Chapter 1037: Discovering a Secret Passage.
The group followed without a doubt, while Violet\'s group was slightly confused. Dandan asked, confused. "Is there good food over there?"
Zhang Dalong spoke. "Dandan, Junior Sister Yasenia is a dragon. Didn\'t you read in your class that Dragons have a good sense of smell for treasures? Junior Sister has probably caught the scent of something valuable."
Dandan blinked twice. "Oh! That\'s awesome! Then, are all Dragons wealthy? Since you can smell treasures, you just need to take a walk around and find something valuable to sell and become rich!"
Yasenia smiled faintly. "I am more valuable, so it\'s not that easy."
Dandan tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
Cecile answered this time around, her tone cold and flat as usual. "She means that her own body, as a dragon, is more valuable. If a dragon goes to sell treasures, they must be careful, or the treasure to be sold will be them."
Dandan shrunk a little at Cecile\'s tone. "Um. I see. Thank you."
Kali smiled. "Don\'t be intimidated. She speaks like that with everyone other than Yasenia. That\'s her neutral tone."Cecile looked at Dandan and said. "That\'s right. I am not angry." Then, she smiled faintly, making her peerlessly beautiful face glow with attractiveness. Dandan coughed, feeling her cheeks blush slightly. "I see!"
The dragoness spoke after taking a right. "Over here… sniff, sniff~. In that house!"
Everyone looked where she was pointing at and saw a tall, tower-like structure. Violet tilted her head. "There? I have gone there in the past and found nothing."
Yasenia commented. "Well, let\'s see where my nose carries me~." She walked forward, her tail wagging gently in anticipation.
Everyone followed and entered through the doors one by one. Some Beast Human leaders needed to squeeze through the human-sized door, but everyone was able to enter. Thankfully, the ceiling was tall, around four meters tall, so they all fit inside without problems.
Violet expanded her spiritual sense and covered the entire tower. Everyone else did the same, trying to find what Yasenia was speaking about. However, no one noticed anything.
Since they couldn\'t see it, they turned to look at Yasenia and realized that she had moved toward the side of the room and was looking at the floor with a tilted head.
"Angel, love, can you come?"
Angel trotted over and asked with a sweet and loving tone. "What\'s wrong, Yasenia?"
The dragoness patted her head and pointed downward. "Can you see a formation here?"
Angel blinked and looked down. After squinting for a few seconds, she exclaimed. "Oh! There is one!"
Yasenia sat down and pointed at it. "Well, decipher it and open the secret passage."
Violet looked at the dragoness speechlessly. \'It was that easy!?\' She couldn\'t help but approach and look at the ground where Angel was working. Her spiritual sense observed the whole area, and eventually, she caught a minor detail. Following that small detail, she quickly noticed the formation in the area. "Oh! No wonder I didn\'t notice. You need to look at it for quite a long time and focus. A general sweep with Spiritual Sense won\'t detect this formation…"
Yasenia smiled. "If this place is uncovered, I am sure that many have been overlooked for the same reason as this one. The formations of this place have gone unused for so long that they are basically in stealth mode. Still, they are still able to cover whatever they are guarding."
Violet smiled. "That\'s great to know, to be honest. Just this piece of information is enough to make allowing all of you to enter worth it."
Yasenia tilted her head. "Hm?"
Violet laughed. "You need to pay for entrance. So, well, it was a bit expensive to allow all of you to enter with us. Nothing I can\'t afford, though."
Yasenia sighed. "Why not say it? I am not poor."
Violet rolled her eyes. "I can guess. But I imagine that if it is the first time, you don\'t have the currency we use here."
Yasenia hummed. "Well, I have treasures that I can sell."
"Where?" Violet smiled. "You need to go to the [Ruin World City] to sell those items."
"Can\'t I sell them directly to you?" Yasenia asked, her eyebrow raised."
Violet hummed. "While possible, I can\'t bother haggling with you. I feel that I\'ll need to use a lot of brainpower not to get scammed by you. Moreover, as I said, it is not too expensive."
Yasenia laughed and looked at Angel\'s work. Violet\'s group saw Angel\'s swift but gentle movements, going through the formation with ease and without pause, and they couldn\'t help but be impressed. Her movements resembled that "flowing like water" principle to a masterful point.
Violet asked, impressed. "How many years have you been practicing formations? 1000 years?"
Angel blinked. "Huh? 1000? Not that many! I have been practicing for around… 50 years? Something around there!"
"Ha?" Violet made a stupid sound for the first time since they met. The senior looked at Angel\'s movements again, and her eyes widened. "You are not lying to me?"
Angel giggled. "Mirrory always says that lying is the bane of trustworthiness! I have never lied when it matters!"
"Mirrory? Is that your Formation Master?" Violet was curious since the person who could teach someone up to this level in just half a century must be a powerful master.
Mirrory materialized and smiled at Violet. "Hey. While I am not her Formation Master, I am something like her Master."
Violet\'s pupils shrunk when she saw Mirrory appear from nowhere. She quickly analyzed Mirrory, and the red-haired woman snorted. "Child, analyzing someone like that is quite rude."
Violet realized and stopped, sincerely cupping her fists in an apology. "I am sorry, Miss Mirrory."
Mirrory nodded. "The person who has taught her Formations is that woman over there."
Tatyana rolled her eyes. "Can\'t you keep a single secret? Being the Truth Mirror doesn\'t mean being the big-mouthed Mirror!"
Mirrory grinned. "It\'s not like you can\'t deal with her, no?"
Tatyana rolled her eyes a second time. "You really are annoying. Can\'t you stop messing around with me for a day?"
"No~." Mirrory laughed. "It has been quite a while since I had this much fun. It\'s your fault~."
Tatyana sighed, but internally, she was smiling faintly. She also liked these little rants she had with the powerful treasure. Angel exclaimed, interrupting their conversation. "I\'ve done it!"
Click~.
The sound of a mechanism falling into place was heard, and right after, the formation in the ground started lighting up. The glowing white lines quickly filled a square area three meters across. Then, the floor sank and started rolling back, revealing a staircase that went straight down.
Yasenia sniffed again and coughed right again. "Cough, cough! Is there someone dead down there? It smells awful."
The smell quickly spread around, making most people frown while some people even covered their noses. Tengliu commented. "Are you sure the treasure is down there, Yasenia? I would honestly prefer not going there if possible."
Cecile approached and blew wind into it, ventilating the area. "It\'s probably still air."
After a while of blowing air, the scent was somewhat relieved. However, there seemed to be a source of the foul scent. Yasenia\'s nose twitched, and she realized that the scent of the treasure and the source of the rotten smell were most likely from the same source.
Yasenia walked forward, but Selena slithered before her. "Let me lead just in case, Young Miss."
Yasenia looked at her and shook her head. "No need to." Yasenia turned toward Violet, Gu Chen, and Ayanduin and smiled. "We have very strong people here to lead the way~."
The three of them rolled their eyes simultaneously, but they all stepped forward and guided the group. The stairs were wide enough for three people to walk side by side. The group slowly walked down the stairs.
The circular stairs lasted for a little while, and they eventually reached a passway around five meters tall and six meters wide. Walking through it, they heard a few whispers. Tatyana blinked. "Oh? Natural Wraiths? I wonder how strong they are."
Coraline asked, curious. "Is it difficult for them to form?"
"They are like spirits, so it takes time for them to form. However, other than rich energy, they also need a lingering emotion in the area, a negative one, to form." Tatyana smiled. "The person who died here had enough resentment in them to form wraiths from his own corpse. That\'s a good sign."
Andrea tilted her head. "Good sign?"
"Of course! That means that they were powerful and probably rich! Yasenia\'s nose was not wrong after all~."
Many laughed wryly at the Death Empress\' words. Yasenia commented. "We need to go left and then cross that door over there."
Everyone was about to follow when a humanoid specter jumped from the wall at Yasenia, trying to claw her face while wailing miserably. Yasenia didn\'t need to move a single muscle before Ayanduin slapped the Wraith and made it explode. Ayanduin blinked, looking at his hand. "Oh? The Death Energy is powerful enough to affect my flesh slightly. Juniors, be careful. If those things touch you, you will probably be in trouble."
Hearing his words, nobody took it lightly. If the wraiths could affect the flesh of an Undying Monarch Body Realm Cultivator, then their effects on Mortal cultivators might be lethal.
Taking that into account, Gu Chen and Ayanduin flanked the ground while Violet walked to the front. Tatyana and Valeria silently moved to the back of their group.
Walking down the corridor, the wraiths that suddenly attacked them increased in number. From one to two to four, and by the time they were halfway, their numbers were in the thirties. Yasenia frowned. "At this pace, we might be attacked by thousands of them at the end of the corridor. Stop for a moment."
Knowing that she might have an idea, Violet asked. "What are you thinking?"
Yasenia asked. "Do you think that the numbers are relative to how many people are in the group or how far we make it?"
"If it was relative to our people, wouldn\'t we have been attacked by a hundred of them at first?"
Yasenia shook her head. "It doesn\'t necessarily need to be like that. Are you willing to take a risk and walk forward for a little while, Gu Chen, Ayanduin?"
"Oh?" Violet raised her eyebrow. "I can do it as well."
The dragoness smiled. "If I let you do it, you will ask for compensation. I\'d rather get whatever is here for myself~."
Violet clicked her tongue. "Greedy."
Yasenia smirked. "I am proud to be greedy! One of my best qualities!"