“Shijie, I heard Caidié Shimei is somewhere nearby. Do you think she might be watching us?”
“Don’t worry. I prepared some effective Insect-Repelling Spiritual Incense. Caidié Shimei’s Spirit Beast isn’t that strong; it won’t be able to get close to us.”
“That’s a relief… Shijie, do you smell something fragrant?”
“Indeed, it should be the scent of the Seven-Colored Lotus. After all, it’s a spiritual creature; when it blooms, there are always some unusual phenomena…”
Their voices grew quieter and quieter, and before they even reached the edge of the Spiritual Pool where the Seven-Colored Lotus grew, both of them were already dizzy and collapsed to the ground.
The last sound they heard was a girl muttering in exasperation, “That’s just careless.”
***
Perhaps because no one in this secret realm had ever encountered Hua Jian’s sneak attack tactics before, Hua Jian had only spent half a day setting up the Array Formation, yet had successfully stunned several cultivators who came here hoping to secretly harvest the lotus.
Apart from the Sword Sect, disciples from every sect had come. This time, it was a pair of sisters from Wanling Sect.
They were cautious enough to spray themselves with incense meant to counter Caidié, but they seemed to have never considered that there might be more than one attacker besides Caidié.
Once they stepped into Hua Jian’s Array of Bewilderment, they foolishly mistook the intoxicating scent for the fragrance of the Seven-Colored Lotus and, just like their senior sisters before them, smoothly collapsed to the ground.
Fine green vines slithered into the two girls’ robes. After a brief search, the vines pulled out two small bags of seeds from their bodies.
This was a characteristic of the Lingcao Division of Wanling Sect—they always carried seeds of the spiritual herbs they cultivated to assist in battle.
Their combat style depended heavily on the types of seeds they nurtured, making their tactics hard to predict.
Hua Jian picked up a seed and attempted to catalyze it. The tiny seed sprouted rapidly and grew into a hard vine covered with countless sharp thorns.
“Good stuff!” Hua Jian’s eyes lit up. This was exactly the kind of direct offensive power she was lacking. This bag of seeds was going to be a big help.
She gathered all the seeds taken from the two disciples into her Storage Pouch and happily tallied up her gains for the day.
You really can’t deny it—the Saint Sect cultivators were much wealthier than ordinary cultivators.
Even though many things were off-limits, Hua Jian still earned a tidy profit from the alchemy pills and other consumables carried by those cultivators.
As night approached, Hua Jian decided to call it a day. It was time to secure the most precious item!
She took out a pill from the Storage Pouch—one that Linglong had given her—and swallowed it.
Feeling the pill dissolve into a warm current infused with slight moisture and a faint sweetness between her lips, Hua Jian sensed an unprecedented improvement in her condition.
The Spiritual Power consumed setting the Array Formation had fully recovered. Now, it was time to seize the Seven-Colored Lotus!
“Go, Sister Hua Jian!” Caidié stood beside the cultivators Hua Jian had put to sleep, looking at her with admiration and cheering her on.
In Caidié’s eyes, Hua Jian had transformed from a fun elder sister who taught her interesting things into a great pioneer of sneak attacks.
Caidié still needed her Spirit Beasts to stab the enemies, while Hua Jian only needed a wisp of floral fragrance.
The difference was worlds apart!
Hua Jian formed hand seals and activated Flower Viewing Sword Style’s Flying Flower Escape, surrounded by colorful petals, rushing toward the Seven-Colored Lotus.
Just past the halfway point, the very thing Hua Jian had been wary of finally appeared.
Almost all spiritual creatures were guarded by Spirit Beasts, and this Seven-Colored Lotus was no exception.
Its Guardian Spirit Beast was a dazzlingly colorful giant fish. Perhaps having lived alongside the lotus for so long, the fish had developed many unusual features that didn’t belong on a fish.
Its scales and fins resembled lotus petals, making it look less like a Spirit Beast and more like a flower spirit… Well, technically a Spirit Beast that had become a flower spirit was still a Spirit Beast.
The Lotus Fish was no weakling; it had nearly reached the Half-Dragon Saintess level. Even the Saint Sect’s Spirit Masters would likely struggle to defeat it.
But for Hua Jian, this giant fish was far from a difficult opponent.
“Dream on!”
Hua Jian took a deep breath and blew a puff of white mist toward the rushing fish.
The Lotus Fish was hit head-on by the mist; its large, seed-like eyes instantly glazed over, falling into the “Who am I? Where am I?” existential fish dilemma.
After all, it was only at Half-Dragon Saintess level, while Hua Jian’s attributed gas was a fearsome technique even true Spirit Kings couldn’t resist.
Taking advantage of the fish’s hallucination, Hua Jian reached the Seven-Colored Lotus and extended her sinful little hand toward the flower.
With every inch her hand approached, the lotus’s radiant multicolored light dimmed a little.
By the time her hand touched the lotus, the spiritual glow had fully withdrawn into Hua Jian’s body.
Even the lotus’s posture had changed drastically, resembling someone trembling nervously in front of an emperor.
Hua Jian wondered if she was imagining things. Could a spiritual herb really show such an emotion?
She had heard that high-level spiritual herbs possessed intelligence equivalent to humans, but the Seven-Colored Lotus had only reached the Spirit King threshold at best.
This level of herb shouldn’t have such intelligence.
They should be driven by survival instincts alone. Could its instinct have made it surrender now rather than fight back?
What Hua Jian couldn’t understand next was the lotus’s action—it forcibly uprooted its flower and seed pod together.
As it did so, the remaining part withered instantly, losing all spiritual energy.
Hua Jian instinctively caught the seed pod. The moment she touched it, she felt a faint emotion—something like, “Boss, look, I’m obedient. Are you satisfied?”
So, what exactly was going on? Holding the Seven-Colored Lotus, Hua Jian’s mind spun in confusion.
Because the lotus had actively concentrated all its spiritual power into the flower and seed pod, the herb’s quality hadn’t suffered the slightest damage from being harvested.
When other cultivators harvested spiritual creatures, the creatures instinctively resisted by redirecting their spirituality elsewhere.
For example, the Seven-Colored Lotus would transfer its spirituality to its roots under the Spiritual Pool, and as spirituality dispersed, its quality would irreversibly decline.
But the Seven-Colored Lotus in Hua Jian’s hand was different; its appearance had actually improved because of the conscious concentration of spirituality.
This was puzzling. Could the lotus have been moved by Hua Jian’s beauty?
Hua Jian thought about it for quite a while but found no answer and decided to set it aside for now.
With the prize in hand, it was time to return.
Passing the shore, she casually slung the Yaochi disciple she had incapacitated over her shoulder and brought the Yaochi senior sister back to the Yaochi camp.
Killing or managing, she was truly kind-hearted. Those cultivators left behind would probably sleep it off for half a day.
But this Yaochi senior sister could comfortably rest in the camp’s beds—how lucky.
“I was wondering where she was. Turns out she ran off to steal lotus flowers…” the senior sister on duty at the Yaochi camp said with a helpless expression when she saw Hua Jian carrying her junior sister back.
After learning the reason, she looked utterly speechless.
Actually, she had suspected something when the junior sister went missing, but seeing her carried back by Hua Jian still left her a bit embarrassed.
In terms of strength, her junior sister was definitely stronger than Hua Jian, but the current situation clearly showed her junior sister had been easily taken down by Hua Jian.
Neither of their clothes was too messy, indicating the battle wasn’t intense; it was most likely a one-shot knockout.
“She should wake up after resting in bed for a while,” Hua Jian said with a mischievous smile, handing the somewhat heavy senior sister to the one guarding the gate.
After passing off the slightly heavy sister, Hua Jian happily ran toward the large tent where Linglong usually stayed.
But when she arrived, Linglong was nowhere to be found.
After asking around, Hua Jian learned Linglong had left early that morning to explore somewhere else, leaving just moments apart from Hua Jian.
“In the afternoon, there was a commotion around the Cangbaoge, and we couldn’t find Linglong Shijie anywhere,” the sister who Hua Jian had stopped whispered.
A sudden incident had occurred, and with Linglong—the only one able to make decisions—missing, they were all extremely anxious.
In the end, they could only follow the decisions made by other Saint Sect members.
As for what had happened… it was of course Youye’s doing.
She had seized the opportunity when the righteous cultivators were setting up formations to restrain the Ling King monsters and tried to infiltrate the Cangbaoge.
The cultivators trying to set the array wanted to stop her, but Youye’s appearance was too unexpected and her speed too fast.
Before they could react, she had already broken a corner of the formation and slipped into the Cangbaoge.
The righteous cultivators could only watch helplessly as Youye went inside, then hurriedly repaired the damaged formation.
If this great array collapsed, the monsters inside might rush out and wipe them all out.
“So, these Ling King guardians don’t bother with intruders in the Cangbaoge?” Hua Jian was puzzled.
Normally, if someone invaded the Cangbaoge, the Ling King monsters outside should chase and kill them, right?
The sister shook her head, saying she didn’t know why.
In the end, only the monsters knew what they were thinking. Maybe it was just how they were set up.
Hua Jian’s confusion was somewhat answered when Linglong returned.
The Saintess had disappeared the entire day—not for treasure hunting like Hua Jian, but to investigate another important location in the Imperial City Ruins: the Sacred Library Pavilion.
The Ling King guardians normally stationed there were now at the Cangbaoge, so the pavilion was unguarded.
Since it wasn’t far from the Yaochi camp, Linglong brought a few capable companions and spent the day going through ancient texts.
Most of the books were already rotted away, but some books preserved in Jade Slips with spiritual energy could still be read.
Among them, Linglong unexpectedly found a structural map of the Cangbaoge.
“The Imperial City Cangbaoge is divided into upper, middle, and lower levels. Aside from secret doors that require special means to open, the only way out is to return the way you came,” Linglong explained, projecting the outline of the Cangbaoge in the air with spiritual power.
The monsters didn’t pursue people entering the Cangbaoge for two reasons.
First, they were just gatekeepers and not permitted to enter.
Second, even if someone inside got treasures, they’d face the monsters’ ambush upon exiting. The monsters could simply lie in wait.
“What if someone opens the secret door?”
“Impossible. Opening the secret door requires the Imperial Jade Seal. The seal was previously kept in the Imperial Palace Grand Hall and is the core control of this entire secret realm. The masters took control of it as soon as they entered.”
Linglong dismissed the possibility.
The Magic Path’s only escape was through the main gate.
Unluckily for Youye, she had to face several Ling Wang-level monsters and righteous cultivators lying in ambush along the way.
And unlike the righteous cultivators, who could leave the secret realm by crushing their Space Jade Talismans, Youye would need much more preparation to escape safely.
If the difficulty for righteous cultivators to leave the realm was one, then for Youye, it was at least five or six.
“So we just set up an ambush along the evacuation route?” Hua Jian’s eyes gleamed. She was familiar with setting up traps to catch big prey.
“Ahem, Saintess Daren, I have a good plan that will ensure this Magic Path cultivator has nowhere to run, on earth or in heaven!”
“Oh? Do tell.”
Hua Jian was known for her crafty ideas, and Linglong was naturally eager to hear her plan.
Although their master had said to turn the tables, no specific instructions were given. Linglong had to act according to her understanding.
In any case, even if they let that Magic Path cultivator go, it couldn’t be too easy. They had to do their part properly.
“Look, Ling King monsters are guarding here, and we can have others set the formation a bit farther out, avoiding direct conflict with the monsters,” Hua Jian said, marking more points on Linglong’s Cangbaoge map.
The idea was simple: work together with the Ling King monsters to ambush the Magic Path cultivator.
“Then, we set up a small inconspicuous weak point here to lure the cultivator to break through, and I’ll arrange a small Array Formation right behind it…”
Hua Jian circled a spot behind the breach, indicating where her minor formation would be.
“My attributed gas has recovered enough to set up this little formation. If that one really takes the bait, heh heh.”
When it came to underhanded tactics, Hua Jian was unrivaled among Ling Shi Realm cultivators, especially with her Corpse Qi Maze as a trump card.
Even Ling Kings, if caught off-guard, would be solidly ensnared by her arrays.
If you don’t believe it, ask Linglong. The Little Dragon Girl, with her Dragon Blood, wasn’t weaker than Spirit King cultivators in poison resistance, yet she still had to succumb to the Corpse Qi technique.