Chapter 157: Bronze Gates

When Shang Xia finally cleared his mind, he discovered that he was leaning against a pair of scarlet colored doors!

When he raised his head, he could see the giant tablet hanging over his head that said ‘Zhu Manor’!

“Don’t tell me this is actually the entrance to the Zhu Manor… Why did I appear here?” Shang Xia looked all around him and other than the giant gates behind him, there were willow trees growing all around. They stretched as far as his eyes could see.

There was no doubt about it now. He was definitely standing in front of the Zhu Manor. From what he could see, he was also deep within the Willow Forest.

“I wonder if Teacher Ma and the others managed to escape unharmed… Well, whatever., I don’t think they will be in trouble anyway with their strength. Luckily, the eight of them didn’t get transported here with me…”

“Wait a second… This seems weird. Why am I the only one transported every time the Coral Forest moves?” Shang Xia found it a little weird.

According to Ma Xiaofeng and the others, the transportation would bring them to another place in the Coral Forest and those nearby would be transported close to each other! However, Shang Xia was transported thrice in total! If the first time was a coincidence and there was no way to test anything out, the second and third time seemed a little strange. Especially the last time when the eight of them were right next to him! Now that he appeared in a foreign place, he was the only one left!

“Looks like this place is targeting me specifically…” Shang Xia sighed in his heart. He was a mere Martial Extremity Realm cultivator, and even though he was an outstanding cultivator, he was nothing but an ant before the Martial Extremity Realm experts who had entered the Coral Forest!

Why the hell was it targeting him?!

Shang Xia couldn’t figure out why he seemed to be marked by the Coral Forest, but his thoughts quickly started to run wild. Was there some sort of secret on him? Was he carrying some sort of object that caused the Coral Forest to be drawn to him?

Wait a second…

Shang Xia reached for the Vermillion Plaque in his sleeves and stared at it intently.

As the thought flashed through his mind, a formless force started to pull the Vermillion Plaque out of his hands.

Grabbing it tightly, he found himself getting pulled towards the door behind him.

When the plaque touched the gate, ripples started appearing on the originally sturdy door.

With his expression changing subtly, Shang Xia eventually decided to go with the flow. Holding the Vermillion Plaque securely in one hand, he pushed the doors with his other. However, the structure felt ice-cold when he laid his hands on it, and it refused to budge.

Retreating slightly, Shang Xia raised his head to stare into the skies above the manor. It shone a hazy gray, and everything seemed illusory.

Sighing softly, a resolute expression returned to Shang Xia’s face. He turned around and slashed the Vermillion Plaque against the door, like what he did to the protection screen in the tunnel when he first entered the Coral Forest.

A small entrance barely enough for a single person to fit through appeared before him.

Shang Xia didn’t hesitate. He stepped through the entrance and the gap closed instantly. The scarlet colored gate returned to its original appearance.

“Undead corpse?” Shang Xia raised an eyebrow when he arrived in the courtyard behind the doors. There were pretty flowers lining the courtyard, but Shang Xia’s attention was drawn to the corpses that were scattered all about.

From their withered features, Shang Xia quickly discovered that they weren’t living beings. There was something similar about all of them. A tiny hole could be seen between their eyebrows. The blood that leaked out from their wound had long since dried up.

“Looks like someone came before me and killed them all!” Shang Xia frowned. “Could it be Liu Jitang?”

Shang Xia looked at the wounds on the corpses and shook his head. “If a Martial Extermination Realm expert like Liu Jitang came, he wouldn’t bother with the undead corpses. He could crush them all with his extermination origin. There would be no need to kill them one by one by stabbing their glabella… Hah… he probably won’t even care about them!”

“If this wasn’t done by Liu Jitang, who could it be? Is there anyone else who has the ability to enter the Zhu Family Manor?” Shang Xia looked at the Vermillion Plaque in his hand and a guess appeared in his mind.

Turning to look at his surroundings again, he scrutinized every single detail in the courtyard. There should be a ton of restrictions around. He wouldn’t dare to move about recklessly now that he entered the Zhu Family Manor!

Moreover, someone should have entered before him. He couldn’t discard the possibility that it was Liu Jitang and his party, but it was also possible that other experts were present! If he activated a restriction and alarmed them, he would be in deep trouble.

Well, everything boiled down to a single fact. Shang Xia was a mere cultivator at the Martial Extremity Realm!

“Damn it! I just need to obtain more Tempering Meridian Powder… Once I comprehend my martial intent, I can get ready to advance to the Martial Intent Realm!” Shang Xia cursed inwardly.

Ever since entering the battlefield between two worlds, it wasn’t the first time he felt so helpless. He needed to grow stronger as quickly as possible!

His title as the leader of the outer division, genius talent who managed to enter the Martial Extremity Realm in a short span of a year was nothing! In the face of absolute strength, nothing else mattered! He needed to grow stronger, and fast!

“Luckily someone came in before me… Looks like there shouldn’t be any danger if I follow their trail…” Shang Xia whispered to himself as he headed deeper into the manor. It didn’t take long before he ran into another undead corpse lying at the side. Half of its body was burnt beyond recognition.

“From their clothes, they should be ordinary members of the Zhu Family… Even after turning into undead corpses, they won’t be too strong…” Shang Xia sighed while moving deeper into the manor. Passing another courtyard and several rooms, he leaped over a bed of flowers before arriving before an unassuming wooden loft.

The distance he traveled easily crossed the three mile mark. Even though Shang Xia was extremely tempted to enter the rooms earlier to check out their contents, he managed to control himself.

The Zhu Family Manor was massive, and he wouldn’t be able to explore it all by himself! There was no way he could retrieve all their treasures alone too!

Shang Xia was extremely clear headed. No matter how big the benefits were, he had to be alive to enjoy them!

“There’s something different about this place… Someone already entered!” Shang Xia looked at the loft and noticed two undead corpses crumpled before it. Their clothes were slightly different from those worn by those at the entrance of the Zhu Family Manor.

“This was the path he took to enter the manor, and his target seems to be the loft… He should be really familiar with the layout of the Zhu Manor… Can it really be him? However, that person was barely older than him. The Zhu Family should have already been destroyed a long time before he was born. How could he be so familiar with the layout of the Zhu Manor?”

Carefully approaching the loft, Shang Xia tried to open the doors to it but to no avail.

With his earlier experience when he entered the Zhu Family Manor, he used the Vermillion Plaque to create an opening before squirreling his way in.

A dense wave of heaven and earth qi crashed against him when he entered. Caught unprepared, Shang Xia sneezed once.

Luckily, his dantian was larger than the average Martial Extermination Realm cultivator. As his Yin Yang Diagram started to spin, it quickly suppressed the discomfort he felt.

Only then did Shang Xia get the luxury of looking around him. He noticed that he wasn’t surrounded by furniture like he should. Instead, he had entered some sort of tunnel. The loft was a massive disguise!

“The density of heaven and earth qi here has already surpassed the density of heaven and earth qi in the core region of the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Spiritual World. If Senior Sister Sun comes here, she should be able to break through to the Martial Intent Realm in a short amount of time!” Shang Xia muttered in his heart. However, he didn’t allow his thoughts to wander for long. He was curious about the place he was in, but he raised his guards nonetheless.

If the person who came in before him really was Zhu Ying, Shang Xia felt that he might have laid some restrictions along the way after he entered. After all, the person before him seemed really familiar with the area already.

Luckily for him, the path before him looked extremely clean. There wasn’t any sort of restriction or traps set up. It was as though the person who entered before him was sure that no one would follow him.

Staring at the little plaque in his hand, Shang Xia wondered if that was the basis of the person’s confidence.

All of a sudden, Shang Xia noticed that there were some signs that a battle happened up ahead. When he approached cautiously, he discovered that there was an undead corpse lying on the ground.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The corpse was different from those he had seen previously in the Zhu Family Manor. The clothes worn by the corpse made Shang Xia recall the rank three undead corpse he met in the essence qi stone mine.

Clearly, not many people knew about the tunnel they were in. Shang Xia felt that not many people had the qualifications to enter anyway.

Instinctively, Shang Xia wanted to search the corpse. However, he realized that someone had done it before him.

All of a sudden, he heard voices coming from up ahead.

Walking forward slowly, he saw a trace of light illuminating the tunnel, and he quickly restrained his presence.

He slowly approached, and the vague voices finally became slightly audible.

“... Soon… I can’t suppress it anymore… Hahaha… All of them will die!”

“... Crazy freak!”

“Crazy? … You whore…”

“... Hooligan… Won’t let you off… Retribution…”

There’s actually two of them…

Shang Xia thought as he moved a little faster. He quickly arrived at the end of the tunnel.

The voices finally became clear, and he recognized both of them instantly.

“Mu Qingyu, do you know where we are right now?” The person who spoke seemed extremely deranged. Of course, that didn’t mean that Shang Xia couldn’t recognize his voice. He was the defeated Zhu Ying!

Shang Xia wasn’t surprised by Zhu Ying’s appearance. After all, he expected as much after he entered the Zhu Family Manor.

However, the presence of Mu Qingyu shocked him.

“These two acted out such a convincing show of breaking off the engagement in the institution… Hah… That freak Zhu Ying even wanted to kill me because of it. Why are they together now?”

Shang Xia became really curious. After locking on to the source of the voice, Shang Xia ensured that he wouldn’t be seen before poking his head out of the hole to look at them.

He discovered that he was currently in a stone chamber as three undead corpses lay around him.

He saw Mu Qingyu’s body slumped in the corner. Even though she seemed to have no control over her body, her mind was clear. Staring at the person before her, she snapped angrily, “I don’t care where we are right now! You better remove the restrictions around me! I’ll pretend nothing happened if you let me go right now!”

A pale faced, skinny young man could be seen not too far away from her. Roaring with laughter, he mocked, “Mu Qingyu, do you think that it’s possible for me to let you go?”

Even though such a heated conversation was taking place before him, Shang Xia had no interest in it! His attention was drawn to the walls of the stone chamber.

There seemed to be a realistic scene playing out on the walls, and Shang Xia noticed the great bronze gates that had palm and fist prints on it.

Two elders were seen standing before the gates, and they were pushing with all their might to stop the gates from opening.

Shang Xia immediately recognized Liu Jitang among them.

Between them was tiny speck, and it looked like a mountain that had been shrunk down hundreds of times.

.

When Zhu Ying’s maniacal cries rang through the room, the image on the walls changed. The bronze gates trembled slightly, and the two experts forcing it shut seemed to be overpowered for a second.

They grunted in unison as their extermination origin emerged. It slammed heavily into the bronze gates, forcing it closed.

At that instant, a strange fluctuation emerged from the crack that was revealed earlier. It smashed straight into the tiny mountain between the two cultivators.

As the tiny mountain trembled. The earth under the two cultivators quaked violently.

At the same time, a dull ringing entered Shang Xia’s ears as the space around him started to shake.

Shang Xia couldn’t be more familiar with what was going on. He had been transported thrice before, and that was a sign the Coral Forest was about to shift again!

However, nothing of the sort happened this time to Shang Xia. After the trembling stopped, he discovered that he was still in the same place.

Something in his mind clicked. He realized that the shifting of the Coral Forest was caused by whatever was behind those bronze gates!