Chapter 226 – Hunting for Treasures

Translator: Coca5156

Editor: Drea

The man’s luck was already considered pretty good as he extended his hand past the Restrictive Shield and did not trigger any attack even after inserting his entire arm in. The Restrictive Shield remained completely still.

This undoubtedly was a huge encouragement to the man as he lifted one leg and carefully brought it closer to the edge of the Restrictive Shield.

Just as his leg landed on the ground and he was about to move half his body across, the calmness was suddenly disrupted. A faint blue arc flashed where his leg was.

The woman that was watching him intently immediately shouted, “Husband, be careful!”

Following her voice, an even bigger blue arc engulfed the man completely. Before he entered the side palace, the man had prepared himself by placing a layer of spiritual energy around his entire body. Yet, he could not help but twitch and his whole body was thrown out of the palace. A loud explosion could be heard along with the man’s miserable cries of pain.

Even after the man landed on the floor, the remaining electric arc continued to shock him. When the sound of electric shocks stopped, there was not a single piece of flesh on the man that was unharmed. The smell of burnt flesh wafted into the air. It was a reminder to everyone that coveted the treasure that the Restrictive Shield was not just for show.

For a moment, the only sound that filled the air was the woman’s cries and the man’s heavy breaths.

Observing the effect and threat of the Restrictive Shield, Rong Yuan felt that it was a bit problematic as he frowned.

It seemed like the North Qiu Kingdom had spent quite a bit of effort putting the restrictions back up to make it seem like no one had been here before. In order to attract more people, they had put in a lot of effort and money as seen by the spiritual items on the way.

It was certainly shocking that they had managed to set up such a large amount of spiritual treasures overnight.

“Rong Yuan, should we try?” Ding Wei asked Rong Yuan after assessing the power of the Restrictive Shield.

Even though the Restrictive Shield was intimidating, it was manmade after all. With both of their combined powers, along with the help of others, they might be able to break through the barrier.

“Okay, let’s give it a try,” Rong Yuan agreed.

It was not in his personality to simply walk by a treasure without trying to get it. Additionally, Ding Wei’s response told Rong Yuan that both Ding Wei and Ding Rou were in the dark with regard to the North Qiu Royal Family’s plans!

A mocking look flash across his face. The Dayin Kingdom had thought that they would be able to rise to power by clinging onto the North Qiu Kingdom. They did not know that North Qiu Kingdom was not planning to share any power with them. From the opening of this Secret Territory, it was obvious that the North Qiu Kingdom was also plotting against the Dayin Kingdom. If they could make the average cultivation of all Martial Artists in Tianyuan Continent fall by one rank, it would significantly help them in their quest to conquer and control the entire continent.

In this way, Rong Yuan understood why the North Qiu Kingdom was willing to spend so much on the treasures. It was all bait for a big fish.

A pity that their plans had already been exposed by their own people. They were destined to lose everything they had invested in this trial.

There were quite a few people surrounding the palace. As they heard that Rong Yuan was about to work with Ding Wei to break through the Restrictive Shield, they looked at the group of people following them and knew that their cultivation levels must be high. Someone enquired, “Do you want to work together to break the Restrictive Shield? The faster we recover the treasures inside, the fewer people there will be around here.”

Ding Wei frowned and was about to reject but Rong Yuan cut in, “That’s a good idea, then we will trouble all of you to help us break through the Restrictive Shield.”

Ding Wei expressed his dissatisfaction at Rong Yuan’s decision and using the Secretive Voiceover technique, he asked Rong Yuan, “Why did you agree to it? Their cultivation levels are all so low, will they be of any help to us?”

Rong Yuan looked at him blandly and replied, “Although their individual cultivation levels are low, there are a lot of them. How sure are you of being able to hold back this whole group of people after you break through the Restrictive Shield?”

The Restrictive Shield was not like a door where it could be closed after opening. Once it was broken, it would completely disappear unless someone had the skills to mend it. Looking at the current situation, there would be no time to mend it.

They had about thirty people in their group, but there were over two hundred people surrounding the side palace. It was not possible to keep everyone out. Since they were going to have to split the rewards anyway, it made more sense to pretend to be the good person and invite everyone along. They could buy them over and save their energy.

Rong Yuan’s reply left him speechless and Ding Wei turned away, not bothering to reply. The look that he gave everyone was however not friendly.

Rong Yuan chuckled at Ding Wei’s expression.

Although Ding Wei was talented in cultivation, he needed a lot more work if he wanted to be the leader of a country. High-ranking Martial Artists were the support pillars of a country, but the majority of Martial Artists were below the rank of a Martial Teacher.

It was not a good idea to look down on the majority of the people.

Before they even started to work together to break the Restrictive Shield, there were already people whispering to each other as they saw the look on Ding Wei’s face.

“Since everyone is agreeable, then let’s break the Restrictive Shield together. Brother, don’t give such a sour face. Are you still thinking about the treasure earlier? Even if you missed one, aren’t there a lot more here?” Ding Rou laughed suddenly.

Her confident and beautiful smile easily bought over many people’s hearts. As they listened to what she said, they started to believe that Ding Wei’s dark look was related to the treasure he had not gotten earlier and it was not because of them. The unhappiness they had with Ding Wei lowered.

In terms of interacting with people, Ding Rou was definitely a lot better than Ding Wei. One sentence from her and the unhappiness everyone had with Ding Wei had dissipated.

If Ding Rou was not around to keep him in check, Ding Wei would have a difficult time securing his position as the Crown Prince of the Dayin Kingdom.

Although Ding Wei looked down on low-ranking Martial Artists, he still had a brain and caught onto what his sister was trying to do. He followed along, “Sister, you are right. I am too stubborn. There are so many treasures here, I should be more optimistic.”

With the siblings synchronising each other, they changed the impression the crowd had of them. However, there were still some that saw this sight and cut in, “We didn’t come across any treasures on the way here. What did you miss? Should we go back and find it?”

The one who said this was Nie Sang. He had been sniggering the entire time but now, his gentle eyebrows were curved and he seemed about seventy percent serious as he asked. It made people wonder if he was pretending to be dumb and did not know that Ding Rou had said that only to help Ding Wei out.

Once he said this, the people around the siblings gave them suspicious looks.

“That’s right. Why didn’t you tell us when you saw a treasure? We would have stopped to help you,” Gu Lingzhi added. She looked at the two of them worriedly.

Yan Liang, Wei Hanzi and Tianfeng Jin asked similar questions, causing the two siblings to turn pale. They wanted nothing more than to tear these groups of people apart. They knew what was going on but had purposely put them in a tight spot.

They maintained their calm look and forced a laugh, “It’s alright, we’ve already passed it long ago. I believe that someone must have already taken the treasure, we should just move forward.”

This time, not many people believed Ding Rou. Everyone here was sophisticated and would not easily be tricked. The looks that they gave her were no longer as friendly, causing Ding Rou to grind her teeth. She had to swallow her anger and wait for the right moment to teach this bunch a lesson.

“Good, let’s start.”

Under Rong Yuan’s orders, the people around them put aside their prejudice and got to work.

Rong Yuan was the first to strike at the Restrictive Shield. A gold spiritual energy ray striked towards the side palace. It then hit the Restrictive Shield and was engulfed in a light arc.

Seeing this, Gu Lingzhi immediately threw down the Protective Jade Amulet that she had ready, in between Rong Yuan and the Restrictive Shield, preventing Rong Yuan from getting hurt by lightning strikes from the barrier. Yuan Zheng then threw out his own attack helping to share the strike back from the barrier.

Ding Rou did not lag behind as she came over. Compared to Gu Lingzhi’s immediate reaction of protecting Rong Yuan, she chose to face the enemy with Rong Yuan and shot a Fire Snake Arrow back at the Restrictive Shield.

Everyone’s attacks landed near Rong Yuan’s attack. The originally terrifying-looking lightning seemed to spark a few times on Rong Yuan’s sword before extinguishing.

“This could work! Let’s work harder, the treasure is waiting for us!”

Seeing this, everyone became excited.

The fact that they could extinguish the counter strike by the Restrictive Shield meant that their attacks were more than the Restrictive Shield could bear. Breaking through it would not be a problem.

Alas, under everyone’s continuous attack, the Restrictive Shield dissolved with a ‘plop’ sound.

Cheers rose up from the crowd as they fought to enter the side palace, but none of them touched the Earth-Level Spiritual Weapon.

One reason was that they were no match for Rong Yuan and Ding Wei. The second important reason was if not for them, this group of people would not have worked together. Without someone to lead them, no one would have started the combined attack.

When Rong Yuan entered the side palace, he did not stop at all as he rushed towards the Earth-Level Spiritual Weapon and kept it. He then said to Ding Wei who was close behind, “Time is of the essence, I will keep this weapon first. Let’s talk after we look for more treasures.”

Without caring how ugly Ding Wei’s face had become, Rong Yuan went past him to look for Gu Lingzhi. He grabbed Gu Lingzhi’s hand and instructed, “Xiao Rou, there are a lot of people here. Let your brother protect you. I will go with Lingzhi to see if there are any treasures around. Let’s meet back at the main door later.”

He then grabbed Gu Lingzhi and left abruptly, leaving behind Ding Rou who did not have time to reject him along with Ding Wei who was looking extremely sour.