"It's nothing."

Lin Chang'sheng shook his head, then casually asked, "I just think he's a little odd. By the way, where's this Yu Xiaochang from?"

"Great Yu—he used to be King Qi of Great Yu. But now that he's in the Immortal Sect, his rank as a prince in the mortal world doesn't mean a thing!"

Jin Buhuan whispered.

"True enough. In here, without strength, even a prince is nothing."

Lin Chang'sheng nodded. "Jin Buhuan, I have something to do. Go handle your own business for now!"

"Will do! I'll swing by Celestial Secret Peak when I have time!"

Jin Buhuan nodded. He'd originally come along with Yu Xiaochang to buy elixirs, but now that Yu Xiaochang had left, he didn't bother buying anything either, just said goodbye to Lin Chang'sheng and headed off.

Lin Chang'sheng pulled out nine Spirit Storage Pills, exchanged them for seventy-two Spirit Stones, and made his way back to Celestial Secret Peak.

........

Celestial Secret Peak.

At the mountain's foot.

"So it really is him!"

"His cultivation is way higher than mine! The hell am I supposed to do?"

In a small courtyard, a young man in white, handsome but with thin lips, sat inside the house, his face dark and clouded with deep concern.

He knew.

Back in the mortal world, he'd hunted Lin Chang'sheng again and again. Now Lin Chang'sheng had shot up in strength—no way he'd let it slide!

"Wait, this is Liuyun Immortal Sect. As long as I stay inside the sect, he won't dare do anything to me!"

Yu Xiaochang calmed his nerves, finally relaxing a bit, his eyes flickering with calculation.

But—

Then he remembered—he still had to go out on sect missions each month, which meant leaving the sect. That instantly had him fretting again.

......

Celestial Secret Peak.

Inside Lin Chang'sheng's room.

The door was barred from the inside.

Swift Wind Flash experience +1!

Swift Wind Flash experience +1!

.......

Lin Chang'sheng stood in his room, arms spread wide, shaking his body and hips. On the panel before him, red notifications kept popping up.

"Guess I'll go on a mission tomorrow!"

"Outdoors, somewhere deserted, I can shake all I want. In this dinky room, just can't let loose."

Lin Chang'sheng muttered to himself.

"Ying ying ying!"

Off to the side, the Little White Fox stared big-eyed at Lin Chang'sheng, calling out now and then, its gaze downright contemptuous.

"Xiaobai, what are you staring at? Go back to sleep!"

Seeing the fox's look, Lin Chang'sheng scolded and kept on shaking.

The Little White Fox immediately dove under the covers, leaving just its tail outside, wagging about.

"If that Yu Xiaochang stays holed up in the sect, it'll be hard to kill him..."

"But as an Outer Sect disciple, he has to go out on missions every month—that's the perfect chance. Or maybe I could learn some special technique to off him without anyone knowing?"

"That bastard deserves it. Once I kill him, I'll soul-capture him and toss him into the Myriad Souls Banner, refine him for a hundred years, beat him every day—let him keep Qi Hui company!"

Lin Chang'sheng kept shaking his hips, plotting all the while.

Just thinking of Qi Hui—

Lin Chang'sheng pulled out the Myriad Souls Banner, cast a spell, and tortured Qi Hui's soul for a while, drawing a chorus of miserable shrieks from the banner.

......

Celestial Ridge Mountain Range.

Thousands of miles away from Liuyun Immortal Sect.

Towering mountains, dense forests, ancient trees reaching the sky, swarming with poisonous insects and Demon Beasts, hazards everywhere.

This was where Liuyun Immortal Sect disciples came to train and collect herbs.

Qi Refining disciples usually stayed near the outskirts; only Foundation Establishment folks dared venture deeper for experience.

Thorn Cliff lay fifty li deep into the Celestial Ridge Mountain Range.

It was a frequent haunt of Golden Line Pythons. Lin Chang'sheng stood deep within Thorn Cliff, looking at the chaotic boulder-strewn valley below, gripping his Immortal Slaying Saber, instinctively shaking away as he activated his Divine Sense and proceeded forward carefully.

Way off in the distance, groups of disciples zipped past, training in threes and fours.

"Did every last one get killed doing missions or what?"

Lin Chang'sheng frowned. He'd been searching for over two hours already, but still hadn't even glimpsed a Golden Line Python.

The Golden Line Python was a Tier One Intermediate Demon Beast, about equal to Qi Refining Fourth to Sixth Layer strength.

With Lin Chang'sheng's current strength, taking one down would be no big deal.

"Hmm? Golden Line Python!"

Suddenly, Lin Chang'sheng's Divine Sense caught the presence—just over 30 feet away, inside a stone cave, a snake as thick as a grown man's thigh was coiling about, a golden line running right along its back!

"Looks like this one is probably at the Peak of Qi Refining Sixth Layer!"

His eyes lit up. The thicker the golden line on the python's back, the stronger it was. If it advanced, it'd become a Golden Python—on par with a Foundation Establishment Demon Beast!

Whoosh!

The Golden Line Python was extremely alert, and as soon as it sensed movement, darted right out of there!

"Meteor Fire Rain!"

Lin Chang'sheng instantly formed a spell, sending nine Fire Beads streaking toward the Golden Line Python!

Golden Line Pythons fear fire; fire's the best weapon against them.

"Hiss hiss hiss!~~"

To Lin Chang'sheng's surprise, a yellow light flared up around the python, blocking the Fire Beads. The flames couldn't hurt it at all!

But Lin Chang'sheng noticed, after a blast of Meteor Fire Rain, the yellow light around the python had faded a bit.

He immediately flung another volley of fireballs.

Round after round of Meteor Fire Rain.

Finally, the gold light around the Golden Line Python was used up. As it fled through over twenty more li, Lin Chang'sheng kept his Divine Sense locked onto the area, chasing after it. Suddenly he saw: the tail of the python, still on fire, disappeared into a patch of brush—then vanished without a trace.

"What the..."

Lin Chang'sheng walked up to the patch, shock written all over his face. It was obviously just a brush pile, so how did the Golden Line Python burrow itself in there?

He cast a few fireballs over, and they vanished as soon as they landed—his brow furrowed. "Weird!"

Eyes wary, Immortal Slaying Saber gripped tight, Lin Chang'sheng glanced around, then started to edge away.

Not about to linger in an unknown place.

Buzz!

Suddenly, his eyes blurred. Next thing he knew, he was standing below a cliff, three feet above the ground, with a hole four feet across ahead of him—and the Golden Line Python was wriggling inside!

"What the hell? Where is this?"

Lin Chang'sheng's heart jumped, Divine Sense spreading out as he started retreating—only to discover he'd lost his way.

He tried moving forward again.

Half an hour later, Lin Chang'sheng returned to the cliff bottom, face dark, feeling utterly hopeless.

He'd circled this spot more than ten times. No matter what he tried, he always ended up back where he started—trapped in an endless loop.

[Illusionary Stone Collection Array (Entry Level 0/1000)]

Right then, his panel popped up a red prompt.

"Huh?"

"Array formation unlocked? So this is... an Illusionary Stone Collection Array?"

Lin Chang'sheng stared at the panel, eyes wide with shock. He hadn't expected that, after bumbling around inside the array a dozen times, he'd unlock entry-level mastery of the formation.

[Illusionary Stone Collection Array detected. Spend five Spirit Stones to simplify it. Simplify?]

Another prompt flashed across his panel.

"Simplify it!"

He hit confirm without hesitation.

Once simplified, he'd have the formation mastered—couldn't he walk right out of here?

[Great Dao is Simple: Simplifying Illusionary Stone Collection Array... Simplification complete... Illusionary Stone Collection Array = Pile Some Rocks!]

After the simplification, another reminder popped up on his panel.

"Pile some rocks?"

Seeing the result, Lin Chang'sheng blinked—just piling up rocks could gain him experience with the Illusionary Stone Collection Array?

This was too easy!

With that thought, he immediately found a dozen or so stones underfoot and stacked them up.

Illusionary Stone Collection Array experience +1!

Illusionary Stone Collection Array experience +1!

........

"Yep, it works!"

Seeing the experience bar rise, Lin Chang'sheng's eyes filled with hope, and he began piling the rocks in earnest.

On the panel, red prompts flashed nonstop.

He realized, stacking a stone counted for one point of experience—pretty soon, he'd have it mastered.

[Illusionary Stone Collection Array (Proficient 2/2000)]

The moment "proficient" popped up on the panel, a flood of information poured into his mind—insights about the array itself merging instantly with his own thoughts.

In that moment—

Lin Chang'sheng felt as if he'd been studying the Illusionary Stone Collection Array for years—his mastery now thorough and complete!

"Turns out, to break this array, you just have to move one of the eighteen foundation stones—done!"

"And there's an exit, too—I was just blindly stumbling around and couldn't find it before."

Standing up, Lin Chang'sheng headed southeast, three steps forward, two steps back, one step forward—and suddenly his vision cleared—it was the exit. He'd walked right out of the Illusionary Stone Collection Array.

"Looks like this formation hasn't seen visitors in ages—had to have been set up over a hundred years ago."

Lin Chang'sheng studied the array a bit, then stepped forward and re-entered, examining the stone wall in detail.

Before long—

He found a row of stone impressions leading upward to a crack more than thirty feet above, all covered thickly in moss—obviously footholds for climbing up.

"These footholds are so mossy, someone must have lived here before."

Eyes shining, Immortal Slaying Saber in hand, Lin Chang'sheng used the Wind God Scroll, borrowed the footholds, and made his way up to the crack—not long after, he found wind blowing through it!

Standing at the crack, Lin Chang'sheng saw it was about a yard wide, two yards high, and three or four yards deep. Inside, the walls were also thick with moss, strewn with dried bug corpses.

He fired a fireball in and burned things for a bit—no reaction. So he headed inside. Three yards in, he spotted, to the left, a stone door—and within it, a sizable stone chamber.

The room was split into two sections. In the outer room, a Golden Line Python lay coiled up, its tail scorched—clearly the same one from before!

"Hiss hiss!"

Seeing Lin Chang'sheng, the python flicked out its tongue, wary, and darted toward the inner chamber.

"Not so fast!"

Raising his hand, Lin Chang'sheng unleashed a Purple Thunder Wind Blade.

Shhk!

Nearly invisible, the blade sliced right at the python's seventh-inch—its vulnerable spot—making it shriek as blood spurted everywhere. The python thrashed, and Lin Chang'sheng stepped forward, hacking open its belly and taking out its gall bladder.

That was a mission item.

"Wait—what's that, a skull?"

Suddenly, Lin Chang'sheng spotted, in the inner sanctum, a skeleton propped against a stone platform, skull fallen to the side, looking downright creepy. On the floor, several dusty porcelain bottles were scattered about.

"A Storage Bag!"

At the corpse's feet, Lin Chang'sheng spotted a gray bag—he recognized that right away. A Storage Bag!

His heart started racing.

The Storage Bag of a Cultivator who had perished here—what treasures could it hold?

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