17 Dragon and Phoenix 6

In the lower realm, a certain man was holding two rings strung together by a necklace chain. His beautiful face had an unreadable expression as he gripped the two rings, before putting them back on around his neck. He closed his eyes, starting to cultivate again. A few more years, and he would be able to ascend. Perhaps by then, this unexplainable emotion in his heart would have already disappeared.

Meanwhile, the group cleaned up camp and continued their treasure hunt. In the end, they really did search every valley of the mountain range's southern half. They were only looking for something that stood out to them as out of place, or something that could potentially be used to hide treasures. Yin Mei only knew that the entrance to the hidden city that contained the treasures was a small passageway hidden by an illusion barrier. Yao Ling hadn't been able to see through the illusions barrier, but only coincidentally flew in there when she had been hit by a demon beast.

She was worried that not even they would be able to see through the illusion barrier, as it was a relic from the golden ages. Among their group members, Mao Mao and Gui Neng were the most skilled in illusions. Yin Mei could also be considered decently knowledgeable, since Feng Hua had been studying a little into illusion techniques, but she couldn't be compared to Mao Mao or Gui Neng. Perhaps she should have brought someone from the Qilin clan along, since they excelled in seeing through illusions, but since the Qilin clan didn't have any females of their generation, Yin Mei wasn't close to anyone from their clan. To top it off, Gui Neng didn't like that person from the Qilin clan (this relationship between the two of them was a bit complicated, but Feng Hua, who was oddly perceptive, thought that the eldest young master of the Qilin clan might like Gui Neng, but that was just her personal guess).

"Phew, so there was nothing here either." Yin Mei said as they finished searching the nth valley. The mountain range was truly way too large, and the number of valleys to search seemed unending.

"We probably can't continue like this, or we'll be here for months." Yao Lan said as they started moving toward the next valley.

"But this fog is blocking most search techniques. Can it be dispelled?" Hu Rong looked around. She felt that by the time they exited, purple would become her least favorite color.

Yao Lan shook her head, also not knowing of a way to dispel the fog.

Mao Mao tried manipulating the wind to blow away the fog, but new fog would quickly fill in the places where she had blown away the old fog. "God, this fog is so persistent." Mao Mao said in frustration, her tail waving flicking back and forth in irritation.

"Maybe we can find and destroy the source of the fog?" Yin Mei suddenly suggested after thinking. "A mysterious fog like this would probably have a source, right?"

"You're right. It could be a formation, or maybe a naturally formed treasure." Yao Yan said. "The problem would be finding the source."

"No, that might be easier. Let's try following the air flow." Mao Mao said, lifting her head up slightly as her ears twitched a little. "When I was manipulating the wind earlier, I could sense that the air flow was slightly odd. I didn't think much of it until you mentioned a source though."

The group followed Mao Mao for a long time, toward the center of the mountain range, seemingly retracing their former steps. Before long, they arrived at what looked to be a complex protection formation with thick fog swirling around it, hiding what was inside.

"I've never seen a protection formation like this before," Yao Lan said, her eyes studying the formation.

Yin Mei guessed that it must be from the golden age. That being said, knowing that wasn't particularly helpful.

"Should we brute force our way in?" Hu Rong said, already seeming to prepare to do so.

Yin Mei thought that if this really was from the golden age, trying to brute force it would only waste their energy. She got closer, studying the formation. If she got too close, an invisible wall would stop her in her tracks. The closer she was, the thicker the fog.

"It's in seal script..." Yin Mei would be mildly frustrated, but she was grateful that Bai Yu had studied seal script to study talismans and formations. If not, then she wouldn't be able to read this formation at all. "Wow, to actually achieve this sort of balance... the delicacy of this..." Yin Mei continued muttering her admiration as she studied the formation like a crazy person.

"Feng Hua?" Hu Rong, who still had her saber half drawn, was feeling unsure whether she should continue or leave Yin Mei to study it.

"Just let her study it." Yao Lan answered, but she was also studying it. She didn't have too much knowledge in formations, but she had to admit that this formation was very well done, that it made even a layman like her sigh in admiration. As for the Gui siblings, who were fairly skilled in the art of talismans and formations, they were already absorbed in studying it like Yin Mei. Even if they couldn't figure out the trick to turning it off, it was a good learning opportunity.

Like this, several days passed. The others became so bored that they wandered around to randomly battle demon beasts as the Gui siblings and Yin Mei continued on their quest of solving this difficult problem.

"I got it! I got it!" Yin Mei suddenly shouted excitedly, not knowing how much time had passed. "Huh? Where is everyone else?" She asked, realizing that it was only her and the Gui siblings here right now.

"Let's first deactivate the formation," Gui Neng said, showing no care toward their other friends.

"Oh, right." Yin Mei nodded. She placed her hand on a certain location of the invisible wall, her hand slow and peaceful as she slowly pushed, until it actually slipped through, disappearing. She soon brought it back, holding a piece of rock with seals engraved all over it. "What an odd formation core." Yin Mei said, as the formation powered down and the invisible wall disappeared. She decided to keep it for now, placing it into her storage ring. Because the others weren't here, the three decided to go in without them for now. Even without the others, they could still take care of themselves.

"Gui Heng, you be careful. You don't have a lot of fighting experience, so stay behind us," Yin Mei said in a sisterly tone.

Gui Heng scowled, but didn't say anything. If he retorted, his sister would definitely attach some vengeful ghost on him when they got home.

"Is this the source of the fog?" Yin Mei said, barely able to see a few feet in front of her when she spotted a large amethyst placed on a pedestal, the light purple fog rushing out of it. "What an interesting item." There wasn't any information about it in the system, so she was totally clueless about its origins. But it was definitely something out of the ordinary, no matter how one looked at it. "Let's take it for now." She put it into her storage ring. Although the fog still remained, it slowly grew thinner. Now, if Mao Mao used her wind abilities, the fog should probably completely clear.

Yin Mei didn't really care if there wasn't any fog, as long as they looted all of the treasures of the city first. Then even if people swarmed over here looking for something, they wouldn't find anything of worth.

"Mao Mao, try clearing away the fog now," Yin Mei communicated with Mao Mao using a voice transmission talisman.

It was clear that she had gotten it, as moments later, the area around them became completely clear as a strong wind blew through, blowing away all the fog. Moments later, the rest of the group arrived.

"You finally broke the formation?" Yao Lan said, looking around.

"The source of the fog is in my storage ring. It was a large rock." Yin Mei said, knowing what she probably wanted to ask. Yao Lan nodded.

"Now we can finally use our senses and search techniques!" Mao Mao was delighted. All that monotonous physical searching was way too boring. She wanted to quickly find some treasure already.

Before long, they had located six odd places in the south of the mountain range. It was a little less than the number of entrances into the hidden city. Yin Mei guessed that some of the entrances were too well hidden that not even their group could find them.

They arrived at the closest one, which was on a cliffside. It looked just like a cliff wall, but placing a hand on it, the hand went right through, like touching nothing. They entered one by one into the cave tunnel.

Yin Mei generated a few balls of flame, which floated around them as they continued walking, down and down, until they reached the end. They exited on a ledge overlooking darkness, but when Yin Mei lit up the lamps that she could sense throughout the large cave, it revealed a city below them. The city appeared slightly old, with some places in ruin, but aside from that, looked like it was preserved in history, as if it wouldn't be strange if people were still living in it to this day. Perhaps that made it even creepier that it was empty, the only people present being themselves.

"The treasure would be... there, in the palace." Yin Mei said, pointing at the palace in the center of the city. "Let's go."

The group dropped down from the ledge, landing on the ground and walking toward the palace.

"To think that there was such a large city hidden here," Hu Rong said.

"It should be from the old age," Yao Yan said, as they looked around at the empty buildings.

Arriving at the palace made of stone, Yin Mei couldn't help but think that the style of the architecture was oddly more western than anything she had ever seen in this world. After all, this was an eastern fantasy world with cultivation and immortals. But, although it was a little western, it was also maybe slightly middle eastern? Yin Mei couldn't place the exact place she had seen such similar architecture.

"It looks like the formations are all still intact," Yin Mei commented as they entered the palace gates. From here, she just used the information to follow the route that Yao Ling took. Because Yao Ling was still weak at that point of time in the story, she didn't meet many dangers (probably due to her protagonist's aura). Their group, as well, went unimpeded through the city and palace.

"This looks like it would be the treasure room." Mao Mao said, when they finally reached the end of their route, where a large stone gate was waiting. There was a pedestal that stood empty to the side, and only a stone wall behind it.

"It should be a gate that requires some sort of key," Yao Lan looked around, and found a small broken jade statue of a lion. "Something like this?"

She placed it on the pedestal, and with a loud rumbling, the gate came to life, a swirling portal appearing before them.

"That was easy," Hu Rong said, and Yao Lan shrugged as they all entered.

Inside was the treasure room, riches spreading as far as the eye could see. It was gold from the old age, that now had an exponential exchange rate. In addition, there were jewels, weaponry, and all sorts of other mysterious treasures.

"Oh my god..." Even Yao Lan from the second richest clan of the upper realm couldn't help but be astonished (the first richest being the phoenix clan).

"This would probably be about twice the amount of all our clan riches," Yin Mei mused. The golden age was truly the golden age. The treasury of one city was enough to be twice the amount of the riches amassed by the richest clan in the upper realm.

"It's too dazzling," Mao Mao's eyes were practically sparkling as she even looked to be drooling a little.

"We'll pick whatever we want from here, and then equally split the rest of the other stuff. Deal?" Yin Mei said, and they all nodded before splitting ways to go through the treasure. To be honest, it would probably take days, maybe even weeks, so before they did, Yin Mei set a 24-hour time limit and then rest would be up to luck.

Of course, for Yin Mei, who knew where the treasures she wanted were, it wasn't luck at all. She quickly grabbed all the things she wanted, and then continued to leisurely look through the other treasures with mild interest. She would pick up pretty accessories and gems that she liked, but left most of the rest alone for the others.

"What's this?" She saw a slightly out of place basin of water, placed on a pedestal. Granted, the basin and pedestal were fancy and probably worth a lot of money, but it still looked odd. Shockingly, when she looked into the water, it showed the demon king.

"His Majesty??" Yin Mei exclaimed, startled. The demon king was peacefully cultivating with his eyes closed. Like usual, he wasn't wearing a lot, but oddly enough, his robe was white. Yin Mei had never seen him wear white before. It was always red, or black. Maybe the occasional purple. But never white.

"It can't be... mourning clothes?" Yin Mei was speechless. Who died? Not the chef uncle? Or the hidden guard captain? It seemed that Yin Mei had completely forgot that she was the one who had died.

But, she looked at the demon king fondly. She really missed this seductive appearance of his! Mm, her demon king was really the true number one beauty of the nine realms. She didn't know what this water basin did exactly, but knowing that it could let her peek at the demon king, she decided to take it with her.

She wasn't a stalker, she swore. She just liked his appearance, okay?