Chapter 14: The Water Mansion

Ji Ning felt time and space shift, somewhat like when he had jumped into the Six Paths of Reincarnation back then. In an instant, everything calmed down.

"Here..." Ji Ning quickly looked around. He was in a tall corridor, a hundred zhang wide and a hundred zhang high. When he turned his head to look behind, he was greatly startled. Behind him was the exit of the corridor, and beyond the exit was vast, endless water. Yet the water could not invade the corridor at all, as if an invisible barrier blocked it.

"What's going on?" Ji Ning cautiously walked over, produced an arrow, and thrust it outward.

Chi!

The arrow touched the invisible obstruction and could not penetrate at all.

"I don't believe this." Ji Ning retreated ten steps, then took out the 'Jiayong' great bow, let out a low grunt, and faint red light flowed over his body. His divine demonic power fully erupted, pulling the bow nearly to full circle, and he shot an arrow directly. The arrow streaked like flowing light and struck the invisible barrier.

The arrow shattered into powder and fell to the ground.

"This—" Ji Ning frowned and carefully observed the corridor again.

"Just the corridor alone is a hundred zhang wide and high." Ji Ning looked through the invisible barrier at the endless water outside. "This building must be astonishingly large, at least several li in length and width. And it's built at the bottom of the water..."

"At the bottom of Yishe Lake?" Ji Ning shook his head.

Yishe Lake was only a hundred li in circumference. It would be difficult to accommodate such a large building; the Ji clan would likely have discovered it long ago.

"The shift in time and space earlier felt like a spatial passage." Ji Ning thought to himself. "I'm afraid I've entered another space."

Having read many books, he knew many things.

Books recorded that over endless years, some great Immortals or great divine demons could open up small spaces. They could even create a world within a grain of sand! Some immortal mansions or divine demon ruins were also located in small spaces or small worlds, normally impossible to find. When opportunity came, one might enter by accident.

But these caves left by great beings were also fraught with danger. After all, how could immortals and divine demons not leave some defensive measures? Most who entered such ruins died; escaping with one's life was considered good luck. As for obtaining treasures and rising like in legends—Ji Ning didn't dare think about it!

"No greed! Strive to keep my life and escape." Ji Ning observed carefully.

The unknown represented opportunity.

But it also represented great danger!

"This water mansion, I'll call it Yishe Water Mansion for now." Ji Ning casually named it. Since he couldn't leave the corridor for now, he would advance.

...

The corridor was wide and tall, the ground seeming cast as one piece. Ji Ning tried every means but couldn't leave a mark on the ground or walls.

After walking for a while,

Turning a corner, Ji Ning's pupils contracted. In the distance, on the corridor floor, lay many white bone skeletons. Some skeletons were almost completely decayed into ash. Strangely, there were very few weapons and treasures on the ground. Only beside the most intact skeleton on the far left were armor, weapons, and other treasures.

"Where are the treasures of the other skeletons?" Ji Ning wondered. "Even if they had no treasures, they should have had some divine weapons. Why is there not a single one?"

"Swoosh!"

With a thought, Ji Ning's divine sense swept up the skeleton with armor and weapons, pulling it to his side.

Bang.

As soon as it landed, the skeleton shook and shattered.

"It seems it died long ago." Ji Ning glanced at the armor and weapons, picked them up, and infused his innate true essence into them to refine them. He found that because the previous owner had died so long ago, the two treasures had no trace of magic power inside. Ji Ning easily refined them.

"I can refine them, so they must be low-grade treasures." Ji Ning thought. "It seems the deceased was only at the Xiantian level."

Then Ji Ning carefully examined the skeleton and soon noticed a ring on its finger. He picked up the ring and quickly refined it. As expected, this ring was the deceased's storage treasure. When he probed it, he was greatly surprised. The storage space was not large, even smaller than Tiemu Zhan's.

But...

"So many treasures." Ji Ning was astonished. Inside the storage treasure floated many treasures, each with an extraordinary aura. There were weapons, formations, armor, and even other storage treasures.

"Why would one person carry so many treasures?" Ji Ning looked at the many skeletons in the distance, none of which had treasures beside them. "I'm afraid he gathered all the treasures of those before him."

Ji Ning quickly refined them.

Upon refining, he found that there were 112 storage treasures, 136 weapon treasures, 31 armor treasures, and 16 other special treasures like formations. There were also many talismans, but unfortunately, due to the long time, the magic power within them had dissipated. Only about a dozen talismans were still usable.

"I can refine them all, so they're all low-grade treasures." Ji Ning muttered. "The previous owners of these treasures were all Xiantian beings. That means the generations that came to this corridor before were all Xiantian beings."

Ji Ning chose a storage treasure with an internal space of nearly a hundred zhang, a storage belt he wrapped around his waist. On the surface, it looked like a sturdy, plain belt. He also selected a good piece of armor and refined it to fit on his skin.

The armor treasure was far better than the Jinchen Robe. The Jinchen Robe was thus retired and put away by Ji Ning.

In truth, Ji Ning wasn't too excited about these treasures. After all, as the next lord of the Ji clan's Western Mansion, obtaining armor treasures was easy for him.

"But the quantity is considerable. All together, they might be worth one graded treasure." Ji Ning stopped thinking about it. The previous fellow had also obtained many treasures but still died here. Getting out alive was what mattered.

Ji Ning held two Beiming swords and advanced cautiously. There was no other way to go but forward!

In terms of power, the Beiming swords were not inferior to these ungraded treasures and didn't consume innate true essence, so Ji Ning preferred to use them.

...

Ji Ning advanced step by step, very carefully.

When he reached the area with the skeletons, he was even more cautious. Suddenly...

Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!

Golden beans suddenly appeared out of nowhere, many of them falling around, hitting the ground with crisp sounds. Then these golden beans quickly melted into golden liquid, and each drop of golden liquid quickly condensed into a golden-armored heavenly soldier holding a weapon.

Shining with golden light, many burly heavenly soldiers and generals stood around.

"Sprinkle beans to form soldiers?" Ji Ning was startled, and he also sensed that these golden-armored heavenly soldiers all had auras not weak, all at the Xiantian level. "And there are eighty-one of them?"

"How dare you trespass in this cave? Die!" The eighty-one golden-armored soldiers shouted in unison, then charged directly.

Ji Ning held two Beiming swords. Now he understood clearly: the previous skeletons were probably killed by these eighty-one golden-armored soldiers. Ji Ning didn't hesitate and immediately executed the Windwing Evasion Technique. With a swoosh, he stepped diagonally on the corridor wall, like a roc spreading its wings, leaping over the eighty-one golden-armored soldiers to rush forward.

"Formation, rise!" The eighty-one golden-armored soldiers shouted in unison.

Immediately, misty fog rose at both ends of the corridor. When Ji Ning rushed to the fog, he stabbed with his sword but couldn't penetrate it at all.

"You can't escape." The eighty-one golden-armored soldiers charged again.

"A trapping formation?"

Ji Ning glanced at the misty fog at both ends. "It seems I can't leave without killing these eighty-one golden-armored soldiers. Those before me all died, but I'm not as fragile as them."

Swoosh!

Ji Ning used the Windwing Evasion Technique to quickly step on the wall and circle behind the golden-armored soldiers, then directly attacked one of them.

"Clang, clang, clang!" Three strikes in an instant.

Pu!

Ji Ning's sword pierced through the head of that golden-armored soldier, but the soldier still thrust his spear.

"What!" Ji Ning was startled and quickly retreated.

"Even for a Xiantian being with a divine demon body, a sword through the head is almost certainly fatal. Why doesn't this golden-armored soldier die?" Ji Ning grew anxious. From the brief exchange, he found that the golden-armored soldier's spear technique was only at the 'entering subtlety' level, but its strength was not inferior to Ji Ning's.

The most deadly thing was that piercing the head did nothing.

"Kill!" Ji Ning's sword through the soldier's head seemed to enrage the other golden-armored soldiers. They all roared and frenziedly surrounded him.

Ji Ning used his footwork to move among the encirclement, facing at most three opponents at a time. With his two Beiming swords, he pierced the chests and heads of the golden-armored soldiers several times, but they remained unharmed.

"Water-Fire Lotus!" Ji Ning grew desperate.

Hua hua hua~~~

Around Ji Ning appeared three huge water lotus leaves and three huge fire lotus leaves, covering the surroundings. The two layers of lotus leaves slowly rotated in opposite directions. Six golden-armored soldiers caught under the water-fire lotus leaves were crushed into liquid by the leaves' pressure.

The golden liquid quickly flowed out of the water-fire lotus leaves' range and recondensed into six golden-armored soldiers.

"How can this be?" Ji Ning couldn't believe it. Even after being turned into liquid, they could still recondense?

"It's not that the Xiantian beings who died here before were too weak, but that these eighty-one golden-armored soldiers are truly immortal." Ji Ning didn't know how to deal with them. Even grinding them into pieces only made them turn into liquid and reform.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

Having six of them crushed seemed to anger the golden-armored soldiers even more.

"Formation!" The eighty-one golden-armored soldiers shouted in unison. They swiftly moved and completely surrounded Ji Ning.

The golden-armored soldiers formed two circles: an inner circle of twenty-seven and an outer circle of fifty-four, all holding spears and glaring at Ji Ning.