The passages seemed endless and the long shadows danced as they moved and jostled the lanterns on their belts. They moved at a fast walk, with Pan Tian checking for traps. She'd helped their group avoid countless numbers of them so far. Even the more magical ones.

Pan Tian always seemed to know what to look for and Jie was glad she had the opportunity to watch the older girl in action as she would've been caught by many of the traps simply because she didn't know any better. She paid careful attention to what Pan Tian indicated and the occasional words the older girl spoke, telling them about the traps and what triggered them.

They were being fairly quiet, but Pan Tian still instructed them when she could. Though Ithilix already seemed at least as skilled at trap finding. Perhaps even more so than Pan Tian herself, so Jie presumed the lessons were mainly for her benefit.

Jie wasn't sure what, if any, of the treasures they'd gained in the Crimson Valley would be of use to her, aside from the cultivation resources. But she felt like she'd learned an incredible amount from it already. Between the insights into her martial skills, her growth in cultivation, and Pan Tian's lessons, it'd been enormously rewarding so far.

And, if the qilin were right, she finally knew what was holding her back. Though, she hadn't resolved the conflict inside her yet... she'd tried mentally chanting that she was okay with killing, but it seemed that it wasn't that easy, and the conflict remained.

Once again, they saw light around a corner. But it was brighter this time and lacked the sounds the arak made. There were far more auras, but they felt more in line with items than cultivators.

Even so, Jie cycled her qi, ready for a fight, and hoping they weren't about to come face to face with Elementalists.

They turned the corner and saw that there were indeed no arak in sight.

Instead, there was a massive chamber ahead of them with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, casting bright orange light on the piles of gold and silver coins, weapons, clothing, pottery, chests, stacks of scrolls, metal and stone statues and busts, glittering gemstones, tapestries, crowns, and countless other objects strewn about the room and on the floor above with open archways revealing more treasures on that floor. Large troughs of blood lined the walls and the ledge of the floor above. The blood within oozed at a steady trickle.

In the center of the room was a large red statue of the same woman as always. She looked right at them with her usual severe expression.

"Woah," Jie said.

"I told you. There's tons of treasure in the dungeon. Though, I must admit, this is more than even I expected," Pan Tian said.

"This one is most grateful to partake in such a bounty," Ithilix said.

Xue sniffed the air and growled.

Jie frowned and scanned the room with her spirit sense as best she could. Auras came off countless objects in the room, though she felt something giving off a powerful aura like that of an Expert ranked cultivator of the peak ninth star... only it didn't feel... right. More like the aura that came off objects than magical beasts, monsters, or people.

Still... she wasn't great with using her spirit sense. She started cycling lightning step and qi armor just in case.

Ithilix stepped forward, her antennae quivering.

"This one senses a powerful treasure... we shouldn't touch anything until we've identified it," Ithilix said.

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A gold coin slid off a large pile on Jie's right, bounced on the floor with a clink, and rolled across the floor toward the center of the room. A silver coin leapt over to it and the two stuck together. The pair skid toward the middle of the room as more coins followed suit.

Huge piles of coins sloshed in a glittering chorus of tinkling metal, carrying jeweled necklaces, gems, weapons, scrolls, and beautiful tapestries with them as they flowed into a massive pile in the middle of the room.

The pile grew until it was four times higher than Jie was tall. Then, it shifted, forming into a vaguely humanoid shape with a head, two arms (the left of which was more than triple the size of the right one), and rose up on an almost serpentine lower body extending out of the pile of coins.

Gold, silver, and dazzling gems fell from it as it moved only to fall at its tail and slide back to rejoin the rest of the monster.

It pulled its larger arm back as violet fire qi burned through the gaps in the coins and set scrolls caught in the mass of coins alight. Its entire arm of precious coins glowed from the heat. It lashed out at Jie. The enormous fist bore down upon her, radiating heat.

But, it was slow despite being at the ninth star of the Expert rank.

Jie sidestepped the strike and it extended past her, flowing like a train of sizzling metal. It smashed a large chest behind her which exploded in a cloud of fire and smoke that sent crowns, coins, and strange blue gems scattering everywhere.

Hey! That's our treasure! Jie thought.

She directed her fingers at it and sent out a finger of light attack. Dragon lightning qi flashed across the distance between her and it and blasted its head apart in an explosion of coins as dragon lightning arced over its massive body.

The pieces of its head landed with a chorus of clinks and slid over the floor back toward the tail of the monster as a new head formed.

A hum filled the air as more coins, a weapon rack containing spears, and a large hammer shot across the room and into the creature's bulk.

Its aura fluctuated and bright violet qi engulfed its entire body, burning through the gaps in the coins as its body glowed with an oppressive heat that washed over the entire room. Gold, silver, and many of the weapons in its body melted and formed into a swirling liquid. Gold and silver mixed into a strange variety of white, yellow, and green metal that radiated heat. The metal bubbled as lines of violet fire flickered over its surface.

"I think you annoyed it," Pan Tian said.

"I think so too. Whatever. Let's end this," Jie said.

Jie struck out with two finger of light attacks. More powerful ones this time. Her dragon lightning qi flashed across the room and blasted its head and one of its shoulders away, sending molten metal splattering across the room, which her friends dived behind pillars to avoid.

Lightning arced over its body and the liquid metal flowed back to it as the hum intensified and Jie's hair stood on end. Even more of the room flowed toward it.

"Ah! It's pulling my weapons!" Pan Tian said.

"This one's too!" Ithilix said as she wrestled with her spear.

The creature's larger arm flowed into an enormous, curved blade of liquid metal and violet fire as the monster slithered toward Jie. Its speed had been almost ponderous before, but now it closed the gap between it and Jie in the blink of an eye.

It slashed at Jie, its liquid metal weapon slicing toward her far faster than its first attack and at a much closer range.

Jie bit back a surprised yelp at the sudden change, but it was still slower than her. Jie formed dragonfists around each of her fists. She smashed one into the blade with the back of her fist, blasting it away from her, and then punched the creature in the lower half of its body. Where its hips would be if it weren't a mass of metal and gems.

The heat coming off it made sweat run down Jie's skin. But thankfully with her dragon lightning qi shielding her fists, she didn't burn herself as she blasted the monster back with each hit.

Liquid metal and half-molten treasures splattered around her as she punched great dents in the monster. Lightning arced over the monster's bulk and the humming intensified.

It vibrated Jie's bones as more of the treasures in the room flowed to the creature, merging, and melting into it with only a few more powerful weapons managing to stay intact, sticking out like spikes and glowing from the heat.

The creature reformed, the dents she'd created flowing closed as the monster slashed at Jie again with both arms this time and even faster than before.

Jie stopped attacking, focusing instead on evading its attacks and then on outright fleeing the creature as her mind raced and the monster gave chase.

What the heck? My attacks make it faster. And stronger too. Gold and silver... I remember something about gold and silver... together it makes... electrum? I remember it had something to do with electrostatic... something or other. But, this is ridiculous! A treasure monster that gets stronger when I attack it?! What am I supposed to do against something like that!? Jie thought.