The heavens spun and the earth reeled.
There was none of the imagined dazzling brilliance of passing through a teleportation array, nor any of the bizarre, kaleidoscopic turbulence of warped time and space.
The instant Gu Chengming's hand touched that crack, it felt as though a hand had seized him by the collar and, without the slightest reason, yanked his entire body savagely into that space.
Weightlessness struck in an instant, followed at once by a violent dizziness.
"Snap—"
A soft sound.
Gu Chengming only felt the ground go solid beneath his feet, and that dragging sensation cut off abruptly. His body's instincts drove him to react at once—the moment he landed, his knees bent slightly and his waist and core tensed. Only the hem of his robe swayed forward with the momentum before going utterly still again.
As for the certain "master of superb movement arts" beside him—that Myriad-Theft Gate rover—she was not nearly so composed.
"Waaah—!"
Accompanied by a short, startled shriek, Nuo Tao was "flung" out in an exceedingly undignified posture.
She flailed her arms and legs in midair, trying to find her balance, but that suction had vanished far too abruptly, leaving her no time at all to deploy the lightness technique she took such pride in.
"Thud!"
A muffled sound.
Nuo Tao landed squarely on her rear on the ground, the pain making her bare her teeth and grimace, her twin pigtails drooping down.
Rubbing her bottom, she felt utterly humiliated.
What was with this secret realm? Not one bit friendly! Whoever heard of tossing people onto the ground?
Just as she was cursing that founding patriarch—dead these who-knew-how-many years—for the hundredth time in her heart, a hand reached out before her.
"Can you still stand?" Gu Chengming's voice came from above, carrying a faint, barely perceptible trace of amusement.
Nuo Tao lifted her head and met Gu Chengming's eyes. Without thinking, she laid her hand in his and, borrowing his strength, rose to her feet, muttering along the way, "Thank—"
The instant that "thank" left her mouth, she halted her words abruptly, as though she'd bitten her own tongue.
That's not right, Nuo Tao, snap out of it! The two of you are competitors now.
She tilted her head up slightly—though because of the height difference she could only see the underside of Gu Chengming's chin—and said with a huff, "Brother Gu, just like we agreed earlier, we count as competitors now. Whatever we get and whatever we obtain later, it's each to their own skill."
"Same goes for you." She shot Gu Chengming a glance and said awkwardly, "If there really turns out to be some trial where only one of us can remain, don't go thinking that begging me will make me show mercy."
Watching her awkward little display, Gu Chengming found it privately amusing, but he played along on the surface: "Alright—each to their own skill."
Seeing Gu Chengming agree so readily, Nuo Tao instead felt a bit put out.
Rubbing her still faintly aching bottom, she grumbled under her breath, "Honestly... I already told you before, just hand the token over to me, and once we get the goods—whether it's an inheritance or a treasure—I'd let you pick first. Even if you took seventy percent, I'd have accepted it."
Is it that you don't trust this young lady's professional competence? Or are you afraid I'll grab the goods and bolt?
Thinking this, Nuo Tao felt rather indignant and glum.
Paying no particular mind to Nuo Tao's thoughts, Gu Chengming first began to observe the environment of this secret realm.
It had to be said, the secret realm this Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign had left behind really was somewhat peculiar.
All that met the eye was a stretch of pure white—the sky was white, the ground was white, and all around there were no mountains or rivers, no plants or living creatures. There were only countless crisscrossing lines, and geometric platforms of every shape suspended in midair.
Rather than a secret realm of the cultivation world, this scene looked more like some sort of modeling space that hadn't finished rendering, exuding an ineffable "Dao charm."
"Would this count as the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign's cave abode?"
Gu Chengming remembered Elder Yu mentioning that this kind of secret realm was generally formed by a cave abode's natural evolution.
"No."
Nuo Tao explained, "Secret realms in the cultivation world generally come in two kinds. One is like you said—a space formed from the natural evolution of a great power's wealth, companions, techniques, and land after their passing. Such places are often filled with the original owner's lingering obsessions and karma, the environment is complex and rife with danger, and no one knows what's hidden inside."
"This is the second kind. This sort of secret realm was consciously constructed by its owner while they still lived. There's a unique set of rules inside it, and everyone who enters is suppressed by those rules, forced to undergo one trial after another according to the process the owner set down."
"The upside is that this kind of secret realm usually won't have any inescapable death traps—after all, it's choosing an inheritor. Even if you fail a trial, at most you get ejected or take some injuries. Generally there's no threat to your life."
Having heard this explanation, Gu Chengming nodded thoughtfully. "So that's how it is."
The two of them walked side by side toward the sole white corridor ahead.
"Although the Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign of old left similar secret realms in many places across the Nine Provinces, and every one of them exists independently," Nuo Tao said as she walked, "that doesn't mean there's no connection between the secret realms. In fact, you could even say that in a certain sense they're linked."
"Linked?" Gu Chengming was a little puzzled.
"Right—not a spatial link, but a karmic one."
Nuo Tao knitted her brows, seeming to strain to organize her words to describe this mysterious, abstruse concept:
"There are records within the Gate. After each generation's Myriad-Theft Gate rover clears a certain secret realm, the other secret realms seem to sense it, and then some sort of change occurs."
"It's as though these secret realms are a single whole—when someone solves one of the riddles, the remaining riddles automatically upgrade or change their method of solution."
"So even if we've got a strategy guide left behind by our predecessors, it might be completely useless in this secret realm, because every single time these stages open up, they might be brand new."
Gu Chengming found this rather astonishing. There's even a cloud feature?
"There's one more thing. Everything I just said was for the single-person scenario."
Nuo Tao bit her lip and said with some hesitation, "A situation like ours—entering the secret realm together—actually happens too... According to the Myriad-Theft Gate's records, if two people enter at the same time, then before they reach the endpoint and lay eyes on the final fortune, the relationship between the two is generally judged by the rules to be cooperative."
"But the moment they lay eyes on that final fortune, the rules change." Nuo Tao looked straight into Gu Chengming's eyes and said, enunciating each word, "At that point our relationship shifts to competition—only one person can take the final fortune away."
To tell the truth, the moment Gu Chengming had revealed his interest in that fortune, Nuo Tao had already guessed his purpose for coming to this secret realm.
But as an heir of the Myriad-Theft Gate, she couldn't simply hand over this fortune with both hands... Some words that were bound to disappoint had to be said in advance, one way or another.
Yet when she expected him to reveal some malicious expression, Gu Chengming merely smiled, and even reached over to smooth her hair—the gesture as natural as if he were looking after his own foolish little sister.
"Since the road ahead calls for cooperation, then let's not think about what comes after for now."
"Let's go, Miss Nuo. Cooperation or competition, we've got to lay eyes on that fortune first before anything else."
Nuo Tao stared blankly at his retreating back, then touched her own ear, where the warmth of his fingertips still seemed to linger.
She puffed out her cheeks in a rather sullen sulk and muttered under her breath, "When we reach the very end, this young lady really won't go easy when it comes time to snatch!"
Though she said this aloud, her steps unconsciously grew a few shades lighter, and she trotted after him to catch up.
As they talked, the two followed that sole white corridor to its end.
Barring their way was an enormous stone door.
The door had no keyhole and no handle, and even its seams were fitted so tightly they were hard to make out. Only the Spirit-Rune Circuits on the door panels—so intricate that a single glance made one dizzy—announced that this was the first stage.
"Looks like this is the first trial."
Nuo Tao's eyes lit up. When it came to this sort of scenario, this was her home turf!
"Alright, Brother Gu, step back for a moment."
Nuo Tao rubbed her palms together eagerly, pulling a heap of odd, curious tools from her storage pouch, her tone brimming with confidence: "This kind of restriction looks intimidating, but in the eyes of us Myriad-Theft Gate folk, it might as well not exist. Leave it to me!"
Gu Chengming graciously stepped back a few paces and, arms crossed, waited quietly off to the side, taking the chance to observe the surrounding environment with considerable interest.
However, time slipped by minute by minute.
A quarter hour, half an hour, a full hour.
The beads of sweat on Nuo Tao's forehead grew more and more numerous, and those once-nimble fingers began to tremble a little. She tried the Five Elements Generation and Overcoming, she tried Karmic Reverse-Deduction, but this door showed not the slightest reaction.
"That's not right—this pattern is clearly a variant of the Nine Palaces Spirit-Locking Formation. By all rights, breaking that node should open it..."
Was the very first trial this difficult?
Getting nowhere after all this time left the recently oh-so-confident Nuo Tao feeling somewhat mortified and uneasy.
She stole a glance at Gu Chengming behind her, only to find him at that moment stroking his chin, staring thoughtfully at that door.
A moment later, he walked straight up to the door, reached out to press his hand against the panel, and gave it a push forward.
The instant Gu Chengming exerted force, a line of large characters suddenly surfaced on that previously unresponsive stone door:
[The door cannot be opened from this side.]
Looking at this familiar, déjà-vu-inducing prompt, Gu Chengming's expression instantly turned somewhat peculiar.
I'm done for—why do I get the feeling this Myriad-Theft Immortal Sovereign has a bit of a nasty personality?
Gu Chengming switched from pushing to gripping, his five fingers hooking into that barely perceptible protrusion on the panel, and gave a tentative pull toward himself. The door still didn't budge in the slightest.
But this time, the earlier prompt—"The door cannot be opened from this side"—did not pop up.
"Just as I thought." That absurd guess in Gu Chengming's heart grew a few shades stronger.
Since the mechanism was correct, then there was only one reason he couldn't pull it open—he wasn't putting enough strength into it.
Every muscle in Gu Chengming's body tensed. He drew a deep breath and set the Hundred Bones Resonance into motion, then wrenched at that enormous stone door with all his might!
"Rrrrumble—!!!"
That stone door—which had left the Myriad-Theft Gate rover at her wits' end, covered in profound restrictions—was actually hauled open by Gu Chengming through sheer brute force!
As the stone door slowly swung open, a line of prompt text once again surfaced before the two of them:
[As a thief-cultivator, sometimes what you need is a little perspective-taking.]
[Congratulations on clearing the first trial.]
Nuo Tao gaped, looking at the door that had been hauled open, then at that line of prompt text, and finally at Gu Chengming, who was shaking out his wrist.
What the hell do you mean, a little perspective-taking?!
Is this really a thief-cultivator's trial? Whose thief-cultivator opens doors by pulling them?
And what were all those spirit-runes drawn on the door for anyway? Purely to dazzle the eyes?!
As the trial-cleared prompt dissipated, in the center of the previously empty space behind the door, a stone platform slowly rose.
Upon the stone platform, a treasure chest sat quietly.
That treasure chest was cast entirely from some unknown purple-gold, its surface inlaid with gems of every color. Even from far away, one could feel the rich spiritual energy overflowing from within.
—Well, at least the clearance reward looked fairly bountiful.
Reining in her earlier gloom, Nuo Tao had just formed this thought when, the very next moment, a clear, resonant sword cry rang out from behind her.
"Cliiing—!"
Without a word, Gu Chengming raised his hand and pointed.
Ten flying swords instantly howled forth, carrying a sword intent sharp enough to split mountains and render stone. Without any probing whatsoever, they shot straight over Nuo Tao's head and slashed down at that glittering, treasure-laden chest!
Nuo Tao jumped in fright, thinking to herself, what is Brother Gu getting at?
Yet the very next moment came the sound of blades cleaving into flesh, and that previously motionless chest suddenly began to tremble violently.
At the same time, four long, slender arms—like those of a desiccated corpse—actually extended from the bottom of the chest, propping it up as it rose to its feet.
At that same instant, Gu Chengming's follow-up nine swords arrived.
That monster disguised as a treasure chest hadn't even managed to fully stand up before it was hacked into eight pieces by Gu Chengming's sword formation.
Blood spurted, staining the pristine white ground crimson.
That "treasure chest" twitched twice, then went completely still, dissolving into a puddle of mangled flesh.
Nuo Tao stood rooted in place, somewhat dumbstruck.
And it was just then that the familiar prompt text once again surfaced in midair:
[As a thief-cultivator, sometimes you have to learn to refuse temptation.]
[Congratulations on clearing the second trial.]
Nuo Tao: "?"
[Red Dust Phantom Body Formula is astounded by such a paragon; Fellow Daoist Gu's caution is truly the rarest it has seen in all its life.]
[Red Dust Phantom Body Formula favorability +10]
[Current favorability: 30/Friendly]
[Favorability status changed: raised from [Stranger] to [Friendly].]
[Obtained fixed attribute point: Agility +3]
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