Chapter 429: Chapter 224: Abundant Harvest (Part 3)

Jiang Feng ordered the Little Cyan Snake.

"They’re not going to find out that easily."

The Little Cyan Snake left a line of words on the surface of the water, full of complaints, but still followed Jiang Feng’s instructions, restarting the restriction array in the pool to prevent the Demon-Suppressing Martial Arts Hall and anyone else who came here from noticing anything amiss.

"Let’s go."

Watching as the restriction array was restarted, Jiang Feng told the Little Cyan Snake to take him back into the tunnel.

"Boom!"

"Outrageous!"

"Who the hell was it?"

"Sneaking into the treasure vault three times now to steal Spirit Stones and Spirit Rice—do they think Demon-Suppressing Martial Arts Hall’s people are just decoration?"

"Where are they!"

"Half a chest of Spirit Rice has been eaten, all the Spirit Stones are gone."

Just after Jiang Feng and company had left, the two elderly cultivators of Demon-Suppressing Martial Arts Hall rushed into the treasure vault.

In an instant they saw the broadsword stabbed into the ground, the half-sunken chest of Spirit Rice, and the vanished pile of over two thousand Spirit Stones.

"Could it be we’ve encountered a ghost? We were clearly guarding outside; there wasn’t anyone coming in at all, so how did the Spirit Stones and Spirit Rice disappear?"

"The talisman on me never reacted; even if someone’s cultivation far exceeded ours, it’s impossible for them to slip in right under our noses with not a trace."

The two elderly cultivators were utterly baffled.

"Maybe there’s another entrance?"

One of them said.

After repeated thefts of Spirit Rice and Spirit Stones from the treasure vault, Demon-Suppressing Martial Arts Hall tightened security; eventually, all guards were replaced by these two elderly cultivators.

At first, they had suspected an inside job. Now, after personally guarding and still finding the Spirit Stones all gone, they realized the gravity of the situation.

"Found no other entrance."

The vault was not big.

The other one quickly checked all around the vault.

Unfortunately, under cover of the Blinding Technique, they found nothing suspicious.

"There must be another entrance, otherwise we’d have found something."

"Right, let’s go to the Imperial City and get a mage here."

The two reached a swift decision.

One stayed behind to continue guarding the vault while the other went to the Imperial City to fetch a highly cultivated mage.

"Blinding Technique."

"That’s a Demon Race trick."

The mage swept his gaze over the vault and instantly spotted the layer of Blinding Technique that ordinary cultivators would miss. With a casual swipe, he released a Daoist Seal; the Blinding Technique vanished automatically, revealing a stone door.

"Damn!"

The two elderly cultivators were furious to find the entrance right in front of their eyes.

The three passed through the stone door and saw the pool outside the vault.

"That guy got in through the pool."

"I’m going after him!"

One of them dove into the pool.

"Glug!"

A moment later, a huge bubble rose from beneath the pool.

That person surfaced, looking flustered. In a trembling voice, he said, "There’s a restriction array below, the pool leads to the Underground Palace."

"What?"

His old friend was shaken to the core.

Involuntarily, they thought: Could the thief stealing Spirit Stones and Spirit Rice from the vault be a Great Demon from the Underground Palace?

"Mage, what do we do?"

The man crawled from the pool, looking to the mage for help.

"Don’t panic, let me take a closer look."

The mage fired two Dharma Seals into the pool; the previously calm water started to churn violently.

"Child’s play."

After a few Dharma Seals, the mage sneered and cast a golden Dharma Seal, wiping away the hidden restriction array in the pool.

"You’ve been tricked again; the restriction array in the pool isn’t part of the Underground Palace—it was set by the thief, meant to make you give up the chase, thinking the pool led to the Underground Palace."

The mage explained.

"Damn it."

"Mage, you mentioned the Blinding Technique had a Demon Race aura—does the restriction array in the pool also come from the Demon Race?"

One of them asked.

"Correct. In Dragon Capital, only a handful of Demon creatures could lay a restriction array like this. I’ll ask His Majesty when I return; we should have an answer soon."

The mage nodded.

"Thank you, Master Mage."

"We’ve lost a lot of Spirit Rice and Spirit Stones in Demon-Suppressing Martial Arts Hall recently, and this time over two thousand Spirit Stones at once. If we catch the thief, we’ll skin him alive and turn him into a Spirit Pet to pay back what he owes the martial hall."

"Best to dig out its Demon Core and refine it for consumption."

The elderly cultivators gritted their teeth.

"Let’s check beneath the pool first, see where the thief escaped to."

The mage suggested.

"Okay!"

The three of them plunged into the pool together.

They dove down—the pool was U-shaped. Using spiritual sense, they finally reached the other end of the passage.

They emerged together in another pool on the other side.

"What is this place?"

"There’s actually such a passage under Dragon Capital?"

"Who dug this out?"

The three climbed out of the pool, staring in disbelief at the spacious underground tunnel.

They followed the tunnel for a stretch.

And found that in just a short distance there were seven or eight entrances and exits; the tunnel was a web, crisscrossing in every direction, seemingly wrapping the entire Underground Palace.

"Report to His Majesty at once."

"This must be the Demon Race’s handiwork."

"Just how many demons are hiding in Dragon Capital!"

The three turned back.

Because of the Underground Palace’s restriction arrays, spiritual sense was mostly useless as they traveled through the passages. On the way back they almost lost their way, and only after much effort did they find the pool and return to the martial hall’s treasure vault.

Then the three went together to the Imperial City to meet the Emperor of the Great Tang.

Inside the tunnel.

Jiang Feng finally let out a sigh of relief.

He checked his Fortune Point changes.

Fortune: 3,156,991

"It’s gone up by more than seven hundred thousand?"

"This..."

"Could it be I’ve been discovered?"

Jiang Feng’s expression changed dramatically.

Although he didn’t know the strength of the old master of Demon-Suppressing Martial Arts Hall, the current guards there definitely weren’t his match.

Even if they discovered him, Jiang Feng could take them out and leave with ease.

In short, his risk level wasn’t all that high.

Yet his Fortune Points had suddenly surged by more than seven hundred thousand.

There were only two possibilities.

Either the Demon-Suppressing Martial Arts Hall hid a peerless expert he knew nothing about.

Or the hall’s people called in a master, discovered the secret entrance, entered the passage, and very nearly caught him.