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When the woman and the giant ape left, the terrifying divine sense covering the entire stretch of seas finally vanished.
Ge Qian lay at the bottom of the ocean, tense as could be. When he sensed them leave, he felt a massive weight lift from his shoulders.
It was then that a raspy, aged voice resounded within his soul. “I would never have guessed that a Spirit Dao cultivator had come to the Sea of Chaotic Spirits!”
Ge Qian rubbed his rigid cheeks and muttered, “Why is it that this world keeps getting scarier and scarier? How about… We leave the Sea of Chaotic Spirits right now?”
The aged voice roared in fury, “I’ve never seen someone so cowardly in all my years of life. If you dare to leave, I swear I’ll never share my knowledge and experience with you ever again!”
Ge Qian was stunned, but then, he sighed in exasperation. “I’m just saying!”
He was already starting to plan just how to survive in a place like the Sea of Chaotic Spirits, where danger lurked on every corner…
Meanwhile, within the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House.
They passed row upon row of vast palaces strewn at irregular intervals. It was like a giant maze, and wherever they looked, they saw remnants of ancient formations.
A light barrier covered the skies, and it would blast and destroy anyone who got close to it. It was so powerful that not even Origin Dao cultivators could block it.
This meant that they couldn’t fly in here at all.
Qin Dongxu held the secret map, and he led the group through the buildings. Shockingly, everything went extremely smoothly.
But to their dismay, although they encountered numerous places that once hid good fortune, without exception, all were completely empty. It was obvious that someone had beaten them to the punch.
“Brother Qin, where did you obtain your secret map? Don’t tell me that whoever went in ahead of us has one just like it?” Gu Qingdu couldn’t help but ask.
“We’ve already come this far, so I won’t keep it from you. I received my secret map from Brother Nie. Brother Nie, how do you see the matter?” As he spoke, Qin Dongxu glanced at the head of the Hidden Dragon Sword Sect.
Everyone was visibly stunned. They, too, looked at Nie Xingkong.
Nie Xingkong just said calmly, “I received the map from a good friend of mine. I have no way of knowing whether he gave similar maps to anyone else.”
All of them furrowed their brows. Something seemed fishy about all this.
“Brother Nie, might I ask who your friend is?” Gu Qingdu asked gravely, his eyes flashing like lightning.
Nie Xingkong shook his head. “That’s not important. What matters is, as I’m sure you’ve all seen already, we couldn’t possibly have made it here so smoothly without the map to guide us.”
None of them could deny it.
In the Immortals’ Sword House, danger lurked on every corner. There were traces of ancient formations all over the place. Without the map to guide them, they’d have likely run into unforeseen peril countless times over.
“Come on, let’s continue.” After a moment’s silence, Qin Dongxu led the group further in.
Su Yi and Hua Xinfeng traveled at the tail end of the procession.
When Su Yi saw this, he transmitted, “There’s something fishy about that Possessed, Nie Xingkong. It’s highly likely that he’s a double agent. I suspect that the map is bait to lure Qin Dongxu and his allies here.”
Hua Xinfeng’s beautiful eyes silently turned grim. “Does that mean the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House were a trap to begin with?”
“It’s possible, but the fortune hidden here is most likely real. Otherwise, it couldn’t have caused such an enormous disturbance,” said Su Yi.
“Young Lord, do you think Nie Xingkong is after the same thing we are? He wants the fortune within the ruins and to take down those old-timers?” Hua Xinfeng’s brow furrowed.
Su Yi said calmly, “That depends on who Nie Xingkong is working with, and whether or not they’re capable of that.”
Soon, the group arrived at a stretch of buildings.
“Dammit! Someone obviously just plucked all the divine medicines growing in this spirit pool!”
A towering ancient palace stood here, a thousand-foot Daoist ritual ground at its center. There was a thirty-foot pond off to the side.
The pond had long since dried up, leaving nothing but black mud.
You Changkong reached out and plucked a few of the stalks growing in the mud. Traces of shocking spirituality still lingered around them.
These were obviously extremely precious divine medicines, yet someone had already run off with them.
This realization made You Changkong’s expression somewhat unsightly.
They’d gone to such great lengths to reach the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House, but someone had beaten them to all the treasure and good fortune they found along the way, almost without exception. This feeling wasn’t the least bit pleasant.
Qin Dongxu took a deep breath and ordered, “Search the nearby buildings. Let’s see if we can uncover anything they missed.”
The group promptly dispersed and got to work.
Su Yi clutched a Spirit-Detecting Talisman. The moment he activated it, it shook and emanated subtle and profound energy fluctuations.
“This way.” Su Yi sensed the fluctuations and led Hua Xinfeng to a palace in the southwestern corner.
He’d had the talisman clutched in his palm ever since they entered the ruins, and he’d tried sensing treasure with it on numerous occasions.
Every time, he came up empty.
Now, finally, the talisman was reacting to something!
When Su Yi and Hua Xinfeng entered the palace in the southwestern corner, they saw that Shang Luoyu and Lin Yubei were already inside.
The two of them were standing before a table covered in scrolls, skimming them one by one before tossing them on the floor.
However, what made them furrow their brows was that all of the scrolls were just images of birds, flowers, bugs, fish, landscapes, and celestial bodies.
They seemed perfectly ordinary. There was nothing worth taking note of.
By the time Su Yi and Hua Xinfeng entered, Shang Luoyu and Lin Yubei had already skimmed practically every last scroll. The ground was covered with them.
When she saw Su Yi and Hua Xinfeng enter, Shang Luoyu’s brow furrowed, and her eyes glinted coldly. She then turned around and left.
Lin Yubei, however, smiled faintly. “There’s nothing worthy of notice here, but please, help yourselves.”
As he spoke, he too turned and left.
“Weren’t those two enemies before?” asked Hua Xinfeng, a bit surprised.
“Why concern yourself with that?” Su Yi shook his head, then swept his gaze across the scrolls scattered across the floor. A while later, a faint arc rose on his lips. “The Immortals’ Sword House is unquestionably a sect of yao cultivators. Otherwise, they couldn’t possibly have mastered the ancient secret art of the yao path, the Minor Starry Skies Diversionary Tactic.”
The Minor Starry Skies Diversionary Tactic? Hua Xinfeng was dazed.
She then watched as Su Yi swept his sleeves, gathering the scattered scrolls. There were thirty-six in total.
He then walked up to the table and saw thirty-six intercrossing lines carved all over its surface.
He flicked his finger, and a wisp of flame landed on the table.
Whoosh!
Firelight soared, and the lines covering the table silently came to life. The outline of a mysterious totem floated into the air, like thirty-six cyclically revolving stars.
Hua Xinfeng’s eyes lit up.
She then watched as Su Yi raised his hand, and the thirty-six scrolls unfurled in the air, one after another, and charged toward the mysterious floating totem.
An unbelievable scene followed—
When each scroll made contact with the mysterious totem, they suddenly blurred into a streak of Dao light and merged into one of the totem’s thirty-six stars.
The thirty-six paintings perfectly corresponded with the thirty-six stars.
Bzzz!
When all the scrolls had disappeared, the mysterious totem emitted dazzling starlight, which suddenly condensed into a golden jade slip.
Hua Xinfeng’s heart trembled involuntarily. This was no different from turning trash into treasure!
If she hadn’t seen this herself, she feared she would have assumed the scrolls were ordinary paintings and ignored them, just like Shang Luoyu and Lin Yubei.
Su Yi held the golden jade slip and inserted his divine sense into it. Inside, he saw a soul cultivation technique called the Star Origin Divine Tempering Art. It was actually quite extraordinary, a true ancient secret soul incantation.
However, Su Yi was a bit disappointed.
How could he possibly have any shortage of cultivation methods? From his perspective, even if the slip recorded nothing but information regarding the Immortals’ Sword House, that would be far more useful than a soul cultivation technique like this one.
“Young Lord, what’s recorded inside?” asked Hua Xinfeng curiously.
Su Yi was just about to pass her the jade slip when he heard a voice from beyond the entryway.
Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
“Hahaha, Brother Zhou, many thanks for assisting Miss Luoyu and me in discerning the true nature of this good fortune!”
Lin Yubei and Shang Luoyu walked in together.
Lin Yubei looked surprised, but utterly delighted.
Shang Luouyu, however, looked somewhat bewildered. She wouldn’t have guessed that Su Yi could uncover the room’s hidden good fortune with no clues but a pile of perfectly ordinary scroll paintings.
“Brother Zhou, please return the golden jade slip to us,” said Lin Yubei with a smile. “When we return to the Great Qin, I’ll be sure to take you out drinking in exchange.”
“Oh,” said Su Yi.
Hua Xinfeng couldn’t help but find it funny. “Lin Yubei, you’re the lofty and esteemed leader of Red Lotus Sword Manor, a legend of the Great Qin’s younger generation. How could you possibly say something so shameless?”
Lin Yubei’s smile faded, and he furrowed his brow. “It was Miss Luoyu and I who discovered the place, and we investigated the scroll paintings too. It was just that we didn’t discover the mysteries therein, that’s all.”
Hua Xinfeng was visibly enraged.
Even a blind man could have seen that Lin Yubei was trying to seize their good fortune.
She was just about to say something when Qin Dongxu, Gu Qingdu, Clarifying Truth, and the other experts walked over.
When they saw the golden jade slip in Su Yi’s hands, their eyes lit up with surprise.
This was the first lucky break they’d encountered since entering the Immortals’ Sword House.
Who would have thought it would be Zhou Yi, the young man from the Great Xia, who’d discover it?
“What’s going on?” asked Qin Dongxu.
Lin Yubei’s expression shifted, and he recounted everything that had just occurred.
Reading between the lines, he was saying that he and Shang Luoyu were the first to discover this good fortune and that it was only right that it went to them.
The experts were all crafty old foxes. How could they miss that Lin Yubei was twisting words and asserting nonsense?
It was then that Shang Luoyu said in a clear voice, “Seniors, Lin Yubei and I have already decided to offer this good fortune to the group for all of us to contemplate.”
When they heard this, Qin Dongxu and company were instantly tempted.