novelraw Chapter 143: No Way In
Chapter 143: No Way In
Lives were on the line this time. Duoluonuo wasn’t about to repeat Kuai Liangshu’s mistake. He pulled out his trump card—a pristine soul contract scroll—and went over every clause with painstaking care. Three names went down in blood and true intent: his own, Shen Gu’s, and Qi Xiu’s.
Shen Gu—the three-white-eyed man—scrawled his signature, gave a curt salute, and shot back toward the secluded spring.
As the inside man, he had the dirty work: eliminate Kuai Liangshu and the rest. Realm advantage or not, one against many meant he needed surprise on his side. Even then, it wouldn’t be clean.
Qi Xiu watched him vanish into the distance, then turned and bowed deeply to Duoluonuo.
“This time it’s all thanks to you, senior. I don’t know how to repay the debt.”
If not for Duoluonuo digging in his heels, Shen Gu would have slit Qi Xiu’s throat the moment the contract was signed.
Duoluonuo waved it off. “No need. You shared incense with Xin’er; I won’t take your head for that. Besides, you’re useful.” His eyes locked on Qi Xiu’s. “That illusion array of mine fooled even a Foundation cultivator like Shen Gu, yet you saw through it in one glance. You’ve got some attainment in arrays, don’t you?”
“Uh…”
Qi Xiu had spotted the array purely through his innate talent’s feel for spiritual wind and water. On actual array theory? He was clueless. But if Duoluonuo wanted to believe otherwise, that was to his advantage. He touched his still-swollen cheek, puffed himself up a little, and answered, “A little.”
Duoluonuo nodded, satisfied. “Good. One more pair of eyes means one more shot at cracking whatever’s down there.”
They fell silent after that, both staring toward the spring.
It didn’t take long.
A few short, shrill screams cut through the night—sharp, panicked, then gone. The defensive array’s spiritual light flared once and shattered like glass.
High above the water, Shen Gu rose into view and waved them over.
“Done.”
Duoluonuo shoved Qi Xiu forward with a grin and tossed back the Illusory Moon Spirit Sword.
Qi Xiu understood the move instantly: insurance. If Shen Gu was playing both sides, Qi Xiu would be the first to eat steel. No room to argue. He forced the sword aloft and flew toward the spring.
Seven bodies lay sprawled at the water’s edge, each with a single clean thrust through the heart. Kuai Liangshu’s eyes stared wide open, a faint, frozen smile still clinging to his lips. Whatever last thought had crossed his mind, it clearly hadn’t included betrayal.
“Heh. Nice swordwork, friend.”
Duoluonuo arrived at a leisurely pace, circling the corpses, checking pulses, making sure no one was playing dead.
Every storage pouch was already gone—Shen Gu’s private take. That wasn’t part of the vault agreement, so Duoluonuo let it slide without comment.
“Enough gawking,” Shen Gu snapped, rolling his three-white eyes. “I’m a registered cultivator in Bosen City. What I just did carries massive heat. Let’s find the damn treasure and get out.”
“Right.”
Duoluonuo had spent years camped here. He hadn’t cracked the entrance, but he’d pieced together enough clues to have a plan. He and Shen Gu dove straight in to scout the underwater array. Qi Xiu stayed topside with orders to dig graves.
For all his years as sect leader, Qi Xiu had never personally buried anyone. He found a patch of soft earth, carved out a wide pit with the flying sword, dragged the bodies in one by one, and shoveled dirt over them. Done.
A quarter-hour later the two Foundation cultivators burst from the water.
Qi Xiu was still murmuring a Daoist rebirth sutra over the fresh mound when Shen Gu exploded.
“You never said we couldn’t break this thing even together!”
His face was twisted with fury. Whatever had happened below had clearly bruised his pride.
Duoluonuo just smiled. “Easy, friend. If I could’ve gotten in years ago, I would have. Why wait until now?” He jerked a thumb toward the graves. “But the man you just killed? He came prepared. He had a way in.”
“You—”
Shen Gu’s features contorted. He’d murdered Kuai Liangshu on Duoluonuo’s word. Now this. His chest heaved; for a second it looked like he might attack.
Duoluonuo laughed and produced one of the Array-Breaking Talismans he’d taken from Qi Xiu. “Here. Got this from your late employer. His storage pouch must have better ones. Should be child’s play to crack the vault’s defenses.”
Shen Gu stared at the talisman, then dug into the pouch he’d claimed. His fingers closed around a jade identity plaque. He pulled it out, read the characters—Artifact & Talisman Alliance Inner Disciple, Kuai Liangshu—and his face drained of color.
“I… I just killed an inner disciple of the Alliance? I’m finished… finished…”
Duoluonuo shrugged. “You already did it. Deep White Mountains—who’s going to know?”
“You!”
Shen Gu hurled the plaque straight at Duoluonuo’s face. It bounced off harmlessly.
“If I’d known he was Alliance inner, I never would’ve touched this job!”
Duoluonuo picked up the plaque, crushed it to powder between his fingers, and dusted his hands.
“Too late for regrets. You killed them. We signed the soul contract. No backing out now.”
“Fuck your mother!”
Shen Gu’s chest rose and fell like bellows. He looked ready to throw down.
Duoluonuo’s rough features split into a lazy, shameless grin—the look of a man who’d taken worse insults and kept smiling.
“Words won’t change anything. Let’s get inside and grab the loot. That’s what matters.”
“Hmph.”
Shen Gu turned away, stewing in silence. Minutes dragged. Eventually the anger cooled into grim acceptance. He’d crossed the line; there was no uncrossing it. He rummaged through Kuai Liangshu’s pouch again, pulled out a stack of talismans, sorted them with trembling fingers, and finally flicked several second-tier Array-Breaking Talismans toward Duoluonuo.
“Break it. Fast. After this job I’m gone—far gone.”
Duoluonuo caught the talismans with a chuckle. “We’re all rogues here, friend. The world’s big enough for both of us to disappear. You’re talking sense now.”
He grabbed Qi Xiu by the collar and dove back into the spring without another word.
Spiritual Qi flared around them, forming a protective bubble that kept the water at bay. They sank to the bottom.
Two massive bluestone slabs lay half-buried in silt and algae. Faint outlines suggested a grotto entrance—ancient, weathered, abandoned for who-knew-how-many centuries.
“This is the door to the vault,” Duoluonuo said, tapping one slab. A defensive barrier shimmered into view, effortlessly deflecting the probe. “But the protections are tight. Take a look. Where would you start?”
He glanced at Qi Xiu with the air of a man testing a student.
Qi Xiu knew next to nothing about arrays. He put on a show anyway—circling slowly, frowning, pretending deep thought—while secretly channeling his innate talents.
Wind-and-Water Observation confirmed the grotto sat dead center in a classic secluded feng shui pattern. Treasure Glow Sight revealed the barrier as second-tier, heavy with water-element Qi, its glow steady but faintly stuttering—age had worn it thin.
Beyond that? Nothing.
“Uh… the grotto occupies the exact heart of the secluded land. Second-tier water-element defensive array. It’s been running for untold years—probably on its last legs. Find the array eye, hit it with a second-tier breaking talisman, and it should fold without much trouble.”
Duoluonuo actually looked impressed. “Not bad. You grasped the outline in one sweep. You really do have some skill.”
Shen Gu drifted closer behind them. “So where’s the eye?”
Qi Xiu glanced around, made another show of searching, then shook his head with exaggerated regret.
“My humble eyes aren’t sharp enough to spot it yet.”
The two Foundation cultivators exchanged a glance. They hadn’t truly expected a Qi Refining cultivator to solve everything. Without another word they began circling the entrance, occasionally rapping the barrier with spiritual tools, probing for weak points, hunting the array eye the old-fashioned way.