CHAPTER 152: 152 - IMMORTAL QI CRYSTAL

Qingyi entered a large hall, his eyes studying the walls molded with golden dragons.

He stopped his steps, raising his head.

At the end of the hall, he saw a figure he knew well.

A man with beautiful but aged features, sitting on a throne that seemed to be made of pure jade.

It was Jinhai, the leader of the Ascending Dragon sect.

"Disciple Long Qingyi greets the sect leader!" Qingyi bowed respectfully, drawing a smile from Jinhai.

But that smile didn’t last long.

"Juechen told me about your achievements.

Defeating a demonic cultivator from the Iron Body realm while only being at the Golden Core realm is no small feat, even if it’s using an offensive artifact with your master’s Qi." Jinhai said, standing up.

"But he also told me about true demons. Tell me, how do you know about true demons? Did the demon cultivator say anything about them before he died?"

"Well... Yes, sect leader, it was my old master who taught me about true demons, inhuman beings who only inhabit the heavenly sky. The old woman mentioned something about summoning one of those." Qingyi replied, not having much choice but to lie.

"I see..." Jinhai scratched his chin thoughtfully.

The existence of true demons wasn’t something just any disciple should have known.

In fact, not even he should be aware of such things.

Even in the Nine Peaks Basin, such knowledge was very restricted. Even so, it wasn’t exactly forbidden knowledge, just something that wasn’t taught.

"Do you have anything else to report?" He asked, looking deeply into the handsome young man’s eyes.

Qingyi just shook his head. "No, sect master, that’s all I know."

"Ah..." Jinhai sighed heavily before returning to his throne.

He looked at the man who had brought Qingyi to the palace and after thinking for a moment, made his decision.

"Long Qingyi, as a core disciple, you have completed an extremely difficult and important mission, saving thousands of lives, including that of my direct disciple, Juechen." Jinhai declared.

"As a reward for your display of courage and talent, I will give you access to the sect’s vault. You may take a single item from there, any item."

Those words made the man behind Qingyi shudder.

His eyes widened as he took a step forward.

"My lord, please reconsider! There are too many priceless treasures, we can’t risk it-"

"I’ve already made up my mind, these treasures are worthless if they’re left to rot on a shelf for the rest of eternity." Jinhai interrupted, focusing his gaze on Qingyi again.

"This is Luo Haoran, my personal servant. He will guide you to the sect vault to choose your reward."

Qingyi turned around, looking at the man who had accompanied him into the palace.

"Greetings, Senior Luo Haoran." Qingyi bowed to the man, who just gritted his teeth.

He didn’t want to do that, but the sect leader’s words were orders.

"Come with me." Haoran spoke and together with Qingyi, they went further into the sect leader’s palace, descending for long minutes until they finally reached a black steel door.

"This is the sect’s vault. It’s protected by undetectable formations that are so powerful that even an expert of the Crystal Core realm could die if they tried to break through them by force.

Normally the sect leader and the head finance elder would be the only ones to have access to the vault, but thanks to my two hundred and fifty years of loyal work, the leader has allowed me to help him manage the sect’s wealth."

Haoran tapped on the vault door, his voice brimming with pride as he pushed his Qi towards it.

With a soft click, the steel door slowly opened, revealing the interior to Qingyi.

The handsome young man couldn’t help but gasp.

The vault was like any other warehouse room, but with one difference.

Its steel walls stood more than 50 meters high and stretched for hundreds of meters.

There were thousands of weapons, some reaching Epic grade and even one or two at Legendary grade, with shelves and shelves full of forging, alchemy and cultivation materials.

It really was a paradise, riches accumulated over thousands of years since the founding of the sect.

"The vault is full of detection formations. If you take more than one item, the punishment will be severe," Haoran warned.

"Thank you, senior." Qingyi nodded as he made his way through the aisles of shelves, his attentive eyes studying everything.

Honestly, he couldn’t help feeling a little indecisive.

Even if only 0.01% of the items were good options, this 0.01% still represented dozens of items to consider.

’Ruxue, you can see through my eyes, right?’ He called out in his mind.

’I can see everything you see,’ she replied.

"Can you see anything interesting?"

"Hmm..." Ruxue seemed to think for a moment before finally speaking. "Everything here is absolute garbage, just take anything."

’Ah... of course. Qingyi smiled bitterly.

What in this place could impress an entity that came from the heavenly sky?

Even though she had lived in the mortal sky for thousands of years, these had been spent alongside a Transcendence realm cultivator, and even the lowest level resources she had access to were infinitely superior to those here.

Qingyi continued walking through the vault, his interest slowly fading.

"This..." Qingyi suddenly stopped, his eyes focusing on an item.

It was just an ordinary white stone a little larger than his fist.

’System, can I see the information on this item?’

[Item: Exhausted immortal Qi crystal

Description: An ancient and long-exhausted Qi crystal can have its energy restored by inferior Qi crystals, serving as fuel for various applications and spiritual formations.

Grade: Epic]

"Ruxue, your mind world only needs one source of energy to be stable and support more people at the same time, right? Ordinary Qi crystals will work?"

"They could work... but the crystals in this place aren’t usually ready to work with the formations that keep my world of mind going, we’d need a higher-level crystal and-" Ruxue suddenly stopped talking.

"What did you see in that stone?" She asked, her sweet, mature voice full of suspicion.

"You’ll see." Qingyi laughed softly.

If that crystal worked as he imagined, it could solve many of his worries.