Immortal Martial Emperor

Golden Key in hand, Hong Yu and his companion rushed toward the center of the island.

In the center of the island stood a massive residence, built entirely of gold. This Golden Palace must have been made with at least ten million tons of it!

Although gold wasn't excessively valuable in this world.

At most, it was the common currency of the mortal world. Still, ten million tons of gold was enough to make the hearts of countless experts race.

Young Master Yeban stared at the grand hall with a greedy glint in his eyes, a fiery passion burning within them as he started to drool.

He rubbed his hands together incessantly before taking a bite out of a door pillar, leaving a perfect set of teeth marks. His eyes shone. "Holy crap, it's actually pure gold? WAHAHA, if I could just haul this entire Golden Palace away, I'd be rich!"

"..."

Exasperated, Hong Yu could only ignore Young Master Yeban, who was currently calculating whether it was better to move the whole hall at once or to cut it into pieces first.

CLICK!

The door to the palace's treasury rumbled open.

Hong Yu looked back. "Hey, Yeban, are you coming in or not?"

"Huh? Wait for me!"

Young Master Yeban shot over like a slippery loach. As he walked toward the treasury, he was still calculating, 'Hmm, I should take the whole thing. It'll be worth more that way!'

Walking ahead, Hong Yu nearly stumbled. "..."

'Money-grubbers and gluttons truly are irrational creatures!'

The Cyan Celestial Flood Dragon's entire treasury was immense.

It was like a vast palace, dazzlingly brilliant, with carved dragons, painted phoenixes, and breathtaking decorations everywhere.

"Holy crap, treasure! It's all treasure!"

Young Master Yeban was drooling like a waterfall, his eyes shining with an intense, covetous light.

He was so excited he could barely contain himself!

"WAHAHA, mine, mine! This is all mine!"

Laughing wildly, Young Master Yeban pounced like a tiger toward a mountain-like pile of Gold Coins, gems, and more.

WHOOSH!

This Treasure Mountain was over twenty meters high and covered several hundred square meters. The value of the Gold Coins and treasures within was likely in the hundreds of billions, if not more!

"Hahaha, treasure, so much treasure!"

Young Master Yeban lay amidst the Gold and Silver Mountains, completely in his element. He scooped up a double handful of treasure, let it rain down over his head, and smiled blissfully as he felt the Gold Coins and gems cascade over his body.

"..."

Veins pulsed on Hong Yu's forehead. He was utterly exasperated.

Little Chenxi's eyes lit up. She stared intently at Young Master Yeban swimming through the piles of Gold Coins, looking like she wanted to join in.

Hong Yu quickly held Little Chenxi tight, gently pinching her delicate nose as he said in a righteous tone, "Chenxi, you must never be like him! We are people of taste and ambition. We can't let ourselves be bogged down by such vulgar things, understand? We must pursue the Martial Dao and the rare wonders of the world!"

"Eyah, eyah!"

Little Chenxi cooed as if she only half-understood.

Meanwhile, Young Master Yeban, who was blissfully immersed in the clinking of Gold Coins, took out a Storage Ring.

He had a strange quirk: he didn't like to absorb treasures directly with his Storage Ring.

He much preferred to manually place the Gold Coins into the Storage Ring handful by handful. Scooping up a fistful of glittering treasure, he shouted over to Hong Yu, "Hong Yu, you can't corrupt Little Chenxi like that! Money is a great thing! They say money isn't everything, but you can't do anything without it! Sigh…"

"Honestly, it's young masters like you I can't stand, always looking down on money. Don't you know that every penny counts?"

Young Master Yeban rambled on, "Let me tell you, these things might not seem valuable in the eyes of the powerful, but that's only because they have the strength to obtain anything money can buy. However, there are some things you can't get without money. For example, there's a place in the Xiahuang Ancient Kingdom called the Fragrance Tower. It's filled with beauties of the highest caliber, and even the strongest Martial Artist has to pay to get in!"

"WAHAHAHA! With all this treasure, all this money, I'm definitely going to the Fragrance Tower when I get to the Xiahuang Ancient Kingdom. Damn it, the top courtesan I saw last time was drop-dead gorgeous, but I didn't have enough money…"

As Young Master Yeban spoke, he started drooling again.

Hong Yu slapped a hand to his face. 'Damn it, how did I end up with such a character!'

Ignoring Young Master Yeban, Hong Yu carried Little Chenxi and headed deeper into the treasury.

A short while later, they came to a large, circular hall. There were no treasures to be seen.

The only things there were the Stone Gates lining the circular wall.

Each Stone Gate had characters inscribed on it in the Ancient Beast Rune language.

"Little One, give me a translation!" Hong Yu said.

Little One hesitated. "Well... Um..."

Hong Yu said bluntly, "I'll split whatever I find with you, fifty-fifty."

"Aiya, Hong Yu, why must you be so formal? What kind of relationship do we have? With a bond like ours, forged through life and death, how could we talk about money? It hurts our friendship, don't you think…"

Little One said, looking embarrassed.

Hong Yu said coldly, "One-third."

"Hey, don't be like that! I'll translate for you right now!"

Little One quickly put on a serious face. "There are thirty-six Stone Gates in total, and each one leads to a different type of treasure. Behind the first Stone Gate are Secret Cultivation Technique Manuals, behind the second is a Martial Skill Secret Realm, behind the third are special Secret Manuals…"

As Little One explained, Hong Yu began to understand.

At the end of its introduction, Little One sighed with some regret. "Unfortunately, that Cyan Celestial Flood Dragon stipulated that every expert who enters the treasury can only choose to open three Stone Gates."

"I see."

Hong Yu nodded in understanding, then rubbed his nose in thought.

'Secret Cultivation Technique Manuals... I already have the Primordial Gang Fighting Technique. That Cultivation Technique is enough to get me to a very high level, so I don't need another.'

'As for Artifact Refining and Alchemy materials...'

'Unless they are Fifth Grade or higher Divine Materials, they wouldn't even be as valuable as a Fourth Grade Secret Martial Arts Manual!'

After hesitating for a long moment, Hong Yu made his decision. "Then I'll choose these three!"

The three he chose were the Martial Arts Stone Gate, the Secret Technique Stone Gate, and the Miscellaneous Stone Gate!

"Eyah, eyah!"

Little Chenxi suddenly started struggling.

Hong Yu froze for a second. He looked down at Little Chenxi in his arms. The little one had her mouth wide open, her tiny, soft finger pointing to a Stone Gate in the farthest corner of the circular hall.

"Bedroom?"

Hong Yu was taken aback. "You want to choose this one?"

"Eyah, eyah!"

Little Chenxi's eyes shone as she nodded.

Hong Yu hesitated for a moment before saying, "Alright, I'll take you over to try. It would be best if you can open it yourself. If not, then I'll have to open it!"

The instant Little Chenxi's palm touched the Stone Gate...

A surge of ice-blue light pulsed from the gate, and then it rumbled open. Hong Yu was overjoyed. "Holy crap, Little Chenxi is qualified to open a Stone Gate too? Haha, doesn't that mean I can choose six of them now?"

But...

Hong Yu's joy was short-lived.

He discovered that while Little Chenxi was unaffected by the Stone Gate's Prohibition, he himself could not pass through it.

He couldn't help but smile wryly. 'It seems that once a Stone Gate is opened, only the one who opened it can enter!'

He looked down at Little Chenxi. "Chenxi, are you sure you want to go in by yourself?"

"Eyah, eyah!"

Little Chenxi nodded, her eyes shining, as if there was something inside the bedroom that was incredibly attractive to her.

Hong Yu was becoming more and more aware of how special Little Chenxi was.

Even though she was only a little over a month old, her intelligence and perception surpassed that of many adults.

He immediately set Little Chenxi down on the floor.

Little Chenxi giggled, crawling on all fours as she swayed from side to side on her way to the Stone Gate.

After she entered the Stone Gate, it closed behind her.

Hong Yu knew that worrying would be useless at this point. All he could do was wait for Little Chenxi to seek out her own fortuitous encounter.

He then walked to the Miscellaneous Stone Gate. It swung open, and Hong Yu went inside.

It was called "Miscellaneous," and it certainly lived up to the name.

The room was a dazzling repository of everything from Secret Cultivation Technique Manuals and Martial Technique Secret Scriptures to even some items from more sinister paths.

Unfortunately...

These Secret Manuals were all incomplete.

Hong Yu didn't look too closely. He found the Dragon Blood Grass that Little One had requested, gave it to the little creature, and then stored away all the other treasures.

He then left that Stone Gate and went to the Secret Technique Stone Gate.

Inside the Secret Technique Stone Gate were all sorts of manuals on Secret Techniques.

A quick glance revealed at least a thousand volumes. Hong Yu casually picked up a Secret Technique manual titled *Divine Demon Wings*.

This *Divine Demon Wings* was a special Body Technique Secret Method.

It required one to collect the wings of a Flying Wild Beast and refine them according to the method in the manual. In battle, one could sprout a pair of wings, increasing one's speed by a full ten times.

Furthermore, *Divine Demon Wings* included a fusion method.

This meant that by fusing more powerful wings, its abilities would also increase.

Hong Yu felt as if he had found a Supreme Treasure.

Although he had the profound Body Technique, Electric Flash, using it consumed a massive amount of Spiritual Power. He could only use it three times a day at most, a significant limitation.

If he could master *Divine Demon Wings*, it would be like adding wings to a tiger—literally!

He carefully put it away.

He would wait until he found the wings of a powerful Desolate Beast, then refine them into the Divine Demon Wings.

He then browsed through the other Secret Techniques and found quite a few for Spirit Cultivators. Hong Yu sorted and collected them, planning to give them to Young Master Yeban later.

Although they hadn't known each other long, Hong Yu quite admired Young Master Yeban's character!

Of course...

...barring the man's money-grubbing nature!

Finally, Hong Yu entered the Martial Arts Stone Gate. There were very few Secret Manuals inside, only about thirty to fifty of them.

This was easy to understand.

The Cyan Celestial Flood Dragon was so powerful that it had no need for many Martial Skills. A single one of its Innate Divine Techniques was enough to sweep away countless experts.

Hong Yu searched through them but found few that were suitable for him to cultivate.

However, a Secret Martial Arts Manual in the corner, engraved on cyan Dragon Scales, caught his eye. "*Cyan Celestial Transformation Dragon Technique*. Five layers in total. It is the ultimate method for strengthening the physical body and enhancing combat power. The First Layer increases combat power by two times, the Second Layer by three times..."

Hong Yu's eyes shone. 'What a powerful technique! This *Cyan Celestial Transformation Dragon Technique* must be the Cyan Celestial Flood Dragon's core Martial Skill.'

Hong Yu was just about to start trying to cultivate the *Cyan Celestial Transformation Dragon Technique*.

But just then...

A bloodcurdling scream echoed from a nearby Stone Gate...

"My dear lady, are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

[September is almost over. This past month, I was busy because school just started, so the updates weren't very consistent! Starting in October, Qiye will work hard to ensure a steady stream of updates. Please vote with your guaranteed monthly tickets!]