"Young Master Wen, Young Master Jin!"
Deng Jun, still wearing a maid's outfit, came running out of the distant woods.
In his panic, he completely forgot to disguise his voice.
Deng Jun had actually arrived with Shi Ming just a moment ago.
But when he saw the terrifying black-robed priest, he lacked Shi Ming's courage to charge forward.
After all, not everyone was blessed with extraordinary luck.
Hiding in the shadows instead, Deng Jun witnessed a scene he would never forget.
That powerful, ghost-like figure—the man who had so easily captured Cat Girl and instantly suppressed Li Ban—had actually been scared off the moment he laid eyes on Shi Ming?
Deng Jun, who had originally planned to sneak away while Cat Girl was captured, immediately threw that idea out the window.
Only a fool would run away now!
Deng Jun retrieved the boot Shi Ming had lost while running, then stood respectfully by his side.
Li Ban saw right through Deng Jun's intentions, but he said nothing.
Some opportunities could not be seized just by clinging to them.
What might be a blessing for one person could be a disaster for another.
Everyone had to take responsibility for their own choices.
The four of them entered the mountain forest. Deng Jun enthusiastically set up the rain canopy and hammocks, asking Li Ban once he was finished.
"Lord Li, shouldn't we just leave this place? What if we run into that man again?"
"Wait. I still have something to do," Li Ban said, shaking his head. He waited until nightfall. Once he confirmed Cat Girl's condition was stable, he told the other three to stay put while he hurried back to the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
Before dark, before Li Ban's group had even finished setting up their temporary camp in the forest, the black-robed man had already arrived at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion's underground waterway.
—
Upon arriving, he saw the thoroughly dead bodies of the old pavilion master and Lady Hua.
He let out a heavy sigh. "Didn't I tell you? Keep a low profile. Stay alive. How did you still get yourselves killed?"
The black-robed priest stepped onto the vines, showing no pity for the remains of a superior element.
"Control Group Two failed as well. The people are dead, and the vines are ruined—forget it, they were defective products anyway."
He turned and walked out. The sealed basement could not stop his footsteps.
Arriving at the corridor of the five hidden rooms on the upper level, he walked straight to the first room.
The door forged from Sun-Obscuring Spirit Iron could not stop him either.
He simply appeared inside the room.
Without a key, the sudden increase in weight inside the room triggered its hidden mechanisms.
The exit locked down immediately, and massive amounts of groundwater flooded in.
The black-robed priest ignored the rushing water, merely looking at the marks left on the ground.
"The Self-Seeking Mirror was taken too?"
The black-robed priest turned to leave, the swish of his sleeves noticeably louder this time.
"I knew it. Nothing goes right whenever I run into that guy."
With a few shifting steps, he arrived at the surface-level Thousand Trees Hall.
The fire at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion had been extinguished, but the post-disaster rescue efforts kept the stewards completely swamped.
Yet at this critical moment, they couldn't find the three pavilion masters who were supposed to take charge of the situation.
The black-robed priest wove through the crowd, yet not a single person noticed his presence.
But when people crossed his path, they would unconsciously step aside to make way.
It was as if the black-robed priest carried a pocket of unobstructed space around him, squeezing the world out of his path.
A few steps later, he arrived at another hidden passage entrance in the Thousand Trees Hall.
Lady Rui and Lady Kui were currently standing at the entrance, racking their brains over a sealed door.
Although they were also vice pavilion masters of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, the keys to certain areas were held exclusively by Lady Hua.
Lady Hua had previously promised to bring Miaomiao out, but she had never returned.
Anxious, the two women couldn't help but fear the worst.
But after waiting for the better part of a day with no sign of Lady Hua and no message from the old pavilion master, Lady Kui couldn't wait any longer and decided to force her way in.
They were vice pavilion masters and understood the mechanisms of the Thousand Trees Hall well enough. Forcibly dismantling them... should be doable.
The black-robed priest stood behind the two women, watching their efforts for a while.
One was hesitant, the other anxious and worried.
He suddenly raised a hand. The heavy door in front of Lady Rui and Lady Kui was instantly sliced into several pieces like tofu, collapsing inward.
The two women froze instantly.
After a moment, Lady Kui turned her head with a tremble and saw the black-robed priest.
Her eyes widened in blank confusion; she had clearly never seen the man standing behind her.
She pursed her lips. Seeing that he wasn't making any further moves, she didn't even ask a question before turning and dashing down the hidden passage.
Even as Lady Kui's silhouette disappeared into the passage, Lady Rui remained completely motionless. It was as if she feared that the slightest movement would result in her being sliced to pieces, just like the door in front of her.
The black-robed priest stepped so close to Lady Rui that he was practically pressing against her back.
"You know who I am?"
Lady Rui's voice trembled as well. "Y-yes, Lord Priest."
"Your pavilion master is dead, and that little Hua is dead too. From now on, you will be the pavilion master of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion."
Before Lady Rui could even recover from the news of the old pavilion master and Lady Hua's deaths, she was hit with this shocking arrangement.
"Me? The pavilion master? But—"
With the old pavilion master dying so suddenly without a final edict, the position of pavilion master would never naturally fall into her lap.
The Imperial Court might even send someone to reclaim it.
But just as the thought crossed her mind, a sudden jolt ran through her brain. She felt the bottleneck restricting her spiritual rhinoceros abruptly vanish.
She could continue cultivating! She could absorb more spiritual rhinoceros!
She had truly become the pavilion master!
"I was the very first pavilion master of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, you know."
The black-robed priest's voice was as gentle as jade, but it made Lady Rui shudder to her core.
"The first pavilion master..."
That was over three hundred years ago!
Even a 9th Tier Spirit Practitioner could only raise their maximum lifespan to two hundred and sixty or seventy years.
Could a Priest break this limit?
At that moment, a new desire sprouted in Lady Rui's heart.
She wanted to become a Priest, too.
"You want to become a Priest too?" the black-robed priest asked, as if guessing her thoughts.
Lady Rui naturally did not dare admit it.
But the black-robed priest did not need her confirmation.
"Trash. Stop your wishful thinking."
Though his voice was mild, his words chilled her to the bone.
It felt as if ten thousand arrows had pierced her heart, her blood turning to sweat that seeped from every crevice of her body.
The tiny spark of desire that had just emerged in Lady Rui was mercilessly stomped out.
"Yes, Lord Priest. I realize my mistake," Lady Rui said, lowering her head, her clothes thoroughly soaked.
The black-robed priest raised a hand and pressed it against the soft black hair at the back of her head.
"Good. Rebuild the Hundred Flowers Pavilion as quickly as possible. I have another new idea that I want to test right away."
Lady Rui spoke timidly, "But, Lord Priest, my abilities are low—"
"That doesn't matter," the black-robed priest interrupted. "I injected something new into that little tree-folk's body. I will teach you the incantation to control him, and you will be even more powerful than the previous pavilion master."
Lady Rui's long eyelashes fluttered, her chest heaving violently. As if bewitched, a burning obsession for power appeared in her eyes.
"I will do whatever you say, Lord Priest."
"Listen closely. My true name is Xiao Suo. Do not let those White Robes know about our arrangement. Otherwise, you will die a very miserable death."
Just then, hurried, frantic footsteps echoed from the hidden passage.
Lady Kui emerged, carrying the little tree-child Miaomiao in both hands. Looking as though she had suffered a massive shock, she collapsed limply to the ground the moment she reached the sunlight.
She seemingly did not notice the black-robed priest standing right behind Lady Rui, merely speaking to her with trembling lips.
"Dead... they're all dead..."
Lady Rui's gaze, however, was locked onto Miaomiao in Lady Kui's hands. "I already guessed as much."
She slowly squatted down, wrapping one arm around Lady Kui's shoulder, while using her other hand to stroke the little tree-child who still had no idea what had happened.
Miaomiao didn't understand what had happened. He had gotten covered in blood while playing down there, and though he had no wounds of his own, the black spot on the top of his head had grown larger.
As Lady Rui stroked Miaomiao, her hand naturally became stained with blood.
But she did not care in the slightest. "From now on, the Hundred Flowers Pavilion will have to rely solely on you and me," she said softly. "We will take care of Miaomiao together."
At nightfall, Li Ban vaulted directly over the outer wall and into the Hundred Flowers Pavilion. Moving through the woods and melting into the shadows, he made his way to the small medicinal garden in the inner courtyard.
However, the small medicinal garden was empty.
Lady Kui and the others were likely still handling the aftermath.
Li Ban instantly spotted the wooden rack in the yard.
The small flowerpot resting on it was already empty.
That had once been the little tree-child Miaomiao's dedicated spot for sunbathing.
Moved by an impulse, he took the flowerpot down and dug a one-inch deep hole into the soil inside.
As he lifted his fingers, a tiny black speck, resembling a sesame seed, dropped into the dirt.
—
Afterward, Li Ban covered it back up with the excavated dirt and returned the small flowerpot to its original place.
The object he had just buried was none other than the Bud Embryo of the Cyan Silk Algae Seed that Lady Kui had pleaded so desperately for.
Although he and the Hundred Flowers Pavilion were now enemies, Lady Kui remained unaware.
From start to finish, she had never broken their agreement.
Therefore, Li Ban decided to return the Bud Embryo to her.
No one would expect such a precious Bud Embryo to be hidden inside an ordinary little flowerpot.
And only Lady Kui, who cherished Miaomiao like her own child, would place similar importance on Miaomiao's belongings.
Moreover, since Lady Kui had been able to discover the seed previously hidden on Li Ban's body, she would naturally discover the Bud Embryo hidden in the flowerpot.
The successful cultivation of this Bud Embryo was actually an unexpected joy brought about by the Cubic Heaven and Earth.
The Cyan Silk Algae Seed, which should have required several days of meticulous care, had grown fiercely inside the Cubic Heaven and Earth.
It was merely a small sprout the previous night, but by dawn, it had shot up significantly. By nightfall, it had completely manifested the Bud Embryo that Lady Kui had painstakingly described.
It had matured even earlier than Lady Kui had predicted, and a few pieces had even fully ripened and fallen into the small porcelain pot.
Li Ban confirmed his theory: the Cubic Heaven and Earth was more than a simple storage space.
It was somewhat like a portable fairyland. He might even be able to vigorously develop agricultural breeding inside it.
It was just that its current space was a bit small.
Leaving the medicinal garden, Li Ban melted into the shadows once more.
This time, even while hidden in the shadows, he was extremely careful, avoiding an encounter with the black-robed priest who could see through his movements.
But sometimes, things were just that strange.
The moment Li Ban vaulted back over the outer wall of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, he immediately spotted the black-robed man walking silently down the official road.
This time, he was once again carrying a person in his hand.
The person's clothes were dripping wet, looking as if they had just been fished out of the water.
Yan Jiu!
Li Ban hurriedly shrank back behind the wall.
Last time, he had been discovered simply by staring at the black-robed priest for too long.
This time, he only dared to steal a single passing glance, not daring to look for even half a second longer.
This Yan Jiu really has terrible luck for a ninth imperial princess, Li Ban thought to himself.
He knew Yan Jiu had intercepted the silver needles Lady Kui threw to him, but he hadn't expected her to be captured by the black-robed priest the moment she escaped from the underground.
This time, she probably wasn't going to get away.