Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After a tenth of the treasure had been taken away, Jiang Chen still had a significant amount left. Besides the crystals of fire dragon and holy dragon balls, he had finally found a practice resource in the jade bracelet.
It was cold jade, without any cut or polish. Formed from rocks, it still had stone covering its surface.
Jiang Chen could see it was the highest grade of cold jade. Carrying it with him, he could calm down and focus better. During practice, he wouldn’t be influenced by his environment.
“Let’s continue,” said Han Siming.
Cheng Qing nodded. She was sensing the location of treasure while leading the team. This time, it took her longer to find anything.
When she finally found something and headed to it, they found other people had arrived before them once again.
Jiang Chen gradually realized the spiritual ware Cheng Qing used for treasure seeking had many limits.
It couldn’t find any treasure that was moving, and it also had difficulty finding any treasure stored in spiritual ware or hidden under mountains.
That also explained why they were always a step behind the others, because not until others had found treasure and damaged the building in which the treasure was hidden could the object sense its existence.
The next day, the team arrived at a plain. After flying for almost half an hour, they found there was a long and wide opening on the ground, a gorge.
They came to the gorge and saw the ground was paved with blue flagstones.
They cheered up and flew forward as fast as they could.
Soon, the view suddenly became open and clear. There was a square at the end of the blue flagstone road.
In the square, there was a palace built into the stone wall that seemed like it had been built for giants. The gate was around ninety feet high.
The gate was open at that moment. In the square, there were freshly killed bodies.
Apparently, they had arrived late again.
“I can still sense the treasure,” Cheng Qing suddenly said. It meant those people were still searching for treasure inside.
“Jiang Chen, what do you think?” Han Siming asked for Jiang Chen’s opinion.
His fighting power was only second to Han Siming’s in the team, so his opinion was important.
“They’ve found this place, and we’ve found it, too. First come, first served. That’s true, but this place apparently has a large secret treasure. We’ll go treasure seeking inside, too, but we won’t provoke them deliberately,” Jiang Chen proposed.
“Yeah, let’s do it.” Han Siming took his advice, but before they went in, they checked the ten corpses in the square.
“Leader, none of these people were from the Evil Cloud Palace,” someone found.
It meant those inside the underground palace were likely from the Evil Cloud Palace.
Since Jiang Chen was from the Hero Palace, they would absolutely have problems if they met.
“So we have one more reason to go inside.” Jiang Chen stopped pretending to be good-hearted. He said, “If they’re really from the Evil Cloud Palace, we won’t need an excuse to kill them.”
“All right!”
That was exactly what they had been waiting for. Besides getting rid of the evil party, the more important thing was the treasure.
The team entered the gates. It was very dark inside. Their holy awareness had been absorbed by the walls, so they couldn’t rely on it to grope for directions.
They could feel it was very deep, but they didn’t dare take a leap in the dark, since it was too quiet.
If there were people looking for treasure, it shouldn’t have been so quiet!
“Stay in the triangle formation. Look out,” said Han Siming.
Then the gates were shut closed immediately, and they lost the last streak of light.
“Watch out!”
Different whooshing sounds came from around them. Everyone sensed danger.
“It’s an ambush! Stay together to defend yourselves!” Han Siming ordered. He determined the source of the attack by the sound and took the initiative to attack.
Jiang Chen followed him. He brandished his sword in different directions, killing the enemies lurking in the dark.
When he struck them, he noticed there was something wrong. What he had struck wasn’t flesh, but closer to hard wooden boards covered in iron.
“They’re puppets! Apprentice Brother Han, come back!” Jiang Chen tumbled to the realization and hurried to warn Han Siming.
But it was too late. Han Siming threw his sword out and cut a puppet into pieces. However, his sword was stuck there.
At the same time, arrows came from all directions. Han Siming switched on his protective energy jar and warded off most of them, but failed to dodge some.
“Leave!”
Jiang Chen dashed to the gates. This was also a Celestial Dragon Gate. It was under someone’s control, but he cracked it as quickly as possible.
As soon as the exit was open, the team ran out of it immediately.
Jiang Chen jumped to Han Siming’s side and helped him leave. He carried the latter to the square.
“Eh?”
Jiang Chen paled when he had just managed to steady his feet on the ground. He shouted, “Fly into the air! Now!”
The others were dumbstruck, but they immediately followed his order.
When they were twenty or thirty yards above the ground, an invisible wall appeared before them and stopped them.
In the next few seconds, the square was surrounded by a tactical formation. Those who were still in the square couldn’t get out anymore.
Some people showed up along the mountain wall, smiling cunningly at them.
“We’ve been set up,” said Cheng Qing.
Jiang Chen had read in a book that there was a fierce monster that was very sly. When they were dealing with humans, at first, they wouldn’t kill any of them. They would only injure them and wait quietly until their companions came to their rescue.
These people were the same. They hadn’t taken the treasure in the underground palace so that other teams would still come, then they would kill the newcomers cruelly and steal their treasure.
They didn’t have to do anything but wait. In this way, they could get treasure at the lowest possible risk.
“Three are dead,” Han Siming murmured. As the leader, he regarded the casualties the team suffered as his own incapabilities.
“Don’t blame yourself. It was my fault, too. I was too confident.”
Everything had gone so smoothly since Jiang Chen had entered the secret treasure that he had been off guard and rushed into there, but repent and guilt wouldn’t help. Jiang Chen was thinking about how to solve the current crisis.
None of the arrows had hit Han Siming’s key parts, but he felt weak, and his expression was dark. “The arrow heads are poisoned.”
Jiang Chen gave him an antidote immediately to relieve his pain.
Out of the tactical formation, the team behind all of this had occupied all vantage points. Their leader asked, “You came out of the Celestial Dragon Gate with very few casualties, and you were the first one to sense the tactical formation! You’re actually good. What’s your name?”
“Jiang Chen,” he answered honestly in order to stall for more time to figure out a way to crack the tactical formation.
As for Han Siming’s poison, he would have to detoxify it by himself.
“Jiang Chen? Never heard the name.” The man thought for a while, tilting his head, then shook his head confusedly.
But apparently, someone had said something to him through holy awareness, because it seemed like he realized who Jiang Chen was.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know anyone outside of the top thirty of List A of the Dragon Rise List,” he said politely, even smiling.
However, his pride was also evident when he mentioned the top thirty.
And Han Siming’s team was shocked. Did that mean he was ranked in the top thirty himself?
Trapped in the tactical formation, would they be able to survive?!
At such a thought, desperation spread among them, except for Jiang Chen. He smiled, because he had found a way to crack the tactical formation.
