However, at least he knew about this door. If he hadn't even found the door yet, it would be even more troublesome, requiring much more time to crack.
The information Ning Zhiyuan received was that this Peerless Sword contained very minute and exquisite mechanisms, but he didn't know where they were located or how to activate them. Therefore, Ning Zhiyuan could only find experts in mechanical arts to solve this matter.
When Ning Zhiyuan had people study this Peerless Sword, he suddenly remembered something, it seemed Xiaoyao also knew some mechanical arts. Back then, that Demon Cult device was a test of mechanical arts. This could be determined from how those mechanisms were cracked, even the Great Tang Empire's royal mechanical engineers felt that if it were them, they might not necessarily be able to crack them.
Those royal mechanical engineers indicated that if Xiaoyao wasn't lucky, then his mechanical arts were more sophisticated than theirs. The possibility of luck was very small, because at this level of mechanical arts, things were too intricate, the probability of successfully cracking them through luck was extremely low.
But this kid had already gone to roam the martial world. Never mind, it would be finished soon anyway. It seemed they had already found the way, even if he were here, it probably wouldn't make much difference and might not be much faster.
Ning Zhiyuan felt that even if Xiaoyao were present, it couldn't be much faster. Moreover, this matter was better known by as few people as possible. Although Xiaoyao was called Young Prince, Ning Zhiyuan didn't want Xiaoyao to know about this kind of thing.
But he would never have imagined that when Xiaoyao first saw this sword, he already knew its secret and also knew how to unlock it. Not long after leaving the Baiyue royal palace, he had already opened the Peerless Sword, seen the secret inside, then put everything back exactly as it was.
Simply put, Xiaoyao had already mastered the secret within the Peerless Sword, and at this moment, he was going to uncover this secret. Since he was roaming the martial world, of course he had no purpose, and this secret could perfectly serve as a purpose. it didn't affect his plans.
...
...
This secret could actually be explained with three common words.
Treasure Map!
Within the Peerless Sword, there were no martial arts manuals or military treatises, but there was a treasure map that might exceed those in value by hundreds of times. The specific value would depend on how much treasure this map pointed to.
Xiaoyao believed this treasure's value definitely wouldn't be low. If it were just an ordinary treasure, how could it possibly be hidden in the then peerless Peerless Sword, and concealed within such exquisite and ingenious mechanisms?
You must know that creating mechanisms on a treasured sword like the Peerless Sword was itself an extremely difficult task. You can imagine how enormous this project was, and the value was equally imaginable.
When Xiaoyao discovered this treasure map, he straightforwardly memorized it. He wasn't the type to leave treasure unfound. On the contrary, he liked treasures, especially ancient treasures. Obviously, the Peerless Sword's treasure was very ancient, extremely ancient.
The Peerless Sword was a work from three thousand years ago. Simply put, this treasure was at least three thousand years old.
In such ancient treasures, regardless of what they contained, everything would have value. If there was long-lost knowledge, the value would be even higher.
Xiaoyao might not be very interested in other things, but he was very interested in lost knowledge. Sometimes, the more you know, the more you want to know, Xiaoyao was in this situation.
Xiaoyao wasn't afraid that Ning Zhiyuan would discover this later, because he would only borrow and take some useful things, just a portion that wouldn't attract others' attention. Well, at least that's what he thought.
What if he was discovered? Who would care? Let them find him first.
Hehe, a treasure-hunting journey, this was also a way of roaming the martial world. Life in the martial world was truly colorful.
To hunt for treasure, the first thing to do was decode the treasure map. Three thousand years was a long time, many things could have changed. Therefore, even a simple treasure map that didn't need decoding might require confirming many things.
So Xiaoyao needed to study this treasure map first. Fortunately, this treasure map wasn't very difficult, and some landmarks were quite clear. Therefore, Xiaoyao quickly found the answer, it wasn't as he imagined with several similar results, but just this one result.
Of course, being able to find it so quickly was also because Xiaoyao had studied the terrain of various places when bored, and had seen maps of the entire continent, whether continent-level maps, country-level maps, or even village-level maps. He had seen them all, as long as there were materials in this regard.
Xiaoyao hadn't seen materials from some remote places, but the location indicated by this treasure map wasn't remote. It was a very famous place with different versions of maps, it would be difficult for Xiaoyao not to have seen them.
This was a place on the continent that was illustriously famous, full of legends, and containing numerous secrets. This was the center of the continent's middle region, Heavenly Heart Mountain.
Some said Heavenly Heart Mountain was the center of heaven and earth, hence its name.
Heavenly Heart Mountain wasn't one mountain or one peak. It encompassed a mountain region covering nearly one-tenth of the continent's area. Here there were strange peaks, valleys, canyons, highland plains, lakes, and...
In short, Heavenly Heart Mountain was a mountain region with extremely complex terrain and extremely vast area. Not only did humans live here, but many monster beasts also roamed in and out.
Heavenly Heart Mountain was actually the place with the most monster beasts on the continent. The closer to the center, the more there were. Moreover, the monster beasts here were all high-level, unlike Chi Chi, that little glutton who was an ornamental small monster beast.
The monster beasts here, to put it unpleasantly, if you encountered high-level ones, even saints could be killed. Therefore, this was basically one of the most dangerous places on the continent.
But generally, places with many dangers were often places with many opportunities. Whether it was the value of the monster beasts themselves or Heavenly Heart Mountain's environment full of natural treasures everywhere, this made it an adventurer's paradise, though it could also become their hell.
Generally, adventuring martial artists stayed on the periphery. Only those with ability dared enter the middle zone, while the very center, to this day, no one dared enter, or rather, simply no one could enter.
In the middle zone, high-level monster beasts could be seen everywhere. There were even many legendary monster beasts with high intelligence. These monster beasts not only had strength and wisdom no weaker than humans, but could also transform into human form to deceive people, and could even command lower-level monster beasts. Any of these points could block people from entering.
Historically, there had been several instances of monster beasts launching large-scale attacks on the human race, led by these intelligent monster beasts. Only then did people realize that monster beasts could have such high intelligence and such commanding power, while monster beast strength was terrifying enough to completely annihilate the human race.
The monster beasts that attacked the human race at that time weren't all monster beasts, but only a portion of them.
Those monster beasts with intelligence who could transform into humans were once called the Monster Clan by people, separated from the category of monster beasts.
Sometimes, when people spoke of the Monster Clan, they actually meant this special group among monster beasts.
If these Monster Clan members wholeheartedly wanted to annihilate the human race, humans would face the possibility of extinction. Even if not exterminated, it would at least be a great disaster.
However, monster beasts had no intention of annihilating the human race. Their attacks had only one purpose, some greedy humans had done certain things, killing too many monster beasts and capturing some "women" or "children" among the monster beasts.
Among monster beasts, there were also some very distinctive races. They looked very much like humans but would have some monster beast characteristics. Among these monster beasts were some extremely beautiful races. Such monster beasts were liked by many people, and some could satisfy certain people's special preferences.
Heavenly Entry Town was a town on the eastern edge of Heavenly Heart Mountain. From its literal meaning, this was where one began entering the Heavenly Heart region. The most people traded here because generally merchants wouldn't go deeper.
There were quite a few such towns around the edge of Heavenly Heart Mountain, all relatively prosperous places. This prosperity seemed contradictory to the area's remoteness, but it was imaginable, the more dangerous this place was, the greater the business opportunities.
When Xiaoyao stepped into this Heavenly Entry Town, he heard noisy trading sounds. His entry didn't attract anyone's attention either, there were simply too many solitary martial artists like him, and his age wasn't particularly notable. There were even younger ones than him.
For survival, many things were unimaginable. The youngest person here wasn't even ten years old. What did a youth like him, nearly twenty, amount to?
Xiaoyao also didn't want to attract others' attention. He arrived quietly, found a place to stay, then prepared to continue deeper the next day, advancing toward the treasure map's location.
Before that, Xiaoyao needed to organize his equipment and see what still needed replenishing. After going deep into Heavenly Heart Mountain, various unexpected situations could occur. Preparations needed to be sufficient to deal with various troubles.
"I should still bring some food. Although I have Fasting Pills, food still tastes better," Xiaoyao looked around and decided to get some food from the town. Even if he didn't get food, he could still stay in Heavenly Heart Mountain for a year or so, because he had Fasting Pills he refined himself.
However, as he said, Fasting Pills were still Fasting Pills. If there was other food available, why would he touch such tasteless things as Fasting Pills.
Moreover, when arriving at a place, the most important thing was to see what food was available here, and also see what was worth understanding about this place.
(End of Chapter)