◎A gigantic white bird swelled into being within a radiance of white light, flying higher and higher.◎
A massive yellow tiger, with a patch of irregular black fur sprawled across its back, suddenly rolled up from the ground.
It lowered its body slightly, yet its raised shoulder blades still stood higher than a human. Over its entire body surged an imposing demonic aura.
“Huang Hu!”
One of the cultivators recognized him and cried out in alarm.
The steward of the Lin residence, Huang Hu, was actually a yellow tiger demon!
Without a word, one cultivator transformed into a gust of wind and shot out through the entrance, taking the opportunity to flee.
“Huang Hu! Come out and face your death!” With a sharp cry, Madam Lin landed while wielding a golden bell cord and shouted toward the interior.
The Head of the Lin Family landed beside her. His gaze swept over the surrounding cultivators.
“Please lend me your strength and help me capture this tiger demon.”
His gaze grew intent. “Afterward, the Head of the Lin Family will offer each of you a handsome reward.”
Those who knew how to behave would not be held accountable for trespassing into the treasury. They would even be presented with one or two treasures.
As for those who did not…
Those who did not simply lowered their heads and ran.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
One figure after another unleashed their various abilities and fled in every direction.
Seeing this, the Head of the Lin Family looked astonished, then let out an angry laugh. In the sky above, brilliant light flickered, and a hemispherical spiritual barrier appeared, covering the entire Lin residence.
The cultivators fleeing through the air slammed into the barrier one after another with a series of bangs. Not a single one managed to escape.
Only then did the Head of the Lin Family withdraw his gaze and look toward the treasury entrance.
“Gentlemen?”
The cultivators who had not managed to flee changed expressions instantly. With righteous indignation, they declared, “Humans and demons have always kept to their own territories. This tiger demon actually dares to run rampant on human soil—we cannot allow it!”
Streams of spiritual power shot toward Huang Hu.
Yet they could not even dislodge a single hair from his body.
Everyone had their own little calculations. If they exerted themselves now, they would have less strength left when the reckoning came later!
The Head of the Lin Family was so furious that his spiritual power faltered. He forcefully shifted his attention away and shouted, “Huang Hu, get out here!”
Huang Hu crashed into the treasury.
Rather than saying that the Head of the Lin Family and his wife had joined forces to knock him inside, it would be more accurate to say that he had used their momentum to fly in.
Now he truly was a rat trapped in a jade vase—unable to be struck or touched.
“Roar—!”
A furious tiger’s howl rang out from within the treasury.
While the Head of the Lin Family fumed outside, Huang Hu—who had successfully entered the treasury—stared at the empty shelves. His tiger eyes widened in fury.
“Who did this?!”
He reverted to human form, revealing a handsome yet demonic face, rigid and livid with anger.
The cultivators still inside the treasury hurriedly defended themselves.
“Not me!”
It was not them!
Damn it—who was the ruthless, greedy bastard who had swallowed up the entire treasury all by himself? They wanted to know, too!
“Roar—!”
Huang Hu bellowed. His demonic power swept outward, sending the rows of empty shelves flying.
The cultivators at the entrance seized the opportunity to flee outside.
“What’s going on?”
Sensing that something was wrong, the Head of the Lin Family entered first.
When he saw the empty shelves, he froze. Once he recovered, the first thing he did was rub his eyes.
“Who did this?!”
Madam Lin entered right behind him. She froze for a moment as well, then flew into a rage.
“How dare you!”
Huang Hu had already reverted to human form. Without all that fur to hide him, his expression was painfully clear. “I just came in.”
The few people who had yet to escape were so miserable they felt like vomiting bile.
“It has nothing to do with us!”
“We only came in to check whether someone had snuck inside.”
“The Head of the Lin Family has always treated us well. If someone had come in to cause trouble, we naturally would have stopped them.”
“It truly has nothing to do with us!”
The Head of the Lin Family found it difficult to recover from the scene before him. His face was full of shock and disbelief. With a long cry, he slashed forward with a surge of sword qi.
The people in the treasury were immediately sent flying, tumbling to the ground like scattered beans. They beat the ground in frustration.
“Head of the Lin Family, don’t take your anger out on us indiscriminately!”
“I didn’t take anything!”
“If you want to vent your rage, you should at least have evidence!”
“Here’s my storage pouch. Take it!”
Someone threw out every storage artifact on his person, tossing them far away. “I have nothing on me now! Surely the Head of the Lin Family believes me?”
But the Head of the Lin Family was in no mood to listen. “All of you deserve to die—”
Dawn was approaching.
In a little over an hour, Luoxia City would welcome its first ray of sunlight.
Some plans would have to be moved forward. Murderous intent blazed in the Head of the Lin Family’s eyes as he exchanged a look with his wife.
—
With the cover of an invisibility talisman, a breath-concealing talisman, and [Why Would You Provoke Her?], Nangong Yu slipped out of the treasury.
No matter how much chaos the Lin Family was in, that was a matter for cultivators. What did it have to do with her, a mortal who scooped manure at the spirit beast garden?
Now that the Boss had activated the defenses and sealed off the estate, barring all entry and exit, Nangong Yu did not bother trying to leave. She headed straight back to the spirit beast garden.
“Hm?”
Seeing that Ruo Zhu’s door was open, she called out, “Brother Ruo Zhu?”
No one answered.
Nangong Yu walked to the doorway and peered inside. As expected, the room was empty.
“Did he go to the secret chamber?” Curiosity piqued, she turned and headed in that direction as well.
Even with a speed talisman, she still had to do the running herself, didn’t she? Unless absolutely necessary, Nangong Yu never walked anywhere in person.
She pulled an electric scooter from her spatial storage and sat on it.
Twisting the throttle—
Whoosh.
The night was anything but peaceful. The sounds of cultivators fighting were deafening, and beneath the din of battle, the scooter’s engine was completely inconspicuous.
She streaked through the darkness like a gust of wind.
The quiet little path was usually deserted; tonight, it was even more deserted than usual.
Nangong Yu twisted the throttle to the limit, unconcerned about running into anyone. In less than ten minutes, she arrived at the secret chamber.
She checked the talismans on her body to make sure they were still firmly in place, then turned the mechanism and entered.
The secret chamber was empty, as silent as a black hole.
Nangong Yu descended the stairs. By the light of the glowstones embedded in the walls, she made her way deeper inside.
From the darkness where the stunning NPC was imprisoned came the faint sound of metal clanging—intermittent, barely audible.
As she continued forward, a hazy, ethereal white glow gradually appeared ahead. When she drew close, the man bound by iron chains suddenly lifted his head.
His gaze met Nangong Yu’s.
“I’ll definitely be able to get you out…”
Clang.
“I’ll get you out.”
Clang.
Nangong Yu shifted her gaze to the edge of the white light. There, she saw a figure kneeling on the ground, holding up a dagger and hacking at a chain as thick as a bowl.
“Brother Ruo Zhu.” Nangong Yu peeled off her invisibility talisman and walked over. “What are you doing?”
Ruo Zhu was so focused on cutting the chain that he did not hear her. It was not until she patted him on the shoulder that he suddenly froze.
He seemed to have been badly startled. Gripping the dagger, he slashed backward!
Nangong Yu leaned back and dodged.
“Brother Ruo Zhu?” she called. “It’s me. I called you, but you ignored me.”
Ruo Zhu clutched the dagger tightly. Sweat covered his delicate face as he stared at her in shock. “Why are you here?!”
“When I saw you weren’t in your room, I guessed you’d be here,” Nangong Yu said. “What are you doing? Trying to cut through the chain?”
Ruo Zhu’s gaze went blank, filled with resentment and helplessness. Then he abruptly sank to the ground and murmured, “I’m useless. It’s all because I’m useless...”
Thoughtfully, Nangong Yu turned her head and met the stunning NPC’s face.
He smiled faintly, making his breathtaking features even more dazzling. Nangong Yu’s heart skipped a beat.
“We meet again,” Yun Sheng said with a nod.
Nangong Yu walked over, bent down, and used her forefinger to pull open his robe.
The state of his mutilated body was exactly the same as before.
Before Yun Sheng could say anything, Ruo Zhu sprang to his feet and rushed over. “What are you doing?”
He pulled Nangong Yu aside. “Don’t look at him like that!”
But Nangong Yu looked at Yun Sheng. “Things are chaotic outside.”
Yun Sheng’s voice was low and unhurried. “How chaotic?”
“Extremely chaotic,” Nangong Yu replied. “For the moment, no one is thinking about you.”
Huang Hu, who was in charge of the secret chamber, was fighting the Head of the Lin Family.
The Head of the Lin Family’s treasury had been robbed. The most urgent matter was recovering the stolen items. Once those were found, he would still have to deal with the fact that his concubine had slept with his brother—and that everyone knew about it.
“Is that so?” Yun Sheng lowered his head, his long hair slipping down to conceal his expression.
Ruo Zhu turned to Nangong Yu. “This has nothing to do with you. Go back!”
Knowing that Nangong Yu did not understand, he patiently explained, “A cultivator set up an array here. Time passes much faster inside than it does outside. If you stay any longer, dawn will come.”
Nangong Yu listened patiently as well. She had already anticipated that time would flow differently here. “What about you?” she asked.
Was he not leaving? Was he going to stay here and keep pitting that dagger against a chain as thick as a bowl?
“And you?” She turned her gaze to Yun Sheng. “If you have nothing to say to me either, then I’m leaving.”
She did intend to accept the quest, but there were many ways to pick one up. Nangong Yu never forced the issue.
Other than her, were there even any other players here?!
Although Nangong Yu had always treated infinite-flow games as single-player experiences, that did not mean she failed to notice other players.
Yet ever since she had arrived in this instance, she had not encountered a single one!
On reflection, it was hardly strange.
If clearing the City of AI was required to earn the completion reward, then only a very small number of players could have survived the City of AI in the first place.
Dropped into this vast cultivation world, they were like a drop of water thrown into an ocean. Everyone was effectively playing solo!
To sum it up, the stunning, tragic NPC named Yun Sheng wanted to give the player a quest, and there was only one possible choice.
“Yes.” Just as expected, Yun Sheng spoke. He raised his head. “Sever the chains binding me.”
He looked straight at Nangong Yu. “I owe you a favor.”
Nangong Yu’s eyes lit up!
A favor from an NPC who so obviously had a story to tell!
“No!” Ruo Zhu hurriedly tried to stop her. “Little Yu can’t do this. She’s still just a child.”
From beginning to end, he had held fast to one conviction: he could not let Nangong Yu have too much contact with Yun Sheng.
“Brother Ruo Zhu, children are best at causing trouble.” Smiling sweetly, Nangong Yu produced a quantum lightsaber with a flick of her wrist.
Kids might be useless at everything else, but when it came to wrecking things, they were number one.
The sword in Nangong Yu’s hand gave off a soft white glow, yet the vast power contained within it made Ruo Zhu’s eyes widen as he froze where he stood.
“This is—”
Before he could finish, a chain as thick as a bowl was severed and crashed to the ground with a loud clang.
“Not bad.” Nangong Yu had only meant to give it a try, but the quantum lightsaber had lived up to the reputation of a high-tech weapon.
She had not even set it to high power—only medium.
“An immortal artifact!!” Ruo Zhu finally breathed the rest of his sentence, unable to believe what he was seeing.
As the first iron chain broke, Yun Sheng’s lowered head suddenly snapped up, blazing light bursting from his eyes!
Nangong Yu then cut through the chains binding his other arm and his neck.
As all three chains fell to the floor in succession, Yun Sheng was finally free of his restraints.
“I owe you a favor.”
The man’s voice was clearly right beside her, yet it seemed to come from somewhere unimaginably far away.
Nangong Yu’s vision was flooded with white light. A fierce radiance erupted from Yun Sheng’s body, and before long, she could see nothing at all.
Yun Sheng vanished. Ruo Zhu vanished. The dark chamber vanished. Everything vanished.
Yet Nangong Yu seemed to see a gigantic white bird swell forth from the white radiance, growing ever larger as it let out a clear, piercing cry.
