Chapter 378: The Treasure Key
“Are you referring to the girl named Tia? Well, I noticed her ever since you entered the Death Road. When compared to you, her strength is immense and extreme. But despite this she must want your help, as she led you to fall from the floating stone along with her,” the cyan dragon said in a prophetic manner.
“What I truly want to know is why and how did she come to be so strong.” This was now the greatest mystery in Zen's heart, leaving it in a knot weighing him down like an anchor. Why was she so strong as she had just reached the Illuminating Soul Realm?
The cyan dragon thought for a long moment before composing his thoughts and saying, “In my opinion, it's likely that she has practised some unique cultivation methods, such as Nine Spirit Returning Cultivation or Twelve Turns Penancing Cultivation. In fact, it's not at all likely that she has just reached the Illuminating Soul Realm.”
“Really? If that is the case, then how did she enter the Cloud Road?” Raising his eyebrows, Zen reckoned that it didn't make sense logically.
The cyan dragon smiled humbly and said, “This kind of cultivation methods is so powerful that she has to practice anew repeatedly. For example, Nine Spirit Returning Cultivation requires the practitioner to give up his powers, which are brought by his practice, nine times. And he must restart from low level each time with equal rigor and determination. The practitioner will make a radical breakthrough only after that. It seems not to be the first time she has reached this cultivation level. So, her real level may be the later stage of the Internal Elixir Realm, or even a higher level.”
The words shocked Zen so much. The later stage of the Internal Elixir Realm? Even higher level? Was her real level actually possibly that high?
“This kind of cultivation method is powerful enough to be equal to anything. Once one completes all the practices, his strength would be well over the power of people of the same level. However, each cultivation method requires different boundary conditions to restart. So, I can't know her real level. Although her level has fallen to the Illuminating Soul Realm, her experience, insight, and power are well beyond the usual younger generations, including you. It is not a surprise that she saw through your swordsmanship and destroyed it without even using an actual weapon,” said the cyan dragon.
After hearing the cyan dragon's words, Zen looked at Tia's lightsome back in awe and admiration. Her level seemed to be higher than that of Elder Fei of the Cloud Hall. Then why on earth did she enter the Cloud Road?
Zen made blind and disorderly conjectures behind Tia. At the very same moment, Tia was searching for something in the dim light. After a moment of vigorous hunting, she found out mechanism in the corner. Subsequently, she pressed on it and injected a life vitality.
The entire life vitality flowed rapidly along the lines of the mechanism in a symmetrical manner. And soon, the whole interior world of the flood dragon was lit up bright.
When Zen raised his head, he saw the whole world inside the flood dragon. As the cyan dragon said, the flood dragon had been transformed. The world now looked like a small palace.
After Tia lit up the world, she looked around and said to Zen, “You, follow me!”
So Zen followed Tia's footsteps. Both of them suddenly heard a “click” sound just after walking a distance. It seemed that they had opened a mechanism. On both sides of the walls, six small doors opened, from which six dark golden snakes slowly crawled out!
The metallic sheen on these six small yet intimidating snakes was the same as that of the puppet killer whom Zen had encountered in the hidden test. The materials used for making them must include the same metal.
This shimmering metal was much harder than Zen's Streamer Sword. There was no way for Zen to destroy this metal with his current level of cultivation and he knew his bounds well.
However, with the broken flying knife's sharpness, Zen was confident about cutting through the metal. But he had no intentions of using it, when he was on the Cloud Road.
As soon as the six snakes appeared, they opened their metal mouths, revealing their dark golden teeth which in a dark twisted manner were appealing. And they rapidly catapulted themselves toward Zen and Tia with strong force.
“Ding! Ding!” Zen instantly drew out his Blood Drinking Sword as his Streamer Sword was broken by the puppet killer and smashed the two puppet snakes. But even though they fell to the ground as their momentum was broken, they were not hurt at all. As Zen was trying to find a way to destroy the puppet snakes, Tia reached out with one of her hands and caught a puppet snake. Then there was a flash of the life vitality in her hand. She had already torn the puppet snake into two with a slight twist of her wrist.
“Wow!” Zen was shocked by her power, which made his heart beat rapidly and muscle tremble. What an immensely horrifying strength! Although Zen had just seen a fraction of the special kind of life vitality she possessed in her hand, her strength was obviously not weak even when considered without the help of the life vitality.
Now, there was nothing to do but follow Tia. The remaining several puppet snakes too were grabbed by her bare hands in a similar manner as she tore each snake apart into two pieces and threw them away. It looked like she was tearing into noodles, seamlessly.
Zen grew happy as he saw Tia throwing the puppet snakes away one-by-one. It was not only the materials of these puppet snakes alone that had a high value. It was the manufacturing engineering too that added to its high value.
When Tia saw Zen collecting all of the puppet snakes, she gave him a scornful look. “You don't have to collect them. If you help me reach my goal, they will hold no value.”
“…” Faced with her apparent display of dismay and despise, Zen felt a pinch of hurt. But he still continued collecting the “bodies” of the six puppet snakes into his space ring before following Tia.
After walking in the world inside the flood dragon for a distance, Zen spotted a red light from not too far away, in which something was fluttering rather violently. Zen curiously asked, “What's that?”
“That's the key!” Tia said as she spotted the key and accelerated her pace with a happy expression upon seeing her target.
“Key? What does this key unlock?” Zen asked as he approached from behind her. It turned out that the red light was a circular tripod furnace used for refining pills. Now, the tripod furnace was full of fire, in the centre of which was a long, narrow and slowly fluttering spar. Was this spar the key that Tia mentioned?
“The key was used for inheriting the treasures of the whole Cloud Road! Before the destruction of the sixth-grade sect, all the treasures were put into the Cloud Road. As long as you get the key, you could obtain all the treasures!” Tia looked at the crystal key in the furnace up and down with admiration.
“Do you really mean all the treasures of the Blood Fiend Emperor?” Zen was so shocked that he opened his eyes wide and took a deep breath. It was a sixth-grade sect that the Blood Fiend Emperor had, while the Cloud Hall was only a fourth-grade sect.
It was no wonder that the treasures in the hidden test of the Cloud Road were of such enormous value. The Blood Fiend Emperor might have put part of his treasures into it. The Cloud Road was so long. It was definite that there was bound to be more than one hidden test along the way.
How huge would all the treasures be then? A clear look of shock and bewilderment was set all across his face.
Tia fixed her eyes on Zen and asked, “Why do you know the Blood Fiend Emperor?”
“Ah? That I will never tell you.” Tia had many secrets, which gave Zen an idea to do the same thing.
Upon hearing what Zen said, Tia did not indulge into a detailed inquiry, but instead continued to stare at the furnace and said, “I have been here once, but I did not get the key. It was far too difficult.”
Once before? Just thinking about the question, Zen learned the reason almost immediately. According to what the cyan dragon said, she needed to practice anew, and not only once. The last time she practised anew, she sneaked into here secretly. So she was so familiar with the Death Road.
“Why?” Zen looked at the furnace and said.
“The tripod furnace was way too powerful, and there was an enchantment that I couldn't destroy at the time.” Tia stared at Zen with burning eyes and suddenly said, “Didn't you ask me why I brought you here? This time, I was going to cooperate with Frank. I planned to deal with the tripod furnace with my own power and break the enchantment with Frank's spear. But then I changed my mind. Frank's spear has strong penetrating power, but it might not be able to break it completely. As you have practiced the Heavenly Ogre Fist, and I could provide you with enough life vitality, choosing you is a safer bet for me to ensure success.”
After hearing what Tia said, Zen finally completely understood her motivation. She was looking for a powerful helper in the case as she alone couldn't obtain the crystal key without any assistance and support.
At first, Frank was the best choice. Among the disciples of the Cloud Hall, he was the most powerful. And he majored in spear skills, which had the strongest penetrating power. Using his spear, he would be able to break the enchantment. However, Zen's appearance led Tia to believe that he was more likely to break it than Frank. So he was pulled into the flood dragon's mouth. If Zen had not appeared, it would have been Frank that was here at the moment who would have gotten the opportunity.
In fact, Zen was slightly perplexed by the facts. With Tia's own mighty strength, couldn't she break the enchantment? However, Zen knew that Tia would never answer this question honestly. So instead he just waited and watched patiently to figure it out for himself.
“Well, say no more. Just, follow my command, take the crystal key!” After Tia finished speaking, she sat down on the ground. With a pair of delicate hands placed on her abdomen, she began to gather her life vitality and then pushed it toward the tripod furnace with determination.
As Tia's palm winds blew past, the fire in the furnace suddenly burst into raging flames owing to the sudden interference. Soon, a fire flew out, and turned to be the shape of a daunting dragon!
“Stand aside now! This is a fiery dragon spirit! It is a kind of fiery evil spirit, which is extremely powerful and mighty!” This time, Tia carefully and with calculated moves dealt with the fiery dragon spirit with a cautious expression across her delicate face. A piece of sky blue gem appeared as she turned over her hands, which sent out a wave of cold air, and immediately reduced the surrounding's temperature.
Tia patted the gem ever so lightly and stretched out one of her delicate fingers. Her fingertip was going round and round over the gem, which seemed like she was guiding something out. Zen saw her finger drawing several small circles and then gently pulled forward. “Go!”
Suddenly, an ice phoenix came out from the gem, which yelped and flew toward the fiery dragon spirit.