Chapter 30 Thirty Cuts "What is top-tier staged accident fraud?"...
Luo Mingshu piloted the tortoise and charged into the road ahead.
As this cool two-wheeled mobility device drifted, countless key-shaped light spots were captured by Luo Mingshu, and she successfully avoided three or four palace servants in front of her.
However, Luo Mingshu clearly underestimated the danger of the Misty Star Sea assessment. Just as she was about to pass through the first section of the road, a palace maid who had been hiding in the corner rushed up with a broom for sweeping fallen leaves.
Luo Mingshu was certain that she had stopped in time, but the palace maid still fell to the ground and cried out, "Ouch, ouch!"
"Your Highness, it seems you broke my leg! Please take me to the Imperial Hospital for treatment quickly!" the palace maid said in a pitiful voice, clutching her foot.
Luo Mingshu was certain she was faking it, but the maid's next words made her jump off the tortoise immediately.
“Even though Your Highness is of noble status in our Yingtian Palace, if you bump into a palace servant and don’t admit your mistake, you will still be expelled from the palace,” the palace maid said, wiping away her tears.
Luo Mingshu knew that this exploration scenario was determined to create obstacles for her. If she didn't help the palace maid to see a doctor at the Imperial Hospital, she would be expelled from Yingtian Palace, ending her exploration of the Misty Star Sea.
It seems that on the way to the treasure vault, she cannot afford to bump into any of the palace servants. If she accidentally bumps into them because of their serpentine movements, she will be subjected to a top-level staged accident, forcibly resetting her progress and starting all over again.
Luo Mingshu resigned herself to her fate and could only help Xie Changming escort the palace servants to the Imperial Hospital.
Meanwhile, the two teams that caught up behind were gloating over Luo Mingshu's misfortune and immediately planned to speed up their way through the checkpoint while Luo Mingshu was lagging behind. However, they were even worse than Luo Mingshu. They only took a few steps before knocking down the palace servants and taking them to the Imperial Hospital in a disheveled state.
This level is very difficult because the palace servants' movements are extremely tricky. Even when Luo Mingshu came here for the second time, she began to feel nervous.
The only one enjoying it was Xie Changming, who automatically jumped onto Luo Mingshu's tortoise-shaped back seat and said to her, "Let's continue."
Luo Mingshu felt that something was really wrong with him, but the more difficulties she faced, the more excited she became. So, after observing the movement of the palace servants from the outside of the road, she set off again.
This time, she slowed down the car considerably, and the tortoise skillfully collected the key's glowing points, cleverly dodging among the palace servants.
When Luo Mingshu was halfway there, she heard the flapping of steel birds' wings behind her. Turning around, she saw that it was the cool imperial physician and Consort Ya catching up with her.
Luo Mingshu was focused on driving and couldn't get distracted, but Xie Changming, sitting behind her, started creating chaos for the two teams behind them.
Shui Qingnian had to slow down to the extreme to carefully dodge the palace servants around her and collect the light of the key. At this moment, the speed of the steel birds was not even as fast as walking. They had already put a long distance between themselves and Luo Mingshu, but even so, Xie Changming had no intention of letting them go.
Xie Changming released invisible energy with his hand, scattering the scattered key lights on the road. Some were even pushed directly to the feet of the palace servants. To collect them all, he had to carefully pass by the palace servants. If he touched even one of them, it would be another case of staged accidents.
Seeing this, Shui Qingnian was so angry she jumped up and down, but there was nothing she could do but watch helplessly as Luo Mingshu walked away—even Consort Neng and Guard Bao, who arrived shortly afterward, overtook them.
"Doctor Ku, are you sure you can handle this?" Even Lu Yaoyao, who had been silent all along, spoke up. "We're the last ones left, and I still want to get my jade bracelet back!"
Upon hearing Lu Yaoyao speak, Shui Qingnian, piloting the metal bird, tilted its head, attempting to throw Lu Yaoyao off: "Ya Fei, if you can do it, then you do it!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Yaoyao cried out in surprise and held onto the metal bird even tighter, not daring to say another word.
Having learned from her previous experience, Luo Mingshu became even more adept at driving the tortoise, quickly passing the first racing light card and collecting all the key points.
She decided to speed things up because only they knew the location of the treasure vault. If the competing teams behind them caught up and tracked them down, their informational advantage would be lost.
Xie Changming was somewhat disappointed to see Luo Mingshu put the turtle away; he thought the feeling of sitting on this strange magical artifact was quite nice.
“The next step is to go to… the garden of the Cold Palace…” Luo Mingshu looked down at the map. “We have two routes. One is to go through the tunnel under the artificial hill in the garden, but that will take us a longer route. The other route is to go through the waterway, which will allow us to pass through the obstacles on the ground in a straight line.”
In fact, Luo Mingshu preferred the waterway route, but Xie Changming insisted on the first option: "Go through the tunnel under the artificial hill."
"Hey, Gao Fei, you're not afraid the water will get your tail fur wet, are you?" Luo Mingshu didn't miss any opportunity to mock him. "Furry—a tail that wags back and forth."
Xie Changming was shocked: "When did it start shaking?"
Luo Mingshu felt that he was shy and avoiding the embarrassing thing he had done: "It was just that one day I secretly shook it, Gao Fei. Don't feel inferior, because only I saw it. If you listen to me, I will keep this secret for you."
Xie Changming looked down at the hem of his clothes, and Luo Mingshu's eager gaze also fell upon him.
"Are you a demon?" Luo Mingshu asked as they walked towards the garden of the Cold Palace.
"I am not a demon." Xie Changming denied his identity.
Luo Mingshu thought the anonymous cultivator was just joking when he said he was a creature from the Demon Realm, but judging from the current situation, he really seems to be... a demon?
"Are you a demon?" Luo Mingshu asked.
Xie Changming looked up at her and gave a muffled reply.
Among the three realms, the demon race is the most isolated and closed off. Although it has gained some favor in recent years due to the smooth operation of the spirit network, the demon race and humans outside still hold great prejudices against the demon race.
In fact, the demon race is just a special race. Apart from their physical structure, energy absorption, and cultivation methods being different from other races, they are not particularly evil.
"Do all demons have tails?" Luo Mingshu asked a very unusual question.
“Only I have it,” Xie Changming told her.
"Why would you have that?" Luo Mingshu now felt that Xie Changming's heart must be a big, furry dog.
"It was born this way." The beast-like form of demons is related to their personality. Who knew that he was like this from the moment he was born?
"Can I touch it?" Luo Mingshu proposed a bold idea, because Xie Changming had touched her tail in the chaos at the White Jade Fish Pond that day, and she held a grudge.
Xie Changming felt that her question was very impolite, so he refused: "No."
"You're being far too stingy," Luo Mingshu snorted. "Once I get out of here, I'll go to the Demon Realm and hire ten handsome demon men with dog tails to grope to my heart's content."
Xie Changming: "..." Wait, my original form isn't a dog!
He looked up at Luo Mingshu and said, "If you get out, you can come find me."
Luo Mingshu had actually wanted to fight him offline for a long time, but she knew she couldn't beat him, so she crossed her arms and said confidently, "When I get stronger, I'll come find you."
"You're still in the Nascent Soul stage, and you haven't been hiding your cultivation level?" Xie Changming suddenly realized something and asked Luo Mingshu.
"You...you're mocking me?" Luo Mingshu couldn't believe it. "Consort Gao, what's wrong with a Nascent Soul cultivator? Some people never reach that level in their entire lives!"
Xie Changming stared at her silently, because he knew that Luo Mingshu shouldn't be like this.
"Let's go." He took Luo Mingshu's hand and led her deeper into the tunnel.
Luo Mingshu felt that Xie Changming's gaze was somewhat complicated, even exceeding the gaze one would expect from someone who was a Nascent Soul cultivator. As she walked with him, she asked, "Consort Gao, is it strange that I am still at the Nascent Soul stage?"
"I don't know," Xie Changming told her. He knew very little about her clan because most information about them was kept secret and not leaked to the outside world.
Even Shui Heng, the Demon Emperor of the Demon Realm who once possessed half of the Yinglong bloodline, had all information about the Yinglong clan erased from his mind after he actively stripped away the Yinglong bloodline. Therefore, to find out the secrets about the Yinglong, one must find the Yinglong clan patriarch who has disappeared into the Misty Star Sea.
Luo Mingshu rubbed her temples. She looked at Xie Changming's back and felt a little puzzled, but fortunately, they soon arrived at the end of the tunnel.
A wide cliff separates them, and on the opposite side is the entrance to the Yingtian Palace Treasury. To the right is a blue stone platform, which seems to be where the key is placed.
Xie Changming stretched out his foot to test the cliff and found it to be strange, with an unusual gravity. If he stepped on it rashly, he would fall because he was not prepared. Even a Nascent Soul cultivator would fall into the trap.
Just as Luo Mingshu was about to fly over, Xie Changming pulled her back: "I'll take you there."
She was picked up by Xie Changming, while he stepped onto the top of the cliff, walking on the void. The special gravity below the cliff could not hinder his progress at all.
After being carried by Xie Changming closer to the cliff, Luo Mingshu began to sense the strangeness of the cliff, but she was more curious about Xie Changming's cultivation level and strength.
"You're only three hundred years old, how can you have such cultivation?" Luo Mingshu muttered to herself.
"If there's a goal to be achieved, then this is all we can do," Xie Changming told her, though he didn't want to bring it up with her.
Seeing his melancholy look, Luo Mingshu sighed and said, "Oh, you're so silly. If there's anything I want to do, I'll just pay someone to do it."
Upon hearing this, Xie Changming almost threw her off the cliff. Luo Mingshu was still Luo Mingshu; every word she uttered could choke someone to death.
"Once we leave the Misty Star Sea, we'll split the resources here 50/50. I don't have the ability to manage land, so if you want it, you can take the whole plot and give me half of the profits each year." Luo Mingshu was indeed a businesswoman; she had already planned out the distribution of profits after leaving the Misty Star Sea as soon as she stepped over the cliff.
"Hmm," Xie Changming said, lowering his eyes.
Luo Mingshu combined the key points she had collected into a key and placed it at the entrance of the treasure vault. Then, the treasure vault opened, revealing a room full of gold and silver treasures.
Xie Changming and Luo Mingshu had broad horizons and were not attracted by ordinary worldly treasures. Instead, they were drawn to a bronze statue placed in the center of the treasury.
“A copper lotus…” Luo Mingshu said softly, “Why is there one here too?”
“The Misty Star Sea can peer into the deepest desires of explorers. You—or someone else—want it,” Xie Changming said to Luo Mingshu.
Luo Mingshu already has one. She hasn't even figured out how to use this bronze lotus yet. Right now, it's just a precious and beautiful decoration to her. There's no reason for her to want another bronze lotus.
Meanwhile... she had already quickly connected the clues to the turmoil in the Demon Realm's Sandstorm Crossing.
At this moment, Xie Changming's voice rang in her ears: "That cool imperial physician was the second person to want the Crimson Copper Lotus. The power behind those demon cultivators at that time should have been her, as a member of the demon realm's royal family—after all, she and that little princess look seven-tenths alike."
"What does she want this for?" Luo Mingshu asked, puzzled. "It's unusable, Gao Fei. Do you know how to activate it?"
Xie Changming shook his head.
The two continued to inventory the other items in the treasury, searching for the Minglie Pill, which could poison the emperor.
Upon taking inventory, they actually found some unusual items in the treasure vault.
Luo Mingshu found a familiar little trinket, hidden beneath a pile of dazzling jewels, looking rather drab.
She pulled out the small bronze bell and compared it with the soul-summoning bell in her hand, confirming that both bells had the same effect.
"Is there anyone else who wants the Soul-Summoning Bell?" Luo Mingshu couldn't help but think of Lu Yaoyao.
She was getting tired of searching, so she let Manman out to search together. Manman saw the room full of treasures and was extremely excited. She plunged into the glittering sea of treasures.
At this moment, Xie Changming also pulled out a puppet from a corner. The puppet was exquisitely carved, but the eyebrows and eyes had not yet been carved, so its face was blurry. However, it was filled with faint magical power. If driven by magical power, the puppet could be made to move.
"What is this again?" Luo Mingshu was shocked. She felt that she could no longer fathom the inner world of these explorers.
Suddenly, she remembered something and asked directly, "Gao Fei, what do you want?"
Xie Changming tossed the puppet he had found aside, his tone calm: "I've found it."
Luo Mingshu guessed that while he was searching for treasure, he had secretly stuffed what he wanted into his pocket. What a cunning man.
Not long after, a book was slowly pulled out from the pile of treasures in the treasury. Luo Mingshu took it and glanced at it. The words inside were extremely obscene. The book recorded the secret rumors of some powerful cultivators in the human world, such as who stole chickens from the neighboring sect when they were young, and who was rejected 108 times when they confessed to a certain fairy.
Moreover, Luo Mingshu was certain that this thing was real, because the sect whose chickens were stolen was their Yuling Sect. It was said that Feng Du had been searching for the culprit for over a thousand years without success, but unexpectedly, he found it in this booklet.
This was a good thing, so Luo Mingshu secretly picked it up and stuffed it into her bosom.
Of course, the other two teams of explorers did not catch up until they had finished searching the treasure vault. They not only had no map, but they also could not pass through the road outside the Cold Palace within a day.
In fact, this route could not have been explored in a single day, but unfortunately, Luo Mingshu and Xie Changming were both like bugs in the system. In terms of pure strength, they had never lost, and the difficult levels were like flat ground to them.
Luo Mingshu didn't touch anything else in the treasure vault, only letting Manman pick out two items she liked to take home, because she still needed to use the Bright Blaze Pill to poison the emperor.
She shook the bottle containing the Brightness Pill twice: "I'll put the medicine into the emperor's mouth right now."
Xie Changming couldn't understand why Luo Mingshu was so interested in this strange and unusual process.
When Luo Mingshu and Xie Changming emerged from the Cold Palace, Lu Yaoyao and the others all sighed in unison. It seemed that they had found the Bright Flame Pill.
The roadside outside the Cold Palace was already bustling with activity. Because the other two teams of explorers had tried to start over too many times, the Imperial Hospital was filled with palace servants who had been knocked down. So, temporary outdoor aid stations were set up on the outside of the road so that they could quickly "treat" the injured palace servants and let them get back into the road to continue their staged accident business.
In fact, these palace servants were not injured at all; some of them were simply faking an accident. Such behavior infuriated Shui Qingnian, but she was helpless to do anything about it.
Seeing that Luo Mingshu and Xie Changming were about to leave side by side, it was the guard Bao who was bold enough to drag a guard who was pretending to be in pain while clutching his leg into the tent and ask Luo Mingshu loudly, "Beautiful Consort, besides the Bright Blaze Pill, what else did you find in the treasury?"
Luo Mingshu got excited as soon as she heard that; she loved to show off.
She took out the notebook filled with all sorts of gossip from her bosom and flipped through it noisily: "It's a booklet that records all sorts of secrets about the human world, down to things like a certain cultivation master stealing a chicken from another sect."
Upon hearing this, Guard Bao's eyes lit up. This... this was exactly what she had been dreaming of! It turned out that the Misty Star Sea was truly fulfilling her wish.
"My lady, after we leave, could you please make a copy of this?" Guard Bao clasped his hands in a respectful manner and said in a serious tone. She had already accepted the fact that she had lost. The Bright Flame Pill was already in their hands, and they had fallen far behind from the very beginning. "Name your price."
Luo Mingshu was happy to make money and simply nodded, saying, "No problem, no problem."
Consort Neng couldn't help but interject, "And what else? Is my mother among them?"
“There is only one puppet made by an ancient puppeteer.” Xie Changming’s tone was icy.
Consort Neng was instantly disappointed, while Lu Yaoyao, who was standing not far from him, stood frozen in place, her hands trembling slightly.
"There's an extra Soul-Summoning Bell." Luo Mingshu took out two Soul-Summoning Bells. "Consort Neng, you wouldn't be thinking of using the Soul-Summoning Bell to find your mother, would you?"
Consort Neng lowered her head: "Yes."
Luo Mingshu suddenly realized something, and she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and ask, "Your mother wouldn't have also lived a hundred years ago..."
“Yes, my primordial spirit lost contact while exploring the Misty Star Sea,” Consort Neng said, emphasizing each word.
“I also have a Soul-Summoning Bell.” Luo Mingshu shook her head. This was the first time she had spoken to someone in such a gentle tone, perhaps because she felt a sense of empathy. “But even with a Soul-Summoning Bell, I can only locate the target in the Misty Star Sea, not find the exact location.”
Xie Changming had been listening quietly to Luo Mingshu's words until she said those words, at which point a slight look of surprise appeared on his face.
"You have a mother too?" he asked in a low voice, a question that would likely get him beaten by Luo Mingshu.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
