Chapter 21: Big flickering

Luo Qingchen, caught red-handed in her own thoughts, cleared her throat awkwardly.

She tucked her hands behind her back, adopting the posture of a project manager delivering a report.

“Well, I call this ‘unified management and risk-mitigation enhancement.'”

Ling Xiyue’s brow furrowed slightly.

She understood every word, but when they were put together, she had no idea what they meant.

Luo Qingchen took a step forward.

“The Secret Realm is full of dangers. No one knows if tomorrow or a fatal accident will come first.”

“We’re a team now. If our supplies are scattered in our individual hands, the efficiency is far too low.”

“I suggest that from now on, all the loot we fight for and all the spiritual herbs we gather be kept by me for unified storage.”

“This is called centralized resource management.”

Luo Qingchen patted her coin pouch.

“Once we leave the Secret Realm, we’ll perform an asset liquidation and distribute everything based on labor.”

“You do the most work, so you take the lion’s share. I’ll handle logistics and support, so I’ll take the smaller portion.”

“This way, we can ensure we have enough trump cards to use in an emergency, and we avoid internal conflicts caused by unfair distribution.”

“What do you think?”

Before Ling Xiyue could speak, Xiao Bai bristled.

It jumped off a rock and pointed at Luo Qingchen’s nose, cursing up a storm.

“Bullshit!”

“You call this ‘unified management’? This is clearly you trying to hog everything for yourself!”

“I’ve lived for three hundred years, and I’ve never seen someone as thick-skinned and shameless as you!”

“You just stuffed those bull horns into your own pocket, and now you’re trying to con a fool!”

Luo Qingchen didn’t even give it a glance.

She lifted her right leg.

*Thud.*

Her foot landed right in Xiao Bai’s stomach.

The white figure traced a graceful parabola through the air before crashing into the distant bushes.

“Awoo—”

Luo Qingchen dusted off her pant leg.

“Right now, you’re just a lowly prisoner, yet you dare to speak up at a shareholders’ meeting.”

“Know your place. Prisoners don’t have the right to manage resources.”

Xiao Bai’s weak protests drifted from the bushes, but Luo Qingchen ignored them entirely.

She turned back to Ling Xiyue, a professional fake smile plastered on her face.

“Lady Xiyue, what do you say?”

‘That Jade Slip is completely unreliable,’ Luo Qingchen thought to herself.

‘If I rely on it to break the curse, I might as well believe I’m the reincarnation of the Great Emperor Ziwei.’

‘I’ll use her to eliminate enemies and search the area. When the time comes, I’ll set up a formation to trap them and make a clean getaway with all the loot.’

Ling Xiyue looked at Luo Qingchen.

This whole explanation sounded impressive, but something felt off.

However, she remembered that Millennium Blood Soul Flower.

This little thief hadn’t hesitated to use such a precious item on her.

Luo Qingchen didn’t seem like the type of person who would swallow all the loot.

Ling Xiyue walked to the bull’s corpse.

The Green Scale Sword unsheathed itself.

With a flick of the sword’s tip across the bull’s belly, a fist-sized demon core radiating an earthy yellow light flew out.

Ling Xiyue caught it and tossed it directly to Luo Qingchen.

“Then you look after it.”

Luo Qingchen scrambled to catch the demon core.

This was a core from a peak Foundation Establishment beast! It could be exchanged for several hundred low-grade spirit stones at the market!

She was so moved she nearly teared up.

“What a great boss!”

“Working for Lady Xiyue means we’ll live the good life!”

Luo Qingchen stored the demon core in the Jade Slip’s storage space, her motivation soaring.

“Let’s go! Let’s keep sweeping the area!”

***

The three of them and the dog continued deeper into the Secret Realm.

Over the next few months, Ling Xiyue finally witnessed what a “plague of locusts” looked like.

Luo Qingchen walked ahead, her eyes scanning around like radar.

If she saw a spiritual herb, she dug it up.

If she saw a poisonous herb, she dug it up, too.

If she saw a peculiar-looking rock, into the bag it went.

Even when it came to beast droppings, as long as she sensed a bit of spiritual energy, she would poke at them with a stick to see if there were any undigested spiritual fruit pits inside.

Xiao Bai, scouting ahead, looked back with a face full of disdain.

“Are you that desperate for money? That’s not even a Grade 1 herb. Why are you pulling it out?”

Luo Qingchen didn’t even look up.

“What do you know? This grass smells good. I checked the encyclopedia—it’s non-toxic and edible.”

Xiao Bai rolled its eyes and kept walking.

As they traveled, a thick mist appeared ahead.

On the edge of the mist were several tattered formation flags engraved with hidden runes.

This was a natural barrier used by the Secret Realm to maintain the mist and block outsiders.

Luo Qingchen’s eyes lit up.

She hurried over and squatted by a flag.

Her hands quickly formed seals, the techniques from the Guide to Picking Doors and Prying Locks coming to her naturally.

Threads of spiritual energy drilled into the nodes of the formation flag.

With a gentle tug, the formation flickered twice before going out completely.

Luo Qingchen pulled out the flags, rolled them up, and stuffed them into her storage bag.

Then she dug around for half a day until she pried the formation plate out of the ground.

Ling Xiyue stood behind her, staring at the bare ground, lost in thought.

“You’re even dismantling the formation flags?”

“The material of these flags is decent. Even though they’re old and have lost some spiritual energy, I can refine them again and sell them for a second-hand price.”

Luo Qingchen patted the dirt off her hands and continued forward.

They passed through the mist into a long, narrow canyon.

On the walls were glowing stones—low-level fluorescence stones.

They were useless except for lighting.

Most rogue cultivators wouldn’t even give them a second glance.

Luo Qingchen stopped.

She pulled out the Five Elements Blade and walked to the wall.

She aimed the tip at the edge of a stone and pried hard.

*Click.*

The stone fell.

She picked it up, blew off the dust, and pocketed it.

Then she moved to the next.

*Click.*

*Click.*

*Click.*

The sound of Luo Qingchen prying stones echoed through the gorge.

The once bright canyon grew dimmer with every step she took.

Standing in the dark, Ling Xiyue’s cold face finally cracked.

Her eye twitched.

She began to wonder if she was following an actual bandit.

This wasn’t an exploration; this was a demolition.

“Why are you prying those scrap stones?” Ling Xiyue finally couldn’t take it.

Luo Qingchen pried off the last fluorescence stone and turned around.

“It’s called being prepared for anything.”

“Don’t look down on these just because they’re cheap; they can be very useful in the right place.”

She walked to the exit of the gorge.

She pulled the tattered flags out of her bag and shoved them into cracks in the stone walls.

Then she arranged the fluorescence stones on the ground in a specific layout, connecting them with spiritual energy.

A simple formation took shape.

“Watch this.”

Luo Qingchen tossed a regular rock toward it.

As soon as it touched the edge of the formation, the stones instantly drained their potential, bursting with blinding light.

The tattered flags fluttered and let out a piercing howl.

The sound echoed through the canyon, deafeningly loud.

Luo Qingchen clapped her hands.

“A Flash Formation. It serves as an early warning and can blind enemies, making them lose their vision. It lets us choose between fleeing or ambushing. Highly strategic.”

“And the cost was zero—all recycled waste.”

“When we rest at night, we can put this at the cave entrance. It’ll blind even a passing mosquito.”

Ling Xiyue stared at the flashing formation.

She couldn’t find a reason to argue.

‘The techniques of a physiognomist are truly…’ Was she really a physiognomist? Nothing she had shown so far had anything to do with face reading.

Just then, a shrill dog’s howl echoed from deep within the canyon.

“Woof—!”

The sound was filled with pure terror.

It was Xiao Bai.

Luo Qingchen and Ling Xiyue shared a look.

Something was wrong.

They charged toward the source of the sound without hesitation.

Beyond the canyon exit, the ground dropped away into a massive Heavenly Pit.

The bottom was covered in dense vegetation, hiding the terrain.

Xiao Bai was clinging to the edge of the pit, its four legs digging into the ground as it trembled.

“What happened?”

Luo Qingchen ran over and grabbed the scruff of the dog’s neck.

Xiao Bai turned its head, its face pale.

“Down there… there’s something down there…”

Luo Qingchen looked down.

Amidst the greenery at the bottom of the pit, several massive stone pillars were faintly visible, covered in complex carvings.

Ling Xiyue stepped forward, her expression heavy.

“It’s a broken formation.”

She gripped the hilt of the Green Scale Sword.

A heart-stopping pulse of spiritual energy was slowly radiating from the center of those pillars.

Even the air around them was becoming thick and heavy.

Luo Qingchen swallowed hard.

This aura was many times stronger than the Armored Bull.

What on earth was down there?