The journey onward indeed proved as Nie Wushang had said—the restrictions and mechanisms had mostly been dismantled, with only a few remnants left. Even the fire ant trap earlier wasn't particularly formidable; a Foundation Establishment cultivator, if lucky and well-prepared, could very likely have made it through.
The Demon Great Art, the secret repository... Mo Tiange thought mockingly, Heaven truly doesn't distinguish between good and bad people. The opportunities Venerable Songfeng obtained—how could those cultivators who followed the rules diligently yet failed to make breakthroughs bear it? However, back when Venerable Songfeng was still a lowly cultivator, he might have been no less diligent than these others, and not necessarily as capricious and murderous as he was today. No one is born evil.
Qin Xi and Jing Xingzhi, walking ahead, came to a halt. Mo Tiange looked up and couldn't help but widen her eyes in surprise.
Ahead lay a vast, open space. Stone pillars rose high, dotted with earth fire. Looking up, the ceiling was lost to sight—it didn't feel underground at all.
All three of them turned to look at Nie Wushang.
"Don't look at me," Nie Wushang said. "I don't know how to navigate this section either."
Jing Xingzhi was the first to lose patience. "Then why did you say you'd lead us to the repository?"
Nie Wushang spread her hands, a somewhat shameless expression on her face. "I never said I knew all the paths. As long as I get you to the repository in the end, isn't that enough?"
"You—" Jing Xingzhi stared at her incredulously, unable to believe he'd been tricked. He was speechless for a long moment.
Ignoring him, Nie Wushang said to Mo Tiange, "This section was originally riddled with traps, but some senior dismantled them long ago. Now it's just a simple maze. Once we find our way out, we'll be close to the repository."
Mo Tiange nodded. This underground stone forest was likely a man-made space carved out underground. The long stone pillars connected to the ceiling, forcing them to walk rather than fly. The pillars were spaced neither too close nor too far apart, with paths everywhere, making it impossible to follow a set route.
Just as she was about to extend her Divine Sense, Nie Wushang spoke first. "These stone pillars themselves have the effect of misleading Divine Sense. So, you can't use Divine Sense to scout the path here."
Mo Tiange and Qin Xi paused, then withdrew their Divine Sense.
"So, we can only proceed step by step?" Qin Xi asked.
"Pretty much. If some senior hadn't dismantled the formations and mechanisms here, getting through this stone forest would have been a brush with death. Now it's just a maze—we're already fortunate." Then Nie Wushang added, "Even my master had to navigate the maze when he came here so many times."
The one who dismantled the formations and mechanisms here was most likely Xiao Zilan and her group. Mo Tiange thought to herself. Xiao Zilan truly lived up to being a descendant of the Xuanji Sect. With only fragmented ancient mechanism techniques passed down, she could dismantle most of these traps. Along the way, only a few incomplete mechanisms remained. With such skill in mechanisms, why hadn't she been able to return? What did she encounter in this underground repository? Formations and mechanisms far beyond her cultivation level, or internal strife?
Qin Xi pondered for a moment. "Could the reason Wind-Sand City interferes with Divine Sense be because of this underground stone forest?"
Mo Tiange couldn't help but nod. "Very likely." She could only partially understand the formation above; the Divine Sense interference was also a guess.
"My master thought the same," Nie Wushang said.
"Then let's go," Jing Xingzhi said. Since things had come to this, arguing with Nie Wushang was pointless. He shot her a fierce glare, turned, and led the way into the stone forest.
"Why not leave markers?" Mo Tiange asked as they walked into the stone forest.
"Leaving markers isn't very useful either," Nie Wushang said, spreading her hands. "Divine Sense gets distorted here, and there's no clear path. Whether it's markers or guide lines, everything ends up in chaos. Better to look for traces left by predecessors. I remember my master also recorded routes."
Mo Tiange thought it made sense and didn't press further.
Although not very useful, the group still left their own markers along the way, at least to know when they'd gone wrong.
"Did you really come here for some mission?" Nie Wushang transmitted her voice again. They hadn't finished their conversation earlier when they reached the stone forest.
Mo Tiange shook her head, also transmitting her reply. "It's fine to tell you. We came for our own reasons. This thing was actually someone else's mission." She then recounted meeting Huo Ziqi and the other, including their deaths and how they obtained the Black Gold Fragment afterward. As for encountering the two demonic cultivators, Qin Xi had already told Jing Xingzhi.
Finally, Mo Tiange said, "Looking at it now, Senior Xiao Zilan likely perished here. Since that's the case, we'll just explore the path and complete the mission while we're at it."
"Is that so?" Nie Wushang glanced at her sidelong, a faint, ambiguous smile on her lips.
"Alright," Mo Tiange admitted under her gaze. "Once we find the repository, we'll conveniently take a few things with us."
Nie Wushang nodded, satisfied with her answer.
"By the way, you've been to the repository. Did you see any skeletons or remains along the way?"
Nie Wushang shook her head. "No. My master also mentioned that when he first came, he found the mechanisms and restrictions had long been dismantled. Someone must have been here before, but the repository was completely intact, and no traces of cultivators perishing were found."
"Is that so..." Back then, Venerable Songfeng, with only Foundation Establishment cultivation, could reach the repository smoothly. It showed the mechanisms and restrictions along the way had long ceased to be a threat. So why did Xiao Zilan perish here? Or were they mistaken, and this wasn't Xiao Zilan's final resting place?
"There's one possibility," Nie Wushang said, knowing what she was thinking. "Outside the repository, there's a passage. I don't know where it leads. There might be clues there."
A passage? A thought flashed through Mo Tiange's mind. Thinking of Venerable Songfeng's Demon Great Art, she couldn't help but wonder—could this passage lead to some sacrificial temple?
Ahead, Qin Xi and Jing Xingzhi suddenly stopped. Jing Xingzhi called out, "Quick, look! There's a marker here."
Mo Tiange and Nie Wushang hurried over. At the sight of the tadpole-shaped mark, Nie Wushang's eyes lit up. "This is my master's mark," she said. "If we continue and see this symbol, we follow the direction of its tail. My master came here many times; this is the route he took. It'll save us a lot of trouble."
None of the three objected, and they continued forward.
The stone pillars were dense, with paths branching in all directions. Often, after walking for a while, they'd lose sight of the markers. However, Venerable Songfeng's route had many repetitions; frequently, after wandering around, they'd spot another route marker.
The four of them went back and forth, spending several hours before finally emerging safely from the maze.
Gazing at the magnificent underground stone forest, Mo Tiange couldn't help but sigh. "Who knows what divine abilities the ancient cultivators possessed, to carve out such a wondrous underground world."
Nie Wushang nodded. "If those others get trapped in the maze, it'll save us a lot of trouble. We can just take the treasures and leave without having to fight over them."
This underground repository wasn't a place where treasures could be taken freely; otherwise, Venerable Songfeng would have emptied it long ago after so many visits. So, Nie Wushang felt that if both parties entered the repository to search for treasures simultaneously, as long as she could obtain what she wanted, there wasn't necessarily a conflict. The problem was, when entering a treasure trove at the same time, who would trust the other? Coveting the treasures in the other's hands while guarding against them striking first—unless both sides were evenly matched, a battle was inevitable.
Having stolen treasures from Venerable Songfeng and fled, Nie Wushang felt uneasy precisely because this was Venerable Songfeng's place of opportunity. She didn't want to fight others.
But Qin Xi shook his head. "If there really is a late-Nascent Soul cultivator following, this maze probably won't hold them for long. We need to move quickly."
Leaving the stone forest, they came to a natural limestone cave ahead. The cave was low, with many stalactites hanging down. It branched in all directions, with countless interconnected openings—enter here, exit there—like a natural maze.
Passing through several checkpoints, where the mechanisms and restrictions had without exception been dismantled, the four arrived without incident at the repository entrance.
However, looking at this repository, Mo Tiange, Qin Xi, and Jing Xingzhi all doubted their eyes.
Take the ancient major sect, the Cold Ice Palace of the Guixu Sea. Their repository was a massive ice cavern, exquisitely beautiful and dazzlingly splendid, clearly extraordinary at first glance. But this repository before them? A low, crude cave without any decoration, utterly mismatched with the grandeur of the stone forest just now. It looked more like the cave dwelling of some low-level cultivator. Even for a secret repository, this was too shabby.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Jing Xingzhi asked suspiciously, looking at Nie Wushang.
Nie Wushang snorted through her nose and didn't answer.
Mo Tiange looked at the cave before her—the narrow entrance, devoid of any decoration, dull and gray, almost easy to overlook.
Yet, despite this, she didn't dare underestimate this repository in the slightest.
A hazy, shimmering light barrier covered the cave entrance. Even without doing anything, one could feel the intangible pressure emanating from it.
A woman in purple robes drifted down from above Wind-Sand City, cold as frost, beautiful as peach blossoms.
Hongxiao beneath the sand tower went up to meet her. "City Lord!"
The purple-robed woman nodded, her expression cold and devoid of emotion.
"Shuang'er!" Seeing her, the gloom on Tian Xuan's face finally faded somewhat.
The City Lord of Night Owl City, Demon Lord Yeshuang, remained expressionless, but a hint of softness flickered in her eyes.
"How did it go?" she asked Tian Xuan, her voice clear and transparent as snowmelt, yet chilling.
"Found it," Tian Xuan said, waving the parchment scroll in his hand and handing it to her. "But there's a bit of trouble."
Demon Lord Yeshuang took it, flipped through it, and tossed it back to him. "What trouble?"
"Two other groups," Tian Xuan said. "One group is from Tianji, the other are loose cultivators from Yunzhong. Both groups have two people."
"How's their strength?"
"Not bad," Tian Xuan said, frowning. "The Tianji cultivators, one man and one woman, one at mid-stage, one at early-stage. I fought the mid-stage one; I'm no match for him. The early-stage one—Hongxiao couldn't do anything to her either. The two loose cultivators from Yunzhong are both at early-stage—one a demonic cultivator, one a sword cultivator. That sword cultivator is formidable; he shattered my Asura Hand."
Demon Lord Yeshuang's gaze sharpened. "Your hand..."
Tian Xuan raised his arm. "It's fine. I was just careless."
"I told you long ago to be careful when coming to Tianji. You've lived two lives now; how can you still be so careless?" Demon Lord Yeshuang's voice was icy, but her tone held no reproach. Listening carefully, one might even detect a trace of warmth.
"I know," Tian Xuan said, looking at her, his voice gentle.
Seemingly uncomfortable under such a gaze, Demon Lord Yeshuang turned her face away. "Alright, business first. What's the exact situation now?"