Realizing that his sword was more of a detriment at this point, he thrust it into the bedside, grabbed the man’s head, and sealed off his sea of consciousness with his Dao energy.

To the young cultivator’s credit, he had concealed himself exceptionally well. Unfortunately for him, Wei Yuan possessed the mystic ability Diting. It was what allowed him to perceive the weak light hidden within his sea of consciousness.

This fellow was no ordinary Dao Foundation stage cultivator. He had concealed his Dao Foundation almost flawlessly. If the karmic threads of the Immortal Lord’s fengshui array hadn’t ensnared him, Wei Yuan could have walked right past him and detected nothing unusual, not unless he was specifically probing for something. He would have assumed that he was just another ordinary Body-tempering stage cultivator.

Since Wei Yuan had seen his Dao Foundation, it did not matter how terrified or horrified the young cultivator acted. He would not be fooled. That said, Wei Yuan had to admit that the young cultivator’s performance was quite convincing, so much so that he was doubting his own judgment a little. Even veteran actors like Staff General Liao and Ren Youwei would have to take lessons from him.

That said, overacting was just as bad as underacting. For instance, he had invaded this place pretending to be a robber. So, why was the guy acting like killing him would be a lesser offense?

Regardless, the Dao Foundation hidden in the young cultivator’s sea of consciousness could not be fake, just as the Immortal Lord’s fengshui array disc could not be wrong. Internally, Wei Yuan sneered to himself—Let’s see how long you can keep up the act then!

To Wei Yuan, a Dao Foundation stage cultivator whose sea of consciousness was just a lump of mud—something that was his to mold as he pleased. In this situation, even an immortal foundation of the Bright King Hall could only submit to his whims. Besides, the struggle is a part of the amusement.

Wei Yuan lowered his hand casually and pinned the young cultivator face-down on the bed with his immense strength.

But to his surprise, the young cultivator’s struggles suddenly intensified severalfold. Like a fish leaping out of the water, he thrashed and writhed with a surge of strength he did not know he had within him. Somehow, he was able to push back against Wei Yuan’s large hand and flipped himself over by force.

As surprised as Wei Yuan was, it did not matter which direction the young cultivator was facing. At most, it was a matter of sequence. A thorough search was essential in this situation; he couldn’t rest easy until every hidden weapon and potent mystic artifact had been uncovered.

After pinning the young cultivator down again and keeping him still, Wei Yuan’s hand plunged into his robes, searching meticulously. But to his surprise, the first thing his talons found was a handful of soft flesh.

Wei Yuan twitched in surprise. A woman?

Blushing, the young woman bit her bottom lip and looked away from Wei Yuan. Although the man had humiliated her, he had also finally figured out her gender. Since he was gay, he should let her go, right?

She was wrong. Wei Yuan was definitely startled, but his hand hadn’t slowed down at all.

When a cultivator had reached the Dao Foundation stage, the number of Dao spells one could employ increased significantly. If a random novel in the Lie Flat Inn could make wonders out of these Dao spells, an actual cultivator could only come up with more elaborate hijinks.

For example, there were many illusion spells that could make the unreal seem real. The illusion did not actually exist, but not only could the victim see it, they could touch it and even perceive it with their perception. To them, the thin air they were groping and humping was anything but.

In fact, some exceptionally advanced illusion spells could convince someone that they had been killed. Even if the thing that killed them did not actually exist, the victim would still die regardless.

This was just illusion spells. There were many more Daoist spells or mystic artifacts that could achieve similar effects. Even if, for the sake of argument, the flesh Wei Yuan was grabbing was real, that still wasn’t a reason to stop. This woman was someone the Immortal Lord’s array disc had locked onto via karma. There was zero chance she could be innocent. If he did not search her thoroughly, he could very well put his own life in danger.

Besides that, searching a cultivator was very different from searching an ordinary mortal. A cultivator’s physical form was, to put it succinctly, multi-purpose. Some cultivators wore an external shell over their true selves, some refined a portion of their bodies into mystic artifacts, and some hid potent mystic artifacts inside their bodies. For example, the thread the Immortal Lord had given him was bound to his waist, but he had extracted it afterward and sealed it into his left hand. If an enemy focused on removing his sash only, then they would quickly get a taste of the Immortal Lord’s divine thought with their face.

Besides that, the young woman’s looks were just above average among male cultivators, and perfectly average among female cultivators. On the other hand, Wei Yuan had grown up in the presence of immortal beauties such as Bao Yun and Ji Liuli. If she was either one of them.... Wei Yuan chased the thoughts out of his mind the next instant. There was a good chance he would incur a lightning strike if he overthought this.

Anyway, his own looks were far superior to the young woman’s in comparison. To him, she was no different from a rock or a piece of wood. Her opinions meant nothing to him, and all he wanted was to finish his work as soon as possible. As stated in a certain novel, a person with ordinary looks did not deserve karma.

And so Wei Yuan meticulously searched the young woman and uncovered a surprising number of items. There were mystic artifacts, talismans, spirit materials, and medicine. They formed a small pile beside the bed in just the blink of an eye. In fact, some of the items were hidden inside her body. Though, they were unable to escape his devilish talons either.

The longer Wei Yuan searched, the harder the young woman struggled. Her complexion had changed from red to purple at this point. But of course, why would he care for a fish floundering on the chopping block? He pushed deeper[1].

Danger!!

Suddenly, alarm bells rang inside his head. It was on the same threat level as the Sky Snow Hawk! At that moment, many, many thoughts raced through Wei Yuan’s mind...

... And he recalled that the Sky Snow Hawk wasn’t strong enough to kill him. There was no need to use the Immortal Lord’s divine thought just yet.

His surroundings abruptly shifted into that of a dark, foreboding chamber. Signs of decay and ruin were everywhere. The pedestals on either side stood empty, their former offerings missing. In the center stood a statue missing its head and upper body, leaving behind only the lower torso. It was covered in dried blood. There was no lamplight in the hall whatsoever. The only source of light was the few beams of moonlight filtering through a half-open door and the gaps in the roof.

Wei Yuan and the woman had appeared at the center of the hall. He was still pressed up against her and conducting a thorough search. Time seemed to have frozen, however. He couldn’t move an inch even though his consciousness remained sharp and clear.

It was at this moment the ethereal form of a stunning beauty draped in crimson robes emerged from the woman’s prone form. When she opened her eyes, they looked cold and devoid of any emotion. She sat up, cupped Wei Yuan’s chin, and blew an icy breath directly at his face!

The icy breath was bone-chillingly cold and saturated with the power of incense prayer[2]. It did not feel like a living human’s breath at all. When the yin breath entered his nostrils and passed into his sea of consciousness, it transformed into a yin wind that could annihilate all things and erode even an Avatar!

Unfortunately, after flying a full circle around the continent, the yin wind could not find anything it could blow at. It clearly possessed a certain level of sapience as well because it initially tried to blow at the ground but held itself back the next instant.

Luckily for it, it eventually discovered the jade hill at the center and rushed toward it excitedly. Then, it blew it with all its might!

The jade hill did not budge an inch, and the yin wind that could have severely injured an Avatar disappeared into nothing. It had failed to scrape off even a crumb from the jade hill. Logically speaking, the dead branch was its best target, but for whatever reason, it refused to do so.

That said, the yin wind’s effort wasn’t completely useless. One of the two new fortunes had disappeared into thin air.

The woman in red abruptly stirred as if she had regained her sapience and cast Wei Yuan a long, long look through the young woman’s eyes. Then, she disappeared.

The decrepit chamber vanished, and they were back in the earlier room. Wei Yuan was still pinning the young woman in place, and the young woman was still struggling futilely. Something was different, however. His face felt cooler all of a sudden, and the next thing he knew, his fake mustache and fake eyebrows slowly fell off. The Dao spell he used to disguise himself had been blown away by the woman in red’s breath as well.

In fact, the breath of yin wind was no joking matter. It had passed right through his physical body as if it did not exist and invaded his sea of consciousness directly. It was an attack that could have severely injured a Trueman Avatar and boasted a sliver of the Immortal Lord divine thought’s ability to ignore all defense. Unfortunately, the attack that attacked a cultivator’s Dao Foundation or Avatar directly had met its bane in Wei Yuan. How could a tiny breeze possibly hope to blow away a continent? Even if it tried to, it would have only achieved the same effect as sweeping the floor.

That said, the yin wind still blew away a wisp of his new fortune. It was impressive for sure.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan recalled something: I should have three of the new fortunes, not two. Where did the other one go?

Alarmed, Wei Yuan worked faster so he could get back to his neighbor as soon as possible. He might only be an ordinary mortal, but he had also caused one of his otherworldly fortunes to disappear somehow. He had to be hiding a big secret!

Meanwhile, the woman abruptly lost ninety percent of her strength when she saw Wei Yuan’s true face. Blushing, she quietly endured the search until the end.

When all was said and done, Wei Yuan had dug out another five powerful mystic artifacts from her person. It was truly unbelievable how she was able to hide so many under so little.

Wei Yuan waved his hand once and flung all of the items into the pocket space of his thread. Then, he grabbed the young woman and jumped out of the window, flying all the way back to Lie Flat Inn. He reached the neighboring courtyard in just the blink of an eye and stepped inside the house. The hollowed young man was currently lying spread-eagled and glued to the wall by a Dao spell.

After he put down the young woman, Wei Yuan pointed at the bed and ordered, “Sit there. Don’t try anything funny.”

“Mm.” The young woman nodded obediently and sat down on the bed.

Wei Yuan pulled over a chair and sat down himself. Then, he glanced back and forth between his two new captives. The longer he looked, the more annoyed he felt. He had studied the secret art tirelessly and diligently to gain the three wisps of new fortune. Yet, in less than the time it took to eat a meal, he had lost two of them for no good reason!

Wei Yuan’s anger was only growing by the minute. He was especially annoyed with the young man he had glued to the wall.

Forget the Dao Foundation stage, he hadn’t even begun to temper his blood. He was obviously cowardly and clueless as well, endlessly poring over the novel without restraint. At the time, Wei Yuan figured that the young man wouldn’t be able to pull off anything fancy and glued him to the wall with a Dao spell. Because he was paranoid, he decided to throw in a fortune seal before going after his second karmic target.

Yet, in the time it took him to search the young woman, the bastard had used up an entire wisp of fortune! Not even the young Liao chieftain he had killed was this expensive!

Seriously, it wasn’t that much time at all!

At this point, it was clear that the fellow was hiding something. More specifically, he was trying to play the pig and eat the tiger[3]. Alas, Wei Yuan was his captor, and he was suppressed by a fortune seal as well. Unless he was an Immortal Lord, there was no chance he would be able to turn the tables against Wei Yuan.

If the young man wanted to play a pig so badly, Wei Yuan saw no reason to deny him his wishes. He knew many ways to handle a cowardly fool who stayed up all night just to read novels. First, he thrust his sword into the guy’s groin area and cut away the fabric. Now, there was only a hair’s breadth between the metal and the skin.

He yelled, “Tell me who you are! If you speak a word of falsehood, I’ll slice this tiny bird of yours into strips!”

The yell scared not just the man on the wall half to death, but also the young woman sitting on the bed. That said, the young woman was starting to realize that her earlier inference might have been wrong. It looked like nothing had happened between the two of them. Perhaps this sword-wielding villain wasn’t so bad after all?

The young man started shaking like a leaf once more, but somehow, he found the courage to yell back at Wei Yuan angrily, “You take that back! I am not small!”

However, his movement accidentally caused the tip of the sword to scratch against his skin. It was such a chilling sensation that his soul nearly fled his mortal shell. His courage vanishing like it never was, he wailed, “Spare me, Your Majesty! I have a bottle of immortal medicine with me! If you take it three times a day, it will cure you of most diseases!”

1. What? How else can he extract the hidden weapons inside her body? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜

2. For those who came from Stranger Danger, this is what I translated as “power of wishes” in that book. I had to be more specific this time; so much so I can’t even use power of worship because there’s a “deity worship” thing much later on. While they share MUCH similarities they are not exactly the same as thus had to be separated. ☜

3. Feign weakness to surprise a formidable foe. ☜