Ultimate Scheming System

Xu Que had no idea how big the interior of the Refined Moon Palace was. However, he soon figured it out when he was in there. The Refined Moon Palace was not as simple as it looked. At the very least, it would have been impossible to crush it with the Five Elements Mountain as per his previous plan!

For the next few days, the team trudged onward at high speed. If they had tried to figure out the distance traveled at that speed, they would have realized that they had covered a distance that far surpassed the Refined Moon Palace’s total perimeter. It was clear that the size of the Refined Moon Palace’s interior was almost impossible to gauge.

Xu Que disarmed and deactivated countless traps within the palace, big and small. Even spells and restrictive barriers dissolved easily in his hands. However, things began to get arduous as they reached the next stretch of their journey. As Elder Yu had said, people will encounter different levels of difficulties upon entering the Refined Moon Palace, which would correspond to their cultivation stages.

Within the team, Bai Cailing was the one with the highest cultivation, the strongest of them all. They encountered traps and spells of the greatest difficulty, due to the presence of a cultivator at the Human Celestial Stage. Everywhere they went, they would be blocked by a dominant spell. The good thing was that Bai Cailing was a force to be reckoned with. She managed to dispel all the restrictive barriers and spells that they encountered along the way.

At last, on the tenth day after they had entered the Refines Moon Palace, the team finally reached their destination—a massive hall filled with countless tombstones.

“So this is the place where they hid the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone?” Xu Que asked as he took in the surroundings curiously. The hall was filled with tombstones, and it looked like an indoor graveyard. Every tombstone had an epitaph. However, the carvings had faded over the course of time, so they were almost entirely illegible. What disturbed Xu Que was that there was an eerie atmosphere. The moment he stepped foot into the hall, he could feel someone’s gaze on him from the dark, and not just one, but multiple gazes.

Arwoof! “Something’s amiss! Why do I feel like someone’s spying on my fabulous figure? Who, who exactly?” Buttface called out at once. He immediately scanned the surroundings with a piercing and wary gaze. It was clear that Buttface too felt that someone was observing them and was put off.

“I feel that too!” Elder Yu too nodded and looked around solemnly.

The rest of the Leaving Leaves disciples all huddled together carefully, trying to prevent sneak attacks and ambushes.

“Your hunches were right. There’s indeed someone observing us. However, they are not humans, but souls!” Bai Cailing said mildly. She had come here 100 years ago and was well aware of the eeriness of this place. Now that she had returned, she was no longer surprised by this sort of situation.

“Souls? You mean the souls under the tombstones?” Xu Que caught on immediately and stared stupefied at the endless stretch of tombstones.

“That’s right!” Bai Cailing nodded.

Xu Que became serious at once and clapped his palms together, shouting, “All right! Let this holy monk release their souls from misery, sending them into the afterlife!” Xu Que posed to make a move once he had finished his words, attempting to kill a batch of souls and see if they could be translated into experience points.

“Wait!” Bai Cailing stopped Xu Que immediately. She said solemnly, “Don’t harm them. The consciousness of these souls had long dissipated, and they exist as nothing more than an unconscious Remnant Soul. They pose no threat to us. Furthermore, we would need to rely on them to find the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone!”

“Oh?” Xu Que was surprised.

Could a group of unconscious Remnant Souls determine the ownership of the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone?

“The reason why I needed your help was that there seems to be a restrictive spell cast over this area. The spell was merged as one with all of the Remnant Souls; if the souls disappear, the restrictive spell would also disintegrate, destroying the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone within it. Therefore, I need you to awaken all of these Remnant Souls and unlock the restrictive spell, so that we may retrieve the stone!” Bai Cailing said to Xu Que while looking into his eyes.

Xu Que understood at once. “You mean you want to use my melodies to awaken them or even control them?”

Back when he was at the Dong family, Bai Cailing had said that she chose him because of his exceptional talent in music. It was only afterward that she discovered that he was a cultivator. Putting the pieces together, Xu Que guessed the reason instantly. Thanks to his skills as a musician, his melodies would have a doubled effect on the souls. Waking these Remnant Souls should not be too difficult.

“That’s right. Your melodies are exquisite. Maybe you could awaken them. However, I hope that you could play a profound and challenging piece that you’re most familiar with, to improve the rates of success,” added Bai Cailing.

To be honest, she thought very highly of Xu Que. However, she felt that the chances of Xu Que succeeding in this task were very slim.

When she had entered with a different group 100 years ago, there were extremely talented musicians with her. Despite this, they failed in the end, awakening only half of the Remnant Souls. The restriction opened halfway then slammed shut immediately. However, it was because the spell was once opened halfway that they discovered the wooden box and saw the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone in it. That eventually led to internal strife. Everyone wanted to keep the secret of the wooden box and tried to make the box their own. To prevent people from leaking the information, a situation of mutual backstabbing and murder began to unfold. The results were disastrous and tragic. Bai Lingyu was ambushed in a sneak attack and escaped the Refined Moon Palace with a grave injury. She then landed on the Taijin Continent. The rest of the group mostly died in the Refined Moon Palace. Those who remained worked together to survive. The couple that Xu Que had killed previously was two of those who had survived.

Bai Cailing stood in the same position with a complicated expression. She slowly explained what had happened back then to Xu Que and everyone present. Everyone fell silent. Although they didn’t know of the effects or benefits of the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone, they understood what Bai Cailing was trying to hint. It was evident that Bai Cailing was using this story to prompt him that the only way to disable the restrictive spell was to give his all.

“Miss Cabbage, aren’t you worried that we might start to fight among ourselves too? It’s the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone after all!” Xu Que joked.

Bai Cailing shook her head, “You have no use for the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone. Even if you got your hands on it, you could only activate it when you reached the Human Celestial Stage. However, the Taoist Connotation of the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone is simply too great. Should it fall into your hands, it would attract countless Human Celestials to hunt you down!”

She paused at that point, then promised in all seriousness, “Trust me, the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone will only do more harm than good in your hands. Furthermore, I genuinely need it. If you manage to open the restrictive spell, you can take anything apart from the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone. I would even give you more precious stones and jewelry to make up for it.”

“He, he, there’s no need!” Xu Que smiled. “We, followers of the Exploding Heavens Faction, honor our word! Since you need the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone, we’ll give it to you!” He had entertained the idea of stealing the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone. However, as they walked farther down the journey together, he had formed quite a favorable impression of Bai Cailing, especially when she gave Jiang Hongyan a Jade Tile. He was impressed by her actions of treasuring talents. However, the most fundamental reason was none other than the fact that he genuinely had no use for the 3-stripe Spiritual Tao Stone.

It wasn’t about the cultivation stages. It was because Xu Que’s Taoist Connotation was utterly unheard of. He had cultivated it by going against Heaven’s Will, never daunted and ever loyal to his desires. The Taoist Connotation in the stone stemmed from the convergence of connotations from cultivators before they died. Xu Que once asked the System, that confirmed it, whether he could not absorb the Taoist Connotation of others. All in all, his domineering and flaunting Taoist Connotation could be formed from nothing but himself.

“In that case…many thanks!” Bai Cailing nodded, her gaze a lot softer than before.

“Ha, ha, it’s no big deal. It’s a win-win, no? Furthermore…” Xu Que answered smilingly, and his mind drifted again to that IOU.

“Furthermore?” Bai Cailing asked curiously.

“It’s nothing! Come on, let’s start. Is it okay if I sit down and start to play a tune right now?” Xu Que changed the topic.

“Yes. You may start directly.” Bai Cailing nodded.

Swoosh!

Xu Que cut the nonsense and fished out a massive loudspeaker and put it on the floor. At the same time, he prepared drums, piano, microphone…he took out all sorts of instruments. Everybody present was awed and stared at his jaw-dropping display. They had always revered the musicality of the First Realm dwellers. However, they had never seen instruments this exotic and were therefore truly quite amazed and curious. Even Bai Cailing examined the instruments with interest.

“I bet this fellow’s trying to flaunt his stuff again!” Xu Feifei rolled her eyes and guessed Xu Que’s intentions immediately.

Jiang Hongyan stood on the side and said nothing. Her eyes shone brightly and she fell deep into her thoughts. A slight smile graced her lips as she seemed to have recalled a fond memory. She remembered what happened when they were still in the Fire Country of the Five Element Mountain. During his fight against the Fire Emperor, Xu Que summoned tens of generations of Fire Emperor souls from the Fore Country Imperial Tombs and made them sing and dance.

Now that they were here, Xu Que was still Xu Que, and the musical instruments were the same. However, one thing was different…the number of souls had increased!

“Everyone! Now, it’s time for us to witness a miracle!”

Xu Que sat behind the drums and took up the drumsticks. He smirked.