Chapter 390 - A Woman’s Embroidery House
This time around, Gu Zuo had guessed incorrectly.
What filled the remaining chests weren’t only profound crystals.
After counting, the number of chests reached forty-five. Among them, fifteen contained profound crystals, and each chest held between eighty thousand and one hundred thousand crystals. As for the other thirty chests, they contained refined ores — In other words, there were all kinds of ores that had long been extracted and purified. Each of these ores were rather precious, and could be forged into spirit weapons.
When Gu Zuo looked around, he was instantly happy.
This was simply tailor-made for his big brother! As a circulated currency, the profound crystals would greatly boost his big brother’s funds. The refined ores would also increase the ore reserves of their spirit weapon shops. After handing over these ores to the Iron Ox Race, they could forge many spirit weapons!
The remaining battle slaves witnessed this, and joy spread across their faces. One after another, they spoke to Tianheng: “Congratulations, young master.”
Tianheng faintly smiled. After that, he turned his head and looked at Yu Cheng: “If there’s anything you need, you may take the first pick.”
Yu Cheng was very tactful.
He thought deeply, and replied: “Among the things here, I hope to keep one thousand profound crystals, and for the various types of ores… Five hundred grams each.”
Gu Zuo was surprised by Yu Cheng’s selection.
Ah, this way of speaking…was smart.
With Yu Cheng’s present strength, profound crystals were actually useless to him. However, once he advanced several levels, profound crystals would be indispensable. Thus, his request for a thousand crystals didn’t even account for one-thousandth of the amount here. Since he was building up his own reserves and he didn’t seem greedy about it, this request was quite reasonable. As for five hundred grams of each of those ores, once his strength improved, he would be able to pick and choose when forging spirit weapons that suited him.
Meanwhile, Tianheng’s brows moved slightly: “I’ll grant your request.”
Yu Cheng revealed a smiling expression as if he had been relieved of a great burden.
In fact, Gu Zuo’s train of thought only comprised one aspect of the cause. There was another aspect.
Originally, Yu Cheng said that, aside from the inheritance, he wouldn’t lay claim to anything else that Tianheng might take a liking to — In general, it stood to reason that these types of things would be needed by Tianheng and unusable to Yu Cheng.
Merely, while it couldn’t be said that the things here were extremely precious, they were indeed what Tianheng needed. But as it happened, Yu Cheng could also use them… Tianheng possessed the bearing of a prodigy. Naturally, it wouldn’t be good to hog everything for himself. As a result, this inquiry was made.
Yu Cheng initially intended to refuse the offer, but once he refused, it would instead make Tianheng appear stingy and small-minded — Although Yu Cheng didn’t exert himself, the Jade Heart Pendant belonged to him, after all. Therefore, the proposal he put forward was small. This not only benefited himself, but it also didn’t go so far as to make it seem like Tianheng owed him a favor for this small matter. It seemed that he had other plans… He was much smarter than what Gu Zuo thought.
Sure enough, Tianheng acquiesced to Yu Cheng’s proposal.
Naturally, Yu Cheng was greatly relieved.
Now, it looked like Tianheng’s resolution was even better than he could’ve imagined, and the matter of the inheritance would really proceed as he hoped. Yu Cheng didn’t want anything to go wrong in the slightest.
Following this, Tianheng said: “Ah Zuo, collect the profound crystals from five chests.”
Gu Zuo understood clearly. This was going to be the private stash of money for the two of them!
Hence, he promptly moved his thoughts, and the profound crystals of five chests were put into the storage s.p.a.ce.
Afterwards, Tianheng reached out a hand, and flicked his wrist.
One thousand profound crystals and many chucks of different refined ores flew up, and acc.u.mulated into a small pile at Yu Cheng’s feet. After brushing his sleeve, all of the chests disappeared from their original positions — They were placed inside his bangle.
Yu Cheng also had an inter-spatial tool.
He looked at the a.s.sets that belonged to him, and put everything away with a happy expression.
In the future, he wouldn’t be lacking in resources for a very long time.
Once everything in this underground treasury was taken, the group returned to the original path.
Gu Zuo was in a good mood. He started looking forward to what things those other blood speck locations held.
Their first time finding hidden treasure had gone without a hitch, but there also hadn’t been any problems for the second time, third time, and many more times after that. What existed in these locations were all storerooms and treasuries. Some were at the bottoms of lakes, a few were hidden behind the flowers and trees, and others took on the appearances of medicine gardens — But the locations of the most ordinary of weeds among the medicinal herbs were the actual mechanisms. And some entrances were set beneath bamboo shoots in the small bamboo forests…
The items inside the treasuries were basically profound crystals, refined ores, spirit weapons, armored clothing, as well as non-plant based medicinal ingredients sealed within cases. Occasionally, they encountered precious medicinal pills. Moreover, because these pills were kept inside restrictions, they didn’t completely lose their medicinal effects. They had lots of research value. Additionally, there were also some rare books that recorded the inner cultivation methods of pharmacists and martial artists, and were divided between spiritual skills and martial skills.
It was clear that these items were all what Gongyi Tianheng needed. Naturally, they were all taken by him. Subsequently, Tianheng would ask about Yu Cheng’s requirements. Sometimes, Yu Cheng picked a few refined ores that he had never seen before, selected a set of body-protecting armored clothing, took a couple medicinal ingredients and pills, and so on. Yet, he was never greedy. He only picked what he could use or would soon be able to use.
Tianheng also permitted Yu Cheng to choose some of those rare books that suited him. Duplicates would be made for practice. Upon hearing this, Yu Cheng’s heart was naturally filled with delight.
Without realizing it, among the grand total of twenty-three blood specks on the map, they had already found twenty-one locations.
Regarding martial artists from the Immortal to n.o.ble Realms, the hidden treasures they contained were all very useful. As for those at the Royal Realm and beyond, they were much less useful.
— Arranged within this final city within a city was something like an ordinary person’s landscaped park. Not only weren’t there any dangers, even the defenses of some treasuries were no different than normal mechanisms. When looking for these mechanisms, it was easy to be deceived by customary lines of thought, but once found, entering the treasuries wasn’t difficult at all.
However, sometimes, one wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Just like the present situation.
Tianheng gazed at the two specks of blood that were so close together that they practically overlapped. He couldn’t help but sigh: “The Xiao Clan’s thoughts are truly out of the common run.”
Meanwhile, Gu Zuo was looking at their destination up ahead. There was a faintly helpless expression on his face.
Ah, indeed. Their thoughts were truly atypical.
It was because the place where these two blood specks overlapped was unexpectedly a woman’s embroidery house!
A woman’s house!
He wanted to ask anyone who came here hunting for treasure k2014; Who would specially go inside a woman’s home to snoop around? In addition, who would believe that the most important inheritance was actually placed here?!
It was truly hard to believe.
Yu Cheng forced a smile.
The Xiao Clan’s way of handling things… In fact, it was very deliberate.
It was just a little embarra.s.sing.
Fortunately, everyone’s determination was quite strong. Now that they found the location of hidden treasure, they weren’t going to care about the issue of this place.
Following this, they moved towards the embroidery house together.
The building was very delicate and refined. It was a quaint, little two-story home made of bamboo.
It was as if it hadn’t been a long time since the young lady inside left the house. As soon as anyone walked in, they would be able to smell a permeating wave of sweet perfume. It was like the scent of a woman’s body or the fragrance of cosmetics.
But as far as martial artists were concerned, they would subconsciously raise their guards the instant they smelled any unusual odors.
Once everyone heightened their vigilance, they discovered that — There weren’t any problems at all.
Right away, they felt somewhat embarra.s.sed.
Soon after, the group walked deeper into the building.
The deeper they travelled, the more fleeting and errant this perfume became. It lingered at the ends of their noses, and unexpectedly gave one a type of intoxicating feeling.
Yu Cheng’s gaze faintly flickered. His head seemed to be getting a little dizzy.
All of a sudden, a medicinal pill shot into his open mouth, causing his consciousness to become sober and calm.
At this time, he snapped out of it, and realized that the others were all staring at him.
Yu Cheng reacted: “Did I fall into a trap just now?”
Gu Zuo kindly explained to him: “The distant ancestors of your Xiao Clan had many thoughts. Don’t focus on how there really is the fragrance of cosmetics on the outside. After taking a few steps inside, although most of the smells are still cosmetics, the odors have already started changing. The scent you smelled just now is the Serene Soul Incense. It’s also cla.s.sified as a type of soul pill. It can cause a person to be unconsciously controlled by its fragrance.”
He smiled, and placated: “However, you don’t need to worry. Like the great majority of soul pills, the Serene Soul Incense is also afraid of heat. You just swallowed a Flame Energy Pill, which sent heat throughout your whole body. Naturally, there won’t be any issues.”
After discovering that something was wrong, Gu Zuo promptly had everyone take this type of medicinal pill. It was just that, because the realms of the others were high, they didn’t react that quickly after breathing in this scent. As a result, nothing happened once they took the medicinal pills. Meanwhile, Yu Cheng was much weaker, so he was already addled. He needed someone to shoot the pill into his mouth to resolve the problem.
Ashamed, Yu Cheng said: “Many thanks, Pharmacist Gu. I’ve become a burden to everyone.”
Gu Zuo waved his hand: “This odor is very hard to recognize, and your realm is low. Moreover, as a martial artist, there’s no need to dwell over getting caught in a trap. In the future, just be a little more careful.”
It was only natural that Yu Cheng promptly agreed.
Following this, the group got a clear look at the furnishings of the first floor.
Of course, while they didn’t feel that this embroidery house was the site of hidden treasure, there was certainly some kind of mechanism that would reveal its position. In addition, because the blood specks of the last treasury and the location of the inheritance were close to overlapping, the treasury was definitely going to be exposed first. The treasury’s gains certainly wouldn’t be small — This could conceal the true hiding place of the inheritance.
In fact, the ingenuity of the Xiao Clan’s plans didn’t only stem from placing the entrance in this woman’s embroidery house. It was also due to multiple nested concealments.
At the front, the Xiao Clan used so many treasuries to cover it up like a leaf in a forest. It appeared that they already utilized lots of plans. However, if the people arriving had great foresight, this wouldn’t be enough to convince them. As such, these intelligent people would overcome the treasuries and find the woman’s embroidery house. Once they went through the effort of grasping the twenty-second hidden treasury, they would judge the things inside this embroidery house to be the inheritance. As for the location of the real inheritance, in actuality, it would be hidden even deeper behind the last treasury. It would be even more elusive…
With the Jade Heart Pendant in hand, everyone could observe these blood specks that numbered over twenty, and would quickly discover these points. But if a person without the Jade Heart Pendant entered the historical ruin, they definitely wouldn’t make this judgment so easily. In this situation, they would likely be deceived.
The embroidery house’s first floor basically didn’t have anything. There were a few ordinary chairs and an incense burner table. Hanging right in the center was a painted scroll. Depicted on the scroll was a small portrait of a woman in the prime of youth.
This woman was graceful and beautiful. Her appearance was sweet, pleasant, and happy. As she smiled, her cheeks formed small dimples and her eyes slightly curved. While it was out of the question to say that she reached the pinnacle of beauty, one would form a good impression in their heart with a single glance.
When everyone saw this woman, they couldn’t help turning their heads to look at Yu Cheng.
This woman was certainly a member of the Xiao Clan. With their eyesight, they could immediately tell that, while this woman’s appearance wasn’t identical to that of Yu Cheng, those pairs of eyes were exactly the same.
Upon seeing this, Yu Cheng stared blankly.
Compared to the others, the shock he received was rather large — If nothing else, this woman shared some degree of resemblance to his biological mother in his memories. Once he saw this portrait, it was like his heart had skipped a beat.
Afterwards, Yu Cheng couldn’t help saying to the group: “Please allow me to light a joss of incense for her…”
Tianheng and the others naturally weren’t that unreasonable. Since they came to this place, it was considered as having received numerous presents from the Xiao Clan. This small matter was left according to Yu Cheng’s will.
Yu Cheng thanked them, and swiftly took out several things from his inter-spatial tool. He fiddled with them for a short while, and personally made some incense sticks.
Gu Zuo watched this, and felt astonished.
While Yu Cheng worked, he said: “My only close relative was my mother. The incense sticks I lit for her had always been made by my own hands. I could even…”
His words were left unspoken, but his meaning was understood by everyone.
As a result, no one disdained what he was doing right then and there. Rather, they quietly waited and watched him finish.
Once Yu Cheng was done, he reverently lit the incense with filial piety. Soon after, he conscientiously paid his respects. Then, he turned around, and continued to search with the others.
They looked all throughout the first floor, but didn’t find any clues.
Gu Zuo followed everyone to the second floor — In actuality, this small house’s second floor was the place where the embroidery house’s owner lived and moved about. The boudoir and the embroidery room were above.
Thus, after walking up the stairs, everyone was greeted with the sight of an embroidery frame set next to a window, a dainty and exquisite round table slightly in front, and layers of muslin curtains. Hemmed by the muslin curtains was a circular door. Going further in, there was a rather large screen that blocked everyone’s lines of sight.
Deeper inside, there was an embroidered bed, a delicate dressing table, a few long-legged stools, and some well-placed jade bottles, porcelain vessels, and other things.
The arrangement of everything was clear and orderly. The style was filled with a woman’s touch.
Gu Zuo looked all around, and didn’t find any areas that gave a discordant feeling.
Soon after, each person looked in different directions, and went to investigate the furnishings of the rooms.
The probability that these decorations hid the mechanism was very high. It was just like their previous experiences.
Gu Zuo walked in front of the dressing table.
On the table was a cosmetics case, a jewelry case, a copper mirror, some small locked chests, and so on. He looked over every item one at a time. When he opened the jewelry case, he saw a glorious, pearlescent sheen inside. The fine jade practically brightened up the room. The many pieces of jewelry were incomparably beautiful and refined — If he was a girl, he would certainly love them too much to put down. It was a pity that he was a pharmacist who had a crush on his dear big brother. Thus, his attention was only focused on the product grades of the jewelry.
Ah, although they had the appearances of jewelry, all of them were spirit weapons.
Gu Zuo picked up a hairpin, and waved a hand to beckon Yu Cheng.
Yu Cheng just finished looking at the window, and realized that there weren’t any problems with it. When he saw Gu Zuo’s action, he hastily came over: “Pharmacist Gu, do you have any commands?”
Gu Zuo said: “Inject your true qi inside this thing to test it.”
Yu Cheng eyed the jewelry, and his expression became strange in an instant. However, he still obediently followed Gu Zuo’s instructions, and handled this girly head ornament.
With one try, the jewelry abruptly blossomed with strands of light. It suddenly turned into a slender and long spirit sword. It was pure and clean like the limpid waters of autumn. The spiritual light on its surface was dense. Its spirituality reached thirty percent.
Of course, while thirty percent spirituality was merely the average of golden-level spirit weapons, its age was ancient and its style was delicate and refined. Moreover, it was just one type among many pieces of jewelry. This would give anyone a bit of surprise.
Following this, lots of people discovered strange things.
The round table and stools were constructed from Winter Season Wood, and this wood was an extremely good refining material for making spirit weapons. Inside the teapot on the round table, half of the pot was tea stained. This substance could be condensed into tea paste. Its taste was rich and mellow, and it could be used in medicine. The teapot and teacups were constructed out of ten thousand year old Purple Jade. If these things were used to store wine, the wine fragrance wouldn’t disperse. If they were used to store medicine, the medicinal power wouldn’t scatter either…
That embroidery frame was also built out of Winter Season Wood. The embroidery threads that wrapped around the frame were ten thousand year old Ice Threads. They were refined from the threads produced by a type of origin spider. Likewise, it was cla.s.sified as an extremely good refining material.
The viewing screen was made out of ten thousand year old Warm Jade. Drawn on its surface was a length of ten beautiful dancing diagrams. However, those pictures weren’t actually dances. Instead, they were a type of body cultivation method suitable for women. One could sense an inner cultivation method by looking at it a few more times. By following the “dances”, one could learn martial skills. It was very peculiar.
All of the wooden furnishings were actually jade. When they were manufactured, they all already exceeded ten thousand years in age. Since the inheritance lasted until now, it wasn’t known how many years had pa.s.sed. The wooden structures were exquisite refining materials. If a piece of the table was chopped off and taken back, it could be refined into a spirit weapon. The threads of the muslin curtains were likewise refining materials. Certain vessels were either spirit weapons or heavenly materials and earthly treasures…
In short, there wasn’t a single thing on the second floor that wasn’t precious or expensive!
As Gu Zuo watched on, he felt that, although this place wasn’t the site of the hidden treasury, the things here really were impressive.
This included the jade flute hanging on the wall. It was basically a profound-level spirit weapon with a spirituality of 59.9%!
Gu Zuo was speechless.
It wasn’t known if this place was deliberately arranged this way, or if it really was the boudoir of a certain woman from the Xiao Clan back then. If it was the latter, then the Xiao Clan had been incredibly prosperous in those days.
Merely, after a period of amazement, they still weren’t able to find the location of the real hidden treasury.
Later on, there was nothing to be done. Everyone started testing the things in this place one by one.
Hence, Tianheng took down the jade flute on the wall and played it. The battle slaves injected their internal qi into everything they could get their hands on to reveal the items’ true colors. Yu Cheng brought out some top-notch water, and poured it into that teapot to boil tea… However, nothing worked.
In the end, Gu Zuo’s sight fell onto that embroidery frame.
The others also looked over.
Gu Zuo: “I wonder if this needs to be used.”
The battle slaves: “Reporting to Pharmacist Gu, we’ve already injected it with internal qi. There was no reaction.”
Gu Zuo: “…No, that’s not what I meant.”
After that, it seemed that everyone understood Gu Zuo’s meaning.
There hadn’t been any changes once that embroidery frame was injected with internal qi. It could only indicate one problem — This thing was really used for embroidering. That was it! In that case, if one was going to use it, then didn’t it mean that someone had to…embroider flowers?
Gu Zuo: “…”
Gongyi Tianheng: “…”
Yu Cheng: “Um…”
The battle slaves were silent.
After a long while, Gu Zuo opened his mouth with some difficulty: “How about we test it…by embroidering something?”
He used his psychic power to search around. There were no incongruities at all!
As such, the only inconsistency, other than embroidering flowers, ought to have been the embroidery frame, which didn’t have any unusual reactions.
Everyone exchanged glances.
When it came to fighting a battle, no one had any issues. But if it was embroidering flowers, then it was a big problem.
When all was said and done, in a group of adult men, who could embroider?
Tianheng faintly furrowed his brows.
Gu Zuo raised his head and looked at Tianheng: “Big brother, I’m a little regretful that we didn’t bring any women from the nonhuman races along with us.”
Tianheng lightly sighed: “Even if it was a female battle slave, I’m afraid that it also wouldn’t work…”
Gu Zuo was at a loss for words.
T-that was right!
Any female martial artists who could dedicate their hearts to practicing martial arts all year round would be incredibly powerful, and their willpower would be unyielding. Who would have the time to play around with embroidery?
At this moment, it seemed that they had fallen into a deadlock.
With all other alternatives beyond reach, Yu Cheng finally, tentatively, took a step forward.
In a split second, many gazes uniformly looked over.
Yu Cheng’s expression was a bit stiff: “I’ve been living by myself, so I know how to sew and mend clothing. How about I give it a try…”
Gu Zuo promptly replied: “Then, I’ll have to thank you for the trouble!”
That response was direct and to the point. There wasn’t the slightest hesitation.
In any case, Gu Zuo didn’t know how to do it, so it was best to leave it to a “professional”.
Yu Cheng was like a duck driven onto a perch.
For the final inheritance that belonged to him, even if other people had misunderstandings about him… He would give it his all!
Yu Cheng soon took a deep breath. He sat behind that embroidery frame, and started to thread the needle in smooth and unhindered motions. Immediately following which, the needle tip pierced through the white muslin canvas on the embroidery frame. The needle poked a small hole, and pulled through a lengthy strand of thread…
Gu Zuo and the others didn’t dare to go over and exert any pressure on him. They simply stood not too far away, and watched his flying needlework. Many threads were “drawn” on the white muslin to create a tree peony pattern. While it wasn’t that brilliant, there also weren’t any mistakes.
At this time, they discovered that, although the embroidery frame hadn’t undergone any big changes, something was happening to the tree peony flower that was being embroidered. As one needle’s st.i.tch after another fell onto the canvas, it interweaved into a faint splendor.
Upon seeing this, everyone knew that this was probably the crucial point.
Gu Zuo was conflicted. He spoke to Tianheng: “Big brother, who do you think set up this checkpoint…”
Wasn’t this too much of a pitfall? Who would think of this?
On the contrary, Tianheng faintly smiled and said: “Would it be impossible that the person who set up this hurdle is the owner of this embroidery house — The person in the painting on the first floor?”
Gu Zuo blanked.
In other words, the one who concealed this place was a woman?
When thinking about it carefully, it couldn’t be said that the possibility was low.
Gradually, the tree peony flower on the embroidery frame became clearer and clearer. Yu Cheng’s forehead was damp with beads of sweat.
Everyone keenly sensed this. They could detect the fluctuations of Yu Cheng’s true qi. It appeared that, as he embroidered the flower, the true qi he used up wasn’t small.
Gu Zuo immediately took out a medicinal pill, and directly shot it towards Yu Cheng. In order to prevent his internal qi or psychic power from negatively influencing Yu Cheng, Gu Zuo relied completely on his own strength. His hand-eye coordination was very precise, too.
Yu Cheng seemed to sense something, and opened his mouth to swallow that medicinal pill. Shortly thereafter, his slowly-paling face suddenly turned rosy, and his breathing smoothed out.
Before long, the tree peony flower was finally done.
After that, it unexpectedly separated from the embroidery frame, and floated up in the air!
T/N: Thanks for the corrections, Charysa.
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