NOVEL NEXT Fortune Devourer, Cha
The huge gate of the palace opened as they approached, and Zhao Yunxiao was slowly carried into what was probably the front hall.
Interestingly enough, there seemed to be an invisible membrane where the gate was, preventing the water from the Origin Lake from flooding into the palace.
Because of that, the inside was warm and dry, a stark contrast to the cold and dark environment outside.
The casing of water around Zhao Yunxiao seemed to be an exception to the rule though.
When Zhao Yunxiao passed through the gate into the palace, the casing of water remained firmly in place until it slowly placed Zhao Yunxiao onto the polished marble floor.
With that, the casing of water finally came undone, turning into a mere puddle on the floor.
At the same time, Zhao Yunxiao suddenly felt a sense of shame wash over him.
Even though the casing of water was transparent, it still felt as though he was at least being covered in something.
Now that the casing of water was gone, Zhao Yunxiao once again realised just how naked he was. And that feeling was further exacerbated by how brightly lit the inside of the palace was as compared to the night sky.
“Is there anyone else here...?” Zhao Yunxiao asked uncertainly, his hands instinctively moving over to protect his dignity.
“This palace belongs to me alone. No one can enter without my permission,” the sea serpent answered matter-of-factly. “Stop doing that. You look pathetic. Or is it because you are not confident in your own body?”
“W-What are you saying? Of course I am confident!” Zhao Yunxiao retorted, though he did not move his hands away. “Where is this place anyway?”
At the same time, he could not help but feel slightly relieved to hear that there was no one else here.
“Didn’t I already say that this is my home?” the sea serpent answered.
“Your home?” Zhao Yunxiao raised an eyebrow. “Did you actually build a home in the core grounds of the Origin Lake Sect?”
“Impressive, isn’t it?” the sea serpent said smugly. “This is just the entrance though, you haven’t seen anything impressive yet. Come, let me widen your horizons!”
The sea serpent flew deeper into the palace, and Zhao Yunxiao obediently followed.
Now that he was already here, he did not really have any other choice but to play along with what the sea serpent wanted.
Not to mention how impossible it was to escape from a sea serpent that could trap him in mere bathwater. Even if he did manage that, how would he explain himself if he was spotted leaving the core grounds of the Origin Lake Sect?
That he was brought in there by a sea serpent that even He Luoxuan failed to notice?
Would anyone ever believe him?
His only choice now was to satisfy whatever the sea serpent wanted of him, and hopefully that would help him convince the sea serpent to bring him out just like how it had brought him in.
Fortunately, it did not seem like the sea serpent had any malicious intentions... so far.
“The palace is designed by the most famous architects of the time, constructed with divine stones far more precious than you can ever imagine, and strengthened further by arrays at the Heavenly Lord level,” the sea serpent explained. “Look at those support columns, don’t the engravings seem like they are about to come to life at any moment?”
Zhao Yunxiao looked around while following behind the sea serpent, and paid more attention to the support columns that it was talking about.
Indeed, the interior of the palace looked every bit as grand as it said, with impeccable architecture that was awe-inspiring to say the least.
However, Zhao Yunxiao doubted that it was truly constructed with divine stones and strengthened by arrays at the Heavenly Lord level.
He was not very sure about the different levels when it came to the higher cultivation realms, but he had heard that most of the elders at the Black Tortoise Sect were only at the Heavenly Lord realm.
How could cultivators on the same level as the Black Tortoise Sect elders be tasked to create arrays just to strengthen this sea serpent’s home?
No way that was happening.
Cultivators of that level would have far more important things to do!
As for the engravings on the walls and support columns, there were those of dragons, phoenixes, qilins, and other mythical creatures.
Just like what the sea serpent said, these engravings looked extremely lifelike, but he sure hoped that the engravings would not truly come back to life.
With everything that was happening right now, Zhao Yunxiao could no longer be sure if the sea serpent was joking or not.
Nevertheless, Zhao Yunxiao could not deny how impressive the palace looked.
It was not just the interior either. When Zhao Yunxiao thought back to how it looked from the outside, he actually thought that the entire palace was constructed flawlessly both inside and out.
In terms of architecture alone, it was a true masterpiece.
“Looks like you know your stuff,” the sea serpent seemed to have noticed the look of appreciation on Zhao Yunxiao’s face. “But it is still too early to be impressed. Follow me!”
Zhao Yunxiao followed along as the sea serpent flew deeper into the palace, eventually arriving before a huge door.
“Get ready to be overwhelmed!” the sea serpent said before flicking one of its long whiskers.
With that, the huge door started to creak open.
The scene that unfolded next caught Zhao Yunxiao completely by surprise.
Behind the huge door was a giant chamber no less impressive looking than He Luoxuan’s personal room in his Crazy Winter Heavenly Palace!
The design was completely different, however.
He Luoxuan’s personal room had a carpet leading up to the throne at the end, with chairs lining the sides of the carpet in a layout that appeared to be built more towards hosting others for work purposes.
On the contrary, while the chamber before Zhao Yunxiao had a similarly high ceiling, it adopted a pure white theme and had no chairs in sight.
Instead of chairs, the chamber was filled with numerous stone pedestals, each positioned at regular intervals to form into neat rows and columns.
And on each individual pedestal was a different item.
Armours, weapons, scrolls, bags, pills... all sorts of stuff.
Whatever one could think of, it would likely be found on one of the pedestals in this chamber.
There were even unexpected items such as plates and bowls, chopsticks and spoons.
Some of these items looked ever so ordinary but most of them emitted powerful auras, a few of which could easily knock an ordinary mortal unconscious so long as they just came close enough!
“This...!” Zhao Yunxiao exclaimed in shock.
In all his years at the sect, Zhao Yunxiao had never gotten the chance to enter the treasury of the Black Tortoise Sect, not even the one designated for the outer disciples. However, he did hear quite a few stories about the latter from others.
Stories were usually exaggerated, but even the most exaggerated version of the treasury for outer disciples would still not be enough to rival this chamber in front of his eyes!
“Too early to be impressed, kid,” the sea serpent was obviously enjoying the look on Zhao Yunxiao’s face. “Come on in.”
Zhao Yunxiao was still too shocked for words, and could do nothing except for obediently following the sea serpent in.
The duo stopped in front of the first stone pedestal.
Resting on it was a golden halberd that glowed while emanating a warm aura. Just by standing in front of it, Zhao Yunxiao could feel a sense of warmth entering his very being, chasing away all thoughts of negativity.
It was as though he was standing in front of a gentle star, one capable of eliminating every last bit of darkness from this world.
“Sin Chaser – life-bound weapon of the Holy General Yang Ming,” the sea serpent introduced. “With this weapon in hand, the Holy General was no longer known as the son of the progenitor of the Origin Lake Sect, but gained his fame as the strongest general under him instead. Back then, he was regarded as one of the core contributors who helped the progenitor sweep across the lands to carve out the Origin Lake Sect territory.”
“This?” Zhao Yunxiao looked over at the sea serpent in astonishment. “Are you sure?”
Just the aura of the halberd felt impressive enough, but knowing its history made it feel even more awe-inspiring!
“There’s no need for me to lie to a kid,” the sea serpent flew towards the second pedestal. “Come, take a look at this!”
Zhao Yunxiao cast one last look at the glowing Sin Chaser before reluctantly following along.
On this second stone pedestal was a neatly folded set of blue battle robes.
Unlike the Sin Chaser, this set of battle robes sat on the stone pedestal while giving off not one bit of aura.
No matter how Zhao Yunxiao looked at it, it did not look too different from the sect robes that he was wea- that he had been wearing all day before this.
“Azure Origin Robes – the lucky ceremonial robes that the progenitor of the Origin Lake Sect usually wore to every big event,” the sea serpent explained again.
Upon hearing that, Zhao Yunxiao’s impression of the blue robes completely changed!
“The progenitor of the Origin Lake Sect, Azure Hand Yang Hong!” Zhao Yunxiao’s eyes sparkled as he looked at the set of blue robes.
He had heard of the famous progenitor of the Origin Lake Sect as well.
Azure Hand Yang Hong was a powerful cultivator that had swept through the world. In fact, he was such a feared character that not a single enemy dared to attack the Origin Lake Sect during his time as its leader!
For some reason, the set of battle robes suddenly looked extremely elegant despite its simplicity.
“The progenitor of the Origin Lake Sect Yang Hong was a complete monster back in his heyday, capable of standing against even the strongest enemies,” the sea serpent continued. “Unfortunately, his direct disciple Dan Juexing is nowhere near the same level...”
Dan Juexing?
Wasn’t that the name of the current leader of the Origin Lake Sect?
“Sect Leader Dan is the direct disciple of Azure Hand Yang Hong?” Zhao Yunxiao asked in surprise.
“That’s right,” the sea serpent answered. “It’s something that not many knew. But of course, nothing can escape my eyes!”
“But why do you know all of this?” Zhao Yunxiao asked.
“Hahaha! Looks like after all this time, you still haven’t figured out who I am!” the sea serpent laughed.
“You are...?” Zhao Yunxiao asked hesitantly.
“You really are a clueless kid, or perhaps it has just been too long since I’ve shown my mighty prowess to the world,” the sea serpent straightened its body into a vertical line as its display of pride. “Don’t be too shocked to hear this then. I am none other than the Guardian spirit of the Origin Lake Sect, the most powerful being to ever grace the Origin Lake Sect! People call me the Fortune Devourer, Cha!”
Its two long whiskers swayed excitedly as it spoke.
“Guardian spirit? Strongest being to grace the Origin Lake Sect?” Zhao Yunxiao raised an eyebrow.
“You don’t seem to believe me?” the sea serpent, Cha, noticed the look on his face.
“I’ve never heard of any guardian spirit of the Origin Lake Sect, but I guess I do believe you on that part,” Zhao Yunxiao said with a resigned sigh.
As for the part about being the strongest being to grace the Origin Lake Sect... Zhao Yunxiao would rather not address that.
“You do?” Cha sounded rather surprised this time, obviously not having expected Zhao Yunxiao to believe it this easily.
“Yeah...” Zhao Yunxiao nodded, and he was not lying either.
If it was earlier today, there was absolutely no way that Zhao Yunxiao would have believed this sea serpent’s words no matter how hard it tried to convince him.
However, Zhao Yunxiao started to have his doubts the moment he understood the sheer scale of the palace.
As powerful as Cha was, it would be exceedingly difficult to construct something of this level without alerting the Origin Lake Sect, not to mention being able to live here for centuries.
And when Zhao Yunxiao saw how there were various treasures of the Origin Lake Sect here, as well as how Cha was so clear about their history, everything became clear.
Chances were that this Cha was actually a spirit beast that belonged to the Origin Lake Sect, and this palace was a secret treasury of the sect where it resided or perhaps guarded.
This would also explain why it had yet to harm him so far.
Then again, it did kidnap him from his room, so did that really count as not harming him?
If everything that Cha said was true, then the one thing Zhao Yunxiao agreed with the most had to be its title.
Fortune Devourer?
Looking at how he ended up here against his wishes, and completely naked to boot, Zhao Yunxiao truly felt like his fortune had completely run out thanks to it!