We moved through the tunnel until we reached the other side. It was blocked by a restriction gate, nothing a few works of my brush couldn't deal with. And once we were inside, we were able to see treasures hidden under the dust, though they weren't treasures of gold and silver, they were treasures of knowledge of an entire sect.
"So many books and scrolls," Hua Yue said as she gazed on the hundreds of perfectly aligned rows of bookshelves that carried hundreds of rolled scrolls, manuals, books, and more.
"Seems like Shen Bao was right, this was the sect's pavilion, look, there is a cultivation manual here," Huang said as he pulled a book for us.
"Red Iron fist, a physical technique that improves Qi circulation and aids the user in tapping into their body's hidden potential, seems like a body cultivator's dream," Huang said as he pocketed the manual.
"Since this is a treasure trove, we might as well split up, look for anything that could relate to the Palace of the Deep's Secret technique," I said.
The group nodded and we each went to a different corner of the library and started scanning the books and skimming through them.
Hours after hours of search, and nothing seemed to be indicating the secret techniques of the sect. All I ever found to be of value is some maps to some of the Sect's excursions in the Devil Sealing War.
From the history and past of this sect, it was a prominent one and apparently was the ruling sect of this entire planet Si Xue. It had great power and was commanded by two Ascendant Cultivators, the Imperatrix of Lightning and the Master of Chains.
However, since they ascended, the Planet Si Xue could no longer support them or their cultivation, thus they were forced to leave after gaining a lot of contribution in the Devil Sealing War. Sadly, after a few centuries of them leaving the planet, their sect was attacked by some remnants from the Devil Sect.
The battle lasted for a long long time, and thanks to the Egg of Delusion, the sect wasn't fully destroyed, as the Egg made it impossible for the Devil Sect to fully penetrate into the sect and raze it whole. Yet, the blow was heavy enough that many of the disciples of the sect left and abandoned it.
"Hmm, things don't add up," I muttered, as I thought about everything I know about this sect, there seems to be contradictions within the given information from the different parties.
'Since the sect was abandoned, why was it still holding so many treasures? Couldn't the disciples just leave with the treasures in hand? Also who wrote these, must have written these after the fact that the sect was destroyed. Could it be that someone remained behind?'
That's the only explanation, there could probably be a situation, where an elder or a powerful person remained while everyone left, they could have been the one taking care of the sect, even after the destruction of many of its facilities. Also, with the Egg of delusion, the chances of greedy cultivators coming in were slim to none, and with only powerful sea beasts roaming about, it was nothing but suicide. Not to mention that the exact location of the Palace of the Deep was not known to all, and one needed to course the whole of the Deeps to get here.
These conditions made it more than improbable for anyone to try and raid a death zone.
Yet what was most vexing was that there was nothing indicating the existence of the Devil Sealing technique. And this was nothing but bad news, as I heard Wu Di's coughs increasing in strength and the time between them getting shorter and shorter.
A few more hours ended in nothing but a waste of time, though the three found some good cultivation books, we found nothing that could help Wu Di or his sect.
"Let's head deeper, the sect must have a treasury. There could be a copy of the technique there." I said.
"You're right," Wu Di said, his face was as pale as a sheet of paper. "let's go, we can't be losing hope right now can we?" Wu Di's rueful smile made my heartache.
"Let's keep moving, there is a pathway leading to the top, we should relatively be in the center of the Sect, this library seems to be a conjunction of all other rooms and glass domes. We can head to different parts of the sect from here." I said as I pointed towards an open doorway.
Once we got in, it was as I described, several pathways were leading to different sections of the sect, a couple of them, after a quick divine scan was flooded, so they were a hard no.
"Let's go through the middle one, it's the only one that doesn't seem to be flooded. If we find nothing, we'll keep looking, we'll try to keep the flooded paths for last, we don't want to risk going into the waters again with that sea beast being all hostile and all-" just as I finished my words, crashing sounds echoed as the whole sect began shaking.
I almost lost my footing from the sudden impact, and immediately used my Divine Sence to check up on what was going on.
"Shit," I cursed.
"What's wrong?" Wu Di said through grit teeth.
"One of the cultivators that were chasing after us didn't die. And he just noticed me using divine sense. We've been spotted, we have to move fast."
"Is he the reason behind the crash?" Hua Yue asked.
I shook my head, "No, that was the One-Eyed Kraken, the cultivator just slammed it against the mountain."
"Oh, that's not good news," Huang replied.
"That's some very bad news because he just went towards the hole in the dome we were at earlier. The only thing blocking his way is the inscribed doorway, and since he doesn't need to fear the sea beast, he'll probably have enough time to break the gate."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's move," Wu Di said.
"Yeah, go on ahead, I'll have to secure our backs. I'll make some inscriptions to hold the enemy back."
The three moved ahead of me once again, but I firmly reminded them to be more careful, I don't want the same thing as before to happen again with the half Pixi.
I thought for a moment about what to inscribe, then a daring idea came to me.
I walked back to the three-way entry and stuck a couple of talismans on the middle entrance.
Then I took a piece of fabric from a random dress I had in my pouch and placed it next to the entrance from the south.
Then I inscribed a potent trap inscription on the passage on the south and finished by inscribing an illusion formation on the middle one that I'll be going through. The illusion was pretty simple, nothing too difficult and could be dispelled the moment anyone even touches it, but it was strong enough that not even divine sense could see through it and would think it was a regular wall.
This will serve as a great fake-out. But this will only work if the cultivator is actually smart. He will probably find the fabric and think that we went through that path, and we secured our back with a formation, further increasing his certainty. And since the second inscription couldn't be detected with divine sense, he won't even hesitate to go through the trap and follow a fake trail. This will buy us a lot of valuable time.
Once the inscription was done, I followed after the group as fast as I could.
And while I was mid-way through the tunnel I head the gate to the library bursting open. The cultivator was pretty much one room behind us, if my small trap works, we'll buy more time if it doesn't well be screwed because he was strong enough to give the one-eyed Kraken a beating.
Soon I arrived at another section that led to two different passages. One led up, and another led down.
"Shit this whole damn sect is built like a maze." I used my divine sense and found the group had taken the left path.
Thus, I placed another trap formation, but this time, on the left path. Instead of faking it like before.
This will also play out if the cultivator is smart, otherwise, we're screwed. Because, since he would have followed my first plan, and had gone through the trapped pathway and found nothing, he'll think that the pathway I just trapped was also the same as before, thus he will go through the one that has no traps in it and will once again lose time.
I grinned as I finished my work, I would really like to see the look on the cultivator's face once he realizes he has been duped, but would really not want to face his wrath while I'm underprepared.
I pulled the poison god's sword and flew forward to meet up with my group. We don't have much time, and currently, we're still without the Sealing Technique.
But since this pathway was leading upward, there was hope that it led to the top area of the sect where most Sect Masters usually dwelled.. A Sect Master will always be near the Treasury, and there was a good chance that it was at the end of this pathway, so, we can only hope.