Cultivators Are So Weak in This World-Chapter 257 - 233 Secret Vault, Part 1

The night was shrouded in mist.

At a private estate on the outskirts of Citong.

The rectangular estate was surrounded by walls made of gray stone bricks, adorned with black and white landscape paintings, occasionally with calligraphy imitations.

From a distance, it seemed as if the entire estate was enveloped in literature and art, exuding an aura reminiscent of scholarly ambiance.

Inside the estate, the lights were bright, lanterns swaying with the wind, emitting a pale yellow glow.

In the corners stood copper humanoid lanterns, resembling real lamp bearers, quietly standing with lanterns of light in their hands.

Through the intricately carved doors and windows, a faint yellow light also seeped out, illuminating the estate’s ponds and rockeries with extraordinary clarity.

Outside the estate, three sides were dense forests, with a gray driveway on the fourth.

At this moment, a black-bottomed, silver-patterned carriage, drawn by pure white horses, slowly made its way along the driveway, stopping about a hundred meters from the estate.

The carriage door slid open, and a tall figure with flaxen hair stepped down.

The figure raised her head, revealing a gentle and beautiful fair face. Deep blue eyes gazed intently at the estate not far away.

"This is it, finally found it.... The murderer who killed my father back then!"

"Being able to borrow manpower and requiring full force for a siege, it shouldn’t be an unknown nobody, right, Leona?"

Inside the carriage, Princess Yongxiang lazily stretched her arms and slowly alighted.

She wore a tight black leather outfit, tightly wrapped around her body, accentuating her curves, with a slightly open V-shaped neckline revealing a glimpse of white.

Her black hair cascaded over her shoulders.

A wide dark red belt was fastened around her waist, with several small boxes attached, seemingly containing different items.

"Need my help?" she glanced at her friend.

"If possible." Leona did not put on a brave face, nodding slightly.

"Then I shall wait for the right moment." Yongxiang smiled, her gaze fixed on the brightly lit estate a hundred meters away.

She was also curious about the formidable foe that could warrant such a large-scale mobilization by the Fulier family.

At this time, Leona had already taken out a finger-length red tube, lit it with the lantern’s fire, and aimed it at the sky.

Hiss!

In an instant, the tube spewed a red flame, like a fiery snake winding its way up into the night sky.

In a moment, the area within hundreds of meters was illuminated by the red glow of the fire snake, turning a rosy hue.

"Kill!"

Suddenly, from the shadows around the estate, numerous figures in black hurriedly rushed toward the walls.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A dense barrage of arrows descended from the night sky, covering most of the corners of the estate first.

"A friend from afar... isn’t it a delight!"

Inside the estate, a prolonged chant rang out like thunder, echoing outward.

The sound carried clearly over a hundred meters away, audible to Leona and Yongxiang.

"He’s here!! That old fellow is still here!!" Leona’s eyes radiated hatred, her fists clenching involuntarily, her muscles taut.

"Who exactly is it!?" Yongxiang’s eyelids twitched, her warrior instincts warning her at the Three Emptiness Level—a sensitivity comparable to many animals.

But this sixth sense was frantically warning her.

"Red List Grandmaster, Taizhenzi Asura Boya!" Leona replied through gritted teeth.

"The Sect Leader of the Sensing Sect’s Taijing lineage!? That’s quite a formidable opponent...." Yongxiang couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

Grandmaster Spiritual Veins....

Moreover, a leader of a lineage.

In the Sensing Sect, there were many Grandmasters, but this one was a heavyweight, even stronger than King Yan Yan Xi.

Fortunately, due to ideological differences, many operated independently.

Otherwise....

"Let’s make a move. With so many besieging him, even a Grandmaster can be killed...."

Yongxiang raised her hand, and a team composed of spiritual veins silently surged toward the estate.

This time, they had assembled many experts, and even if it was a battle of attrition, they had the confidence to bring him down!

Both Leona and Yongxiang were confident about this.

*

*

*

Deep in Huangjing Mountain.

A clear small lake bordered by towering cliffs as sharp as swords.

In the middle of the cliff stood a pitch-black fissure over ten meters high.

Dense, dark green branches shrouded the fissure, with clear lake water below rippling, reflecting the fragmented moonlight.

Zhang Rongfang and Zhang Yunqi stood side by side by the small lake, gazing at the fissure from afar.

"Now, we need to go in there. Please wait a moment while I find a boat." Zhang Yunqi remarked.

"Brother Yunqi, with your high martial skills and strong body technique, can’t you walk on water?" Zhang Rongfang, having only recently broken through External Medicine, knew it was impossible for him.

But he had observed from afar, Zhang Yunqi’s body technique speed was such that he could only perceive a blurred image, indicating its power.

At such speed, couldn’t he walk on water?

He thought this fellow had at least reached the Three Emptiness Level.

A Super Grade expert should be able to, like in martial arts films from his past life, jump across rooftops and run on water without leaving a trace.

"Walking on water? It’s possible, but... are you sure you want to do it this way?" Zhang Yunqi blinked.

"Huh? Is there a problem?" Zhang Rongfang was puzzled.

"No problem, except....." Zhang Yunqi hesitated.

Moments later.

The two stood by the small lake, wearing boots resembling duck flippers, over which they pulled waterproof long leather pants.

"See, walking on water is such a hassle." Zhang Yunqi stepped on the ground, flexing his ankles.

"....Do I have to wear this?" Zhang Rongfang was speechless.

"Right? Otherwise, how can you walk on water? Human feet are so small, wouldn’t they sink?" Zhang Yunqi looked at Zhang Rongfang with a perplexed expression.

As he spoke, he handed two long poles to Zhang Rongfang.

"Here, these are for you to use in case you lose balance while walking on water and need to stabilize yourself."

"Oh... thank you." Zhang Rongfang took the poles, feeling as if some martial arts dreams in his mind were slowly shattering...

"Should I go first or do you?" Zhang Yunqi asked.

"Naturally, Brother Yunqi leads the way."

"Alright then."

Zhang Yunqi took a step forward, walked to the edge of the small lake, and then forcefully pushed off against the water surface, using it to propel himself forward.

Boom boom boom!!

The lake surface erupted with huge splashes as he charged forward fearlessly, like a water-exploding machine.

Zhang Rongfang was speechless and could only follow suit, pushing off with his pole and making a powerful leap to keep up.

The two of them sprinted across the water, causing splashes to fly everywhere.

Soon, they both entered a crevice over ten meters high.

Inside the crevice, it was pitch black, and the beating of bat wings could be heard. Startled by the noise, they flew out of the crevice.

Underwater, there were faint signs of large fish swimming, attracted towards them.

"Don’t fall into the water; there are giant alligators in the lake!" Zhang Yunqi loudly cautioned.

"....." Zhang Rongfang was speechless. Why didn’t he say this earlier?

He knew of the gators; they were essentially crocodiles.

Luckily, his body technique was quite good, and he followed Zhang Yunqi without making any mistakes.

After moving several tens of meters into the crevice, Zhang Yunqi gently landed on a large rock, stood firm, and beckoned Zhang Rongfang over.

Then, he quickly took out a fire striker, lighting a torch that was set up on the wall.

The bright flame illuminated a small area within the crevice.

Zhang Rongfang also climbed onto the rock and the two of them removed their flippers and set down their bamboo poles.

"Come with me." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Zhang Yunqi led the way, walking to a stone wall in the crevice and stopping.

He reached out and rubbed a spot for a moment, soon finding an irregular piece of white stone on the wall.

Carefully removing the white stone, a black metal keyhole was revealed behind it.

"This is the entrance to the hidden cache...." Zhang Yunqi stepped aside to make way.

The size of the keyhole matched exactly with the key that Zhang Rongfang carried.

Without hesitation, he took out the key, aligned it with the keyhole, and gently inserted it and turned.

Click.

Above their heads, about four to five meters up, a round opening slowly appeared on the stone wall.

"Please." Zhang Yunqi said solemnly, "Inside are great secrets, so I won’t accompany you. Besides, there should be quite a bit of food and water stored inside. If dangerous, you can use it as a temporary refuge."

"Alright!" Zhang Rongfang looked at the opening, using his hand on the stone wall for leverage, climbing up to the opening in a few moves.

Inside the hole, it was brightly lit, revealing a circular tunnel leading inward.

He glanced back down at Zhang Yunqi again.

The latter nodded at him.

Zhang Rongfang turned to look at the opening in front of him.

Moments later, he glanced back at Zhang Yunqi again.

Zhang Yunqi nodded once more, indicating that he could go inside.

Zhang Rongfang nodded in return and spoke up.

"Please, Brother Yunqi, join me in exploring."

"...." Zhang Yunqi paused, then smiled, quickly understanding.

"Alright, sir, you are indeed cautious."

He didn’t decline and used leverage to leap up to the edge of the hole, entering first.

Zhang Rongfang closely followed.

After walking more than ten meters inside the tunnel, they soon entered an oval-shaped gray stone hall.

The stone hall was moderately sized, five meters high, over ten meters long, and only about five meters wide.

Inside were some black small wooden boxes stacked up.

There was also a bookshelf, a desk, and a chair.

On the desk, a black stone lion paperweight was pressing down a stack of items wrapped in oilcloth.

Zhang Rongfang looked at the bookshelf, which was mostly empty, with only a few books left.

Off to the side, a black box was gently opened by Zhang Yunqi, revealing its contents.

It was filled with gold bars and silver ingots!

Zhang Yunqi sighed and turned to Zhang Rongfang.

"It seems these were left behind as recovery funds for us."

"Probably." Zhang Rongfang nodded.

At a glance, there were at least several dozen of such black boxes, filling a corner.

Redirecting his gaze, he wasn’t too interested in the money, instead walking over to the lone desk.

He removed the paperweight and unwrapped the oilcloth, revealing neatly piled brown documents.

The surfaces of the documents were marked with simple codes as identifiers.

The top one had simply a ’one’ written on the cover.

He picked up Document No. 1 and slowly opened it.

Inside were several recorded entries.

’Spiritualization Individual Test Record No. 1.’

’The purpose of this test: to determine if burning can completely kill a Spiritualization individual.’