Chapter 65, Response Talisman and Hundred Man Demon Search

Translator: Tamon

 

“Curses, I miscalculated! The danger was real! Xu Hei, how did you know?” Hei Huang ran while cussing.

 

“Guessed.”

 

He was just as overwhelmed, rebuking, “Didn’t you say the Golden Core won’t interfere?”

 

“How was I supposed to know? The Augury Sect is crazy; their Ancestor comes out over the loss of a couple of pills. What rotten luck!”

 

Hei Huang was furious.

 

Any self-respecting one-star sect had a Golden Core cultivator watching over it; just that Augury Sect’s was a fossil in seclusion for centuries, coming out only when the sect had an existential crisis.

 

These fossils’ lives ran on fumes, and each outing meant losing more of that preciously limited lifespan.

 

How was he supposed to know this sect’s fossil would disregard all that and come out over some measly pills?

 

Not to mention the hag was sly as well, in no rush to seal up the sect upon breaching its barrier, opting to wait for her target.

 

He thanked his lucky star for having the wits to bypass the demon mirror, or he’d have exposed his true motives.

 

Going after the most expensive stuff, the gourd, should’ve fooled the old bat.

 

…

 

They were fast in reaching the edge of Augury Sect, the same place they got in.

 

Hei Huang took out a dispelling array disk and stuck it to the barrier. No reaction.

 

“I knew it! The array changed and needs to be redispelled.”

 

“How much time?” Xu Hei asked.

 

“Two hours, at the least, since this is a 3rd-grade array.”

 

Xu Hei felt an ocean of Divine Sense drowning him and his surroundings, searching and looking everywhere within the sect as it made its way to their location.

 

“No worries, my Invisible Talisman is strengthened. Don’t move, and the hag won’t be the wiser.” Hei Huang sneered.

 

Xu Hei held his breath and froze.

 

The vast Divine Sense swept over them, every inch of the place, without any reaction.

 

Xu Hei eased a breath.

 

They just had to wait a couple of hours and would be home free.

 

They scored big this time, with too many pills to count or identify, though he reckoned the Minor Boost Pill had to be filling five gourds at the least. That would take him to peak level, no problem.

 

On top of that, he snatched a three-hundred-thousand-contribution magical art, though he only managed to read half of it.

 

All in all, the risk was worth the reward.

 

The real question in all of this was where they had fibbed. What caused the Augury Sect’s Ancestor to show up?

 

Xu Hei wanted out as soon as possible and probed. “Hei Huang, can’t I force it open?”

 

He brought his tail into view, covered in dark golden scales.

 

Hei Huang shook his head. “No, your scales are good and all, but only against the Foundation Establishment Stage. A third-grade array is stronger.

 

“Also, I can punch a hole in it as well, but the old bat would spot us.”

 

Xu Hei settled down to just waiting.

 

The silence had him thinking. The Divine Sense might’ve gone over them this time, but he doubted this would be the end of the search. She was sure to employ a more effective method to find them.

 

Xu Hei didn’t overlook the simplest and weakest method. Since the old bat went as far as baiting them, she had to be sly.

 

It was a no-brainer that she knew they were hiding somewhere and working on opening the barrier.

 

[I have to find a way to deal with anything, just in case we might really get found out. I can’t just let them take me!]

 

…

 

At the sect’s public plaza, every member was present, from elders and overseers to true disciples and laborers. Even the Dao companions of some of the people here, despite being outsiders.

 

At the moment of the array’s activation, five hundred people were closed off from leaving. They looked at each other, lost, not knowing what happened.

 

Above the plaza, an old woman in purple robes hovered, the 5th sect leader, He Luohua.

 

The old Fairy He was now Enchantress He.

 

No one dared to breathe in the presence of such a mighty persona, the sect’s ultimate expert.

 

“People, a rat has been found lurking in the Augury Sect. The sect is now sealed off and will remain so until the demon is found. No one gets in or out, not even the Sect Leader. I ask for your understanding,” He Luohua spoke.

 

The people grimaced in their own way. The Augury Sect hadn’t sealed itself in over a century.

 

The sealing came out of the blue, preventing even the current sect leader from returning.

 

No one could get in or out.

 

They couldn’t show any displeasure, cupping their hands instead. “We obey Ancestor!”

 

A bloody youth with a broken arm and spent True Qi widened in realization.

 

“Shit! That’s why Yin Ling was killed. Demons snuck in!” Hua Yuntian was furious.

 

That wretched demon forced him to fight Xiao Qiu to death, barely surviving!

 

What was worse, Xiao Qiu was a peak Qi Refining cultivator, and yet he was pushed back every time despite the stage gap. He had a close brush with death too many times to count.

 

He had to thank his master’s jade talisman for his survival, once again relying on another to save his skin.

 

Xiao Qiu didn’t die either, escaping and vowing revenge.

 

Hua Yuntian was annoyed to high heaven.

 

He Luohua threw a hundred talismans into the hands of her sect’s disciples.

 

“The Detect Life Talisman will light up whenever a cultivating being enters its range of ten meters. The more there are, the brighter its light.

 

“It lacks the range but makes up for it in precision. Not even a Golden Core magical treasure for hiding can obscure the user’s signature.”

 

He Luohua went on. “Go and crush it when you find the demon. I will personally give out a reward of three hundred thousand contribution points.”

 

All the girls were ecstatic at the mention of a reward, especially one so high.

 

Three hundred thousand was many fortunes in one, enough to get twenty Foundation Establishment Pills or the best Foundation Establishment spiritual item.

 

“Understood!”

 

The girls scrambled in every direction, spurred on by the promise of a safe future.

 

As for the rest, they were forced to stay here to not botch the talisman’s reading.

 

He Luohua hovered above in a cross-legged position, closing her eyes and ready to jump into action at any time.

 

Due to the talisman’s limited range, only a hundred people conducted the search.

 

Six Foundation Establishment elders and 96 disciples. Apart from the elders working alone, the disciples teamed up in groups of three to five.

 

Just in case was the excuse.

 

Not without reason either, since most girls had never known real hardship or gone through a wringer in their lives. The search for the hidden demon had to be done with extreme caution, impacting its speed.

 

Not to say there weren’t some reckless and bold specimens among them, willing to go out on a limb for the juicy reward.

 

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