Chapter 430 - Extra 25.

The first chamber was not what either woman had expected. There were no piles of treasure, no weapons resting on stone altars, and no skeletons of ancient challengers left behind as warnings. Instead, rows of shelves had been carved into the walls. Some held fragments of jade, others small bronze tablets, wooden slips, and scrolls whose outer wrappings had turned brown with age. The shelves were arranged with more care than the storage rooms in many famous sects, and the floor had been swept clean of dust. That last detail was impossible to explain. The place had supposedly been sealed for centuries, yet the air did not feel stale, and no thick layer of grime covered the stone. It was as though time had passed around the room rather than through it.