Nadia calmly gazed back at the old foggies. She didn’t move nor disperse her concealment, just staring back at them with her tiny purplish-golden eyes, and after a few seconds, nothing really happened.
The old foggies didn’t say anything either, causing the uncomfortable women to speak out.
"Who... who are you all?" Shirley couldn’t help but ask, "Guardians?"
"We don’t deserve such a title, although you may indeed address as the Twelve Gatekeepers of the Treasury."
One of them spoke in a tired voice before they no longer bothered with them, returning to sleep.
Mistress Zahara and Schleya could only look at each other in confusion, not knowing what had just happened before they continued their pace. Soon, they appeared before the cube-like structure and saw that there were a few people going in and coming out.
Shirley couldn’t help but grin, wondering what was inside the treasury.
However, her hopes were soon dashed as she was only given a catalog, like the jade slips she had for her treasury. Reading through the scroll that projected a few sentences as she scrolled with her finger, she was awed yet disappointed at the same time.
"I should’ve expected..."
Shirley grunted, causing Mistress Zahara to laugh lightly.
"You’re not bad. I thought you were irresponsible and ungrateful since you refused to go with my Fire Phoenix Clan, but it seems like you have your own troubles to deal with."
"Troubles?" Shirley shook her head, "It’s something you acknowledged me undertaking it."
"..."
Mistress Zahara blinked, wondering what this woman was saying. However, she couldn’t help but feel something wasn’t right. She gave her the same feeling Feng Chu did. Both were hiding something she may or may not be aware of. Her instincts were urging her to do something about it, especially about her blood that she could sense from Shirley so close.
Still, she didn’t hurry but probed.
"Do you know... Frostrose?"
"..."
Shirley’s heart shook, but she kept her expression curious as she gazed at the scroll.
"Frostrose? Who’s that?"
She flipped through the heaven and earth treasures and easily found the ingredients that she was looking for.
Earth Fissure Slab, Violet Sea Pearl, Wood Infant Fruit, Gold Jade Bone, Velvet Sunflower Dew.
All five of them were the main ingredients required to make a pill that would allow one to create a Heaven Immortal Vessel. Although she had a pill ready for her in the inheritance, she knew that her sisters would require these pills in the near future.
She wanted to buy it and have Ellia make the Heaven Immortal Vessel pill for them.
She found that the pill was also available here, but they cost a hundred thousand contribution points. It was too expensive. Instead, she opted to buy the ingredients that were cheaper by half the amount.
? Each of those five ingredients cost ten thousand contribution points, which she gladly gave up to buy two portions of them. This way, they could come up with two pills instead of one. After all, there was a warning stating that even one pill is difficult to form under the concoction process, let alone two or three.
On the other hand, Mistress Zahara found that Shirley was absorbed into the scroll to get some treasures. She was also distracted and went on to check what kind of treasures the Aurora Cloud Gate possessed. Schleya was no different, becoming immersed in scrolling through the treasures as her limpid velvet eyes glowed.
Around this time, Shirley also discovered the ingredients required to create a Heaven Immortal Soul Vessel.
Surprisingly, there was only one main ingredient, the Requiem Flower Silk, which seemed to be made up of both yin and yang nature, shocking Shirley to her core. However, it also cost about a whooping fifty thousand contribution points, causing Shirley’s astonishment to turn into one of exhaustion.
’Cultivating to this level sure is difficult... wait, what...?’
As she further saw the pill cost of the Heaven Immortal Soul Vessel, she felt like fainting for her sisters. After all, a single pill costs two hundred thousand contribution points! Hopefully, she felt like she could have a better way to tackle the exorbitant cost.
"Ahh!"
"Mistress! What happened!?"
Suddenly, Mistress Zahara yelled out, causing Shirley to quickly let go of the scroll as she turned to look around. However, seeing nothing of concern, she couldn’t help but hurriedly ask, only to notice the mistake of it.
But at the same time, Mistress Zahara also didn’t seem to be in any shape bothered about the way she called her.
Instead, she had a perplexed expression on her face as she looked at Shirley before pointing at the scroll she held.
In there, Shirley could see something which also made her shocked.
[Burning Daylight Spring Source - High-Level Immortal Grade
A heavenly resource that allows a Fire Phoenix to become a King-Tier Immortal Beast. However, due to only having a pitiful essence of the source, the chances are around thirty percent, so purchase with caution.
Cost: 1,000,000 Contribution Points]
"This... I have heard that these types of resources have almost become non-existent in the Fire Phoenix Clan’s Prefecture and even around the world... but to think it still exists in the Aurora Cloud Gate..."
Mistress Zahara’s voice was full of trembling as she pointed at the scroll. On the other side, Shirley was also stumped.
Even her Immortal Inheritance didn’t have this as far as she knew!
"But this kind of heavenly resource is useless to the Fire Phoenix Clan."
After a while of astonishment, Mistress Zahara shook her head.
"Not only are the chances considerably less, but if it actually managed to succeed and give birth to a King-Tier Fire Phoenix, the bloodline purity of that immortal beast will also be pitifully low, not to mention that it would lose its noble status upon stepping into the Immortal King Beast Stage without further improvement. That’s why I think my Fire Phoenix Clan didn’t go after this resource, using their disciples to collect it."
"More than that, I don’t think the disciples are allowed to leak information about the treasury’s contents, not to mention giving them to outsiders unless they found the treasures themselves."
Shirley pointed towards a non-disclosure agreement contract formation in the direction of the exit and that it apparently marked their memories. The instructions on it wrote that if they wanted to talk, then they could only talk about it to fellow disciples or their people residing within the Aurora Cloud Gate. If any foul play was found, then it seemed that they would be quickly redirected to the Law Enforcement Department.
Shirley already knew this as she read the rule book before exiting seclusion; not wanting to come off as ignorant, but having her memories marked was a new concept for her. What was that supposed to mean?
She didn’t feel comfortable with that but looking at the disciples freely going in and coming out; she could only muse that it was not harmful.
Mistress Zahara understandingly nodded before she gazed at Shirley. A complicated gleam appeared in her eyes, wondering why the other party was being good to her- no, being comfortable and even protective around her. It was as though Shirley knew that she wouldn’t do anything to her, even addressing her Mistress with a respectful connotation.
"You... just who are you?" She couldn’t help but find herself asking this question.
However, Shirley shook her head.
"I know you can sense what is inside me as I feel the same in you. However, this isn’t the time to discuss it. Never reveal what shouldn’t be revealed. If possible, relay this to Mistress Yeyin as well. You two, as a matter of fact, were very close."
"...!?"