Though there were still some new discoveries, mostly hidden spaces or pits filled with some Spirit Crystals, metal ores or herbs, there wasn't any awe-inspiring treasure to be found anywhere in these ruins.

This also isn't the ruins filled with Spiritual Beasts as Tian Su had promised. There are only a rank 2 or rank 3 Spiritual Beast here and there.

Most of the things found inside this ruins didn't catch Zhu Furong's interest so it only took him a few hours to skimp through places to reach the end of the cave tunnel.

There is a limestone wall at the terminal of the cave tunnel, just like the cave walls. The only difference is that there aren't any runes written over this wall.

There are few inner sect disciples of Sunlight Sect resting here.

Zhu Furong observed the walls and the surrounding area before finding a secluded spot. He sat in meditation facing the terminal of the cave tunnel.

"Sigh! Is it just me or this place has been swept clean by someone? I feel like someone found this place even before the Sunlight Sect Elders and took away all the valuables." "Unlike others here, I have Devine Sense. I can feel the residues of pure Spiritual Qi at some places I discovered before." Zhu Furong spoke to Zhu Xingzuo via Divine Sense, full of doubt.

"Spread your Divine Sense in front of you." Zhu Xingzuo suddenly suggested.

"You mean at the wall? Is this wall something special?" Zhu Furong asked with surprise.

"No you duffer of a Big Brother. Not the wall. There should be something behind the wall. Check it." Zhu Xingzuo spoke with interest and haste.

"Every chicken has its day it seems." Zhu Furong spoke through gritted teeth.

"Isn't it 'every dog has its day'? To not even remember such easy proverbs, seems like you really are a duffer, hahaha..." Zhu Xingzuo mocked Zhu Furong and laughed haughtily.

"Idiot." Zhu Furong spoke a single word before slowly and carefully spreading his Divine Sense in front.

Looking at Zhu Furong's lack of reaction, Zhu Xingzuo felt unsatisfied. 'Was my taunting not good enough? Am I lacking materials?' Zhu Xingzuo contemplated.

It took Zhu Furong about 10 minutes to traverse through the few meters thick wall with his Divine Sense before discovering the other end to be filled with scattered fog clouds covering most of his vision.

Unable to find much, he pulled back his Divine Sense and instantly heard Zhu Xingzuo cursing at him.

"Your dad is a chicken, your mom is a chicken, your whole family is a chicken." Zhu Xingzuo shouted with rage. "I am a Bahamut you asshole. A B-A-H-A-M-U-T. Understood?" Zhu Xingzuo gnashed his teeth with hate, fuming with anger.

"Calm down, calm down. I understand." Zhu Furong breathed out to calm his mind. He replayed the scene behind the walls in his mind but couldn't find any definitive clues.

"You understand? What do you understand?" Zhu Xingzuo asked, still somewhat angry.

Zhu Furong frowned, still contemplating what he saw behind the wall."You are a mighty Bahamut with a fleshy red comb on your head and feathers on your tail." Even though he is absent minded at the moment, he still didn't forget to ridicule Zhu Xingzuo.

Unexpectedly to Zhu Furong there wasn't any response from Zhu Xingzuo. It was complete silence.

After about five minutes of waiting, Zhu Furong scratched his head and blew his fingers. "Hey, are you still there? Did you fall asleep all of a sudden?" Zhu Furong asked with confusion.

Boom!

With a sudden blast sound coming from the depths of Zhu Furong's lower dantian, his whole body suddenly exploded with raging Chaos Qi. It was just for an instant, but it left Zhu Furong's body in intense pain from overstretching of all of his body tissues.

"Argh!" Zhu Furong yelped in pain before curling up into a prawn. His whole body drenched in cold sweat.

The sudden shout attracted the attention of the disciples gathered in the vicinity but no one came to help Zhu Furong.

"Sigh!... Is it qigong deviation? Which fool Cultivates inside a ruin? Even though the Elders cleared all the Spiritual Beasts inside, there are still some rank 2 and rank 3 Spiritual Beasts roaming around. Also, outside the cave tunnel, there are Spiritual Beasts of rank 5 in the forest. What if one of them enters the ruins?" "Leaving that aside, how can you be sure that the people here won't disturb your meditation?" "Idiot. Serves you right. Why not go ahead and die? It will open a free spot in the sect rankings. Huh!" Someone in the crowd cursed Zhu Furong.

The others have similar opinions. No one is here to play 'friends' with their fellow disciples. They are all competitors.

"Xingzuo, you bastard. I will definitely make an omelette out of you. Just you wait." Zhu Furong groaned with pain.

"Try if you can. Who told you to make fun of me? Humph!" Zhu Xingzuo accepted Zhu Furong's challenge.

It took 15 minutes for the muscle pain to go away before Zhu Furong could regain his composure. With some effort he sat back in meditation again.

"What a fool. He just survived a disaster but didn't learn shit from it. Look at him, he started to Cultivate again. Look at the floor under him. I doubt if it's his sweat or his pee." Someone in the crowd mocked Zhu Furong.

With a pffft, most of the gathered disciples broke into laughter.

Zhu Xingzuo instantly regulated some Spiritual Qi from the surroundings pulling it in and pushing it out of Zhu Furong's body, drying up his clothes.

"You almost killed me. Isn't your 'Chaos Qi' quite precious? To use it over something so silly..." Zhu Furong grumbled.

"It was worth it." Zhu Xingzuo spoke with satisfaction.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Zhu Furong rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"The wall in front is a few meters thick and behind it is an open space. I don't know if it's inside or outside of this cave tunnel since there is some source of light present there. The place is filled with scattered fog clouds, so it's quite hard to look around." Zhu Furong spoke about the matter in hands.

"That's definitely the head part behind this thick wall. Someone took special care to cover it up. There's definitely a treasure inside." Zhu Xingzuo spoke with certainty.

Zhu Furong smiled awkwardly."My dear Little Brother. You know you skipped through a lot of parts in your explanation for me to be able to understand what you are talking about, right?" Zhu Furong reminded.

"This place is not some ruins, but a fossil cave left behind after the removal of the skeleton." "The mouth of this cave tunnel is the tip of the tail of the White Tiger. All the intersections you came across are the limbs and ribs of the White Tiger. The rooms and pits are probably the loose soil which couldn't form into solid rocks due to the lack of time after the decomposition of the flesh." "After achieving a certain rank in Cultivation, the bones of the Spiritual Beasts are carved with Laws of Nature. The runes printed on these walls here are one of the laws of nature, the 'laws of wind', the natural affinity of White Tigers." "Though this few meters thick wall in front is made artificially covering a part of the neck." Zhu Xingzuo explained in one breath.

Zhu Furong rubbed the tip of his nose with his finger. "I have read that Dragons and Phoenixes can grow quite large. But I didn't expect the White Tiger to grow this large as well."

"The roar of the Dragon shatters the heavens. The flame of the Phoenix burns the heavens. The claws of the White Tiger tears open the heavens. The Black Tortoise lifts up the heavens." "Are these verses also true?" Zhu Furong asked with interest.

"What do you think?" Zhu Xingzuo asked in a ridiculing manner.

"I have only read about these divine beasts in books, so I am not sure. To be honest, those verses sound like a fairytale to me." Zhu Furong spoke while scratching his cheek with a finger.

"The heavens would have disappeared by now if these were true. These verses are just metaphors made by humans to show the might of the divine beasts. They only sound good in stories but sound ridiculous in real life." Zhu Xingzuo mocked.

"There are also myths that a Dragon can coil around a star or a Phoenix's Nirvana Flames can burn the sun." "The stars can have a circumference of a million kilometers, but a Dragon can at most grow up to 30,000 feet." "The Nirvana Flames of a Phoenix is a growth type special fire, it can grow from grade 6 which is currently in your head, to grade 8. On the other hand, the Essence of a young star such as the sun is always a grade 8 fire. With age it grows weaker till it drops to grade one before being reborn into a new star step by step if not destroyed or consumed." Zhu Xingzuo explained.

"I see." Zhu Furong nodded his head with realization. "But by the Nirvana Flames in my head, do you mean-"

Zhu Xingzuo continued without letting Zhu Furong complete his sentence. "An adult Dragon can grow up to 30,000 feet, a Phoenix can grow up to 8,000 feet, a White Tiger can grow up to 10,000 feet and a Black Tortoise can grow up to 6,000 feet at most."

Zhu Xingzuo breathed out. "From the distance we have traveled, the length of this fossil cave seems to be about 8000 feet in length. The White Tiger may not have been fully matured but it definitely was a prominent figure with a high Cultivation rank. Cultivation so high that it can shatter a planet or two at its full power."

"Now the question is, though it may have died millions of years ago for its flesh to have decomposed, but there is no way that its skeleton has also decomposed. The bones of high rank human Cultivators can stay intact for millions of years after their death, let alone the bones of a Spiritual Beast." "Just where did the bones go?" Zhu Xingzuo murmured.

Zhu Furong sighed."What's there to think about? If I am not wrong, Ming Zen took them. Did you forget he has the bloodline of a White Tiger? If I am not wrong, this place has something to do with it."

"Oh, I totally forgot about him." "Though the flesh has been decomposed there still should have been the Monster Core left behind. It's more than enough to change one's physique to that of a White Tiger. For now his assimilation of the Monster Core is quite low due to his weak Cultivation. But with time, he will fully absorb the Monster Core, gaining the powers of White Tiger. Hmmm... That brat is quite lucky." Zhu Xingzuo agreed with Zhu Furong's deduction of the culprit.

"But to not leave even a single good thing for us... I really want to beat his ass." Zhu Xingzuo complained.

"Finders, keepers. What are you getting all frustrated about? It was his luck he found this place. It's his right to take everything. Wouldn't we have done the same if we were in his place?" Zhu Furong reasoned.

"That's true. Well, anyways, he seems to have left something behind this wall right? Let's check it out." Zhu Xingzuo encouraged.

"Not now when everyone is here. I will do it when no one is nearby. It will take some time to dig through this thick wall." Zhu Furong reminded.

He then stood up dusting his butt.

"Didn't you say, these runes on the walls are the laws of wind? Isn't that what I need to learn to master the first step of God Steps maneuvering skill? Let me note it down on jade slips. You can decipher them for me later." Zhu Furong suggested. He went to the closest wall and took out an empty jade slip. He held the jade slip hiding it inside his long sleeves and secretly inscribed the runes with his divine sense.

"Yaaawn... Well this will take some time, I will take a nap till you are done." Zhu Xingzuo took this chance to have some rest.

...

It took half a day for Zhu Furong to copy one third of the runes. It has been one and a half days till the disciples have come here to explore the ruins. Now it was time to leave.

Xidi Junjie gathered everyone at the innermost part of the tunnel then asked everyone to submit their findings to the aforementioned people.

With a paper and pen in their hands, Chu Dongmei and Tian Lei gathered all the materials from the disciples they were in charge of, noting their achievements. No one made any fuss knowing that the ladies are quite honest. Zhu Furong also submitted everything he found here except the five high grade Spirit Crystals. Though they are nothing special in the eyes of Zhu Furong, these Spirit Crystals are still treasures in the eyes of other disciples. According to Tian Lei it's better to not let them find out, so she asked Zhu Furong to submit them directly to the Elders. Zhu Furong complied.

On the contrary to the happy disciples on Chu Dongmei and Tian Lai's side, the disciples on the side of Xidi Junjie were clicking their tongue with distress and grinding their teeth with anger.

The one collecting the materials is Lin Kai, while Xidi Junjie is resting on the side.

True to his nature, Lin Kai acted like a shameless greedy bastard. He took away most of the good achievements of the disciples and wrote them under his Young Master Xidi Junjie's name.

No one can complain but can only swallow their grief and anger.

Everyone knows that the Master of Xidi Junjie, Elder Chang Shun, is quite a ruthless and unjust person. He favors his personal disciple quite highly. So making an enemy out of Xidi Junjie is the same as getting on the bad side of Elder Chang Shun. They can't even complain to the sect.

With a wicked smile, Lin Kai happily collected all the materials from the disciples. To make sure they don't hide anything, Lin Kai even went as far as to check their Spatial Bags, in the process even pocketing some of their personal belongings.

This man is the epitome of shamelessness.

The only person who escaped unscathed among the group of disciples under Xidi Junjie was Tian Su. After all, if Lin Kai did the same thing to Tian Su as he did to the other disciples, he would have lost his head to Tian Lei.

It took a few hours to collect all the materials.

"Done?" Xidi Junjie asked while stretching his arms in the air.

"Yes Young Master." Lin Kai bowed to Xidi Junjie, handing him the Space Ring containing the materials.

"Good." Xidi Junjie nodded. He looked at the side of Chu Dongmei and Tian Lei. "Seems like their side is done as well."

"Everyone pay attention." Xidi Junjie shouted. "Everyone has done well in this expedition. It's time to return to the sect." He looked towards the disciples of the Purple Bamboo Sect. "You guys know what to do. You will stay at the inn in the Martial Arts Pavilion market for two days. After receiving your credits and compensation rewards you can go back to your sect."

"Understood." The leader of the Purple Bamboo Sect bowed with a salute.

Xidi Junjie didn't care to respond back. "Let's go." He ordered Lin Kai and led the way.

One by one, the disciples followed.