The Huangta has always been a legendary treasure among the human race. After Li Tan found it within an ancient ruin, he tried countless methods to verify its authenticity. Once confirmed, he was so excited that it seemed as if he had wiped out the entire demon race. He immediately began studying its functions with great enthusiasm.
However, he was greatly disappointed. The entire thing was nothing more than a large iron lump, utterly useless aside from being slightly prettier and harder than ordinary metal.
Therefore, he intended to seal it away temporarily. However, You Kuang’s betrayal inadvertently led him to activate the Huangta’s power when he had reached a dead end, allowing him to be reborn. Now, the Huangta has undergone many new changes. One of them is that it cannot be detected by spiritual consciousness, and another is that it automatically guides the inner energy toward the dantian, pouring every last bit into the black hole.
“I hope this damned tower doesn’t end up absorbing the inner energy I cultivate after I finish refining the Jiuzhuan Qingling Dan,” Li Tan muttered with an odd expression, his mouth twitching involuntarily at the thought.
“As the ancients said, fortune and misfortune come hand in hand. Just don’t let that apply to me this time.”
Li Tan thought to himself as if praying.
However, worrying about such a matter now would only be needlessly troubling himself. Li Tan decided to be a wise man and thus immediately withdrew his spiritual sense, not daring to provoke the “old master” residing in his dantian.
He decided to just watch the moon instead. However, before he could begin to enjoy his peaceful moment, a faint sound of footsteps echoed nearby.
Li Tan turned his gaze toward the source of the sound. A guard wearing light armor had climbed over the courtyard wall and was now furtively looking around.
“Trying to steal something?” Li Tan murmured in confusion, pausing for a moment. “No, he must be here to cause trouble. Probably someone sent by Lin Yuan.”
Li Tan waited for the guard to make his next move, hoping to discover what scheme Lin Yuan was plotting.
The guard sneaked cautiously toward the house. He crouched by the door, peeking inside. After a few seconds, he slowly began moving into the room.
Li Tan had a clear view of the entire hall from his position, and through the window, he could see most of the interior. Only the storage room was outside his line of sight.
The guard entered the hall, looked around, and then noticed Jiang Xin’s memorial tablet. He stared at it for a while before proceeding to the bedroom. Finding Li Tan absent, he panicked and began frantically searching the room. Eventually, he rolled up a painting hanging on the wall and stuffed it into his pocket, all while carefully observing his surroundings. In truth, given his cultivation level, he theoretically had no reason to fear Li Tan suddenly appearing. However, as the saying goes, a guilty mind makes a nervous man.
After leaving the bedroom, the guard returned to the hall. Upon seeing the memorial tablet again, he suddenly froze, then rehung the painting back in its original place.
At first, the guard likely thought the woman in the painting was beautiful and wanted to take it home for closer appreciation. However, upon seeing the memorial tablet, he realized the woman in the painting was Jiang Xin, which unsettled him, prompting him to return it.
Li Tan mused to himself that if he were still a teenager, he probably wouldn’t have cared whether the person in the painting was alive or dead and would have simply taken it away.
After putting the painting back, the guard moved his lips, seemingly muttering the words “bad luck,” before preparing to leave. However, just as he reached the main entrance of the house, a sudden metallic sound rang out.
“What’s going on?” Li Tan muttered in confusion, turning his gaze toward the source of the sound, which came from the storage room. He furrowed his brows. “A mistake—I forgot to check that area.”
Hoo! Just after the guard entered, Li Tan leaped silently to the ground.
Suddenly, a piercing, heart-wrenching scream erupted from the guard, but it lasted only a few seconds before vanishing, leaving only the lingering sound of the guzheng and the howling wind.
“Not good!”
Muttering to himself, Li Tan quickly rushed toward the storage room from which the scream had come, his mind filled with suspicions: “The sound has stopped, so something must have happened to the guard. He was at the middle stage of the Later Heaven—how could he be silenced without resistance? Could there really be ghosts?”
With a kick, Li Tan forcefully broke down the old, worn-out wooden door. Inside, he saw a strange guzheng playing itself and the guard, standing with his hands around his own neck, eyes rolled back, and foaming at the mouth.
Li Tan stood still, instantly scanning the entire storage room with his spiritual sense. At the same time, the guzheng seemed to sense danger and immediately stopped playing.
Li Tan took a couple of steps forward, crouching down and placing his hand on the guard’s neck. There was no pulse—he had strangled himself to death.
At that moment, a long, pale, sickly-white female hand gently landed on Li Tan’s shoulder. The air grew eerily still.
However, Li Tan remained unusually calm. Instantly, he transformed his spiritual sense into a sharp blade and thrust it fiercely behind him.
The hand immediately vanished.
He turned around, scanning every corner from left to right, his voice cold: “What kind of demon dares to hide here? Reveal yourself immediately, or do not blame this emperor for being merciless!”
A terrifying killing intent radiated from Li Tan like a wave.
In his speech, Li Tan had switched from “I” to “this emperor”—a way he reserved only for addressing his enemies. In the small city of Linjiang, no one should be capable of posing a real threat to him. The reason he used such a title was because he knew the thing that had killed Lin Jingwu was an illusion technique, something no one in Linjiang should have been capable of mastering. Therefore, it could only be an outsider!
Suddenly, strange footsteps echoed—neither far nor near, always maintaining a distance, seemingly in the hall. However, as Li Tan stepped outside, the sound shifted locations.
“Still trying to play tricks!”
A golden light flashed in Li Tan’s eyes. His spiritual power surged like a tide, instantly sealing the area around the footsteps before compressing inward toward the center.
Aaaa! A sharp, mournful scream immediately pierced the air.
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