Divine Soul Sensing Chapter

The Luban lock was also known as the "Kongming lock" or the "eight trigrams lock."

The most remarkable thing about this kind of lock was that it was usually held together entirely by interlocking mortise-and-tenon joints, without a single nail or a drop of glue.

But the inheritance wooden lock before him was even more remarkable.

The lock used the mutually reinforcing and opposing properties of its materials, along with special treatment using Spiritual Power, to make each component attract or repel the others, cleverly joining them together.

A single mistake in solving it would destroy it completely.

But as he looked at it, a doubt arose in Qin Fei's mind.

"You said each person could only try to solve this lock once, but the inheritance item is right here with you. If I get hold of it, wouldn't I be able to try as many times as I like?"

Yunxiu shook her head with a wry smile, raised a finger, and gently pointed it at the inheritance item.

The inheritance wooden lock suddenly shone brightly, crumbling into a heap of fine powder in an instant.

But when she raised her finger, it instantly returned to its original form.

"This item can sense a cultivator's presence. It remembers anyone who has failed, and from then on, they can forget about touching it again.

"I wish I could try as often as I liked and obtain all the Cultivation Methods. Then perhaps there would still be a chance to revive the Heavenly Secrets Sect, but unfortunately..."

Qin Fei nodded slightly, accepting Yunxiu's explanation.

Even so, solving it would be fraught with difficulty.

He had played with a few kinds of Luban locks in his previous life, but the one before him was clearly far more complicated, and he had no chance to fail.

Qin Fei was uncertain for the moment, so he could only take the inheritance wooden lock and examine it closely.

Seeing Qin Fei stumped, Yunxiu felt rather pleased with herself.

Ever since she had met the man before her, she had been at a disadvantage, suppressed at every turn.

Now that she had the rare chance to see him at a loss, she was indescribably happy.

But to her surprise, Qin Fei suddenly gave a faint smile.

"It's just an inheritance. What's so difficult about it?"

A bad feeling arose in Yunxiu's heart. Before she could react, Qin Fei pointed one hand at the inheritance wooden lock.

His Spiritual Power circulated rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, the lock opened.

The first stage was cleared.

The wooden lock reassembled itself, forming a completely different face.

Qin Fei did not stop. He directed his Spiritual Power to tap it lightly again, and the second stage was cleared.

Then the third...

The fourth...

The tenth...

Before long, he had surpassed the woman's previous record.

The speed at which he solved it left Yunxiu dumbstruck.

As the owner of the inheritance, she naturally knew how difficult it was.

But how could she have imagined that, at that moment, the Heavenly Craft Creation Pavilion in Qin Fei's sea of consciousness had already listed the solutions to the inheritance wooden lock one by one?

Even Qin Fei had not expected that the moment he first touched the inheritance wooden lock, the Heavenly Craft Creation Pavilion would catalog it and create a new blueprint.

Every change in each stage of the wooden lock, and how to solve it, appeared clearly in his mind.

When he solved the twelfth stage, an unfamiliar Mnemonic suddenly rang out in his heart.

Its sound was like a sudden crash of heavenly thunder, deafening and jolting.

The twenty-fourth stage...

The thirty-sixth stage...

The forty-eighth stage...

From then on, whenever he cleared twelve stages, a new passage of the Mnemonic appeared.

Yunxiu watched blankly from the side, as if she had been struck completely dumb.

When all one hundred and eight stages had finally been solved, the inheritance wooden lock suddenly shattered, turning into a speck of starlight that entered Qin Fei's mouth and nose.

A magnificent golden chapter abruptly appeared in his mind, with several large characters at the beginning:

"Divine Soul Sensing Chapter."

A trace of understanding dawned on Qin Fei, and then he sank into profound shock.

This art recorded a method for cultivating the divine soul, enough to cultivate from the Qi Refinement Stage all the way to just before the Core Formation Stage.

It could not only improve Divine Sense but also included a method for tempering the divine soul, making it more solid and stable.

Besides that, it contained several remarkable ways to use Divine Sense, including how to make puppets more agile, how to reduce the consumption of Divine Sense, and so on.

What concerned Qin Fei most was that, at the end of the art, it also recorded a method for refining puppets.

It was none other than the legendary Secret Method for extracting a Demon Beast's spirit and attaching it to a puppet!

Unfortunately, with Qin Fei's current attainments, he could not yet comprehend it.

He estimated that he would have to become at least a second-tier Puppet Master before he had a chance to try.

Even so, Qin Fei felt as though he had found a priceless treasure and marveled at the wonders of the Heavenly Secrets Sect's inheritance.

But with an outsider still beside him, Qin Fei did not dwell on the Cultivation Method for long.

"I've obtained the inheritance, Fellow Daoist Yun. Now it's time to discuss our business."

"Y-you're not going back on your word, are you?"

Yunxiu turned pale with shock.

Her feelings were extremely complicated. She had originally intended to use the difficulty of the inheritance to make Qin Fei retreat and thereby save her life.

Who would have thought he would directly solve every stage of the inheritance item?

That was something none of the ancestral masters through the generations had achieved.

Now the Heavenly Secrets Sect's complete inheritance had fallen into the hands of an outsider. What was she supposed to make of that?

Worst of all, after the inheritance wooden lock was solved, it had vanished outright. Even if she wanted to pass on the Heavenly Secrets Sect's teachings in the future, she would no longer be able to do so.

And judging by Qin Fei's attitude, he did not seem prepared to let her go.

"What exactly do you want, Fellow Daoist?"

Qin Fei wasted no words and said aloud:

"I'm not a man who breaks his word. I can let you go, but you must swear a Heavenly Dao Oath never to reveal what happened today. Otherwise..."

The Heavenly Dao Oath was powerfully binding. Once someone broke it, their Dao heart would shatter, and they could forget about making any further progress.

Yunxiu naturally knew how serious it was, but she dared not refuse.

She had a feeling that if she refused, the man before her would kill her without the slightest hesitation.

"Very well, I'm willing to swear a Heavenly Dao Oath."

Yunxiu forced a wisp of Essence Blood from her fingertip, then used Spiritual Power to guide it as she recited the oath with Qin Fei.

After a while, a quiet voice spoke:

"You may go."

Yunxiu breathed a sigh of relief and smoothed the wrinkles in her robes, doing her best to make herself look more presentable.

"At least I survived."

She comforted herself with that thought.

She slowly walked toward the door, her departing figure indescribably forlorn.

Just as she stepped through the doorway, Qin Fei suddenly called her back.

"This is for you."

Yunxiu did not understand, but she woodenly caught the object flying toward her. One glance was all it took, and she could no longer look away.

"I didn't mean to destroy your inheritance wooden lock. These are the blueprints for it. You can refine another one, but you'll have to gather the materials yourself."

Qin Fei spoke softly, as if he were talking about something utterly insignificant.

But to Yunxiu, his words exploded like a clap of thunder.

With the blueprints for the inheritance wooden lock, the Heavenly Secrets Sect's inheritance would not be lost.

Most importantly, the newly made inheritance wooden lock would have no record of the presence associated with her failure.

In other words, she could try to solve the wooden lock again and obtain the Cultivation Method inheritance.

This was no different from the grace of giving her a new life.

Yunxiu confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the blueprints, and for a moment she did not know what to say.

She bowed solemnly, then remembered something and said quietly:

"The Lin Household has been pursuing me relentlessly. To avoid trouble, I plan to lie low for a while. Fellow Daoist Qin, I hope we'll meet again someday."

Qin Fei did not turn around. His figure merely paused for a moment before he returned to the small courtyard.