The Azure Ape King continued performing a series of dizzying handsigns as he bombarded the ceiling above them with the concentrated green lightning that he summoned.

　　Liu An watched the electrifying lights in the air, his expression unchanged. No one could fathom what was going on in his mind.

　　Shi Mu, meanwhile, had secretly activated his magical eyes. As golden light shone out from his pupils he realized that when the green lightning rushed into the disc, the number of seemingly nonsensical runes were steadily being reduced!

　　It was as if every single strike of green lightning was directly proportionate to the deduction of a single runic character. And as the number of runes decreased, the green disc of light slowly started to rock.

　　In the blink of an eye, the last rune guarding the disc disappeared completely, and the disc returned to its smooth unmarred look—the only exception being that its surface was now embroiled in some kind of violent turbulence.

　　“Begin!”

　　The Azure Ape King let out a low cry and spat out three mouthfuls of essential blood. He rubbed his hands together for a second and raised them up. In a second, the three blobs of essential blood spun until they assumed the form of three gigantic blood-red runes.

　　The runes flew straight into the pale-green disc of light on the ceiling and merged seamlessly into its surface. Brilliant green lights burst out of the disc and broke off into pieces before slowly turning into scattering wisps.

　　Where the light disc once stood were two white marble doors as pure as jade, both tightly shut.

　　Liu An’s expression softened upon seeing it. Shi Mu’s heart throbbed with excitement. There was little doubt about it, this was the very door the white ape in his dream had brought those four demons through.

　　An educated guess would yield the conjecture that the event happened at least a thousand years ago, but the marble door still looked the same as it was all that time ago.

　　“Gah ha ha! You despicable scum—you imprisoned a king here for hundreds of years, employing all manner of contemptible torture devices to locate the secret vault, but little did you know… What you were looking for has been right there above you!” The Azure Ape King looked a little pale after that bout of spell-breaking, but he was still able to throw a haughty laugh as he mocked his absent enemy.

　　“Elder, are you saying that behind this stone door lies the very same secret vault that houses the Fallen Angel Desk?” Even a reserved man like Liu An could not seem to contain his own feelings right now.

　　“You disrespectful ignoramus. Would a king be so undignified as to lie to the likes of you?!” the Azure Ape King glared at Liu An and retorted. “Back when His Majesty the Saint-King took me with him to conquer every territory in the Western He continent, a brat like you wasn’t even conceived yet! Your weakling of a leader was no match against a titan of power like His Majesty the Saint-King… Your puny leader used his Fallen Angel Desk—or whatever fancy name it was—and still His Majesty could cleave it in half in no time flat! Half of it has become our treasyre, sealed in this holy land by this king right here, and could any of you puny Dark Moon Cultists even do anything about it? If His Majesty hadn’t vanished, do you humans and barbarians really think you’d have any chance of surviving in a single square-inch of the Western He continent?”

　　“Elder, we shouldn’t delay much longer. Please, help us open the door to the secret vault,” Liu An cupped his hand before his chest in a respectful salutation. The other party’s words apparently did not get under his skin.

　　The Azure Ape King wanted to say more—perhaps he was planning to mock Liu An even further as a twisted way of taking out his frustrations, yet Liu An’s response to his deliberate provocation made him feel like he had just hit a void with his fist.

　　He shot a glance at Shi Mu, who had been taciturn the whole time, and said nothing. With a shake of his shoulder, a single green hair jutted out from his human-like body.

　　The Azure Ape King blew on that single hair, and in a flash of green, it turned into a golden palm-sized token. He grabbed the token and waved it before the white-jade door above him before mumbling some unintelligible incantation.

　　Golden sparks streamed down from the token and fluttered into the air as row upon row of golden runes before spinning into the door and disappearing completely.

　　The white-jade door emitted a humming rumble as it opened gradually from the inside. A few rays of golden light escaped from the door, giving the feeling that a wide room lay beyond.

　　The instant the door opened, Shi Mu could somehow perceive a sense of familiarity from the inside. It shook him right to the chest, and he had to forcefully suppress himself not to show any outward expression.

　　“There it is… the Heaven Ascension Treasure Vault. The greatest secret of the Demon Race’s Holy Land,” the Azure Ape King mumbled as he stared at the door above his head wistfully. “Alright, off we go. Follow me.”

　　Just when they were about to move, they heard a booming clap out of nowhere!

　　The black iron cross was suddenly engulfed in an aura of intense black light as it suddenly imploded from the middle. Where the cross used to be was a single black dot in the sky which transformed into a black vortex several yards wide—and from it sprung a humanoid figure.

　　The three of them were shocked, and in a flash, three different attacks were thrown at the figure.

　　Scarlet lights appeared behind Shi Mu’s as the Crimson Ape Energy Construct once again roared into life. It clenched its fists, imbuing them with the power of red thunder and lunged them forward at a harrowing speed.

　　The whoosh of the fists was like the howl of a hurricane as the ape let out a hair-raising shriek.

　　Meanwhile, the Heavenly Ghost Streamer in Liu An’s hands was glowing blood-red as the golden skull on its surface opened its mouth wide and shot out a beam of blood-red light—appearing like a gigantic dragon made of blood. On cue, the two zombies by his side each punched forward and projected two grey shockwaves from their powerful fists.

　　Finally, the Azure Ape King let out an earth-shaking bellow. With fire flaring in his pupils, he sent out a powerful palm strike.

　　A shimmer of green darted on top of the figure’s head before revealing itself to be the same green-palm mirage attack the Azure Ape King had used to test Shi Mu and Liu An a while ago. The key difference here was that it was much larger than the ones before, as well as being more sturdy and chiseled.

　　The force of the palm attack was so great that even the space around its trajectory rocked as a dozen air vortices appeared around it.

　　The Azure Ape King was truly a Heaven-rank powerhouse—he had only been freed moments ago with his century-old wounds still intact, yet a single attack from him was far more than all four attacks from Shi Mu, Liu An, and the two Earth-rank zombies combined.

　　A single Heaven-rank, two peak Earth-ranks, and two Earth-rank puppets—it was an amalgamation of five formidable powers so potent it might even bore a hole out of the sky.

　　Yet the figure did not show any sign of fear at all. Instead, it threw a maniacal guffaw. A yellow glow oozed out of its body before expanding rapidly, filling up the space around the figure until it finally solidified into a gigantic, dome-like ball of light.

　　Within the yellow dome, sand and dust danced with golden sparkslike a blizzard.

　　The brunt of Shi Mu’s group’s attacks landed on this massive ball of yellow light, denting its surface as the golden lights undulated and shimmered like tides. More importantly, their attacks seemed to have been consumed by the yellow light like pouring salt into water.

　　Shi Mu’s face was wrought with panic. The dome-shaped sand blizzard encased in that yellow light was still expanding like a deluge, and in the blink of an eye, Shi Mu and the others were in the way of its expansion. Just like that, they bore the full-frontal impact.

　　The force threw their bodies into the air and against the white-jade door.

　　Yellow sand spun and returned to surround the figure before turning into a yellow dragon that flew toward the white-jade door.

　　Shi Mu and Liu An were fearful. Their top priority would be to quickly regain their footing before the enemy coulf launch another attack.

　　As the one with the highest cultivation base among them, the Azure Ape King had no problem restoring control over his body with a single flash of green light.

　　On the other hand, both Shi Mu and Liu An were in an embarrassing state. They stumbled and shuffled their feet a dozen steps before they were finally being able to stand properly.

　　Meanwhile, the zombies broke their fall by being smacked onto the ground directly and rolling around several feet before they could stand again.

　　Nobody knew if it was the precise intention of the yellow-sand conjuror, but no one—not the Azure Ape King, Shi Mu nor Liu An—was actually hurt by the sand blizzard.

　　As soon as Shi Mu steadied himself, he scanned the surroundings quickly—and still, an awestruck look crossed his face.

　　A large chamber, much larger than every other hall and clearing Shi Mu had encountered previously lay beyond the white door. It was about a few hundred yards wide. The walls of the chamber seemed to have been constructed with the same material that was used to make the white jade-like door as they glistened and shimmered with fluorescent light, indicative that the walls were also imbued with some kind of protective trap magic.

　　The ceiling of the chamber was also white, adorned with a large mural of the night sky. The stars on the mural seemed almost real as they emitted a soft glow, which was collectively enough to illuminate the entire chamber.

　　In the middle of the chamber was a gilded, three-layered altar. A red glow escaped from the highest level. The floor of the chamber was filled with all sorts of treasures and an abundance of rare invaluable gemstones. All the treasure formed at least a hundred heaps taking up half of the chamber.

　　On top of a row of wooden racks, a plethora of charm tools and spirit tools were assembled, each of them radiating their own aura. On the side of the weapons’ shelves was a row of cabinets, all of them filled with small medicinal bottles. Some even had a kind of large tank. They were sealed very tightly, yet one could still make out the thick palatable scent of unknown medicines—an indication that some sort of panacea was likely stored inside.

　　Shi Mu’s heart was racing. He had been to quite a few treasure vaults by now—be it the warehouse in the Immortals Pavilion of the Heavenly Wu Chamber of Commerce, or parts of the Dark Moon Cult’s treasure trove back in Hidden Wind Valley—but none could hold a candle to this.

　　Even Liu An, standing beside him, was completely taken by the sight.

　　It was then that the yellow dragon flew in from the white door and landed before them.

　　Streams of yellow sand subsided quickly before transforming into a yellow fabric about several yards long until the figure of a middle-aged man in a yellow robe slowly materialized before them.

　　The man had a very smooth and fair complexion, with three long strands of beard reaching his chest. He had passed as a holy saint if not for the glint of calculative malice in his eyes.

　　Shi Mu was astounded upon seeing the middle-aged man. The man was standing there quietly, yet the aura he exuded was even greater than the Azure Ape King—as the pressure of an unscalable mountain, making it seem hard to breathe just by standing close to him.

　　Shi Mu was confused—this yellow-robed man was obviously a Heaven-rank powerhouse, but why was he hiding just now?

　　His answer came at the very next second.

　　The Azure Ape King’s eyes were filled with unpacifiable hatred and animosity the moment they saw the man. Through gritted teeth, he spat the words in contempt, “Despicable scum, Huang Long!”

　　“What?!” Shi Mu and Liu An both cried in shock.

　　If this man before them was Huang Long, then who was currently hosting the Form Assuming Ceremony out there?