Chapter 16: Searching the Castle (1)
Every clan had their own trump cards and secret techniques.
Some were possessed since birth, while others were developed through training afterwards.
Because the Large-Bellied Pig Dragon Clan had a unique bloodline where most of their members’ bloodlines remained dormant, they were very weak during their early stages.
The You Clan understood their own circumstances. To compensate, they chose to develop another skill.
The skill the You Clan had selected was Restrictive Origin Formations.
Every Long Clan disciple was a Restrictive Origin Formation expert. They didn’t need to cultivate before their bloodlines awakened, but they were forced to study Restrictive Origin Formations. Before their bloodlines awakened, this was the foundation of their existence.
If Zhu Xianyao wanted to uncover the secret stores, she would definitely need to neutralize all the restrictions in West Laina Castle. This meant that she required a Restrictive Origin Formation expert to support her.
Since her clan had betrothed her to You Tianyang, and that fatty You Tianyang had feelings for her, Zhu Xianyao had naturally selected You Tianyang as her restriction-neutralizing expert.
You Tianyang didn’t know what Zhu Xianyao had brought him along for. He thought that Zhu Xianyao had brought him along to try and cultivate her feelings for him.
Zhu Xianyao stared at Su Chen as she spoke.
Su Chen silently cursed, “I’m finished.”
He wasn’t totally oblivious about Restrictive Origin Formations. He had learned a bit from Jiang Hanfeng and the others when he was in the Goldwater Ruins, giving him some experience with it. But when compared to someone like You Tianyang, who had been studying this for decades, he was definitely far inferior.
But now that things had reached this point, Su Chen could only thicken his skin and say, “Alright…… I will do my best to help you find Kapius’s hidden treasures.”
“Then you may go. I’ll get Jingwen to help you.”
“No, not necessary. I alone will be enough. I don’t like other people following me,” Su Chen replied.
Zhu Xianyao was caught a bit off-guard by his decisiveness and felt slightly surprised. It wasn’t that his words were strange. After all, it was normal for him to preserve his clan’s secrets as best as possible. However, this firm tone didn’t seem to fit him. Zhu Xianyao glanced at him deeply before she said, “You are truly different from how you were before.”
Su Chen followed along with her words and said, “I told you before that I would change.”
He did his best to try and assume a serious, confident expression, but it only made him look more comical. However, it was still possible to sense the determination in his words and actions.
At that moment, even Zhu Xianyao gave him some encouragement. “I’m starting to believe you a bit.”
After leaving Zhu Xianyao behind, Su Chen returned to his room and pulled out the transmission Origin Tool. “Old Shi.”
“What is it? Didn’t we say that we would only talk in the early mornings? Did something big happen again to make you break your own rule so quickly?”
Su Chen sighed and told Shi Mingfeng everything that he had heard.
Upon hearing that the Zhu Clan was here for Kapius’s secret stores, Shi Mingfeng was totally stunned. “How is that possible? How could that news have possibly leaked?”
“Perhaps your people were captured,” Su Chen guessed.
“No, the only people that know about this all are high-ranking officials. I haven’t heard of any high-ranking officials being captured by the Zhu Clan in recent memory.”
“Then there’s only one other explanation……” Su Chen said slowly.
Without question, someone in the Immortal Temple was secretly feeding the Zhu Clan information.
This had nothing to do with Su Chen, so he wasn’t planning on worrying about it too much. All he said was, “Let’s forget about this for now. The highest priority right now is the Restrictive Origin Formation Techniques. Hurry and interrogate You Tianyang. Get everything that you can out of him, as well as which Restrictive Origin Formation neutralizing techniques I’ll need to use while searching the castle.”
“That’s not a problem, but are you really planning on helping them find the secret stashes?”
“Isn’t this a good thing? The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind,” Su Chen replied.
Shi Mingfeng thought for a moment, then laughed. “Yes, that’s true. This way, our plan will be much simpler.”
With You Tianyang’s cooperation, the ensuing matters were much easier to deal with.
Based on what You Tianyang had told him, when searching for something like a hidden stash, the easiest way to go about it was to simply neutralize Restrictive Origin Formations with other Origin Formations.
Some Origin Formations were specifically designed to neutralize these kinds of concealed Restrictive Origin Formations.
Shi Mingfeng forced You Tianyang to write down everything he knew about Restrictive Origin Formations. Su Chen then left the castle once under the guise of going out to buy materials to meet with them.
When he reappeared in front of everyone, they all sighed in awe.
When Su Chen had forced his way into the castle, many people thought that he wouldn’t leave in one piece. However, his imitation of You Tianyang was shockingly accurate, allowing him to leave openly without much suspicion.
Of course, apart from praising Su Chen for his guts, they also expressed their gratitude for his sense of brotherhood. If not for him, He Xu would have probably been killed already, and their movements and plans would have been completely revealed.
“The people from the Zhu Clan haven’t started suspecting you yet?” Shi Mingfeng asked.
“It hasn’t been long and they’re very busy right now. They don’t have the time to suspect every little thing. However, it’ll be hard to say long-term,” Su Chen replied.
“What will you do then?”
“We’ll see when we get there,” Su Chen smiled carelessly. “In any case, that super perceptive guard left with Pall, and Zhu Baiyu shouldn’t have any Origin Skills that can see through disguises. Even if they suspect me, they won’t do anything to me until they can figure it out for sure. My current mission is still to find Kapius’s secret stashes as quickly as possible.”
“You Tianyang drew all of the Restrictive Origin Formations here. As for whether there’s anything wrong with them it’s hard for me to say. This guy likes to pretend that he’s stupid, but he is actually quite bright. He should know that we won’t let him get away after this matter is over.” Shi Mingfeng handed Su Chen a large stack of paper with complicated inscriptions drawn on them.
“Why wouldn’t you let him go?” Su Chen countered. “He’s never offended us; we were the ones who imprisoned him. It’s better to let him go if there’s no reason not to.”
“He knows too much about us already.”
“Then wipe out his memories. I can do that for you.”
Shi Mingfeng stared at Su Chen, then said with a slight smile, “You’re a bit more kind-hearted than I expected.”
“I just don’t like killing people for no reason,” Su Chen replied. He stared at Shi Mingfeng. “Promise me that you won’t kill him unless you have to.”
Shi Mingfeng nodded in agreement, and Su Chen took the stack of Restrictive Origin Formations back with him to the castle. At that moment, no one noticed the resentful gaze that a little fatty was shooting at them from the corner.
After returning to West Laina Castle, Su Chen began to construct the Origin Formation. Even though his movements were a bit clumsy, no one was near him and nobody would see.
The first Restrictive Origin Formation was a detection-type formation. It specifically targeted and searched for other Restrictive Origin Formations.
There were a ton of Origin Formations in West Laina Castle, but they were all mostly the castle’s defensive formations, which included the barrier surrounding the outer wall, the Blue Sentinel Lights, and more. There were also a few hidden in the corner that they had missed the first time around.
With this detection-type Restrictive Origin Formation, Su Chen gained a thorough understanding of the defensive capabilities of West Laina Castle.
Unfortunately, he didn’t find any concealed formations that could be related to Kapius.
That wasn’t that strange, though; if Kapius’s hidden stashes were that easy to find, they would have been found a long time ago.
Since the detection-type Restrictive Origin Formation didn’t give him anything useful, Su Chen switched to another Restrictive Origin Formation.
This was also a detection-type formation, but it didn’t target Restrictive Origin Formations. Instead, it searched for non-Origin-Energy objects and any hidden mechanisms. Things such as secret doors, tunnels, and even hidden spaces between walls all fell within its detection limit.