Chapter 34: Theft
Halfway up the Cloudrise Peak, a young disciple in a white robe was making his way up the mountain path.
Right as he raised his foot and was about to tread onto the next step, a blur suddenly flashed through his eyes, and he was instantly rooted to the spot, while his spiritual sense had also become murky and indistinct.
Immediately thereafter, an imposing young man appeared beside him, and it was none other than Han Li.
"Tell me about the scripture library," Han Li said in a peculiar voice as he looked into the young man's eyes with blue light flashing in his own eyes.
The white-robed disciple's eyes were completely glazed over, giving him a dazed appearance as he replied, "The scripture library is situated on the Sage Gathering Peak, and it's split up into the inner library and the outer library. The outer library is open to all disciples and elders, while the inner library is accessible only to inner court disciples and elders."
Han Li's expression remained unchanged upon hearing this, but a thoughtful look had appeared in his eyes.
The scripture library was a vital location in the sect, so it was undoubtedly guarded extremely tightly.
In order to exchange for resources from the library, not only did the disciples and elders of the sect have to issue large sums of spirit stones, they also had sect contribution points deducted as well.
Sect contribution points were a measure of the degree of contributions that inner sect disciples and elders had made to the sect, and they were generally earned by completing missions assigned by the sect. The more difficult a mission was, the greater the number of contribution points awarded. Without sufficient time to accumulate contribution points, it was impossible to earn enough to exchange for high-grade cultivation arts and secret techniques.
As a result, many people tried to pursue shortcuts.
There had been no lack of vagrant cultivators with ulterior motives who had agreed to become guest elders of the Cold Flame Sect in order to sneak into the scripture library to steal cultivation resources, but all of them had been caught with no exceptions, and the fate that they suffered was not enviable, to say the least.
The defenses of the scripture library were watertight, and there were no holes to be exploited.
According to the white-robed disciple, there were Spatial Tempering Stage elders stationed in the scripture library at all times, and the establishment was patrolled at all hours of the day. There were also countless powerful restrictions set up there, making it impossible for the average cultivator to even get close to the scripture library.
Han Li considered the information that he had received for a moment, then tapped a finger against the white-robed disciple's glabella before vanishing on the spot in a wraith-like manner.
At this point, the white-robed disciple's foot had been suspended in mid-air for quite some time, and only now did he take the step.
As a result, he almost stumbled and fell onto his face.
After steadying himself, he massaged his slightly numb calf, then looked around with a confused expression before shaking his head in a perplexed manner and continuing up the mountain.
Around 15 minutes later, Han Li appeared on the Sage Gathering Peak.
He stood at the foot of a huge cypress tree as he cast his gaze toward a two-story tall pavilion in the distance.
The pavilion was roughly 90 feet tall with eight faces forming a regular octagon, but there was only a single entrance, and that was on the south-facing wall.
There were many types of complex defensive arrays engraved onto the roof of the pavilion, and two groups of patrolling cultivators were constantly surveying the area.
After observing for some time, a contemplative look appeared on Han Li's face, and he abruptly vanished from the spot in a flash.
That night.
There was a large bluestone hall situated in a valley deep in the Cold Flame Sect, and the area was being patrolled by as many as seven or eight groups of disciples. All of the groups were led by Deity Transformation cultivators, so it was clear that this was an extremely important place.
One of the patrol groups flew silently through the entrance of the valley. The group was led by an azure-robed man, and he was yawning in a rather weary manner.
Right at this moment, another patrol group flew past several hundred feet away, traveling in a different direction.
The azure-robed man pursed his lips in discontent upon seeing this.
The Heavenly Talisman Hall was an extremely important location in the Cold Flame Sect, but in his opinion, it was completely overkill to have so many disciples patrolling the area at night.
Not only was the all situated in a very secretive location, it was entirely enshrouded under a powerful protective array, so it was preposterous to think that anyone could infiltrate the area.
Of course, he didn't dare to voice these objections. Instead, he made a voice transmission to the disciples behind him, telling them to be on their guard as they flew into the valley.
Right at this moment, a thunderous boom suddenly rang out from a hall not far away from the azure-robed man, followed by a flash of purple lightning before everything immediately fell silent again.
The azure-robed man faltered slightly upon seeing this.
"Who's there?"
"Someone's breaking into the Heavenly Talisman Hall!"
Cries of alarm rang out from the disciples behind the azure-robed man, and at this point, the azure-robed man himself had also returned to his senses, flying down as quickly as he could to arrive outside the hall in the blink of an eye.
"Who goes there? Surrender yourself right now!" the azure-robed man roared as he grabbed onto a treasure with one hand while sweeping his other hand through the air, upon which the disciples behind him immediately dispersed to surround the hall.
The other disciples also arrived on the scene in a flash, and soon, all of the patrolling teams were assembled, amounting to over 100 cultivators that surrounded the hall in a watertight encirclement.
The interior of the hall remained completely dark and silent.
All of the halls here were enshrouded under restrictions, keeping all spiritual sense at bay.
The leaders of the patrol groups exchanged a series of uncertain glances with one another, unsure of whether they should rush in or not.
As patrolling disciples, they had no right to set foot into the hall.
"What's going on here?" A streak of white light shot forth before arriving outside the hall, revealing itself to be a white-haired elderly man.
"Master Fan, someone's broken into the Heavenly Talisman Hall! We're considering entering the hall to capture the perpetrator, but according to the rules, we don't have the right to enter the hall," one of the patrol groups' leaders hurriedly reported.
The white-haired elderly man was furious to hear this. "Are you an idiot? Now's not the time to be following rules! Hurry up and go in!"
He immediately rushed into the hall as he spoke, and most of the patrol groups' leaders quickly rushed in with him, but two of them remained outside.
Upon reaching the entrance of the hall, the white-haired elderly man was surprised to find that the restrictions on the gate were completely unharmed.
This was quite a perplexing sight, but there was no time for him to ponder the situation, and he immediately pulled out a badge, which released a burst of white light that fell upon the gate.
The gate flashed momentarily before swinging open.
Everyone immediately rushed into the hall, and the white-haired elderly man released an incantation seal, upon which dazzling white light instantly appeared all over the hall, illuminating the entire scene.
The layout of the hall was very simple with only around a dozen white jade shelves in the room, so it was a simple matter to take stock of what, if anything, had been lost.
There were a few black scorch marks on the ground, but there wasn't a single person to be seen.
Could it be that the perpetrator has already gotten away?
The leaders of the patrol groups couldn't help but exchange a few bewildered glances.
The azure-robed man was also in the hall, and his eyes were wide with incredulity.
He had been right beside the hall at the time of the incident, and his gaze had been focused on the building the entire time, so it was downright unfathomable to him how the perpetrator could've possibly escaped.
All of a sudden, the white-haired elderly man rushed over to one of the white jade shelves, and his face paled significantly. "Argh! The Heavenly Shadow Rock and the Moon Gazing Herb are all gone!"
All of these white jade shelves were laden with ingredients and materials, and all of them were enshrouded under restrictions, but the restrictions near two of the shelves had been broken, and those shelves were missing a large number of items.
"The Flowing Billow Wood and Ironheart Feather have been taken as well!" the elderly man cried as he rushed over to another shelf with a distraught expression.
The leaders of the patrol groups also wore grim expressions.
"Conduct a search! Deploy all of the patrolling disciples! We must capture the perpetrator!" the white-haired elderly man roared in a furious voice.
The theft that had taken place in the Heavenly Talisman Hall stirred up a massive commotion in the Cold Flame Sect, and countless night patrol disciples were deployed to search for the perpetrator.
The search wore on all the way until the morning, upon which many outer court disciples were also woken up and ordered to join the hunt.
An exhaustive search was conducted throughout the entire Spirit Flame Mountain Range, but not a single trace of the perpetrator was found.
The higher-ups of the sect were quickly alerted to the incident, and a late-Spatial Tempering Stage elder who was adept at tracking was sent to the Heavenly Talisman Hall. After an investigation, he concluded that the perpetrator had fled the scene using some type of lightning teleportation array, and he hadn't left any traces behind, making it impossible to track him down.
The late-Spatial Tempering Stage elder was powerless to do anything, and there was no way that any of the Body Integration Stage grand elders would get involved with something so minor, so Master Fan of the Heavenly Talisman Hall was forced to call off the hunt.
Even though the incident seemed to have blown over on the surface, there was naturally no way that the sect would let something like this pass so easily.
There were no signs of a break-in in the protective array around the entire Spirit Flame Mountain Range, so the perpetrator had to still be somewhere in the mountain range, and the Cold Flame Sect had sent out powerful cultivators to continue the hunt in secret.
In the wake of such an incident, the defenses in all parts of the Cold Flame Sect were bolstered by severalfold.
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on f(r)e𝒆webn(o)vel.com