Su Ruoxue felt rather complicated towards this Jiang Yi fellow. The two of them had experienced many things. Their relationships didn’t really seem like mentor-and-cadet; neither were they friends—not even siblings or lovers.
Principal Qi was firm on preventing Su Ruoxue from entering and risking her life. But Su Ruoxue was worried about Jiang Yi. She knew that if she didn’t enter, Jiang Yi was certainly going to die. Because after he released his Massacre Intent, there was no stopping unless she used her secret art. He would either die from combat or from exhaustion.
In fact, she knew clearly that she was probably going to die if she accompanied Jiang Yi. But she didn’t want to have any regrets—didn’t want her youth to have any hint of regrets. She had always thought that she should follow her heart when she was still young. It didn’t matter whether it was right or wrong; just do it if you wanted to!
Jiang Yi was completely defeated by her. He looked at the Su Ruoxue’s obstinate yet delicate face and sighed, “Su Ruoxue, if we do not die this time, I—Jiang Yi—will owe you a life. Let’s go!”
Finishing his statement, Jiang Yi quickly headed forward. He had to first scout out the terrain and looked for a way to retreat. With Su Ruoxue along, he felt that he had a greater responsibility. He had to find all ways to survive along with this beautiful mentor.
“Where is the Tomb of the Heaven Monarch?”
After moving around for an hour, Jiang Yi found nothing. The surroundings were still a forest, and there were no demonic beasts or anyone else.
Su Ruoxue blinked her eyes and replied, “Who should I ask if you ask me? The Tomb of the Heaven Monarch only opens once every 50 years. Do I look like I am 50-years-old?”
“…”
Jiang Yi was rather speechless; he looked at Su Ruoxue with slanted eyes and said, “Didn’t you try to obtain more information before coming into the Tomb of the Heaven Monarch?”
Su Ruoxue twitched her mouth. A beauty remained as a beauty—even the twitching motion of her mouth was so elegant. She said embarrassingly, “I initially didn’t want to enter…”
“Take it as I didn’t ask!”
Jiang Yi continued to advance straight after he was completely dumbfounded by this chick. The information given by Qian Wanguan was much too little. He only briefly introduced the insides of the tomb: that there was an abnormally huge space within and that the real Tomb of the Heaven Monarch was inside. After a set period of time, the Tomb of the Heaven Monarch would reveal itself and launch plenty of treasures out, scattering them all over the place. It would be up to fate whether anyone could obtain these treasures. The problem was… there was no information as to where the Tomb of the Heaven Monarch was. There was no map to this abnormal space either!
“Wait!”
While they were moving, Jiang Yi suddenly paused, causing Su Ruoxue, who was following behind, to nearly bump into him. Su Ruoxue looked ahead with suspicion and couldn’t find anything. She then asked doubtfully, “What’s going on?”
“There is a trap ahead. I am not sure if it is a Death Trap or a Teleportation Trap?”
Jiang Yi spoke with a dignified expression, but Su Ruoxue couldn’t see anything. He was now using his black-essence-force-enhanced vision, which was why he could see it clearly. There seemed to be some peculiarity in the space ahead, and the air currents weren’t flowing properly either. If one didn’t go nearly to observe, they would never notice it.
“Swish!”
He picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it over. The space suddenly let out a white flash, and the rock vanished without a trace.
“Teleportation Trap!” Su Ruoxue’s eyes widened with surprise. She looked at Jiang Yi with admiration and asked, “How did you know?”
“Take a guess!”
Jiang Yi laughed lightly and suddenly jumped up, towards the top of the highest ancient tree. At the highest part of the forest, he brandished his Green Destiny Sword and chopped off a section of the tree trunk. He then leaped down like an ape.
Su Ruoxue asked curiously, “What are you doing?”
“Making a mark. If the enemies are chasing after us, we could escape from here.” Jiang Yi explained and took Su Ruoxue on a detour before continuing straight.
Along the way, the two of them noticed plenty of formless traps. Most of them were Teleportation Traps, and there were a few Death Traps. Those Death Traps had astounding power. When Jiang Yi tossed a rock into the trap, it got instantly turned into dust. It seemed like even a martial artist at the peak stage of the Purple Mansion Realm would die from a single touch.
“Someone is here!”
While they were moving, Jiang Yi paused once again. Su Ruoxue had this confused expression as she looked around and couldn’t find anyone. Jiang Yi didn’t give any explanation and pulled her towards the left with a burst of speed. He then hid together with her on top of an ancient tree.
Shh-shh-shh!
Soon enough, eight individuals came towards them. They scouted along with caution, and they were all wearing a green-colored warrior’s robe. They were obviously a treasure-seeking team from the same clan.
“What? Jiang Yi, are you a god? How did you know there are people coming?”
Su Ruoxue’s beautiful eyes were filled with astonishment. She looked like Jiang Yi as though he was a monster. She understood that Jiang Yi might seem to be only at the sixth stage of the Cast Tripod Realm, but his overall combat strength was already at the Purple Mansion Realm; he must have some sort of hidden trump cards. He must have a lot of secrets hidden in his body if he was able to make contact with the Divine Monument of the Heaven Monarch of Massacre on his first trip to the Hall of Divine Monument. But this was much too strange, right?
“Keke! Mentor Su, without a diamond drill, why would I dare to try fixing a porcelain ware 1 ? I am not tired of living yet. Why will I dare to enter the tomb to die if I don’t have any trump cards?”
Jiang Yi let out a mysterious smile and floated down the tree. His black essence force was his trump card. He was confident that he could survive because of the enhancement his black essence force gave to his hearing ability.
Because of the restriction seal, the martial artists that entered would at best be at the peak stage of the Purple Mansion Realm. His enhanced hearing ability was definitely better than theirs, which was why he could sense them in advance and easily avoid them!
“Where exactly is this little man from? Could he be of a Special Race?”
Su Ruoxue didn’t know of Jiang Yi’s true identity, but she could vaguely guess that Jiang Yi’s status was special when she met him at the Skyplume City. But she didn’t like to make any discreet scouting; thus, she didn’t know of the inside information. She did know that Jiang Yi was mysterious, and now she was rather curious about him.
The two of them continued advancing, but Jiang Yi soon began to walk around in circles. He didn’t advance forward anymore and lingered around the vicinity instead. Su Ruoxue followed him for a round and finally couldn’t help but ask, “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to look for the Tomb of the Heaven Monarch?”
“Not going to look for it!”
Jiang Yi shook his head and lowered his voice. “I estimate that it would take months to explore this mystical space. Instead of searching blindly, why not wait for an opportunity. If I didn’t guess it wrongly, the Tomb of the Heaven Monarch is about to reveal itself soon!”
Su Ruoxue was skeptical, but she had this unusual trust towards Jiang Yi. The two of them circled around the area, and Jiang Yi found a giant ancient tree. The two of them hid within and consumed their clean water together with their rations.
“Buzz!”
Suddenly, a slight undulation came and shocked them both awake. Jiang Yi lifted his head and exclaimed, “The Tomb of the Heaven Monarch has appeared!”
“Huh…”
Su Ruoxue looked at the sky above, and her beautiful eyes were filled with surprise. The originally dusky sky suddenly brightened up with golden light rays. The golden light was growing intensively bright until the entire sky was like a golden ocean. A magnificent pagoda suddenly appeared in the sky. The scene was like a miracle that sent shocks into the minds, bodies, and souls of people!
The golden pagoda was at least a few hundred feet tall and a hundred feet wide. It was suspended in mid-air like a divine object in the hands of a god. It was oppressing yet sacred.
“Buzz!”
The pagoda suddenly released golden light rays, and eight small doors opened at the lower part of the pagoda. Each small door shot out dozens of items, and they were all scattered in different directions. The golden pagoda then slowly vanished from mid-air, restoring the sky back into the dusky state.
“Treasures! Let’s go!”
Jiang Yi’s eyes lit up as he saw around four items shot towards an area that was within a few hundred miles. There didn’t seem to be many people around here either. He only required three artifacts to complete his task. If he was lucky, he might be able to complete his task with this single trip.
“Jiang Yi, your luck is not bad!”
Su Ruoxue swiftly leaped down the tree with an expression of delight. If they were to complete the task now, then they just need to find a place to hide. Two weeks later, the Tomb of the Heaven Monarch would automatically teleport them out, and it was the ideal situation.
“Damn it!”
Unexpectedly, Jiang Yi, who was sprinting towards the area where the treasures landed, suddenly turned to run in the other direction. As he ran, he shouted, “Run quickly. There are many people ahead. At least a hundred, and they are probably Jiang Yiliu’s men.”