61. Treasure Hunting is a Professional Field

"Let's turn back."

"Junior Sister, you must be joking." Zhou Yan felt that his junior sister had lost her mind.

"The task I received was to find Senior Brother, and now that I've found you—since we're already here, we can't possibly return empty-handed, can we?" Lin Jiuge looked at Zhou Yan in bewilderment. She had brought her senior brother all the way out here; what was there to be afraid of once inside?

"Senior Sister, what's even in there? Do we really have to go in? There are plenty of spiritual plants in the woods outside." Zhou Yan's body trembled just thinking about the surrounding scenery.

"Then I'll go in by myself." Lin Jiuge understood; her senior brother was simply terrified. Since there was no danger outside, she could just go back out to find him after she finished exploring.

"No, let's go together." Zhou Yan couldn't win an argument against Lin Jiuge, and following his junior sister still felt safer.

Lin Jiuge took a few steps forward, then suddenly turned around.

"Junior Sister, what's wrong?" Zhou Yan asked, confused. Didn't she say they were going in?

"Someone is following us, and the route has changed." Lin Jiuge glanced toward a certain spot, then turned and changed direction.

Zhou Yan feigned casualness and followed closely behind Lin Jiuge.

"Ahhh, help!" Not long after, a wail echoed through the air.

"Junior Sister, are you sure this forest is really safe?" That scream didn't sound right at all.

"There are many spiritual plants, plus a few first- and second-rank demonic beasts. They're just a bit densely packed. I happened to collect some demonic beast blood before I came," Lin Jiuge explained calmly.

*Zhou Yan!* Junior Sister, you're amazing.

"Junior Sister, how do you even define 'not dangerous'?" Zhou Yan asked expectantly.

"It doesn't threaten our lives."

*Zhou Yan!* He knew it. That explanation was so typical of Lin Jiuge.

Jing Xia, who was tailing them behind, thought the two hadn't noticed him. Hearing Lin Jiuge's explanation almost made him blow his cover. Was the Master of the Golden Sword really this battle-crazed? As expected of a disciple of the Battle-Enlightened Venerable.

Jing Xia had always kept a low profile, intentionally cultivating a presence in the sect that was easy to overlook. Very few people knew he was the Master of the Verdant Sword. When the emergency happened back then, he had almost summoned the Verdant Sword. To his surprise, he ran into the legendary head-disciple of the Daiyue Sect, whose speed at forming hand seals was faster than his own speed at drawing a sword!

Jing Xia had been genuinely shocked. He had already met the masters of all the top ten famed swords, except for Lin Jiuge, the Master of the Golden Sword. He had followed them all the way here purely out of curiosity.

With Zhou Yan in tow, Lin Jiuge made a series of twists and turns, and soon Jing Xia completely lost track of them.

***

"Junior Sister, I'm about to spin in circles." Zhou Yan felt dizzy and disoriented.

"Don't rush." Lin Jiuge kept walking.

"Junior Sister, can you even tell directions?" Zhou Yan asked the crucial question.

"No."

"Then how on earth are you finding the path, Junior Sister?" Zhou Yan had a sudden intuition that this was reckless. Was his junior sister an utter spatial idiot?

"I use my eyes to look at the road." Lin Jiuge stared straight ahead. To her eyes, the path before her appeared as lines of different colors: green was the safest, yellow had a few minor traps, red meant a slim chance of survival, and black meant stepping in meant leaving no bones behind!

Relying on her eyes, Lin Jiuge distinguished the green paths. But the green paths also branched into several routes, varying in length. Lin Jiuge chose the shortest and safest one.

What Lin Jiuge didn't know was that another group of people had also entered this place, equipped with a map.

Because Lin Jiuge took the shortest route, she and Zhou Yan arrived at their destination first, staring at the bizarre murals before them.

"What are these painted?" Zhou Yan looked in shock at the walls covered in images.

"It seems to be recounting some kind of event." A purple light flickered in Lin Jiuge's eyes, and the wall before her seemed to come alive.

"Ten thousand years ago, the great demon E was captured by the Spirit, Hidden, and Hu tribes. However, a division arose among the three tribes regarding how to deal with E. The Spirit and Hidden tribes favored executing it directly, but the Hu tribe had different ideas."

"Junior Sister, what are you talking about?" Zhou Yan looked at Lin Jiuge, who was inexplicably telling a story.

"The Hu tribe argued that although E brought harm to the world, its entire body was made of treasures and should be used to the fullest. The Hidden tribe countered that if E wasn't eradicated, it would easily make a comeback and was far too dangerous, so they disagreed. Having suffered heavy casualties, the Spirit tribe also sided with the Hidden tribe."

"Among the three tribes, the Hidden tribe produced warriors and spellcasters with various special physiques, the Spirit tribe excelled in healing, and the Hu tribe excelled in divination and substitution." As she uttered the last two words, something flashed across Lin Jiuge's mind.

"What a wondrous three tribes," Zhou Yan sighed in admiration.

"The three tribes failed to reach a consensus and parted on bad terms."

The purple light vanished from Lin Jiuge's eyes. She walked over to a specific spot and pressed it. With a rumbling sound, a door slowly opened in the wall.

Zhou Yan produced a shark-pearl to illuminate the space beyond the door.

As both of them stepped through, the door behind them slammed shut with a heavy rumble. Without looking back, they continued onward.

With their entry, the murals on the wall outside slowly peeled away and crumbled. By the time the mysterious group arrived, all they found was a floor covered in stone debris.

***

"Who on earth was it?" the leader demanded. His voice sounded as if his throat had been scraped by razor blades, incredibly harsh and grating.

"Didn't we have the only map? How are we going to report back?"

"There are no other paths; we can only retrace our steps. Only a handful of people entered—we'll interrogate everyone when we return." The leader gripped the leather map tightly. Who on earth was this? To enter here without a map... Could it be remnants of the Spirit or Hidden tribes besides themselves? Regardless of which it was, failing to secure the artifacts meant total failure.

Lin Jiuge and Zhou Yan knew nothing of this. After walking for a while, they arrived at an open expanse, as if this patch of land had been deliberately cleaved apart. Water cascaded down like the Milky Way, and behind it sparkled starlight-like crystals. Deep within Lin Jiuge, the nameless sword stirred restlessly once more.

*Jiuge, Jiuge! I want it! There's a lot of it here, can I absorb more?* The nameless sword rapidly carved words, its strokes brimming with eagerness.

The Golden Sword also emitted a clear chime. Lin Jiuge roughly understood that it needed them too.

"This is a vein of ore, Senior Brother. Let's mine some and take them back for Senior Uncle to examine," Lin Jiuge suggested.

"Alright," Zhou Yan agreed. Following his junior sister closely was indeed the right choice. Who could have imagined there would be such top-tier ore inside?

The two of them excitedly mined the nameless ore. Encountering the water that fell like the Milky Way, Lin Jiuge quietly slipped both swords into it.

The nameless sword darted around playfully, and the Golden Sword clearly radiated joy. Although this ore had no known name, it was undeniably valuable.

As the pair busily gathered a substantial amount, failing to notice impending danger, the Golden Sword returned early to Lin Jiuge's dantian to slowly absorb the energy, its entire blade glowing with brilliant luster. The nameless sword swept up a storm of ore fragments and retreated into Lin Jiuge's sea of consciousness.

*Jiuge, there are good things here! Two ore crystals—do your best!* Leaving this message behind, the nameless sword began its own absorption.

Good things? Puzzled, Lin Jiuge looked around, suddenly spotting movement right beside Zhou Yan.

"Senior Brother, move away quickly!" Lin Jiuge shouted.

Though confused, Zhou Yan complied immediately.

Right beside the spot where Zhou Yan had just been standing, something shifted, slowly revealing a massive ore crystal shimmering like the Milky Way. The two of them swallowed hard—that crystal was enormous!

The crystal reached all the way up to Lin Jiuge's shoulder.

"Junior Sister, we've struck it rich!" Zhou Yan trembled.

"Wait, no—"