306 The Treasures Which He Searched Through

Zhou Dufu's mausoleum naturally did not use any ordinary materials. The woodenracks that displayed magical artifacts should have been made of the extremelyexpensive Five Flowers Pearwood. Only it was very obvious that the number oneexpert under the stars was not knowledgeable in antiques. He only knew that theFive Flowers Pearwood was extremely precious and rare and was highly durableagainst moths and worms. Yet he did not know that this hardwood required amoist environment to preserve its properties. In the cold and dry environmentof this mausoleum chamber, it only required a few decades for it to rot. Inperfect condition, the rotted logs in the corner of the stone chamber couldhave been sold at a sky-high price, but now they were only a worthless pile ofrotten logs. What could cause such a knowledgeable and experienced young genius like XuYourong to give a cry of surprise was obviously not those rotten pieces ofwood, but the items buried within them. Chen Changsheng walked over and used a ruler-like magical artifact to pryapart that pile of wood. He realized that buried within was yet another magicalartifact. That magical artifact had a black color, and he couldn't tell what itwas made of. When he felt it, it seemed incomparably sleek. It seemed verysimilar to a fossil of some type of peculiar tree found on the western seaside. "What's this?" he asked, handing that black magical artifact to Xu Yourong. Xu Yourong took it and carefully examined it for a long time, slowly tracingher fingers over it. Finally, she said, "If I'm not wrong, this should be WhiteEmperor City's Soul Pivot." Chen Changsheng was somewhat surprised. He had never encountered this name inany of the three thousand Daoist scriptures, so he asked, "Soul Pivot?" Xu Yourong gave back that black magical artifact, using her eyes to indicatethat he should take good care of it. "Yes, this Soul Pivot possesses anunimaginable magic power, the ability to command monsters. Even those legendaryand outrageous monsters who are on the verge of stepping into the Saint realmhave no means of resisting the Soul Pivot's command. The reason the WhiteEmperor clan has been able to rule over the monster realm for so many years isfor the most part because of this. Of course, this is also their greatestsecret. Besides the White Emperor's bloodline, very few outsiders know of it.If I hadn't seen a picture of it at my predecessor's place, even I would nothave recognized it." After a pausing for a moment, she continued, "I didn't think that thisprecious treasure of the demi-humans had actually been snatched away from WhiteEmperor City by Zhou Dufu and then put to use in this Garden of Zhou. Thereason why those monsters in the plain are unwilling to approach this mausoleumand instead have silently protected it for several hundred years is most likelybecause of this Soul Pivot." Chen Changsheng had not imagined that this magical artifact would be soimportant. He resolutely stored it away. Logically and in accordance with his normal temperament, he would havediscussed with Xu Yourong how to divide the treasures they found in thismausoleum, but he was in a rush to find certain items and had no time for suchmatters. Moreover, the important point was that since the Soul Pivot originallybelonged to the White Emperor clan, he believed that it was only right toreturn it to Luoluo. Xu Yourong took in all his actions with her eyes, but she did nothing. Themutual understanding and trust they had built up over the course of thisjourney had made it very difficult for any misunderstanding to come up betweenthem. On the contrary, she even gave a him a word of advice. "According to thatpainting, the Soul Pivot requires the Soul Wood to display its full power, butthe Soul Wood isn't here." Chen Changsheng took that old iron ruler magical artifact and rummaged throughthe pile of wood. Xu Yourong would give an explanation of the magical artifactshe found, and only then did Chen Changsheng realize that these magicalartifacts that seemed like a pile of scrap metal were all famous. There wereeven three magical artifacts that had been placed on the Pavilion ofDivination's Tier of Legendary Weapons. The magical artifacts did not cause his footsteps to pause. Seeing that thestone chamber did not have the things he was looking for, he immediately turnedand left. He went to the second stone chamber on his right. Only as he moveddid he finally find the time to say to Xu Yourong, "Everything that we find, wecan divide evenly." Leaning on his shoulder, Xu Yourong lightly chuckled and said, "If we can getout, that is." The items in the second stone chamber had not rotted away. Although the itemswere not the most precious things in the world, they were something that wasloved by everyone in the world. Even if some refined scholars would oftencriticize these things as being vulgar, even describing them as mud or dirt,upon being confronted with this scene, they would also shake all over withexcitement, barely restraining themselves. It was a room filled with gold. Even after several hundred years, it stillsparkled with a dazzling light, causing anyone that looked at it to squinttheir eyes, as if this was the only way to avoid being burned by the light. Xu Yourong was stunned into silence. She thought to herself, when Zhou Dufucrisscrossed the continent, just how many clans did he rob and how manyfamilies did he destroy? Chen Changsheng was much calmer—not because hiscultivation had reached such heights that he could regard wealth as transientclouds, but because in the Imperial Palace of Zhou, in that cold undergroundspace, he had seen much more gold. Once people have experienced something, people would naturally find it hard toget excited when experiencing it once more, but this did not mean that ChenChangsheng was not interested in this chamber filled with gold. Previously when he had determined that this mausoleum held no dangers, he hadreturned his dagger to its sheath. Now he removed the dagger along with itssheath from his belt, and began to point. The noble scholars say that even the unbending stone must bow its head, but hewas not pointing at the gold to open his mind and comprehend the Dao. Stonecould be turned into gold, but he was not planning to turn this gold back intostone. He was unconcerned with allowing those who came later to comprehend thetruth of the myriad things returning to one, letting them embrace this simpleand unchanging principle. What he wanted to do was take all this gold withoutmissing a single bar. If that Black Dragon were to wake up and realize that he had left even asingle bar of gold behind, it would inevitably pester him to no end. With the movement of his sheath, the gold within the chamber vanished beforetheir eyes. Ultimately, all the gold had been transported to some unknown place. Xu Yourong had realized that his dagger was odd long ago. It was most likelysome sort of spatial magical artifact. She also had a similar magical artifacton her person. The Wu Arrows and Tong Bow as well as some underclothes were allstored within. So she was not amazed by this sight, but her curiosity waspiqued. The space within this dagger seemed a bit too large. Throughout thisjourney, she had already seen him squeeze far too many things into that space. Moving that room full of gold into that space did not take up too much time.Chen Changsheng very quickly brought her away into the third stone chamber. The chamber was filled with crystals. With the passage of time, the powerwithin these crystals had gradually scattered. Most likely, they contained onlya third of their original strength, but they were still good items. Without anyprompting from Xu Yourong, he repeated the scene from the second stone chamberand very quickly wiped it clean. The fourth stone chamber was filled with various treasures. This time Chen Changsheng worked even faster. Xu Yourong only had time toblink her eyes, not even to say anything, and those night pearls, coral,jadeite, white jade and other similar treasures had all been stored away in hissheath. It was so fast that she felt that her eyes were seeing things, thatmaybe this stone chamber originally did not even have anything? The fifth stone chamber was filled with all sorts of secret cultivationmanuals. Xu Yourong had originally thought that he would be more cautious sothat in the course of transporting those cultivation manuals, they would not bedamaged. These secret cultivation manuals once belonged to countless experts ofthe past, and represented Zhou Dufu's innumerable battles. They were thecultivation world's history, and their importance was beyond questioning. YetChen Changsheng still very quickly left the stone chamber, not pausing for amoment longer. Wherever his dagger pointed, that place became empty. In hiseyes, those secret cultivation manuals were no different from worthless scrappaper. Xu Yourong did not understand. When he entered the sixth chamber, gave it aquick glance, then turned and left, this cause her perplexity to reach its peak. She recalled that whether he was confronted by gold, or magical artifacts, orcrystals, his eyes remained clear and bright. There was no greed or even any ofthe happiness that anyone would feel upon seeing such a sight. As he took awaythe gold, crystals and magical artifacts, it was like he did not care—as if hetook it away only because he saw it. So then just what was he looking for? "In this mausoleum, just what exactly is it that you need to find?" she asked. Chen Changsheng did not answer, because there was no time to answer. He rushedfrom chamber to chamber, going faster and faster. When they arrived at the ninth stone chamber, Xu Yourong noticed that his eyesfinally lit up, that a strand of joy finally appeared within them. This stone chamber had no shelves. There were many bottles and jars laid outhaphazardly on the floor. Some of the bottles were made of celadon, while someof the jars seemed very similar to those used to simmer chicken stock. It was agood thing that those bottle and jars were not on shelves, or else they wouldall have been shattered on the floor. Chen Changsheng paced in front of these bottles and jars, his fingers slowlymoving across of them, his gaze extremely focused. Suddenly, his fingers stopped, and he took up a jade box. There were nomarkings on this box, so she did not know what was inside of it. When the lidof the jade box was opened, an extremely light fragrance floated up. He movedhis nose closer and took a sniff, and after considering for a few moments,decided that he was not wrong. The joy in his eyes traveled to the rest of hisface, and his body finally relaxed. Leaning on his back, Xu Yourong very clearly felt his two shoulders suddenlyrelax, no longer as tense and hard as they were before. "What's this?" she asked. "This is a fireflow pill." Chen Changsheng took a pill from out of the box and explained, "The primaryingredient is the juice of the fire thorn, which has an extremely powerful firecharacteristic, ranked third in the world. It's miraculously effective forproducing blood, especially for you." Hearing these words, Xu Yourong was at a loss. For a very long time, she didnot say anything. Only now did she realize why he was so tense, his steps so rushed, why hecould ignore all those crystals and treasures. He was in a hurry to find medicine for her. This deeply moved her. She cultivated the Dao of the external world, mixing herself with worldlyaffairs. So that her Dao heart would be brightly lit, she could not bedelighted by things or grieve for her fellow man. Thus in the eyes of thecommon people, she was very haughty and cold, a phoenix that soared high in thesky. She also viewed herself in this way. She believed that she would neversuffer such an emotion that would harm her Dao heart, that she would never bedeeply moved by anything. In these plains, from that patch of reeds to this mausoleum, there wereseveral times where she had almost been truly moved by his actions, but everytime, she had used her unimaginable mental willpower to suppress it. Forsomeone like her, to suppress love and hate was relatively easy. To suppressanger was also very easy. But to be moved was a very special emotion and verydifficult to suppress. The emotion would never suddenly appear. It required a very long time togradually appear, but the moment it truly made itself known, it certainly wasrather sudden. It required a certain point. To gather and then explode… thesewords could be used to talk about cultivation, but it could also be used todescribe this emotion. At this moment, that emotion had finally broken throughthat unyielding wall, and in the cool breeze, it began to sway and grow.