The Tomb

Master Lu Yue's expression changed. His smile faded, and his gaze hardened with a cold edge. “Is Little Friend talking wild nonsense, or deliberately mocking me?”

This young girl didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth. Something he had spent years researching just to gain a basic clue about, she casually dismissed as simple?

Beside him, with her father present, Lu Yujiao was no longer as intimidated by Shi Yu. She scoffed softly. “What boastful words! Father spent years studying this damaged talisman before—”

“Yujiao.” Master Lu Yue shot her a glance.

Lu Yujiao immediately shut her mouth, though her suspicious, scrutinizing eyes kept darting back toward Shi Yu.

Chen Er's heart hung in suspense.

Anxious, he thought to himself, Master Lu Yue has devoted decades to studying the Talisman Dao and has been a Tier-2 talisman master for a long time. In terms of attainments in the Talisman Dao alone, no one in the Yuxu Sect can match him.

Shi Yu paid no mind to their surging emotions. Her brows raised slightly, a smile twinkling in her eyes. “How could I dare mock Master Lu?”

Master Lu Yue's expression flickered uncertainly. After a moment, he said, “Since Little Friend puts it that way, why not let me witness your insight?”

Shi Yu nodded and carefully examined the damaged talisman in her hand.

The damaged talisman was riddled with holes, looking as though it had endured countless ages, radiating a faint, ancient aura.

She spoke, her voice clear and light. “The message hidden within this talisman points to the location of a tomb.”

The moment these words left her mouth, a look of astonishment washed over Master Lu Yue's face.

Looking as though he had taken a blow, his expression grew somber. “Please go on, Little Friend.”

“The arrangement of the source runes not only indicates the direction, but also contains hidden metaphors and riddles that point out the locations of the living nodes and dead nodes within the tomb.”

Having said that, Shi Yu sketched the layout of the mechanisms inside the tomb on a piece of paper, explaining each one in detail.

Unlike standard offensive or defensive spell talismans, talismans specifically designed to conceal information existed as well, requiring continuous deduction to unveil their contents.

And because the spirit talisman before her was a damaged talisman, the difficulty of deduction was undoubtedly far higher.

However, Shi Yu possessed knowledge of countless source runes and had a profound foundation in the Talisman Dao. With this base, she only needed a few glances at the fractured source runes on the damaged talisman and a brief mental deduction to identify exactly which source runes they were, as well as which runes could potentially connect with them.

Much like solving a Sudoku puzzle, once a few key nodes were deduced, everything else fell into place, revealing the hidden message clearly before her.

Her voice was calm and steady as she explained point by point, every single source rune clear and transparent in her eyes.

“...” Master Lu Yue's face turned darker and darker.

Everything Shi Yu said matched the results of his painstaking research over many years perfectly.

For a moment, he began to doubt himself, thinking, She speaks so effortlessly, discerning the core mechanisms after only a few glances... Could it be that I have been a frog at the bottom of a well all along?

When Shi Yu finished speaking, Master Lu Yue remained silent for a long moment before finally taking a deep breath. “That's right. After I deduced the coordinates, I rushed there full of excitement and indeed found a tomb.”

“Regrettably, by the time I arrived, that tomb was already completely destroyed, with nothing left behind.”

Master Lu Yue had a faint guess regarding the owner of this damaged talisman. The location indicated by the talisman was highly likely where their tomb lay. He had hoped to discern the tomb's location from the talisman to seek out an inheritance within.

Never did he expect that after spending several years to finally decipher it, he would travel there in high spirits only to find a ruined tomb that had long been destroyed, leaving him empty-handed.

If not for that, he would not have so easily produced this talisman for Shi Yu to view and test her.

Master Lu Yue paused, then cupped his hands. “Little Friend... is truly formidable.”

Shi Yu raised her lashes, her clear, bright eyes curving gently beneath slender brows. “You flatter me.”

In comparison, Master Lu Yue himself was merely a Tier-2 talisman master. Whether in the depth of his comprehension of source runes or his ability to deduce their interconnections, he fell far short of her.

He only knew a hundred or so source runes at most. Relying on such limited knowledge to deduce and complete a damaged talisman naturally required years or even decades of painstaking effort.

Moreover, it was highly probable that he would make an error along the way and delve deeper down a wrong path. After all, source runes were intricately linked and mutually affected one another. If a single rune was misinterpreted, the entire deduction could go wrong.

Shi Yu lightly stroked the surface of the talisman and was about to hand it back to him when she took another look, and her heart suddenly skipped a beat.

In that brief instant, she felt a mysterious aura dormant within it, hidden extremely deep.

Without letting her expression change, Shi Yu returned the damaged talisman to Master Lu Yue, thinking to herself, There's actually a hidden secret inside...

At this point, Master Lu Yue was thoroughly awed by Shi Yu.

Something he had spent years meticulously researching to comprehend, Shi Yu had explained thoroughly in mere moments. For her, calling it "simple" was truly no exaggeration.

Such attainments in the Talisman Dao...

Master Lu Yue shook his head with a bitter smile, no longer harbouring the slightest doubt about the "master" Shi Yu had mentioned earlier. He thought, If the disciple possesses such extraordinary talent, just what kind of mighty figure must her master be...

For a moment, he couldn't help feeling awe and envy.

Seeing things develop in an unexpected direction, Lu Yujiao kept her head bowed, not daring to utter a word.

She was not stupid. She knew what her father's expression meant and realized what kind of grand figure she had offended, filling her heart with endless regret.

At this moment, Lu Yujiao only wished for this matter to end quickly so she would never trouble this master and servant again.

Master Lu Yue looked at the damaged talisman in his hand again and let out a long sigh. Looking back on the years he had spent immersed in it, it now felt utterly dull and pointless.

Suddenly, he raised his hand and flicked out a streak of flame, burning the damaged talisman away.

Lu Yujiao was shocked. “Father!”

Shi Yu watched as the damaged talisman burned away and its ashes scattered in the wind. Her expression remained serene, her eyes flickering faintly.

Regret showed on Master Lu Yue's face. “I wasted so much time over this useless damaged talisman.”

He glanced at his daughter, saw her still standing there like a statue, and glared at her. “Yujiao, why aren't you apologizing to Little Friend Shi?”

Lu Yujiao trembled. After a moment of inner turmoil, she bit her lower lip, brought out another storage bag, and handed it to Shi Yu with a stiff neck. “M-Miss Shi...”

Master Lu Yue frowned and shouted sternly, “Kneel down!”

Lu Yujiao panicked and hurriedly fell to her knees before Shi Yu.

She had never been shouted at so harshly by her father, and now she had to kneel and apologize to a woman much younger than herself. Tears welled up in her eyes from grievance, yet she didn't dare say another word.

“My daughter is indeed spoiled. I will certainly discipline her sternly upon our return. I hope Little Friend will not take offense.”

Only now did Master Lu Yue feel lingering fear.

He feared Shi Yu's displeasure, and that her master behind the scenes might come looking for trouble later.

Shi Yu's eyes curved slightly as she picked up her teacup and took a sip.

Even without looking, she knew that the contents of the storage bag Lu Yujiao brought out this time were far more sincere than the previous two hundred spirit stones and two bottles of pills.

Master Lu Yue cleared his throat, took the storage bag from Lu Yujiao's hand, and said to Shi Yu:

“My daughter apologizes sincerely and realizes her mistake. Inside this storage bag are the cultivation resources she diligently gathered herself.”

“How about this—” He pondered for a moment, worried that someone of Shi Yu's background might look down on Lu Yujiao's meager offerings, and retrieved another storage bag from his sleeve. “Consider this an additional gesture of apology from me on my daughter's behalf. What do you think...?”

As he spoke, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly with a hint of distress.

Shi Yu took the items and set them on the table, smiling. “Then we shall consider the slate wiped clean.”

Only then did Master Lu Yue and Lu Yujiao breathe a sigh of relief. Refraining from staying any longer, they departed in haste, terrified that Shi Yu might change her mind.

After the two left, Shi Yu turned her head and gestured with her chin toward the storage bags on the table to Chen Er, who had been standing quietly to the side. “Take them. You suffered for this, so these belong to you.”

However, Chen Er refused to accept them no matter what, shaking his head repeatedly. “Young Master should keep them.”

He possessed self-awareness.

If not for Master Lu Yue fearing Shi Yu's background, he would never have offered these items. How could Chen Er have the nerve to accept them?

Knowing that Shi Yu disliked endless declining and back-and-forth coaxing, Chen Er took only the two hundred spirit stones and two bottles of pills that Lu Yujiao had initially offered. “These are already more than enough for my cultivation.”

Previously, when running errands for Shi Yu, the compensation he received was trivial to her, but it made Chen Er better off than ordinary rogue cultivators and outer disciples.

He originally had a Low-grade Seven-fractions Spiritual Meridian, and relying on these cultivation resources, he had now reached the second layer of the Qi Refining Realm, which was quite decent.

The two hundred spirit stones and pills offered by Lu Yujiao were insignificant in Shi Yu's eyes, but to a low-level cultivator, they were a considerable fortune.

“Young Master already gave me spirit stones and pills. Without Young Master backing me up, these other items would never be lying on this table in the first place. They rightly belong to Young Master.”

Seeing his persistence, Shi Yu said no more.

After exchanging a few more words, Chen Er took his leave.

After Chen Er departed, Shi Yu swept her spiritual sense casually over the two storage bags handed over later, raising her brows slightly.

She thought to herself that Lu Yujiao had indeed bled heavily, and the items provided by Master Lu Yue were even more extraordinary.

However, Shi Yu had no inclination to inspect them in detail right now. Instead, she produced a stack of white paper and, relying on her memory, drew out each and every source rune from the damaged talisman.

On the surface, that damaged talisman pointed to the location of a tomb, but in truth, there was another secret within it.

If she hadn't taken that last glance, she might have almost missed it.