10 The Treasure

Disturbed and worried Dean looked to the golem

"Why are you smiling?"

The golem took his last breath before telling Dean

"You....you're the one I was looking for... keep my core....no matter what."

The golem suddenly ripped out his core from his body, giving it to Dean with both of his hands as he made sure to grasp Dean's hand into taking the core.

The golem's body crumbled into rocks, a block of rubble now appeared in the room.

A lingering thought was heard by Dean

"Revenge will be your guide. But be wary of the scams that will follow."

"My core has a strong amount of qi. Make sure to share it upon your group if you want them to heal faster. Using the crack you made, split the core in half. Inside is a key. Beneath my corpse is a trapdoor that leads to the treasure."

The sentences were short but Dean could only hear half of the words.

A headache ruptured his mind as his 5 orifices started to bleed when the blue light shined the most.

His last thought was a blue orb melting into his stomach.

....

Having just woken up Ivan looked around.

Pierre, Anne, Ayesha, Rose and Christian were still knocked out. The only reason Ivan woke up was that Dean didn't knock out Ivan too strongly but just enough for a short time.

Looking across the room it was a hideous sight

The room was painted with blood everywhere.

Could golem's bleed?

Ivan knew that the dried up blood probably came from the knocked out people but the dried blood was only part of half the blood in the room.

Ivan went to a small puddle on the floor and glossed his finger over it.

"Still warm."

This meant the fight didn't happen to long ago and the blood was still in a liquid state.

Looking even closer he saw a rubble of rocks in front of Dean.

Dean lied down face first on the ground in a puddle of blood.

In his hand Ivan noticed a small key. Flipping Dean over he couldn't help but want to slap him

"This idiot nearly got us killed...but as long as we aren't dead then that's fine."

He took note of Dean's pulse and found that it was already stabilized.

His face was washed with something similar to water that stopped his face from being dyed with blood but that couldn't be said for the rest of his clothes.

His robes were ruined with rips, cuts and holes all over them.

He looked more pitiful than Christian but a sigh of relief was released from Ivan.

The reason for that was that the damages actually done were healed. Scars could be seen all over his body with one scar on his face.

It ran down from the left side of nose to the bottom half of his lips.

Taking at the mess everyone made he sighed

"We have a lot of cleaning to do."

Ivan organized the area as there didn't seem to be a foe in sight.

One corner was for the injured where he could replace any bandages.

Another was for any medicine, food or drinks that they still had.

Cleaning the Looking carefully at the blood stains he found that the fight must have been very insane.

Taking a gander around the room he accidentally tripped.

"Who the hell placed- What?"

Taking a closer inspection there was a small lump beneath the carpet.

Tearing the carpet open with a broken blade he found a trapdoor. A lock was placed and taking note of the position it had on the room it was in the center.

"Was this why the golem stayed in the center?"

Taking a look back he finally realized what the key was for.

It was the key to lead to the treasure room.

He could take the key and run for the treasure but... his friends.

They all went through a life and death battle with everyone betting their lives on the line.

To just selfishly take it without taking consideration of the others that did the same is what a scum would do.

I, Ivan am not some scoundrel.

Determine to adhere to his principles Ivan diligently healed his friends.

There was not much to do as everyone seemed to have broken through into Qi Condensation 6. The fight to the death may have been the reason for this but Ivan felt that there was something odd.

Only when comprehending the situation and removing yourself from the stress should you make a breakthrough

Yet everyone managed to get to the same cultivation stage.

Eventually one by one everyone awoke from their slumber.

Dean was the only last one to wake up.

The problem was that he was still passed out.

His breathing was steady and he physically had no problems.

Ivan remembered the grim tone Dean had which he felt was probably related to this.

'The pressure may have just suddenly collapsed all at once. He took on the mantle of the hero yet once taking it off he is just a common mortal.'

To the side he saw Rose and Christian whispering to each other in a very quiet voice. Ivan couldn't make out anything from their murmurs leading to him to hypothesize

'Rose is probably keeping Christian up to date. For the climax of the battle he was heavily injured but the rest were knocked out for the end of the battle. If she is keeping Christian up to date why are they whispering.'

Ivan at the start of the trip felt that something insidious was going on but the series events they went through didn't seem like that.

If Christian was planning something why would he gamble on losing his life with that serious injury.

Christian won't just wantonly place his life at risk with his intelligence so why?

This deceptive feeling wasn't making things better for Ivan as he acknowledged his fate

'What will happen is what will happen.'

Dean woke up with a loud groan.

Everyone stared at him to see that Dean opened his eyes as they gathered around his body to see how he was doing.

Dean coughed in embarrassment after the staring "Ummmm, guys. I can't move that well."

Ivan felt that this added to the deceiving mood.

Was Dean also in this subtly evil feeling.

Dean was by no means injured when Ivan looked at him after waking up but what he didn't pay attention to was that his muscle and bone were reconstructed.

The muscles were tearing and became tougher each time which caused this uncomfortable feeling for Dean.

Ivan shook his head

'Maybe i'm too paranoid. If my siblings were here they would never try to be as brave as Dean. They would merely use the golem to kill their competitors.'

Ivan felt conflicted at his family's teachings when looking at Dean but knew that they obviously lived in two different worlds with how they were treated.

But because they lived in two different worlds can their friendship truly be special.

Giving a hand to Dean he pulled Dean up and allowed Dean to hang his arm around Ivan's shoulder as they slowly walked.

Ivan expected to see Rose stumped that she couldn't take advantage of Dean but he saw that Rose treated Dean a little coldly.

Not rude enough to annoy Dean but just her eyes gleamed something....contempt?

Dean found it still difficult to move around so he chuck the keys to Christian.

Ivan couldn't help smile seeing their friendship in action. Together the 7 of us managed to survive and fight a deadly battle.

Opening the trapdoor they went down a passageway.

It seemed very similar to the cave yet the walls were well crafted and smooth as if they were made from marble.

At the end of the passage way was a moldy door.

The fringes on the outside of the door was growing old.

Everyone felt if they touched the door then it would just collapse on the spot but when Pierre opened the door with the handle it felt very vexing

It was tough and the weight of the door was abnormally heavy.

At the end of their journey it seemed to have finally paid off.

Just from the outside their were many shiny precious metals.

Herbs that could help with cultivation and many pill containers.

In the center was a throne and a skull that rested on the seat. Behind the skull was a small book.

This was the inheritance they fought for and they finally got what they came here for.

It may have been for experience but now there was profit.

Ivan grinned to Dean and Dean did the same.

Proud of their achievement they were going to see how their friends reacted to the cove.

Dean clueless asks "Why are you guys pointing swords at us?"