Who gave these two Dao Foundation stage cultivators from a mere fourth-rate sect the gall to treat him like air? Feeling insulted, Wei Yuan launched an attack. He ignored the fact that the Immortal Lord’s powers had elevated his existence and made his enemies ignorant of his presence.

A golden cauldron appeared above his head before both his body and the cauldron grew a size bigger. Grabbing its leg, he swung it right down at Big Senior Brother’s head! The strike was ruthless, and Big Senior Brother had no room to dodge. He had no choice but to raise his sword and gather all of his strength.

The golden cauldron let out a resounding ringing before shattering into pieces. The impact was so mighty that blood spewed out of Big Senior Brother’s mouth, and his sword snapped into several pieces. Over half of his body had sunk into the earth as well!

The clash was equal to a direct clash between their Dao Foundations. Although Big Senior Brother was in the spirit nurturing stage, one strike was all Wei Yuan needed to damage his Dao Foundation and throw the flow of his Dao energy into disarray.

Of course, Wei Yuan himself felt a hint of dizziness after the golden cauldron shattered, and a rock in his Dao Foundation broke into several pieces. However, it was just a random rock on the ground and not a part of a strata, so it didn’t hurt him too much. With a thought, Wei Yuan transformed yet another rock into a square-shaped, three-legged cauldron. Then, it appeared in his hand in the real world.

This time, there was absolutely nothing Big Senior Brother could do to defend himself. Blood spewed out of his mouth like a spring as the attack cracked his Dao Foundation and smashed him into the underground, leaving only half his head on the surface.

To be fair, it was a terribly unfair fight. The Swelling Water God Palace was founded on the Dao of incense prayer and divine worship. Its members boasted a wide repertoire of bizarre and unpredictable methods, but were quite weak in the way of direct combat. Big Senior Brother was trapped in a small space and forced to clash against Wei Yuan’s Dao Foundation head on. He was basically fighting his enemy’s greatest strength with his greatest weakness. That was why he couldn’t last three blows despite having reached the spirit nurturing stage.

Seeing that Big Senior Brother was on the verge of death, Little Junior Brother curled up in his corner in shock and horror.

After taking out Big Senior Brother in just two blows, Wei Yuan habitually reflected on the battle: It takes a bit of time to create a cauldron. In the heat of battle, that might be enough time for the enemy to catch their breath. I should create some spares so that this wouldn’t happen in the future.

After putting away the golden cauldron, Wei Yuan glanced back and forth between the partially exposed Yun Feifei, and the woman-in-red whose primordial spirit signature did not match Yun Feifei’s at all. He asked, “Who in the world are you?”

The woman-in-red gave him a slightly aggrieved look before explaining herself, “I am the soul of Feifei’s senior sister. I died when the sect was breached, but Feifei managed to capture a wisp of my soul and nurture it with the Soul Drawing Box. We’ve been living in hiding since. I go wherever it’s inconvenient for Feifei to go. My movements and the yin wind I used to attack you that day are conjured from the power of incense prayer that the Palace had accumulated for many years.

“Some time ago, Feifei was struck by a blood curse and had no choice but to fall into a slumber to suppress it. So, she attached a wisp of her divine thought to me. In that sense, you can say that I am both me and Feifei.”

“Where is the item? Give it to me now so I may take it back to my sect and fulfill my mission,” Wei Yuan said expressionlessly.

The woman-in-red exclaimed in shock, “Feifei is injured. Aren’t you going to take her with you?”

“I only need to bring back the item to fulfill my mission,” repeated Wei Yuan. He made it clear did not want to take a burden with him.

The woman-in-red had never encountered this situation before. In the past, people would always rush to offer her or Yunfeifei their help. This man was different, however. Yun Feifei had only fallen into a temporary slumber, and yet he was treating her like she was already dead.

“Are you going to disobey me?” The corners of Wei Yuan’s lips slowly curled into a sneer as he stared at the woman-in-red.

“W-what are you planning? Don’t you dare touch Feifei!” The woman-in-red exclaimed in fear, even though Wei Yuan showed no sign of doing so whatsoever.

Ignoring her reminder, Wei Yuan drew a simple array diagram on the floor. The next thing the woman-in-red knew, she was immobilized.

It was a Ghost-trapping Array. When used against a ghost or a yin soul, it could temporarily immobilize them and create an attack opportunity. Wei Yuan hadn’t used it earlier because he wasn’t sure what the woman-in-red was. Now that he knew she was a remnant soul, of course the Ghost-trapping Array was the perfect solution to trap her.

Not done yet, Wei Yuan proceeded to draw another array. The woman-in-red immediately started boiling up as faint wisps of flames spewed out of her mouth and nostrils!

It was a Soul-refining Array. Now this was nothing to scoff at. A weaker ghost would have dissolved into nothing at first contact. The woman-in-red was able to resist thanks to her power of prayers, but it was only a matter of time before she was refined into ash.

However, the woman-in-red showed a surprising amount of tenacity. Despite screaming in pain, she refused to tell him where she was hiding that item. Seeing that she wouldn’t budge, Wei Yuan halted the Soul-refining Array and ordered Xu Wan’er, “Stay here and watch them.”

Wei Yuan pointed at Big Senior Brother, Little Junior Brother, and even the woman-in-red. He said seriously, “Do not believe anything they say. If they dare to escape, kill them.”

He was still worried, so he set up a fengshui array in the room and set it so that everyone within its vicinity would be met with misfortune.

Although Wei Yuan himself was within the array’s influence, his fortune was far too potent to be warped by it.

The reason he went through all this trouble was because he realized that every single person in the room excluding Xu Wan’er shared a truly contrived relationship with each other. As far as he could tell, not one of them was a good person either. The Third Senior Sister who escaped to Hanyang Pass might be the only one who was slightly normal. In his opinion, there was no need to bring Big Senior Brother or Little Junior Brother to Hanyang Pass at all. The fact that he hadn’t killed them on the spot was already a show of mercy on his part.

Of course, it was a different story if they could prove their worth. Wei Yuan was not a man who would go against his own principles for mere immortal silver; not unless the sum was too big.

As for Yun Feifei, there was equally no need to bring her back to the Palace if he could just take the item. After all, it was the item that the Immortal Lord wanted, not her. Wei Yuan was a well-read man. Naturally, he would not mix up his priorities. Also, a violent sword cultivator would not have tender, protective feelings for the fairer sex.

That said, Wei Yuan did have a spot for Xu Wan’er. Maybe it was because she was raised under the protective wings of a capable imperial official and thus had not experienced much of life’s hardships, but she was innocent like a sheet of white paper. One with sharp edges that could cut open one’s flesh if they weren’t careful, but still, a sheet of white paper.

Wei Yuan headed back to the main chamber after instructing Xu Wan’er. The array disc had revealed that the greatest karmic entanglement in this place was underground, and the key to unlocking it was likely the token held in the jade statue’s hand. This was why it did not matter if Yun Feifei spoke up or not. If he searched every location with a karmic entanglement and still failed to find the item, he could always return and negotiate with her.

The room suddenly fell silent after Wei Yuan was gone. Everyone was looking at Xu Wan’er, the weight of their gaze so heavy that she subconsciously took a step backward.

The woman-in-red said urgently, “What are you waiting for? Erase the array diagram beneath my feet already! I’ll take you away to safety!”

Xu Wan’er took two steps toward her before stopping in her tracks. Shock and disbelief flitted across the woman-in-red’s face before she said accusingly, “You... don’t tell me...”

Xu Wan’er blushed a bit and replied almost as quietly as a mosquito, “I think... we should listen to Senior Brother. We wouldn’t want to ruin his business.”

The woman-in-red exclaimed in anger, “Why are you defending him? Have you forgotten how he treated you?”

Xu Wan’er did not say anything. When the woman-in-red noticed how her blush had overtaken her whole face, realization struck her like a lightning bolt, “Are you...?”

“I am not!” Xu Wan’er’s denial was as loud as it was impotent.

The woman-in-red stomped her foot in anger, but she forced herself to calm down and internally prepared herself for a long talk. She was well aware that Xu Wan’er possessed a gentle disposition and lacked assertiveness. It wouldn’t take much effort to change her mind. As for Wei Yuan finding the item before she succeeded, she wasn’t too worried about it. She was sure that the young man’s boastfulness would soon hit the hard wall of reality. Back then, the Shaman army and those people had repeatedly searched the place and even dismantled the whole palace gate in search for the Founder’s secret vault to no avail. How could he succeed when so many others had failed?

For now, her first priority was escaping from this place. She could always come back and figure out how to unlock the Founder’s secret vault after Wei Yuan had left empty-handed.

The moment she thought about the secret vault, the woman-in-red mentally clenched her teeth and cursed: Damn old bastard! You could’ve done one good thing in your life and handed me the secret, but no, you insisted on taking it to the grave—serves you right!

In the Founder’s Hall, Wei Yuan moved a slumped Xu Wenwu to the side before striding back and forth across the hall. He was inspecting the reactions of various karmic light dots. He confirmed that the strongest light dot was still the one in the underground—approximately ten zhang deep. There was another one in the relatively intact goddess statue, and another in the ruins that was the disciples’ area. The latter light dot was far enough that it was showing on the edge of the array disc. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Wei Yuan walked over to the goddess’ statue and inspected it carefully. But be it looking with his naked eye or scanning with his perception, he could not sense any oddity whatsoever. Only the Qi Viewing spell revealed that it contained a fair amount of power of incense prayers. It would seem that many people still prayed to these deities even after the Swelling Water God Palace was destroyed.

Wei yuan pointed a finger and struck it with a Water Stream spell. In this region, water and wood type Dao spells were exceptionally potent and boasted unusual effects. Moreover, Wei Yuan possessed a powerful primordial spirit. The average cultivator could split their Water Stream spell between three and five streams, but Wei Yuan could split his into a hundred streams or higher. Each stream was very potent as well.

Layer by layer, the streams of water peeled away at the surface of the statue like an onion. Eventually, its secrets were revealed. As it turned out, a smaller goddess statue was hidden within the bigger statue. It had a gap that was shaped exactly like the small token in its abdomen. So, Wei Yuan retrieved the token from the jade statue and slotted it into the goddess’ chest.

A faint glow suddenly covered the hall. Wei Yuan could tell that it was the accumulation of countless commoners’ prayers. Slowly, a few bricks disappeared from the floor and revealed a dark passage that led straight underground. The passage was only visible to Wei Yuan, the current wielder of the token. To everyone else, the floor was still intact.

How unoriginal, Wei Yuan thought disdainfully to himself. It was because this particular setup of secret chambers was at least tens of thousands of years outdated. His Techniques Theory teachers had taught him dozens of ways to set up an entrance mechanism. Among them, installing the switch on an inanimate object was considered to be the most foolish approach, and using an inanimate token to open the entrance was to take that foolishness to a whole new level.

His teachers had been innovating for a long time and thus came up with countless ingenious solutions. One of the more popular methods involved fusing the secret chamber’s switch with the owner’s primordial spirit. The chamber would open only when the owner was in a specific emotional state. To put it in simpler terms, the door would open only if one had satisfied the owner.

Not only that, someone had taken this method a step further and made it so that his secret realm would only be open to beauties. Not only must the beauty meet his beauty standards, she must also fall deeply and unconditionally in love with him. Only then would his emotional state reach the required threshold, and the secret realm would unlock.

Naturally, the method was spit on by countless female cultivators the moment it was publicized. Many seniors and powerful cultivators became possessed by righteous anger and proceeded to teach the creator many harsh lessons as well.

And yet, despite the open and relentless criticisms leveled against the creator, some female cultivators later adapted this method for their own use in secret and developed numerous new applications for it. They would eventually become the sources of inspiration of many stories down the line.

Interestingly, the most ingenious entrance mechanism ever created wasn’t devised by his Techniques Theory teachers. No, it was his Heaven and Earth Theory teacher.

All he had done was inscribe a simple question to the entrance: Calculate the orbit between these two large planets. Get it right, and the entrance would open. Get it wrong, and you would get zapped.

Only a handful of people in the entire Palace of Absolute Beginning were capable of solving it.

Just the same, the teacher was also the one who devised the most ingenious method to travel from the entrance to the secret chamber. When a person had solved the question, the door would open to reveal a vast void. The person must then follow the orbit they had calculated to reach the secret chamber. If they deviated from the path even a little, they would get lost in the Void[1] and never find the secret chamber.

The teacher had created this method specifically to deal with those who had cheated their way through the entrance, such as relying on another person to solve the question for them. That day, it was rumored that a good few True Lords had suddenly fallen into a sour mood and traveled everywhere in search for someone to vent their anger on. After all, the Palace’s True Lords were all accustomed to being arrogant and self-important. They could not accept that their Dao and intelligence were inferior to another, not even if it was the truth.

The entire Palace was in turmoil at the time, so much so that Zhang Sheng did not get the opportunity to get worked up about it.

1. This means outer space. I could’ve just translated it as outer space, and I may yet translate it as outer space. It all depends on when Xu Wenwu modernizes our main characters. ☜