Meanwhile, in the deserted palace, Su Li went straight to the nearest odd place. Her psychic awareness covered the whole imperial palace, keeping an eye on Fan Zisang’s position. She didn’t expect to encounter his senior fellow apprentice, which would cause only troubles.
Soon, Su Li came to an unremarkable courtyard and stepped in. The old palace was in a state of disrepair, on top of which was devastated and half-collapsed recently. The broken decoration was revealed.
Su Li glanced at it but didn’t go in. She went to the round well in front of the house and jumped into it directly.
Whish, whish and whish —
The wind roared in her ear, and she fell rapidly for several tens of breaths. As her psychic awareness touched the ground, she immediately changed her posture and lifted her breath so that she landed quietly like a feather.
“It seems to be an underground palace, but I don’t know whether it’s a secret place for practice or a treasury for storing treasures.”
The darkness couldn’t stop Su Li at all. She glanced over and found a path ahead, an artificial stone path that one person could pass through.
“It seems that I will find it out soon.”
Su Li was intrigued and walked silently along the stone path. There were no footfalls in this quiet space. Only the falling underground water emitted a ticking sound.
After about five minutes, a thick and huge stone gate in reddish color blocked Su Li’s way. She frowned slightly and could recognize the material of the stone gate.
“A gate made of Hongyuan stones? It seems that the foundation of Jincheng Dynasty is much better than I give credit for…”
As a common material, Hongyuan stone was used in refining middle-grade defense magic treasures. It was prevalent among practitioners in Zhuji Realm.
If it were refined into Hongyuan crystal, the quality would be upgraded to a higher level. Hongyuan crystal was a top-grade magic treasure that practitioners in Jindan Realm were qualified to use.
However, it took so much energy for a refiner to refine Hongyuan stones. If there were no specific needs, few people were willing to do the thankless job.
Due to the difficulties of the refinement, Hongyuan stone had lost 10% of its value and could only be graded into medium quality. Still, a stone gate like this was precious. According to Su Li’s knowledge over a thousand years, the gate was worth tens of thousands of middle-grade spiritual stones.
“Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan claimed that the best practitioner in Jincheng Dynasty was in Zhuji Realm. Why did they spend so many precious materials on a stone gate? Or this place was possibly not left by Jincheng Dynasty at all?”
Su Li was slightly surprised, but she still came close to investigate. This kind of stone gate was common in Yuxu Sect. Generally, the refiner who made the stone gate would leave a back door. It was not difficult to find it with her expertise in the tactical matrix.
After a short while of searching, Su Li soon found that there was a very inconspicuous pit in the lower right corner of the stone gate. She touched it with her fingers, and the lines of the matrix were completely mapped to her mind.
“It’s a medium-grade tactical matrix. The level of the matrix deployer is average.”
Thinking of this, Su Li smiled. With her masterly skill in the matrix, she cracked the tactical matrix in a blink of an eye.
Hum! Hum! Hum!!
A layer of shimmer was lit up on the reddish stone surface, and then a gap that allowed one person to pass was opened. Su Li flashed in immediately.
At the same time, in a mysterious stone mansion under the palace, a man in a rotten robe, who was sitting on the ground stiffly like a corpse, flicked, and his green eyes opened, just like two ghost fire.
“How dare you enter my secret vault and disturb my practice… You are getting yourself killed! When I finish this cycle, you will be dead!”
After saying this, he closed his eyes again, and the pneuma of his body, which was like a plank of deadwood, became strong quickly.
Su Li didn’t notice it, walking in the dry and brightly illuminated corridor. Her eyes were full of amazement. The layout here was much more advanced than the outside world.
For instance, the spiritual lights lit up automatically after the stone gate was opened.
“There are not many practitioners who are proficient at mechanism skills in the cultivation circle. Who on earth built this place?”
All these questions in her mind didn’t slow down Su Li. Despite her little understanding of mechanism skills, she could find out that there was no more dangerous mechanism except for the spiritual lights. Therefore, she quickly shifted herself to a stone chamber at the end of the stone path.
Rows of various treasures on shelves came into view, while jewels of the secular world, just like garbage, were piled up in the corner. All the treasures, which were displayed on the shelves, were precious in the cultivation circle. Even Su Li was surprised by the spectrum and the variety.
“Although this place is incomparable to Yuxu Sect, it outdoes Huajian Sect in inventory. I should be able to find many useful things for myself.”
After a moment, Su Li quickly browsed through the shelves with her psychic awareness and swept all the valuable items into her universe ring. As she was about to fill up the remaining space in the ring with the tactical matrix materials, she made a sudden stop. Then, like a whirlwind, she came to a jade box on the last shelf and opened it carefully.
A pure white elixir came into view, and beside it, there was an irregular round stone the size of a thumb.
A refreshing fragrance mingled with the new spiritual power flew towards her nose, and Su Li immediately closed the jade box with a pleasant surprise in her eyes.
“Zhuji Elixir and the core of spiritual stone!”
She had never expected such treasures for Zhuji Realm would be found in this barren land. The core of spiritual stone was the same size as a thumb, but the spiritual power contained in it was extremely condensed, which could be absorbed directly without any loss, not to mention any difficulty.
“This should be a treasure left by a certain practitioner to a younger generation. Ordinary practitioners could practice directly from the first level of Lianqi Realm to Zhuji Realm in a short time with the help of these two treasures.”
Su Li took a look at the closed environment around, which was shrouded by the tactical matrix. Although she was not sure if she could make her breakthrough quietly here, it was suitable for her to practice.
“The imperial palace of Jincheng Dynasty is not so big, but big enough for Fan Zisang to spend a long time to investigate. It would take him at least several more hours to complete the investigation. That should be enough for me to practice with my present speed to absorb spiritual power!”
Thinking of this, Su Li no longer hesitated. She sat down directly in a pile of treasures and took out the core of spiritual stone from the jade box to absorb it.
…
While Su Li was trying to rebuild her cultivation after her rebirth, a fierce quarrel broke out in a big hall in the cloud, which was located in countless space away from Jiuzhou Region.
“If you dare to leave, I’ll never take you as my son!”
Eighteen rune pillars in the color of blood stood in the magnificent hall decorated with black jade. The pillars were divided into two halves by a white jade avenue in the middle. Some blood-colored lightning crackled from time to time.
At the end of the white jade avenue stood a stone chair emanating dark pneuma high above the masses, and a white-haired young man, covered in black, stood in front of it. The familiar unbridled smile had long disappeared from his face. Instead, it was the coldness and… the fury!
Under the stage, there stood a teenager who looked very similar to the young man. He wore a vivid white coat, and he seemed to have no fear at all to the tyrant-like man, with an indifferent smile on his face, sneering,
“Ho, ho! I am so afraid to be your son. You are Lord of Evil, who scares the whole Qingshui Circle, and it’s unworthy for me to associate with you.”
The teenager hid a hint of bitterness under his eyes well, and his tone was calm, “I am just a bastard after you messed around with a maid when you drunk. I had to use the family name of my mother and was not allowed to list in your family tree. So… instead of a degrading life in this palace, I hope you might drive me out of the palace and let me rot.”
As soon as this was said, the atmosphere of the entire hall became more subdued and subdued.
The teenager stifled a grunt, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
His cultivation was naturally far below his father’s. The pressure emanating from his father’s fury gave him the illusion of shattering his body. While he thought he would be killed by his father with a furious slap, the burden suddenly disappeared.
His father did not kill him?!
He was stunned, but he knew that his father was ruthless not only to his enemies but also to the people on his side.
Every year, many of the concubines died in the hands of his father, and his father had no other children but him to avoid any troubles.
Even he was an accident. The only consolation for him was that his mother had not died at the hands of his father but disappeared.
However, he did not see his father having any intention to look for his mother.
Well, since his mother meant nothing to his father, how could his father devote energy to finding her?
However, that his mother was still alive was the only motive power for him to practice so hard in this cold-suffering palace. He kept thinking about how to get away from the evil palace and find out his mother’s whereabouts.
And today, he seemed to see the hope of success!
“Su Buwang, great.”
The white-haired young man took a deep breath and slowly sat down. The fury on his face had disappeared when he raised his head again. He spoke calmly, “You’re the first one who dare to disobey my orders.”
On the change of his father, Su Buwang was unsurprised. He laughed, “Lord, I’m flattered.”
As he stopped talking, a jade rune was shot from the fingers of the white-haired young man. Being trained successfully, Su Buwang responded rapidly and caught the jade rune instinctively. He was shocked firstly and then overjoyed to see the object in his hands.
Was it… the token for leaving the palace?
Finally, he could leave this damned place!
“Since you want to piss off, piss off then.”
The white-haired young man opened his eyes, full of indifference and coldness, “From now on, you are no longer a member of Shengtian Shrine. Never mention our relationship and ruin my reputation after you leave. Otherwise… I will eliminate you by myself.”
Hearing his father’s warning, Su Buwang lightly suppressed his joy, and smilingly performed a salute. Then he looked up and said, “Lord, please rest assured. I will never mention your name to anyone, even if I am to die! Now, are you satisfied?”
“Piss off.”
The white-haired young man, who had disappeared from the stone chair, left only two cold words echoing in the air.
Su Buwang didn’t care it at all. He just smiled and clutched the token to exit in his hand, full of expectation in his eyes.
“Mom, I’m coming for you!”