The Treasury, the Xu Family Makes Its Move

Fire Spring Sect's peaks stood linked together, rising and falling in an endless range.

Following the blood trail on the ground, Shen Zhou and his group tracked the Two-Headed Lion to a gorge.

A forest of stone blocked their way through the gorge.

The stone forest rose and fell as far as the eye could see, a tangled maze of unknown depth and unclear terrain. Anyone who blundered in might easily get lost.

At the very front of the stone forest stood a huge stone stele, about two zhang tall and thick and heavy. Eight large characters were carved into it: "Rear Mountain Forbidden Ground. No Entry."

The group stopped before the stele. Meng Gang glanced at the words carved on it, then turned back and asked, "That beast went into the woods. Are we still chasing it?"

Old Man Ji looked hesitant. He didn't want to let the Two-Headed Lion, a creature comparable to a great medicinal herb, get away, but he was also quite wary of the forbidden ground of a sect that had been neither wholly righteous nor wholly evil a thousand years ago.

With the Taixuan Sword in hand, Shen Zhou didn't hesitate in the slightest. "What's there to be afraid of? Let's go after it. This is just meant to scare people."

Tang Shan hurriedly tried to stop him. "Junior Brother Shen Zhou, you absolutely mustn't."

Qin Changfeng also urged him to reconsider. "Family Head, since this is the Fire Spring Sect's forbidden ground, there must be dangers and restrictions inside. For safety's sake, we'd better not go charging in."

Shen Zhou was noncommittal. "What's there to fear from a forbidden ground? A thousand years have passed. Even if there really were a formation, it must have stopped working by now. Besides, I..."

Shen Zhou suddenly stopped speaking.

He'd been about to say, Even if there is one, I'm invincible under heaven. What could I possibly fear?

Qin Yihu gazed at the Rear Mountain Forbidden Ground, seemingly reluctant to give up so easily. "Since this is a forbidden ground, tell me, could the Fire Spring Sect's treasury from back then be inside?"

Those words were like a drop of water falling into a pot of boiling oil. Everyone's spirits immediately lifted, and their breathing grew somewhat hurried.

If the Fire Spring Sect's treasury really was inside, what an enormous treasure trove a sect's collection would be.

Divine arts...

Secret techniques...

Pills...

Spirit Stones...

If they got their hands on it, the Qin Family could turn its fortunes around with ease and return to the ranks of the top families. It might even overpower the other five great families and become the foremost family of them all.

Now even Qin Changfeng hesitated.

Seeing everyone wanting to go in but lacking the nerve, Shen Zhou decisively stepped forward. "Look at you all, racking your brains over this. Since we don't know what's going on, I'll go in and take a look. Even if there's danger, I have the Taixuan Sword with me. It shouldn't be hard to get back out."

In truth, he was only saying this to reassure the Qin Family members. Now that he was going in, there was no way he'd leave without finding the treasure.

After hearing him out, everyone discussed it and agreed.

It seemed like the best option available.

In the end, Old Man Ji felt it was too dangerous for Shen Zhou to go in alone, so he suggested that they enter together.

Once they'd made up their minds, Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji wasted no more time. Following the blood trail, they flashed into the stone forest.

Before the stele, Qin Mingyue, the Qin Family's two elders, Li Taohua, Tang Shan, and Meng Gang waited outside together.

"Roar!"

The Two-Headed Lion had been lying on a boulder, resting and tending to its wounds. Thanks to a demonic beast's powerful bloodline and constitution, the bleeding from its severed neck had already stopped in that short time, and a scab was beginning to form.

It only needed to sleep for a few days, and its wounds would heal completely.

But suddenly, the scent of humans reached it through the air, carrying a trace of cold killing intent. The Two-Headed Lion sprang to its feet on the huge blue-gray rock and roared warily at the stone forest.

Whoosh, whoosh...

The next moment, two figures raced through the air like gray shadows, bursting out of the stone forest and arriving before the mountain.

"Beast, so you really were here!"

Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji landed together. The instant he saw the Two-Headed Lion, Shen Zhou raised his hand and struck with his sword.

Sword Qi surged!

The Two-Headed Lion: "..."

If the Two-Headed Lion could speak, it would have already been cursing up a storm.

This guy had chopped off one of its heads, and it hadn't even had a chance to curse him out yet. How dare he attack first?

The Two-Headed Lion flew into a rage. It immediately sprang aside to dodge, then opened its mouths and spat a fireball each at Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji.

Shen Zhou cleaved the fireball apart with one strike. Then his body turned into a streak of light as he chased the Two-Headed Lion and hacked at it again, fierce as a human-shaped tyrannosaurus.

Old Man Ji smashed the fireball with a punch, then immediately sealed off the Two-Headed Lion's escape route, leaving it no chance to flee again. "Beast, let's see where you can run this time. I'm drinking that 'lion soup' no matter what!"

Roar, roar...

Boom, boom...

Sword Qi filled the sky, engulfing the Two-Headed Lion. In the end, it couldn't last even two breaths before Shen Zhou chopped off its other head with another strike and then kicked it flying.

Seeing this, Old Man Ji looked regretful. "Ah, why'd you kick the lion's head away? It would've tasted great braised in sauce!"

Shen Zhou: "..."

The "braised lion's head" you're talking about doesn't sound anything like the "lion's head" I know!

After storing the Two-Headed Lion's corpse inside the Taixuan Sword, Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji surveyed their surroundings. Only then did they notice a cave not far away, though its entrance was sealed by a stone door, making it impossible to enter.

Old Man Ji's eyes lit up. "The Fire Spring Sect's treasury?"

Shen Zhou's spirits lifted too. "Let's go take a look."

After they approached, the two searched around the entrance for a long while, but unfortunately, they couldn't find the mechanism to open the door.

Old Man Ji looked disappointed. "Well, this is it. If there really is treasure inside, we still can't get in!"

Shen Zhou glanced at the Taixuan Sword in his hand, then immediately struck the door with it.

The whole ground shook, but the stone door remained firm. Still, the sword's edge had cut several inches into it.

Old Man Ji took a look and furrowed his brows. "The stone door's made of a rather unusual material. I'm afraid it'll be hard to..."

Before Old Man Ji could finish speaking, Shen Zhou raised his hand and formed a Sword Aura more than ten meters long. Then he swung his hand, unleashing over a hundred strikes in the space of a single breath.

The stone door shattered with a crash.

Shen Zhou sheathed his sword, without even breathing hard, and asked, "What were you saying just now?"

"..."

Old Man Ji's mouth twitched.

He'd forgotten that with a sword in hand, this kid could enter the Heavenly Firmament Realm.

The two then stepped into the cave.

As Shen Zhou and Old Man Ji entered the cave in the Fire Spring Sect Forbidden Ground, Xu Baxia, Xu You, and the others emerged from hiding outside the stone forest, no longer skulking around in secret.

Seeing them appear out of nowhere, Second Elder Qin, Qin Changfeng, knitted his brows and grew wary.

Qin Yihu was a blunt man and didn't think anything was amiss. Instead, he asked cheerfully, "Huh, how did you find your way here too? Did you find any treasures along that mountain path?"

Xu Baxia remained cold and silent, but the great halberd behind him was somehow already in his hand. His eyes held a simmering readiness to fight and kill.

At Xu You's words, he didn't let anything show. Smiling, he sauntered over. "I did. I found a bottle of pills, but I don't know what they do. I was just hoping to ask the two Qin Family elders to take a look."

As he spoke, Xu You took a bottle from his sleeve and held it out.

Qin Yihu didn't suspect anything and stepped closer.

But just as Qin Yihu reached to take the bottle, the smile vanished from Xu You's face. His gaze sharpened, and he suddenly struck, putting all his strength into a palm strike aimed straight at Qin Yihu's chest.

Qin Yihu might have been thickheaded, but he was still a Qin Family elder and a Transformation Yuan Eighth Realm expert. The instant Xu You attacked, a martial artist's instincts made him unleash his essence force without thinking. At the same time, his hands shot up like a bar across a door, guarding his chest with lightning speed.

The next moment,

the palm strike landed on Qin Yihu's arms.

With a muffled thud, Qin Yihu was sent flying. He slid a long way before landing, his expression changing as his face quickly turned bright red.

Whoosh, whoosh!

The Xu Family's sudden attack jolted everyone else into action.

Tang Shan and Meng Gang were shocked, then hurriedly took up defensive positions and warily watched the opposing side.

Qin Mingyue drew her sword at once. As she watched Xu Baxia and the others approach unhurriedly, a foreboding feeling rose in her heart.

The Xu Family really had harbored ill intentions!

Qin Changfeng quickly rushed over to stand in front of Qin Yihu, guarding against another attack. Then he glared coldly at Xu You and snapped, "Elder Xu, what do you mean by this?"

Xu You finally showed his true face, no longer pretending. He gave a cold laugh. "Elder Changfeng, there's no need to put on an act. Ever since we entered the Secret Realm, you've been on guard against us. That's why you later suggested that our two families split up, isn't it?"

Seeing Xu You lay it all bare, Qin Changfeng let go of his anger and spoke calmly. "It looks like our precautions weren't unnecessary. The Xu Family really is treacherous.

"But I don't understand. Your Xu Family began currying favor with my Qin Family back when we negotiated at North Mountain. You laid the groundwork for so long. What exactly was it all for?"

At that, a voice carried over Xu You and answered in his place. "Because... I, the head of the family, want the Qin Family's Divine Weapon—the Taixuan Sword!"

At those words, Xu You was the first to turn around and look behind him. He immediately bowed. "Family Head!"

Qin Changfeng, Qin Mingyue, Tang Shan, and the others all changed expression in an instant.

They followed the voice and saw another group of people coming up behind Xu Baxia and the others.

There weren't many of them, fewer than ten, but each had dense qi and blood, abundant essence force, and a tiger-like aura.

The man at the front was especially imposing. He strode forward with the bearing of a dragon and tiger, standing firm as a mountain with his might held in reserve.

A closer look revealed that it was none other than the current head of the Xu Family, the wily Xu Mengfu!

The instant Qin Changfeng recognized him, his heart sank.

Even the Xu Family Head had appeared here, and no one else had come with him. That could only mean Xu Mengfu had snuck in without telling anyone.

But if there was only one entrance to the underground Secret Realm, with Qin Yuanshan and the clan matriarch guarding it outside, Xu Mengfu couldn't possibly have slipped in alone without their noticing.

Yet he was here now. There was only one possibility.

There was more than one entrance to the Secret Realm!

If the Xu Family had known about the Secret Realm all along, then the exposure of its entrance this time could only have been a plot.

A plot the Xu Family had laid long ago to target Shen Zhou and the Qin Family!

Now that they had revealed their hand, it was even clearer that the Xu Family was entirely confident of victory.

The moment Qin Changfeng realized this, goosebumps rose all over his back. Without the slightest hesitation, he made his decision and turned to shout at Li Taohua, Qin Mingyue, Tang Shan, and the others, "Quick, get into the stone forest!"

But it was too late.

Before Qin Mingyue and the others could move, Xu Mengfu waved to the group of Xu Family elites behind him. "Take them down!"

The battle erupted in an instant!