The gnome showed up on Austin's shoulder and made a gesture with his hand. Austin saw him point
towards a shabby building on the east. While looking at the foundation of the building, he realized that it
must have been some kind of splendid palace in the past.
However, it was now only left with a fragmentary foundation.
"You mean there are treasures inside that building?"
Austin guessed while still looking at the gnome.
When the gnome heard this, he nodded vigorously. His legs pushed on Austin's shoulder and he
rushed to the east like lightning.
"Aha, this guy seems to be loyal to his friends. It seems that he has no intent of monopolizing the
treasures. I think he wants to bring us to him instead."
Austin said to Violet. They moved to follow the gnome.
Suddenly, the place where Austin and Violet stood just moments ago started shaking as if there was a
small earthquake.
With a big boom, the earth was torn forcefully into two parts. A half-meter gap appeared on the ground
and a figure that was wrapped in a dark fog rushed out like lightning. After a little while, it settled on the
ground.
A pair of scarlet eyes appeared in the dark fog. There was no humanity in those eyes and it was only
filled with mighty cruel and bloodthirsty eagerness.
The scarlet eyes scanned the surrounding but didn't find any targets. There were only four moribund
dry corpses that had been attacked and were disabled.
"ARGHHH!"
With a deep and furious roar, the figure reached out a pair of steel-like claws. It grabbed the four
moribund dry corpses with its claws and one by one, tore them into pieces like they were paper.
Then, it opened its big mouth filled with fangs and sucked the corpse miasmas that were floating
around in the air and inhaled them all.
It also sucked the dark fog that was surrounding it. A large, dry and powerful corpse with blue veins
suddenly appeared.
There was a layer of dark fog on the skin of the corpse. It was like black ink was poured into it,
releasing the scent of cold and gloom.
Its eyes were red like that of a beast and it was filled with blood thirst.
When the corpse exposed its body, it sniffed the air several times with its dry nose. Then, after several
deep roars, it trudged down towards the direction of Austin and Violet. . . .
Austin and Violet followed the path of the gnome and ran towards the palace relics.
After a while, they finally arrived at the ruins of the palace. The palace was so big that it covered a
large area of the land by several kilometers.
The gnome led Austin and Violet to the ruins of the palace and stood by an old stone door.
The stone door was already covered with mosses and it was full of green spots. At first glance, it
seemed as if it was abandoned for a long time.
However, Austin noticed that the handle of the stone door was quite shiny and it has no stains on it. It
didn't seem like it was an abandoned door.
The door was likely used just recently. There must be something important behind this door.
Austin couldn't help but admire the gnome. He assumed that there must be some treasures hidden
behind the door because the gnome surely wouldn't choose this place using its special connection to
treasures if it was not an important place.
He decided to open the shabby stone door. Austin, Violet and the gnome all came in together.
As soon as they stepped into the place behind the door, they felt as if the heaven spun and the earth
turned.
Suddenly, the scene shifted and they saw that they were standing in a cave-like place. There was a
repressive moaning wind that was coming from a distance. It sounded like there were ghosts crying
and wolves howling in the cave and any man that could hear those would surely shudder.
The cave was surrounded by an unknown fluorescent substance that was as green as ghost fire.
The cave was full of the rich spirit of heaven and earth. Austin and Violet even noticed the delicate
fragrance of elixirs and herbs. They were shocked to discover that the gnome knew about this place
and that there were indeed many valuable things inside this cave.
The light in the cave was not bright but they could still see everything clearly due to the cultivation base
of Austin and Violet—especially when they released the power of their spiritual sense.
The power of spiritual sense was shrouded and Austin noticed that the cave had half-man-made
traces. It seemed as if the cave was about a hundred meters deep below the ground. By his estimate,
the ground was processed and excavated by humans to become more spacious.
Upon further exploration, they also noticed that there were all kinds of passages in the walls and that
each passage was leading to an unknown destination. Austin released his power of spiritual sense and
covered an area within a thousand meters. He suddenly felt something evil approaching them.
Because of his shock, his expression changed immediately.
"It seems that something is coming."
Violet sent a message to Austin. There was a certain tension on her face.
The gnome also sensed that there seemed to be danger close by. He moved his body and crouched
quietly on Austin's shoulder. It seemed that he was aware that Austin's cultivation base was
extraordinary, so he took cover from him. Austin couldn't help but laugh at the gnome's reaction.
"Sh! Nobody move!"
Austin quickly held a finger over his lips and whispered to Violet, "I think it's the corpse again. However,
I feel that there will be a lot more corpses this time."
Violet nodded at him. Her face suddenly turned pale.
Austin added, "However, it looks like the corpses here are sleeping, and they are still in a deep
slumber. We just need to be careful and not disturb them."
"Why are there so many corpses?"
Violet asked him anxiously.
"Who knows?"
Austin replied while shaking his head.
"Is this the nest of the corpses?"
Violet guessed.
"Yep, it must be. It seems like the Ghost Valley is the gathering place of dark and evil things. There are
not only many ghosts, but also many corpses. It's ridiculous how bold we are to break in and look for
treasures."
Austin said. He knew that the situation was not good for them.
"Well, cold places like the Ghost Valley are suitable for ghosts and dry corpses. It helps them survive."
"In the dark places of the passages, the corpse miasmas were strong and the air was freezing. There
are corpse soldiers sleeping deeply here. They are absorbing the cold white gases. When I was
fighting with the corpses before, I found out that the corpse miasmas are like their power sources. They
become stronger with the intake of corpse miasmas."
"It seems that we must have broken into the nest of the corpses."
Violet's heart was beating fiercely. She made an extreme effort to calm down, "There are so many
corpses here. The situation is not good for us. It would be difficult for us to defeat them all. Master, I
think it would be better if we fall back now."
"No. We are already here. I will never fall back. The gnome also worked hard to bring us here. There
are a lot of good things inside this cave. I can't just let them go. It was said that wealth was always
accompanied by risks. You can't make any achievements because of being afraid."
Austin gave her a confident smile and the gnome also nodded his head earnestly.
Violet gritting her teeth and decided, "Well, we better start searching around then. But please be careful
and remember not to wake up the corpses that are in a deep sleep. With so many corpses in one
place, we will be exhausted if we fight them all."
The two exchanged a short glance and sneaked forward quietly.
It felt as if the sleeping corpses would open their eyes very soon. Inside of the cave, there were a lot of
dry corpses scattered around. Austin, Violet and the gnome were all very careful, light-footed and quiet
in crossing over the corpses.
They passed through some forks with great length along the road. They could clearly sense the strong
corpse miasmas and movements in those forks. They walked carefully because they were afraid to
wake the dry corpses.
Whenever they pass the forks in the road, Violet will unconsciously move closer to Austin because
there was some sense of security when he was near. The gnome also quietly crouched on Austin's
shoulders and didn't even move one inch. Austin was curious about his actions because he didn't
expect the gnome to be afraid of the corpses.
Fortunately, the three were all well defended so there was no sense of exposure while they were on
their journey.
After a while, Austin and Violet found themselves inside a huge secret cave. The secret cave has rows
of wooden frames with various boxes in it.
Austin and Violet cheered and rushed toward the wooden frames to open the boxes one by one.
Both Austin and Violet's face clouded after opening the boxes. They couldn't help but swear.
The boxes were exuding a faint fragrance of elixirs so Austin and Violet thought that there must be a
large amount of valuable elixirs and herbs inside it. However, when they opened the boxes, Austin and
Violet found that the boxes were empty inside. All of its contents were nowhere to be found!
Austin and Violet were pissed. They never expected that their efforts would lead to nothing.
The place was definitely a storehouse of elixirs and herbs made by the Ghost Sect. The rows of
wooden shelves could be added up to about a hundred and each shelf had three layers with about six
boxes on each layer. However, the boxes were now empty and all the elixirs and herbs were gone.
All the boxes had been opened and the original contents were already taken.
It was so hard to find this place. At first, they looked at the boxes and thought that their efforts would
finally yield good results, but then the situation turned sour and Austin and Violet fell into a bad mood.
After searching for a while, there was still no good news. Austin and Violet sighed in defeat.
Fortunately, in addition to the secret cave, there was still another room to be searched. The both of
them didn't hesitate to go further. They continued with their journey immediately.
Suddenly, a loud sound came from one of the caves beneath the ruins.
"Damn it! According to the message sent by our corpse general, the man and the woman somehow
broke into our corpse storage warehouse!"
"What? No way! Our corpse storage warehouse was completely hidden! There was no chance for it to
be discovered by outsiders."
"Maybe they broke in by accident? Whatever! It doesn't matter! The most important issue here is that
the corpse storage warehouse was the treasure house of our Ghost Sect in the past. There is still some
wealth from our Ghost Sect stored there until now. Even if we already consumed the elixirs and herbs
in the boxes during the refining of the corpses, there are still some mineral resources in there. Most
importantly, the secret books of our Ghost Sect were hidden there!"
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda