As Fan Xin had mentioned, everyone is split after entering the Dragon Palace.

At the center of the long hallway, illuminated with Luminous Pearls, there is a staircase leading to the lower floor but all along the hallway there is no staircase leading to the upper floor. There is a high chance of it being hidden somewhere in the walls but this thought was rejected after Zhu Furong took a peek outside the window at the end of the hallway.

Looking down, the height is incredible and looking up, there is a slanting rooftop. The Dragon Palace seems to be floating in the clouds.

'So I am on the top floor huh?'

Zhu Furong rubbed his chin while thinking—

'How many floors does this Dragon Palace have by the way?'

'Hmm... Given that the current floor has a ceiling height of 30 feet and predicting that each floor is of the same height, this segment of the Dragon Palace should have 4 floors and a ground floor!'

...

The interior design of the palace is not as extravagant as Zhu Furong had thought it to be but the material used to construct the walls is definitely a luxurious item even in the upper realm. Not just luxurious but rare too. It's Spirit Iron!

Spirit Iron has the same toughness as a normal iron but unlike the normal iron, Spirit Iron can hold Qi. Pair it with a Qi absorbing array and you have a palace that is a huge Spirit Crystal!

Zhu Furong couldn't help but be amazed by the sheer quantity of the Spirit Iron used to construct the Dragon Palace, but at the same time he felt uncomfortable by the pitch black aesthetic of the whole Dragon Palace. It's kinda creepy to live in a black home isn't it?

"No wonder the air inside the palace is quite rich in Spiritual Qi. The whole palace is made up of Spirit Iron."

Zhu Xingzuo spoke in a calm tone—

"The array used is not as good as the 12 Zodiac Array inside the Nine-Layers Pagoda but it definitely is a high rank one. There also seems to be a strengthening array in place."

"Want to absorb the Spiritual Qi from it?" Zhu Furong asked.

"I wish. But there is a restriction array interwoven with the absorption array and strengthening array. If you disable one, the others will be disabled as well. There must be an outlet somewhere in the palace to Cultivate the Qi inside the walls. Maybe it is present in each room for the guests?"

"Hmm... We can just check it out, can't we?"

...

With a wall blocking the other end of the hallway, there are 10 rooms in this section of the palace. Zhu Furong decided to start exploring from the window side.

The doors of each room are also constructed from Spirit Iron and are quite heavy. From Zhu Furong's estimation, only Cultivators above the Qi Condensation stage can open these doors.

…

With a creaking noise the first door was opened.

It's a large room. Large enough to fit 10 queen size beds inside. But unfortunately, the room is empty.

Zhu Furong frowned upon finding the room empty without even a speck of dust inside, but he didn't fret over it and moved to the next room.

Empty... Empty... Empty...

One by one Zhu Furong opened all the 10 rooms and found them empty but sparkling clean. It's as if a robber knew that Zhu Furong was visiting, and looted everything including the dust inside.

Zhu Furong opened his mouth to say something but decided not to waste his time.

...

60 steps down, he is on the lower floor.

The same condition here.

60 more steps and the same here as well.

The 1st floor and the ground floor also had 10 empty rooms.

Leaving that building, Zhu Furong found himself in an open-air atrium connected to 3 other similar 5 storey structures.

Unfortunately the right and the left buildings also had empty rooms.

Without much hope Zhu Furong walked towards the last building section.

...

Sneeew… sneeew… sneew…

An array of sharp metal arrows shot towards Zhu Furong from both directions as soon as he reached the door.

With his quick reflexes, Zhu Furong kicked the door and pulled himself back. 

When he was 10 feet away from the door, the two groups of arrows passed each other, entering into hundreds of tiny slits on both side walls.

Ting!!

A thick guillotine blade dropped from the top of the door frame, covering the door.

"Hmm… This part of the building seems to be protected, maybe we will find something good inside?"

…

Divine Sense usage seems to be restricted to the area you are inside. The walls of the Dragon Palace also seem to incorporate some high ranking Divine Sense restriction array. Due to which it took Zhu Furong quite a long time to disarm the traps. It was difficult to find the hidden mechanisms.

After lifting the guillotine blade up, Zhu Furong entered the building only to find the rooms in the ground floor empty, the 1st floor had a trap but the rooms were empty as well, the 2nd floor was empty, the third floor has a man trying to open a door, the 4th floor—

Oh, a man! At last Zhu Furong found someone.

As Zhu Furong walked towards him, the stranger in camel color hanfu instantly held a fighting posture.

With his hands crossed behind his back, Zhu Furong calmly stood in front of the door that the man was trying to open. He observed it carefully.

The man seemed to be a bit nervous as he stuttered, "I-I came here first. G-Go somewhere e-else." The man tried his best to act brave.

Zhu Furong frowned. His country boy disguise doesn't hide his age. 

A 30 year old looking man scared of a 15 years old is quite awkward.

Zhu Furong scrutinized the man from top to bottom and somewhat understood the reason.

This man is definitely an unaffiliated Cultivator, and most of them value their lives a lot. After all, if they die there may be no one to take care of their family nor may there be anyone to avenge them.

There are definitely some brave unaffiliated Cultivators out there who will fight to death for their honor, but this man is definitely not one of them.

Zhu Furong ignored the wimp and pushed the door, finding it unmovable.

He applied more strength but the door won't budge.

The man besides him suddenly pulled his sword out—

"Didn't you hear what I said? I found this room first. G-Go somewhere else."

Zhu Furong scanned the door with Divine Sense then looked at the man and showed him five fingers, "You have 5 minutes. If you cannot open this door by then, better leave this place. I can tell you are at peak Foundation Establishment rank."

Zhu Furong slowly closed four of his fingers, "1 hit. That's all it will take for me to kill you." He threatened.

He then gestured to the man to try his skills on the door before leaving to check the other 9 doors.

The man gritted his teeth but couldn't utter a single word after looking at Zhu Furong's confident demeanor.

The man took a big gulp and started working on the door. 

From kicking to punching to raining sword strikes, the man tried everything but failed.

Zhu Furong returned exactly 5 minutes later after checking the 9 empty rooms.

He saw the man drenched in sweat and breathing heavily but as expected, the door is as good as new.

Feeling Zhu Furong's presence behind him, the man stumbled to the side and with a dejected face walked down the stairs silently.

Zhu Xingzuo sighed, "This man won't be able to go much further in Cultivation."

Zhu Furong shrugged, "What does it have to do with us?"

"I am more disappointed in the fact that he didn't attack me— I missed some free loot."

Zhu Xingzuo snorted, "Do you need a reason to kill someone in the Martial World?"

"Nope. But since the man took my warning and left quietly I cannot just stab him on the back. It will hurt my conscience."

"Fuck your conscience!"

...

After the man left, Zhu Furong stood in front of the door. Covering it with his Divine Sense he started weaving hand signs and launching them on the door. There were 50 hand seals used before a click was heard from the door.

Zhu Furong let out a long breath and wiped his sweaty forehead. He felt slight dizziness and vigorously shook his head with his eyes closed tightly.

"Cracking a rank 6 array is quite taxing but I wasn't expecting to succeed." 

He took several deep breaths before opening the door. 

He had just taken a step in when he had to jump backwards.

Ting! Ting! Ting! Tinggggg…

A huge and wide metal axe fell on the floor, bounced several times then came to a halt.

With cautious steps, Zhu Furong walked inside the room to find it— empty.

Everything has a limit.

Zhu Furong punched the wall in anger and shouted—

"Fuck the mother dragon! What is this shitty Dragon Palace? What is this cheap quality axe head? A rank 6 array in the lower realm? Are you insane? Test the Cultivators? The lower realm only has the knowledge of rank 3 pills, artifacts and arrays! Who the fuck are you expecting to be able to open this rank 6 array? You motherfucker Ancient Dragon! This daddy here gave his all to open this fucking door just to breathe in air? Motherfucker!!"

Cursing his way out, Zhu Furong climbed up to the 4th floor. Here he also found 9 rooms completely empty and even if there was something, the man earlier would have taken it away.

…

A while later…

Standing in front of the last door in this hallway, rubbing his chin, Zhu Furong wondered—

"Hmm… What to do about this?"

He is in a dilemma.

Can he open this door protected by a rank 9 array? What if it's another empty room like the others? Should he forget about this and move on to explore other areas of the Dragon Palace?

What-to-do?

"Can I even decode a rank 9 array with my current strength?"

Zhu Xingzuo instantly denied, "Don't even dream about it. You cannot! That rank 6 array earlier took almost all of your Soul Energy, didn't it? It will take about 3 hours to recover."

"That's true... So? Should we leave this? Well, there is a high chance this is another empty room— I am really doubting this Dragon Palace has anything good left after being raided every 10,000 years."

Zhu Xingzuo lamented, "If I had even half of my peak strength I could have easily checked what's inside with my Divine Sense but in my current condition our only choice is to combine our Divine Sense with a bit of Chaos Qi."

Zhu Furong hesitated, "You have already expended quite a lot of your Chaos Qi, will it be alright?"

"Well, I want to restrict the usage of Chaos Qi as much as possible but there is someone who always finds himself in trouble and I have to waste my Chaos Qi to save his sorry ass every time. Sigh!"

With a snort, Zhu Furong started walking away.

Zhu Xingzuo shouted angrily—

"Get back there, where the fuck are you leaving to? That's a door protected by a rank 9 array! That's the most powerful array a person can arrange! There's no way the room is empty! Come on, go back! Idiot!"

Zhu Furong stopped after hearing Zhu Xingzuo's yelling. He turned around and walked back a few steps before coming to a halt.

He frowned, "Now that I think about it, don't you think it's weird to find rank 6 and rank 9 arrays in a place which only allows Cultivators till early Revolving Core rank?"

"I have already given up on thinking about such things after we discovered the White Tiger, Imugi and Golden Roc leftovers. A Dragon Palace or a rank 9 array seems natural to be found on this lower realm planet now."

Thinking about that, Zhu Furong also agrees. He didn't think about it anymore.

"By the way Xingzuo, the pink High Grade Spirit Crystal we have, you can absorb it. Even though it won't convert to much Chaos Qi, it will at least cover a few months of Cultivation time, right?"

"Huh? No way! Didn't I tell you, you will need it for the last three stages of Body Transformation?"

Zhu Furong shook his head, "Not any more."

"What do you mean? I don't remember us finding a better replacement."

"You were sleeping when I got this information. There is a place called Lightning Valley in the Maoyun Continent, opposite to the Bayang Continent. It is said that the valley holds the tallest mountain on planet Shengdong at 48,000 feet high. The mountain constantly attracts thunder from the heavens and it is estimated that the most powerful thunder there may be stronger than a Heavenly Tribulation!"

"You mean..."

Zhu Furong nodded, "Yes. Since the more powerful a thunder is, the purer Spiritual Qi it holds, with its destructiveness and purity, it is the best medium to initiate the Bone Reforging stage. You will also have the chance to absorb as much Spiritual Qi as possible."

"Wow! It's a great idea!— That is, if you don't burn to dust from those mighty thunder strikes. Last time you had to use the Nine-Layers Pagoda to save your ass, you forgot? But nonetheless, it's a good opportunity for me to recover some of my lost Chaos Qi. Guess it will be your turn to make some sacrifices."

"Well, since you want to open this door, let's focus on recovering my Soul Energy for now."

Saying this, Zhu Furong sat in a meditative posture in front of the door. Zhu Xingzuo absorbed Spiritual Qi via his dantian and led a stream to Zhu Furong's Divine Sea where his Spiritual Body is present. With the Spiritual Qi, his Soul Energy slowly recovered as his Nascent Soul inside the Spiritual Body regained its golden glow.

...

About 5 hours later a click was heard from the door while Zhu Furong slammed his butt on the floor.

He is sweating rivers with a thin line of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth.

The word 'tired' or 'haggard' cannot explain his current condition. Pale to death, seems somewhat of a fitting word.

He is lying limp on the floor, breathing with effort. His face must have turned pale but we cannot tell because of the fake skin plastered on. Though his eyes definitely have lost some light.

Zhu Xingzuo who usually instantly envelopes Zhu Furong in Chaos Qi to heal him is also completely quiet. Even though his Spiritual Body is way stronger than Zhu Furong it is not strong enough to breeze through a rank 9 array related task. Zhu Xingzuo has also used up most of his Soul Energy.

A tiny vortex of Spiritual Qi formed over Zhu Furong's dantian as someone inside the Nine-Layers Pagoda is absorbing Spiritual Qi at an astonishing speed.

…

Suddenly the palace vibrated as an agitated Divine Sense passed through every nook and corner. A vigorous and manly voice shouted—

"Which bastard opened my Alchemy Room? Motherfucker! Wasn't it protected by a rank 9 array? Which rascal is it? Are you from the upper realm? I dare you to touch anything here. This daddy will make sure you die a dog's death!"

The voice was filled with energy and terror. It sent chills through everyone who heard it.

After the voice receded, the whole palace fell silent for a moment.

Zhu Xingzuo groaned—

"Aaoohh… Motherfucker must be the Ancient Dragon or whatever. The owner of this place."

Zhu Furong doesn't have any energy to speak so he just lays silently on the floor as a certain someone isn't delivering any Spiritual Qi to his Spiritual Body. With utmost effort, Zhu Furong rotated his eyes with vigilance.

Few minutes passed but there was no movement nearby.

"Think it's a worn out soul like your masters and doesn't have much energy to move throughout the palace. Or maybe it is trapped somewhere and cannot leave? Anyways, we are safe for now."

…

Zhu Xingzuo started helping Zhu Furong after an hour.

Regaining some energy, Zhu Furong's feeble voice came out—

"If it's the owner of this Dragon Palace, what should we do about this room? I don't think I am strong enough to fight such an entity. Even if you fill my weapon with Chaos Qi, I don't think it will be enough— I remember my Masters. Even in that state they were strong enough to kill the current me."

"Of course if the alive Ancient Dragon had similar Cultivation to your Masters it would be impossible to fight his degraded Spiritual Body. But there's no way we are leaving something we worked so hard for. Take whatever is inside. If the worst comes, we can just hand it over later."

"Sigh! I really hate being weak. Nothing much changed from my past life. Even with so much help, even after obtaining so much knowledge about Cultivation, I am still a waste. Can I even become stronger? Won't I just lay dead somewhere in the coming days? Sigh…"

Zhu Xingzuo spoke in a crying and haggard tone—

"Hey Big Brother, I don't have enough energy right now to prevent the production of Demon Qi in your flesh. Do something about it yourself. It has already started affecting your mind— Fucking hell, whenever your body is near the breaking poin, the Demon Qi starts leaking. Last time you went mad and slaughtered two jungles worth of Spiritual Beasts and this time you are sad, slaughtering my brain."

"Haah... I didn't notice it. Can't you just absorb it like you do with Spiritual Qi that enters my dantian? Aaah... Also, I am too weak to handle it right now, oooh..."

"Fuck you! You better pass the title of Big Brother to me. I am always the one on the losing end. Fuck! I am tired as well, you know? Also, I don't like absorbing Demon Qi, it is filled with the negativity of nature. It's cringey!— This is why I love pure Spiritual Qi, it doesn't have those impurities which are used by the Demons to create Demon Qi."

Along with his ranting, Zhu Xingzuo slowly soaked Zhu Furong's flesh and organs in Chaos Qi for a few seconds and repeated the procedure with an interval of one minute.

During the healing process, Zhu Furong has fallen asleep.

…

After 24 hours, Zhu Furong woke up with a jolt with his forehead covered, wearing a dark expression on his face.

"Bad dream again? Even a tiny bit of Demon Qi is having an effect on you huh? Your mental stability has grown quite weak after the attack of Yin Qi near the cemetery."

Zhu Furong didn't say anything in reply and did some breathing exercises to calm his mind.

…

Without knowing, a day had passed before Zhu Furong completely recovered. He was quite lucky that none of the other participants arrived here during the time he was at his most vulnerable state. This is something he had completely forgotten about. Now thinking about how prone he was to any sort of attacks, he couldn't help but shiver.

"Hey Xingzuo. Remind me from next time to always set up a defensive array before doing tasks like this."

"Hmm, ok, but what array can you set? Do you even have the materials? Ah, you also left the rank 5 illusion barrier array with the Stormingale."

"With the materials in my hands, I can manage a rank 3 defense array. It should be more than enough in the lower realms, shouldn't it?"

"Maybe if no abnormal person appears here, it would be fine."

"Anyways, let's check what's inside."

Cleaning his face and adjusting his dress, Zhu Furong mumbled—

"Maybe the owner of Dragon Palace did something so no one else can come here, else with so many participants there should at least be one to wander here in the last 24 hours.

He suddenly yelped—

"Ah, Speaking of 24 hours, we only have about 24 hours left before the Dragon Palace closes. Better hurry, there's still places to explore."

Zhu Furong cautiously stepped into the room.

"Hope we didn't waste 24 hours for nothing."

"Don't jinx it."