Vessel of Worlds

Andy flung out all thirty-odd Fire Serpent Talismans at once. The red talismans flashed with crimson light and transformed into writhing fire serpents, each one streaking toward a golden knife.

Explosions erupted one after another, booming without pause. Red light burst like fireworks in every direction around Andy, flashing and thundering ceaselessly.

Each fire serpent collided with a golden knife, and the two detonated together, dissolving into scattered motes of spiritual light. The Fire Serpent Technique and the Golden Blade Technique were both mid-stage Qi Condensation spells of roughly equal power—mutual annihilation was only natural.

Two or three golden knives slipped through the fire serpents' net and stabbed toward Andy, but the seven or eight layers of defensive barriers on his body neutralized them effortlessly.

Watching Andy deploy over thirty Fire Serpent Talismans with such practiced ease, the Lu surnamed cultivator blinked in surprise. Then he let out a cold laugh. "Hmph—I didn't expect Junior Brother Zhao to carry so many talismans. But as long as the mid-grade spirit stones powering my Golden Blade Tiger-Subduing Formation haven't run dry, it can produce wave after wave of golden knives without end. The question is whether you can keep pulling out enough talismans to hold them off!"

Even as he spoke, he tapped the golden formation disc again and again. The enormous golden barrier began repeating what it had done before—points of light slowly gathered into golden spheres, then transformed into golden knives. Their number and power were identical to the first wave, showing no sign of weakening whatsoever.

Andy had no choice but to throw out another thirty-odd Fire Serpent Talismans, blocking the formation's second wave of attacks.

At this sight, the easy confidence on the Lu surnamed cultivator's face finally grew heavy. His opponent had far too many talismans—he had weathered two consecutive waves already. Although the golden knives were powered by the formation and required only light guidance on his part, maintaining the Mo Yuan Shield—a peak-grade artifact—was draining his spiritual power at an enormous rate. More than half his reserves were already spent. He hastily pulled out a blue mid-grade water-attribute spirit stone and began absorbing its energy while his other hand continued tapping the formation disc, gathering yet another wave of golden knives.

Andy, meanwhile, was growing anxious. The formation's attacks were relentless, but he had only a hundred or so Fire Serpent Talismans left in his storage pouch—enough to withstand perhaps three more waves. Unless he could destroy the golden formation disc the Lu surnamed cultivator was using to control the formation, these endless waves of golden knives would eventually cut him to pieces.

But the Mo Yuan Shield was a genuinely formidable peak-grade defensive artifact. The silver sword couldn't breach it.

Steeling himself, Andy reached down to his waist and came up with two more items.

A yellowed talisman paper, upon which was drawn a remarkably lifelike miniature knife, just over a cun long.

A spirit stone that was also blue and water-attributed, but far more translucent than any mid-grade stone—nearly see-through—and the spiritual energy contained within it was staggeringly vast.

"A talisman treasure! And that—is that a high-grade spirit stone? How could you possibly have a high-grade spirit stone!" The Lu surnamed cultivator's eyes went wide the instant he saw these two items, and his words came out in stammers. In the span of a heartbeat, his expression shifted from shock to greed, and finally to naked fear.

Drawing on the high-grade spirit stone's extraordinarily rapid energy absorption, Andy poured a torrent of spiritual power into the talisman treasure. The yellow knife drawn on the talisman paper grew steadily brighter and more vivid, even bouncing against the paper's surface as though ready to leap free at any moment.

Just then, under the Lu surnamed cultivator's direction, the third wave of thirty-odd golden knives came slashing toward Andy.

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Andy threw out another thirty-odd Fire Serpent Talismans with practiced ease, then ignored the golden knives entirely and focused on channeling spiritual power into the talisman treasure.

Shortly after the third wave of golden knives and fire serpents annihilated each other, the talisman treasure finally absorbed enough power. It flashed and transformed into a yellow flying knife over a chi long, wreathed in a yellow glow several cun across, and shot toward the Lu surnamed cultivator.

Cornered and desperate, the Lu surnamed cultivator let out a roar and poured every last drop of his spiritual power into the Mo Yuan Shield, holding it before him. Then he turned and bolted.

Andy had shown his hand—there was no way he could let the man escape. He drove both the silver sword and the talisman treasure knife at his opponent in a pincer attack, one from the front and one from behind. No matter how fast the Lu surnamed cultivator dodged, he could never match artifacts flying at full speed. After just a few exchanges, not only had the man failed to escape, but the relentless assault from both the peak-grade artifact and the talisman treasure had thrown him into complete disarray.

"Senior Brother Lu, I'll ask you one last time—how did you know in advance and set this trap?" Andy's voice was ice-cold.

The Lu surnamed cultivator, fighting for his life, said nothing. But in his mind, a single thought burned: Heh—you think I'd tell you? Now that I've seen you have a high-grade spirit stone, would you ever let me go?

Andy's pupils contracted. The talisman treasure knife and the silver sword thrust simultaneously at the Lu surnamed cultivator from left and right, close and fast.

The cultivator managed to block the yellow knife with the Mo Yuan Shield, but the silver sword punched through his defensive barriers and cut him cleanly in two.

Andy hurriedly used the silver sword to hack the golden formation disc to pieces. The enormous golden barrier overhead vanished instantly. He plucked the storage pouch from the body with practiced hands, flicked a finger, and sent a fireball that reduced the corpse to ash.

After quickly cleaning up the scene, Andy strapped on a pair of Hundred Plume Boots and sprinted toward the crafting workshops at full speed.

If not for the flight-restriction formation covering all of Recluse Peak, he would have used his fastest flying artifact.

Killing a fellow sect member was strictly forbidden under the Great Void Sect's rules. Though he had acted in self-defense, if even a hint of what happened came to light, the consequences would be dire.

Still, he was reasonably confident. Since his opponent had chosen this spot for his ambush, there were certainly no other sect members nearby. Today's events should remain hidden.

Half an hour later, the entrance to the crafting workshops came into view. Andy slowed his pace, straightened his robes, and approached the teleportation formation with an easy expression. He addressed the two Qi Condensation disciples standing guard with perfect courtesy: "Fellow senior brothers, I'd like to rent a high-grade crafting workshop."

These two had been recently reassigned to guard duty and didn't recognize Andy. One of them heard the request for a high-grade workshop and replied with undisguised contempt: "A high-grade crafting workshop costs ten spirit stones a month. Can you even afford it?"

Andy calmly produced two mid-grade spirit stones—one red, one blue—and tossed them to the disciple. "I'll be in closed-door cultivation for quite some time. Consider this advance payment."

The moment they saw Andy produce two mid-grade spirit stones so casually, both guards' eyes went wide. Their expressions instantly warmed, and the other cultivator said: "Well, well—turns out you're a man of considerable means, Junior Brother. My mistake for misjudging you. Here, this is the restriction disc for Workshop Nine. The two mid-grade spirit stones we'll hold onto for safekeeping. When you come out, we'll refund whatever's left over. We'll be managing the crafting workshops for the next three years, so you'll be dealing with us either way."

Seeing how quickly they'd turned fawning, Andy couldn't be bothered to acknowledge them. He strolled into the teleportation formation without a word.

The two guards took no offense at his rudeness. If anything, they decided that a junior brother this wealthy surely came from a powerful family—the kind of person who was supposed to be haughty and dismissive.

As for those two mid-grade spirit stones, since the wealthy junior brother hadn't specified the exchange rate, they would naturally default to two hundred low-grade spirit stones. If they brought them to a market square to exchange, each guard could pocket several low-grade stones for himself. With that kind of windfall, their spirits soared, and they couldn't have cared less about manners.

Better still, if the man came out of seclusion within twenty months, they would invent all manner of pretexts to shortchange his refund—and pocket even more.

After Andy vanished into the teleportation formation, the two put their heads together and began scheming in whispers.

"We'll say the high-grade workshop charges by the month—any partial month counts as a full one!"

"Why not say it's charged by the half-year? Any period less than six months still costs six months' rent!"

"Brilliant! Senior Brother Mo, you're ruthless!"

"Ha! Takes one to know one!"

...

A year and a half later, when the two guards saw Andy emerge from closed-door cultivation, every one of their carefully rehearsed excuses turned out to be completely useless.