"Are you sure you didn't sense it wrong?"
Qian Renxue frowned.
After Tang Hao's death, Qian Daoliu had told her to stay and devote herself to cultivating her martial soul.
But after spending so many years undercover in the Heaven Dou Empire, she simply couldn't bear to give up like that, so she had returned to the Heaven Dou Empire.
"Young Mistress, Old She and I have been partners for years. There's absolutely no way I sensed it wrong."
Ci Xue spoke with absolute conviction.
"Come! Let's go take a look!" Qian Renxue rose and walked out of the hall.
Meanwhile, inside the treasury.
Gu Ping'an, Xiao Wu, and She Long were covered in Storage Soul Tools: necklaces, bangles, bracelets, rings, pendants, and more.
They used what was at hand to collect the Heaven Dou Imperial Family's treasures.
"Ping'an, there aren't any Storage Soul Tools left."
Xiao Wu hung a multicolored necklace around her neck as she spoke.
"None left?" Gu Ping'an frowned and swept his gaze over the treasures, seventy or eighty percent of which still remained.
"Forget it. Let's go!"
(I originally wanted to write about mechanical traps and hidden weapons in the treasury, but then I remembered that even the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect needed to pay a fortune for Sleeve Arrows and Godly Zhuge Crossbows, so the Heaven Dou Imperial Family probably wouldn't know anything about mechanical traps or hidden weapons either.)
Unable to carry away the remaining items, the three could only leave them behind.
Gu Ping'an used Spacetime Isolation and took Xiao Wu and She Long out of the treasury.
"That's..."
Not far from the treasury, Gu Ping'an spotted Xue Qinghe-or rather, Qian Renxue-standing in the darkness with Ci Xue.
Unfortunately, the trio's escape route passed quite close to them.
Why has this useless fool come back to Heaven Dou to play house again?
The thought flashed through his mind, then he tossed it aside.
Without disturbing the two, Gu Ping'an silently left with Xiao Wu and She Long.
"Are you really sure you didn't sense it wrong?" Qian Renxue stared suspiciously at Ci Xue.
She wondered whether he had imagined it.
"I should... probably... maybe be right!" Ci Xue's voice grew steadily quieter.
If it had been anyone else, failing to find them would have been perfectly normal.
But he knew She Long far too well.
In theory, once he sensed his presence, there should have been no mistake. The problem was that he and Qian Renxue had searched the entire surrounding area without finding him, leaving him somewhat uncertain.
"Enough! Let's go back first, then send people to investigate She Long and that child." Qian Renxue's tone was harsh.
She had thought that with She Long following the boy, he would soon send her information about him.
Who would have thought that She Long himself would vanish without a trace and cut off contact?
The next day, at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
The treasures the three had removed from the Heaven Dou Imperial Family's treasury lay piled like a small mountain on the ground covered in blue silver grass.
"This... this..." Dugu Yan covered her mouth, at a loss for words.
Beside her, Dugu Bo's jaw hung open.
"Did you... empty out the Heaven Dou Imperial Family?"
"Stop staring and come help sort everything." Gu Ping'an spoke.
While packing, Xiao Wu had taken whatever caught her fancy.
He and She Long had taken whatever was valuable.
All sorts of things had been thrown together.
Gu Ping'an had originally planned to head to Skywater City to find Shui Bing'er after obtaining the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud.
Shui Bing'er possessed a top-tier ice phoenix martial soul.
The original story hadn't specified her innate soul power, but it was probably rank nine, or just shy of innate full soul power.
After taking an immortal herb, she would definitely qualify to inherit the Sea God godhood.
If he had Shui Bing'er attempt to inherit the Sea God godhood and she failed, he would lose one immortal herb.
If she succeeded, he would gain a teammate who was the Sea God's successor and could also ride her coattails through the Sea God Trial.
Many people thought Tang San was extremely talented.
In reality, Tang San's actual talent wasn't good at all.
His supposed innate full soul power had been painstakingly cultivated, bit by bit, through the Mysterious Heaven Skill.
Without the Mysterious Heaven Skill, he would have been a useless fool with zero innate soul power.
Thus, there was a chance of replacing Tang San with Shui Bing'er as the inheritor of the Sea God godhood.
However, with all three of them covered in Storage Soul Tools, he had been forced to change his plans on the fly and return to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to sort everything first.
Gu Ping'an put every item containing water- or metal-attribute energy into his own Storage Soul Tool, then selected another batch of items that might be useful later.
Xiao Wu picked out a pile of gold, silver, and jewels she thought looked pretty.
She Long only selected some valuables before turning his gaze toward the jade cases piled together.
The soul bones were the real prize.
There wasn't a single soul bone aged a hundred thousand years or more.
There were only three soul bones over fifty thousand years old.
One seventy-thousand-year Head Soul Bone.
One eighty-thousand-year left leg soul bone.
One sixty-thousand-year Torso Soul Bone.
There were thirteen Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones under fifty thousand years old, which Gu Ping'an couldn't be bothered to inspect.
Honestly, his very first soul bone had been a hundred-thousand-year right leg bone.
His tastes had been spoiled!
He could barely bring himself to look at those over fifty thousand years old, and didn't even want to glance at anything younger.
"I'll take this Head Soul Bone." Gu Ping'an reached out, grabbed the seventy-thousand-year Head Soul Bone, and put it away.
"She Long, choose either the left leg soul bone or the Torso Soul Bone!"
Even without She Long guiding him, he would have found the Heaven Dou Royal Treasury sooner or later, but credit still had to be given where it was due.
"Thank you, Young Master!"
She Long stopped excitedly before the two soul bones, only to be torn over his choice.
A Torso Soul Bone generally had greater overall value.
But the left leg soul bone was twenty thousand years older than the Torso Soul Bone.
Dugu Bo watched from the side with burning envy, occasionally raising a hand to wipe the corner of his mouth.
"I'll take the Torso Soul Bone!" She Long swallowed and grabbed the sixty-thousand-year Torso Soul Bone.
Gu Ping'an then looked at Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan. "There's only one high-age soul bone left."
His meaning was clear: it was up to them to decide who got it.
"Give it to Yanyan!" Dugu Bo took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.
He couldn't bring himself to compete with his granddaughter.
"Give it to Grandpa! I can choose a younger..."
"No!"
Before Dugu Yan could finish, Dugu Bo interrupted her.
"In that case, let's give it to Yanyan!"
With a thought from Gu Ping'an, several strands of blue silver grass curled around the left leg soul bone and offered it to Dugu Yan.
"Little Brother Ping'an!"
Dugu Yan excitedly accepted the soul bone and lunged toward Gu Ping'an.
Several strands of blue silver grass quietly rose between them and caught Dugu Yan.
"Hmph!"
Thwarted, Dugu Yan snorted and pouted, then stepped aside.
Gu Ping'an looked back at the remaining soul bones.
"Senior Dugu, She Long, see if there are any Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones left that you need. Take them if there are. Otherwise, I'll put them away."
With that, Gu Ping'an walked toward the jade cases containing Thousand-Year Soul Bones and hundred-year soul bones, which had received almost no attention.
He picked through them and assembled a full set of soul bones.
A Head Soul Bone and a Torso Soul Bone, each a little over a thousand years old.
Two hundred-year leg soul bones and two hundred-year arm soul bones.
"Gu brat, what are you doing?" Dugu Bo watched Gu Ping'an's actions curiously.
What use was a set of thousand-year and hundred-year soul bones?
"Picking out a gift for someone!" Gu Ping'an replied with a smile that never reached his eyes.
The idea had only just occurred to him.
Tang San's soul power was probably only somewhere in the teens right now, and he hadn't seen much of the world yet.
Whether they were hundred-year soul bones or Thousand-Year Soul Bones, he would likely regard them as treasures.
Seeing Gu Ping'an's smile, Dugu Bo couldn't help shuddering.
He was certain Gu Ping'an was up to no good. All he could do was observe a second of silence for whoever had caught his attention.
Once the soul bones had been distributed, Dugu Bo, She Long, and Dugu Yan each entered their own Cultivation Cottage to absorb them.
From the remaining soul bones, Dugu Bo had chosen a right leg soul bone a little over forty thousand years old.
She Long had selected a Head Soul Bone a little over forty thousand years old.
As for Dugu Yan, Gu Ping'an hadn't let her choose another.
Dugu Yan's talent was now exceptional, and absorbing younger soul bones would only lower her potential ceiling.
"Ping'an, aren't you going to absorb your soul bone?" Xiao Wu approached Gu Ping'an with little skipping steps.
As a soul beast who had taken human form, she didn't need soul bones. But Gu Ping'an was fully human and had even chosen one, so why wasn't he going to absorb it?
Gu Ping'an put away the last item on the ground, then looked at Xiao Wu.
"It's too young. If I'm going to absorb one, I want at least a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone."
A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone?
Xiao Wu's bright, cheerful smile froze.
"Um... um... I'm going to cultivate."
Xiao Wu turned and ran.
Gu Ping'an stared after Xiao Wu as she suddenly fled, utterly baffled.
Was there something wrong with wanting to absorb a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone?
If possible, he even wanted to absorb a ferocious beast's soul bone!
He even wanted to go to the Far North and hoodwink the Three Great Heavenly Kings.
"Right, the Far North." Gu Ping'an suddenly paused.
He had nearly forgotten something-the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
Before you continue