Chapter 843: Buried Treasure
"Can't you show some leniency?" Zhong Nan asked with a frown, his expression grim.
"What are you thinking? Leniency?" The Sixth Elder's face darkened as he retorted, "Such a great opportunity, and you want to reject it once and hope for another? Dream on!"
"Uh, alright." Zhong Nan nodded awkwardly.
After all, opportunities must be seized.
Fortunately, even though his prized disciple no longer had a chance, his South Gate still did.
However, neither of them noticed the graceful figure standing outside the door, who had overheard their entire conversation.
She was Zhong Nan's female disciple, Guo Ruozhi.
When she heard that she had missed her chance, her mind was struck as if by lightning. She stumbled a couple of steps back, her face pale as a ghost.
She recalled the day Su Yuer had mentioned this matter in the tavern, replaying it over and over in her mind...
The Supreme Golden Bone!
She had missed out on such a monumental opportunity.
The thought filled her with regret, to the point where her intestines felt twisted. She could already imagine that if another female disciple were to obtain such an opportunity, her own modest talents would plummet from the pedestal. She would no longer be the sect's top senior sister, no longer the center of attention.
The resources the sect had been pouring into her would shift elsewhere, and she would be relegated to the second tier.
She could hardly accept this outcome.
But who could have known that it truly was such an enormous opportunity?
"Alright, select a few female disciples with good bone structure, obedient and gentle, and send them to the Cloud Calamity Sect," the Sixth Elder said, glancing casually at the door before turning back to Zhong Nan. "Of course, whether they succeed or not is up to fate. This time, I'm just giving your South Gate this chance."
"Thank you, thank you, old friend, for remembering our South Gate." Zhong Nan grinned from ear to ear. Although it was a pity about his female disciple, compared to the rise of the entire South Gate, what did it matter?
"Alright, I’ll head off to rest now." The Sixth Elder picked up his tea cup, took a satisfied sip, and then solemnly reminded Zhong Nan, "Remember, I’m upright and incorruptible, filled with righteousness!"
Zhong Nan twitched his mouth and nodded. "Understood. You’re upright and incorruptible, filled with righteousness."
"Mm!" The Sixth Elder stood up, hands clasped behind his back, and left with a smile.
At the same time as the conversation between the Sixth Elder and Zhong Nan was taking place, Centipede and the Spirit King were leisurely making their way back to Shadow Island.
Not long after, the two of them stepped into the black mist.
"Hmm, they actually entered the black mist. Impressive." One of the black-clad men watching them remarked, somewhat surprised.
"Well, they are at the Dao Mirror level, so they must have some means to navigate the mist," the other man replied impassively. "Besides, all they did was enter it. No need to be too surprised. Just follow them."
"Right." The first man nodded and followed them into the black mist.
"Be careful. We mustn’t be caught off guard and discovered." Once inside the black mist, the difficulty of their tracking mission increased significantly.
After all, even for them, perception within the mist was limited.
And to maintain a tracking distance without being detected while also fending off the mist’s corrosive effects required considerable skill. Thus, the two became much more cautious.
Meanwhile, Night Breeze and the Spirit King seemed completely unaware. As they strolled leisurely, they chatted casually.
"Night Breeze, do you think those two idiots are still tailing us, skulking around in the sky and fighting shadows as if they think we don’t know they’re there?" The Spirit King couldn’t help but comment as they walked.
"Just idiots. Why bother with them?" Night Breeze, the Centipede, didn’t even glance up, maintaining his carefree demeanor.
"True enough." The Spirit King stopped worrying about it.
Soon, the two arrived at the teleportation portal.
However, no one was guarding the portal at the moment.
Yi Feng had decided that since the area outside was so desolate, there was no need to station anyone there—it would just be a waste of manpower. So, he had sent everyone back to Shadow Island to work on other tasks.
Thus, the teleportation portal was empty.
But even though no one was present, the mysterious power of the portal remained.
Despite the pervasive black mist, the area around the portal was completely unaffected by it. It remained as pure and clean as the outside world, even blooming with flowers and plants.
From within the black mist, this area looked like a bright lamp in the middle of a pitch-black space.
Night Breeze and the Spirit King stepped into the portal and teleported directly to Shadow Island.
"Where’d they go?" The two black-clad men tracking them from a distance were stunned. They no longer cared about staying hidden and quickly sped up to catch up.
But instead of finding Night Breeze and the Spirit King, they came across the portal’s area, completely untouched by the black mist.
The two men were dumbfounded.
They stared wide-eyed at the scene before them.
"Holy heavens, what am I seeing?"
"In the midst of this endless black mist, there’s actually a place like this!"
The two forgot all about Night Breeze and the Spirit King and hurried over to this bright, untouched area.
"Look, there’s grass!"
"There’s even a flower!"
"Whoa, this place is completely unaffected by the black mist. What’s going on here?"
They gazed around, trying to figure out the reason for this phenomenon, but they couldn’t find any clues. The only thing they could see was this isolated patch of land, shining brightly in the darkness.
"This is too important. We must report this back to the sect immediately," one of the black-clad men said. "A place completely unaffected by the black mist? This is unheard of! I suspect that beneath this land lies some kind of immense treasure or something extraordinary."
"And its value is beyond anything we can imagine..."