Chapter 105: Treasure Hunting Instinct

Chapter 105: The Instinct for Treasure Hunting

Knocking echoed in the quiet office; the slender-eyed, horse-faced Hei Wuchang glanced at his subordinate.

Shaofu Henrun cautiously edged toward the door, whispering, "Who is it?"

A low, familiar voice rang out from outside: "It's me!"

"Shaofu Henrun's" face lit with joy, and he hurriedly opened the door.

He was on good terms with Tiandao Bugong; in Hei Wuchang's little clique, the preferences of Hengxing Wuji and the others had already been assimilated by the boss, Hei Wuchang, until they gradually lost interest in normal women.

Only Tiandao Bugong and Shaofu Henrun still held a fierce lust for two-legged females, while retreating three paces from female beasts.

In the darkness outside the door, Tiandao Bugong stood silent, his cold gaze sweeping over Hei Wuchang and Shaofu Henrun, as if verifying something.

Seeing his companion's indifferent expression, those strange eyes, Shaofu Henrun's heart suddenly sank; immediately after, he saw "Tiandao Bugong" pull a palm-sized clay figurine from his pocket.

The figurine depicted a giant, stripped to the waist, struggling forward beneath a great mountain.

Under the astonished gazes of Hei Wuchang and Shaofu Henrun, Tiandao Bugong tossed the figurine into the office.

Thud!

The figurine hit the ground with a dull, heavy sound.

In the next instant, Hei Wuchang and Shaofu Henrun were "fixed" in place; their bodies trembled, shoulders as if bearing a great mountain, unable to move.

Standing outside the door, Tiandao Bugong drew the pistol from his waist, aimed at Shaofu Henrun's head, and calmly squeezed the trigger.

"Bang bang bang..."

Bullets drilled into the skull one by one, blasting the cranium away, spraying blood and brain matter.

Yet at this moment, Shaofu Henrun's body had only just begun to mutate; hardened keratin covered a mere fifty percent of his form before his life was taken.

Tiandao Bugong stood at the doorway, turning the muzzle toward Hei Wuchang deepest inside; bang bang bang... the remaining bullets were all poured into Hei Wuchang.

But they failed to harm this Saint in the slightest; even without transforming a Gu, relying purely on physical strength, a Wugushi could easily withstand bullets.

Seeing the bullets fail, Tiandao Bugong standing at the door fell stiffly backward; from the darkness outside, a white-clad figure approached with measured steps.

Hei Wuchang gazed at that approaching white silhouette and said:

"The Holy Grail is in my inventory; kill me, and it will be reclaimed by the Spirit Realm."

Fu Qingyang reached out and grasped the air; the Bronze Eight-Directions Sword fell into his hand. "It amounts to the same," he said lightly.

Returning to the Spirit Realm meant that for a very long time to come, no Wugushi would obtain this rule-type artifact.

Hei Wuchang let out a cold laugh and shouted, "Did you hear that? The Five Elements Alliance wants the Holy Grail returned to the Spirit Realm."

...

In the convenience store, Zhang Yuanqing finished his instant noodles and ordered a serving of oden; he leaned against the counter, chatting and laughing with the clerk auntie.

"Oh, so your son is at the Business Academy? Business Academy is great, pretty girls by the handful; your son's girlfriend must be a beauty, right?" Zhang Yuanqing said enviously.

"Sigh, so-so." The auntie sighed, finding this young man's words pleasant to hear, and asked, "Young man, what university do you attend?"

Zhang Yuanqing sighed with emotion, "I never went to university. I started working right after high school, so I've always thought university graduates were elites. My dream used to be getting into Songhai University."

"Songhai University, now that's a remarkable school," the auntie said, offering comfort, "But university grads aren't worth much these days, degrees aren't what they used to be. Once you're out in society, you still have to rely on your own hard work."

For some reason, even though her son was just an ordinary university student, she felt a sliver of pride, and her mood lifted considerably.

"Mhm, mhm, Auntie's right. You've been there, done that," Zhang Yuanqing nodded repeatedly, "Auntie, could you ladle me some more soup?"

The auntie obliged with a spoonful.

"Thanks. Your cooking is delicious. Could you give me a skewer of kelp?"

The auntie hesitated a moment, then handed him one.

Zhang Yuanqing sipped the fresh, spicy, hot soup and chatted idly with the auntie. Suddenly, a violent palpitation seized his heart.

It's started!

Hei Wuchang really was lying in wait at Songhai No. 3 Elementary... Zhang Yuanqing's expression remained unchanged as he quietly summoned Little Dudu, ordering him to go observe the battle.

He intended to watch through the eyes of his Spirit Servant. This feeling of being blind to the situation was terrible; if something went wrong, knowing the layout immediately would help him devise a countermeasure.

Besides, he yearned to witness a battle between high-level Spirit Realm Walkers.

Little Dudu lay on the ground, lifting his head, only to be instantly captivated by the snacks and drinks on the shelves on either side. His glossy black eyes were full of longing.

You can't eat anything, get to work! Zhang Yuanqing commanded him.

Worst case, I'll buy some snacks later and eat them right in front of you to torture you... he added silently.

Little Dudu reluctantly crawled out of the convenience store, vanishing into the night.

...

Accompanying Hei Wuchang's shout, a crimson stream of flowing flame shot in from afar, exploding beside Fu Qingyang.

Like a firework blooming, the silent campus blazed with sudden light.

Amidst the scattering streams of fire, a tall, burly figure manifested. He did not engage in close combat with the Young Master of the Fu Clan, who was reputed to be nigh-invincible below the Dominator Realm. Instead, he extended a hand and clenched it tight.

The streams of flame in the air condensed into arrows of fire, arrowheads pointed down, locking onto Fu Qingyang.

Facing this Saint-peak Scout, melee combat was unwise, even for a Pyromancer.

"Which branch of the Five Elements Alliance are you a Deacon of? Or a Pyromancer secretly raised by the Night Rose?"

Fu Qingyang leaned on his sword, standing firm despite the peril, his expression unchanged.

The masked man's voice was coarse, the timbre indistinguishable. "You don't need to know."

He pressed his clenched right hand downward. A rain of fire arrows streaked through the sky.

Fu Qingyang strolled through the "arrow rain," sidestepping, striding, retreating. The Bronze Eight-Trigram Sword in his hand swung out in a blur of afterimages. Arrows struck the blade and shattered into blinding sparks.

He was like a computer with supreme processing power, predicting the falling trajectory of every single arrow.

At this moment, Hei Wuchang seized the opportunity, stepping out of the office one trembling step at a time.

The Night Rose's Pyromancer had bought him precious time.

"It was my carelessness," Hei Wuchang snorted coldly, his abdomen swelling into a sphere, rising inch by inch until it lodged in his throat.

"Urgh—" Hei Wuchang retched violently, vomiting up a toad the size of a football.

"Croak..." The toad pulsed its belly, letting out a resonant croak; then it gaped its maw wide, spewing forth a dense purple mist.

The purple mist billowed and gathered over the campus like thick smoke, swiftly forming a "low-hanging cloud layer"; the vegetation within withered rapidly, drained of all vitality.

Fu Qingyang frowned. The scouts lacked poison resistance, and poison gas was not something one could simply dodge.

Suddenly, the purple mist shrouding the campus "flowed" toward a certain corner, draining away rapidly like a floodgate had opened.

Hei Wuchang's expression shifted slightly; he whipped his head toward the "floodgate," only to see a three-meter-tall humanoid mass of flesh and blood, its maw wide open, greedily devouring the purple mist.

This poison mist, enough to make Saints wary, had not the slightest effect on it.

"The Gu King?!"

Hei Wuchang shrieked, his voice piercing: "Why are you here... Fu Qingyang, you actually collude with the Gu King! Good, very good, the Young Master of the Fu family, the Deacon of the Five Elements Alliance."

That Fire Master sneered: "Fu, we're six of one, half a dozen of the other; neither of us is nobler. The Night Rose is at least Lawful alignment; your bottom line is even lower than mine."

...Fu Qingyang disdained to explain, choosing silence.

The Gu King laughed wildly: "Spoken true, Fu Qingyang. Thanks for the intel; I shall repay you handsomely."

Amidst the manic laughter, the Gu King sucked dry the purple mist, his flesh swelling all over as he gathered power; in a breath, strands of fine, needle-like blood mist jetted from his pores.

This blood mist did not shroud the campus, but condensed into a five-meter-tall giant, its features blurred.

As a Lord-realm Witch-Guu Master, the Gu King could have poisoned the population of a whole district of Songhai if he wished, but such brute force was too crude; for a powerful Witch-Guu Master, precise control and fine manipulation of the mist—that is the true mark of skill.

And in this regard, the Saint-realm Hei Wuchang fell far short of the Gu King.

The blood mist giant advanced with light, nimble strides, closing in on Hei Wuchang.

Just then, from the heavy night sky, a pillar of pure, clear light descended, striking the Gu King squarely.

"Sizzle—"

The blood mist dissolved in the golden light, and the Gu King let out an agonized roar.

The Divine Power of the Sun!

The moment the clear light pillar descended, the Grand Protector revealed his position.

He stood atop the teaching building, draped in a black cloak, wearing a black mask, gazing down upon the crowd below.

In the night wind, a slender red thread reached out like a tentacle; instantly, tens of thousands of red threads exploded outward, resembling dense radioactive beams, clustering in tufts and swathes, winding toward the Grand Protector.

The source of these red threads was a woman clad in a Song-dynasty style long gown, wearing a silver mask; she stood suspended in midair, her skirts billowing, her bearing peerless.

The Grand Protector's figure vanished into thin air, only to reappear in midair moments later; a thread thin as a hair was wound around his ankle—it was this very thread that had yanked him out of his Night Roam.

"Hmph!"

The Grand Protector let out a sound from his nasal cavity.

Abruptly, that red thread erupted in bright, scorching golden flames, severing effortlessly.

A sigh echoed through the night sky at that moment: "Good heavens, every manner of freak and monster has crawled out tonight..."

As the voice faded, within the campus, the withered vegetation surged with life, sprouting clusters of tender green grass; saplings pierced through the cement pavement, soaring into towering trees in mere seconds.

In the blink of an eye, the elementary school was swallowed by a forest, brimming with vitality.

Not only that, phantoms of beasts descended from the heavens—troops of monkeys, brown bears standing two meters tall, giant elephants like white jade, solitary and majestic tigers...

These creatures stared with hollow, indifferent eyes, watching the living beings in the field with a grim, chilling gaze.

At the iron railings outside the campus, adorable, round infant spirits clung to the gaps, trembling as they peered inside.

The Spirit Servant’s body housed Zhang Yuanqing’s consciousness.

Right now, only a single thought occupied his mind: *I don't understand what I'm seeing, but I am utterly shaken.*

It wasn't that one had to display world-destroying might to be considered a powerhouse; the auras unleashed by those high-level Spirit Realm walkers in the school, the skills they manifested, sent a tremor of genuine dread through Zhang Yuanqing’s heart.

Especially when the forest descended and the beasts appeared, Zhang Yuanqing keenly sensed that the school had been sealed off.

A hazy, verdant curtain of light enveloped it.

"The Elder of the Hundred Flowers Society... their level is higher than I imagined. This is good news, but also bad..."

The good news: Black Impermanence and the Night Rose members would find it difficult to escape anytime soon.

The bad news: if the authorities seized control, even if the Palace Lord of the Cease-Killing Palace obtained the roster, she would face compromise. He could only hope she was clever enough to destroy the roster.

Suddenly, Zhang Yuanqing sensed Little Rascal leave the railing and crawl toward the intersection outside the school.

This wasn't Zhang Yuanqing's manipulation, nor was it Little Rascal's own intent; it was more like an instinct...

After a brief moment of astonishment, Zhang Yuanqing immediately understood. At this critical juncture, Little Rascal's treasure-seeking instinct had triggered.

The infant spirit was still young; it had only just mastered the Exchange ability. The higher-tier treasure-seeking skill remained beyond its control.

There seemed to be a treasure nearby, attracting him, igniting his instinct to hunt for it.