Demon Sword Sect's Undercover-Chapter 792 - 791: Summer Solstice Approaching

Atop Chaoyang Peak, the Low Rank Artifact Sublibrary fell silent, and no one suspected anything. This was, after all, a perfectly normal phenomenon. It was required that they had to open up to the public one year after moving, to fulfill the demands of countless Tongtian Realm Cultivators. This could not be delayed.

Inside the warehouse, none of the nine people left or entered, which was also an unwritten rule. Whoever went out might be the informant, especially Xiang Tianxing. Everyone guarded against him as if guarding against a thief, wishing him not to step out of the Inner Warehouse.

Everyone’s focus was on the identification and appraisal of treasures, which was not a case of simply picking out hundreds of items at a time. There was a process, such as testing the treasures, noting any defects, shortcomings, and limitations, etc., to create a piece of written documentation that could plausibly be justified so that the supervising Golden Core Upper Cultivator felt there was substance, not just idle chatter. This way, everyone could clearly carry the lie through.

Describing a perfectly fine treasure as defective required a rigorous process, at least on paper.

As he drew these people into a vortex of interests, Hou Niao took this opportunity to frequently enter several sublibraries, picking only the best items, thus ruining the essence of Tongtian Realm Artifacts accumulated by Wu Sect over nearly two thousand years.

The only regret was that he could not enter the Golden Core Artifact Repository, which was a pity.

Under his nearly frenzied interactions, the Flying Sword within his Purple Mansion transformed daily, inching infinitely closer to three feet. As time passed, turning over his cards was also not far off.

No one noticed his abnormalities as everyone was busy with their own private matters, except for one person, Xiang Tianxing.

Xiang Tianxing had noticed that Liu Yishou always liked to disappear inexplicably. After careful observation, with the limited scope of the Inner Warehouse, he eventually uncovered this man’s secret.

He was puzzled as to why Liu Yishou would do this, darting back and forth between the Five Elements Sublibraries without being able to take anything out.

He didn’t believe it was routine patrolling or a display of devotion to duty; there had to be a catch.

Without alarming the quarry, since everything was still there, there would be no loss. He would let this guy dig his own grave for a while, and when there was no turning back, he would report and expose him to completely bring down this big rat.

The weather was getting hotter, and this was clearly felt in the Inner Warehouse. During this time, he felt an uncontrollable urge twice, knowing that fairy Zhuang outside was using the Harmony Secret Technique, trying to arrange a meet-up, but he ignored it.

There was no need for a meeting, which could only complicate matters. Since Ji Huo Can had already been placed in the array, he worried that the woman wanted to seize the chance to eradicate him completely. It wasn’t that he was afraid, but initiating a conflict within Wu Sect’s mountain gate was too risky, and it would be troublesome regardless of who killed whom.

Fairy Zhuang and her group were definitely dissatisfied, but they could only wait, hoping he would adhere to the agreement.

With one day left until the summer solstice, Hou Niao finished brushing an Artifact Treasure in the Five Elements Storage, sensing no further growth in his Flying Sword, knowing his effort had achieved completion. His personal objectives here had been accomplished.

In these three months, as he became more skilled at manipulating the Mysterious Light and the Artifacts, he had taken over three thousand of the best Artifact Treasures from five sublibraries. This had been his greatest effort; now gorged, staying longer was pointless.

One day was a rush, and starting from Langya Mountain, he might not even manage to cover half of Wu Country, so he could no longer delay.

"I need to step out for a while, I will return in half a day. Stay here and guard well, wait for my message."

Throughout these three months, because of the lure of benefits, none had left, also to avoid suspicion. But this situation couldn’t continue forever. None of the other warehouse keepers spoke up, only Xiang Tianxing acted very cautiously.

"Brother, you need a reason for leaving, don’t you?"

Hou Niao, confident, said, "I need to meet Uncle Hu to discuss and report our appraisal content, and at the same time, I need to garner support from the uncles."

Everyone tacitly understood that this was necessary. They had been busy here for three months and they had only managed to complete half of the work; the rest depended on several Golden Core Masters nodding their heads, otherwise, it was all busywork for nothing.

The so-called struggle to gain the Masters’ support was, in fact, a matter of negotiating terms with the Golden Core Masters. How much to tribute? How much to intercept? A silent agreement was formed.

"For every treasure, 500 Spirit Stones are deducted, totaling 500,000 Spirit Stones. No objections, right?"

The warehouse workers nodded bitterly; though reluctant in their hearts, they had no other choice; ensuring the safety of corruption involved pulling everyone into the scheme—that was the unquestionable truth.

Among them, only Liu Yishou had the qualifications to speak; the others couldn’t exert any influence,

"I’ll try my best to protect everyone’s interests, but it also depends on the Masters’ opinions, so the final revenue-sharing scheme might slightly differ..."

Now, this was an unavoidable circumstance.

However, Xiang Tianxing was not reassured, "I will accompany you, it’s better to have a witness."

Everyone thought it made sense, to prevent Brother Liu from skimming the difference; Xiang Tianxing, who was on bad terms with him, was the best choice.

Only Hou Niao felt somewhat disgusted; this person really was a lingering spirit.

He couldn’t refuse; there was no time to delay.

"Very well, Xiang, follow me so we can report back good news here."

Everyone agreed; of course, the two were not going to deliver the Spirit Stones right then, but to negotiate the terms; the future division of the Spirit Stones would happen in installments after the artifacts were liquified, so the Golden Core Masters didn’t need to worry about them playing tricks.

The two walked side by side out into the sunlight, feeling extremely pleasant after not seeing the sun for three months. Who could have imagined that under such bright sunlight, dangers lurked everywhere?

Feeling the Daoist next to him tense up, Hou Niao said meaningfully, "You shouldn’t have come. In the Cultivation World, it is rare to be confused."

Xiang Tianxing sneered, "Confused so you can exploit the situation to rob Peter to pay Paul?"

Hou Niao laughed and shook his head, "You will regret it. One wrong move in an originally bright life leads to a cascade of mistakes."

The two made their way to the Golden Core Inner Warehouse. Since both were at Chaoyang Peak, it was very close. Hou Niao led the way, puffing out his chest and belly, while Xiang Tianxing followed closely behind, just like a little attendant.

They first met with Daoist Hu, then with Master Li, Master Qi, and so on, going from one to another for discussions. Such matters were never settled in a group meeting; these Golden Core Masters always maintained a righteous stand and never gave others a handle when colleagues were around.

Every time, Hou Niao pulled out the checklist, and the Masters went through the motions of examining it, raising irrelevant and minute issues; talking about the number of Spirit Stones was even done in a vague manner, such as Master Qi proposing twelve sheep to relieve everyone’s hardship and improve their food, a suggestion that Hou Niao hesitated to accept, feeling eight sheep were enough, and any more would be wasteful.

In reality, one sheep equaled ten thousand Spirit Stones. Master Qi started with a price of 120,000, while Hou Niao counteroffered 80,000, reaching a consensus amid their haggling; with a different Master, it might have been cows or something else.

Such actions were not out of boredom; as long as Spirit Stones weren’t mentioned, causality wouldn’t be implicated. Even if a Nascent Transformation Master used a secret technique to search their minds, they would find a few sheep or cows, not tens of thousands of Spirit Stones; accustomed to these tricks for over a thousand years, everyone in the Wu Sect was well versed in them.