Ascension Day

"No matter what, Yuan Qi must have a Mud Ball Secret Treasury inside him!"

Xu Ying's eyes shimmered with Divine Sense as he rushed toward Yuan Qi, shouting, "Xiaoqi, don't heal yourself yet, wait for me! What, you're all better? Not anymore!"

"PFFT!"

Xu Ying pointed from a distance. A jet of Sword Qi shot into Qinyan Cave and struck Yuan Qi, causing blood to stream from his body.

"You're injured again? So careless! Xiaoqi, channel your Divine Sense and feel for the Mysterious Energy. You'll be able to find your Mud Ball Secret Treasury!"

Yuan Qi finally managed to stop sobbing. He did as Xu Ying said, carefully sensing the Mysterious Energy flowing into his body. A short while later, the Big Snake cried out in shock, "I have a Mud Ball Secret Treasury in my body too! Does this mean..."

He froze like a statue, muttering, "Am I... actually a human? Did I undergo Transformation and become a Snake Demon?"

Xu Ying thought for a moment, finding it impossible to follow his logic. He ventured, "Yuan Qi, don't you think it's possible that the Demon Race might have Secret Treasuries as well?"

Yuan Qi caught on instantly. His expression turned solemn as he said, "You mean to say this is a conspiracy by the Human Race? In the pioneering age of our civilization, the Demon Race were the guides. We taught the Human Race how to open their Secret Treasuries and how to cultivate. But then, those humans used their schemes to overthrow our rule and cast our civilization into obscurity. They erased our history, sealed us away, and proclaimed that only humans possess Secret Treasuries! Ying, you must be talking about this tragic history of my people, aren't you?"

Xu Ying thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm sure there's a hidden reason why the Demon Race knows nothing of Secret Treasuries, but it's definitely not the one you just described. Xiaoqi, your family—three generations of you—have lived in Qinyan Cave for over three hundred years. Have you ever wondered where the Mysterious Energy that heals your wounds comes from?"

Yuan Qi did not know.

Xu Ying smiled. "I'll take you to meet the senior who resides in the stone chamber. He's the source of the Mysterious Energy. Even the ancestor of the Zhou Family learned the secrets of the Mud Ball Secret Treasury from him."

He led Yuan Qi back to the Mud Pill Palace within Qinyan Cave, walked up to the Stone Wall, and opened it.

Yuan Qi was baffled. He had lived in Qinyan Cave for one hundred and twenty years but had never known a stone chamber existed here.

"Finding this place is actually quite simple. You just have to trace the Mysterious Energy back to its source," Xu Ying said. "That senior's skeleton should be right here... Huh? Where did the skeleton go?"

Xu Ying's eyes widened as he searched all over the stone chamber. The last time he was here, he had clearly seen the skeleton sitting in place, having passed away in meditation. He never expected that upon his return, it would have vanished without a trace!

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as he quickly considered two possibilities. 'Either the Zhou Family's ancestor has been here, or... that skeleton just walked off on its own!'

Yuan Qi chuckled. "Ying, this is simple. The Mysterious Energy in Qinyan Cave is still here, which means the skeleton must still be in the cave somewhere. We just need to trace the Mysterious Energy backward, and we're sure to find him."

He looked at his own wound, which had already healed over. Then he glanced at Xu Ying's thigh, entertaining the thought of returning the favor. But realizing he was no match for Xu Ying in a fight, he gritted his teeth and tore his freshly healed wound back open.

Xu Ying had been about to strike him again, but seeing Yuan Qi tear his own wound open filled him with admiration. "Xiaoqi, why put yourself through that? I could have helped you," he said.

"You're too reckless. I feel safer doing it myself."

Yuan Qi immediately channeled his Divine Sense and began tracing the Mysterious Energy back to its source. Da Zhong floated beside him, its chimes stabilizing his Divine Sense and lending him support.

After a moment, Yuan Qi said, "Huh? I'm back again. How strange! I thought I had traveled through Infinite Space-Time to some Exotic World, but I just went in circles and ended up right back where I started!"

Xu Ying grew tense. He listened as Yuan Qi continued, "The source leads back into the water. I'm following it... The water is so deep, so cold. I'm still descending... still descending... there's no light around me anymore... It's too deep, still going down... Wait, I've hit the bottom! I think I touched something. It's very smooth and huge, with serrated edges... like a giant shell..."

Both Xu Ying and Da Zhong were taken aback. What Yuan Qi was touching with his Divine Sense was clearly not the skeleton they had seen in the stone chamber.

'Something huge, like a shell... what could it be?'

Just as Xu Ying thought of this, Yuan Qi's voice came again, "This thing is bigger than a table, about twenty to thirty feet wide, and its serrated edges are razor-sharp... Wait, there's another one underneath it, partially overlapping. It's also huge and smooth. Huh, and there's another one beside it..."

Xu Ying frowned slightly, wondering what on earth it could be. Suddenly, his gaze fell upon Yuan Qi.

He stared at Yuan Qi's scales. Yuan Qi was over a hundred feet long, and each of his scales was the size of a bowl. They were layered one on top of the other, covering his entire body, except for the dragon-like horns on his head.

'The things Yuan Qi is touching... they're just like scales... They *are* scales!'

A chill shot down Xu Ying's spine. He yelled, "Lord Zhong, pull Yuan Qi's Divine Sense back, now! There's a behemoth hiding at the bottom of Qinyan Cave!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Da Zhong let out a chime. The sound rippled down to the bottom of the cave in an instant, catching up to Yuan Qi's Divine Sense and pulling it back.

The moment its chime touched Yuan Qi's Divine Sense, it also made contact with something else. Da Zhong immediately used the echo to "see" the object's outline.

It was a mass of huge, orderly scales. Their edges were serrated and incredibly sharp. Each scale was twenty-six or twenty-seven feet wide, but at a certain point, the scales abruptly grew smaller.