The Inner Treasury
Lin Ming stood in front of the main hall's entrance, looking up at the two massive, dark blue Stone Doors, each about ten feet tall.
The facade is covered with dense Flood Dragon patterns, the Flood Dragons baring their fangs and claws, their heads facing inwards and their tails outwards, like two rows of guards worshipping in the palace.
Within each line, a faint, dark golden light slowly circulates, like golden threads buried beneath the stone surface.
The palace door was ajar, and an extremely dense Spiritual Energy fluctuation emanated from the crack, like a spiritual vein that had been locked behind a door and was still breathing slowly, each breath causing the air in the crack to distort slightly.
He stretched out his hands and placed them on the left-hand palace door, his palms pressed against the cloud and dragon Dragon Patterns, and pushed forward forcefully.
The door was extremely heavy, several times heavier than the Stone Door of the side hall just now. He had to use forty percent of his Spiritual Energy to push the door open just enough for him to squeeze through.
The door hinges made a very deep rumble as they turned, like a sleeping Flood Dragon inside being awakened and throwing a tantrum.
He squeezed through the crack in the door, and the scene inside the hall unfolded before his eyes.
The interior of the main hall was even more spacious than he had expected.
The dome hangs about a hundred feet high, with a huge star map carved on its top. The stars are arranged in a very precise pattern, like a night sky compressed onto the roof of the palace.
The hall is divided into three sections. The first section is a wide passageway with dozens of stone statues on both sides. The statues are in various shapes and sizes. Some are wearing armor and holding halberds, some are holding tablets and standing, and some are carrying long swords, like a group of civil and military attendants on duty in the hall.
Most of the stone statues were broken; some had missing arms, some were headless, and some were split in the middle, with rubble scattered on the passageway floor.
The second courtyard was a spacious council hall, in which stood a huge long Blue Stone table. On the table were fragments of cups and scattered Jade Slips. Most of the Jade Slips were broken, and the few intact ones were dull and lifeless, like withered trees drained of their Spiritual Energy.
The walls of the hall are covered with huge murals depicting scenes of armies clashing and immortals fighting. Although the colors have faded and peeled, the Killing Aura emanating from the paintings still makes one's heart clench.
The third courtyard is an inner hall, which is much smaller than the first two courtyards, but the concentration of Spiritual Energy within it is several times higher than the combined concentration of the previous two courtyards.
The door to the inner hall was tightly closed, and an extremely complex array was carved on its surface. The Spiritual Runes patterns were layered and nested together, like a pagoda with more than a dozen layers. Each layer had a different color, from crimson to indigo to deep purple, like a rainbow compressed onto the door panel.
Lin Ming stood in front of the door, probing the array with his Spiritual Energy.
The moment his senses touched that layer of Spiritual Runes, he felt an extremely strong repulsive force, as if a hand was pressing on his senses and pushing it outwards.
This formation has reached the level of High-Rank Grandmaster, far surpassing any formation he had encountered in the side hall before. The arrangement of the Spiritual Runes is extremely precise, with each Spiritual Runes connected to several others, like a spider web woven with more than a dozen layers, where moving one part affects the whole.
Lin Ming began to investigate seriously. He condensed his Spiritual Energy into an extremely thin probe and began to examine the array inch by inch from its edge.
His gaze swept over the Spiritual Runes repeatedly, his mind racing as he deduced the direction of each Spiritual Runes, the connection method of each node, and the operating rules of the entire formation.
Having inherited the Master of the Lin Residence, he knew better than others how to dismantle such complex formations, much like an experienced locksmith who could discern the internal structure of a complex lock from the clicking sound of the lock cylinder.
Even so, it still took him about half an hour to finally find the key to this formation.
Although the Spiritual Runes appeared to be airtight on the surface, there was a tiny point of disorder inside, located at the intersection of the third and fourth layers of Spiritual Runes in the southeast corner of the formation.
The two Spiritual Runes there were slightly misaligned at a certain point, like the teeth of two gears in a precision instrument biting slightly off-center.
When the formation is intact, this misalignment can be concealed by the coordination of other Spiritual Runes. However, as the Spiritual Energy of those Spiritual Runes gradually weakens over thousands of years, this misalignment is magnified.
After finding the flaw, Lin Ming stretched out his finger and condensed a wisp of Spiritual Energy into an extremely thin thread, which he then threaded through the misaligned gap, just like a thread going through the eye of a needle.
Then he gently flicked the Spiritual Energy threads upwards, returning the two misaligned Spiritual Runes to their original positions.
The entire formation trembled violently, and the Spiritual Runes flickered wildly as if a mechanism had been triggered. Then, starting from the southeast corner, they dimmed layer by layer, like a toppled domino, disappearing completely in less than three breaths from the first layer to the top.
The door to the inner sanctuary slid open silently, revealing a small Stone Chamber behind it.
The Stone Chamber was about three zhang square, with the four walls made of white jade. The floor was engraved with a circle of Spirit Gathering Formation patterns. Although it had faded considerably, wisps of Spirit Qi still seeped out from the Formation Patterns, like a nearly dried-up spring stubbornly gushing water.
In the center of the Stone Chamber stood a stone platform, upon which were placed three items. On the left was a scroll woven from gold thread, the gold thread as fine as a hair yet exceptionally strong. The scroll, when unrolled, was about a foot long, and on it were written the incantation of a Cultivation Method in extremely neat regular script.
Lin Ming glanced at it and saw that the Cultivation Method was called "Mountain-Subduing Art), an Earth Element power that uses the Earth Power to create mountains to suppress opponents. It was of a high grade, roughly equivalent to the top level among superior divine powers.
He carefully put the scroll away and turned his gaze to the center of the stone platform.
There was a Jade Bottle there, about the size of a Jade Bottle, with a warm, purplish-gold color. A ring of fine Pill Patterns Pill Pattern engraved on the bottle, like rings of time carved into the jade surface.
Lin Ming opened the bottle, and an extremely rich Medicinal Fragrance wafted out. The fragrance carried a heavy Earth-Element Power, like a piece of the earth's essence that had been boiled into medicine over millennia.
He examined it for a moment and recognized it as an "Earth Essence Pill," made primarily from ten-thousand-year-old earth core marrow. It was an excellent auxiliary pill for cultivators practicing Earth Element Cultivation Method when attempting to break through to the Earth Sovereign.
After putting the Jade Bottle away, Lin Ming looked to the right side of the stone platform.
There was a bronze box there. When opened, it contained a yellowish-brown Crystal Stone about the size of a fist. The Crystal Stone was perfectly round, with fine natural patterns slowly flowing across its surface, like a miniature earth compressed into a sphere.
This is a "Sea Heart Essence Crystal," which is something that can only be formed in the heart of a vast ocean over tens of thousands of years. It contains extremely pure ocean power, making it a rare treasure whether used for refining artifacts or for enlightenment.
After pocketing the three items, he turned and left the inner hall, returning to the council hall. Although most of the scattered Jade Slips in the hall were broken, he still squatted down and examined them one by one, collecting a few scrolls whose text was still legible. These Jade Slips mostly contained records of the daily affairs of the First Hall and some cultivation insights from lower-level disciples. Although they were not of high value, they occasionally contained snippets about the First Hall's inner treasury.
Lin Ming quickly browsed through the records and pieced together some useful clues from the fragmented information.
The inner treasury of the First Hall should be located in a separate side hall behind the main hall. There is a High-Rank Grandmaster protective array at the entrance, which requires three access tokens to be activated simultaneously to open it.
The three Black Tokens he found in the side hall were the Imperial Treasury's access tokens.
Lin Ming came out of the main hall and walked towards the back along the Ruins outside the hall.
The Ruins behind the main hall were even denser and more dilapidated than those in front, with collapsed buildings and broken stone pillars piled together like a forest of toppled blocks.
He walked through the Ruins for about a hundred feet and then came to a small, independent temple.
The small temple was much better preserved than the surrounding buildings. Although a corner of the roof had collapsed, the walls and doors were still standing, like a small temple that had survived a storm.
The palace door was engraved with a ring of extremely conspicuous Spiritual Runes. These Spiritual Runes were a deep purple color, like wisteria vines carved on the door panels, intertwining and spreading, covering the entire palace door completely.
The formation was of the same grade as the one he had encountered in front of the inner hall, but its structure was more refined and stable, like a bamboo basket woven with twenty layers, with each bamboo strip tightly gripping the adjacent bamboo strip.
In the very center of the palace gate, there were three grooves arranged in a triangular shape, the shape of which perfectly matched the three Black Tokens he had found in the side hall.
Lin Ming took out the three tokens and inserted them one by one into the three grooves.
When the first token was inserted into the slot, the purple Spiritual Runes on the palace door lit up for a moment; when the second token was inserted, those Spiritual Runes began to flow faster; the moment the third token was inserted, the entire palace door shook violently, and those purple Spiritual Runes retreated to both sides as if a curtain had been torn open from the middle, revealing the ancient black Stone Door beneath.
The Stone Door slid open silently, and an extremely dense Spiritual Energy surged out from behind it. The Spiritual Energy was so thick that it was almost tangible, forming a visible white Spirit Mist in front of Lin Ming.
He stepped into the palace, and the sight inside made him squint slightly.
The inner treasury was much larger than he had expected. The hall was divided into several Stone Chambers, and the shelves in each Stone Chamber were piled high with items. There were neatly stacked spiritual materials and ores, pills sealed in Jade Casket, Cultivation Method hanging on the walls, cultivation Jade Slip on the tables, and several large sealed boxes scattered in the corners.
Although most of those things have lost their Spirituality over the millennia, one can still occasionally find a few well-preserved treasures among them.