If he could truly win the beauty's heart, Wang Yuhan would not only have a lovely companion from now on—he might even leverage that connection to enter the Qiantian Sect. A double benefit. How could he not be enthusiastic about that?
But after meeting her several times, both openly and subtly expressing his admiration, Shen Shitao had shown not the slightest interest in him. Over time, Wang Yuhan had more or less given up, with no intention of pestering Shen Shitao any further and simply making her unhappy.
However, during a recent chat with his junior brother Shen Fanlei, he had inadvertently heard something absolutely staggering.
Shen Shitao currently possessed a fortune of a million Sacred Crystals, and in her possession were several Void-grade artifacts of mid-to-high quality!
These riches appeared to have been obtained from the Burning Sand Wasteland. According to Shen Fanlei, his elder sister had been quite lucky—she had discovered a Sacred Crystal vein there and harvested a massive quantity of Sacred Crystals. After returning to the sect, she had turned over most of her haul, but had kept a portion for herself. On top of that, the Qiantian Sect elders had awarded her numerous artifacts and pills.
Those powerful Void-grade mid-to-high artifacts were precisely gifts from the Qiantian Sect's upper echelon!
Shen Fanlei was guileless by nature—the kind of person who was open and carefree from birth. He and Wang Yuhan were on good terms, so when he spoke of these things, he held nothing back. But while the speaker had no particular intent, the listener's mind was working overtime. Wang Yuhan, who had all but given up on Shen Shitao, found his heart stirred once again.
This trip, Shen Fanlei had come to use a hidden Lightning Pool in this area to cultivate his secret technique and break through his current bottleneck. Wang Yuhan had immediately suggested inviting Shen Shitao along. The process had gone smoothly enough—her own brother was trying to break through a bottleneck, and as his elder sister, Shen Shitao naturally felt duty-bound to provide some protection. She had set out from the Qiantian Sect with Lu Ying without delay, rendezvoused with the two of them at the outer edge of the Valley of Fallen Heroes, and then they had entered this place together.
Everything had gone smoothly at first, but two days ago they had inadvertently triggered a restriction and become trapped within it. That was when that kid Yang Kai had shown up. Seeing how attentive Shen Shitao was toward him, Wang Yuhan had naturally grown extremely wary—which was why he had been somewhat hostile.
But now it seemed his behavior had only made the beauty unhappy. Wang Yuhan stood in place with a dark expression, deliberating for a moment, then shook his head in resignation and followed after them, trailing the other three as they approached the Lightning Pool. All the while, he was secretly considering what method he could use to win Shen Shitao's heart.
And speaking of ideas—as soon as he started thinking about it, he really did come up with a good one. A smile immediately spread across his face, and he began looking for an opportunity to put his plan into action.
On the other side, after parting ways with Shen Shitao and the others, Yang Kai led Yang Yan back along the way they had come. After traveling several dozen li, the two of them stopped.
"So this is the Valley of Fallen Heroes?" After hearing Yang Kai describe the situation here, Yang Yan showed not the slightest alarm. Instead, a look of delight appeared on her face, as though she was eager to give it a try.
"What are you thinking?" Yang Kai frowned, suddenly struck by a vague sense of foreboding.
"Nothing really. It's just that if this really is the ruins of a major sect, it must be absolutely crawling with restrictions and formations!" Yang Yan's beautiful eyes shone with an unusual light, and in them Yang Kai caught a glint of excitement.
He lightly pressed a hand to his forehead. "Since we've already come this far, I have no intention of turning back. But where exactly do those two fragment maps point? If it's not somewhere deep inside, there's no need for us to go looking for trouble."
"Hehe, sorry to disappoint you—the direction they point really is deeper inside. Don't worry. There are no restrictions or formations in this world that I can't crack. We won't run into any trouble here. If the people who once lived here were still around, I couldn't make any guarantees, but the restrictions and formations that remain are all inert—no one is guiding them, so they can't unleash their full power. How could they possibly stump me?" She spoke with complete confidence.
Seeing this, Yang Kai's spirits lifted as well. He nodded. "Alright, if you say so, then we'll keep going deeper and see whether the place those fragment maps point to is really the Ancient Yang Sect's secret vault. If it is, then from now on you'll be able to purchase artifact-forging and formation materials to your heart's content."
Yang Yan's eyes lit up, and she urged Yang Kai to get moving without delay.
The two of them then made a wide detour to avoid awkwardly running into Shen Shitao and the others again, and continued pressing deeper inside.
Everything Shen Shitao had said was spot-on. In the outer regions, the restrictions and formations they encountered were not particularly powerful. The strongest among them were the same kind of formation that had trapped them earlier, and even those posed no obstacle to Yang Yan's methods. In the best case it took a dozen breaths, in the worst a single incense stick's worth of time—every restriction was dismantled clean.
With Yang Yan by his side, Yang Kai passed through unimpeded.
Five days later, the two seemed to have entered the inner circle of the Ancient Yang Sect. Crumbling walls and ruined structures were visible everywhere, as though this area had once been packed with countless buildings stretching in unbroken rows, all of which had later been destroyed.
The restrictions and formations they encountered here were far more formidable in both grade and power than anything before. Yang Yan approached the task of dismantling them with great caution.
These formations had existed for far too long, and some were extremely unstable. While breaking them, unexpected situations inevitably arose, and Yang Kai took on the role of protecting her safety during those moments.
Yang Kai had originally intended to search through the ruins for anything of value, but he quickly abandoned that unrealistic notion.
The Valley of Fallen Heroes had stood here for over two thousand years. In all that time, countless cultivators had made their way here one after another. Even though this was the interior, many powerful experts had set foot in this area. So if there had ever been anything worthwhile, it had certainly long since fallen into someone else's hands.
That day, as Yang Yan was gazing at a vast open space ahead of her, she suddenly raised both hands and sent a series of bizarre, artifact-like objects flying out. They flashed and vanished in an instant, disappearing into the void.