Spirit Vessel

The 81st floor was in shambles. Bi Ningshuai was extremely fast with his hands. Every single page from two bookshelves had been turned by him once.

Meanwhile, only Feng Feiyun’s Heavenly Phoenix Gaze could detect the Cloak of Invisibility. He darted through the level, nothing could escape his eyes.

“This calligraphy scroll…” Feng Feiyun stood before a one-thousand-year-old scroll that was hung on a wall, consisting of many long bamboo strips. It was carved with an aggressive bronze pen yet still maintained an elegant style.

The text written so long ago still had a strange light flowing through them. It created twisting runes that came together to form a wondrous formation.

Feng Feiyun said: “There is something strange about this scroll. There are no strings connecting these bamboo slips, but they are still connected and arranged in such an orderly fashion. Something is up here!”

Bi Ningshuai’s bandit eyes also recognized the peculiar characteristic of this scroll and reached out in order to take it.

“Boom!” The moment his hand approached, the runes on the scroll began to rapidly float up and down to form an ancient formation that shot out a white light to repel his hand.

The skin on his fingers was charred. His bones almost cracked as blood spilled out, letting him experience agonizing pain.

“Motherfucker!” Bi Ningshuai didn’t give up. He took out a treasure that resembled an ancient gem in order to break this formation. However, the moment it made contact, the gem was turned into dust that drifted onto the ground.

“My turn!” Four layers of light coiled around Feng Feiyun’s arm completely. Black, red, green, and white — these layers forcefully approached the bamboo scroll. His fingers managed to slowly penetrate the barrier of the scroll.

He used his fingers as a pen to reverse the pattern engraved on the scroll so that he could change the system.

“Boom!” Three lines of blood erupted from his arm due to the power of the bamboo scroll. However, the ancient runes were successfully changed. The formation began to reverse while the scroll issued crackling sounds.

The power of the formation suddenly impacted the bamboo scroll instead!

“Bang!” One of the bamboo slips was shattered and turned into a green smoke.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” The rest of them shattered as well after being struck by its own formation.

Bi Ningshuai was astonished. He thought that he had a profound understanding regarding formations, but Feng Feiyun was even better than him. Feng Feiyun unexpectedly reversed the formation and used it against itself, so Bi Ningshuai had no choice but to admire the guy.

The formation fell and turned into a green smoke as well.

Feng Feiyun’s eyes lit up as he wore an ecstatic expression. He reached out into the green smoke as if he was holding something.

“It’s the Cloak of Invisibility. It was actually hiding in a bamboo scroll. No, I get it now, it wasn’t that there were no strings keeping the scroll together, the cloak itself was doing the job. It was just that we couldn’t see it. Feng Feiyun, goddamn, you must be a genius. How did you figure it out?” Bi Ningshuai became very excited. Even though he couldn’t see what Feng Feiyun was holding, he was sure that it was the cloak.

Feng Feiyun naturally wouldn’t tell him that only the phoenix gaze could see the invisible silk from these worms and that he just so happened to cultivate it. This would be a secret that he wouldn’t tell anyone since he wanted to use it to deal with the mysterious master!

“Hand the cloak over to me!” The master turned into a cloud of fire. A hand reached out from it and tried to take it from Feng Feiyun.

Feng Feiyun tried to resist once or twice for show before stopping. He secretly laughed it up in his mind: ‘The cloak is nothing to me. As long as you dare to wear it in front of me, I will know you who are right away!’

This master could even kill a Giant with the cloak, but they wouldn’t be able to fool Feng Feiyun’s eyes. By handing this cloak over, it would make the master more prone to mistakes from carelessness.

The master was ecstatic after taking the cloak and didn’t want to stay at the tower any longer. The cloud turned into a divine wisp of fire that directly broke through the door of the 81st floor before flying off towards the edge of the sky.

“How bold, you dare to try and escape after stealing the Cloak of Invisibility?!”

“After them!”

***

The five great experts from the tower gave chase right away. They turned into five rays of light and soared through the sky like shooting stars.

In just a split second, the treasure tower turned very quiet. Many people chased after the mysterious master to reclaim their defining treasure.

“We have to run too!” Feng Feiyun carved out a lotus formation. While standing on top of it, the runes in the tower couldn’t do anything to him. It was as if he was riding a little boat on a fast-flowing river.

“Fuck, wait for me!” Bi Ningshuai took out an iron disk the size of a sesame cake and stood on it with one foot. His body began to stagger as the disk started moving just like the lotus formation. They hovered above the runes.

Even though the top experts all chased after the mysterious master, some of the young disciples noticed Feng Feiyun and Bi Ningshuai. Several of them worked together to unleash a five qilins attack.

“Boom!” Feng Feiyun had to be cruel. He unleashed a palm attack that crushed the five qilins and blew the disciples away. They slammed into the wall and lost their lives instantly.

His identity couldn’t be exposed, so he had no choice but to kill and silence them.

As they made their escape, they went all out and left no room for mercy. There were even occasions when they used their spirit treasures and turned the enemies to smithereens.

More than ten young disciples from the treasure tower died to them. As for Ji Cangyue, she never appeared again and had clearly made her escape long ago. Feng Feiyun didn’t bother trying to find her as he only wanted to leave the treasure tower as fast as possible.

With the cloak missing, this place would become very chaotic and troublesome. He needed to run as far away as possible.

***

In the bamboo forest, foggy white mists billowed like beautiful bridges. Xue Wu soared through the forest like a little butterfly. Each of her steps took her more than ten meters further. Suddenly, she stopped and stood under a jade-like bamboo tree then lifted her head towards the sky.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!” Several terrifying auras swept by in the sky as if they were chasing someone.

“The five guardians of the treasures tower… Looks like they got the cloak!” She twirled her hair around with her finger as a happy glimmer appeared in her pretty eyes.

“Swoosh!” Another graceful figure soared forward from the forest and drifted next to her.

This girl had a scholarly and elegant presence. She seemed younger than Xue Wu, only around the age of fourteen or fifteen with a charming figure. Even though she was not as seductive as Xue Wu, she still carried quite an amorous feeling.

Yu Chan said with worry: “Big Sis still isn’t here yet, I hope that nothing went wrong.”

So this girl turned out to be Yu Chan, the rank nine beauty of the Supreme Beauty Pavilion!

“Those geezers won’t be able to do anything to Big Sister!” Xue Wu looked quite happy as she looked towards the north and saw a crimson cloud coming towards them. Within this fiery cloud was a figure. In a flash, they were right in front of them.

It was the mysterious master.

“Big Sis!” Yu Chan and Xue Wu quickly came over. The crimson flame slowly converged and disappeared completely. A supreme beauty appeared. She wore a red dress with a white veil covering her face. Despite not being able to see her features, just her aura alone was enough to charm all men in this world.

If Feng Feiyun was here, he would be rendered speechless from shock. He wouldn’t believe his eyes because the mysterious master that he had been trying to reveal the whole time was actually the delicate Nangong Hongyan!

She was not delicate at all at this moment. Her flame-like dress had flashing lights flowing across the surface. This was a divine dress no lesser than the Cloak of Invisibility with the name “Crimson Phoenix Garment.” [1. The bird here is actually a luan, a mythical bird closely related to the phoenix. It is usually blue in color, but it is red in this case, so it is close enough to be a phoenix. No one really knows what a luan is though, so phoenix is an okay substitute here.]

Nangong Hongyan really didn’t have a strand of cultivation. Moreover, she didn’t have the aptitude and couldn’t embark on the path of cultivation. Because of this, she was able to fool Feng Feiyun.

The reason why she has such mighty power is due to the ancient era’s Crimson Phoenix Garment. With this dress, she gained a power comparable to a half-step Giant!

“The second divine garment is ours. Among the five, we are missing the demon’s battle armor, ‘Nine Doves Sacred Gown’ from the Feng Clan, the Nalan Buddhist Robe from the Mortal Life Temple, and the royal family’s Regal Dragon Robe.”

Her voice was as wondrous as a heavenly breeze. While holding the Cloak of Invisibility, she glanced towards the southern sky with the prettiest pair of eyes in the world: “Our next target is the Feng’s Nine Doves Sacred Gown!”

She came to the Wanxiang Pagoda specifically for the cloak.

She was the most beautiful in the world, but the high heavens was jealous of her. She had no spirituality in her body and couldn’t channel any spirit energy, so cultivation was out of the question. Even if she could sway everyone right now, ten years or twenty years later, she would certainly start aging. Her beauty was not eternal and her youth was not everlasting.

Only by obtaining all five divine garments would she be able to maintain her youth for a hundred years with their great powers. Even if she had to die from old age after one hundred years, she would still die as the most beautiful woman in the world and not as a withered granny.

All women were afraid of growing old. The more beautiful one was, the more afraid they would be. Nangong Hongyan was scared to death because of it since she was the world’s most beautiful after all.

No one could defy the heavens, not even her. She only wished to live a carefree and graceful life, immortality was not something she was searching for.

One hundred years was the limit even after obtaining the five divine garments. This was the sad fate of those who couldn’t cultivate. This type of pain was not so easily accepted contrary to what she told Feng Feiyun.

In fact, half of her pain that echoed in her zither was due to this.

“Kill everyone involved in this heist, don’t leave a single one alive!” She was not willing to accept how the heavens treated so easily, thus she wished to defy it!

Xue Wu clarified: “Even Feng Feiyun?”

“He knows too much. I feel that he has become suspicious of me, so we have to eliminate him. Leave him to me. I’ll use his demon blood to refine the Nine Doves Sacred Gown.” Nangong Hongyan stared at the horizon. Her mind was no longer at the Wanxiang Pagoda.

Their next stop was the Feng Clan in the Grand Southern Prefecture for the third divine garment. Xue Wu and Yu Chan acknowledged the order and set off to kill everyone involved in this mission.

Meanwhile, Nangong Hongyan’s slender fingers were holding a crimson knife. She went back to the Martial Tower alone and quietly waited for Feng Feiyun’s return.