Chapter 1338: Treasury of the Tao Family (Two)

Bang! The black shadow landed beside Jian Chen’s foot and lay there without moving. Only then could they see the shadow’s true appearance. It was a ten-meter-long, mutated lizard. Its skin was pitch-black and was covered in an oozing substance. It gave off an extremely offensive smell.

The lizard possessed an extremely powerful poison. Blood poured from the wound in its head, which had been caused by Jian Chen, and hit the ground, which actually dissolved the soil. A hole appeared and rapidly grew deeper.

Jian Chen extended his finger a few more times and shot a few more sword Qi at the corpse. Every single strand of sword Qi was extremely powerful, easily penetrating the lizard’s body. In the end, he removed a fist-sized monster core from the corpse and held it in his hand. Even without any protection, the acidic poison on it could not harm him at all.

Jian Chen used a clump of soil to wipe off the poison before storing it in his Space Ring. The mutated lizard was a Class 8 Magical Beast. The monster core it possessed was extremely valuable. Even if he had no use for it, he could give it to the experts of the Changyang clan.

Qing Yixuan stared at the dead lizard as she stood beside Jian Chen. She was secretly taken aback. The lizard was no weaker than her, so if she had to fight it, it would have taken her a tremendous amount of effort before she would have been able to slay it. She had never expected it to be killed off by Jian Chen in such an easy fashion, where it was no different from an ant. This was extremely shocking to her.

“Is this the strength of Saint Emperors? It’s actually so terrifying. If Jian Chen used that attack on me, I wonder if I would end up like the lizard or not,” Qing Yixuan was extremely astounded inside. She already understood everything now. The bastard who had not been anywhere near her strength before had already become an existence that she could only look up to.

Qing Yixuan was immediately taken by an odd feeling when she thought of how she had pursued Jian Chen for so long even after reducing him to such a horrible shape in the past. She had even begun to gently smile to herself because she had hunted down a Saint Emperor in the past.

“Is this where the treasury of the Tao family is?” Jian Chen no longer paid any attention to the lizard’s corpse. He let it lie there. Even though it was the corpse of a Class 8 Magical Beast, he had no intentions of taking it with him. He only looked around the valley carefully.

Qing Yixuan dismissed her thoughts and stared at the valley. She said, “Correct, this is the place. When I secretly followed Tao Zhengtian before, I saw him enter this valley. However, there are many hidden killing formations that are extremely powerful, which was why I did not follow him in. I do not know the exact location of the treasury in the valley.”

“There really are a lot of formations in this valley. Even if a Ninth Heavenly Layer Saint King enters, he will die if he is careless. These formations should have been personally cast down long ago by a Saint Emperor. It’s impossible for Saint Kings to cast down such powerful formations,” Jian Chen said. He had already expanded the senses of his soul to envelope the entire valley. He had found many formations hidden in it.

“The Tao family is a great clan that once gave birth to a Saint Emperor, but there were extremely many Saint Emperors in that era, nowhere near as scarce as nowadays. As a result, the Saint Emperor of the Tao family was not enough to lead the Tao family to extreme glory. These formations were probably cast down by him, so breaking through them will probably need an expert of the same strength,” said Qing Yixuan as she looked at Jian Chen. It would all depend on Jian Chen if they could reach the treasures of the Tao family today. There was something she needed in there.

“Has no one ever discovered the treasury of the Tao family after so many years?” Jian Chen asked.

Qing Yixuan silently pondered before saying, “If I recall correctly, the past Saint Emperor of the Tao family had once used his abilities to engulf this valley and lock it up, causing it to be difficult to discover even by other Saint Emperors, which is why this place has never been discovered by others. However, with the passage of time, the abilities he had used lost their effects, which is why this place is now exposed. However, this place is extremely well-hidden and no one comes here often. I had only accidently learned of the treasury in the past and found it by secretly following Tao Zhengtian here.”

Jian Chen nodded. He believed most of what Qing Yixuan had said because the valley really was prepared by a Saint Emperor.

“Let’s go in. Follow me carefully. I think I’ve found the exact location of the treasury,” Jian Chen calmly informed her as he stepped into the valley. Immediately, the landscape around him underwent a sudden shift. The valley had vanished and he now stood atop a vast body of water. The waves surged into the sky as a huge beast charged over. Its presence was like a mountain while its pressure flooded the surroundings.

It was a beast with the power of Saint Emperors. It was extraordinarily powerful.

Jian Chen’s face remained the same as he sighed, “This formation really is extraordinary. Even if Saint Emperors want to destroy it, it’ll take them quite the effort, unfortunately the formation’s decayed with the passage of time. It’s strength has drastically been reduced and can no longer stand a blow from a Saint Emperor.” Jian Chen swung his sleeve and shot out countless strands of sword Qi. The sword Qi split into two streams, one stream shot into the body of water while the other headed toward the air, shattering the air.

Boom! With a great rumble, the space violently shook. Before the beast could reach Jian Chen, it had dissolved and the landscape around Jian Chen changed once again. The water disappeared as he returned to the valley.

Afterward, Jian Chen continued into the depths with Qing Yixuan. They traveled like a hot knife through butter, sweeping through all the formations hidden on their path. The formations really were very powerful. They could stop Saint Emperors if they were in perfect condition, but they could only be used to deal with Saint Kings now. They were obviously not enough to stop Jian Chen.

Soon afterward, the two of them arrived at the very depths of the valley. A bumpy cliff face stood before them.

“We’ve reached the end of the valley,” said Qing Yixuan. She looked around for any possible places.

“It should be here,” Jian Chen stared at the cliff face before him. The senses of his soul had already found that a formation was hiding something here.

Boom!

With a loud sound, Jian Chen shot a sword Qi at the cliff face, causing the ground to violently shake while dust was kicked into the air.

A huge cave appeared before the two of them. It was pitch-black inside while a cold, moist wind blew out.

Qing Yixuan’s eyes narrowed. She had failed to find any signs of this place even from such a close distance. This made her sigh, praising the greatness of the formations here.

The cave was very deep and sloped down into the ground. The two of them followed the slope and traveled for several kilometers before arriving in front of a huge stone gate. The gate was filled with pulses of powerful energy, causing it to become extremely tough.

Jian Chen did not destroy it forcefully in order to prevent the cave from collapsing. Instead, he used a strand of sword Qi to cut out a hole two meters tall and wide so that they could enter.

A huge space was hidden behind the door and countless luminous pearls of various colors were wedged in the ceiling. Most of them were fist-sized, but some were even the size of a human head.

A mountainous pile of crystal coins was stacked neatly in a corner. They gave off an extremely dense water-attributed energy. These crystal coins had all surpassed grand quality and had reached the level of divine quality.

A bookshelf made from rare metal held several dozen books in a neat fashion. Every single one of them was extremely crude and riddled with the marks of time, having existed for countless years without being destroyed.