"Oh did you make it to the sewers" his wife asked noticing him in the bath.
"I did, and I bring great news" he said with a smile on his face.
"That's great, I could barely find anything. The most I found were some suspicious corridors which seemingly led to nowhere".
"Well I found a map of the palace, and with it a place that could help us out".
"A Map! Was it the whole map of the palace?" she questioned with stars in her eyes.
"Uh, no... it was however a very detailed map of the palace, with most of it detailing the sewer system" he said.
"Oh, I guess that helps".
"Anyway there's one place outlined in the map that will greatly benefit us" he said with an ever increasing grin on his face.
"What did you find a secret storehouse or something full of resources".
"Better" he said hyping up the moment.
"What could be better than that?" she was getting worried, what could be better than that.
"A wine cellar" he said triumphally.
Her expression deflated "A wine cellar? What, do they have some really good aged wine that could help with our cultivation" she asked.
"Yes, they do, I heard they make a lot and that if the wine isn't aged enough its not accessible to anybody. I need your help identifying the wine, I have no knowledge on this kind of thing".
"*Sigh* Of course you don't, I'm no expert either but I bet I can identify it better than you can".
"That would be great, let's go after dinner I still need to eat".
They quickly made plans as they were going to go into the wine cellar, some time after dinner when night approaches.
Gu Zhi was leading Gu Xiao across the palace, memorizing the different passageways and using his memory of the map to guide them.
"What do you think the Ji couple is doing" Gu Xiao asked.
"I don't know, nor do I care... I saw in some journals of the previous contestant that the palace has a limited amount of trials, if they aren't a lot of couples left they decrease the amount of trials and judge who to give the most rewards based on performance".
"That's common knowledge you should already know that".
"Indeed I do, but what I found interesting is how the person in those trials said a good indication of ones performance is how well the guides treat you. Meaning the nicer they are the more likely it is that you preformed well in their eyes".
"That doesn't surprise me, although its not common knowledge some people have theorized the same".
"Right, but the reason why I'm bringing it up, is because I have noticed a change in the guide's attitude towards me compared to others".
"That's good, it means were doing really well" Gu Xiao stated.
'Right, but I feel like there's more to it. They were nice to me to began with and it is a very stark contrast to the other contestants'.
He led her through secret tunnels, false walls, hidden staircases until the last obstacle awaited them.
They were in the sewers again inside of an opening with nothing but open space and walls surrounding the open space.
Gu Zhi went to the nearby water stream and scooped out some water. He poured it on the ground in the open space. The water moved not like water should. It moved like it had a purpose as it was slowly outlining symbols on the floor. He went and scooped out more and more water until a full on formation was formed on the floor. He motioned for GU Xiao to get inside the formation and then said "open".
The formation lit up and teleported them to a different room. Inside there were barrels and barrels full of unknown liquid.
"We made it" he said.
The walls were made of cobblestone as there were many support beams made out of stone and wood here and there. Torches that seemed to burn forever lined the walls and barrel after barrel was lined in front of them. Along the walls, some in odd spaces, sometimes there were just wine bottles laying here and there. The barrels were labeled but they didn't know the specifics on the wine.
"Frozen dragon berry wine, blood raspberry wine, chilled winter fusion wine".
The list went on.
"Do you recognize any of these wines" Gu Zhi asked.
"yes the green spring berry wine, fire heart cherry wine... WHAT!".
She looked absolutely stunned looking at the names of three barrels they read: Golden gourd wine, verdant flame liquor, and azure cloud wine, but it wasn't those they caught her eye.
A small gourd placed in a rather unconspicious spot read nine heavens ambrosia.
"HOLY SHIT" Gu Xiao stared at the gourd in disbelief. "This can't be real, there's no way a place like this could have a wine like this, I must be dreaming" she started rambling to herself like a mad woman.
"Woah, woah calm down, calm down, its possible its just fake or poor imitation don't treat everything you see as fact".
That seemed to calm her down greatly as she still stared at the gourd.
"What is nine heavens ambrosia" Gu Zhi said with care.
"Nine heavens ambrosia is one of the 3 divine wines! It is known across the world as the wine of immortals.... Could the person who made the palace of eternal love be an immortal, but even then that seems like a stretch." She was completely absorbed into her own thoughts as Gu Zhi went to pick up the gourd.
"Be carful if you drop or spill the wine, I'll make you lick it up off the floor" she said with venom.
"Relax, with how frantic you are about this wine I'll treat this gourd like its my own baby, still though you didn't answer what this wine does".
"That's because I don't know, I just know its the wine of immortals and its known as one of the 3 divine wines."