Chapter 405: First House
After that, the five people continued to walk in the demonic qi fog.
Once in a while, they would find some old storage rings but nothing else.
When they finally arrived in front of the first house, the five were extremely excited but no one dared to rush in.
"What are the houses made of?" Elder Song wondered.
Logically, the houses were exposed to demonic qi for more than one hundred thousand years and they should long have been eroded.
"I think there are three possibilities." Bing Lan suddenly said.
"What possibilities?" Elder Song asked.
"The first possibility is like Elder Song said, the houses are made of special materials." She said and everyone looked at the houses.
However, there was nothing special at a glance and none dared to do a detailed investigation.
"The second possibility is an isolation formation. Ayue, do you see anything?" She asked and turned to Jiang Yue.
At the question, Jiang Yue opened his illusion eyes and took a good look.
However, he didn’t see anything so he shook his head in denial.
"That leaves the third possibility." Bing Lan said with a little excitement in her voice.
"Is the mistress thinking that there are demon-repelling flowers in the house?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
He had also thought of this possibility and felt it was the most likely.
"That’s what I am thinking." Bing Lan nodded.
"Should we enter?" Jiang Yue asked.
"I have just used my soul power and there is no living being in the houses." Yang Xu said and frowned before he continued.
"However, that doesn’t mean there is no danger. We have to be careful when we enter."
"We understand." Several people said.
After looking at everyone sternly, Yang Xu led the way.
When the group was five metres from the door, the man stopped.
"Why did you stop?" Elder Song questioned.
However, Yang Xu didn’t answer.
Instead, he removed ten spirit stones from his storage ring and threw them towards the door.
A moment later, the spirit stones hit the door and fell to the ground.
"It seems there are no traps on the door." Yu Nianzhen said and Yang Xu nodded.
"Let’s go." He said, pushed the door, and led everyone into the house.
"Everything is intact." Elder Song shouted excitedly.
The old man was not the only one who was excited.
When they first entered the formation and saw the state of everything, they lost hope of finding good things.
Fortunately, not everything was destroyed.
"What you get depends on your ability." Yang Xu said and pulled his wife to begin their search.
Hearing this, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue looked at each other.
[Is there any reaction from the treasure compass?] Yu Nianzhen asked.
[How did you know?] Jiang Yue asked with a smile on his lips.
[Ordinary things in ancient times are treasures in our time.] Yu Nianzhen sighed and Jiang Yue couldn’t help but chuckle.
"Let’s change to another room." He said and pointed to a door leading to the inner rooms.
Overall, the house was not big.
It had a small sitting room which was the first room they entered, and two other rooms.
After leaving the sitting room, the two bypassed the first room and walked to the innermost room.
"This should be the training room." Yu Nianzhen said.
"How do you know?"
"Generally, training rooms are placed in the safest location in a cultivator’s house. This room is the most likely."
Hearing that, Jiang Yue did not refute.
He opened his illusion eyes and a formation appeared in front of him.
"You are right. There is a rebound defensive formation protecting this room."
"Can you break it?"
"It’s easy to break." Jiang Yue said and casually kicked the front.
Seeing this, Yu Nianzhen was shocked.
He lunged to catch his husband but Jiang Yue had already kicked the door.
"You..., what are you doing?" He asked angrily as he pulled Jiang Yue behind him.
"Don’t worry, the formation has long lost its power." Jiang Yue reassured his Taoist companion.
However, Yu Nianzhen was not reassured.
Although he trusted Jiang Yue, he didn’t want his lover to take reckless risks.
After all, the ancients were mysterious and powerful.
Thinking of this, Yu Nianzhen didn’t want Jiang Yue to accidentally fall into a dangerous situation.
"There will be no next time." He warned.
"Okay." Jiang Yue stuck out his tongue and pulled Yu Nianzhen into the room.
The room was a typical training room.
It had a thin stone bed, a cultivation mat, and a wooden tub.
"Look at the tub." Jiang Yue pointed at the tub placed in the south corner of the room.
"Skeleton..." Yu Nianzhen muttered and walked closer to take a look.
The skeleton was completely white but it still wore a set of protective clothes.
"How could he die in a bathtub?" Jiang Yue couldn’t help but wonder.
If the person died on the stone bed or cultivation mat, Jiang Yue wouldn’t have been as surprised.
"I don’t know this." Yu Nianzhen shrugged and used his divine sense to examine the body.
"He should have been a nascent soul realm cultivator."
Hearing this, Jiang Yue nodded in agreement.
"What about his soul?"
"It’s not here." Yu Nianzhen said and both heaved a sigh of relief.
They knew some cultivators used means to preserve their souls with the plan of seizing the bodies of those who found their remains.
"He has a storage ring, quickly take it." Jiang Yue said and Yu Nianzhen carefully pulled it out.
"What’s in it?"
"Clothes, pill bottles, jade slips, weapons, and some boxes."
"No spirit stones?"
"He should have used them all before he died."
"Azhen, we have found a few storage rings since we entered the first layer. It should be safe to empty them here, right?"
"It looks safe but we can’t be sure. Let’s keep them for later." Yu Nianzhen said and Jiang Yue sighed in disappointment.
"Don’t worry, we will open them when we have a chance. Won’t it be fun to receive our surprises all at once?"
"I suppose." Jiang Yue agreed.
After that, Yu Nianzhen put away the storage ring but didn’t take the cultivator’s clothes.
"XiaoYue, let’s send the senior away."
Hearing that, Jiang Yue put away his disappointment and stood beside Yu Nianzhen.
"Thank you senior, please be on your way." He said and threw a bundle of flames at the skeleton.
Soon after, everything was burned to ashes and the two left the room.
When they returned to the sitting room, the room was bare and the other three were already waiting.
"Let’s look for the demon-repelling flowers." Yang Xu said and the five walked out of the house.
"There is a yard behind the house, the flowers are there." Elder Song said.
This time, he chose the second room to look for treasure.
From a window in the room, he saw the backyard and a dozen or so flowers were growing there.
"How long can a demon-repelling flower be used?" Bing Lan suddenly asked.
"Senior Niu said that a demon-repelling flower can be used indefinitely if it’s not removed from the soil. However, if it’s dug out, it’s only effective for one year."
"One year..." Bing Lan frowned.
A dozen flowers meant that one person could only explore for a dozen years.
Although this sounded like a lot of time, it wasn’t.
"Ten years are not enough to explore the sealed battlefield." Jiang Yue said.
As a person who spent a lot of time studying the formation, he had a better understanding of the sealed battlefield.
From what he knew, ten years was only enough to explore the periphery of the first layer.
"There are fourteen demon-repelling flowers." Yang Xu counted when the group arrived in the backyard.
"Fourteen flowers are enough for fourteen people to spend one year in the formation." Bing Lan said.
"I don’t agree." Elder Song said.
"I also don’t agree." Jiang Yue said.
Although Jiang Yue didn’t plan to monopolise the flowers, he didn’t agree to share equally.
After all, he, Yu Nianzhen, Yang Xu, Bing Lan, and Song Ming took a lot of risks to be pathfinders.
No matter what, he couldn’t allow their rewards to be lower than their contribution.
"Myself, my wife, and nephew Song will each have two flowers. Nianzhen and Ayue have worked hard in recent years and they deserve three flowers each. The remaining two will be given to the sect." Yang Xu said.
"Master uncle, I think we should find more flowers before we distribute to the sect." Elder Song said.
"Nephew Song has misunderstood." Yang Xu said and continued to clarify.
"This time, the distribution will be like that. However, we won’t invite other people out of the portable caves until we find more flowers."
Although Yang Xu was a supreme elder of the Sea Cloud sect, he was not selfless.
Like Jiang Yue, he didn’t want to suffer a loss.
Considering that, he planned to wait until each member of their team had ten years’ worth of flowers before he asked other sect members to come out of the portable caves.
