Demon Sword Sect's Undercover-Chapter 787 - 786 Reunion with the Beauty

Hou Niao could brush about ten artifacts in one hour, and many factors determined the speed at which he brushed, such as the replenishment of mana consumed, the speed at which the Sword Seed accepted and absorbed, control and shaping of the Sword Seed, and from now on, the cultivation of the Sword Spirit...

But this speed wasn’t constant; as he became increasingly familiar with the process, his speed accelerated, and the rate at which the treasures of Wu Sect were devoured also quickened.

It was impossible for him to spend all twelve hours of the day on his private affairs; he had to come out now and then, walk around, and go through the motions of inspecting others’ work, which was his responsibility as the supervisor.

Xiang Tianxing had been relatively calm during this period, first because there were numerous affairs to attend to, and second because the Inner Warehouse didn’t seem to have anything worth guarding against; in his view, since it was impossible to take anything out, these treasures would always remain within the bounds of the Inner Warehouse, so there was nothing to worry about.

The trouble would definitely come in the final phase, when dealing with those thousands of items that were neither new nor old; even a slight discrepancy could lead to a substantial profit.

They weren’t fools; no one was entertaining the idea of completely consuming the Inner Warehouse. For individuals, all they needed was to bite off a tiny piece from this enormous resource to satisfy their private interests.

Hou Niao was precisely exploiting their mentality, choosing the neglected repository as his target, evading the gaze of those watching both openly and in secret.

The warehouse keepers held the right to secretly report to the higher-ups, and even he, as the supervisor, couldn’t prevent it.

Because he had to spend a considerable amount of time on his official duties, he could only use about half of each day to brush treasures; less than fifty items a day, not more than fifteen hundred in a month. After four months of such efforts, he had managed to clean out the unremarkable goods of the neglected repository, leaving only empty chests and cabinets, with nothing remaining.

Should someone come in to inspect at this point, his only option would be to flee; there was no other choice. Fortunately, no one would focus on this rubbish because nobody would suspect Brother Liu would enrich himself in such a manner.

After four months of frenzied conversion, the Purple Mansion Sword Seed inside him had grown just over two feet, still short of three feet; theoretically, his Flying Sword had begun to form combat capabilities, but it had deficiencies.

Firstly, due to its rapid growth, it inevitably contained some mixed and uneven qualities; which is why the next step was to compress the Flying Sword back to one foot, a process of removing the dross and keeping the essence.

Secondly, precisely because it grew too quickly, the formation of his Self Sword Spirit hadn’t kept up with the pace. Although he had extensive experience in this area, some things simply couldn’t be hastened and needed meticulous refinement; the optimal time to create the Sword Spirit would be during the Flying Sword’s compression. This process wouldn’t require external resources but would be a pure refinement of the self.

For him, the process of such refinement couldn’t occur in an environment filled with many people and prying eyes; he couldn’t dare to recklessly wield his Flying Sword here. Thus, his current task was actually very simple: to push the Purple Mansion Sword Seed to its three-foot limit as soon as possible and then make a clean getaway.

With less than one foot to go and no more treasures in the neglected repository, he had to set his sights on other sub-warehouses. Given the current situation within the warehouse, he couldn’t guarantee that his theft would go undetected, which was a problem.

He needed to seal off several more sub-warehouses, but considering the classification of sub-warehouses according to the Five Elements, new Artifact Treasures were added daily, leaving no opportunity for theft; he needed to be patient.

Hou Niao kept his composure; it was hard to find such an excellent opportunity to feast on a big fish, and he didn’t want to give up halfway.

Under his urging, the storekeepers worked day and night, overtimes, greatly accelerating the inventory segregation process.

"Since it’s our duty anyway, there’s no point in dragging it out; might as well finish early and have some relief, instead of constantly worrying about it..."

It made sense; no one wants to always be in a state of busyness. They needed time for cultivation, and they too harbored aspirations for the Upper Realm.

One day, after several days of continuous work, he took a leisurely stroll in Langya Mountain to continue observing the overall layout of the Mountain Gate. Such an opportunity would only be available now, for once everything fell into place, there would be many areas he, with his level of authority, would no longer be allowed to enter.

Langya Mountain, in fact, consisted of dozens of peaks, each with its own picturesque scenery and unique characteristics. The arrangement of the Mountain Gate was clearly under the guidance of a highly capable person; it was obvious and well-structured, containing vastness within. Even with his keen insight, he could not find any flaws.

But the larger the Mountain Gate, the more challenging it was to establish the Mountain Protection Array. Therein lay the reason why the Wu Sect had not yet managed to construct a complete array; what they could do at present was to set up protection for more important areas, such as the various resource distribution centers, the Elixir Furnace Hall, various Inner Warehouses, the Hidden Skills Hall, etc.

Having grand ambitions led to the current situation, but one could hardly blame the Wu Sect cultivators. For places like the Mountain Gate, plans are always expected to be as grand as possible to leave ample space for future expansion.

In the outer area of the entire Mountain Gate, there were dozens of residence places for cultivators, known as hermitages.

According to the Wu Sect’s plans, the cultivation sites for the sect’s disciples are to be completely opened up in the future, allowing them to construct their own Cave Mansions on some of the peaks. That is the true attitude of a cultivator, aligned with the concept of being unfettered and free. However, the current state was not there yet, as many of the peaks’ functional areas remained undefined; what constituted forbidden ground and what places were open remained too entangled.

The Wu Sect was a great Daoist lineage with countless factions within, and there were dozens of main ministries, each wanting to occupy more space; the best space. They squabbled and fought with each other incessantly, and striking a balance among them was difficult to achieve. After all, behind each ministry, there were always the shadows of Masters, and it required time, accommodation, and compromises...

In the future, someone with a status like Liu Yishou, neither high nor low within the sect, would also own one of these hermitages. He could choose to stay in the Inner Warehouse or in a hermitage, commuting between the two.

This time his stroll was to check the new hermitage that the sect had assigned to him. Under the current circumstances, he had no authority to decide for himself whether it was good or not, whether he was satisfied with it or not.

The hermitage was quite far from the Inner Warehouse. Given the current situation, it was impossible to arrange hermitages considering the positions of the cultivators, and since those positions were constantly changing, it didn’t make much sense to do so anyway. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

This area comprised of standalone courtyards was the standard hermitage for Natural Realm cultivators. Each courtyard was tucked away in the lush green valleys, a notch above the row housing of the Tongxuan Realm cultivators. In the Wu Sect, differences in rank among cultivators also signified differences in treatment, as per the traditions of the Daoist Sect, and this indirectly encouraged disciples to strive higher.

Hou Niao found his compound: a simple set of rooms with no decorations. It was up to them to refine and craft it personally; the sect was too busy dealing with more pressing concerns to pay attention to these intricacies.

After a simple tour, he, of course, would not exert much effort there. His visit was solely to avoid appearing too exceptional. As Liu Yishou, he felt obliged to at least take a look.

After a cursory inspection and just as he was about to leave, a slender figure came flying gracefully towards him.