"This... this is..."
The black-robed cultivator sprang to his feet, unable to keep a dumbstruck look from his face.
The hall he guarded was a vital site where the Carefree Pavilion monitored important targets across various regions and locked onto the currents of their fortune.
They possessed a secret art that used the workings of cause and effect to refine special lamps intimately linked to their targets' fortunes.
Although this incomplete secret art had come from ancient cultivators' ruins and suffered from numerous limitations, it had indeed contributed enormously to the wise decisions of their higher-ups. The Carefree Pavilion had always relied on it to decide which key targets to pursue or abandon.
Low-ranking leaders such as Helmsman Jia had no idea that their seemingly useless years of surveillance were actually strengthening a mysterious connection, turning into cultivation provisions that fueled the lamps.
Yet the current state of Li Chen's Fortune Lamp was truly baffling. The black-robed cultivator dared not delay. He hurried a few steps away and pulled the rope on a nearby pillar.
Not long afterward, several figures sat concealed in the shadows of a secret chamber within the headquarters. Only the center, which resembled an open courtyard, was illuminated by a shaft of light.
An elderly voice, slightly hoarse, said, "Everyone, the Name-Recording Hall called this emergency meeting. Hall Master Ding, please explain the details."
A deep male voice said, "I'll keep this brief. There has been an unexpected development with the lamp of Li Chen, the Peak Master of Heavenly Cloud-Broad Cloud Peak-whose lamp was added nine years ago..."
Someone asked, "What sort of development?"
Hall Master Ding said, "His Fortune Spirit Lamp suddenly burned itself up and melted away. We cannot understand what this means and would like to know how we should respond next."