Chapter 327: Object Searching
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
After going along that s.h.i.+ning straight path that ran through the fifth level for an unknown amount of time, the s.p.a.ce around them finally changed. An unusually magnificent white-gray stone door appeared in front of them.
Aya asked with amazement, "What is this place?"
w.a.n.g Lu was stunned for a while. He looked around and saw them standing on a suspended island. Behind them was the boundless sea of clouds and the way in front of them was blocked by that stone door.
"In short, this is not the sixth level of the King’s Treasure House… Unfortunately, the one who is most knowledgeable about this place does not come forward to explain, so this is all purely a guess."
w.a.n.g Lu’s voice had just fallen, and the stone door in front of them suddenly trembled. Its coa.r.s.e harsh surface became twisted, as if there were waves on its surface. Vaguely, it presented a face, which then sent out a dull, swinging-people’s-emotion voice.
"No need to guess. This is the Golden King’s champion trial."
Golden King’s champion trial? It should refer to the interview test for the administration post...
w.a.n.g Lu frowned. "Are you in charge here?"
"In charge? No, there’s no one in charge here," the stone gate said with a rumble, expressing a sort of sadness in its expression and tone. "I am just a common stone gate."
"How much do you know about this champion trial?"
"This is the path that only those extraordinarily brave people embark on."
w.a.n.g Lu nodded. Of course. Only when someone achieves result more than the standard value on certain levels in the King’s Treasure House that there is the chance to enter the champions.h.i.+p trial. It’s a hidden instance.
"This trial is very long, but the farther you go, the more you can get. The previous person who opened this trial came to the fifth pa.s.s before he stopped, and thus obtained the favor of the king."
Favor of the king? This Golden King is really blind for letting a wolf in. But in other words, as long as I reach the fifth pa.s.s, Holy Light Religion will say goodbye to the King’s Treasure House.
"There’s no one in charge for this trial, and only the stone gates that guard each of the pa.s.s that waits silently for you. As long as you can meet their conditions, you can enter the next pa.s.s. However, I haven’t had a contact with the several stone gates after me, so I don’t know if there’s any change."
"It turns out to be so." w.a.n.g Lu pondered for a moment and decided not to continue to ask for more and just go straight to the point, "Then, as the guardian of the first pa.s.s, what do you want?"
That stone gate said, "A long time ago, I had inadvertently lost a piece of the king’s treasure and therefore punished by the king to become a guardian here until today. If you can get that treasure back for me, I would be very grateful to you."
Upon hearing about it, w.a.n.g Lu didn’t rush to ask information regarding that treasure, instead, he curiously asked, "What did you ask the person before me?"
"It’s the same task as you. Unfortunately, he didn’t find the treasure." The stone gate said, "But, he did find some important clues. And because I’m being pragmatic, I considered his payment enough, so I allowed him to go through this pa.s.s."
w.a.n.g Lu said, "So, can you tell me those clues?"
The stone gate buzzed. "I’m sorry, I can’t do that. Moreover, you can’t submit the same clues as him."
"I understand." w.a.n.g Lu nodded. "Then since now it’s my turn, I will need to find the treasure in order for you to let me go through this pa.s.s? Very well, then tell me, what exactly is that treasure?"
The stone gate’s voice was filled with vicissitudes of life as it emotionally said, "It’s the king’s most favorite wine cup. Although its material quality is ordinary, just the finest gold, but it’s personally handcrafted by the most famous jewelry master in the kingdom for a whole month. Its craftsmans.h.i.+p is really beautiful, and it’s the master’s finest. Its exact appearance is this."
Then, in front of the stone gate, a lump of mist appeared and slowly condensed into the shape of the wine cup, showing its golden l.u.s.ter. The wine cup was really worthy of a masterpiece, its shape and decoration could indeed be evaluated as superb
"Oh, what a beautiful wine cup." w.a.n.g Lu gave his praise. "No wonder you become miserable after you lost it."
It was as if the stone gate didn’t hear the sarcasm in w.a.n.g Lu’s words as it sadly said, "Yes, from the one hundred and three most favorites gla.s.ses of the king, it is one of the top twenty. So, it’s my heinous crime to lose it."
"…"
"Well, please bring it back to me. I remember I lost it near the highland of th.o.r.n.y ice, but it has been so long, so someone else has certainly taken it, and in time, it must have constantly moved around the continent. I will open a portal to the highland of th.o.r.n.y ice so that you can start collecting clues from there. And when you find the wine cup, you can break this crystal stone to return here."
With that, the stone gate dropped a purple stone crystal and a portal opened beside it.
"Okay, that’s it, I wish you good luck. Ah, it’s been a long time of not talking to people, I’m so tired…" With that, the stone gate fell into slumber, and the water-like face disappeared behind the stony surface.
—
"w.a.n.g Lu, what should we do now?"
The team members stood behind the portal, waiting for the instructions from their team leader, w.a.n.g Lu.
w.a.n.g Lu picked up the transmission crystal stone but didn’t speak.
Aya said, "It seems like things are deliberately made difficult for us. Where could we find a wine cup that has been lost for thousands of years? The power of Holy Light Religion has spread all over the continent, and even they failed to find it, only the clues… it’s even highly likely that this object has been destroyed! That object is not some kind of precious weapon, but just a wine gla.s.s. I… I have not even heard of it."
"It’s okay, I have a way. Don’t forget, I’m the lead disciple of the Spirit Sword Sect." w.a.n.g Lu said and confidently patted his chest. "And on the mountain, there’s a very famous treasure hunter, the Eight Elder!"
"... That’s not worth showing off!"
"Hahaha, even if Eight Elder is unreliable, don’t we still have a spirit dog whose sense of smell far surpa.s.sed that of anyone in the world, and thus, the most suitable to find things?" w.a.n.g Lu said and then stretched out his hand, not towards the dumb dog, but to pat Bai s.h.i.+xuan’s head. "Immortal beast, Bai s.h.i.+xuan!"
The face of the always indifferent little Bai suddenly turned red. "You! Senior Brother, don’t tease me!"
Aya, feeling both angry and funny at the same time, patted away w.a.n.g Lu’s hand from Little Bai’s head. "Don’t make fun of good people. Moreover, even if we let Huahua help us, now we haven’t even seen that wine cup concretely, so no matter how sensitive his nose is, he can’t help us."
"In short, rest a.s.sured, I got this," w.a.n.g Lu said and then pulled the several people’s hands and walked into the portal. In a flash, this group of people disappeared from the floating island.
—
At the same time, in the depths of the King’s Treasure House, the administrator let out a contemptuous sneer. In front of him, a crystal clear mirror showed the scene of that floating island. Although he couldn’t see the scene on the other side of the portal, he had heard the conversation between w.a.n.g Lu and his teammates.
"He got this? What a joke!" the administrator muttered. "At that time, the church needed to mobilize its entire force, hundreds of millions of believers to gather the information. In the end, all they could find is that, the wine cup has already gone from the highland of th.o.r.n.y ice, and then successively appeared in more than thirty countries on the continent, going through the hands of countless of masters, until finally, two thousand years ago, it was completely lost, not to be heard again… It might have even been damaged. Even the prophet could not tell where it was. On what grounds do these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds think they could find that wine cup?"
"Besides, since I now know that you guys are in the highland of th.o.r.n.y ice, then your next stop is also obvious. I’m not interested in this game of finding things! Since your group dares to leave Dragon City, leave the King’s Treasure House, then you’re courting death!"
While sneering, the administrator clenched his fists, and the magnificently luxurious armrest was torn apart!
—
"So cold!"
When they came out of the portal, they were greeted by the whistling cold wind, and all around them were wind and snow. Goose-feather-like snowflakes danced in the blast, the fine ice dregs were like daggers, and the snow sent a deep chill into the bones. Unexpectedly, even this group of Xudan and Jindan masters somewhat could not endure the temperature.
Liu Li’s physique was relatively delicate, so she could not help but s.h.i.+ver. Immediately, she summoned her fiery flying sword, which with her pure magical power perfusion sent out heat. Despite that, the flame remained shaky.
As the spirit of the surrounding, Bai s.h.i.+xuan was the most adept at adapting to the changing environment, but even she somewhat could not handle it.
"The highland of th.o.r.n.y ice is a cursed place." Aya’s voice was somewhat erratic due to the windblast. "In the Golden King era, this is a prosperous place, but later on, it suffered through a number of wars. A legendary level Ice Queen died here, but just before she died, she left behind a curse so that this place is no longer suitable for living creatures. Even if the wine cup is still here, we can’t look for it under this cold wind, so we need to leave this place first. There are human cities on the edge of this plateau, we can take a break there!"
This group of people was, after all, powerful individuals, therefore, although this very harsh environment has made them feel slight discomfort, braving the wind under Aya’s direction was not that strenuous. With w.a.n.g Lu leading at the front, he used the Non-Phase sword defense to isolate the wind and cold on the outside, while his teammates followed behind him. After only half a day, they have already flown off the plateau and came to the bustling border town—Ascarte.
Although the city was small, it was quite complete. Moreover, the city was prosperous and flouris.h.i.+ng.
Although the highland of th.o.r.n.y ice was a cursed place, it was once a kingdom. Thus, there were many buried treasures, which then attracted many treasure seekers—it was the so-called riches lie in the danger. Moreover, after thousands of years under the extreme condition, the plateau formed a lot of precious materials. Therefore, this place was highly regarded by the adventurers. Many people were willing to go to the plateau to look for treasures, and indeed, many have managed to obtain plentiful harvests. Ascarte, located in the safety zone closest to the plateau, played as a transport hub, thus, its prosperity was also logical.
"It’s a paradise for the adventurers, there are even many high order professions."
After entering the town, w.a.n.g Lu swept his gaze and found out that most of the people in town were adventurers. Most of the establishments in the town were inns, as well as shops selling equipment and props.
Aya said, "I suggest we start the investigation at the local church. This is an ancient traditional church that believes in the ice G.o.ddess, with very long tradition. If we want to know if there are any important thousands of years of information on the plateau, they usually know. That wine cup has been missing for thousands of years, but, after all, it started here."
w.a.n.g Lu smiled but shook his head. "There’s no need for that much trouble. These thousands of years of time intervals, even if the church has left any record, based on our numbers, do you think we can find it? How much time do you think we can waste our time here?"
"Then you’re going to…"
"Go to the prop shop first. Since the business is flouris.h.i.+ng, the type of goods should be very complete…"
After entering the prop shop, w.a.n.g Lu scanned the goods that were displayed at the shop, then he said with a smile, "Looks like all of them are here. Boss, I want two units of highest quality blessed gold ingot, multicolored stones, flaming red stone, cryolite, blast stone, thunder stone, holy light stone, shadow stone… one for each of them. Then I want secret silver thread, fine golden leaf…"
Upon listening to the materials named by w.a.n.g Lu, Aya was first curious, then her eyes sprang wide, looking at w.a.n.g Lu in disbelief.
"A-Are you thinking about…!"
w.a.n.g Lu coldly snorted. "Is there any other way? When that pain in the a.s.s forced me to look for an artifact that has been missing for thousands of years, I already knew that it’s about time I show them my genuine counterfeiting skill!"