The inner palace of the Righteous Alliance Headquarters was a monument to three thousand years of absolute, unquestioned dominance.
Corridors carved from pure white jade stretched for miles, lined with glowing spiritual pearls that bathed the halls in a warm, eternal daylight. Majestic pillars coiled with golden dragons held up vaulted ceilings painted with murals of ancient immortals conquering demons.
Normally, these halls were bustling with the most powerful elders and elite disciples in the mortal realm. Today, they were completely deserted.
Word of the monster at the front gates had spread faster than a flying sword. The invincible Enforcers and the arrogant Grandmasters had all retreated into the deeper courtyards, locking their doors and desperately circulating their Qi in silent terror. Nobody wanted to accidentally cross paths with the Saintess of the Azure Sword Sect.
Walking through the center of the majestic, empty corridor was Yan Shuo.
He casually fanned himself with his paper fan, his footsteps echoing softly against the polished floorboards. He looked like an emperor inspecting his newly conquered summer estate.
Right beside him, clinging to his arm with both hands, was Tantai Zhi.
She was completely ignoring the opulent surroundings. Her golden eyes were focused entirely on Yan Shuo’s profile. Ever since he had asserted his dominance in the plaza and called her by her intimate name, her mood had reached a level of absolute, euphoric radiance. She was practically glowing with a soft, warm pink aura.
Trailing exactly ten paces behind them, carrying a small burlap sack and looking like she was walking to her own execution, was Su Mei.
"The Central Treasury is just ahead, Lord Yan," Su Mei whispered, her fox ears twitching nervously at every minor creak of the floorboards. "It is guarded by the Nine-Dragon Profound Lock. Only the Patriarch’s personal jade token can open it without triggering a self-destruct array."
Yan Shuo smiled, tossing the intricately carved jade token he had extorted from the Patriarch lightly in his hand.
"It is very thoughtful of them to keep all their wealth in one convenient location," Yan Shuo murmured pleasantly. "Saves me the trouble of checking under their mattresses."
They reached the end of the grand corridor. Before them stood a pair of towering doors forged from deep-sea profound iron, glowing with hundreds of intricate golden runes. Two massive dragon heads were carved into the center, their jaws interlocked in a complex mechanical seal.
Yan Shuo stepped forward and casually pressed the Patriarch’s jade token directly into the groove between the dragon heads.
Click. Whirrrrr.
The golden runes flared to life, shifting from a defensive red to a welcoming blue. The heavy iron doors groaned, slowly parting to reveal the accumulated wealth of the Righteous Alliance.
As the doors opened, a wave of spiritual energy so thick it was practically liquid washed over them.
Inside, the treasury was the size of a mountain cavern. Rivers of condensed spiritual dew flowed through jade channels in the floor. Mountains of flawless, high-grade spirit stones were piled high enough to touch the ceiling. Crystal display cases lined the walls, holding supreme-tier weapons, ancient armor, and glowing medicinal pills that had taken centuries to concoct.
Su Mei gasped, her knees nearly giving out. As a former auctioneer, she knew the value of these items. A single sword in this room could buy an entire mortal kingdom.
Yan Shuo, however, just let out a quiet, appreciative sigh.
"Not bad," Yan Shuo evaluated, his pragmatic Demon Lord brain instantly cataloging the most valuable items. "A bit unorganized, but the quality is acceptable."
"Husband," Tantai Zhi said softly, pulling on his sleeve.
Yan Shuo turned to look at her, expecting her to point out a supreme-tier sword or a legendary armor set. Instead, she was pointing at a small, velvet-lined box sitting on a nearby pedestal.
Inside the box was a delicate, beautifully carved jade hairpin shaped like a blooming lotus. It held absolutely no defensive formations. It was completely useless in a fight. It was just a very pretty piece of jewelry.
"Do you think this would look nice in my hair?" Tantai Zhi asked, her cheeks flushing slightly as she looked up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.
Yan Shuo paused. He looked at the endless mountains of world-conquering wealth around them, and then at his terrifying, overpowered wife who just wanted a pretty hairpin for their date.
A genuine, deeply fond smile touched his lips.
He walked over, picked up the jade hairpin, and gently slid it into the dark, silky strands of her hair. He adjusted it perfectly, letting the carved lotus rest against the side of her head.
"It looks beautiful, Zhi’er," Yan Shuo murmured softly. "But it only looks beautiful because you are wearing it."
Tantai Zhi let out a tiny, breathless squeak. Her golden eyes widened, and she immediately buried her burning red face against his chest, her arms wrapping around his waist in a vice-like grip. She was completely, utterly defeated by his sweet words.
"Husband is too good to me," she mumbled into his white robes, her heart hammering wildly.
Yan Shuo chuckled, patting her back with one hand while using his free hand to casually open his Abyssal spatial ring.
Whoosh.
A terrifying suction force erupted from his sleeve. Yan Shuo didn’t bother sorting through the weapons or reading the labels on the pill bottles. He simply aimed his ring at the center of the room and activated the spatial vacuum.
Mountains of high-grade spirit stones vanished. Racks of supreme weapons disappeared. The rivers of spiritual dew were sucked dry. He was sweeping the Righteous Alliance’s three-thousand-year-old bank account clean in a matter of seconds.
Su Mei watched in absolute, paralyzed awe as the greatest treasury in the mortal realm was reduced to an empty stone basement.
Just as Yan Shuo was pulling the last row of ancient pill boxes into his ring, the ambient Qi in the room suddenly shifted.
Su Mei’s fox instincts violently flared. The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up.
"Lord Yan!" Su Mei cried out, stumbling backward. "The spatial coordinates! They are warping!"
SLAM.
The massive profound iron doors of the treasury violently slammed shut, sealing them inside. The welcoming blue runes on the walls instantly shifted into a sickly, glowing silver.
The air in the empty treasury grew incredibly heavy, completely distinct from the kinetic gravity of the plaza array. This was a suffocating, chilling weight that bypassed the physical body and pressed directly against the soul.
A thick, silvery mist began to seep from the floorboards, swirling rapidly around their ankles.
Tantai Zhi’s romantic bliss vanished in a fraction of a microsecond.
She pulled her face away from Yan Shuo’s chest, her golden eyes snapping open to reveal a void of absolute, bottomless murder. The sweet wife was gone. The apex predator had awakened.
"Who dares?" Tantai Zhi whispered, her voice a demonic rasp that shook the very foundations of the iron room.
She summoned her crimson sword, the blade igniting with an apocalyptic, world-ending light. She didn’t hesitate. She swung the blade horizontally, unleashing a massive arc of supreme sword Qi meant to shatter the iron doors and the silver mist in a single strike.
Swish.
The crimson sword Qi tore through the room, striking the heavy iron doors with enough force to cleave a mountain in half.
But the doors didn’t shatter. The silver mist swirling around them simply absorbed the strike. The mist rippled like a disturbed pond, swallowing the kinetic force of the sword Qi completely, without making a single sound.
Tantai Zhi’s eyes narrowed. "An illusion array?"
"No, Wife," Yan Shuo said, his voice dropping into a cold, ancient register.
He stepped forward, pulling her slightly behind him. His dark eyes locked onto the swirling silver mist. His veteran, pragmatic brain recognized the signature immediately.
It wasn’t an illusion. And it wasn’t a standard Righteous trapping array.
It was a soul-isolation barrier. A highly advanced, ancient technique designed specifically to separate physical matter from spiritual essence. Physical attacks, like sword Qi, would simply pass through it or be absorbed into the void.
Suddenly, the silver mist condensed in the center of the room, forming the vague, shifting silhouette of a man wearing a weeping silver mask.
It was a projection, a pre-recorded spiritual imprint triggered by the sealing of the doors.
"A heavy foundation," the smooth, chilling voice of the Faceless Scholar echoed from the mist, his tone laced with a paranoid, calculating curiosity. "To swallow an Earth-Binding Hex with the body of a Foundation Establishment youth... it is an anomaly that defies the Heavens."
Tantai Zhi didn’t care who the voice belonged to. She raised her sword again, her aura blazing with enough power to physically melt the floor.
"You dare lock my husband in a room?" she snarled at the projection. "I will find your real body and turn your skull into a wine cup!"
The projection ignored her completely, its featureless silver mask turning directly toward Yan Shuo.
"The Saintess protects your body flawlessly," the Scholar’s voice continued, a dark amusement coloring the words. "But let us see if she can protect your soul. Show me what hides beneath your golden illusion, little anomaly."
The silver mist violently erupted.
It didn’t attack Tantai Zhi or Su Mei. The mist transformed into dozens of translucent, silver chains that shot directly toward Yan Shuo’s chest, completely bypassing Tantai Zhi’s physical defensive barriers.
The chains were forged from Soul-Sealing Yin Fire, a cold, smokeless flame that burned away spiritual defenses and latched directly onto a cultivator’s core.
Yan Shuo’s eyes went completely, utterly cold.
You really shouldn’t have done that, old friend, Yan Shuo thought, the dark abyss of his ancient demonic soul rising to the surface.
Tantai Zhi gasped in horror as the ethereal chains bypassed her sword, realizing physical attacks were useless against a soul-fire construct. She dropped her weapon and lunged forward, desperately trying to channel her own pure Yin Qi to shield his meridians.
"Zhi’er, step back," Yan Shuo commanded.
It wasn’t a request. The sheer, sovereign authority in his voice made her freeze instinctively.
Yan Shuo didn’t dodge the chains. He stood perfectly still and let the silvery links of Soul-Sealing Yin Fire slam directly into his chest.
The Faceless Scholar’s projection watched, expecting the youth to scream in agony as the fire forced his true foundation to reveal itself to survive.
Instead, the moment the silver chains touched Yan Shuo’s spiritual sea, they violently snapped taut.
Hidden beneath the fake layer of golden Foundation Establishment Qi, the violently dense, pitch-black Abyssal Star-Core awakened. It did not just spin; it roared.
Yan Shuo didn’t just absorb the trap this time. He grabbed the spiritual chains of the Yin Fire with the pure gravitational force of his demonic core and violently, brutally yanked backward.
"What?!" the projection of the Scholar suddenly gasped, its voice distorting in genuine shock.
The Heaven-Swallowing Abyssal Art wasn’t just a defensive vacuum. It was a predator.
Yan Shuo pulled on the ethereal chains with such crushing gravitational force that the entire silver mist filling the room was violently dragged toward him. He funneled the soul-fire directly into his mouth and swallowed it whole.
The Scholar’s projection flickered wildly, the spiritual imprint destabilizing as its core energy was ripped away and devoured.
Yan Shuo looked directly into the eyes of the fading silver mask. He didn’t say a word, but he let a single, microscopic thread of his true, ancient Demon Lord aura slip through the golden disguise.
It was a signature that the Faceless Scholar hadn’t felt in a hundred years.
The projection of the silver mask violently shuddered, a look of absolute, mind-shattering horror freezing on its ethereal features before the mist completely collapsed and was sucked into Yan Shuo’s stomach.
The room fell dead silent. The heavy iron doors unlocked with a loud clack.
Yan Shuo casually wiped his mouth with his pristine white sleeve. He let the fake golden Qi settle back over his core, perfectly hiding the monster within.
"That was a bit spicy," Yan Shuo murmured, turning to his stunned wife with a warm, doting smile. "Shall we go find the architect, Wife? I think I’d like to leave a complaint."