Jiang Yi didn't hesitate. The jade scroll felt cool and hard in his hand, radiating a faint, pleasant warmth that did nothing to alleviate the gnawing hunger in his belly.
Footsteps. They were fast, panicked, and approaching the still-shimmering gap in the barrier.
He snatched the scroll, tucked it into the crude belt pouch he wore, and whirled around. He saw the shimmering heat haze of the seal slam shut with a final, almost mournful hiss.
Too late. The pursuer was locked outside the inner storage wing.
A second later, a loud BANG echoed as someone slammed their shoulder against the freshly sealed door.
"The seal! It's re-energized!" a voice hissed, thick with fury and disappointment. "Jiang Yi? Was that you? You rat! Open this door!"
It was Chen Tao, a burly, second-stage Outer Disciple known for being Luo Feng's shadow and chief muscle. He was the one Jiang Yi had overheard earlier.
Chen Tao wasn't trapped, but he was furious. He knew the blueprint was inside, and he knew a lowly servant had just beaten him. His next move would be to bypass the old door, or worse, trigger the main alarm on the outer balcony.
Jiang Yi had to vanish from Level Seven now.
He scanned the workshop frantically. His gaze skipped over the large, dusty shelves and settled on a tall, narrow wooden box built into the wall—an archaic dumbwaiter, used long ago to ferry large tools or food between floors. It was rusted, covered in thick cobwebs, and clearly defunct.
The only way down.
He dashed to the box. The wooden door was warped and stuck. He inserted the tip of his iron rod into the gap and exerted his full, terrifying physical might. The Body Tempering realm wasn't just about Qi; it was about the refinement of the mortal shell.
Screeeech!
The hinges tore free from the mortar with a sound like dying metal. Jiang Yi winced, knowing the noise would carry.
Chen Tao heard it. "He's still in there! He found another way out! Don't you dare—"
Jiang Yi yanked the door open, revealing a dusty, pitch-black vertical shaft. It looked like a sheer drop. He pushed the iron rod into his belt and jumped.
He didn't fall.
As he dropped, he used the Spider Step's principles, flexing his massive leg muscles to instantly generate friction against the narrow, rusty walls of the shaft. He wasn't relying on hands or ropes; he was using pure physical adhesion and control. It felt like moving in slow motion, allowing him to control his descent with absolute precision.
Level Six... Level Five...
He passed dark, identical floors in a silent blur. He could hear Chen Tao's panicked shouting and the sound of the main entrance door being violently kicked open above him. Chen Tao was now inside the sealed wing, searching.
When Jiang Yi reached Level One, his feet touched a pile of debris at the bottom of the shaft. He had dropped six floors without a sound louder than a whisper.
He kicked the flimsy baseboard of the dumbwaiter shaft outward, creating a hole just wide enough for his body, and slid out into a dark, abandoned kitchen area.
He was out of the tower.
He had succeeded, but he was completely exhausted. His Body Tempering Qi was completely gone, having been burned up sustaining his superhuman movements and the barrier breach. The moment his feet hit the stone, the desperate, crushing hunger returned, amplified tenfold.
I need energy, or I won't last the night.
He pushed himself up and used the last dregs of his strength to perform the Spider Step across the lower garden path, a blurring movement that took him safely back to the servant barracks just as the first weak, pale light of dawn touched the mountain peaks.
He slid into his bunk, pulling his ragged blanket over his head.
Under the rough fabric, he pulled out the jade scroll. It wasn't paper; it was a thin, flexible sheet of solidified spirit jade.
He unrolled it.
The scroll didn't contain diagrams or messy scripts. It contained pure insight. As he focused on the text, the light azure mark in his palm pulsed once, faintly, like a final breath.
The Qi-Gathering Formation, known as the Minor Flow Convergence Array, instantly imprinted itself onto his memory.
The core principle was simple: it didn't just passively draw Qi; it created a spiral of negative pressure that sucked in the energy over a wide area, purifying it before condensing it into a collection artifact. The array was incredibly powerful for its size.
Jiang Yi saw the full structure, from the complex interlocking runes to the precise placement of the anchor points.
It doesn't just show me how to build it, he thought, shivering with a mixture of cold and exhaustion. It shows me how to manipulate the Qi flow itself.
He had stolen a formation, but the sphere had turned it into a cultivation skill. With this knowledge, he didn't need a scroll; he had the living technique imprinted on his soul.
Now, he just needed the fuel.
The hunger was a tangible presence now, clawing at his insides. He curled up, trying to conserve heat and energy. He had survived the night, stolen a treasure that could change his fate, and proven his newfound power.
But he was still a starving boy hiding in a hemp blanket, and he knew that Chen Tao and Luo Feng would be looking for him soon.