Chapter 83: The secret door

The main hall-

Seeing the leader being so confident Long Tao continued to brawl with the figure. True to his words, he was quite powerful. Long Tao still couldn't guess the facial structure under that scarf but the strength was undeniable. "What is this guy's cultivation level?". The keeper beside him seems amused. He laughed for some time and then told an incredible piece of information to Long Tao." The figure in front has the cultivation of QI general 1st stage peak. She will be crossing the threshold soon enough and entering the 2nd level Qi general. This fight is going to be a bit challenging.". Long Tao was about to get back to the fight when he suddenly realized something. "The figure is a woman. Are you sure?". "Why don't you find out yourself boy. I am sure you will be interested in the results. Defeat her first. I will tell you the future plans later."

Long Tao was clashing with a consistent strength until now. He decided to use his physical strength. The first application was off course the primary meridians. The figure replied in kind. She too increased the power output through the attacks. The lady behind the scarf was starting to get paranoid. She never expected someone within the Qi master level to be so powerful that they could contend against her. On the surface, Long Tao was showing QI master level 5 cultivation which was his reality, but his strength often made people to assume otherwise. The next part was simple. Long Tao began to use the secondary meridians. Every 4-5 attacks he would start adding a new meridian to use. The figure did the same. The fight was still continuing. Both were holding back their real techniques. Long Tao didn't want to give the figure clues about his sect techniques.

Treasury-

The other avatar was currently busy verifying the contents of the bandit treasury. Except for the contents of all the rings obtained after killing the bandits, the treasury was quite filled up. The first thing Long Tao could see was currency. He started accounting and putting these in the Crimson Lord world. The gold was quite sufficient to buy a good amount of materials from the pill markets and weapon markets. The next section as the cultivation resources section. The first thing to come into the view of Long Tao was the mountain of beginner grade (the lowest) spirit stones. These could be exchanged for a good amount of middle-grade stone. As he proceeded, he found another stockpile of idle grade stone having around 10,000 pieces. It was a good amount of wealth right there. He took these and stored within the Crimson Lord world. Long Tao was increasing his wealth before setting out of these regions.

The next stockpile that Long Tao got to see was herbs collected from these mountain regions. What shocked him was the quantity. The Bandit really lived up to their name of being scavenging on adventurers. But the terrain was best for herb collection, and that proved to be true in this case. The herb collection was quite vast. Long Tao took out the list and all the herbs listed at level 2 were present in excess. Long Tao managed to strike it rich this time. Even some herbs that went into tier 3 medicines were present. Long Tao collected all of the herbs and began to mark the number of missions he herby completed. The tally directly rose to 30. Only one herb of tier 3 was remaining to b collected. All of these were planted in the Crimson Lord world.

The growth for the herbs was quite fast in the Crimson Lord world. the reason as the dense QI as well as the Liquified Qi that was sprinkled on the herbs. The growth speed was shocking. If anyone knew about this treasure, Long Tao would be hunted till the end of the world to get their hands on this treasured artifact. The next line of plantations was set up and even Tier 3 herbs were growing in an extremely fast manner. The stockpile was quite big now. Long Tao was happy upon seeing the inventory growing. He was now having a basic herb farm which can facilitate the alchemy usage of herbs for his future endeavors.

The next part was the Pills section. The pills present were not that valuable, the highest present being Tier two pills that Long Tao can refine already. They could still be sold for a good price. The storage of pills was done within one of the annexed storage rings. The weapon section was also so-so. The weapons present were not that valuable when compared to what Long Tao had seen. The highest was a level 3 weapon for Qi general level practitioners which was a Bow set. Long Tao took it. The last section of the treasury was a hidden door. Long Tao tried to open it, but there was some kind of advanced encryption that Long Tao needed some time to decode. He was currently at intermediate second level inscription master level, and hence required time to decode the advance level inscription. The procedure began, while the fight above was still continuing.

Meeting hall-

Long Tao and the hooded figure were still indulged in warfare. Long Tao was using general attack and movement arts and didn't use any of the core arts from his inventory. The only thing he was increasing as the number of meridians to be used in the fight. The whole set of secondary meridians were already active, but the figure managed to still keep up with him. Hye had to give it to the cultivators of the QI general realm. A normal QI master would have died by now. The one in a deeper dilemma than Long Tao was his opponent. She was shocked by the prowess of Long Tao. She was nearly using half of her strength but Long Tao was managing to stand on equal feet with her. She thought of the need to use her most powerful attack arts. The atmosphere around began to change. The first attack art she used was of ice type and her movement was shadow type arts. The fight began to proceed in a concluding direction. Long Tao too started using his tertiary meridians. Soon enough another stalemate was reached.

Long Tao tried a trick at the moment. He suddenly used all his tertiary meridians and attacked the figure near the chest area. The figure was reflected away for a large distance and the hood covering her was destroyed. Long Tao looked at her now and he vowed, this was one of the most beautiful women he had seen in his lifetime. The face, grace, beauty, and demeanor were fairy-like. Long Tao was spellbound for a second and decided to control his urges. He couldn't lose focus at the moment. The attack continued. The fight was advancing. Long Tao was now using the full capacity of his body cultivation and the girl was beginning to get pushed away. Long Tao continued with the barrage of attacks and soon enough the girl was hurt.

Treasury-

Long Tao finally manage to decode and break the formations that were holding the inner doors to the treasury. Entering it he found a simple-le cabin, with not much of equipment. This room was filled with books, weapons, whose grade Long Tao couldn't discern even now. "Level 4 weapons you are a quite lucky brat. Those are weapons of Qi Kings. Long Tao stored all of them in the artifact and then proceeded to the other resources. There was a heavy crate at the corner of the cabin. It looked old and rusty but Long Tao decided to open and see what is inside. When he tried to open it, another set of formation occurred." A blood offering formation. You need to refine the treasure box to open it.". "how do I do that?". "Start pouring your blood on it.". Long Tao did as instruct and the blood was being absorbed. After a long time, he managed to reach the limit of absorption. The box floated up and a weird name appeared in Long Tao's mind. "Casket of ninth dawn", a storage treasure.

Long Tao opened it and there were three things contained. The first thing was a long scabbard, a token with a strange symbol on it and the third was a piece of old paper. Upon looking carefully, a map of the mountain was drawn on it with a marking. Long Tao seemed to have found a treasure map just now.

Hall-

Two figures were now present. One was lying below, badly hurt. It was none other than the girl who Long Tao was fighting. The girl still didn't give up, but just as she was going to attack, her expression changed and she looked at Long Tao " Somebody managed to open the secret door.". Long Tao looked at her and smiled" So you were here because of the secret door."