Cultivation Kill

The Stone Tablet Secret Realm has its own internal space.

The sky was filled with endless smoke, and as far as the eye could see, there were rows of palaces, and behind the palaces were dense forests.

The five people stood on an ancient stone path, with rows of houses with blue tiles on both sides, which seemed to be for people to rest. However, it was clear from the inside that the houses had been ransacked, and even the doors and windows on the outside had been removed.

"Do you have a map?" asked the young man in black, who was using the alias Zhao Ritian, to the man in the floral shirt.

"I've looked at the map. The artifact storage hall is on the left, and the spirit plant garden is on the right. Let's go check those out first," said the man in the floral shirt. "But don't get your hopes up too high. After all, this isn't the first time it's been opened. If there were any good items, they would have been looted long ago!"

"However, if it only opens once every thousand years, maybe some seeds from the last Spirit Plant Garden will have fallen and can be harvested again after a thousand years of growth," Shen Zige analyzed.

Everyone thought that Shen Zige's words made sense.

"How about we split into two teams?" the man in the floral shirt suggested. "One team of three will head to the Spirit Plant Garden; the other team of two will head to the Repository Hall."

“I think this is a good idea. It’s more efficient this way, since there probably won’t be too many treasures,” Yang Chongtian said. “I think the treasure hall might not even have a single treasure.”

“While this method is highly efficient, there’s a problem,” the young man in black said. “Do both teams trust each other? What if one team discovers a rare and precious treasure and decides to share it within their own team without telling anyone else? What then?”

“If there’s not even this much trust, then there’s no point in joining forces to search for treasure.” The man in the floral shirt said, “Zhen Batian and Mulan Tian will go to the Treasure Hall, and the three of us will go to the Spirit Plant Garden. There’s a high probability that there are medicinal herbs in the Spirit Plant Garden. Those of us with higher cultivation levels will pick them, and those of greater ability should do the hard work, while the two of us with lower cultivation levels will do the light work.”

"I think you're blinded by lust, trying to curry favor with Fellow Daoist Mulan Tian." The black-clad youth, Zhao Ritian, was known for his unrestrained speech.

No one paid attention to what the young man in black said; they simply did as the man in the floral shirt, Long Aotian, instructed.

Shen Zige and the female cultivator Mulan Tian walked to the left, while the other three walked to the right.

After walking for about five minutes,

A cold and quiet grand hall appeared before Shen Zige and his companion. The hall was surrounded by lush trees with artificial hills hidden within. The pillars in front of the hall were carved with dragons, and a plaque hung on the eaves. The plaque was inscribed with the words "Hall of Hidden Treasures" in ancient script and was decorated with beads, giving it an extraordinary presence.

"The pearl on the plaque is cracked, as if it has been chopped several times," Mulan Tian said. "People who came in before wanted to take down this pearl."

"Unfortunately, the pearl was glued to the stone plaque with some unknown strong adhesive. If they wanted to take it away by force, they would have to smash it." Shen Zige said, "The broken pieces are worthless, so they gave up."

"Let's go in and take a look," Mulan Tian said.

The two walked up the steps and entered the Hall of Repository Artifacts.

The hall is filled with interconnected corridors and pavilions. Inside the hall stands a statue over three meters tall, carved from stone. The statue depicts a male cultivator with a dignified expression, holding a long sword that points to the sky. Behind the hall is a winding corridor with numerous halls and rooms built outside. Behind the halls are rooms, presumably for storing weapons.

The two searched room by room, thoroughly, but found no treasure.

"As expected, this artifact storage hall has been ransacked many times over the past ten thousand years, leaving us with not even a single useful brick." Shen Zige looked at the empty room.

This was the last room, and both of them were a little disappointed.

"Mulan Tian, ​​what is your real name?" Shen Zige asked, breaking the awkward silence of not finding the treasure.

"My name is Hua Mulan, what's yours?"

“That’s not sincere. My real name is Shu Shu,” Shen Zige replied.

Both of them felt that the other was not sincere and could not be trusted.

"What did you do before you transmigrated?" the female cultivator Hua Mulan asked.

"A student," Shen Zige said. "And you?"

"I'm a live streamer and content creator," Hua Mulan said. "We won't find any treasure here, should we turn back?"

"Do all streamers date the top fan?" Shen Zige asked curiously.

“I’m a streamer in the gaming section, not the looks section,” Hua Mulan said. “Why are you asking so many questions? Don’t do anything inappropriate. I’m in the mid-stage of Spirit Condensation, and I haven’t used my full strength yet. You’re only at the first level of the early stage of Spirit Condensation.”

Shen Zige remained rational; he knew that some people liked to use provocation to change the subject.

He walked outside.

“Huh—the Treasure Hall was created more than 10,000 years ago, so it must have been looted more than ten times.” Shen Zige noticed something unusual about the Treasure Hall. “This statue doesn’t have a single scratch or damage.”

“What did you say? This statue is just a stone carving,” Hua Mulan said. “If you want stone, there are plenty in the mountains outside.”

"If you go into a room to search for treasure and come across a perfectly intact statue, even if it's carved from stone, wouldn't you want to smash it open to take a look?" Shen Zige asked rhetorically.

"Yes," Hua Mulan honestly admitted.

“This Sword Palace Secret Realm is probably where the Spirit Condensation disciples of the Heavenly Sword Palace live,” Shen Zige analyzed and deduced. “When we came in, the rooms on the left and right sides were the disciples’ living quarters. Judging from the number of rooms, there aren’t many disciples in the Heavenly Sword Palace.”

"So what?" Hua Mulan said, "All your deductions are useless, at least not for our treasure hunt. But the Heavenly Sword Palace, which dominates the endless star field, only has a few disciples. That's far too few!"

“Perhaps the Heavenly Sword Palace has more than one secret realm, or perhaps they are too strict in selecting disciples,” Shen Zige said. “Try disguising yourself as a disciple of the Heavenly Sword Palace and kowtow to this statue.”

"Why don't you knock on it yourself!" Hua Mulan felt insulted. "Get out of my way, I'll use magic to blow this statue up."

Before Shen Zige could stop her, Hua Mulan had already used her signature spell: Ice Explosion!

A cone-shaped ice spell appeared above. Hua Mulan used her divine sense to strike the tip of the cone, causing it to spin rapidly like a drill.

hum!

The ice cone was spinning too fast; it seemed it would disintegrate under centrifugal force at any moment.

"go with!"

Hua Mulan waved her right hand, and the spinning ice cone shot out like lightning, exploding directly on the statue's neck.

The enormous explosion reverberated throughout the entire artifact storage hall, and the shockwave caused Shen Zige to stagger back two steps.

The ice melted into mist, and gradually the mist dissipated.

"How can it be!"

The statue remained motionless; Hua Mulan's magic could not harm it, not even leaving a hole.

Hua Mulan couldn't believe it. This was a magical technique she had developed based on her gaming experience. The explosion of spiritual power and ice was something that even those in the late stage of the Spirit Condensation realm couldn't withstand!

"Fortunately, we didn't encounter any powerful counter-arrays." Shen Zige breathed a sigh of relief. "Now you know why the statue is intact, right?"

This statue is not something a cultivator in the Spirit Condensation stage could destroy!

As a former game streamer, Hua Mulan knew that going against the game rules was futile, so she walked up to the statue, suddenly knelt down, and kowtowed three times to the statue.

The statue remains unresponsive.

Hua Mulan's face turned ashen; she seemed to see Shen Zige mocking her.