Indeed, the nameplate on the bracelet read clearly: Xuan State Youxia Mountain 1.

No matter how one looked, the eyes couldn't solve the puzzle; Xiang Laner tossed aside the object in her hand and, like catching bugs, stretched out her hand to grab the nameplate on Shi Chun's bracelet and leaned in to take a close look.

The two who were sighing in dismay were caught off guard by the commotion and quickly realized that this raising of the hand had given them away.

Shi Chun wanted to retract her hand but it was too late; Xiang Laner had grabbed onto the nameplate and wouldn't let go, as if clutching a bull's nose.

After examining one side, she flipped it over to the other side, where she saw the words "Wang Sheng" written.

Wang Sheng of Xuan State's Youxia Mountain? Xiang Laner looked at Shi Chun as if she were a monster, then twisted her head to look at Wu Jinliang.

Wu Jinliang reacted quite quickly. Noticing something was amiss, he glanced at the two nameplates on his own bracelet and, wondering if it was because the two nameplates differed in weight, found that the revealing side was also facing Xiang Laner. Right away, with a gentle flick of his wrist, he managed to flip the genuine one to the other side.

This quick thinking and nimble action were both adroit and seasoned.

Xiang Laner took a look, grabbed it for a closer examination, and found nothing wrong with Wu Jinliang's. But upon comparing both sides, she also noticed inconsistencies; some jobs were indeed a bit rough, any color difference couldn't withstand comparison, and she immediately spotted the discrepancy.

Naturally suspecting that Shi Chun's was fake, she immediately pulled to confirm it. How could one quibble over this? The other fake nameplate was exposed on the spot.

Well, Wu Jinliang's little trick had been in vain as well; Xiang Laner merely tugged at the nameplate on his bracelet and turned it halfway around, exposing the other fake one too.

"What are you doing, men and women shouldn't touch hands like this." Wu Jinliang complained, shrinking back his hand.

Xiang Laner expressed her suspicion, "Wang Sheng, Gao Qiang, why are you posing as people from the Xuan State sects?"

Shi Chun said calmly, "I heard that Xuan State holds great power, it's just using its reputation for self-protection."

Wu Jinliang: "Exactly, we're so weak, what's wrong with putting on a brave front, it's not disgraceful."

Shi Chun: "My dear Little Lan, can't you distinguish what's important right now? Why are you holding on to a couple of worthless pieces of metal, are you still looking for your stuff or not?"

Xiang Laner flicked the fake nameplate with her finger, "I'm just curious, who made this fake? It's such a shoddy job, you dare to use something so obviously fake to impersonate others? Using this to bolster your courage, aren't you afraid of scaring yourselves to death? If you show this to someone, taking them for fools, aren't you afraid of getting beaten up?"

The layman's words were met with disdainful looks from both Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang.

In their eyes, a fake was a fake; if one were serious about it, even a well-imitated fake could be detected. The act of impersonation had never depended on the object itself, but rather on the human process involved.

The same item, with the same impersonation method, a subtle glance, a slight micro-expression could all raise suspicions.

The same trick, performed by an expert, leaves no cracks for the audience to detect, while a novice might be doubted everywhere.

In short, practice makes perfect, do it often, and once you're accustomed to it, naturally you'll dare to take people for fools.

Unfortunately, experience is something that can neither be explained nor taught; aside from contempt, the two had no more to say.

Shi Chun nodded her chin towards the stuff on the ground, "My arms are sore from raising them, let's get back to business."

Indeed, the matter at hand was pressing; Xiang Laner shook her head speechlessly at the two and continued to inspect the items one by one.

Looking over them, Xiang Laner eventually picked out five bundles of incense sticks, guessing there might be nearly a hundred sticks in a bundle, and asked, "Are these incense sticks from Sun Shigang's possession?"

Wu Jinliang: "Everyone had some, a bundle each. Do you think it's these?"

Xiang Laner: "Aside from these, the other items don't seem significant, just normal personal belongings, the medicines in the bottles and jars don't seem to have any issues at a glance. But these five bundles of incense sticks, I just feel something off about them; although incense is commonly used by cultivators for clarity of mind, bringing them into the West Pole meeting seems inexplicably awkward."

Shi Chun and the other looked at each other, speechless; this was simply a biased presumption.

While talking, Xiang Laner had already pulled out an incense stick and lit it with a lighter, immediately seeing a light yellow smoke rising.

Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang didn't hesitate and held their breaths right away.

Xiang Laner, however, tried smelling it and frowned, "Why does this incense smell burnt?"

Regardless of the smell, Shi Chun and the other still held their breath, refusing to take a single inhalation, observing.

The incense burned slowly.

After watching for a while, Shi Chun said, "What use is there in testing like this?"

Xiang Laner nodded slightly, "Whether it's useful or not, we'll know after a test in the Moon Sea."

Shi Chun immediately protested, "We don't dare to go in there; if you want to test it, you test it."

What a joke, if they were to fall into that dark space again, using the same method, he wasn't confident he could come out; at least with his current level of cultivation, he didn't dare to take that risk again.

Xiang Laner reached for the incense on the ground, "I'll arrange for someone to test it."

Shi Chun was quick and snatched four out of the five bunches of incense sticks directly, making it quite obvious that he was keeping one hand free for defense. He gathered up the other items as well, wary of the woman's tricks—feigning an attack in one place while striking in another—for fear that the truly useful item could be something else.

Xiang Laner sneered secretly to herself. If she truly wanted to snatch them, it wouldn't matter whether you two had them—the items would be no different from being in my possession.

She didn't quibble over it and stood up to grab the cloak that had fallen off.

Wind Scale took to the skies once again, with the three of them heading straight for the Moon Sea.

After reaching near the Moon Sea, the three of them found a place to carve out a simple cave to hide in.

Subsequently, the five-person group summoned by Xiang Laner also arrived, and the meeting process between the two parties was indescribable. They all wrapped themselves in cloth, with Shi Chun also doing so upon Xiang Laner's reminder.

Xiang Laner also didn't want Shi Chun's Demon Path identity to be exposed to the others.

As for Wu Jinliang, he was too tall and his sword too large; no matter how tightly he wrapped himself, it was futile, so he just hid in the shadows and never showed his face.

The five who were given the incense sticks and received orders dashed towards the Moon Sea.

Shi Chun and Xiang Laner followed soon after and saw the five people leap into the Moon Sea beneath the cliffs; the two of them stopped and waited at the edge of the cliff.

They weren't idle either. To avoid detection by the Heavenly Mirror, at Shi Chun's suggestion, the two began to dig a cave right into the cliff face above the Moon Sea, with debris falling into the waters below.

About an hour later, as the sky began to darken, all five of the people returned safely and were invited into the cave for a meeting. They even brought back an Insect Extreme Crystal.

The Insect Extreme Crystal was not what mattered to Xiang Laner; she was focused on the process.

The five people reported that, following orders, they had entered the Moon Sea, cast spells to spread the incense smoke, and by judging the remaining length of the sticks, estimated that one could last for three hours. During that time, they encountered no danger.

That was the situation at hand, and in such a short time, the five of them could not provide any other assessment.

Because of this, Xiang Laner handed out another batch of incense sticks to the five people and heartlessly ordered them to continue searching for Insect Extreme Crystals throughout the night, demanding that they not return until dawn and, more excessively, that they must light up the Sandal Gold Illumination.

The five people accepted the order without hesitation and jumped into the Moon Sea again, without any questions.

This decisiveness to carry out orders without question impressed Shi Chun greatly. The sects at the meeting didn't have such obedience, nor did his subordinates back in the East Nine Plain.

Shi Chun remained busy as well, continuing to expand the cave, crafting an inner chamber before finally getting in touch with Wu Jinliang and summoning him over. He didn't feel at ease with Wu Jinliang being alone.

That night, the distant "woo-woo" of horns could be occasionally heard coming from the depths of the Moon Sea, and at times there was also the sound of fighting, which made Xiang Laner anxious.

Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang didn't care much; seeing death was common for them, and after all, it wasn't their own people dying.

By daybreak the next day, all five people incredibly returned unharmed, handing over three more Insect Extreme Crystals, and reported the same situation as before—no danger encountered, only distant sounds of fighting.

Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang, who had been eavesdropping from the inner chamber, were both invigorated by the news, vaguely sensing that the incense sticks might truly be useful. Having these items seemed to prevent encounters with monsters, though they wondered what they were made of.

Xiang Laner pulled out a map and had the five people mark the areas they had explored before letting them rest. Then, using the parent-child talismans, she summoned another two groups of ten and instructed these new ten people to enter the Moon Sea in the same manner for searching.

After three days of similar testing methods, with all sent personnel returning unharmed, it was basically confirmed that the key to this expedition was the incense sticks.

Xiang Laner immediately reorganized the personnel at hand for use; she didn't know why the higher-ups had only arranged for six groups to await orders at the Moon Sea and was concerned there might be a reason for it. To be safe, she kept the knowledge of the incense sticks' secret to those six groups and didn't inform the other six.

Thirty people, split into three groups of ten, alternated between searching the Moon Sea and resting.

There was plenty of time, so she was not in a hurry.

As days passed, Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang, who initially thought they could just lie back and reap the rewards, began to grow anxious.

They realized things weren't as rosy as they'd imagined. Even though Xiang Laner's people were searching day and night, they could only find at most a few dozen each day, a far cry from the amount they had obtained during their first entry into the Moon Sea.

Thinking about it, they couldn't blame Xiang Laner's people for slacking. The situation was different; the first time they followed the group from Xuan State, the reason they managed to gather so much was not just because of the large number of people. More importantly, there happened to be a shower of Insect Extreme Crystals falling on their search location.

In other words, the Moon Sea wasn't just full of Insect Extreme Crystals.

Even a small mosquito has meat; Shi Chun wasn't willing to give up so easily. Considering the time they had left, he decided to wait it out.

They spent over ten days until all the incense sticks were used up, and the search in the Moon Sea came to an end.

Upon tallying the number of Insect Extreme Crystals, Xiang Laner placed several tightly bound black cloth bags before Shi Chun and Wu Jinliang. "Four hundred seventy-seven crystals; for a single sect to have such an amount, it's enough to give a decent explanation to the Sheng Province by the Wu Kang Mountain. Now, the issue is, when we give the explanation to the Wu Kang Mountain Sect Master, how do we distribute the credit and how do we logically explain where the items came from?"

Shi Chun laughed as he listened, "You guys are so keen on gathering these Insect Extreme Crystals; don't tell me it's all to secure your position as the daughter-in-law of the Wu Kang Mountain Sect Master?"

Xiang Laner didn't deny it and said expressionlessly, "To stop the wagging tongues, you need something substantial, and no reward is more suitable than meritorious deeds."

Shi Chun chuckled, "Alright, we don't want any of the Insect Extreme Crystals. They're all yours, and the credit is all yours."

Xiang Laner was surprised, "Then why were you so eager to search for these?"

Shi Chun glanced at the black bags, "For being the first. This amount is too small for us; we're not interested. Let me borrow your people for a while. If you don't, you might find it hard to justify these Insect Extreme Crystals once they reach the Wu Kang Mountain!"

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