"Yea, you are right about that. Anyways, we would be careful" Another of their colleague said with the others nodding their heads to what he said.

...

At the moment, Nine Calamities was busy strolling round the area the treasure storage house was located, seemingly looking for something.

Actually, he had flown down here to see what exactly happened at the treasure storage house.

Then seeing dead bodies littered here and there all over the ground, he began to wonder what really happened here.

"I wonder what these bodies are doing here." Nine Calamities said as he gazed at the numerous mutilated and slashed bodies on the ground.

"I guess that some other people who knew about the treasure storage house also came here to acquire the treasures stored here. Hmm."

"But who killed them in this vicious manner?"

"Well, it definitely can't be Bloodfang, since his cultivation stage is completely lower to that of the cultivators found here."

"Besides, they are many in number. And maybe when he got here, he found a group of people fighting each other and then hid himself somewhere to avoid being seen by them, or he could be quickly killed by the attackers of these people."

"I really need to understand what happened here" Nine Calamities said. .

He then flew towards the treasure storage house to go in and see for himself what really went down here.

So, upon reaching the entrance of the treasure storage house, he flew in and then lowered himself to the ground.

Once he entered, he began to look around him.

"Wow. So many projectiles in here." Nine Calamities said.

He then said further with a curious expression appearing in his face, "Even if Bloodfang is a living corpse, with all that I am seeing littering the floor, he definitely wouldn't be able to survive it. The life that allows him to move his dead body around will be instantly snuffed out by these projectiles, because from their densities, I feel that they are something Bloodfang would be able to deflect or block successfully without getting seriously injured"

"And since he wouldn't be able to deflect these heavy spears, pikes and so on, then that means that someone more powerful and stronger than him had arrived here first who must have tried his best to block the attacks" Nine Calamities said with his brows furrowed as he deeply sank his mind into a detective-like state.

Then after looking around and picking up the projectiles on the ground to feel their weight and denseness, he dropped them back to the ground and headed for the passageway where Xiao Lin fought thar statue.

Once he got there, he began to look around with a light of confirmation to what he previously said, coming forth from within his eyes. And this was because of the gashes made into the opposite walls of the long passageway towards the other side of the passageway, then because of the battle guard statue that he saw on the ground with it head smashed into pieces.

From what he could he perceive about the protective combat statue, he was able to quickly conclude within himself that this statue was no ordinary statue. It was more like a killer statue designed to kill anything that would enter the passageway. From it towering height and the bulky size of it lustrous metallic body, the heaviness, and the power fluctuations coming from it which still lingered in the air, he was able to swiftly comprehend that this statue was a designated intruder or trespasser annihilator, for low-rank cultivators anyways, since if it was him that came into this place, just a simple effortless blast of Spiritual Energy from him would utterly reduce the statue to tens of millions of bits.

"Bloodfang definitely wouldn't be able to take down this statue. And since he wouldn't be the one to do so, then that means somebody else did it."

"Furthermore, I am guessing that he arrived very late. Probably when the person who wielded two extremely sharp blades and made gashes into the opposite walls of this passageway had destroyed the statue and went to the treasure storage room to take away the treasures stored in here along with him, did he arrive. Hmm." Nine Calamities said.

Then with a single step, he arrived at the treasure storage room. And once he did so, he began to look around with surprise in his eyes.

"What happened here?" Nine Calamities asked.

Then he asked further with the surprise in his eyes intensifying, "Seems like a really mad battle occurred between two people here. But it definitely wouldn't be Bloodfang and that male cultivator that arrived here before him."

"So, I suspect that when that male had successfully cleared all the lethal traps hidden on the way to the treasure storage room, another person, possibly a male too, suddenly appeared with the intention of taking away all the pills or treasures kept here with him since that male who first arrived here, would be excessively weak, and seriously injured after trying his best to deflect or slash apart the projectile attacks that the deadly traps concealed here and there in this place would launch at him with the two really sharp blades that he wielded."

"Then becoming tremendously mad at the person that just appeared from nowhere, furious attacks were instantly unleashed and in an insane manner and in every directions to utterly annihilate this person that had just entered. Hmm. I wonder which of the two of them was able to get out of here with the pills or treasures stored in this storage room. Would be certainly, really interesting to know. Haha!"

"However, I have a feeling that it was the first person that arrived in this place that will cart away with whatever pills or treasures that were stored here by whoever built this treasure storage house and then probably deserted it."

"And maybe he or she is dead. That could be the best answer to why this deadly trap-filled artifact house is absolutely devoid of any presence of the owner. Probably he or she was in killed in battle, or died of some rare cultivation sickness. Hmm." Nine Calamities said with a deep thoughtful expression in his eyes.

Then when he was done thinking, he looked around for sometime before deciding to leave the place.

Then with a single step after deploying a powerful movement technique for his cultivation stage, he appeared hundreds of feet away from the treasure storage house. And immediately he appeared at this new location like he teleported, he immediately shot into the air at a great speed to continue his search for Xiao Lin.

"I wonder where Bloodfang went to" Nine Calamities said with a thoughtful expression in his face.

Then thinking further, he said "I doubt that Bloodfang is still in this town, or in the town closer to this. Ugh. I hope to find him soon so that I can understand how he became a corpse that has a life."

"It's just so mysterious how he was able to do that. I wonder what technique or method he used to infuse his corpse with life. Or did someone do that for him? Hmm. And maybe someone really powerful who then employed an extremely rare and utterly profound corpse animation technique used it to reanimate his dead body. Anyways, when I am able to find him, I will understand how he was able to accomplish that, or who he helped him accomplished that"

"But now that I have made catching Bloodfang my utmost priority, it is going to seriously affect my cultivation practices. Hmm."

"But to be sincere, it's really worth the immense delay in my cultivation and comprehension exercises, since when I eventually capture him and I am able to extract the technique out of him, and then try it out, I could become non-living, unaging, and undying. I just hope to catch him really soon."

Boom!

Then with a sudden boom sound ringing out when Nine Calamities suddenly increased his speed, he shot away at a great speed to a town that was closer to the one that he was currently in.

...

After many days of cultivating, Xiao Lin's eyes suddenly sprung open. He then stood to his feet from his cross-legged position on the ground and stretched himself really well.

"When is that damned sect going to start taking in new sect members? At least, I asked from people around, and they said that they haven't taken in any sect member this year."

"So, I am quite lucky that they haven't done disciple enrolment, and that when they eventually start, I will be able to register and go in. But now, I seriously wonder what's taking them so long. I really need to enter the sect soon, if I don't want to be captured and then taken away by Nine Calamities and the others who must be out of the castle by now to really search for me."

"And one thing that I am absolutely sure about is that they would have figured by now that I am not a living being, and then have this stupid belief that my body holds some sort of key to a type of mysterious and odd power that they haven't really come across or heard before in their entire lives.." Xiao Lin said with a frustrated and unhappy expression in his face.