He descended the stairs carefully. They were stable despite their age, carved from solid stone.
The air grew cooler as he went deeper. A faint luminescence appeared ahead, enough to see by without additional light.
The staircase ended in a small antechamber. Walls of worked stone surrounded a single doorway that led to the chamber beyond.
More formation arrays covered every surface, their purpose clear even after so much ti.
Protection. Warning. Destruction for those unworthy.
Xian Tiandi approached the doorway and extended his spiritual sense cautiously.
The formations were still partially active. Not at full strength, but enough to be dangerous if triggered improperly.
’These are testing formations,’ he realized. ’Designed to evaluate anyone who reaches this point. Only those with specific qualities can pass safely.’
He studied the arrays more closely. They tested three things. Cultivation base strength. Elental affinity. And spiritual root quality.
The requirents were high. Foundation Establishnt realm minimum. Multi-elent affinity. And at least first grade spirit root quality.
Xian Tiandi t all three easily. His peak Qi Condensation cultivation was close enough to Foundation Establishnt that the degraded formations wouldn’t distinguish the difference.
His chaos elent affinity encompassed all elents. And his peak heaven ranked spirit root exceeded the requirents by several levels.
He walked through the doorway.
The formations activated, washing over him with probing spiritual energy.
They examined his cultivation, his elents, his spirit root. For a mont, the arrays glowed brightly, as if surprised by what they found.
Then they recognized him as worthy. The light faded, and the defensive chanisms deactivated.
Xian Tiandi stepped into the hidden chamber.
It was circular, roughly ten ters in diater.
The walls were carved with intricate designs depicting the five basic elents.
Fire. Water. Earth. Wind. tal.
Each elent was represented in stunning detail, the artwork still vibrant despite the passage of ti.
But Xian Tiandi’s attention focused imdiately on the center of the chamber.
An altar of white jade rose from the floor. And floating above it, suspended in mid-air by formations too complex to unravel at a glance, was the treasure.
The Five Elent Lotus.
It was beautiful. Five petals, each a different color representing one of the five elents.
Red for fire. Blue for water. Brown for earth. Green for wind. Silver for tal.
The petals glowed with inner light, and spiritual energy radiated from the lotus in visible waves.
Xian Tiandi approached slowly, his eyes taking in every detail. This was exactly what he needed for his martial cultivation path.
His body cultivation followed the Chaos Divine Body Technique. He was currently at Force Condensation realm, equivalent to Qi Condensation in spiritual cultivation.
The next stage was Tempered Body Foundation realm, which required tempering his physical body with the five basic elents.
The Five Elent Lotus was the perfect catalyst for that breakthrough. Each petal contained concentrated elental essence.
Absorbing them would allow him to temper his body systematically, elent by elent, until he achieved the balanced foundation necessary for advancent.
’This is why the resonance was so strong,’ Xian Tiandi thought. ’My Chaos Spirit Root recognized what my body needs. The lotus called to specifically.’
He reached out and touched the formation array sustaining the lotus.
The array was masterwork quality, designed to preserve the treasure indefinitely. But it would release the lotus to anyone worthy who made it this far.
Xian Tiandi channeled spiritual energy into specific nodes of the formation. The array recognized his authority and began shutting down.
The Five Elent Lotus slowly descended, freed from its suspension.
Xian Tiandi caught it gently in both hands. The petals felt solid yet sohow ethereal, as if they existed partially in another dinsion.
Spiritual energy from the lotus flooded into his body the mont he touched it.
The five elents resonated with his Chaos Spirit Root, creating a harmonious vibration that sang through his ridians.
’Perfect,’ Xian Tiandi thought with satisfaction. ’This will accelerate my body cultivation significantly.’
He carefully placed the Five Elent Lotus into his spatial ring, where special preservation formations would keep it fresh. The treasure settled into the storage space, its glow dimd but not extinguished.
Xian Tiandi took one last look around the hidden chamber. There was nothing else of value here. The lotus had been the sole treasure, guarded and preserved for whoever proved worthy to claim it.
’The original owner must have been a powerful body cultivator alsk,’ Xian Tiandi mused. ’Soone who understood the importance of proper elental tempering. This chamber was part of their legacy, waiting for the right person.’
He turned and walked back through the doorway. The formations remained deactivated, recognizing that their purpose had been fulfilled.
The treasure was claid.
The legacy passed on.
Xian Tiandi ascended the ancient staircase. As he erged into the plaza above, he triggered the chanism to close the hidden entrance.
Stone ground against stone again, and the staircase retracted. Within monts, the plaza floor was solid once more, showing no sign of the chamber below.
’Ti to leave,’ Xian Tiandi thought. ’I have what I ca for. No need to linger.’
He turned toward the exit.
Once he got close enough, he stopped.
Two figures stood at the edge of the plaza, blocking his path. Both wore dark robes marked with symbols he recognized imdiately. The twisted emblems of the Four Spirits Sect.
Golden Core cultivators. Their spiritual pressure radiated powerfully, making the air feel heavy and oppressive.
"Well, well," the first one said. He was tall and thin, with a sharp face and cold eyes. "What do we have here? A little mouse sneaking around the ruins at night."
"Not just any mouse," the second cultivator added. She was shorter but built like a fighter, with scarred hands and a cruel smile. "That’s the Xian Clan brat. The one who interfered with our operation and saved that girl."
Xian Tiandi’s mind raced. These were Four Spirits Sect spies, likely left behind to monitor the ruins after Liu Qian’s failed ambush.
They must have detected the spiritual energy fluctuations when he activated the hidden chamber.
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