Outside Wutong Mountain.

A streak of vivid crimson robe swept swiftly across the vast sky.

Only to be blocked by two figures.

"Senior Brother Tong, where are you going?"

Qingfeng stood upon an auspicious cloud, his brow knitted tight.

Yu Chao'an simply leapt onto Senior Brother Tong's cloud-riding treasure and seized him outright by the arm.

"Let go!"

A trace of agitation crossed Tong Xinchuan's soft features, and he snapped, "This Seat is not under confinement. Must I explain to you where I'm going?"

"Grab him — something's wrong!"

Qingfeng flicked his sleeves, sharply sensing the anomaly. "I'll go fetch Senior Brother Nie."

At this, Tong Xinchuan's expression shifted slightly, and he said in a low voice, "Come back here!"

"Out with it." Yu Chao'an glared straight at him, showing no intention of letting go.

Qingfeng made as if to step forward, as though at a single wrong word he'd go straight off to tattle.

Seeing this, Tong Xinchuan spat. "Two ungrateful wolves. And to think This Seat gifted you so many formation-plates. Might as well have fed them to dogs."

Having vented his anger—

only then did he draw a jade slip from his sleeve. Across its smooth surface, wisps of streaming light surged rapidly.

Tong Xinchuan lowered his voice. "This is what Senior Brother Nie gave me. And now its other half has surfaced in the world."

At this, Qingfeng's form stiffened slightly.

On the path of cultivation, the importance of techniques went without saying.

And the techniques of this world were all lesser arts.

The true treasures lay entirely within that one study inside the Thousand Demon Den.

Guarded by the Nether-Gloom Spider Emperor — the Nanyang Sect's Technique-Storing Pavilion.

The Ten Great Demon Emperors: every one of them guarded a place that could drive cultivators to madness. The Technique-Storing Pavilion, the Artifact-Refining Hall, the Alchemy Workshop...

Unlike the cave estates left behind by cultivators.

These ten treasured sites were all permanently open.

Last time, with his road ahead severed, Senior Brother Nie had staked his very life to cut his way into the Technique-Storing Pavilion, gravely…