After exclaiming in amazement!
Cheng Buzheng slowly withdrew his gaze from the carved reliefs, as though waking from an ancient, silent dream.
Then!
He steadied himself anew, his gaze sharp as lightning as he once more scrutinized this grand and mysterious hall.
The hall was vast and silent, with only relief carvings sprawled across its four walls.
Other than relief carvings, there were more relief carvings.
There was nothing else.
At this sight, Cheng Buzheng's brow furrowed ever tighter, a trace of confusion and stubborn resolve flashing through his eyes.
"Impossible!" he murmured, his voice echoing through the hall and making it seem all the lonelier.
"This hall is hidden so deeply, so secretly—how could it possibly contain not a single treasure?"
His gaze abruptly sharpened.
"There must be a hidden treasury here!"
As his thoughts raced, his gaze fell once more upon the hall's inner walls—
walls that were pitch-black yet gleamed with a cold metallic luster.
He had not paid attention during his hurried earlier glance, but upon closer inspection now, he realized with a start that the metal of these inner walls differed noticeably from the black boulders of the outer hall.
Though their colors were similar, their materials were different.
The former was a spirit metal.
The latter was some sort of plain, unremarkable black stone.
That slight difference pierced his thoughts like a flash of lightning.
An inexplicable unease quietly spread within him.
Yet he did not hesitate. His vast Divine Sense swept out once more, surging toward the four walls like a tide—
but in the next instant, that ever-effective Divine Sense seemed to strike a wall of heaven, completely blocked by the pitch-black metal!
His Divine Sense surged and rebounded, sending faint ripples through his Sea of Consciousness.
"As expected... the secret of