◎How Do I Use the Spirit-Testing Array Disk?◎
The Head of the Lin Family and Huang Hu were fighting fiercely in the sky, locked in a bitter struggle, and neither of them noticed the commotion below.
“Are you ever going to stop?” Huang Hu roared.
The Head of the Lin Family looked cold and grim. “You’re not leaving here today!”
Originally, what Huang Hu had done might not have come to this if word hadn’t gotten out and the matter hadn’t been blown so far out of proportion.
But he was arrogant and utterly unconcerned with anyone else’s dignity. He had made such a spectacle of himself that everyone knew about it. There was no way to end things peacefully now!
“So I slept with a few of your concubines. What’s the big deal?” Huang Hu said irritably. “Why are you so relentless?”
“You shouted it loud enough for everyone to hear!” the Head of the Lin Family roared.
Was it really only about him sleeping with his wives? It was also about his lifelong reputation!
“Just kill them and be done with it,” Huang Hu said, baffled. “Weren’t you going to kill them anyway?”
The sword energy unleashed by the Head of the Lin Family suddenly veered off course and crashed into a courtyard below.
Light blazed from his eyes. This time, he truly held nothing back. “Shut up! I don’t have a vicious brother like you!”
Huang Hu was enraged. “I don’t have a brother like you, either!”
Their battle grew even more intense. Blazing sword light swept across the surrounding courtyards, leveling one after another and provoking a wave of startled cries.
Nangong Yu concealed herself among the crowd and listened to the cultivators’ discussion.
“The Head of the Lin Family’s steward is no ordinary fighter.”
“Looks like he hasn’t even used his full strength.”
“Hey, who got the letter just now? Was it really written in demon script?”
“How did he come to have dealings with the demon race?”
“Although the demon race no longer appears openly in the world, there are still quite a few demons hidden throughout the Nine Provinces Continent.”
“Exactly. A few years ago, a disciple of the Ziyang Sect was also far too closely involved with the demon race.”
“I heard that demon was an important figure—possibly even their young master.”
As expected, a teahouse was just a teahouse, a place to drink tea and rest.
Cultivators were the true source of gossip and information. Surrounded by so many of them, Nangong Yu had unknowingly gathered even more background information about this instance.
“Looks like Butler Huang is about to lose,” someone suddenly said, pointing at the sky.
Nangong Yu was lowering her head as she crossed a broken bridge. At those words, she hurriedly looked up and saw Huang Hu retreating as he fought. Then, all of a sudden, he turned and fled!
“Family Head, watch out!”
“He’s heading toward the treasury!”
The sudden shouts from the ground made the Head of the Lin Family pause mid-pursuit.
He instinctively looked toward the treasury, a moment of confusion crossing his face.
Huang Hu had not been fleeing toward the treasury at all. After hearing that reminder, the Head of the Lin Family wondered if the battle had rattled his brain.
“Hmph!”
Immediately afterward, Huang Hu’s dark and arrogant voice rang out. “The treasury? Why wouldn’t I be able to go there?”
He changed direction and shot toward the treasury at full speed.
The Head of the Lin Family came to his senses and shouted angrily, “You’re courting death!”
One chased while the other fled. They streaked through the air like bolts of lightning, heading for the treasury.
Nangong Yu was overjoyed. She slapped one movement talisman after another onto her body and hurried after them with all her might.
The treasury was about to descend into chaos!
Good. The more chaotic, the better!
According to the steward of the Heavenly Secrets Tower, the Spirit-Testing Array Disk was of little use to cultivators. Once someone had embarked on the path of cultivation, who would bother testing their spiritual roots?
With no NPCs competing for it, Nangong Yu would have no trouble fishing in troubled waters later!
As the Head of the Lin Family also flew toward the treasury, the cultivators below who had still been hesitating, hemming and hawing, and worrying about appearances all set off openly.
More than a hundred figures shot through the night sky.
Nangong Yu was the slowest of them all. After all, she was relying on her own two legs and couldn’t take out her spaceship.
Still, although she arrived late, she didn’t miss much.
“I’ve served you like an ox and a horse for decades!” Huang Hu shouted arrogantly from the sky. “So what if I take two of your magical treasures?”
The Head of the Lin Family seemed to say something in reply, but they were flying too high for his voice to carry clearly.
Things were lively below.
“What are you doing, fellow cultivator?”
“This is the Lin family’s treasury. Are you planning to take advantage of the situation?”
“What nonsense are you spouting? Someone snuck inside just now! Don’t you remember the person who broke through in Butler Huang’s courtyard? They haven’t shown themselves since. They must have infiltrated the treasury!”
Whether someone had gotten inside or not, they would know once they went in and looked.
Some people joined in breaking the formation, while others continued trying to dissuade them. “Once the Head of the Lin Family has dealt with his family’s internal affairs, he’ll naturally go inside to investigate. We’re all outsiders. This is inappropriate.”
“I say they’re trying to take advantage of the chaos!”
“Hmph! What shameless people!”
Some devoted themselves to breaking the formation. Others were too embarrassed to act. Still others simply enjoyed watching the commotion.
Nangong Yu had an Invisibility Talisman and a Defensive Talisman stuck to her body. She also wore the title [Why Did You Mess With Her?] as she blended into the middle of the crowd.
She was just waiting for the formation to be breached enough for her to rush inside with everyone else.
Damn that system! It had thrown her into a cultivation instance without even telling her whether she had spiritual roots.
She would know very soon. Nervously chewing on her fingernails, Nangong Yu kept one eye on the formation and the other on the sky.
She still hoped Huang Hu’s identity token would fall down. Why wasn’t it falling?
“You want me dead? Keep dreaming!” Huang Hu suddenly bellowed from the sky. Then he tore the token from his waist and hurled it downward.
He threw back his head and laughed wildly. “You won’t let me take two magical treasures? Fine, then you can have none of them!”
The crowd had no idea what the token was. Nangong Yu, who had been watching the sky the entire time, leaped into the air and caught it in one hand. Then she spun around and dove straight into the formation!
The other cultivators finally reacted, only to see the token vanish into thin air. They hurriedly unleashed various techniques, but struck nothing but empty space.
“The formation is open!” someone suddenly shouted.
Everyone rushed to look. Sure enough, the treasury doors had opened, and they immediately charged inside.
The scene became utterly chaotic, like rats pouring into a granary. The Head of the Lin Family was frantic.
“Huang Hu! I’ve never treated you unfairly!”
The commotion had grown so immense that Madam Lin, the Lin family’s young master and young miss, the concubines, and the stewards all came rushing over.
Madam Lin quickly activated the formation, blocking the others outside.
“You dared cause trouble in my Lin family’s estate. You won’t be leaving alive!”
Madam Lin’s magical weapon was a golden bell cord. She leaped into the air and joined the battle to subdue Huang Hu.
When Huang Hu had been fighting one-on-one, he had been arrogant and overbearing. Now that he faced two opponents, he was quickly stretched to his limit, and his expression turned grim.
“I’ve never seen a husband and wife as ungrateful and despicable as you two!”
With a great roar, his body swelled dramatically. His clothes split apart inch by inch, revealing a massive, furry form.
“He’s from the demon race!”
“Huang Hu!”
“Ah—he’s a tiger demon!”
The cultivators were stunned, the servants were terrified, and the chaos intensified.
Nangong Yu, who had already infiltrated the treasury, knew nothing about these exciting developments.
The Lin family’s treasury was a three-story building. It wasn’t as tall as one might imagine, but its interior space was astonishingly vast.
Row upon row of shelves displayed books, weapons, treasures, pills, spiritual fruits, jade boxes, and all manner of other valuables. The sight was dazzling.
Nangong Yu needed to find the Spirit-Testing Array Disk, but one glance around left her eyes swimming.
“Scan.”
She tapped the ground with her toes and leaped into the air, pointing the optical computer on her left wrist downward to scan.
Perhaps to prevent anyone from taking the wrong item, every treasure on the shelves had a label attached to it.
Three seconds later, the optical computer vibrated with a series of beeps. A projection sprang up, marking the target with a red dot.
Some of the cultivators who entered after Nangong Yu noticed the projection in midair, but they didn’t think much of it.
The cultivation world was vast. What kind of treasures didn’t exist? It was probably just some treasure-finding device—nothing worth making a fuss over.
They dispersed and began searching for their own opportunities.
Nangong Yu flew toward the shelf marked by the red dot. Sure enough, she found a circular compass engraved with intricate patterns and studded with colorful spirit stones. At its very center was a transparent stone that glowed faintly.
…How was she supposed to use this?
After a moment’s hesitation, Nangong Yu placed her hand on it.
One breath. Two breaths. Three.
Nothing happened.
“…”
Nangong Yu silently tossed the spirit-testing array disc into her storage space.
Not far away, someone had already started fighting between two shelves.
“I saw it first!”
“I picked it up first!”
“It’s mine!”
“Get lost! It’s mine!”
As they fought, they knocked over the shelves on both sides. One jade box after another crashed to the floor. Some popped open, spilling their contents across the ground.
Nangong Yu bent down and swiftly gathered everything into her storage space.
Never mind what they were. Pick them up first and sort them out later.
“How do we get out?”
“Damn it! We can’t get out!”
The more cautious cultivators didn’t get greedy. After taking two or three items they particularly wanted, they prepared to leave.
However, after Madam Lin arrived, she sealed the formation and ordered her trusted subordinates to guard the entrance, forbidding anyone from leaving.
As long as the rats were still inside the granary, she would make them vomit up everything they had eaten.
“What? We can’t get out?”
“Let me try.”
More than twenty cultivators had entered. The moment they heard that they couldn’t leave, they immediately gathered at the main entrance.
Some hacked at it with their swords. Others bombarded it with spiritual power. Some even waved their fans, while still others paced back and forth, trying to find the formation’s core.
Nangong Yu glanced over once, then looked away.
The people outside clearly hadn’t finished dealing with things. If they had, they would have stormed in already.
Since the Boss couldn’t get in for the moment…
She swiftly moved between the shelves, her fingers brushing past them as one storage rack after another was emptied.
A cultivator working to break the formation at the entrance happened to look back. His pupils contracted violently.
“Who did this?!”
“Who’s being so greedy?”
“Look! The shelves are all empty!”
Everyone hurriedly turned around. When they saw the rows of bare storage shelves, their blood surged and their heads began to ring.
Who was so shameless?!
They had taken all the treasures. Were they trying to get themselves killed? And if they died, did they have to drag everyone else down with them?!
Not one of them would be able to escape!
If only one or two items had been taken, they could have relied on their own abilities to fight their way out, and the Lin family wouldn’t have pursued them to the death.
But with the entire treasury emptied, every single one of them was doomed!
“Who did this?!”
“Put everything back!”
Nangong Yu had already drifted toward the second floor. With an invisibility talisman on her, she remained unseen.
There were no labels on the treasures on the second floor, and there were far fewer of them. Nangong Yu couldn’t tell what most of them were, so she simply collected everything.
She turned toward the third floor.
She couldn’t get up there. An invisible barrier blocked her path. Nangong Yu didn’t try to force her way through and immediately turned back.
That should be enough.
Whether the people outside had finished or not, she had obtained the spirit-testing array disc and could leave now!
Taking out Huang Hu’s token, she quietly drifted toward the entrance. She was just about to open the formation when her eyes caught sight of dust motes floating through the air. She hurriedly retreated.
Bang!
A tremendous crash came from the entrance. The treasury’s main gate collapsed with a roar, and as it fell, a massive figure was sent flying inside.
Boom, boom, boom—the storage shelves toppled one after another.
“Demons?!”
When they got a clear look at the figure that had flown inside, every cultivator still trapped in the treasury widened their eyes.
