All of a sudden, Xia Fei came to a halt. He stared at a rather fancy flute on his right.
This flute had three segments, and each segment had a different color, namely red, white, and blue respectively.
Honestly, this flute hardly looked like a soul weapon and more like a little plaything that a beggar on the streets would play to cajole passersby. If those soul weapons from before had no powerful aura, then this flute generated even weaker fluctuations. It could very easily be overlooked by anyone passing by.
Tong Jinliang, who had also worn a simulation helmet, was browsing through space with Xia Fei. Upon seeing that a soul weapon had caught his eye, Tong Jinliang quickly hurried over to take a look.
“An auditory soul weapon? What, did this thing catch your eye?” Tong Jinliang asked, curious.
Among all the types of soul weapons out there, the auditory sort was a bit more unique. A low-grade auditory soul weapon hardly had any combat value, for sound was the hardest to locate.
Given how sound could travel in any direction, an auditory soul weapon’s grade would be deemed low if its attack range was too broad or imprecise, for it meant that the auditory soul weapon’s lethality was fairly weak.
Auditory soul weapons, which could normally reach grade 6 at most, would be viewed as powerful killer weapons only if they achieved precision. At this point, Soul Sound could make a warrior, who came under its influence, dance erratically, able to kill with pinpoint accuracy or affect a large area, becoming a hard-to-come-by existence. As for soul weapons below grade 6, they were simply no more than children’s toys and could barely pose a threat to enemies.
This flute that Xia Fei was interested in was called Nocturne. While the name sounded impressive, the item unfortunately did not even reach grade 1. It must have been used as practice by some novice Spiritualist; in fact, calling it a 0.5 grade soul weapon could already be considered a compliment.
Xia Fei shrugged as he commented nonchalantly, “The color coordination—red, white, and blue—of this flute is rather nice. It has a rather refreshing appearance.”
*Cough*
Tong Jinliang was nearly left sputtering. He eyed Xia Fei slyly. To think that even color coordination could become a reason for the other’s choice in soul weapon… Tong Jinliang had serious doubts if Xia Fei was truly a Spiritualist’s disciple after he heard that.
At this moment, Xia Fei had turned around and headed forward. It was almost as if that auditory-type soul weapon was just a small interlude, which he hardly paid much attention to.
This was all just a show Xia Fei was performing for Tong Jinliang, though; in actual fact, thoughts were already churning wildly deep inside him.
“Just what was so strange about that flute?” Radix asked, curious.
Having followed Xia Fei for such a long time, Radix of course knew his personality well. The rule of keeping his thoughts hidden was not empty talk. The more Xia Fei cared about something, the more he would do what he could to hide it.
“Its aura is different.”
“Aura?” Radix was taken aback.
“That’s right. That flute gave me the feeling of a big-tailed wolf. It’s pretending to be a rabbit, appearing harmless, yet something truly sinister actually lies hidden within,” said Xia Fei sternly.
Radix mulled over what Xia Fei had said and soon came to a resolve. “I believe you because you yourself are a big-tailed wolf, which always pretends to be very weak. That must be why you have a far greater comprehension toward other things and their pretensions.”
This was by no means too great an exaggeration, but Xia Fei did not really care about such things.
His keen senses and superhuman analytical thinking noticed that none of the tens of thousands of soul weapons was as weak as Nocturne, and that in itself became a sort of loophole.
Like taking a test, no matter how well someone studied, achieving full marks was still a tall task. Conversely, it took a really amazing person to achieve zero! With so many multiple choice questions, even someone blindfolded could have guessed one or two rights, no?
Thinking in reverse, to make a soul weapon as terrible as Nocturne, only two kinds of people could achieve it: A complete fool or a certified master!
Having discovered these secrets, Xia Fei no longer had the mind to keep wandering about. There were simply too many trash soul weapons in this rubbish dump. As such, after walking around the area, Xia Fei found himself feeling slightly disgusted.
He randomly picked seven soul weapons and exited the simulation. Of course, Nocturne was among the seven, except that Xia Fei had acted rather well. The time he spent stopping at the other six soul weapons was much longer, so Tong Jinliang did not even suspect that the one Xia Fei was most interested in was actually that three-colored flute.
Xia Fei completed the exchange procedure at the front desk and got a container to store in his chosen soul weapons. The staff seemed to know that all seven were garbage, so they did not even spare the soul weapons a glance before tossing everything to Xia Fei. Instead, it was Tong Jinliang by his side who had stolen a few glances, but it was not hard to tell from his expression that he felt rather disappointed with the choices Xia Fei had made.
‘If it were me, I might not have picked out anything better from that dump. After all, there’s nothing good there to begin with,’ Tong Jinliang thought to himself.
Blinking a few times, Tong Jinliang spoke. “Seven soul weapons are a bit too few. I have some points from the Spiritualist Association; why don’t I give you these so that you can pick out a few more, bring back about twenty or so, enough that you won’t lose face?”
Tong Jinliang could feel his heart hurting as he said this. Everyone knew just how precious these points from the Spiritualist Association were. He was not a Spiritualist, either, so he must have begged and pleaded to get these points.
However, Tong Jinliang felt that it was worthwhile to trade in these points for favorability with Xia Fei.
When it came to gifts, Xia Fei was never the sort to reject any. He happily agreed readily to Tong Jinliang’s offer, and so the old man transferred two hundred points over to his temporary ID.
“According to the rules, you can stay here until it gets dark. You have quite a lot of time now, so aside from exchanging soul weapons, you can also browse some basic information regarding the Spiritualist Association. Since we’re here, there’s no sense in rushing. Let’s go look around for a bit,” Tong Jinliang advised sagely.
Tong Jinliang mentioned he had other business to attend to, and so he departed for somewhere else.
Xia Fei fiddled with the card he had in his hand. Checking his surroundings, he saw that the others were still busy picking the items they needed. Such was human nature; when faced with plenty of choices, people would often be at a loss. It was a very eye-opening experience to see tens of thousands of soul weapons here, so no one showed any intention of leaving.
After some thought, Xia Fei pretended to be nonchalant as he strolled into the tearoom and brewed himself a cup of tea. Inside was where he proceeded to open that box; he retrieved the flute, Nocturne, and carefully examined it.
“How is it?” asked Radix anxiously.
“It’s as I suspected. There’s this mysterious pressure the moment I hold it in my hand, almost as if something is intentionally suppressing the soul weapon’s aura. This is not the place, so it’ll have to wait till later when we get back for me to study it more. It also has some strange patterns, which didn’t appear using the holographic simulation.” Xia Fei had taken a few minutes to inspect the flute before storing Nocturne away.
Aside from the three colors on the flute, a subtle pattern had been etched across every color. Xia Fei needed to observe it personally before he could see this, and the discovery only increased his interest in the flute. That was how unique it was.
Xia Fei darted into a restroom and used an open window inside to take off after looking around and feeling assured that there was no surveillance device or anybody present.
“Let’s go to where Fuchen said and help him retrieve what he wants,” Xia Fei whispered to Radix.
…
Speed, movement technique, and Breath Control were Xia Fei’s old trump cards that he relied upon for his success. He very quickly made his way into the innermost part of the Spiritualist Association’s grounds, and following the route Fuchen had instructed him to go, he arrived at a very strange-looking pagoda.
Seven stories high. It stood out against the dozen or so pagodas around. Apparently, every building in the Spiritualist Association’s territory was old-fashioned and understated. Any opulence would only be made apparent after stepping inside.
“What is this place? Why are there so many similar pagodas around?” Radix was curious. “I remember Fuchen saying that any place without any signage is private property, so it seems like these are places the Spiritualists can shut themselves in for seclusion.”
Xia Fei frowned and slotted that Sunflower gold card Fuchen had given him into the card reader at the entrance.
*Beep*
Green indicator light shone, but the front door did not open; instead, a small black door by the side opened!
Xia Fei was startled. This was truly too strange. He had clearly used the card on the front door, yet it actually ended up opening the side door? What sort of logic was that?
The side door had its own card reader; did that mean that if he slotted the card to this side door, the front door would open?
Mulling over this, Xia Fei gritted his teeth and walked over to the side door. These pagodas were too peculiar. People would feel a warm spring breeze just by standing outside; it gave a comfortable feeling to anyone standing nearby, but the moment one stepped inside, a bone-chilling sensation would flood their very being. This feeling was not because of the drop in temperature, for even dipping in icy waters in the middle of a fierce blizzard would not be a problem given his cultivation. What really chilled Xia Fei was the eerie silence and darkness pervading the air inside.
This was a silence in which no sound could be heard. Stepping into the pagoda was like entering another world. Space and time had all but been sealed off.
*Clack*
The moment Xia Fei took a step in, the door behind him closed. The sound echoed throughout this empty pagoda floor; it was an unnerving experience to those who heard it.
“Ocular Cognition!”
Slightly waving his fingers across his eyes, Xia Fei had no choice but to use this technique to take in his surroundings due to how dark it was.
A winding and elevated walkway appeared in front of his eyes. There were no stairs, no light, no door. Nothing.
Xia Fei did not feel in the least bit panicky. He followed along this walkway; according to his calculation, he should have arrived at the height of the seventh floor. This was when a door appeared in front of him and also where the walkway ended.
This door was different from the one outside. The golden sunflower insignia on it was the same as the one Xia Fei had in his hand. It was just that this sunflower had additional arms and body, making it look like a human who had grown a sunflower for a head…
“Just what exactly is this? It doesn’t even look like a human or a monster,” Radix grumbled under his breath.
Xia Fei shook his head to indicate that he could not make sense of this strange humanoid, either. An amalgamation of human and plant? What logic was this?
*Whoosh*
The moment Xia Fei stuck the card into the card reader, that door suddenly moved!
The strange sunflower on the door then bloomed promptly! This was a very frightening scene, for the sunflower was grown on a human head, and as the head suddenly bloomed like a flower, the sight became very unbearable!
Radix screamed and turned completely pale.
Xia Fei looked at him in puzzlement. At that, Radix sheepishly scratched his head. He used to be a Great Soul Hunter when he was still alive, and now that he was dead, he had become an immortal soul. It was really hard to comprehend how a warrior like him could have been frightened by a door.
“Why is the door not opening?” Radix asked anxiously, drawing Xia Fei’s attention to the matter at hand.
Xia Fei felt equally baffled. There was a narrow hole from where that sunflower humanoid head had blossomed after, looking just like a chimney found in any home. It would at most allow a mouse to crawl through, and he could at best stretch an arm inside.
An arm?
Xia Fei hesitated for a few seconds at that and then inserted his right hand to that hole. His fingers prodded forward and he felt like he had dipped into a wet drain. Who knew if there were any rats in there? Xia Fei was ready to pull his arm out at any second when all of a sudden—
He felt a pinprick pain on his wrist as if a bee had stung him!
