“Crap! This is his Substitution Technique!” Ulan’s voice cracked.
The one who had returned was not Xia Fei, but Furball! That meant that Xia Fei had taken the risk to stay behind on Spirit Mountain overnight!
Ulan kicked the ground hard as he wailed, “Xia Fei, oh Xia Fei! I now know why you always find yourselves in problematic predicaments; you’re pretty much the type that will always get yourself into trouble! You were not allowed to stay on the mountain, so you insisted on doing just that! Even if you have me and Furball as backup, you cannot withstand the full might of the Unrestricted Sect!”
Furball was also howling in dissatisfaction. In his mind, Xia Fei leaving to fight without bringing him along saddened the Beast greatly. Exotic Beasts defended their masters loyally, and no matter how cunning and crafty Furball was, he was ultimately completely loyal when it came to Xia Fei.
It was late in the night, and also a moonless darkness. The cold wind picked up as Ulan gazed out into the murky night sky and sighed, “A night where there’s no moon and the winds howl, perfect for killing. Xia Fei, you better not run into any problems!”
…
Breath Control.
Xia Fei was like a ghost in the night on the mountain peak’s varied and complex terrain. He glued himself to the rock wall and used the darkness as cover while he crept about silently.
Spirit Mountain was huge, and the Unrestricted Sect had settled on the huge mountain for countless years. They had long since turned the mountain peak into a complex fortress, Any outsider unfamiliar with the grounds would lose their way there very easily.
Furthermore, there were not many Unrestricteds. According to Ulan’s recollections, there were no more than fifty official members of the sect, and the rest were all trainee apprentices engaged in miscellaneous work. They would only total up to three to four hundred more.
Considering the size of the mountain, it was hard to even catch a glimpse of anyone’s shadow out here, with only three to four hundred people about! The leaves and trees rustled and swayed in the wind with no one anywhere in sight, creating a strange atmosphere up here on the mountain peak.
“How about if I head over to the other side of Spirit Mountain and take a look. Having the both of us split up and cover more ground will allow us to move quicker as well,” Radix suggested.
Xia Fei shook his head, “No way. You’re an immortal soul, and everyone staying here is a Spiritualist, so they would discover you very easily. Best if you remain inside Nirvana.”
Xia Fei relied on his intuition to forge ahead. In the last three days, he had carefully studied his surroundings. He had noticed that there did not seem to be any Auras emanating from the mountain’s peak. It was almost as if no one ever went up there.
When things were abnormal, something must be afoot. Xia Fei decided to head for the peak first and take a look there. Besides, he could get a better view of the area around if he went to a higher vantage point.
…
Xia Fei had nearly reached the peak when he saw a single small parking apron situated ahead, as well as several old-fashioned buildings that were not particularly tall.
Alpha Universe had various applications of spatial power, and it was not uncommon to find a large cave inside any random thatched hut. Xia Fei did not ignore the low-roofed old buildings around him, knowing that.
After some thought, Xia Fei decided to move toward the three-story house that was closest to his present position. There was a layer of snow on the ground, and he even needed to cross a coverless platform to make his way over. He needed to hold his breath and dart over in one go .
*Whoosh*
Just as Xia Fei was preparing to accelerate, the sound of beating wings suddenly came from somewhere above in the air!
Xia Fei nimbly came to a halt and remained motionless.
He saw a black gale pick up, and the snow on the ground stirred up several meters. A black shadow that looked to be larger than a human being suddenly landed from the skies above!
*Thump*
Xia Fei froze up the moment after he made out this figure in the darkness. This was none other than the Holy Beast Lonegleam Eagle, the very same creature whose nose that Furball had bitten off when they first encountered it in the Collapsed Expanse of the Founders!
*Whoosh*
Xia Fei broke out in cold sweat immediately. Holy Beasts could sense each other keenly, and while Furball was not face to face with Lonegleam Eagle, the two creatures had already been letting out loud cries and roars, the telepathy they shared at work.
Fortunately, Xia Fei had used his Delusion Technique to disguise Furball as himself and sent his Beast down the mountain. Had Furball been here, with how close they were the Beast would most likely have exposed them both by now!
Seeing that the Lonegleam Eagle had arrived, that would also mean that Shu Yuhe, and even the number one Dark Spiritualist, Nan Shazi, might just be around the corner, as well!
Without any moonlight above them, Xia Fei could only make out the blurry shadow of Lonegleam Eagle. The creature suddenly turned its head in the direction of Xia Fei, its eyes wide and alert. That was when Xia Fei realized that a piece of metal had been fitted where its nose was supposed to be, acting as a metal nose. It was most likely the end result of Furball’s handiwork.
*thump*
*thump*
Xia Fei’s heartbeat increased. Lonegleam Eagle crooked its head to the side, staring right at the rock that Xia Fei was hiding behind, appearing as if it had made some sort of discovery.
*Peng*
*Peng*
Lonegleam Eagle used its strange walking movement to hop over. Xia Fei was extremely surprised. Could he have already been discovered?!
With Lonegleam Eagle less than fifty meters away from him, the situation was incredibly dire! That was just when a golden flash of light appeared in the middle of the night sky, and a small shuttle landed on the parking apron installed on the mountain peak.
The door opened, and several figures came striding out, one after another. Among them was this bizarre-looking hunchback whose head was practically touching the ground.
Someone among those who had disembarked from the shuttle waved his or her hand. The Lonegleam Eagle glanced at the rock Xia Fei had been hiding behind, and somewhat reluctantly hopped its way back to join the group.
*Creak*
At the slope of the mountaintop near the cliff, the doors of one of the squattest buildings opened, and three individuals walked out. Xia Fei borrowed the light from inside the building, recognizing the three men as the three currently in charge of the Unrestricted Sect, seeing as they matched the descriptions that Ulan had told him about!
Basalt, Lingxing, and Hei Wuji!
“The Grandmaster sure is cautious; there’s nothing to worry! This here is Spirit Mountain, and there’s no one out there that would dare spy on us here in the middle of the night!” Hei Wuji reassured them in a loud voice.
Stopping opposite the three men, the handful of Dark Spiritualists nodded to each other and had the Holy Beast Lonegleam Eagle, two of their own, as well as that hunchbacked man, stay back to take care of the shuttle, while the remaining three approached the Unrestricteds.
*Creak*
The doors shut once more, and the mountain peak was shrouded in the darkness again.
“Let’s go! These people are far too strong! They have five Spiritualists with peak cultivation alone! Then there’s also that Holy Beast and that strange hunchbacked man!” Radix communicated mentally to Xia Fei, clearly nervous.
“We can’t!” Xia Fei firmly refuted Radix’s suggestion. “The Dark Spiritualists suddenly paying a visit to the Unrestricted means there must surely be a conspiracy going on. I need to make sense of things.”
“But they’re already guarding the approach, and there’s no foliage or cover anywhere around, so how will you get anywhere near that building? Even if you succeed, how will you enter?!” Radix was nervous.
Xia Fei’s face was grim, “From there!”
*Whoosh*
As Xia Fei said this, he deftly shrank his body and fell down the cliff.
The piercing cold winds battered against the sheer cliff face, but Xia Fei was like a nimble ape, sliding along the side of the cliff face. He soon spotted the inconspicuous squat building.
What took Xia Fei by surprise was that while the building did not look anything particularly eye-catching from the outside, being built into the cliff itself, it actually looked like a castle embedded into the rocky cliff when he looked at it from behind!
The small one-story building he saw on the mountain peak was merely the entrance, and its interior was actually contained in the mountain cliff itself. There were countless rooms, their many windows all open on the cliff. At the moment, these windows were being lit one by one, almost as if Lingxing and the others were leading the Dark Spiritualists along a corridor.
“What’s this? There another door here?” Xia Fei gasped in astonishment.
Xia Fei had actually uncovered somewhere that looked like a pier along the cliff face, built out of thin air. A good half of it had been covered in cold-resistant thorns, making it impossible to make out its existence from the outside. Xia Fei had nearly stepped onto thin air, but had actually accidentally stepped onto this aerial platform!
“How very well hidden, even I was nearly fooled. I wonder if this door connects with the rest of the building?” Xia Fei wondered to himself.
The metal door was not large, looking more like a secret entrance that large residences might have used. Xia Fei pushed the door lightly, and over an inch of dust fell off. Evidently it had been many years since this door was last opened.
The platform was very small, and aside from the door, all that was there was the rocky cliff. Xia Fei probed about with his hand and located the mechanism to open the door. However, this door was not opened via a secret code or even mechanically operated, but instead relied on a very rare matter scanner!
“No way. Will this work with it?” Xia Fei was momentarily startled, before pulling out the Golden Seal that Fuchen had entrusted to him from his spatial ring.
Xia Fei had been slightly disappointed when he retrieved this Seal from the lake when there was just this token inside that case, and no secret Martial Technique Manual. On further thought, it made perfect sense. There was no way Fuchen Could know that Xia Fei would be able to retrieve the token back then, so there was no way he would have prepared any gift prior.
Upon closer inspection, Xia Fei discovered that the composition of this Seal was very unique. As someone who had studied artifice, Xia Fei had an intimate understanding of the attributes of metal, but he was completely unable to tell the composition of the Seal. He had been immediately reminded of the Seal after he set eyes on the out-of-place material scanner.
“Could the composition of this thing be the internal pass code for the Unrestricted Sect?” Xia Fei thought to himself, before proceeding to press the metal Seal to the scanner.
*Zing*
Countless red lights flashed. After it made a complete scan of the token, he heard a soft tone, and the door cracked open!
“Sure enough, the Unrestricted do not rely on fingerprints or a secret key that utilizes Dark Energy. Instead, it uses this Seal with its unique composition. It seems their sect’s ancestor was very clever. Metal composition is something that is the most stable, and the hardest to recreate,” Xia Fei commented to himself as he pushed the door open and ducked inside.
*Whoosh*
Xia Fei accelerated, hurrying and hoping to eavesdrop and learn just what the Dark Spiritualists and the three Unrestricted would be talking about.
…
Strange. Very strange!
There was a white crystal mirror inlaid on the wall of the cloister. It was the sort of crystal that could penetrate through the wall and see what was happening behind the walls.
There was one for every room, corridor, and even the toilets!
Xia Fei instantly felt his skin crawl. This was a place the holder of the Golden Seal could enter, which meant that there was a sectmaster a long time ago that would secretly watch every move of their disciples from here in this secret space!
“G*dd*mm*t, I’m afraid the Unrestricted Sect isn’t as noble as Fuchen claimed. At the very least we know that their past sectmaster was very treacherous, actually constructing something so weird to monitor his own disciples,” Xia Fei cursed to himself.
Xia Fei was only paying attention to the scenes depicted within these crystals and did not take much note of his surroundings. He was moving quickly, sprinting through the internal corridor non-stop. The building was shaped like a double-layered square, most likely designed to make it more convenient to spy on the people.
That made it all the more easier for Xia Fei. He quickly found the three Unrestricteds who were leading Nan Shazi, Shu Yuhe, and a middle-aged man that Xia Fei had not seen before along the corridor. None of them spoke a word as they walked, their eyes darting all over, bereft of trust in one another.
Lingxing pushed open a door and made a welcoming gesture as everyone filed in.
Xia Fei quickly changed to another crystal, and saw that the room was furnished like a parlor, seemingly far from the mountain peak. It seemed this was going to be where they were going to conduct their secret meeting.
The men all sat down at their seats, leaving the youngest, Basalt, to serve tea. However, no one drank any, an indication of the suspicion they still held among them.
Xia Fei widened his eyes and was ready to eavesdrop on what these people were about to discuss, when he heard a persistent scratching sound coming from behind him.
“Is there a mouse?” Xia Fei wrinkled his eyebrows and turned around to look.
