Heavenly Spiritual Root

Lu Qingshan took the initiative to break the silence, his words carrying a hidden implication.

Tantai Qingrun swept her bright eyes over Lu Qingshan. "You know quite a lot, don't you?"

In saying that, she was effectively admitting the Sword Cultivator's claim.

Lu Qingshan chuckled softly. "Tower Master Tantai is so young, yet you already hold the position of Yuanshan Tower's master. There is a high chance that you come from a great Lineage.

"As it happens, there is a Tantai Lineage in Azure Province. Tantai is an uncommon surname to begin with, so the likelihood that Tower Master Tantai has no connection whatsoever to that Tantai Lineage is not high.

"And the Tantai Lineage is a renowned Sword Cultivator Lineage in Azure Province, so..."

Tantai Qingrun sized Lu Qingshan up and down for a moment, then said nothing more.

Seeing that Tantai Qingrun had no desire to continue the conversation, Lu Qingshan simply fell silent as well. Yet in his mind, his thoughts still raced at great speed.

Tantai Qingrun—he had never heard this name in the game during his previous life.

There were two possible explanations for this.

The first was that Tantai Qingrun had merely been an ordinary, insignificant NPC who passed through the story.

However, the first thing Lu Qingshan had done upon entering the room was cast a Heavenly Eye Technique on Tantai Qingrun.

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??? (Human Race)

Class: ???

Rank: ??? (Extremely Deadly)

Attributes: ???

Skills: ???

Talent: Heavenly Spiritual Root: ???

???

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Because the gap in their strength was too great, all he had obtained was a row of question marks. The only useful piece of information was the Heavenly Spiritual Root in her talent section.

Heavenly Spiritual Root: Experience gained from cultivating techniques increased by 100%.

It was a very rare talent, yet one that players did not particularly welcome.

Players had always been creatures obsessed with killing monsters to level up. Few were willing to honestly level up through cultivating techniques.

Thus, an attribute that increased experience gained from cultivating techniques was simply too much of a chicken rib for players—tasteless to eat, yet a pity to throw away.

But for NPCs, this talent was proof of genius.

NPCs could not kill monsters to level up. They had always relied on cultivating techniques to raise their cultivation.

Possessing a Heavenly Spiritual Root was equivalent to having a cheat code.

Put another way, this root had the bearing of a Nascent Soul!

With such talent, if Tantai Qingrun developed normally, her achievements should by all rights be far from insignificant.

And coupled with Tantai Qingrun's aura of keeping strangers at arm's length, based on Lu Qingshan's understanding of those masochistic players, Tantai Qingrun would definitely have become an immensely popular NPC among players!

Clearly, Tantai Qingrun could not possibly have been some ordinary passing NPC.

Yet she had remained utterly unknown.

That left only the second possibility.

Tantai Qingrun had met with disaster early in the game. By the time players entered Nine Heavens on a large scale, Tantai Qingrun no longer existed as an NPC in Nine Heavens.

At that thought, Lu Qingshan could not help looking at Tantai Qingrun with a few more traces of sympathy.

Girl, did you know that although you were mighty now, you actually didn't amount to much in the future?

On a rather bustling street in the northern district of Yuanshan City stood a sizable residence. Its red paulownia gates were tightly shut, with no signboard hanging above them.

Diagonally across the street not far from that residence stood a two-story tavern. Its business appeared quite good; the establishment was packed with customers, with people constantly coming and going amid great bustle.

A somewhat scruffy-looking middle-aged male cultivator was seated at a window-side table on the tavern's second floor. Several exquisite dishes and two jugs of wine sat on the table before him.

Judging by the mess of cups and plates on the table, he seemed to have been eating for quite some time.

Jiang Rong, the deputy tower master of Yuanshan Tower. Though he looked sloppy and unreliable, his seniority was truly ancient.

He had remained in Yuanshan Tower for nearly a century, responsible for assisting its tower master in completing all manner of tasks. He had witnessed the succession of three Yuanshan Tower masters, and Tantai Qingrun was his fourth.

Tower masters flowed like water; deputy tower masters stood firm as iron.

With the accumulated prestige of a hundred years, Jiang Rong's influence in Yuanshan City had roots that ran deep and branches that spread wide.

Although Yuanshan Tower revered its tower master above all else, out of respect for an elder, Tantai Qingrun ordinarily referred to herself as a junior before Jiang Rong.

Neither his authority nor his position could be underestimated.

Jiang Rong watched the distant residence from above through the window, idly turning a half-full wine cup in his hand as he pondered something.

At last, a jade pendant hanging from Jiang Rong's waist flashed with a ripple of emerald light.

Jiang Rong was briefly dazed as he received the message carried by the emerald ripple.

Very soon, after reading the message sent by his subordinate, the always somewhat listless Jiang Rong had a sharp gleam flash through his eyes. He tipped back his head and drained the wine in his cup in one gulp, then set the cup down on the table.

"Waiter, the bill!"

At that moment, a faint aura of slaughter emerged from Jiang Rong's body.

With the intelligence Lu Qingshan had provided, combined with Yuanshan Tower's control over Yuanshan City, they had determined Blood Corpse True Person's location within the city in only half an hour.

And in an extremely short time, they had assembled sufficient manpower.

At this very moment, cultivators from Yuanshan Tower had silently encircled this small residence.

Jiang Rong did not make a grand display of it. He simply entered through the gate.

Zhishou Tower had always acted discreetly.

After circling the residence once, Jiang Rong transformed into a wisp of pale smoke and entered the rear courtyard directly.

Smoke Luo Technique!

One of the signature abilities of Nether Cultivators.

After using the Smoke Luo Technique, Jiang Rong moved unhindered through the small residence as he searched it.

The residence was not large, and Jiang Rong was extremely swift. In but a moment, the wisp of smoke Jiang Rong had become had made a full circuit of the residence.

"No one." Jiang Rong frowned slightly. "Impossible. According to the intelligence, Blood Corpse True Person was clearly seen returning to this residence just a few hours ago. How could no one be here, unless..."

At that thought, Jiang Rong could no longer concern himself with potentially alerting the enemy. Vast Spiritual Sense surged from between his brows, swiftly spreading throughout the entire residence.

Sure enough.

Beneath the floor of the eastern room in the residence, something was preventing his Spiritual Sense from penetrating.

Jiang Rong hurried to the eastern room, swept his gaze around it, and finally fixed his eyes on a bookshelf in the corner.

Jiang Rong waved his left hand. A ball of black, mist-like spiritual power flew from his hand and shot directly toward the bookshelf.

Bang—

After the tremendous impact, the bookshelf shattered into pieces, debris scattering in every direction.

Jiang Rong's gaze sharpened.

Behind the bookshelf was an entrance to an underground passage, as tall as a person and dark as a bottomless abyss. No one knew where it led.

Jiang Rong did not hesitate before entering.

Following the underground passage downward, after walking a short distance, the originally narrow passage suddenly opened up. What appeared before Jiang Rong was a hidden chamber several dozen square meters in size.

Dozens of spirit stones still glowing with a faint white light lay on the floor of the hidden chamber, connected to one another by dark lines.

Spirit Concealment Array: Concealed the spiritual power fluctuations within the array and could block a cultivator's Spiritual Sense from probing it.

However, the hidden chamber was already completely empty.

Looking around.

There were no fewer than five passages in the hidden chamber, all leading to unknown destinations.

A cunning rabbit had three burrows, but Blood Corpse True Person had arranged a full five escape routes for himself.

Cautious and crafty, Blood Corpse True Person had sensed the instant an unknown Spiritual Sense began probing the small residence and swiftly slipped away through one of those five passages.