Imperial Treasure
Chapter 144 - 110: Pirated Smuggled Goods

Chapter 144: Chapter 110: Pirated Smuggled Goods

Flower Demon Yaofei and the others were unwilling to simply walk away. After narrowly escaping death to arrive here, they were supposed to just have a look around, take a few souvenirs and call it quits? (Even though each of these souvenirs was worth a fortune).

It looked like an internal battle was about to start again...

Sui Yi, however, was wondering what Ah Guna’s last sentence meant. Could there be someone who could stop the physically formidable Leng She and the others?

Could it be the Dharma King?

With a twist of her eye, Gong Jiu hooked her lips into a smile, "So, Ah Guna, what you’re saying is, we’re not allowed to take any of the treasures from the palace above?"

Ah Guna knew that among these people, Gong Jiu and Flower Demon Yaofei were the craftiest. Sui Yi was intelligent too but disdained to set traps for others, so he was quite wary.

"Yes, you are not allowed to enter any of the palaces here anymore. Otherwise... if the Dharma King appears, we’ll all die."

Although Ah Guna kept bringing up the Dharma King, Brother Ma and the others didn’t take it very seriously. They had already encountered all sorts of monsters before; what was there to fear from the Dharma King!

"Alright, we won’t take any treasures from the palaces above. But you also have to swear that you won’t interfere with our other actions in the future. However, if we run into Leng She and his gang, we are still allies in attack and defense... How about that?"

The tribespeople all thought that sounded reasonable and Ah Guna, after a moment’s thought, nodded in agreement.

Flower Demon Yaofei and the others felt suspicious, were they really going to leave just like that? Had Gong Jiu, with his thorough skinning strategy, lost his mind?

"Gong Jiu, has your aunt’s blood flowed back into your brain?" laughed Flower Demon Yaofei.

She toyed with her firearms but didn’t voice any opposition either.

It seemed that she too had no other way to stop Ah Guna and his group of stubborn believers.

"Fine, let’s swear by the authority of your revered deity," Gong Jiu and Ah Guna made a solemn oath to each other.

As soon as the oath was made, Ah Guna and his people left.

They were ready to pursue and kill Leng She and his men.

Previously, they had been caught off guard and suppressed by their opponents. But now, Ah Guna was confident that he would not end up in a passive position, being beaten as before.

Once the people left, Gong Jiu immediately exclaimed with joy in front of everyone, "Sui Yi, Sui Yi... where are you?"

Everyone turned their heads and saw Sui Yi sitting in a chair, polishing the Xiezhi Dagger.

She was too calm.

Calm enough to make one spit blood.

Gong Jiu was conflicted, but ultimately suppressed the urge to tease this woman. She approached and wrapped an arm around Sui Yi’s arm.

"Sui Yi... Sui Yi..."

Her posture and tone were like that of a groveling yes-man, yet also rather smug.

Sui Yi looked up at her, gently patted her head, and said indifferently, "Are you done? Can we go now?"

Her tone was affectionate.

"Uh, we’re not leaving this..." Gong Jiu was about to explain her clever strategy just now.

"Heading downstairs, right?" Sui Yi stood up, glancing at her, "Let’s go to the Underground Palace then. You should know the way."

It was an expression that said her intelligence was only good for such petty tricks.

Gong Jiu: "..."

Miss Sui Yi, you surely have the wisdom of the gods~~

Underground Palace!!! Upon hearing this, Brother Ma and the others caught on and then looked in the direction where Ah Guna and his men had left with gleaming smiles.

Flower Demon Yaofei glanced at the proud Gong Jiu with a frivolous expression on his face and then at Sui Yi, who had seemingly guessed the situation...

"You knew there was an Underground Palace down there all along?"

Sui Yi nodded, "I entered through a hidden water channel by the side of the Underground Palace before, but I don’t know about how to get into the Inner Palace from here. However, if you want to enter the Underground Palace through that water channel, be prepared to die."

She paused, then added, "Those strange undead came out of that water channel."

As soon as they heard the word ’undead,’ everyone present thought back to the terrible scene they had witnessed and shuddered in unison.

With a grin, Gong Jiu reassured, "Don’t worry, how could I possibly let you take such a risk? Have you forgotten I have the map..."

Then, she turned her back, reaching into her clothes... and since she was turned away, it was certain that the map was hidden in her bra.

Brother Ma and the others chuckled mischievously.

She fiddled around...

Miss Gong produced a map.

Flower Demon Yaofei and the others...o(╯□╰)o, were utterly embarrassed.

"Didn’t you say you had no map and it was all memorized in your head?"

"Ha, I tricked you!"

"... No wonder... I was thinking how your chest suddenly got a size bigger, Gong Jiu, don’t you find it unconformable?"

Flower Demon Yaofei gritted his teeth with anger. He should have searched her at the time, damn it, and let the fool fool them all!

Having successfully tricked everyone, including Sui Yi, Gong Jiu was quite proud. She didn’t care about Flower Demon Yaofei’s mockery, and with the map in hand, she glanced at it a few times before leading the group forward.

"All these palaces are so clean, their masters must be dead. Since they’re dead, the burial chambers of the Underground Palace must be filled with treasures... Brothers and sisters, follow me, I’ll lead you safely into the Underground Palace to get rich."

Falling behind with a somber face, Flower Demon Yaofei seemed to have a bucket of ink about to drip from his expression. Shen Di asked, "Boss, should we kill her for the map?"

"No need. With that woman’s intelligence, she won’t find the place even with the map in her hands—not to mention that we have Sui Yi, Brother Ma, and the others with us, we really couldn’t snatch it from them."

The one who had suffered the most now was naturally Flower Demon Yaofei, who was unwilling to confront Gong Jiu and the others head-on.

At the end of the day, her competition with Flower Demon Yaofei had gone on for so many years, and it had always been a certain kind of relationship.

"My relationship with her is like that of Shi Feixuan from Cihang Calming Studio and Wanwan from the Demon Sect. Each wants to surpass the other, but in the end, neither has the heart to kill the other."

Gong Jiu and Sui Yi up ahead also heard this statement.

Gong Jiu: "I am Shi Feixuan, and you are Wanwan?"

Sui Yi: "Judging from the IQ perspective, you don’t qualify as Shi Feixuan" Gong Jiu: "...."

"The entrance to the Underground Palace is in each hall, come this way." Gong Jiu led the group into the antechamber of the front hall, arriving at an empty room.

It seemed to be a quiet meditation chamber.

Sturdy stone walls surrounded them on six sides, top, bottom, and all around.

Strangely, the group seemed to still be able to smell the Fragrance of Brahman.

"This place is decades old, how could the Fragrance of Brahman still be here? It’s not even a completely enclosed space..."

"It must be because of these books, I’ve heard that in ancient times, children born into a Noble Clan or members of a Sect would always bathe and burn incense before reading..."

Rows of bookshelves were lined with numerous books, all of them looked antique.

At least tens of thousands, each one worth a fortune, no doubt..

Flower Demon and the others were itching to touch them, yet they didn’t dare to act rashly, for who knew what dangerous mechanisms this strange place harbored..

Gong Jiu, on the other hand, was nonchalant as she walked to a bookshelf, slapped a book down, and grinned with a smirk, "There’s a secret room in this place that leads to the Underground Palace, though the mechanism is among these books."

"These books... you mean to say, we have to inspect all of them here?" Flower Demon said with a taut face.

"Yeah!" Gong Jiu laughed innocently.

"...."

Tens of thousands of books, until when do they have to check?

Is every person supposed to examine hundreds of books?

"If it were just extracting a few hundred books it would be okay... Ninth Miss, surely you don’t mean for us to go through these hundreds of books and then find the words to open the Underground Pathway?" Brother Ma asked awkwardly.

Gong Jiu tilted her head... "Well, I’m not quite sure about that."

Most people were losing their nerve, seriously considering packing up and heading home.

That, Miss Gong, your treasure map...

Shen Di: "A bootleg, perhaps?"

Brother Ma: "A knockoff."

Flower Demon: "A bootleg knockoff."

Despite their bellyaching, the group still began to separate and inspect the books. After all, with so many people, if luck favored them a bit, perhaps they’d find something?

As Sui Yi made her way among the bookshelves, her fingers brushed the edges of the books. She paused, peering through the gap in the shelves, and saw Feng Sha on the opposite side pulling out a book...

Whoosh!

A side hole opened from one wall.

Arrows shot out from the opening of the side hole!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Feng Sha narrowly dodged, but his arm got pricked by an arrow, eliciting a cry.

Everyone was shocked and rushed to this bookshelf gap, only to see the protruding book and Feng Sha leaning against the wall, battered.

Gong Jiu’s face turned green.

"Damn it! This place..."

Was simply a killing field.

Tens of thousands of them, who knew how many more mechanisms there were!

"Isn’t there any other clue?" Flower Demon picked up an iron-colored short arrow from the ground, "Feng Sha is strong, and he couldn’t fully dodge, so if someone else... only a few of us could survive."

As Flower Demon spoke, she suddenly noticed Sui Yi on the opposite side... seemed to be pulling out a book.

"Don’t pull!"

"Sui Yi!"

No sooner had they called out when a book was already in Sui Yi’s hands.

Quietly, without any disturbance.

Gong Jiu’s legs went soft, and she didn’t blame Sui Yi, only feeling that this place was really bizarre and dangerous...

"I think, we better..."

She was considering retreat, as the strange anomalies of this place clearly went beyond their ability to cope.

Besides, there was no way forward,

Just as she was saying this,

Clang...

A square button slot opened up on the opposite side of the bookshelf on the empty ground, with a mechanism button inside.

Everyone was stunned, then all turned to look at Sui Yi holding the book.

That expression was as if...

Sui Yi looked at the book in her hand, fell silent for a while, seemed to ponder for a moment, then finally stuffed the book back in place and said faintly, "Moral character, I guess."

Gong Jiu and Flower Demon suddenly found that all the mysteries here couldn’t compare to the magic that was Sui Yi.

"Finding it is a good thing... let me have a look," Gong Jiu opened the map, scrutinized the symbols on it, and noticed the mechanism button was aligned with four directions, each corresponding to a different symbol. Even if someone found the right spot but didn’t know the symbol, they would surely end up in another set of dangerous mechanism arrays.

"This place is truly eerily terrifying, I wonder what kind of person designed this Divine Temple..." Flower Demon stepped forward, glanced at the map, "Dragon head, eagle wings, lion body, tiger claws... The map marks are..."

"Eagle wings, so strange, it should be dragon head, shouldn’t it?" Gong Jiu mumbled, then pressed her hand on the mechanism button. (To be continued. If you like this work, please go to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommended votes and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)