Proud Sword Soaring Clouds

’With this, I’ll at least have some extra insurance when facing my enemies!’

Ling Xiao took off his outer robe, slipped on the Refined Gold Moonlight Armor, and then put his robe back on. He was a little worried about Song Mingyue and Shangguan Yutong, who were still outside. While he was refining the Puppet Magical Beast, he had heard strange noises from their direction. But that was a critical moment in the refining process, so Ling Xiao couldn’t afford to be distracted. Half a day had passed since then, and Ling Xiao was extremely concerned about what might have happened.

However, Ling Xiao also understood that all the mechanisms were one-way. He could only proceed from one room to the next and see if it was a loop—in other words, if he could find an exit on the other side.

Ling Xiao searched for a while and found a mechanism on the wall. After focusing his mind and raising his guard, he pressed it lightly. The ground... suddenly began to tremble faintly. Ling Xiao felt the mechanism hadn’t been fully depressed, so he applied a little more force with his hand... BOOM!

A large fissure, two to three meters wide, suddenly split open in the middle of the floor! It opened right where the table Ling Xiao had just shattered with his sword had been. Then, Ling Xiao saw a vast, dazzling golden light shining from below, and someone shot over as fast as lightning.

Ling Xiao leaped down through the fissure, which then slowly closed on its own.

The person before him was none other than Qin Zhaoran’s son, Qin Feng. Qin Feng looked at Ling Xiao, recognizing him as one of the three from before. However, the most important thing right now was to find out what he had discovered. With a smirk, Qin Feng looked at Ling Xiao and asked, "Friend, did you happen to find anything?"

Having reached the Mid-Golden Core Stage, Ling Xiao could now completely conceal his aura. Facing Qin Feng, he only released an aura comparable to Qin Feng’s own. This led Qin Feng to mistakenly believe that Ling Xiao was merely a High-level Demon Swordmaster who had not yet reached the cultivation level of the Sword Sect. Because of this, Qin Feng even felt that he could defeat this middle-aged man all by himself!

When Shangguan Yutong and Song Mingyue saw Ling Xiao, their faces lit up with joyful surprise. Using the title they had agreed upon beforehand, they walked over together and called out, "Martial Uncle, are you alright? We were worried sick!"

Ling Xiao gave a calm smile. "I’m fine. Who knows what happened—I just got locked in. I thought there might be treasure in that room, but it turned out there wasn’t a single thing. I searched for a long time before finally finding this mechanism. I never expected to run into you all. How did you get down here?"

Song Mingyue pointed at Qin Feng. "The two of us ran into them and came down with them."

Seeing that Ling Xiao claimed to have found nothing, and looking at his disheveled, unlucky state, Qin Feng also concluded that there couldn’t have been any treasure upstairs. After all, all the treasures were right here! They had already been here for a long time, sorting through all the valuables.

Down here, there was Gold, Magic Beast Crystal Cores, and many ancient texts from the Ancient Era. Among them were sword skills and Cultivation Techniques. Of course, the sword skills and Cultivation Techniques were what made everyone’s eyes turn red with envy. So far, they had already found over a dozen manuals, most of which were Earth-grade or higher!

There was even one at the Lower Tier of the Saint Level!

Besides these sword skills and Cultivation Techniques, what people were most excited about were the manuscripts among the ancient texts. If they could find an Alchemist’s manuscript, that would be the greatest prize of all.

In addition, there were sharp weapons forged from cold iron—not just swords, but many other types as well. It seemed that in the Ancient Era, the weapons of Martial Artists were quite diverse and not limited to the sword.

The others were all very surprised to see Ling Xiao arrive here, completely unharmed. This was especially true for the Gu Family disciple, who had always believed that no one could surpass the Gu Family in Mechanical Skill. He was the only member of the Gu Family present, so no one should have been more skilled than him in that art. Yet this ordinary-looking middle-aged man had been decisive when choosing a path earlier, immediately opting to descend. Meanwhile, he himself had failed to offer any insight, even though deep down, he had also thought descending was the right choice.

Then, when it came to solving the mechanisms, this man had managed to pass through a one-way mechanism into another area and then even find another one to descend here!

’All of this seems so easy, but in reality,’ the Gu Family disciple knew, ’without considerable expertise in Mechanical Skill, finding this kind of mechanism is next to impossible!’

’There are even many dangerous mechanisms that can cause massive casualties if someone who doesn’t understand them just presses things randomly! Just think about when we first entered the cave; a single moment of carelessness on my part caused over seven hundred casualties...’ The Gu Family disciple thus felt an instinctive aversion and a sense of crisis regarding Ling Xiao’s arrival.

’Normally, I wouldn’t be like this. I might even humbly ask Ling Xiao for guidance! But things are different now. I have a twenty percent share of the treasure here! I believe the Qin Family might dare to kill me in secret, but they would never dare to withhold my twenty-percent share! Unless... unless the Qin Family has gone completely mad and decides to kill everyone here except for their own people!’

’But... that’s simply impossible! Among these dozens of people, more than half are at the Sword Emperor level! The rest are basically all experts at the Sword Sect level!’