"There's no need for us to concern ourselves with that. Besides, even if they've made it inside, whether they can actually carry off the Solar True Essence with their level of cultivation is anyone's guess. Why waste time thinking about it?" The female corpse soldier let out a cold laugh.
"Quite right." The male corpse soldier chuckled darkly. "The Solar True Essence isn't something you just walk away with. Those two might take a devastating loss and perish right here without us lifting a finger. All we need to do is enjoy the show."
With that thought, both corpse soldiers' spirits lifted. After concealing themselves, they quietly slipped to the side and waited for the fun to begin.
Meanwhile, inside the cavern, Yang Kai stared at the scene before him and nearly burst out laughing.
The cavern was stocked with Holy Crystals and all manner of rare minerals!
The Holy Crystals were all of superior grade, heaped into several small mountains, each over a dozen zhang tall. A sweep of his senses revealed that each pile contained no fewer than three to four million crystals.
In other words, tens of millions of Holy Crystals were stored here!
Moments ago, Yang Kai had been praying that this expedition might resolve Dragon Lair Mountain's current predicament. Now that wish had been granted with absurd ease.
He exchanged a glance with Yang Yan, and both saw the sheer delight reflected in each other's eyes.
Neither moved to collect the mountain-sized heaps of Holy Crystals. Instead, both were drawn to a jade platform. It was snow-white and radiated waves of bone-piercing cold, shrouding the entire secret vault in an almost unbearable chill. The platform was clearly no ordinary object.
Upon it sat four Space Rings and a peculiar mineral encased in a shimmering layer of energy.
They approached the platform together and examined it closely. Yang Yan let out a stifled gasp: "It's actually Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade!"
"Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade!" Yang Kai's pupils contracted. "You're certain?"
"This is unquestionably Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade. I wouldn't mistake it." She spoke with absolute confidence, and Yang Kai trusted her discernment completely. For a moment, his eyes held both wonder and shock.
Ice jade was already exceedingly rare, and Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade was virtually priceless. When crafted into a personal artifact and carried on one's person, it could help martial artists who cultivated ice-attribute techniques convert the spiritual energy of heaven and earth far more efficiently, dramatically boosting their cultivation speed.
But Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade didn't stop there. When forging ice-attribute artifacts, incorporating even a small amount could enhance the artifact's power by thirty percent. It could even release a glacial chill that affected both the physical body and the soul — an utterly bone-freezing cold.
Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade was known as one of the Three Mysterious Jades. A piece the size of a fist was worth a fortune.
And here was a slab of it this large — how could Yang Kai not be thrilled? What truly astounded him was that such a priceless material had been fashioned into nothing more than a platform, holding four Space Rings and a single mineral.
The four Space Rings were probably just placed there casually. But that mineral — roughly the size of a human head and utterly unremarkable in appearance — had to be something extraordinary. Otherwise, it wouldn't be guarded by a restriction.
Yang Kai quietly glanced at Yang Yan and saw that she had grown solemn, studying the mineral in focused silence. She hadn't spoken a word, as though even she couldn't determine exactly what it was. This only deepened his curiosity.
"Let's check those four Space Rings first." Yang Kai waited a long while without seeing any reaction from Yang Yan, so he broke the silence. As he spoke, he reached out and picked up the rings.
He sent a tendril of Divine Sense probing into each one, examined their contents, then nodded slightly.
Just as he'd expected — the four Space Rings contained more Holy Crystals and rare minerals, split roughly evenly between the two. The Holy Crystals went without saying, being vast in number, but the rare minerals inside were even more precious than those scattered outside.
He passed the rings to Yang Yan. After inspecting them, she broke into a delighted smile: "Wonderful! With these materials, I can finally forge something I've been planning for a long time."
"What is it?" Yang Kai's curiosity was thoroughly piqued — whatever it was, it demanded a staggering amount of resources.
"I won't tell you yet. But when the time comes, I may need your help." Yang Yan grinned mischievously and handed the rings back.
Yang Kai shot her a look but didn't press further. After storing the rings, he turned his gaze to the strange mineral on the jade platform, still wrapped in its restriction. "Can you break through this ward?"
"I can." Yang Yan gave a small nod. "But are you certain you want me to? For some reason, I sense a trace of danger from this thing."
"You feel it too?" Yang Kai was taken aback. He'd assumed it was merely his imagination, but Yang Yan felt the same. His expression grew considerably more serious. Anything capable of making him sense danger was undoubtedly perilous — but equally, it would be priceless.