The so-called warning signal was actually the fluctuation of a sensing formation Li Xun had set up around the Forbidden Palace.
He had used high-level restrictive techniques to create it, finely tuned to detect true breath signatures from the Tongxuan Realm. And it proved remarkably effective.
This last fool intruder was caught thanks to it, and now he lay dead.
Despite the complaining, Li Xun didn't dare slack off. He quickly called a guard to clean up the body, then rushed back into the inner treasury. At the central control hub, he unleashed over a dozen streams of his inner breath to activate a refined mechanism left behind by Yin Wanderer.
A bronze mirror on the wall suddenly lit up. As the glow faded, hazy images formed on its surface—slowly sharpening into clear scenes.
It was the Water Mirror Technique.
Legends said that at its peak, it could be used to observe the entire Tongxuan Realm. Yin Wanderer's version was just a simplified imitation, but still good enough to monitor the area around the treasury.
Li Xun cycled through the images one by one.
When he saw what appeared on the mirror, he involuntarily sucked in a cold breath.
It wasn't just one intruder.
It was five.
Four men, one woman. All looked young. But in the Tongxuan Realm, appearances meant nothing. Once you reached a certain level, maintaining a youthful form was easy. For all he knew, one of those "youths" might've been an ancient cultivator who'd lived for a thousand years and could bend reality with a flick of a finger.
Li Xun's scalp went numb.
Because he knew his own limits all too well.
His current cultivation level was merely entry-level in the Tongxuan Realm; everyone bullies him. Maybe with all the traps around the treasury, Yin Wanderer's nasty items, and a few cunning schemes, he might temporarily hold his own against one or two deadbeats like the one he'd just killed.
But five?
If there were just a few more of them, or if they were even one level stronger, he'd be as good as dead.
Gotta let Yin Wanderer know. Fast!
Li Xun yanked out a tiny sword from his robes, no longer than a pinky and thin as a cicada's wing. It was a special messenger sword Yin Wanderer had given him. Used only in emergencies. As long as Yin Wanderer was within a thousand miles, it'd show up within the time it took for one incense stick to burn.
The only thing was...for that entire duration, Li Xun would have to hold out on his own.
He grit his teeth and flicked the sword into the air.
The little blade darted off like a fish swimming through water, twisted once, then vanished into the wind. Down below, the five intruders had just stepped into the open space before the inner vault.
Li Xun took a few deep breaths to steady himself. He clapped three times. The image in the bronze mirror wavered, then steadied—along with a voice that drifted over:
"Where'd that guy go? I saw him flying in on his sword just now, and I definitely felt the ripple of true breath. What gives, senior brother?"
The speaker was the only woman among the five. The water mirror wasn't quite as good as seeing with your own eyes, but from the silhouette and her voice, Li Xun could tell she was a beauty. Probably young, too.
And judging from her tone, she didn't sound like a thief at all.
That made Li Xun breathe a little easier. But there was something else in her words that instantly made him tense again.
"Senior brother"?
They belonged to a sect!
And that was a whole different beast from a rogue cultivator. The Thirty-Three Sects of the Tongxuan Realm weren't to be trifled with. Even someone like Yin Wanderer—a notorious, peerless demonic cultivator—would think twice before going up against a whole sect alone.
Li Xun held his breath and focused on listening.
The one she called senior brother gave a calm little chuckle and replied, "We did take some detours on the way. Not finding him right away isn't that strange."
"But that's not good enough!" the junior sister said, pouting a little. "The sword light on that person clearly wasn't from a righteous path. Who knows what kind of sketchy stuff he's up to in a place like this! Senior brother, didn't we come out here specifically to root out evil?"
"Yes," the man said, "but that doesn't mean you go around stirring up trouble."
That got a laugh out of the other three male cultivators. The junior sister huffed in protest, but she wasn't really mad…just playfully glaring at them. Kind of adorable, really.
Even Li Xun found himself chuckling a little.
And just as he was thinking maybe these folks aren't here to cause trouble, that senior brother suddenly said:
"Still, one thing junior sister said was right. His sword light wasn't righteous. He might really be hiding nearby, spying on us with some sneaky trick!"
"Ah?"
Before the girl could finish her surprised sound, the senior brother suddenly stomped his foot down hard.
Li Xun had still been wondering what that move was about… until his gut dropped.
"Oh no!" he yelled.
Before he even finished shouting, a wave of force came rolling through the stone corridors like thunder. In a blink, it had swept across the entire inner vault.
Li Xun's body jerked like a puppet on a string. Pain bloomed in his chest like he'd just taken a hammer blow. He spat blood on the spot.
The bronze mirror wobbled wildly, the image fuzzing out. And in the blur, Li Xun saw that senior brother turn his head toward the mirror. His eyes were razor sharp, staring straight at Li Xun as if he knew he was there. There was even the faintest hint of a cold smirk at his lips. His voice came through clearly:
"Which damn demon dares spy on us from the shadows?"
CRACK!
The water mirror shattered into hundreds of pieces, shards flying everywhere.
Li Xun was frozen, heart pounding like a drum. He didn't know who the others were, but that senior brother—just one stomp and his true breathhad ripped through dozens of feet of solid rock, striking with pinpoint accuracy?
That kind of power wasn't far off from the second-generation disciples of the Mingxin Sword Sect.
Among the third-generation, maybe only senior brother Wenhai could compare!
But what truly terrified him… was that he still had no idea how that man had noticed this rigorous and intricate Water Mirror technique at all.
If that man caught up to him, even if there were ten Li Xuns, they'd all be dead.
Run!
The thought screamed through his brain. He shoved open the door and dashed out.
But the moment he looked up, he froze again.
All the guards and eunuchs outside were already slumped over—unconscious, if not dead. Clearly, that stomp wasn't aimed just at him. The senior brother's skill hadn't yet reached the level of fine-tuned precision. It was still indiscriminate damage.
That at least meant his power wasn't completely unmanageable.
Li Xun let out a breath, feeling a little steadier. Still, the man's power was way beyond his own. And if even one more in that group had similar strength… he was screwed.
Who the hell are these people? Which sect are they from?
With those uneasy thoughts swirling in his head, Li Xun crept toward the vault's exit. But right as he reached the door, another thought hit him.
The people outside might be untouchable, but I can't piss off Yin Wanderer either!
Even if those five weren't here for the vault's treasures, some of the stuff inside really stood out, just lying around in the pill chamber.
With a frustrated stomp, Li Xun turned back, rushed to the fourth level of the inner vault, and dashed into the pill chamber. He snatched the two particularly conspicuous items off a stone table, then took off again.
That little detour had cost him. The distance between him and those intruders had shrunk even more.
But oddly enough, that overwhelming sense of danger he'd expected… hadn't come.
From what he could tell, the enemy's advance had slowed—likely because of the complex tunnels. Seemed all those sensory-disrupting formations he'd set up when he was bored had actually done their job.
Since things weren't as bad as he'd imagined, Li Xun finally started to calm down. With a steady heart came a flood of thoughts. Staring at the bottle and the metal shard in his hands, he was full of questions.
Just what were these two items, that even someone like Yin Wanderer would value them so much? And if they were so precious, why didn't he carry them with her?
The more he thought about it, the less sense it made. And the more curious he became. He stopped walking and gave the two items another look. The metal shard was filthy and obscure; he couldn't make heads or tails of it, so he set it aside for now.
He shook the crystal vial, watching the peach-pink liquid swirl inside. Nothing seemed to happen. He brought it close to his nose. No strange smell either. After hesitating for a moment, he gripped the stopper with his fingers and gently popped it open.
And just like that, all hell broke loose.
First came a strange smell, slightly metallic like blood, but not too strong. Then a sharp, almost intoxicating fragrance hit his nose. Li Xun couldn't help but take a deep breath… and instantly regretted it.
The dim and bright yin qi circulating quietly within his body suddenly exploded like it had been doused in oil. The Yin Qi Pearl lurking deep in his heart aperture, for unknown reasons, went berserk, frantically expanding and contracting over a dozen times in succession. Even the Jade Bixie could not suppress it, and it emitted a sharp, prolonged shriek."
Jade Bixie's reaction was more intense than anything it'd experienced before. For a moment, Li Xun thought this treasure was about to blow up!
His head felt like it was about to burst. The chaotic inner breath made his mind reel, and then came a piercing scream that seemed to tear through his soul. So sharp it nearly left him a drooling idiot.
Thankfully, the miraculous Jade Bixie was still there. And luckily, the techniques he cultivated were all supreme techniques of the Tongxuan Realm. Though his cultivation level wasn't remarkable, he at least had enough mental stability to endure.
Right as he was about to black out, his instincts kicked in—his thumb slammed the stopper back down into the bottle. The moment it sealed, the ringing in his head vanished like a dream.
The Yin Qi Pearl calmed, the Jade Bixie fell silent, and a wave of cool, refreshing energy spread through his body, soothing his injured insides.
Li Xun spat out a mouthful of clotted blood, then looked down at the bottle in his hand, speechless.
Yep… definitely not something good.
No way in hell was he going to mess with it again. Holding both the bottle and the shard at arm's length, he didn't even dare tuck them into his robes. He just turned and bolted.
Behind him, the five pursuers clearly picked up the pace.
What made it worse was that they no longer seemed to be wandering blindly through the tunnels; they'd locked onto his trail and were closing in fast.
Clearly, even a hundred layers of thick walls couldn't muffle that violent tremor from moments ago. Now, his pursuers had seized this faint trace and were chasing him without hesitation.