Treasures Abound in the Treasury, Only Scrap Iron Wanted

Early the next morning, as soon as Lu Yuan arrived at the East Training Area, he saw Qian Renxue standing by the side of the field.

Her left arm was rebandaged, and her complexion had recovered quite a bit.

Yan Tuo was leading the others in a warm-up. When he saw her approach, the words he had originally prepared to call Lu Yuan back to the team reached his lips and were swallowed back down.

Lu Yuan walked over.

The poison is cleared?

"It was mostly cleared by last night."

Qian Renxue raised her left hand slightly.

"The healing soul master said to rest it for two more days."

And Uncle Han?

"Still lying down."

Did he keep his leg?

Qian Renxue glanced at him.

"If he heard that sentence, he'd probably settle accounts with you first."

That meant he was fine.

Lu Yuan nodded and was about to go back to training, but Qian Renxue didn't move aside.

"Thanks for yesterday's matter."

Lu Yuan stopped.

"Bai Li treated the wound."

"You found the spider silk."

"She saw it later too."

"But she didn't see it at first."

Qian Renxue's tone was very calm.

"When I was running my soul power, you were also the one who told me to stop first."

Lu Yuan looked at her for a few breaths.

"Then don't run your soul power randomly next time you're poisoned."

The corners of Qian Renxue's mouth twitched slightly.

"I'd rather not have a next time."

That was true too.

Her gaze quickly landed on the Piercing Spear.

"Grandfather looked for you last night?"

"Mhm."

"What did he say?"

"Asked me to go to the outer treasury today."

"For this spear?"

"To see if there's anything that can make it react again."

Qian Renxue turned around.

"Let's go."

Lu Yuan was stunned.

"You're going too?"

"I said yesterday, I'm looking for you today."

She was already walking outward.

"Besides, I have clearance to enter the outer treasury."

Lu Yuan followed.

Yan Tuo watched the two leave and didn't call out to anyone else.

The outer treasury was not far from the Elder Hall.

Yesterday Lu Yuan had actually passed by the vicinity, but he hadn't gone inside.

Guarding the door was an elderly man with graying hair.

As soon as Qian Renxue arrived, he stood up and saluted.

"Young Lord."

Qian Renxue nodded.

"The Grand Pontiff should have mentioned it."

The old man's gaze fell on Lu Yuan.

"Lu Yuan?"

"It is."

"The token."

Lu Yuan handed over the outer treasury pass token.

Only after the old man confirmed it did he open the heavy stone door.

"The third floor of the outer treasury."

"You can only enter the first floor today."

"You can look, and you can touch, but you cannot take anything away without permission."

"Understood."

Beyond the stone door, it was much larger than Lu Yuan had imagined.

Rows of wooden shelves extended deep into the interior.

Ores, metal blocks, broken weapons, and quite a few things whose uses couldn't even be figured out.

The old man led them to the first row.

The first wooden box was opened.

Inside lay a lump of silvery-white ore the size of a fist.

"Cold silver."

"Some ice attribute instrument martial souls will have a slight reaction after contacting it."

Lu Yuan brought the Piercing Spear close.

Quiet and still.

The second piece was a crimson metal.

Still no reaction.

Later they tried dark gold, a section of a broken blade left behind by a soul king, and a special crystal extracted from a thunder-struck wood.

The Piercing Spear never showed any movement at all.

An hour passed.

Qian Renxue couldn't help but ask a question.

"When we passed that black gate yesterday, did it really ring on its own?"

"Didn't you hear it too?"

"That's why it's strange."

She glanced at the wooden boxes beside them.

"Any one of these things taken outside wouldn't be considered ordinary, and it doesn't recognize a single one?"

Lu Yuan lowered his head and glanced at the spear in his hand.

"Maybe it's picky."

Qian Renxue looked at him.

"Picky to this extent?"

"Anyway, I'm not the picky one."

The old man listening nearby twitched the corners of his eyes slightly.

Next, dozens more items were tested.

It was still the same.

The Piercing Spear didn't even vibrate once.

The old man finally closed a wooden box.

"Basically all the materials on the first floor truly worth storing separately have been tested."

"It seems the Grand Pontiff's guess might not be right."

Lu Yuan didn't answer immediately.

He definitely wouldn't remember the two vibrations when passing the black gate yesterday wrong.

If it wasn't because of the materials, then what was it for?

He continued forward along the last row of wooden shelves.

The old man reminded him.

"You don't need to look over there."

Lu Yuan stopped in his tracks.

"Why?"

"Waste materials prepared to be cleared out."

Two rows of old shelves were placed separately at the very back.

Unlike the wooden boxes in the front, the things on them were placed very casually.

Rusted hilts.

Vambraces broken into two sections.

Black fragments whose uses couldn't be discerned.

Some didn't even have labels.

Qian Renxue also walked over.

"The outer treasury still keeps these?"

"Things taken in before."

The old man said.

"It's been too long, their uses can't be figured out, and there are no obvious soul power fluctuations."

"In a few more days, they'll be cleaned out uniformly."

Lu Yuan hadn't thought there could be anything here either.

He walked past the first row.

The Piercing Spear didn't move.

He took a few more steps forward.

Hum.

The shaft of the spear suddenly vibrated gently.

Lu Yuan's footsteps stopped.

Qian Renxue also whipped her head around.

The old man's previously casual expression turned serious instantly.

"It moved just now?"

Lu Yuan was already starting to walk back.

The first piece of waste.

No reaction.

The second piece.

Still nothing.

The third piece.

The Piercing Spear remained quiet.

Until the spear tip approached a palm-sized black fragment.

Hum!

This time, it was even clearer than outside the black gate yesterday.

The dark gold patterns on the spear shaft even lit up along with it for a split second.

The old man immediately reached out and picked that item up.

The fragment was very thin.

The surface was grayish-black, with obvious burn-melted traces on the edges.

No matter how one looked at it, it didn't look like a precious thing.

Qian Renxue frowned.

"What is this?"

The old man turned the fragment over.

Pressed underneath it was a small, yellowed wooden tag.

He looked at it for a moment.

"Entered the treasury twenty-six years ago."

"Source?"

"Not written."

"Name?"

The old man took another look.

"Neither is there."

Lu Yuan stared at the fragment.

"Then why keep it around all this time?"

The old man flipped the wooden plaque over.

The handwriting on it had already faded significantly.

There were only four characters.

--Unmeltable.

Qian Renxue reached out and took the fragment.

"It doesn't even have a name?"

"We tried many methods in the past."

The old man said.

"It won't melt in fire, it won't yield to forging, and no soul power can be sensed from it."

"Later on, no one studied it anymore, so it was just left lying around here."

Lu Yuan brought the Piercing Spear closer.

Hum!

The spear body vibrated once more.

This time, even the two dark gold edge lines on the spear tip lit up.

Qian Renxue looked down at the fragment.

"Did it take a fancy to this?"

Lu Yuan didn't know either.

But the reaction wouldn't lie.

She passed the fragment slightly forward.

"Want to touch it?"

Just as Lu Yuan prepared to reach out, the old man already crossed his arm to block him.

"No."

"I'm just touching it."

"It didn't react a moment ago, so of course you could touch it however you liked."

The old man's expression had completely changed.

"Now that it's reacting, we must report it to the Grand Pontiff first."

Lu Yuan glanced at the fragment.

"Then don't let anyone take it to be melted down."

The old man's mouth twitched.

"It hasn't melted in twenty-six years, are you still afraid it'll vanish today?"

That made sense.

Lu Yuan was just about to withdraw the Piercing Spear.

Yet a few lines of gray text suddenly floated before his eyes.

[Piercing Spear]
[Evolutionary Opportunity Manifested]
[Unknown Spear Blank Fragment]

Lu Yuan stared at the black fragment in the old man's hand.

This piece of "scrap iron" could not be allowed to be cleared away for the time being.