After the bronze door opened, Ye Qiu stood at the entrance and glanced inside, his face instantly filled with shock.
At that moment, his eyes beheld a vast expanse of buildings.
One grand hall after another, majestic and imposing, resembling an underground Forbidden City.
Tens of thousands of tung oil lamps, like a sky full of stars, illuminated the place as if it were daytime.
In the centre, a path paved with bluestone stretched out.
Ye Qiu’s heart raced with excitement; he had a strong premonition that these halls must contain treasures.
Following the path, he arrived at the first grand hall.
Above the vermilion gate hung a bronze plaque inscribed with two characters, “Treasure Vault.”
Ye Qiu pushed open the door, and immediately, a dazzling array of colours met his eyes.
Inside the hall, piles of gems were stacked.
Sapphires, rubies, emeralds, golden cat’s eyes, and exquisite Hetian jade.
There were even over a hundred natural night pearls, each the size of a copper coin, emitting an enchanting glow.
Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, every colour of gem was present.
Countless in number.
They were casually piled on the hall’s floor, as if they were mere rubbish.
Hiss!
Ye Qiu gasped.
He couldn’t imagine how much money these gems would fetch if sold.
Undoubtedly, it would be an astronomical sum.
“Fortunately, those old fellows in the Forbidden City are obsessed with immortality and care little for wealth, otherwise these treasures would have been squandered long ago.”
Ye Qiu secretly rejoiced, then quickly left and arrived at the second grand hall.
Looking up, the bronze plaque read two characters: Porcelain Vault.
“Could it be filled with porcelain?”
Curious, Ye Qiu pushed open the door, and as expected, the hall was filled with porcelain.
The first thing he saw was a pair of porcelain vases, about three metres tall, transparent as water, their white bodies adorned with blue patterns, elegant and vibrant.
“Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain!”
Ye Qiu recognised them at once, unable to suppress his amazement.
“Such blue-and-white porcelain vases would be the centrepiece of any museum.”
“At an auction, they could fetch tens of billions.”
“No, at least a hundred billion!”
Besides the pair of vases, there were countless bottles, jars, porcelain flowerpots, bowls, cups, and plates.
Too many to count.
Moreover, these porcelains were exquisitely crafted, breathtakingly beautiful.
Ye Qiu picked up a few porcelain bowls from the floor and noticed their significant origins, all imperial wares from renowned kilns, each bearing an emperor’s reign mark at the base.
Suddenly, a set of white porcelain tea ware caught his attention.
He walked over, picked up a teacup, and saw it was a tribute from the Ru Kiln during Emperor Huizong’s reign in the Song Dynasty.
“Good stuff, I’ll take this back for the old man to use for tea.”
Ye Qiu set down the teacup, left, and arrived at the third grand hall.
“Weapons Vault!”
Seeing the three characters on the bronze plaque, Ye Qiu’s heart stirred with excitement.
Weapons held an innate allure for martial artists, much like beautiful women naturally attract men.
Of course, some martial artists cared little for weapons, but they were as rare as men uninterested in women.
Eagerly, Ye Qiu pushed open the door, and instantly, a sharp aura hit him.
It sent chills through his body.
Unafraid, Ye Qiu stepped into the hall and looked around, seeing countless wooden racks of varying sizes.
Each rack held a weapon.
Swords, broadswords, spears, bows, meteor hammers, Fangtian halberds.
All eighteen types of weapons were present.
There were thousands in total.
Ye Qiu examined them and felt a bit disappointed.
Though extraordinary, these weapons paled in comparison to his Imperial Sword Chixiao.
He left the Weapons Vault and arrived at the fourth grand hall, the Secret Manual Vault.
This hall was the largest.
Upon entering, Ye Qiu saw countless secret manuals, not even placed on shelves but scattered on the floor, piled like mountains.
Some manuals were stored in wooden boxes.
They filled the entire hall.
Ye Qiu estimated there were at least hundreds of thousands of martial arts manuals.
He flipped through a few and found they were advanced techniques from major sects.
For an ordinary person, mastering just one or two would secure a spot among the top Tiger List experts, but for the current Ye Qiu, these manuals were like scrap paper.
Suddenly, several dozen neatly arranged wooden boxes in a corner caught his eye, each locked.
Ye Qiu approached one, forcefully broke the lock, and opened it, revealing a manual inside.
“Wudang True Martial Fist.”
Could these boxes all contain Wudang manuals?
A thought struck him, and he quickly grabbed a few more manuals, confirming they were all from Wudang.
Not just this box, but all the others held Wudang manuals as well.
“It seems the theft at Wudang Mountain was indeed the work of the Forbidden City.”
Ye Qiu decided he would arrange to return these manuals to Wudang Mountain, fulfilling his promise to Priest Chongxu and clearing his debt to them.
Leaving the Secret Manual Vault, he arrived at the fifth grand hall.
Above the main gate hung a plaque with three characters: Elixir Vault.
This hall intrigued Ye Qiu the most.
Firstly, Ye Wushuang was in critical condition, and he sought a cure for her.
If he could find a peerless elixir here, he wouldn’t need to resort to life-defying techniques.
Secondly, as a skilled traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, he understood the immense value of elixirs.
Lastly, he believed the Forbidden City, the world’s most powerful force, must hold many treasures.
His guess was correct.
Upon entering, a rich medicinal fragrance enveloped him. Looking around, the hall was filled with herbs.
Thirty-year-old herbs were commonplace, hundred-year-old herbs numbered in the hundreds, and there were dozens of three-hundred-year-old herbs.
Regrettably, no thousand-year-old spiritual herbs were found.
Along the walls stood numerous wooden racks, each holding a redwood box, hundreds in total.
Ye Qiu opened one and found a prescription inside.
Written on parchment with yellowed ink, it was clearly ancient, bearing an imperial seal in the bottom left corner.
He checked all the boxes and found each prescription was similar.
“These must be prescriptions preserved from ancient courts, but unfortunately, none describe a cure for backlash injuries.”
Ye Qiu sighed, left the Elixir Vault, and arrived at the sixth grand hall.
“Huh?”
Ye Qiu let out a surprised sound, noticing that the sixth hall was different from the others.
