"Halt! States your reason to visit our Office!" two guards stopped a middle-aged man from entering their establishment. While the guards pointing their spears on the visitor, a small piece of formation plate is activated to report the situation to their upper management.
Not even five minutes passed, a group of higher ranks members came out from their building and gathers before the visitor. Stepping closer to the visitor, the leader of this establishment strike a conversation with this person.
"This guest, I'm Jing Bu Wen. May I know the big name of this master?" he speaks politely to address this mysterious person.
"My name is Yin Li. I'm a 1st-tier Peak Spirit Blacksmith! Who is the higher position member here?" this mysterious visitor introduces himself before asking for a person with proper ranks to speak with him.
"Master Blacksmith Yin Li, Bu Wen here is the highest rank members here. I wonder if you got something you need my help?" Jing Bu Wen put his palm together and went closer to Yin Li as he replies.
"I'm in need of a place to sleep. Because I'm a blacksmith, I cannot sleep without the sound of Hammering, Smelting, and Sharpening of a tool, thus, I choose your establishment to rest my mind!" Yin Li took out one of the 89% Purity Pure Iron Ingot and placed it on top of Jing Bu Wen's hand.
"Don't bother me and continue your works. If I failed to hear a single sound from your Forging Hall, don't blame me for destroying your whole establishment for my insomnia!" Yin Li finished his sentence before he releases his strength of 53rd Stage Inner Qi Elder.
"High! High! High-Tier Spirit-Grade Pure Iron! It's a top quality processed material!" the head of this establishment keeps the Ingot into his Spatial Stone and quickly followed Yin Li into their establishment. After some arrangement, Yin Li is staying right inside of their Forging Hall's Attic, with a few pieces of furniture decorated there for his convenience.
"Master Yin Li, please let us know if you have any question. Bu Wen will try his best to answer you." Jing Bu Wen left once he finishes talking. But before he shuts the door, the mysterious blacksmith stopped him.
"Boss Wen."
"Y... Yes?" the door that almost shut was opened again for Jing Bu Wen to answer his call.
"The quality of your establishment's metal is too bad. Two years is all you need to spoil this business and become a pauper." Yin Li said before forcing the door to shut with his Elder Qi.
"My establishment's product is not up to par? Impossible!" Jing Bu Wen returned to the three main halls to begin his inspection. Three days later, he kneeled before the door with a sorry attitude begging Yin Li's help.
Inside the room, Yin Li is meditating on top of the bed and smiled as he thinks about the words his master said before he left.
"They will come and kneels before your room the moment they know their product quality is getting worst. Three days, at most." this is what Zhang Wu Ji said.
"Three days... and they're here... Master, Master... How amazing are you to be able to guess all of this?" Yin Li took off his hood and clock to prepare himself for the next challenge and revealed his real identity when he's alone inside the room.
He's actually Li Yin. The disciple and 7th attendants that went missing!
.
.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, Zhang Wu Ji is still inside the tomb waiting for his next chances. It seems that except the two people from Herb Valley Sect and two from Jie's Clan, everyone else belonged to the Factionless Cultivators.
This means, only people from Heavenly Sword Sect, Snow Mountain Maiden Sect, Mystic Engineer Establishment did not turn up inside this tomb. But unless he obtained one more weapon, it will be not enough to prove that this conspiracy is instigated by people from Heavenly Sword Sect.
When the golden sword is taken by one of the cultivators, the next treasure dropped. This time, it was a box of Violet Majestic Pills. Zhang Wu Ji tried to enter the ring once more but failed when the barrier stopped him from access.
"Fine. Seems like I cannot enter the fight for two rounds at least." Zhang Wu Ji gives up on fighting for the third treasure. Although the Violet Majestic Pills is very attractive, nothing beats his intention to search for the culprit behind all of this tomb exploration.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Wait, why is there twenty-six people inside of this Core Area?" the one additional person appearing inside of this Core Area was not the reason that shocks him, but the fact no one noticed him except Zhang Wu Ji is the main reason!
Using his memory, Zhang Wu Ji quickly discerns and replace everyone with the image inside of his mind, and spotted the one that seems familiar to him. Did he know this person?
But while he was thinking, the third treasure is taken by the Herb Valley Sect before the fourth treasure came down. It was a crate of High-Quality Tomb Silver Ingots! Zhang Wu Ji tried to enter the ring again, and this time, it was a successful attempt!
It was both Lucky and Unfortunate at the same time. The lucky part is due to there's no opponent dare to fight with him for the crate of Tomb Silver Ingots. And for the unfortunate part, he's restricted from the next two treasures.
As he prepared to leave, Zhang Wu Ji throw one of the Tomb Silver Ingots at the person to see how he reacts. But instead of looking at that person acted, another pair of hand came forward and received the Tomb Silver Ingot instead.
"Thank you! I prefer you throw more." he mocked Zhang Wu Ji for throwing the metal without any warning.
"He's not a human... Spirit?" Zhang Wu Ji smiled and checked the treasure inside of the crate. Like how it was in his first weapon, each of the metal ingots is stamped with the mark of Heavenly Sword Sect. This further confirmed him that the culprit is most likely them.
On the seventh treasure, Zhang Wu Ji once again claims his ownership on a weapon like a twin sword. After making sure that the item is mostly built by the Heavenly Sword Sect, he now can place this matter aside and look through the identity of this familiar person.
"Miss Meng Ran... Can you disable the formation that separates all of us inside of this Core Area?" Zhang Wu Ji whispered beside her ears with a request. Although his skill is better than her in Formation Making, his lack of knowledge in most of the common subjects.
"I cannot say I'm confident to disable it, but I can try mess with it." Meng Ran replied.
"Good, try to mess with it so I can take advantages on this situation." Zhang Wu Ji ends his sentence and pays attention to the ninth treasure. But what he spotted is the familiar individual is staring at him and Meng Ran!
"Finally caught your attention!" Zhang Wu Ji secretly hinted the person to move closer to his side. And like what he expected, the mysterious person that nobody noticed his presence went past the barrier and approached Zhang Wu Ji.
"YOU!" the spirit initiates the conversation with a shout beside of his ear!
"HOW DARE YOU DESTROY MY FORMATION ARRAY! STOP THIS GIRL NOW!" the vibration went inside his ears and caused him a headache from listening to him.
"Miss Meng Ran..." Zhang Wu Ji called her. When the spirit saw Zhang Wu Ji is listening to his demand, he smiled, but in the next moment, he becomes even angrier because of his one word!
"Faster," that's what he said.
"I SAY STOPPPP!!!" the spirit turned into a knight in black with a sword and attacked Zhang Wu Ji. The sword came forth and almost cut Zhang Wu Ji, but the moment it touches him, the sword shatters out of his control.
"HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN! WHO ARE YOU?" the spirit bellowed. But with a simple move of a palm to the spirit's chest, Zhang Wu Ji executed the stance contained inside his 1st-Tier Blacksmithing Compendium!
[Nine Layer Fighter Flame!]
This was the ability to smelt everything! With this stance alone, Put aside Metal and Crystals, even Spirits and Cultivator's Bones is not an exception.
With the strength of this Spirit, it is impossible for it to possess the power to resist his Nine Layer Fighter Flame! When it was executed, the spirit cried in pain! As a spirit without a case, how can it counter the power from an ability that can smelt spirits?
"STOPPP!!! PLEASE STOP!!!" the spirit begged for help. Only when the Nine Layer Fighter Flame vanishes the Spirit dare to stand up from kneeling on the ground.
"Name."
-
"JIANG NAN HE!"
-
"Why are you here?"
-
"BECAUSE THE PREVIOUS INHERITOR TOO MY INHERITANCE BUT ABANDON ME!"
-
"Is the person that obtained your inheritance comes from Heavenly Sword Sect?"
-
"HOW DID YOU KNOW? ARE YOU RELATED TO HIM?"
-
"I have my own ability. What do the people from Heavenly Sword Sect trying to do?"
-
"NO MATTER WHAT, I AM STILL AN INNER QI KING! YOU'LL NOT GOING TO TREAT THIS KING LIKE THIS!"
-
"I'll guess I will have a Spirit Barbeque. What will become after you're smelted?"
-
"NO!!! STOP! STOP!"
-
"They're planning to kill potential disciples from other sects to increase their strength. Although this tomb is made by me, all I did is following their order!" finally, the Inner Qi King, Jiang Nan He lowered his tone when speaking with Zhang Wu Ji.
But at this moment, the tenth treasure dropped from the altar, where everyone is waiting for Zhang Wu Ji's next action. When he saw the crate full of formation plates, Zhang Wu Ji waved his hand to let them have a fight.
"Continue. What is the name of their leader? What did they plan for everyone after we done with all these tests?" Zhang Wu Ji continues with his chatter with Jiang Nan He.
It was a shocking discovery, especially when he noticed the motives hidden behind this small tomb exploration event. But what was most important is how can the Heavenly Sword Sect order an Inner Qi King to do what they asked?
With a being like himself, how difficult for him to destroy the other sects personally? But sometimes, the truth hurts.
Jiang Nan He is, in fact, a king. But his clan was overthrown and forced to leave their land. After they escaped from the capital is was taken in by the people from Heavenly Sword Sect, his life changed. They present him with a tomb that can protect him from danger and forced him to create twenty keys that allow people from the sect to come in when needed.
But what he did not know is instead of being protected, he becomes the lure instead! With the Southern Imperial Kingdom still reorganizing themselves after they got the throne, nobody bothers to check the validity of the previous king is living inside of a tomb.
Still, the news managed to attract some younger elites from other sects to come and try their luck to capture the exiled king, and from that moment onwards, this plan has been going on for quite long until today.
Before this, none of the keys is destroyed because they were treated as a treasure, where it allows them to be used again and again. As for the treasures, they're something that's been gathered from when this starts until now.
But because all of this is planned by Heavenly Sword Sect themselves, they're forced to fill the tomb with treasures to attract tomb explorers from a different county to participates and killed inside. In this way, they can increase the number of treasures inside their vault, at the same time, they're able to reduce the number of talented disciples nurtured in all other sects.
"No wonder the quality of their treasure is too low. It was all gathered from the dead disciples they killed. With the restriction of only those below 11th Stage of Inner Qi Warrior can come in, it will be difficult for them to leave with the treasures."
"And while the treasures that can reveal their motives is removed, they leave the treasures that less important to lure more people to try their luck. Or else, how can a tomb still hold some treasures from this amount of exploration?" Zhang Wu Ji narrowed his eyebrows in anger.
"And what will they do next?"
-
"From my experience for so long, after eleven treasures are taken, the people under Heavenly Sword Sect's command will come from the Formation Array's Gate and start killing everyone."
"During that time, the whole Core Area will be locked to ensure everyone is slaughtered!" Jiang Nan He answered his question.
"Eleventh Treasure?" Zhang Wu Ji shifted his view on the Arena and looked at the cultivator pulling the last treasure that will activate the gates.
"Meng Ran! Chen Ming! Ready for battle!"
At that moment, Ten different gates surrounded everyone within the Core Area.
-
-
-
-
-
[Author's Note]
Here it comes! New chapter! And yes, once again, all hardest to swallow truths, unexpected deceit, unforgivable treatments, is inside this chapter. And if you think this is the last, please don't. Because it won't.
Can you expect what will come from the gate?
Wild Beast?
-
Heavenly Sword Sect's Disciples?
-
Bandits?
-
Royalty?
-
Super Cultivator?