Chapter 2178.1: Golden Core of Great Dao

One night had passed since Lu Yun entered Iron Pagoda Mountain. Its sudden disappearance raised the attention of powerhouses in the distant capital of Profound Wing Empire. Numerous rays of sword light cut across the sky—all from heavyweights above combination level.

Combination experts covered thousands of kilometers in one breath. It’d only been a little over twenty minutes since the mountain disappeared, but dozens of rays of sword light descended upon the scene.

“Where is the Iron Pagoda Mountain??” boomed a middle-aged man.

Terra Demon creased his thin, silver brows.

“It turned into a flying sword and flew away,” Lu Yun responded when he sensed killing intent rise in Terra Demon. The young man no longer fought alone in this world. There was a massive Lu Clan behind him as well as a Darklake Empire. If the slightest hint of anything went awry, not only would the family be exterminated, but so would Darklake be wiped off the map.

“Turned into a flying sword and flew away?” snorted another combination powerhouse. “Take these two back with us and interrogate them closely. Iron Pagoda Mountain has become a very important site and is highly likely to be an immortal weapon. We must pursue every clue to the end!”

Terra Demon already stood in front of Lu Yun.

“Halt, all of you!” A soft shout broke the air as Mo Qiyue, Jiang Feng, and Qin Qianxue arrived with a dozen men. Their people were all combination powerhouses and there was even a tribulation heavyweight among them!

“You guys…” The first speaker was about to speak when those next to him grabbed him warningly. They were representatives from sixth and seventh empires here for the show. The newcomers on the scene were far beyond their capabilities, despite also being combination level.

“You’re still alive, ole brother Lu! That’s wonderful!” Enthusiastic as ever, Jiang Feng roared with happy laughter. Even the normally taciturn Mo Qiyue smiled faintly.

“But I say, I’m more curious how you managed to escape,” Qin Qianxue asked curiously. The trio had known that Iron Pagoda Mountain was extraordinary when they ran from it. They’d contacted their factions and swiftly assembled some forces from the ninth rank empires.

Mo Qiyue and Jiang Feng were equally curious, but guessed a thing or two when they saw Terra Demon standing in front of Lu Yun.

“Right, where’s the mountain gone to?” Qin Qianxue asked again.

“It turned into a flying sword and flew away.” Lu Yun had tempered his thick skin through three thousand lifetimes. Lying was no different from drinking water to him. The sword pagoda was too important and also relevant to his sealed self, so he didn’t want anyone to know that it was on him.

Seeing that their friend didn’t want to talk about it, Mo Qiyue and the others didn’t press the issue. They took their men and searched through the ruins. There was a massive crater several dozen kilometers across left after Lu Yun claimed the sword pagoda. It was cavernous and deep with no clue of what lay at the bottom.

“It’s the aura of treasures!” Qin Qianxue’s eyes lit up when the trio approached the crater.

Whoosh!

Light streaked out of the pit and shot toward the horizon. Those assembled blinked with surprise and a combination cultivator leapt into the air, closing his hand around the light.

It was a black shortsword with radiance swirling over it.

“A mid spirit rank weapon?” the cultivator started. This level of treasure wasn’t much in his eyes. Most combination cultivators used supreme spirit rank weapons, with some luckier ones wielding dao weapons.

“It really is a treasure?” Lu Yun gaped. He hadn’t thought there’d be more treasures beneath the pagoda.

Rumble!

The earth began to shake as rays of multicolored radiance shot out from the crater. Treasures streaked out shortly, protected by strange illumination and falling to the ground like meteors. Lu Yun grabbed a random blaze and came back with a lower spirit rank weapon.

“Um…” Mo Qiyue and the others were shocked. “What’s at the bottom to send out so many treasures?”

The highest out of the treasures shooting from the pit was but mid spirit rank, the lowest was qi rank treasure. But there were so many of them that thousands were ejected within the span of a few breaths.

“Get ‘em!” Lu Yun hesitated for only a split second before releasing his talisman puppet. His puppet swept through the premises, collecting everything that fell. Lu Yun’s foundations were in a third rank cultivation empire. A lower spirit rank treasure would be the pillar of support for the nation, to say nothing of thousands of them.

Terra Demon understood his lord’s intentions as well and began collecting the treasures as well. Mo Qiyue was only half a second slower than Lu Yun—he, too, leapt into action.

Despite his impressive background, he was a Darklake citizen and the Mo Clan was one of the nation’s most illustrious great families. His subordinates also grabbed everything they could lay hands on. These treasures were jokes to the higher ranked empires and Great Xia, but several thousands of them were sufficient to dictate the fortunes of a lower rank cultivation empire.

Lu Yun couldn’t use higher rank treasures for the moment and when he could, he could refine his own. Any that he seized now would simply draw the eyes of others.

Countless treasures spewed into the air like a volcano had erupted. They scattered down like a shower of rain, increasing in frequency, but low ranked as a whole.

Apart from Lu Yun and his friends, the others present were all combination cultivators. They wouldn’t lower themselves to fight for this level of treasure. Hailing from Great Xia, spirit treasures were trash to Jiang Feng and Qin Qianxue.

“I get why Lu Yun is doing this, but why is Mo Qiyue also collecting these treasures?” Qin Qianxue didn’t understand his friend’s actions.

Jiang Feng shook his head without judgment. “Qiyue must have his reasons for doing so. I’m more concerned with what might come from this pit next.”

“It’s been trash thus far. What, are you hoping for an immortal rank treasure?” Qin Qianxue pursed his lips.

Bam!

The ground trembled once more as a pillar of light shot for the horizon.

“A dao weapon!” Some of the combination cultivators immediately sensed the presence within the light. “Get it!”

They couldn’t sit still with the arrival of a dao weapon. Taking to the air, they grabbed for the pillar of light.

“So some real treasures are appearing. That one was an upper dao rank treasure,” Qin Qianxue looked on appreciatively. With their backgrounds and experience, they only needed to briefly sense the treasure’s aura to determine what rank it was.

The rate of treasures appearing slowed down after the dao weapon appeared. More than thirty combination cultivators fought each other in the air, grappling for the dao weapon.

Lu Yun and Mo Qiyue worked in perfect tandem and collected all of the lower rank treasures from the crater. Tens of thousands of treasures were ejected within twenty-odd minutes, but most of them were too low ranked to be worthy of consideration for the group assembled. In a mid or low rank cultivation empire, however, the sum would be staggering.

“I wonder what’s down there—maybe ruins from the ancient times?” Lu Yun stroked his storage ring and swept a glance down into the hole. The sword pagoda hadn’t landed here by accident either. It’d stopped emitting treasures, but was so deep that Lu Yun couldn’t make out anything in the gloom.

“I can sense overwhelming killing intent below. This must be a dangerous place.” Mo Qiyue walked over; they’d reaped incredible gains. He suddenly shifted to transmission, “Lu Yun, don’t let higher ranked cultivators know about the treasures you collected. As low ranked as they are, they’re not ordinary items.”

Lu Yun started. Mo Qiyue meant to evade Qin Qianxue and Jiang Feng’s hearing if he’d switched to transmission. He nodded without a word, knowing the truth of what the young man said. No one would find out anything since they’d claimed all of the lower rank treasures. Those from the higher rank empire or cultivation dynasty wouldn’t care about these.

“This is a highly sensitive matter and it might be ancient ruins or even the residence of an immortal,” Jiang Feng cautioned Mo Qiyue. “Qiyue, it’s not good for Darklake that these ruins have appeared here. You should try advising the Darklake emperor at an opportune moment that he should give up Profound Wing.”

Mo Qiyue nodded.