Thankfully the passage of time had half rusted some parts of the door. After receiving a full-strength kick from both of them at the same time the door flew off and let them into a few dozen square feet room. This room was a bit smaller than expected but still, it at least confirmed the fact that they were right about the fact of hidden rooms existing.

Both of them were holding their luminous stones in one of their hands while holding their weapons with the other one. But after confirming that the room was empty, they hid the weapons and started looking around. Some rotten mats on the floor indicated that this room was probably a cultivation spot. But this did not interest them at all, in truth, all their attention was on the center of the room.

To be exact to the item located on a small pedestal occupying the center of the room, Seemingly it was originally surrounded by mats used by the elders or special disciples to cultivate with or even maybe adore 'it'.

Describing the object on the pedestal was hard as it was something that resembled an orb but at the same time did not. This contradiction came from the fact that the orb was constantly shifting its shape. Still, after a brief moment of having a different shape returned to its original form and so should be an orb. Wu Guang's memories and knowledge quickly identified it as a phasing orb, which was actually a simple amalgamation of qi stones that merged into this form under the influence of a real and pure astral current that normally appeared near a new Astral Gate.

Wu Guang was sure that he was not mistaken. Orbs as such were known and valuable, at least in higher-tiered realms. But as they would only form during the first month or so after a realm Astral Gate was formed, they were very rare and always came from newly connected realms. Valuable in the monetary sense aside, a cultivator that owned one of such was extremely lucky, after all, its effect was to strengthen the qi in a small area around it. Basically, it improved and quickened one's cultivation inside its zone of effect.

"Hmm... What is this?" Yuan Taotu was surprisingly the first one to ask

"I do know what is it and it's not dangerous, well, in terms of the item itself. But it is extremely so in terms of owning it. I would like to never ask something like this from you, but if you want me to share the information about it then we will have to exchange oaths" Wu Guang could actually hide the truth and try to keep the orb for himself. His rational mind agreed with the sentiment, but in the end, he decided against it. Mostly because he was already hiding several things from Yuan Taotu and did not want to add another one if he could prevent it.

"I see. It's so dangerous?"

"Yes. I can't disclose much but basically, this is a stolen treasure and most probably sought by anyone who knows of it regardless of ownership"

Hearing this Yuan Taotu grew silent, but after sometime declared that he was ready to do so

"I will exchange oaths. This treasure is extremely interesting, I can almost feel like the qi entering my body is of better quality than any other I have sensed until now"

With this said both of them indeed exchanged oaths under heaven's law. It included that they would never share the fact of this treasure existence without approval from all the other people who knew about it at the respective moment. The latter was actually not needed right now as there were only two of them in the room but Wu Guang calculated that maybe they would need to share it with someone, so getting a wider restriction was an added security.

With the oath done Wu Guang quickly summarized the effects and value of a 'Phasing Astral Orb' which was its real name. He did ask Yuan Taotu to not ask the reason for him knowing this and the latter respected it and did not ask anything.

"It's valuable, but what do you mean by being stolen for sure? And being sought off by everyone who knows about it?" A very long phrase for Yuan Taotu simply indicated that he was extremely agitated by the treasure they found

"Did you not hear? Phasing orbs only appear when an Astral Gate is formed. Just think, on whose territory the Astral Gate is?"

"The Empire!" Yuan Taotu answered right away but his usual half-whisper was almost a shout when he exclaimed this

"Yes. And so it could be only stoled by someone, after all, the Empire would never let go such valuable item. As for being sought by everyone who has heard of it, I really mean it. I don't think there should be a lot of people who know of it as the gate was formed several hundreds of years ago, but secrets as such normally are passed to descendants"

Wu Guang also shared his thoughts on the fact that the orb was left here. As the evacuation from the hills was done massively and there would be a lot of people nearby that could sense it, it was left here. It was extremely strange that no one came to retrieve it later. Although the most probable reason was that the people who knew about it or where it was located either died without passing the information. Or did not have the opportunity to retrieve because of the beast tides that were common for almost fifty years after the cataclysm.

"Should we take it with us?"

"Although it could be dangerous it is extremely beneficial for us, so the answer would be yes. As for if it can be done... If we take it, we have to prevent anyone from entering the orb's area of effect. A holding pouch will not hide its effect, but the affected zone is just about a few feet. Without entering the zone, it can not be sensed, so it should be not so hard to maintain hidden. At least until we get a container with sealing properties or we enter the advanced levels of the Spirit realm and hide it inside the dantian"

"I see... Wait! How about the ones following us before? If they are nearby they could sense or even overhear us"

"Don't worry about it. We are not being followed right now, at least within a mile radius. I can't tell you how I know it, but I am sure of it. As for when we are inside the sect, they at max monitor our residence. But you are right, we will need to take some precautions, so I hope you will accept the burden of carrying it"

"Me?"

"Yes. I am their main target and I also have matters to attend to after we return. As only a fellow team member of mine, you should not be so closely looked after as well..."

"I see"

With this decision made, Yuan Taotu came close to the orb and after confirming with Wu Guang that it was safe, stored it inside his personal holding pouch.

The effect of the 'Phasing Astral Orb' did not diminish at all even after being stored in the rune-formed space of the pouch. Such treasure was priceless, and so it was indeed an extremely lucky find.

The orb may bring them danger later, but the increase in cultivation that it would give them while they managed to conceal it was too tempting. In truth, Wu Guang wanted to carry it himself to benefit from the effect all the time, but he knew that from the pair, he was the person who would be approached by anyone first. Just that alone was enough to understand that he could not carry it into the sect.

With the first room giving them such a valuable albeit problematic treasure the pair hopes about the second room diminished. Normal people would actually expect to find something even greater but both of them were realists and knew that treasures did not come in pairs as in stories.

Still, they proceeded to the other marked location. After repeating the process, they found a similar passage and secure door. And after kicking it away as the previous, they were extremely surprised to find that... this time the stories were right.

The room that they entered now was of similar size to the one they had just left. The only difference being that it was brightly illuminated. Light runes were present and this was already surprising, after all, the whole building had none. But it was not this fact the one that made them gasp, but the fact that the room was a treasury. And not an empty one but a filled up treasury room.