From his point of view, since Qi Chengchu had the skill to work with formations and managed to enter the Stone Demon Tower, it should've been an easy task for him to bypass the restrictions and formations on this Nascent Soul chamber and steal the treasures inside.
As for Wei Tu…
Gui Luo, the Demon Lord, never even suspected him. After all, Wei Tu didn't even have a Xumi Tablet to open the tower.
There was no way he could've entered, let alone dared to try and take anything from inside.
At that moment, Gui Luo subconsciously overlooked the possibility that Wei Tu's denial of possessing a Xumi Tablet might have been part of a deeper scheme.
"Head to the other chamber."
Gui Luo still held out a sliver of hope. After all, breaking into a Nascent Soul cave wouldn't be quick, even for Qi Chengchu.
However—
When he arrived at the right-side chamber and forced open the external restrictions, he was once again greeted with the same scene as before.
All three rooms had been completely ransacked!
"Qi Chengchu is getting way too greedy," Gui Luo's expression darkened.
Of all the valuable places inside the Stone Demon Tower, only the Transmission Pavilion and the three Nascent Soul chambers truly mattered to him.
Now one chamber had been taken by Gong Shulan, and the other two looted by Qi Chengchu. He hadn't gotten a single thing.
How could he possibly be satisfied with this?
This was a secret realm he had spent decades planning and scheming for!
"Go to the Spiritual Herb Garden! Since Qi Chengchu chose to hit the fifth floor Nascent Soul chambers first, he's probably just now heading to the herb garden to take the Spirit-Awakened Plant."
With a cold snort, Gui Luo flicked his sleeve and rushed away.
Earlier, he'd held back from fighting Gong Shulan because there were still two untouched chambers. But now things were different.
As long as he killed Qi Chengchu, this trip to the secret realm would still count as a near-complete success.
…
After Gui Luo left, a flash of red light shimmered in the secluded cultivation chamber of the right-side cave. Wei Tu stepped out from within the wall.
There was a hint of luck on his face.
If he had been even a few seconds slower, the treasures in this chamber might have slipped through his fingers.
Sweeping his divine sense over the red jade ring on his chest, he examined its contents for the first time.
Inside one corner of the ring's space were a golden skeleton and a black iron plate engraved with unknown script.
These two items were what Wei Tu had found in the secluded chamber of the right-side cave. Just like the previous one, there wasn't much left behind.
He shifted his gaze to a blue pill cauldron next to the golden skeleton.
This blue cauldron was the only spiritual item he had found in the "storage room." Apparently, the original owner of this cave had converted that room into a pill chamber.
The cauldron was tightly sealed with restrictive spells. It would require a specific pill-refining incantation to open.
Wei Tu figured there might still be pills hidden inside, so he didn't rush to open it. Instead, he tossed it directly into his storage ring.
"Gui Luo's already here. The high-grade techniques in the Transmission Pavilion were probably taken by him. Of the four major areas on the fourth floor, only the Armory Chamber might still hold some value and not be completely looted."
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
Given his current cultivation and resources, he wouldn't normally even look twice at what was in the Armory Chamber. He figured it wouldn't hold anything truly good, especially for people like Hu Shan, Lady Lan, and others.
None of them would ever consider the Armory Chamber a top priority inside the tower.
The so-called inheritance grounds of the Stone Demon Sect might sound impressive, but in reality, the resources left behind could only support two or three Golden Core cultivators to break through to Nascent Soul.
If there really were a wealth of Nascent Soul-level resources, the Stone Demon Sect wouldn't have fallen in the first place.
Hu Shan, Lady Lan, and the rest—whether from great sects or powerful backgrounds—wouldn't care about the scraps left in the Armory Chamber.
…
Wei Tu immediately headed for the fourth floor.
But just as he arrived, he sensed shockwaves from a battle coming from the direction of the nearby passage.
"From the herb garden?"
That wasn't surprising at all.
The Spirit-Awakened Plant that might be hiding in the Spiritual Herb Garden was something every peak Golden Core cultivator—Hu Shan, Qi Chengchu, Lady Lan, Ancestor Ningyan—would fight for inside the tower.
Wei Tu had no interest in watching the fight or finding out who won. He planned to circle around the garden from afar and head toward the Armory Chamber instead.
But just then…
A furious shout rang out, stopping him in his tracks.
"Qi Chengchu! How dare you! Not only did you sneak off with the treasures from the fifth-floor Nascent Soul chambers, now you're stealing the Spirit-Awakened Plant from the herb garden too!"
"How could there not be a Spirit-Awakened Plant in the herb garden?"
Though Wei Tu was far away and couldn't see who was speaking, he instantly recognized the voice. It was Lady Lan questioning Qi Chengchu.
"Took the treasures from the Nascent Soul chambers in secret?"
"And also took the Spirit-Awakened Plant?"
Wei Tu raised his brows slightly. 'Qi Chengchu really took the fall for me.'
Both the Nascent Soul chamber treasures and the Spirit-Awakened Plant were sitting inside his own storage ring. What did any of that have to do with Qi Chengchu?
But after thinking a bit more, he understood why Lady Lan and the others would suspect him.
'The tallest tree in the forest gets the strongest wind.'
It was simple—Qi Chengchu had broken the formation protecting the Stone Demon Tower. That alone proved he had the ability to bypass the restrictions around the Nascent Soul chambers and the herb garden—even without the help of the vermillion ancient mirror—and take the treasures inside.
It would actually be strange if no one suspected him.
'Serves him right,' Wei Tu thought with a bit of glee. He had no intention of clearing Qi Chengchu's name.
After all, it was partly Qi Chengchu's fault that he and Su Bing'er were dragged into the Great Void Realm in the first place.
Qi Chengchu might've tried to make up for it earlier by tricking Gui Luo and giving Che Gongwei and the others a shot at escape, but that wasn't nearly enough to wash away his sins.
One good deed doesn't make a villain into a hero.
At best, Qi Chengchu was a bad man who hadn't completely gone off the deep end.
Once Lady Lan's voice fell, a new round of combat erupted from the distance—more intense than before.
Wei Tu didn't hesitate. He turned and made his way toward the Armory Chamber.
From the spiritual waves of the fight, he could tell all the people he feared most were involved—Gui Luo, Ancestor Ningyan, Lady Lan, Hu Shan, and the rest.
That meant heading to the Armory Chamber now was about as safe as it could get.
…
Just as he expected.
There was no serious threat guarding the entrance of the Armory Chamber.
Only two Golden Core demon cultivators under Gui Luo and Ancestor Ningyan were outside, struggling to break through the array and restrictions.
But they weren't making much progress.
Up to now, they had cracked less than one-fifth of the barrier.
'At least they know their place,' Wei Tu thought. 'They realize that with their strength, they wouldn't be able to seize anything valuable elsewhere.'
Shaking his head, he made his way to the side of the chamber. With the help of the vermillion ancient mirror, he slipped inside.
Compared to the cramped Nascent Soul chambers, the interior of the Armory Chamber was much more spacious.
Inside, the space was divided into sections by weapon type. Each section had racks for weapons and display shelves.
But—
More than seventy percent of the shelves and racks were completely empty.
And of the remaining thirty percent, over ninety percent of the tools had lost their spiritual glow and had faded inscriptions.
'Too much time has passed. Even though magic tools last longer than pills or talismans, the ones handed down through generations in big clans still need to be nurtured to survive a thousand or ten thousand years.'
Wei Tu sighed inwardly.
He skipped over the low-tier items and started searching for third-rank tools and even fourth-rank ones used by Nascent Soul cultivators.
Only third- or fourth-rank tools might have survived these ten thousand years without being destroyed.
"Got one!"
After a while, he found a third-rank bowl-shaped magic tool inside a jade box in the section for unusual tools.
"Though its spiritual nature has severely faded, I'd still need to nurture it for five or six years to restore it."
He was both happy and disappointed.
Happy that he finally found something useful.
Disappointed because even this third-rank item was in such poor shape.
Chances were, all the other third-rank tools were just as degraded.
At best, they were chicken ribs—barely worth keeping.
He'd be better off spending that time refining a few batches of pills or drawing third-rank talismans.
That would earn him more money.
"Time's short. Forget these third-rank tools for now. I'll look for a fourth-rank one."
Wei Tu frowned and made up his mind.
He swept his gaze around and began searching near the core of the chamber.
Third-rank tools were placed alongside low-tier ones, all mixed together.
But a fourth-rank tool? There was no way the Stone Demon Sect would've just left it out in the open like that to rot.
While not quite sect-guarding treasures, fourth-rank tools were still extremely rare and precious.
'Wait, on the ancient mirror's map, the Armory Chamber looks a bit shorter than it should be?'
He quickly picked up on a clue.
Injecting a stream of power into the vermillion ancient mirror, a beam of red light shot out and landed on the wall opposite the entrance.
In an instant, a copper-colored hidden door covered in restrictions was revealed.
'Just as I thought! I wonder if the other three areas also have doors like this.'
Wei Tu was overjoyed.
He swept his sleeve and opened the copper door, stepping inside.
The hidden chamber was much smaller than the main hall. No more than two zhang high and only three or four zhang in length and width.
In the center stood a raised platform.
On it sat two jade boxes.
The one on the left was open and empty.
The other was tightly sealed with talismans.