The White Tiger’s palace wasn’t actually as dangerous as You XiaoMo had imagined. Although the exterior was indeed magnificent, in reality the interior was awfully shabby. It was a large, empty palace with only a few pretty gems set into the ceiling and pillars. It could practically be called destitute.
You XiaoMo looked over the map several times before finally determining that it really did only display the topography of the palace. It didn’t even indicate where the treasure was. There were only a few strange lines, split into red, yellow, and blue colors, and it twisted and turned like a labyrinth.
“How do we find this?”
You XiaoMo felt as if it would have been even better if they didn’t have a map.
The thing that made him the angriest was that he had only received two maps in total, but both maps had problems. Shouldn’t a so-called map directly indicate where the location was, so he could effortlessly find what he was looking for?
Then how come every time it landed in his hands, he always had to waste so many brain cells? Despite clearly knowing his IQ was in the double negatives, the Heavens were still testing him like this. They were too blind.
Ling Xiao said, “The White Tiger’s innate character should be very lazy.”
“So he’s too lazy to draw a map?” You XiaoMo gritted his teeth.
Ling Xiao couldn’t help but laugh. “The White Tiger is a legend. Even the Four Ancient Beast Clans very rarely saw him before, so nobody knows what exactly he was thinking. If he had supported the White Tiger Clan like the Four Ancient Beast Clans did, the White Tiger Clan would have already become one of the strongest demon beast clans on TongTian Continent, just like the Four Ancient Beast Clans.”
You XiaoMo felt that the White Tiger being too lazy definitely had something to do with why the White Tiger Clan hadn’t developed. He was even too lazy to have any descendants, so he undoubtedly was also too lazy to collect things like treasures. No wonder there was nothing good in the palace.
“You aren’t trying to tell me that we came for nothing this time, right?”
“Not necessarily.” Ling Xiao pushed open the door to the stone room. He stood in the doorway and glanced inside. Indeed, it was also completely empty and destitute, but he instantly started walking towards his target.
You XiaoMo hastily caught up. “What do you mean by ‘not necessarily’?”
Ling Xiao didn’t directly answer his question. Instead, he asked, “Do you know why the White Tiger hibernates for so many years?”
You XiaoMo pondered for a moment. “He likes water?”
Ling Xiao shot him an admiring look.
You XiaoMo immediately felt smug and self-satisfied. He started to consider whether he should negotiate with Ling Xiao to see if he could change his negative double digits IQ to a negative single digit IQ.
Ling Xiao continued, “The White Tiger likes water, so even though he’s lazy, he won’t ever treat himself unfairly.”
You XiaoMo nodded. In reality, you could tell from this palace. The exterior was created extremely magnificently, but the inside was completely empty. This showed that all he wanted was a cozy nest, nothing more.
“What comes to mind when you think of water?” Ling Xiao suddenly asked.
You XiaoMo patted himself on the head and hesitated for a few seconds. “Uh… he’s thirsty?”
Ling Xiao’s expression instantly changed slightly.
You XiaoMo absolutely refused to acknowledge that his expression actually carried the meaning of ‘I just praised you, but your IQ just dropped back down.’ How could he guess what the answer was if Ling Xiao suddenly asked him this kind of question?
Ling Xiao had no hope whatsoever that You XiaoMo would understand what he was getting at. He said blandly, “Water is one of the five elements…”
“Ah, ah!” You XiaoMo hastily cut him off. He said happily, “I get it now, it’s the Water Elemental Essence, did I guess right?”
“I was indeed about to say the Water Elemental Essence. The Water Elemental Essence is much harder to find than the Wood Elemental Essence. Legend has it that this Elemental Essence was originally in the possession of the Chief of the Oceans, whose territory is connected to Dong Zhou. But because the White Tiger likes water, he stole the Elemental Essence. However, this is something that very few people know about.”
“Then how do you know?”
“There’s no need to look into that kind of detail.”
“Oh… …”
Ever since they started searching for the Water Elemental Essence and they rushed to the Black Canyon with a bunch of other people, one couldn’t look at how easily You XiaoMo and Ling Xiao found the entrance. In reality, if it weren’t for the map, which was the key, even if they had stayed for a century in the Black Canyon, they wouldn’t necessarily have found it.
Even though that fissure seemed very easy to find, the Black Spider’s people searched the bottom of the canyon for a very long time, yet they had never once discovered that kind of fissure. So, after they saw the place that Ling Xiao destroyed, they were extremely shocked in their hearts. After the shock passed, they naturally slipped inside at once.
The broken rocks on the ground clearly indicated that someone had already gone in before them. If those people happened to be You XiaoMo and Ling Xiao, who had obtained the map from the auction, they determined they would have most likely already got to the treasure by now.
After the Black Spider’s people went in, the ShuiXi Tribe’s people also rushed over to the Black Canyon. They immediately jumped into the canyon after surveying the nearby area. Only a short while passed before Xia Yin also arrived at that place.
Xia Yin’s understanding of the Black Canyon wasn’t very deep. She didn’t actually know that the White Tiger’s palace was at the bottom of the canyon, but when she learned from Niu XuYang about You XiaoMo fighting with the person in black here, her intuition told her that there was a problem with this place, so she brought some people over.
“Holy Maiden, there’s a footprint here.” Little Qiu discovered a fresh footprint at the edge of the canyon. The area surrounding the canyon was all made up of rocks, so it wasn’t easy to leave a footprint. The other person’s shoe must have first stepped into loose mud in order for it to just happen to leave a footprint behind.
Xia Yin immediately announced that they were going down into the canyon.
But they hadn’t expected that, in the end, they would be blocked off by a barrier. Without a key, nobody could enter unless they destroyed the barrier.
Xia Yin discovered the underwater palace, and by the time she hurried over, she found that the two sides were currently facing off against each other. She originally wanted to hide so she wouldn’t be found out, but then a person covered head to toe in a black cloak opened his mouth and exposed her name. “Holy Maiden Xia Yin, since you’ve already arrived, why aren’t you coming over to greet us?”
Xia Yin brought three female servants with her as she rushed over, but her gaze didn’t fall on the cloaked person who had revealed her. Instead, it landed on the man who was leading the ShuiXi Tribe, and she laughed lightly. “It’s been two years since we last saw each other. Mister Fu’s cultivation has improved vigorously. Even I, Xia Yin, cannot compare with your speed.”
“Holy Maiden is joking. In front of you, this little bit of strength that I have is nothing.” The man who Xia Yin was staring at remained expressionless, and his polite words were spoken without a single rise or fall in his voice. It seemed very much as if he was a person who had had a cold temperament ever since he was born.
Xia Yin wasn’t surprised. She had long since heard that there were two esteemed people from the ShuiXi Tribe, one cold and one warm. Through some unknown opportunity, their cultivation rose sharply, which greatly aided the ShuiXi Tribe in tiding over several crises. Now, the people of the ShuiXi Tribe basically considered them to be their spiritual leaders.
Xia Yin pressed her lips together and smiled before finally looking at the cloaked person. “The Black Spider’s subordinates are indeed very mysterious. I am not sure what rank Your Excellency holds at the Black Spider?”
The cloaked person was silent for a few seconds before suddenly laughing cruelly. “Holy Maiden is indeed out of the ordinary. You even know about this kind of thing, I truly, truly admire you. Since Holy Maiden wants to know, then there’s no harm in telling Holy Maiden. This humble subordinate is of the Sky rank.”
The Black Spider divided its subordinates into three ranks: Man, Earth, and Sky. The Man rank was the lowest, while the Sky rank was the highest. It was divided according to strength. The two people in black that You XiaoMo killed were of the Man rank, so their strength was around the Divine low-star level or possibly the Emperor Realm level.
The Earth rank consisted of those in the Divine middle-star or high-star level. The Sky rank was on a whole other level; every Sky rank member was a Sacred Realm expert. They didn’t divide according to stars, so he could be low-star or middle-star. Since high-stars were very rare, she didn’t need to worry much about that.
When she heard him say Sky rank, Xia Yin narrowed her eyes.
She had heard of the Black Spider before. If they just casually dispatched a Sky rank expert, then that truly showed that the palace inside the barrier wasn’t something simple. She hadn’t come for no reason this time.
“Holy Maiden is most likely very interested about what is inside the palace. Would you perhaps be interested in joining hands with me to destroy the barrier? As for what is inside the palace, I am willing to split it evenly with Holy Maiden.” The cloaked person immediately threw out an olive branch.
“Just us?” Xia Yin glanced at the ShuiXi Tribe’s people. Instantly, a bright light flashed across her eyes.
The cloaked person laughed. “Only experts have the qualifications to possess good things.”
Xia Yin’s strength was undoubtable. Even though the cloaked person was a Sacred Realm expert, if he truly did start fighting with Xia Yin, his chance of winning wasn’t over 40 percent. In addition, the Black Spider’s people didn’t have enough strength to break through the barrier at all, so it wasn’t odd that he wanted to invite Xia Yin.
As for the ShuiXi Tribe, they had always been a cornerstone existence among Dong Zhou’s three major tribes. Naturally, they looked down upon the Black Spider, but just because they looked down on them, that didn’t mean that the ShuiXi Tribe would just compromise.
“Your Excellency has quite a bold tone of voice.” The old man standing behind the man named Fu suddenly walked forward. At the same time, he took off the black hat he wore on his head, revealing an old appearance.
“Moqi Xiyuan?” The cloaked person immediately cried out in alarm.
Similarly, Xia Yin’s eyes also revealed an incredulous expression.
Moqi Xiyuan was the strongest person in the ShuiXi Tribe. He wasn’t a mage, but he was a well-known expert. Simultaneously, he was also the head of the ShuiXi Tribe. In the past, he would never just easily leave the ShuiXi Tribe; after all, there were quite a few people who wanted to attack the ShuiXi Tribe. Last time during the Black Spider’s auction, he himself hadn’t appeared.
But for him to personally appear here now, it showed that he greatly valued what was inside the White Tiger’s palace, and he was completely determined to win.
