Chapter 26 : Chapter 26
Chapter 26: Ambush on the Way
...
【On the first day, you swallowed an Aperture Opening Pill. With the help of the Spirit-Gathering Array, an immense amount of Spiritual Energy flooded continuously into your body, washing over your apertures again and again.】
【Every impact brought unimaginable pain, but you gritted your teeth and endured. You understood that this realm emphasized resonance between the apertures and Spiritual Energy, so you kept trying to comprehend that sensation.】
【At last, through your unceasing effort, the apertures began to loosen. In barely an hour, you opened the second aperture within your body... then the third, then the fourth...】
...
【After continuing to expend 1000 Slaughter Points, you soon opened the 40th aperture.】
【Congratulations, Host, on breaking through to the second level of the Aperture Opening Realm.】
【During this period, because your Gluttony talent continuously devoured Spiritual Energy, your physical body improved tremendously. It is now already comparable to a Spirit Weapon.】
...
【After continuing to expend 1000 Slaughter Points, you finally broke through to the third level of the Aperture Opening Realm one year later.】
【Cultivation complete. During this session, you opened a total of 120 apertures. I hope you will keep up the good work and continue striving, ദ്ദി˶•̀֊•́)✧】
Lu Zhan opened the door to the Cultivation Room.
Inside the sealed chamber, the entire Spirit-Gathering Array had been completely ruined.
“The array broke again?”
At the doorway, Su Wenqing frowned. She did not know whether it was just her imagination, but the Spirit-Gathering Array, which used to need repairs only once a month, had been requiring repairs constantly over the past two days.
“Hm? Lu Zhan, why is it you again?”
Lu Zhan’s expression remained calm, without the slightest trace of panic. Instead, he began to complain.
“Why does the Spirit-Gathering Array at the Demon Extermination Bureau keep breaking down? I had only just gone in, and the formation already failed.”
Su Wenqing looked at him with suspicion written all over her face.
She remembered that the Cultivation Room he had used the day before yesterday seemed to have broken too. It could not be that much of a coincidence, could it?
Could it be...
“Lu Zhan, don’t tell me you damaged it on purpose? Let me warn you in advance: if you deliberately destroy a Spirit-Gathering Array, you’ll have to compensate the Bureau with 100 Contribution Points.”
She was not making accusations without cause.
There really had been people in the past who broke open Spirit-Gathering Arrays, dug out the formation materials, and sold them outside.
It had caused the Demon Extermination Bureau considerable losses.
Lu Zhan raised a brow.
One hundred Contribution Points. That was a lot.
“Don’t think that’s exaggerated. First, it’s meant to punish those with ulterior motives. Second, engraving a Spirit-Gathering Array requires one of the seniors to do it personally, so the labor cost is high. Third, the array materials themselves aren’t cheap either.”
Lu Zhan tilted his head slightly and flatly refused to admit anything.
As long as there was no evidence proving that he had done it, then it meant he had not done it.
“Oh? I had only just been inside for a short while. Even if I wanted to damage the Spirit-Gathering Array, I wouldn’t have had the time. Could it be that the materials you bought for the formation were defective?”
“There are plenty of substandard counterfeits on the market these days.”
Su Wenqing gave a soft snort, her lips pursed, and ignored Lu Zhan as she began to inspect the array.
The spiritual materials that had originally contained Spiritual Energy had now all turned into a dull grayish white. Some of them were even covered in fine cracks.
“How strange. Did I really buy fake goods???”
“Hmph, what a pack of unscrupulous merchants. Next time, I’ll have to ask Senior Sun to go out and procure them with me.”
Su Wenqing muttered to herself.
But as he watched Lu Zhan’s receding figure, a trace of envy flashed through her eyes.
“Looks like he broke through again. He really is a freak. Other people can cultivate for a whole month without the slightest movement, but he changes by the day, as though he had been given some absurd advantage.”
Then she called out to Lu Zhan again.
“Lu Zhan, are you not using the Cultivation Room anymore?”
Without even turning his head, Lu Zhan merely waved a hand. “No. I’m not in the mood.”
“You broke through two levels even when you weren’t in the mood? If you were in a good mood, what then?”
There was more envy than anything else, though a sliver of jealousy remained.
A genius like Lu Zhan could be counted on one hand in all of Great Xia.
Anyone would envy him.
That afternoon, Wang Botao drove Lu Zhan’s new car, carrying Lu Zhan and Shangguan Ling as they patrolled the streets at a leisurely pace.
But compared with the bustling Eastern District, the Western District where Lu Zhan lived was obviously much more desolate.
“Brother Lu, are you really not considering moving to the Eastern District?”
“It’s livelier over there, there are more people around, and it feels safer too. This Western District... it’s just too quiet. It makes my skin crawl.”
Wang Botao had actually invited Lu Zhan the night before, but Lu Zhan had not agreed.
Shangguan Ling sat in the back seat, leaning against the car window as he watched the alleys on both sides with alert eyes. Hearing that, she nodded repeatedly.
“Exactly, Brother Lu. Old Wang’s villa has plenty of empty rooms. If we live together, we can look out for each other.”
“Just look at this place. You can go half a day without seeing a single person. That bastard Chen Lin even went out of his way this morning to say this place ‘wasn’t peaceful.’ Who knows what he was plotting!”
Lu Zhan sat in the front passenger seat, his expression calm and undisturbed.
“It’s better when it’s quiet. Peaceful.”
“Besides, I’m used to living alone.”
As they spoke, the car passed a narrow alley.
Everything around them was silent, and from somewhere in the distance, a faint floral fragrance drifted over.
Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion struck. Wang Botao shook his head, and his vision gradually blurred.
“This sun is vicious. Even with the air conditioning on, it’s making me dizzy.”
In the back seat, Shangguan Ling yawned.
“If you keep talking like that, you’re really going to make me sleepy too.”
Lu Zhan immediately sensed that something was wrong.
At the same time, his Immunity to All Poisons talent activated.
He felt a faint prickling on his skin. His gaze sharpened, and the world instantly looked different.
The alley before him was actually filled with a pink toxic miasma.
“Back out! There’s toxic miasma in this alley.”
Hearing that, Wang Botao was startled. Without the slightest hesitation, he slammed the accelerator all the way down.
But almost immediately, he felt an intense wave of dizziness and numbness spread through every part of his body.
His body became stiff and weak, and he could not muster any strength at all.
A sinister-looking young man wearing a gray short-sleeved shirt stood outside the car window.
When he saw the three people in the car looking as though they had fallen for the trap, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
Wang Botao used all his strength to try to back the car out of the alley.
As if he had seen through Wang Botao’s intention, the sinister youth merely smiled faintly.
It was the sort of smile one wore when mocking a fool.
“Heh heh, stop wasting your strength. Once someone is struck by my Peach Blossom Miasma, anyone below the fifth level of the Aperture Opening Realm will be left sprawled and helpless!”
“But there’s no need to be in a hurry. In a moment, I’ll let you taste something even better. Don’t worry. You will definitely die in agony.”
Grinning, he pulled a small white porcelain bottle from a bag stuffed with jars and bottles.
Inside it was his proudest creation so far—Bone-Eroding Powder.
“You’ll do nicely. Heh heh heh. In a moment, you’ll watch your own bones melt bit by bit into foul slurry. That scene should be quite entertaining.”
Wang Botao was furious. Just who was this man?
He was acting like a lunatic. Could he be insane?
“Do you have any idea that we’re from the Demon Extermination Bureau? If you dare provoke our Bureau, you’re dead.”
Yet the man remained completely unmoved by the threat.
“You’ll be recorded as having been eaten by Demon Beasts. What does that have to do with me? Besides, if you want to blame someone, then blame the fact that one of you didn’t know what was good for him and just had to ruin Lady Lingyu’s... plans.”
His words came to an abrupt stop.
Because at that moment, the front passenger door was pushed open with perfect calm.
Lu Zhan stepped out expressionlessly, his steps steady and his gaze sharp.
There was not the slightest sign that he had been poisoned or paralyzed.
That pervasive toxic miasma seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.
“H-how is that possible?!”
The young man’s pupils contracted sharply. The triumphant smile on his face froze in an instant, then turned into utter disbelief and shock.
“This is a toxic miasma that even Martial Artists in the later stages of the Aperture Opening Realm can’t ignore... How can you be completely fine?”
“Tsk. It is only a third-rate poison, yet you act as though it were something remarkable.”
Lu Zhan’s tone was indifferent, as though he were merely stating some trivial fact.