Chapter 3359 — So Many Energy Stones

There had been a time when this very problem had left Yu Xiaoke utterly at a loss, but now, she felt a strong urge to bite Wei Zhao to death. Why hadn't you said earlier that you could do that dead-or-alive trick?

"Heh heh… all right, all right, let's just get out of here first, shall we?" Wei Zhao was a little embarrassed and sheepish too. Fortunately, they were down here, where the light was extremely dim, so no one else could see the expression on his face.

"Mm…" In that instant, Yu Xiaoke turned into the most docile of little treasures, answering in a soft voice.

Yu Dake was stunned. He had never imagined that his own sister could, in the blink of an eye, get so tangled up with Wei Zhao. Weren't these two supposed to be at odds? Could it be that Wei Zhao really was the male thief his sister liked? Now that would truly be something marvelous!

"By the way, why weren't you like this before?" Yu Xiaoke suddenly thought of a rather crucial question.

"Like this before?" Wei Zhao casually drew the Thousand-Silk Mask out of his jade pendant space and put it on his face. Just then, the three of them reached the next fork in the path, and the light fell across Wei Zhao's features.

"Ah!!!!" Yu Xiaoke was given an enormous fright, staring at Wei Zhao in shock. "You can actually change your face?"

"…" Wei Zhao was somewhat speechless. Wasn't Yu Xiaoke making just a bit too much of a fuss? He took the Thousand-Silk Mask off his face. "It's nothing but a mask. Are you trying to scare me to death? All right, let's get out of here first and talk later!"

"Mm…" This time Yu Xiaoke was one hundred percent certain that Wei Zhao was the male thief. Her hand, which was clutching his arm, tightened even more.

After passing several more forks, Wei Zhao suddenly stopped in his tracks! Because they had come through the last passage—let's call it the last passage, for now—since beyond this passage there were no more forks, only an enormous hall!

But the hall was not empty. Along one side of it, little stones were piled up in dense, countless heaps, heaped into veritable mountains, so many that Wei Zhao could not see the end of them at a single glance. This place was like an enormous underground storehouse!

The opposite side of the hall was a wall—nothing else. And on the last side, there was a door set into the wall, with no telling where it might lead.

"What is this place?" Yu Xiaoke was rather astonished.

"Indeed, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth here is so abundant! This is a wonderful place for cultivation!" Yu Dake said in astonishment as well.

Wei Zhao, however, was staring slack-jawed at that densely packed pile of little stones, unable to speak—because those were white energy stones!

"This is…" At this moment, Yu Dake also followed Wei Zhao's gaze and saw the vast quantities of energy stones! Right now, Yu Dake was beside himself with excitement. "Mr. Lin, aren't these exactly the energy stones we need? And so many of them! We're rich—we've actually found the Paoli clan's energy stone storage warehouse!"

Was this really the Paoli clan's warehouse for storing energy stones? Wei Zhao found it a little hard to believe. Putting a dungeon and a warehouse together was a very foolish thing to do. True, the passages of this dungeon were full of deadly hazards, and an ordinary person could never hope to reach this place safely—but one could not rule out people with special abilities. People like him, Wei Zhao, for instance.

In Wei Zhao's view, the Paoli clan should not have made such a rudimentary mistake as to put their own precious treasures together with their enemies. Even if their enemies could not easily get here, if they did get here—never mind stealing them, just destroying them would leave the Paoli clan regretting it beyond measure, wouldn't it?

Yet what lay before his eyes could not be disbelieved. Wei Zhao drew a deep breath and strode quickly toward that great heap of energy stones. But when his steps came to a halt near the pile, Wei Zhao could not help but sigh, somewhat disappointed—because these energy stones had actually already been used!

The surfaces of the energy stones were dim and lusterless; at a glance, one could tell they no longer held any energy. Such energy stones were utterly worthless. Wei Zhao still had two of them in his jade pendant space!

This discovery disappointed Wei Zhao greatly, and Yu Dake had obviously noticed it too. "Mr. Lin, these energy stones…"

"You noticed as well? These energy stones have all been used. I'd guess the Paoli clan dumped them here after they were spent. With used-up energy stones like these, they needn't worry about anyone locked in the dungeon stealing them." Wei Zhao shrugged with a bitter smile. Earlier he had wondered why the Paoli clan would do such a thing; now it seemed no one was a fool. These were all spent energy stones—even if enemies found them and stole them, it hardly mattered!

"Indeed. And here I thought we'd made some great discovery!" Yu Dake shook his head. "Shall we go take a look over there? Maybe there are some unused ones on that side?"

"There shouldn't be any." Wei Zhao had already given up hope, but since they had come this far, there was no harm in going over to have a look.

Yu Xiaoke had been happy too, thinking they had found what they were looking for, but hearing the exchange between Wei Zhao and Yu Dake, she knew that was not the case at all. The energy stones here were all useless, and that plunged her into boundless disappointment.

Wei Zhao walked in front, with Yu Dake and Yu Xiaoke following behind him. Even though Yu Xiaoke was the weakest cultivator of the three, her qinggong was excellent, so the three of them still moved quickly. These used energy stones looked endless, stretching away without bound, but when they actually walked, they reached the end in just over half an hour. Of course, one should not underestimate that half hour—the three of them had surely covered over a hundred kilometers!

Arriving at the end of the energy stones, Wei Zhao bent down and looked at the stones before him, and could not help but cry out, "Ah!"

"Mr. Lin, these energy stones actually still have some energy in them! Not a great deal, but definitely not the kind that's been completely drained!" Yu Dake had noticed the peculiarity as well, and picked up an energy stone as he spoke.

"Not used up, yet tossed aside here—why would they do that?" Wei Zhao grew puzzled. "Let's walk back toward the middle and take a look!"

"All right." Yu Dake nodded.

The three of them walked back a certain distance. The energy stones on the ground still carried a trace of energy, and it was not just one or two of them but a general phenomenon. This puzzled Wei Zhao even more. What was the Paoli clan trying to do? Were they really this extravagantly wasteful? The energy in these stones was not much, but collected together it would still be quite useful. To just throw them away at the very back like this—were they really not going to use them?

Wei Zhao walked back a while further. Every so often, he would examine the energy stones beneath his feet. At first, Wei Zhao noticed nothing amiss… (To be continued.)