, roars of a dragon could even be heard.
"WuWu!"
The two Pi Xiu bowed their heads in submission and returned to their original positions, turning back into stone statues.
"So you sensed the blood and spiritual aura of the Golden Dragon G.o.d?"
Fang Yuan kept the scale "This scale turned out to be the key to the array guarding this Dragon Palace. No wonder my journey in the Dragon Palace was so smooth sailing."
His placed both hands on the door.
The door was smelted from pure crimson copper, it was thick and tall, had 99 round studs and was complete with door knockers in the mouths of a beast. Its design was simple yet grand.
With a light push, the heavy doors swung apart effortlessly, revealing an entire vault filled with s.h.i.+mmering treasures.
Gold, platinum, pearls, jade, corals….
The large amounts treasures piled on the floor and formed a small mountain.
Fang Yuan paid no attention to them and walked deeper into the treasure vault.
In here, several pillars of rainbow corals were converted to shelves, on them were pieces of treasure, each of them was radiating energy in splendid brilliance.
"The Life Shortening Sword?"
He walked forward and read the label on the coral "Concocted from a 300-year-old coral"s gold, mixed with 9 Bends Spiritual Wood, smelted with Venerable flames for 49 days. On the last day, the sword must be used kill a tiger demon, completing the concocted process. The edge would be unimaginably sharp. The sound of the sword cutting through the air struck fear into the souls of others, hence the name, Life Shortening Sword.
Beside it laid the handles of several spiritual weapons, all of good stats.
A unique piece was the Crystal Spiritual Armor, it was said to be forged from the sh.e.l.l of a 10,000 years old Mystic Turtle and possessed exceptional defensive capabilities. Fang Yuan was thrilled and put it on immediately.
Even though he could not bring it back to his original world, it would still be of good use in his time here in the Hui Realm.
"But… It was still right for Venerable Fiery Dragon and company to not come here."
He sat on the pile of gold and looked at the many treasures that lay in front of him, shaking his head. "There aren"t many items that are of use to us, besides, they could not be brought out of this world. To delay one"s recovery for these was not worth it. But…."
He walked to the depths of the vaults, s.h.i.+fted the corals away and lifted the Life Shortening Sword, and stabbed the wall furiously several times.
He shamelessly used the misused the spiritual sword as a shovel and dug a small hole in the walls, revealing a small hidden switch.
"Hahaha, hidden mechanisms designed by mortals would not fool me!"
He flicked the switch and opened the hidden safe, in it laid a tiny box.
The surface of the box was a deep black, covered with various spiritual inscriptions. It sat still without releasing any forms of energy, this was indeed a unique treasure.
"Tsk Tsk…. A self-destruction array?"
Fang Yuan deduced that from just the surface of the box and burst out in laughter, "There must be something very valuable hidden in it. It was a pity that I knew nothing of the unlocking techniques."
Despite that, he made a wild guess and placed the inverse scale onto the black box.
"If this scale cannot open the box, I would have no other options than to use brute force. I should be able to fish the item out before the box self-destructs."
He thought nonchalantly.
After all, there were not many treasures that could be brought back to their world like the realm energy. Even a legendary treasure would be of little use.
Roar!
Upon placing the scale on the box, a dragon cry was heard and a small water dragon emerged, as if it was a miniature golden dragon G.o.d, it was bathed in blood.
"An opportunity?"
Fang Yuan"s eye twitched, the water dragon leapt onto the box and s.h.i.+mmered with spiritual light, his expression changed, "Oh no, it is initiating the self-destruction spiritual inscriptions!"
He had a horrified look on his face as his mind raced.
The Golden Dragon G.o.d had it designed this way on purpose. The scale was the key of the array, but when it came to this last treasure box, it became a command for self-destruction. A smart alec would think that it would unlock the box, but in reality, he had chosen to destroy it!
"This must be an item of great importance!"
Fang Yuan pointed his finger, the Fleeting Fire Sword appeared and split the box open forcefully.
At this point, luck dictated if his method would enable him to retrieve the treasure in its entirety.
He was a decisive man, and he acted upon his instincts immediately.
"Go!"
The Fleeting fire sword was condensed to its peak. It split into 2 before exploding.
"Come back"
Fang Yuan tried to fish out the treasure, then retreated quickly.
Boom!!!
A frightening explosion resulted, blowing the treasure vault into rubber.
Fang Yuan retreated to the entrance and looked at the horrid state the vault was in, speechless. He opened his fists.
In his palm, there was a small segment of roots remaining, of the length of a pinky. The rest of it was long gone.
"Is it some sort of spiritual plant?"
Fang Yuan could not appraise the grade of the spiritual plant just from the roots, but he was sure it was of extraordinary value.
"No…This is right and wrong…"
Fang Yuan sniffed the plant and felt something was different. He then used his spiritual will to look at White Whiskers in detail and saw large volumes of spiritual inscriptions on it. It was a pity most of it was destroyed.
"Such a pity… Even if I had the entire plant, it would be useless to me. Unless I could keep it in my actualized dream world and bring it away."
He looked at the roots and shook his head, "I still have some time on my hands, and why not try to salvage this plant?"
After all, Fang Yuan had the help of the Stats board, even though he started with nothing, he still retained his botany skills.
"These roots have water properties, the dragon palace would be an ideal location for it, and it was far superior to any spiritual lands."
Fang Yuan looked at his surroundings and obtained some information from the roots, he stroke his chin, and his eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with joy.
He planned to spend his remaining time reading the manuals in the dragon palace study and to concentrate on cultivation. While doing so, he would be waiting for the plant to grow.
He was curious why the golden dragon G.o.d would go to such great lengths to destroy this object.
He got it doing it immediately.
Fang Yuan was a man of action, after careful considerations, he realized that the main hall of the dragon place had the best water energy. He tore it down and made it into a flower bed.
This flower bed was unlike others, it was surrounded by spiritual earth, in the middle, he made a small indentation that resembled a pond.
Above the dragon palace, the spiritual waterfall flowed down into the pond, it was milky and fragrant, filling up the pond. The white whiskers laid in the centre of it all.
Fang Yuan was fairly confident about reviving this spiritual plant. It all stemmed from his level 5 botany skills.
"Botany [Level 5] ----- You"re now a master in the Botany Realm! Any plants planted by you would not only awaken but also develop special traits, the maturity period would also shorten based on the conditions!"
"Even though I cannot restore it to its original condition, to be able to awaken it or develop special traits would be good too…"
To him, successfully reviving the plant was going to be a bonus, a failure would just be remembered as a funny memory. With that in mind, Fang Yuan took his mind off the pond, went into a side chamber and sunk into a deep state of cultivation
[1] Qi Xiu is beast from Chinese mythology. It is a ferocious beast and it said to have a voracious appet.i.te for gold, silver and jewels.