Young Master Liu stared at him in astonishment, a sudden thought striking him as he spoke, "Senior, have you perhaps been inside?"

Young Master Liu noticed a subtle twitch on Scholar Jia’s face, which vanished instantly, replaced by a strained smile. The scholar then uttered a strange sentence to him, "In that place, I met someone." He then looked up at Young Master Liu again, saying, "The Nine Consecutive Mounds, the Ninety-Nine Rushing Heavens—all bearing the character Nine..." Young Master Liu felt that the man's eyes held an indescribable shade of terror. He then spoke the next sentence to me, his tone shifting slightly, word by deliberate word: "I feel that he, too, has come to these Ninety-Nine Heavens."

Without reason, Young Master Liu felt a chill run down his body and shivered. Before he could react, Scholar Jia returned to his composed self, pointing ahead and exclaiming loudly, "Everyone, look! The city gates of the Boundless Dao Treasury are visible now."

Everyone halted and gazed forward. Indeed, the dense forest was nearing its end. Their current position was precisely the borderland between the woods and the city. The trees thinned out, and the full expanse of the purple Boundless Dao Treasury was now largely unveiled before their eyes.

Young Master Liu shook off his musings. Looking at Scholar Jia before him, those last few sentences still sent faint shivers trailing down his spine.

With the Boundless Dao Treasury finally in sight, everyone’s motivation surged. As the vegetation grew sparser, their pace quickened considerably. In less than ten minutes, they finally stood beneath the colossal celestial palace, wrought from magical purple crystal.

The entirety of the Boundless Dao Treasury rendered them speechless. The celestial palace resembled a single, peerless, massive crystal, utterly transparent throughout, radiating a dazzling purple luminescence. Every person standing before it felt an instinctive urge to bow down in reverence.

The immense city gate stood half-open, revealing a passage wide enough for two people to walk abreast. The floor of the passage inside the gate was paved with glittering, multi-colored, transparent crystal tiles.

They shook their heads below the ramparts, sighing in wonder, unable to truly fathom the reality of this city, yet this heavenly palace stood undeniably before them. After a long pause, Scholar Jia’s voice pulled them back to reality. Scholar Jia said, "Comrades, let us enter. There may be even more wonders inside to astound us."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Thus, the group proceeded toward the half-ajar city gate.

The very instant they stepped through the gate, a flash of golden light zipped past their eyes. In the moment of their stunned distraction, they suddenly saw two great birds standing squarely upon the passage within the gate, fixing them with their pair of narrow, phoenix-like eyes.

These two great birds were precisely the pair of phoenixes they had spotted earlier in the thicket. Seeing them suddenly appear and block their path, everyone froze on the spot, unsure of what to do next.

They stared blankly at the two phoenixes, and the two phoenixes stared back coldly, issuing no cries or making any further movement. Yet, their intent was crystal clear: they would not allow the group to enter the Boundless Dao Treasury.

What was happening? Why were the phoenixes blocking their way? As the standoff continued, a sound like the heavens splitting and the earth shattering suddenly pierced their ears. Everyone’s heart jolted—what noise was that?

Both phoenixes seemed to hear the colossal boom. They suddenly spread their wings and, with sharp cries of "Qiang! Qiang!", soared up into the sky above the city. This sudden turn of events left the group even more bewildered.

At that moment, following a long dragon roar that echoed across the valley, everyone saw the Azure Dragon, previously residing in the blue lake, suddenly manifest in the sky above the Boundless Dao Treasury as well.

Fan DeBiao blurted out, "Blast it all! Isn’t that... isn’t that the Azure Dragon from the blue lake?"

Understanding dawned on everyone at once. The earth-shattering noise must have been the sound of the Azure Dragon breaking free from its confinement. And those two phoenixes were likely the guardians of this Boundless Dao Treasury. They had intended to stop the group from entering, but the Azure Dragon chose that exact moment to break its bonds and appear above the city. They certainly disregarded the humans, focusing instead on preventing the Azure Dragon from entering the city.

Looking up, the group saw the two phoenixes hovering before the Azure Dragon, spreading their magnificent wings and crying out at the dragon, seemingly warning it not to approach the Boundless Dao Treasury. However, the humans also noted that the Azure Dragon seemed entirely unimpressed. It opened its massive jaw and roared incessantly at the pair of phoenixes, baring its claws and teeth, displaying a fierce demeanor, clearly intending to frighten the phoenixes away.

One dragon and two phoenixes faced off in the air, exchanging fierce calls, yet it seemed both sides held reservations about the other, neither daring to launch the first attack.

Just then, a beam of golden light suddenly erupted from the depths of the city, which had previously been enveloped in purple radiance, shooting straight up into the clouds. Everyone gasped, mouths agape, wondering what new anomaly was unfolding.

Upon seeing this golden beam, the Azure Dragon appeared intensely agitated. It twisted its serpentine body, raised its head, and let out a piercing shriek toward the heavens. The twin horns on its head immediately blazed with intense blue light, and with teeth bared and claws extended, it charged directly toward the two phoenixes.

The pair of phoenixes seemed to anticipate the dragon’s attack. They were seen beating their wings, executing an exquisitely precise maneuver to dodge the impact of the dragon horns—one sweeping left and the other right—just avoiding the charge. Then, their long beaks struck swiftly toward the Azure Dragon’s eyes.

The Azure Dragon had no choice but to retract its body, falling back to its original position. It shook its head and thrashed its tail, glaring fiercely at the two phoenixes blocking its path with its enraged eyes. Suddenly, it turned and retreated, which struck the observers below as profoundly strange. Had it conceded after just one exchange?

The pair of phoenixes in the air let out triumphant cries, circling and dancing above, their high-pitched calls seemingly mocking the Azure Dragon.

Seeing the battle between dragon and phoenix end so anticlimactically, the observers felt a wave of disappointment. Fan DeBiao shook his head, muttering with some dejection, "They always say the Dragon is the King of Divine Beasts, yet it proved so ineffective. Nor did I see anything particularly fearsome about those divine birds, the phoenixes. Utterly boring. It seems ancient legends are nothing more than exaggerations."

At that moment, Scholar Jia’s cold snort cut through the air: "Not necessarily. I suspect the Azure Dragon will challenge those two phoenixes again. That place where the golden light shot up must hold something the Dragon desires; it won't just leave empty-handed."

Everyone stared at Scholar Jia in astonishment. Young Master Liu felt that Scholar Jia’s entire demeanor, both expression and gaze, had grown somewhat peculiar. Recalling their conversation in the dense woods, he sensed that the scholar was hiding certain matters deep within, matters connected to their current predicament. Young Master Liu pondered secretly, Could this be related to the legend of the mysterious Nine Consecutive Mounds Warring States Tomb? Even though Scholar Jia hadn't admitted to investigating the legendary Nine Consecutive Mounds, Young Master Liu was certain he must have been inside.