Chapter 266: I Am Willing to Offer My Sect’s Treasure to Senior
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Lin Shuang gave a bitter smile.
“Senior Yu, the Dragon Pool Mountain Range is teeming with demonic beasts within a hundred miles. If I leave alone now, it won’t even take a quarter of an hour before I fall into another beast’s clutches.”
Lin Shuang didn’t want Yu Zhao to see her as a coward clinging to life or someone shamelessly taking advantage of others. However, she genuinely lacked the strength to traverse the mountain range on her own. After narrowly escaping death, she couldn’t bear to trade her life for a shred of fragile pride by recklessly risking herself again.
Yet, she also couldn’t summon the audacity to beg for Yu Zhao’s protection. She could only choose honesty.
Yu Zhao fell silent, pondering.
What Lin Shuang said was no exaggeration. The Dragon Pool Mountain Range was controlled by various demonic beasts, and even Yu Zhao, disguised as a fox demon, had to remain on high alert to move about within it. However, Yu Zhao was reluctant to bring along such an obvious liability, someone who might expose her identity.
Her mission was to safely escort the young foxes back and avoid unnecessary complications.
Lin Shuang, thinking of her displaced junior brothers and sisters, gritted her teeth and declared, “Senior Yu, I am willing to offer my sect’s treasure in exchange for your protection. Please ensure I make it down the mountain alive.”
“A sect’s treasure?”
Yu Zhao recalled that Lin Shuang hailed from a declining sect with only seven members, where she ranked as the Grand Senior Sister among the disciples. The entire sect boasted just two Golden Core cultivators, one being Lin Shuang’s Master, who was also the sect leader.
Could such an obscure sect truly possess a treasure? Even if they did, would Lin Shuang’s Master be willing to trade it for her life?
Perhaps noticing Yu Zhao’s doubt, Lin Shuang began to spill her sect’s secrets.
The Primordial Unity Sect appeared impoverished and run-down on the surface, but it was secretly very wealthy. Hidden beneath its shabby grounds lay a mid-grade spirit vein. Though the spirit vein wasn’t vast, it produced spirit stones of steady quality, more than enough to sustain their few disciples.
Lin Shuang’s Master believed in “making a fortune in silence” and strictly forbade the disciples from boasting about their sect’s circumstances. As a result, outsiders remained unaware.
At first, Yu Zhao assumed the so-called treasure was the spirit vein. However, her expression gradually turned grim as she listened further.
The disaster struck while Lin Shuang was away participating in a sect competition. Someone learned of the spirit vein’s existence and, in one night, drained all its spiritual energy. The next morning, when Lin Shuang’s Master went to investigate the anomaly, they were ambushed and killed in a single strike, unable to leave even a dying word.
Lin Shuang’s junior brothers and sisters, confused and terrified, fled to find shelter elsewhere, unable to remain at the sect.
When Lin Shuang returned, she found her Master’s corpse, her frightened juniors, and a lifeless spirit vein.
“He drained the vein’s energy; that’s one thing. But why take my Master’s life? And before leaving, he even destroyed the spirit core!” Lin Shuang’s eyes burned with hatred.
A spirit vein’s core was its most critical component. As long as the core remained, the vein could slowly regenerate even after the stones were mined dry. This was why spirit veins were highly coveted in the cultivation world. Cultivators understood the folly of killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
Destroying the core was akin to burning bridges—so why would the killer commit such a self-defeating act? Was it rage? Or did they have some ulterior motive…?
Wait.
Yu Zhao suddenly recalled that in her past life, after being expelled from the Five Elements Dao Sect, she had been falsely accused of destroying several spirit veins. Many sects that had prospered through spirit veins disbanded after their veins died. Because of her infamy, someone pinned the blame on her, labeling her as a vengeful rogue cultivator who destroyed spirit veins out of spite.
Countless displaced cultivators believed the accusations and joined the manhunt for her, crying for vengeance for their fallen sects.
In hindsight, it seemed that someone had long been secretly draining and destroying spirit veins across the cultivation world. It was just that these veins were located in secluded areas, and the incidents hadn’t gained widespread attention.
Yu Zhao’s brow furrowed.
A strange and unsettling pattern was emerging.
After recounting her recent troubles, Lin Shuang turned to the main point. “Before I left, my Master entrusted me with the sect’s treasure. I can now offer it to you, Senior Yu.”
“What treasure are you talking about?”
“The key to an ancient dojo.”
“An ancient dojo?”
Yu Zhao’s pupils shrank, and her heartbeat quickened.
Ancient dojos were relics from the immortal era, built by powerful cultivators to pass on their knowledge. Back then, such dojos were places where great cultivators would teach, offering guidance to anyone fortunate enough to attend. Those who impressed these powerful figures might even receive personal tutelage.
As spiritual energy waned in the modern era, the ancient dojos disappeared without a trace.
Yu Zhao never expected to hear about one from Lin Shuang.
“You have the key. Why don’t you use it yourself?”
Even without live teachings, an ancient dojo could still hold invaluable traces of those great cultivators. A simple carving on the wall might contain profound insights.
For a cultivator like Lin Shuang, entering such a place could profoundly impact her future, even if there was no immediate improvement.
Lin Shuang must have thought of this herself.
“Senior Yu, to be honest, I only have the key. I don’t know the dojo’s exact location or how to open it,” Lin Shuang admitted, her tone laced with guilt.
As an ambitious cultivator, Lin Shuang naturally longed to enter this legendary sanctuary. But she was like someone with a key to a treasure chest yet no knowledge of where to find it.
Otherwise, the key wouldn’t have been passed down to her by her Master.
Yu Zhao understood.
The key was the final step to accessing the dojo, but Lin Shuang didn’t even know where to begin.
“How can you be certain this key belongs to an ancient dojo?”
“You’ll see, Senior Yu.”
Lin Shuang turned away, lifted her sleeve, and cut her arm with her finger. From the wound, a jade token, about the length of a finger, fell into her palm. She swiftly healed the wound with spiritual energy and cleaned the blood off the token before presenting it to Yu Zhao.
Yu Zhao didn’t take the token immediately. Instead, her gaze locked on it, inspecting every detail.
The token, smooth and ancient, exuded an aura of profound history. In a fleeting moment, Yu Zhao seemed to hear the chant of ten thousand voices and glimpsed a vision of cultivators seated in meditation within a grand plaza.