Chapter 103: The Secret Treasury of the Seven Mystical Gate

Fully activated Great Completion-level Minor Stillness Technique, Jiang Ding walked silently along the official road.

Climbing over the city wall is easy.

A city wall over ten kilometers long cannot be heavily guarded at every point; any martial artist who has reached Great Completion of True Qi possesses this ability, let alone a Primordial Realm cultivator.

To successfully besiege such a person, you need favorable timing and terrain, plus elite warriors of comparable strength to block them.

Such mobilization capacity usually appears only in the early days of a dynasty.

“Kill!”

“Liu Dao stole thousands of taels in gold notes from Jin Yu Pavilion!”

The chaos within the city had calmed, but the chaos outside—caused by the mass escape of martial artists—had only just begun.

Martial artists, as a group whose profession is violence, are inherently restless; any slight shift in circumstances brings chaos, slaughter, and looting.

None of them noticed the quiet green-clad youth slipping through the edge of the crowd, allowing him to depart.

The persona of the down-on-his-luck middle-aged swordsman had been exposed; without a new disguise purchased, he reverted to his true appearance.

“Hand over the treasure map of the Seven Mystical Gate!”

Jiang Ding halted his steps and turned toward the two swordsmen locked in mortal combat.

Is there truly a Seven Mystical Gate treasure cache, as Gong Caiyu claimed?

What kind of cursed cache could possibly survive a thousand years?

The two swordsmen, one tall and one short, were fighting with true fury; within mere strikes, each bore multiple wounds, the shorter one most severely injured—yet neither dared divert any internal energy to seal their wounds; all of it surged into their arms and blades, fighting for that single thread of life or death.

“Mountain Splitting Slash!”

“Wind Piercing!”

The battle became clear: the shorter swordsman, despite his heavier wounds, held the upper hand; his slender blade pierced the taller man’s heart first, distorting his strike, allowing the shorter man to sidestep just in time.

“Spit! You dog, daring to steal my treasure map!”

The shorter swordsman, Liu Dao, spat a bloody wad, searched the corpse briefly, then grinned and pulled out a stack of silver notes and a brittle, yellowed map, its edges worn and frayed, clearly ancient.

After a hurried glance and finding nothing else of value, he clutched his wounds and sprinted deep into the forest.

“Could I see this treasure map?”

A voice suddenly sounded beside him.

Liu Dao’s scalp prickled; without thinking, he surged all his internal energy and slashed toward the voice’s source—his blade’s aura was terrifying.

At that moment, he saw the speaker: a green-clad, sword-holding youth, delicate-faced, calm, his hand already resting on his sword hilt.

“Dream-Eating Sword Demon!”

Liu Dao gasped in terror; at this critical instant, he forcibly wrenched his blade aside, his entire posture collapsing, stumbling forward several steps.

“If the young master desires it, this humble one willingly offers the treasure map.”

He offered a servile smile, bowing respectfully.

As he spoke, he extended the brittle, yellowed map from his chest.

Jiang Ding, who had been about to strike back, frowned: “Have you ever seen me before?”

“This humble one has never seen you.”

Liu Dao bowed respectfully: “We wanderers of the martial world must memorize clearly: who is absolutely untouchable, who can be provoked sometimes but not others, and who can be provoked anytime.”

“The top ten on the Dragon-Feng List are absolutely untouchable.”

“Wanderers fleeing from Dongling Prefecture are selling your portrait for one tael of silver; they also have portraits of other Dragon-Feng List elites.”

He had originally suspected a disguise, but now he could not doubt it—too calm, too composed.

Jiang Ding could not help but develop ill will toward Tianji Tower.

Leaking private information is not something anyone enjoys; he wondered what leverage this organization held to have survived so well.

“Tell me about this Seven Mystical Gate treasure map. Seven Mystical Master has been dead over a thousand years—why do you believe the map exists and fight to the death over it?”

He asked.

“At first, we didn’t believe it.”

Liu Dao bowed respectfully: “The story began that the Seven Mystical Gate had endured for a thousand years, while countless former martial holy sites and imperial clans had perished—yet it remained intact, because it had secretly hidden a Seven Mystical Cave somewhere in Yue Province, where Yuejing lies.”

“Each time the Seven Mystical Gate was destroyed, a descendant would reactivate the cave, forge a True Qi Perfect cultivator, and rebuild the sect.”

“Few believed it, but the rumor spread wider and wider, until some actually believed.”

“This man was Zhou Weitu, a moderately famous swordsman from Yue Province, nicknamed ‘Meteor Lightning Sword.’ Guided by the map, he successfully entered the cave in a remote location in Yue Province; he had been at Great Completion of True Qi, and emerged at True Qi Perfect.”

“After emerging, he went mad searching for the map, and ever since, he had been selling artifacts nonstop—swords, blades, even the sect’s divine weapon—each one sold.”

The swordsman’s eyes burned with fervor.

“That blade was called the Dragon-Swallowing Blade; when infused with internal energy, its aura surged and roared like a dragon—it was acquired by Wei Xian, seventh on the Dragon-Feng List of the Golden Knife Sect, ‘Sea-Splitting Knife,’ in exchange for rare elixirs aiding advancement to the Primordial Realm.”

“Now the secret could no longer be contained; everyone in Yuejing was hunting for Zhou Weitu—but not a single hair of him was found.”

“Yet with so many going mad, the full story was eventually pieced together.”

He swallowed hard.

“There are countless copies of this map; whoever holds one and reaches the area marked on it will be guided by fate into the cave, and after passing the trial, will receive a reward—elixirs, divine weapons, or cultivation techniques, depending on merit. Several major factions in Yuejing have already succeeded.”

“But once a treasure is granted, regardless of one’s True Qi level, the recipient loses sanity, wanders out of the cave dazed, forgets the path, and can only re-enter by obtaining another map.”

“As more people entered, someone faintly glimpsed at the cave’s highest level a supreme elixir named Golden Stone Foundation Elixir, capable of granting instant mastery!”

Liu Dao’s voice rose in fervor, nearly losing reason and swinging his blade to kill the green-clad youth blocking his path.

“Golden Stone Foundation Elixir?”

Jiang Ding asked again.

“Yes.”

He forced himself to calm his burning greed, regaining reason: “Those who entered only saw the name; the elixir’s function was deduced by Yuejing’s foremost medical experts.”

“This map was originally meant for auction at Jin Yu Pavilion—scrolls and elixirs could be used as payment, but silver taels were not accepted; due to certain events… it ended up in your hands.”

Liu Dao stared longingly at the treasure map in his hand.

Unexpectedly, the green-clad youth before him showed no excitement; he took the map, glanced at it briefly, and returned it.

He froze, barely believing his eyes.

Clang!

“No good!”

Liu Dao’s face twisted in panic; he clutched the map tightly, rolled backward, and fled desperately into the deep forest.

No pursuit followed as expected.

Moments later, a freshly carved wooden book slammed deep into a massive tree ahead, blocking his path.

“Thirteen Hardening Great Protector—a cultivation technique barely passable, as payment for viewing the treasure map.”

A voice precisely reached his ears, then silence fell.

He waited a long time—still no one came after him.

Liu Dao gripped the treasure map tightly, utterly stunned; after a moment of daze, he fled swiftly from the place.