In the Treasure Room

A while later, they had both passed through different parts of the palace containing different locks and secret corridors and were now in front of a large hall guarded by several rather strong guards, though these simply stepped aside when they saw that it was the Imperial Princess and that she had the emperor's permission to enter here.

Still, Tang Yin was stunned.

"This... Little Princess, are you sure you're going to let me in? This is the country's Treasury; do you know that?" Tang Yin said doubtfully, as he looked at the huge door being opened by Zu Xiaolin with a smile.

She hadn't said anything to him during the whole tour besides pulling him to different parts of the palace.

But Tang Yin was still stunned that she had brought him to this important place.

Wasn't she afraid at all? He thought doubtfully.

She smiled and just then, opened the different locks of the huge door of the Imperial Treasury.

Thus, a huge hall came into view for both of them.

With numerous objects everywhere, but all nicely decorated and in place.

It was immense, to say the least.

Then she looked at Tang Yin as she pulled him into the hall.

"It's okay, my father gave me permission for this too. He said that you might have seen so many treasures in your life, that capable this little treasure was absolutely nothing to you." She replied with a smile, leaving Tang Yin even more stunned.

But it seemed to make some sense.

'If she told him everything I mentioned in that short period of time, it's possible they think I'm from some great force of this world. But... To do it so freely like that, doesn't this emperor care at all? Or do they have another treasure hall and this one is just a front?' Tang Yin thought doubtfully.

There were empires, sects, and clans that did that, so it wouldn't be far-fetched.

Even so, it was still surprising, for which Tang Yin should thank them.

What was in front of him was a huge treasure room.

At first glance, a huge wealth of different kinds of treasures was laid out in front of him, but...

Certainly, this did not cost a tenth of what he once had inside his own Spirit Ring when he was in his world.

So, he was indifferent towards this.

Zu Xiaolin noticed this and smiled inwardly.

'It looks like father was right, he doesn't seem to be surprised by any of this.' She thought and then closed the door behind her.

Tang Yin then looked at her and pulled out a sheet with different herbs and materials written on it.

"I don't have much to ask, Miss Zu. You must have a place where you have written down every single thing in this treasure, right? I just want what's written on this little sheet." Tang Yin said calmly.

She nodded and grabbed the sheet.

She didn't know the price of anything written here, so she immediately let out a shout.

"Treasurer!"

Right after the shout, a fat but extremely honest-looking man came out from behind a bunch of shelves that were in the distance.

He initially showed his head, and when he noticed that it was Zu Xiaolin who was here, he immediately smiled and started running over.

Tang Yin smiled.

He didn't think he would find a treasurer in this place, but it made a lot of sense to have a reliable person in this kind of place.

In his sect, they also had one, although the mechanism of his sect's Treasure Room was different, much more advanced.

Also, although they had a treasurer, he was a Spiritual Beast of Wisdom, extremely powerful but extremely loyal to the Sect.

Unlike here, who has a normal human being.

Still, it was good that such a person was here.

When Tang Yin finished thinking, the fat man had arrived.

"Haha, Little Princess, I didn't expect to see you around here. It's been a long time since you've been here, what brings you here?" the man asked with a calm smile.

Zu Xiaolin then passed him the paper Tang Yin had given her.

"Long time no see, treasurer. I won't stay long this time; can you fetch these materials? I am attending to an important guest and he needs them." She replied calmly.

She previously used to come to this place to play with this old man.

Although he appeared to be a young and fat man, the truth is that he is even older than her father.

The treasurer then became a little discouraged but still nodded. Grabbed the paper, looked for a moment at Tang Yin, and then averted his gaze to the paper.

He thought for a moment and tried to make a memory about some things and then nodded.

"There are some of these materials around here, but not all of them... Is that a problem?" He asked, and Zu Xiaolin then looked at Tang Yin.

Tang Yin shook his head.

"It's okay, the ones I can get will make me very happy." He replied, reassuring Zu Xiaolin, and the treasurer then nodded.

"Wait a moment, I'll go get them." He replied, and after saying goodbye, he ran off again.

Zu Xiaolin then began to guide Tang Yin in case he saw something he liked.

"Would you believe me if I told you that that man, without cultivation, is over 120 years old?" Zu Xiaolin asked with a smile as she led Tang Yin.

The latter looked at her in surprise.

"It's not possi... Hm?" Just as Tang Yin was about to reply that no such thing was possible, he felt a small smell coming to his nose and looked at the ground.

'Oh?" he thought.

Zu Xiaolin smiled when she heard that Tang Yin had said 'No', so she went to turn around to tell him a few more things, but found him looking at the ground and surprised.

After looking at the ground for a moment, Tang Yin looked at Zu Xiaolin in surprise.

"No wonder you say that and that you can reach such a level of cultivation in such a short time, there is a Spiritual Vein underneath this Hall..." Tang Yin said in surprise.

Zu Xiaolin was immensely surprised at first.

'Can he know that? Could it be that he is not a cripple? How is that possible?' She thought.

"This... How do you know? Can you see spiritual energy?" She asked doubtfully.

If she thought about it, it seemed to make some sense.

'That's right, he's always been able to see my cultivation level and that's not possible if he can't see spiritual energy, right?' She thought, and coming to understand this, her eyes cleared.

But Tang Yin noticed this and shook his head.

"No, don't think strange things. Your eyes do not deceive you. Certainly, I cannot see spiritual energy." He replied.

She then felt confused by his answer.

"If you can't see it, how do you know there's a Spiritual Vein here? And how can you see my cultivation? It doesn't make much sense..." She spoke.

"Do you know what Spiritual Energy is?" Instead of answering her question, he instead asked another.

A question that left her even more confused.

"...This, how could you explain what Spiritual Energy is? It's something spiritual, isn't it? Like air, but spiritual." She replied.

In fact, this is something the Academies don't explain because even they don't know, how could she know?

But Tang Yin nodded.

"Yes and no. But, to put it bluntly, spiritual energy is the energy of the world. It is in everything in this world. To the cultivator spiritual energy is just like air. And depending on where you are, sometimes the air can have a different smell, right? You can smell polluted air or pure air and easily differentiate one from the other. So, the same applies to spiritual energy." Tang Yin said, and after pausing for a moment, he continued.

"Spiritual energy changes smell depending on the place constantly. The spiritual energy given off by a Grass is not the same as that given off by a Beast. Much less is it the same as that given off by the world by itself. Also, the higher the concentration, the more obvious the smell becomes. This is what doctors or alchemists use to differentiate one herb from another, the smell."

"And precisely, that's what I do to differentiate. That's how I can tell someone's cultivation level and that's also how I can tell about the Spiritual Vein underneath this place. The smell here is quite intense and different. At first, I thought it was the smell of spiritual treasures, but this distinctive smell can only belong to a Spiritual Vein."

Tang Yin talked and talked as much as he wanted until he had explained everything in a detailed but summarized manner.

If he wanted to explain everything even more, would possibly not finish today.

But that was enough to astonish Zu Xiaolin.

She had not expected such a thing to be possible.

'To differentiate spiritual energy by smell? How would one expect from a genius like him...' She thought.

No matter how much she wanted to, she could not differentiate spiritual energy from her surroundings with smell.

Let alone know someone's cultivation level.

'How strong was he before he was crippled?' she thought.

In the end, she just smiled sheepishly.

"The Young Master is a genius. He seems to know everything." She said helplessly, and Tang Yin just shrugged his shoulders.

After that, the two of them talked for a while longer and looked around the surroundings.

Although there were many treasures, Tang Yin was not attracted to any of them.

After a while, the treasurer came back and handed what he could find to Tang Yin.

The latter nodded, and after that, they both left the Hall of Treasures.

He was able to find a good amount of the necessary herbs, so Tang Yin was happy.