The Nine-Layered Tower collapsed with a thunderous crash, stirring up billowing dust and smoke. Han Yu stood outside the White Bone Temple, sighing as he watched the ruins emerge from the dissipating dust.
After the two hurried out of the tower, his cousin suddenly wanted to go back inside again.
"The underground passages are always a hidden danger. I'm afraid someone might use them to enter the tomb again. It's better to destroy them."
After saying this, his cousin went back inside, and it wasn't long before the tower collapsed.
Han Yu stood outside the temple, waiting quietly, with Little Glass's chattering voice in his head.
"Han Yu, the Ping is acting up again. Why not just give it what it wants?"
The Glass in his mind shook uncontrollably, much like a petulant child.
"How can I give it? This belongs to someone else. How am I going to return it later?"
Han Yu firmly refused, fearing the Ping would cause trouble. Just to be safe, he took it out from his pocket and held it tightly in his hand.
Unexpectedly, the moment he held it, the Glazed Bottle suddenly jumped up, its mouth facing down, emitting a suction.
It seemed like something was sucked into the bottle's mouth. Han Yu's tightly held hand suddenly felt lighter. He quickly opened it, staring dumbfounded at his empty palm.
"Why did you hold it in your hand? Don't you know that just like you can use your hand to retrieve pills from afar, it can also seize things from your hand from afar?" Little Glass said gleefully.
"Hurry and make it spit it out! We have to return it soon." Han Yu was in a panic and urged the Little Artifact Spirit desperately.
"Impossible. Once it eats something, you're lucky if you get some scraps."
Little Glass's childish voice was full of glee.
After swallowing the relic, the Glazed Bottle finally calmed down. A cloud of mist rose from the bottle's mouth, swirling above it. A fierce flame appeared at the bottle's bottom, continuously refining it.
Golden droplets of rain began to fall from the mist, hitting the bottle and the flames. In an instant, the flames raged more intensely, and the bottle began to emit a faint light.
After a full quarter of an hour of burning, the rain stopped, and the flames gradually faded. The Glazed Bottle twinkled briefly before returning to its original appearance.
Huh~ Ptooey~
At the bottle's mouth, the glass dismissed disdainfully and spat out a substance.
After rolling around a few times, a quail egg-sized stone came to a stop. Han Yu's face darkened as he reached out and took it. The relic, once glowing like jade, was now a dull gray stone, as plain as any ordinary broken stone.
"So you ate everything and just returned the trash, is that it?"
Han Yu said angrily in his mind.
Uh...
Little Glass let out a series of burps; no wonder it hadn't stopped before—the Ping eating meant it ate too.
They really were accomplices.
"Han Yu, you ate too. You're part of it." Little Glass retorted indignantly.
"I didn't eat anything." Han Yu grimaced, about to protest, when suddenly a swirl of fog in his mind became turbulent, transforming into a massive Hungry Ghost Path visualization image upon landing.
Xuan Yin's Hungry Ghost Image merely depicted a group of hungry ghosts, but the Hungry Ghost Image in his mind seemed like a vast sea of people, a true purgatory scene.
"Who would've thought the scraps of the relic were actually a high monk's cultivated Hungry Ghost Path. Now you have a complete divine technique!" Little Glass exclaimed joyfully.
Han Yu's expression turned odd, torn between bitterness and bewilderment.
Damn, he thought, I really am part of this. How am I going to explain this to my cousin?
Meanwhile, from the tower's debris, his cousin stumbled out, covered in dust. Upon seeing Han Yu, he hurried up to him.
"Cough! I originally meant to blow up just the wellhead and the dungeon, but accidentally hit the tower's foundation too, nearly burying myself,"
His cousin said, looking embarrassed.
Han Yu, also embarrassed, hesitated before finally sighing and opening his palm to reveal the stone-like object.
"Sorry, it seems I might have damaged the relic."
His cousin craned his neck for a better view, his expression unchanged. He merely mumbled, "It's lost all its Buddhist nature. If you like, keep it as a memento."
He seemed unconcerned about the relic, which only made Han Yu feel more awkward.
"Uh-oh!"
After the two chatted and laughed for a bit, his cousin suddenly slapped his forehead, exclaiming with urgency, nearly startling Han Yu.
"I almost forgot about the commoner!"
He explained to Han Yu that five days ago, he had an appointment with a commoner at the Hidden Moon Peak to explore a tomb. He was supposed to arrive two days ago, but never did.
His cousin waited but gave up, went into the tomb alone, and ended up trapped and captured in the dungeon.
"Could he have simply been delayed?"
Han Yu asked with a chuckle.
But his cousin shook his head solemnly, saying, "He's always punctual. Besides, he was just gathering herbs at Hidden Moon Peak. Unless something happened, he wouldn't be two days late."
Han Yu stopped smiling too. His cousin fumbled in his pocket for a while before producing a small square wooden box.
After being thrown onto the ground, the wooden box suddenly enlarged and slowly opened, revealing various small iron pieces, seemingly identical in material to what his cousin previously showed.
His cousin squatted down to assemble, and in just two time periods, he had constructed a two-meter-tall iron bird.
Han Yu watched with a curious gaze, intrigued by the peculiar bird.
"This is the Iron Kite, my invention. Load it with a Spirit Stone, and it can fly. Faster and longer-lasting than a Flying Sword, but not sturdy enough for escaping,"
His cousin patted the Iron Kite and explained.
The prospect of flying fast and far made Han Yu's eyes light up. He had always been handicapped by his inability to fly, and it seemed this Iron Kite would allow him to experience the thrill of airborne travel.
"Then I'll go ahead." His cousin stuffed a small Spirit Stone into the Iron Kite's belly, climbed on, and waved to Han Yu.
"Since there's nothing to do, why don't I go with you?"
Just as his cousin was about to take off, Han Yu suddenly stopped him and said.
Once the two of them sat on the Iron Kite, a pair of two-meter-long iron wings spread out. With just a slight flap, they soared effortlessly into the sky.
Han Yu felt a bit excited inside; it was his first time in the sky, and the pain of being a pure body cultivator was something no one understood.
Below the Iron Kite, the scenery flashed by continuously, and a powerful wind made him feel elated.
At that moment, an untimely voice from Glass echoed in his mind laughingly, "Han Yu, you lost your second ox too!"
Damn! Han Yu's face instantly turned black. He mimicked his cousin's gesture and slapped his forehead, realizing he had been so focused on the experience that he forgot about his ox.
Another Big Yellow Ox had slipped away from him...
Lu Dayou was feeling quite agitated today. As he expected, the Celestial Water Sect made a great effort to demand accountability. Several elders, leading over a hundred disciples, directly barged into Minzhou City, with great momentum, heading straight for the Xiao Mansion.
Fortunately, Lu Dayou had provided a warning earlier. By the time the Celestial Water Sect people arrived, all that was left were the ruins, and the Xiao Family had long since evacuated.
When they found no one, an elder in a fit of anger confronted the Guardian Envoy, who was Lu Dayou.
"If the heavens want rain or a mother wants to marry off her daughter, people want to move, what does it have to do with me?"
Lu Dayou responded indifferently.
"Our sect's disciples reported that you were present that day as well."
The elder said angrily.
Lu Dayou still maintained an indifferent tone, "As a Guardian Envoy, if someone causes trouble, I act according to the law of the land."
"I've heard there was also a little pharmacist stirring up trouble among them?"
The elder asked unkindly.
Lu Dayou shook his head, claiming he hadn't seen anything and wasn't aware.
"Do you truly not know, or are you deliberately shielding them, trying to oppose our Celestial Water Sect?"
The elder inspected him with a scrutinizing gaze, speaking with underlying threats.
Lu Dayou gradually felt anger rising and said coldly, "If you want to use the sect to pressure me, perhaps I should send a letter back to the sect to see if they're afraid of your Celestial Water Sect?"
The elder's expression fluctuated, ultimately not daring to push further, and reluctantly turned to leave.
The group came in with great fanfare and left in great tumult.
"It seems the Celestial Water Sect has taken an interest in the little pharmacist, likely due to their pills."
Lu Dayou muttered to himself, watching the dawn light with his hands clasped behind his back.
He thought finding a remote southern region to blend in as a Guardian would bring less trouble, but he forgot that it's never people who seek trouble, it's always trouble that finds people.
The Iron Kite flew for two whole hours before slowly landing.
His cousin's face was pale, and Han Yu's cheeks were trembling.
"It's my first time flying at such a high altitude for so long as well, somewhat unbearable."
His cousin held onto the Iron Kite, his legs trembling.
Han Yu, being physically robust, didn't have trembling legs, but after "drinking" two hours of wind, his stomach felt terribly unwell.
The large Iron Kite quickly attracted many onlookers outside Shuzhou City, with people making various comments about it.
"I think I saw them fly down from the sky sitting on this."
"How can such an iron lump fly?"
His cousin couldn't withstand being surrounded like this, his hand reached under the belly of the Iron Kite and felt a protruding groove. Pushing it strongly, the entire Iron Kite instantly disassembled into pieces on the ground.
Han Yu, enduring the discomfort, crouched down to help pick up the pieces, then softly asked, "Weren't you supposed to rescue someone? What are we doing here?"
His cousin only spoke after packing up the metal pieces, "Most of my tools are stored with my cousin here, I need to bring them, just in case."
By this time, several Palace Guards came out of the city, dispersing the crowd, and then they politely clasped their fists, saying, "The Mansion Master invites you both to the mansion for a discussion."
How did we end up dealing with the Guardian again?
Han Yu sighed helplessly, then glanced at his cousin.
His cousin gave an assuring look, explaining softly, "The Guardian here is my cousin."
Han Yu was taken aback; it was the first time he'd heard of a female Guardian.
The two of them followed the Palace Guards into the city, heading straight to the Government Office.
By this time, his cousin seemed quite familiar with the place. He led Han Yu across the courtyard into the inner chamber, where a graceful figure was obviously waiting specially.
"Cousin!"
His cousin stepped forward and called out.
The graceful figure turned around slowly, revealing black hair adorned with makeup, willow-shaped eyebrows, and bright eyes like stars; absolutely stunning, wearing a purple outfit that accentuated the curves of her chest magnificently.
His cousin eagerly approached, and the woman smiled lightly, causing even Han Yu's heart to race a bit.
"You've finally come..." The woman's voice was soft and sweet, but before she finished her words, she lifted her elegant leg and kicked her cousin in the abdomen, sending him flying into the wall...
Watching his cousin embedded in the wall, the woman clapped contentedly.
"If you hadn't shown up, I was already ready to write an arrest warrant."
Han Yu stood dumbfounded, staring at his cousin sticking to the wall, momentarily unsure of what to do.
To rescue or not to rescue?