CHAPTER 183: A SHABBY PLACE!

The sun climbed high into the artificial sky, its bright, warm light a stark contrast to the oppressive gloom of the Yin region Daniel had grown so accustomed to.

One by one, the rest of the team arrived at the desolate meeting spot, their faces grim and focused.

Amara gave Daniel a warm, reassuring smile.

Gideon offered a booming, cheerful greeting that seemed to make the very dust bunnies tremble.

Selene just shot him a cold, appraising look before turning her attention to her gleaming purple sports car, meticulously polishing an already spotless fender.

At precisely noon, the door to the old, dilapidated house creaked open.

The spatial array master emerged, yawning and scratching his messy white hair.

"Alright, you lot," he grunted, looking thoroughly unimpressed by their punctual, battle-ready formation.

"Time to go. Try not to die in the first five minutes. The paperwork is a nightmare."

He didn’t perform any grand incantations. He didn’t draw any complex, glowing runes.

He simply reached into his pocket, pulled out a handful of what looked like common rocks and a few rusty nails, and tossed them casually towards the open doorway of the house.

The effect was instantaneous and breathtaking.

"BOOM!"

It wasn’t a loud explosion, but a soft, deep pulse of spatial energy that made the air itself seem to warp.

The doorway shimmered, then shifted into a stable vortex of silver and deep purple light, pulsing with ancient power.

The wind shrieked around the portal, drawn into its depths.

Daniel stared, utterly awestruck. The casual, effortless control the old master wielded over such profound spatial magic was on a level he had never even imagined.

This was true mastery, power so absolute it required no ceremony.

"Well, get on with it," the old man grumbled, gesturing towards the portal with his whittling knife.

"The gateway’s stable, but my lunch is getting cold."

Nicklaus, taking charge, nodded to the team.

"Alright. Formation check. Gideon, you’re on point. Amara, stay in the center, near me.

Selene, you take the left flank. Vance," he looked at Daniel, his expression a mixture of responsibility and concern, "you stick close to Amara and me.

Stay in the protected zone. Understood?"

Daniel just nodded obediently, playing the part of the rookie.

They stepped forward, one by one, and plunged into the swirling vortex.

The transition was surprisingly smooth, a brief, disorienting sensation of being pulled through compressed space, and then, solid ground.

They found themselves in... a barn.

A vast, shabby, and overwhelmingly dusty straw barn.

The air smelled of dry straw, with dust motes drifting through the dim light seeping in from cracks in the high timbered ceiling.

Piles of what looked like common, dried weeds lay scattered across the floor, and the walls were made of rough, unfinished wooden planks.

A profound, disappointed silence fell over the team.

"This... this is the legendary Silvershade Realm?"

Gideon finally spoke loudly, his voice resounding through the wide, unremarkable chamber.

"It’s... it’s a barn! A big, smelly barn! Where are the treasures? The divine medicines? The floating crystal palaces?"

Selene looked like she was on the verge of a full-blown magical tantrum.

"Are you telling me," she hissed, her voice dripping with venom as she glared at the memory of the old man, "that we risked our lives, signed a death waiver, and got stuck in a pact of mutual destruction... for a farmer’s shed?!"

She kicked a pile of the weeds, sending up a cloud of dust. "This is an insult!"

Amara looked around, her usually serene face etched with confusion.

"Perhaps... perhaps this is just the entry point? An entrance hall of sorts?" she offered hopefully, though she sounded unconvinced.

Nicklaus was silent, his sharp eyes scanning every corner of the barn, his hand resting on the hilt of his energy blade.

His strategic mind was clearly trying to process this bizarre, anticlimactic reality.

He was looking for traps, for hidden mechanisms, for anything that would explain this profound sense of disappointment.

Daniel, however, was experiencing something entirely different.

The moment they had arrived, his entire sensory apparatus had been overwhelmed by a tidal wave of information so intense it almost buckled his knees.

His A-grade [Treasure Hunting] skill, a gift from his familiar Kendi, lit up his mind’s eye like a supernova.

The entire barn, from floor to ceiling, was ablaze with a riot of shimmering, golden light.

Every single weed, every piece of straw, every dust mote was registering as a treasure of immense, almost unimaginable value.

His other familiar, Kendi the Treasure Aardvark, was going wild inside his storage ring, flooding their bond with a nonstop surge of pure joy and desire.

TREASURE! TREASURE! SHINY! SO MUCH SHINY! WANT!

Daniel knelt down, his expression calm, and picked up a single, dusty strand of the straw that Selene had kicked so disdainfully.

To the others, it looked like a worthless piece of dried grass. To Daniel’s [Treasure Hunting] skill, its information flowed clearly into his mind.

[Item: Strand of the Celestial Weaver’s Silk]

[Grade: A]

[Description: A single, incredibly durable thread spun by a dimension-hopping arachnid.

Possesses immense tensile strength and a natural affinity for spatial magic. A primary ingredient in crafting high-tier storage artifacts and stealth cloaks.]

He then looked at the weeds.

[Item: Leaf of the Sun-Grown Emerald Vine]

[Grade: A]

[Description: A rare medicinal herb that grows only in environments saturated with pure life and solar energy.

A key component in crafting S-grade vitality and regeneration potions.]

The entire barn wasn’t just a treasure trove. It was a perfectly categorized, unbelievably valuable, and deceptively shabby-looking storehouse of legendary materials.

He finally understood the old master’s hint.

Search without a purpose. The true treasures of this place weren’t hidden in some grand, obvious hall.

They were right here, all around them, disguised as the mundane. One had to have the wisdom to see beyond the surface, to look without the preconceived notion of what treasure should look like.

He stood up, a slow, almost pitying smile on his face as he looked at his frustrated, disappointed teammates.

They were the elite, the best of the best, yet they were completely blind to the reality of the plane they were standing in.

"Perhaps," Daniel said softly, his voice cutting through their grumbling, "you should all take a closer look at these... shabby weeds."

He held up the single, dusty leaf of the Sun-Grown Emerald Vine, its faint, A-grade aura now visible to his own eyes.

"Appearances," he added, his smile widening, "can be very, very deceiving."