The box hurtled toward his face at an incredible speed.
Hong Renjie was stunned for a mont.
However, the suction force he had just unleashed was simply too powerful, causing the wooden box to fly with incredible velocity.
It was already right in front of him.
"Damn it!"
Hong Renjie's expression darkened. He raised his hand and unleashed a vicious beam of fist energy, blasting it toward the wooden box.
"BANG!"
The beam of fist energy landed squarely, violently shattering the wooden box.
The move was incredibly suave and effortless.
Hong Renjie himself was quite satisfied with his cool pose. He casually lifted his gaze toward the shattered box, but the mont he looked, the smug expression on his face froze solid.
Reflected in his eyes, a mass of pitch-black, sticky gunk burst from the shattered box, splattering everywhere with a series of wet splats.
"What the hell is this stuff?"
Hong Renjie's face drained of color.
His nose twitched. A nauseating stench assaulted him—it was a pile of foul, yellow filth!
"No..."
Hong Renjie roared in fury and horror.
But it was too late!
"SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!"
A huge pile of the stinking yellow filth rained down, covering him completely.
His eyes, nose, mouth, hair, shirt, and pants—his entire body was slathered in the thick, foul-slling yellow substance.
The dashingly handso and suave young man of a mont ago now looked like a worker who had just crawled out of a septic tank.
"Ho-ly..."
Hong Yu stared, completely dumbfounded.
Only now did he understand why Huhu had been acting so secretive, with that wicked little look on its face.
From that mont on, Hong Yu repeatedly warned himself in his heart: 'I can offend anyone, but I must *never* offend Huhu! When this Heaven-defying, scheming Little Beast starts its pranks, it can absolutely drive a person insane!'
"My god, Hong Renjie is completely and utterly disgraced!"
"It stinks so bad..."
Tie Shou and Ling Tian exchanged stunned glances.
Nearly everyone wore the sa expression: shock, speechlessness, and profound disgust. It was simply too foul!
The corner of Hong Long's eye twitched. He ventured tentatively, "Bro... Brother Jie..."
Hong Renjie shot him a look, said nothing, and silently turned to walk toward a dark corner.
He appeared calm as he walked.
It was as if he had completely weathered the shock.
But soon, from that dark corner, everyone saw blinding flashes of light, heard roaring like thunder, and felt the tremors of an aura being unleashed at full power.
And...
The sounds of heart-wrenching, violent retching.
This violent outburst lasted for a full half-hour before Hong Renjie finally returned to the group.
"..."
Hong Yu's eyes went wide as he desperately suppressed the urge to burst out laughing.
Hong Renjie had changed into a fresh set of clothes.
But what was truly jaw-dropping was Hong Renjie's new "style." He had actually burned off all his hair and eyebrows, leaving him with a big, round, shiny bald head.
His appearance was absolutely comical, but upon sensing the sinister aura radiating from him, like that of an Evil Ghost from the Nine Netherworld, everyone had to choke back their laughter.
Ding Yuanshan patted his chest, looking relieved. "Holy hell, thank god I wasn't the one who grabbed that box just now."
Aside from his relief, he was also puzzled. "But what was the deal with what was in that box? Could the Eight Desolates Old Demon have left it? No, that's not right. If he had, it would have been hundreds of years. It should have petrified long ago..."
But he couldn't figure it out no matter how he wracked his brain.
Coupled with Hong Renjie's unwillingness to linger, the group headed for the entrance to the second layer.
The challenge on the second layer was a maze.
Everyone chose an entrance to make their way through.
While traversing the maze, Hong Yu once again let out the Heaven-defying Little Beast Huhu.
The little fella seed to have gotten hooked on the fun from the first trial, dragging its atball-like body as it rampaged through the maze.
When everyone had exited the maze and arrived at the second treasure chamber, they made a sad discovery: the place was completely empty.
The only thing there was a solitary ancient to resting on a central stone platform. The group rely glanced at its description before recoiling and dismissing it as trash.
Written on the to were the words: Chrysanthemum Treasure Scripture, a Wondrous Technique for the Ages!
This was a dual cultivation technique. To practice it, two n had to cultivate with each other...
'Whoa, this thing is even more hardcore than the Sunflower Treasure Scripture!' Hong Yu glanced at it, secretly amazed.
Naturally, he had no intention of touching the Chrysanthemum Treasure Scripture!
The group passed through the Third Layer without any major incidents.
The Third Layer contained none other than a Spirit Field Herb Garden.
As everyone knew...
Spirit dicine was a trendous aid to a Martial Artist's cultivation. Even experts who had reached the Primordial Core Realm, or higher, could not do without the help of Spirit dicines and Spirit Pills.
But Heaven and Earth Spirit Essences were often found only by chance, not sought out.
Sotis, a cultivator might be lucky enough to find a precious Spirit dicine, only to be forced to leave it because it hadn't matured. In such cases, so powerful experts would uproot the entire Heaven and Earth Spirit Essence and try to cultivate it themselves.
A Spirit Field Herb Garden was precisely such a place for experts to cultivate their own Spirit dicines.
"Haha, it's a Spirit Field Herb Garden! The Eight Desolates Mansion has been sealed for centuries; the Heaven and Earth Spirit Essences inside must be worth a fortune!"
"Given the Eight Desolates Old Demon's penchant for plunder, there might even be thousand-year-old Spirit dicines here!"
"We've struck it rich! This ti we've really struck it rich!"
Everyone's eyes burned with fervor as they charged excitedly into the herb garden.
But...
When they entered the garden full of anticipation and saw the scene before them, their soaring spirits instantly plumted.
"H-How can this be?"
"Impossible, this doesn't make any sense..."
"Son of a bitch! Don't tell that old bastard, the Eight Desolates Old Demon, set this all up just to ss with us?"
Before them lay not the Spirit Field overflowing with Spirit Essences they had imagined, but a barren, pitted wasteland. There wasn't even a single weed.
"Look, there are still faint fluctuations of Spiritual Qi here," Ding Yuanshan suddenly said. "Clearly, there was a Spirit Field of considerable size here before."
Hong Renjie frowned. "Are you saying soone beat us to it?"
Ding Yuanshan nodded.
Hong Renjie's expression tensed, but then he shook his head. "Impossible. Aside from the maze on the second layer, we've all been moving together. No one has acted alone. Unless... there's a third party here!"
"Impossible," Ding Yuanshan shook his head, his tone firm. "I've been watching over the Eight Desolates Mansion from the mont it was unearthed until it opened. There's no way a third party could have slipped past to get in here."
"Regardless, from now on, we will all watch each other. If anyone is discovered making a move in secret, then don't bla us for being rciless!"
Hong Renjie and Ding Yuanshan's cold gazes swept over the crowd.
The atmosphere grew tense.
They had entered the Eight Desolates Mansion filled with hope, believing a great fortune awaited them, only to get nothing in return. The contrast was a heavy blow.
The group of twenty walked on, listless and dejected.
In comparison, Hong Yu, Ling Tian, and Tie Shou had obtained three wooden boxes and now possessed a fortune of several hundred million Gold Coins—an inco that was already the envy of the entire group.
Of course, after looking at Hong Renjie, those who had gained nothing couldn't help but have another thought: 'Actually, we're still the lucky ones!'
"This Eight Desolates Mansion is so strange," Tie Shou said with a frown. "Weren't there supposed to be Treasures on every level? How co there's nothing?"
Ling Tian nodded as well. "It is strange. Could soone have taken the Treasures ahead of us?"
"Heh, with so many of us moving together, how could anyone possibly get a step ahead?" Hong Yu said with a noncommittal smile.
In reality...
The bastard was secretly laughing his head off. 'Huhu is just too domineering! It moved the entire Spirit Field! Making a fortune in silence is truly the way to go!'
Seeing the gloomy faces of Hong Renjie and Ding Yuanshan only made Hong Yu feel even more thrilled.
The group conducted a thorough search of the Third Layer for a full two hours, but ca up empty-handed.
"It looks like the Third Layer has been completely cleared out. Let's go check the fourth layer," Hong Renjie suggested.
Ding Yuanshan nodded, his eyes turning cold. "This ti, however, everyone will be in groups of five under mutual supervision. At the slightest sign of trouble, we capture the person responsible imdiately!"
"Agreed!"
The group quickly split up.
Hong Yu, Ling Tian, and Tie Shou ford one team, along with Hong Long and Third Master, who were clearly assigned to monitor the three of them.
Hong Yu felt a little frustrated. 'Looks like I won't be able to let Huhu make a move on this fourth layer!'
"Congratulations on reaching the fourth trial! The rewards from the first three trials were pretty good, weren't they? Heh heh... The test for this fourth trial is simple. You just need to break the gate before you, forged from Celestial teoric Profound Iron, to enter. Hahaha, little ones, good luck!"
The voice of the Eight Desolates Old Demon echoed in everyone's minds.
"'Pretty good rewards?'"
Everyone's face twitched. In their minds, they cursed all eighteen generations of the Eight Desolates Old Demon's ancestors.
"CLANG!"
A massive, heavy Profound Iron Gate crashed down in front of the group.
The gate was over twenty ters high and ten ters wide, and it shimred with a deep light, like a field of stars. This was the gate forged from the incomparably hard Celestial teoric Profound Iron.
"Celestial teoric Profound Iron. It's impossible to break without the attack power of the Celestial Soul Realm. Master Ding, it looks like we'll have to join forces this ti," said Hong Renjie.
Ding Yuanshan replied, "Agreed!"
The others all fell back, waiting for the two to break through the Profound Iron Gate.
Bored, Hong Yu sat cross-legged on the ground. He closed his eyes, appearing to be ditating, but in reality, his consciousness had entered the Profound Celestial Tower.
Hong Yu, Little One, and Huhu were lying amidst a massive pile of treasures—Gold and Silver Mountains, Secret Cultivation Technique Manuals, Spirit dicines, and Spirit Pills—laughing gleefully as they took stock of their haul.
The three of them were grinning from ear to ear. Huhu had plundered nearly all the Treasures from the first through fourth layers of the Eight Desolates Mansion!
It was safe to say that nearly half of all the Treasures in the Eight Desolates Mansion had fallen into their hands. They had truly made a killing!
"Let's start with the haul from the First Layer!" Hong Yu said.
Little One and the Little Beast both nodded, their faces alight with greed.
"Tsk, tsk. The treasures from the First Layer alone are worth ten billion Gold Coins? Primordial Core Realm experts are way too rich!"
Hong Yu stared at the dazzling array of Treasures, utterly dumbfounded.
The First Layer had yielded massive wealth, while the second had provided a collection of Middle Level, High Level, and even Top Level Martial Skills.
This haul alone, if sold off, would be enough for Hong Yu to establish a great family on par with the Hong Family!
And this was just the haul from the first three layers. The fourth and Fifth Layers held the real prize!
Huhu sat perched atop a Spirit Field that was over three hundred square ters. The field was planted with all kinds of precious Spirit dicines, ranging from Tier One all the way to Tier Three.
The little fella casually plucked a Thousand-year-old Profound Ginseng, stuffed it in its mouth, and began to chew.
Little One rolled its eyes and cursed, "You little spendthrift! You're just going to gnaw on a Thousand-year-old Profound Ginseng like that?" As it scolded, the rascal took a Thousand-year-old Polygonum multiflorum for itself, stuffed it into its Big Smoking Pipe, and began puffing away, exhaling clouds of smoke...
"Could you two try to be a little more subtle? You're acting like a couple of nouveau riche bumpkins..."
Hong Yu pursed his lips, speechless. Just as he was about to say sothing, his expression suddenly changed, his eyes flashing with excitent...
"The gate to the fourth layer is open!"
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