"Qingyan!"
Recovering from the dizziness brought on by the spatial fluctuations, Jiang Hong looked closely and saw Du Ziteng and Pei Qingyan nearby.
The former was squatting under a tree with torn robes, his face stained with blood and mud, but otherwise looking relatively intact. The latter was lying on the ground, blood soaking through his entire outfit, making for a truly horrifying sight at a glance.
Jiang Hong stumbled over, her vision darkening and her stomach churning violently.
Suppressing her nausea, she asked urgently, "What happened? Wasn't the stone statue chasing us?"
A long, narrow sword wound stretched from Pei Qingyan's left shoulder to his lower right abdomen, though the bleeding seemed to have been initially stemmed.
Du Ziteng coughed twice, his voice weak: "We had just walked halfway when we ran into a Foundation Establishment middle stage cultivator."
Pei Qingyan had seized the moment to activate a Lesser Teleportation Talisman, but the Daoist caught him and struck first with a sword, allowing the two of them to barely escape with their lives.
Fortunately, the Daoist wanted to press further inward and hadn't pursued them out.
Du Ziteng explained the situation, summarizing: "I suspect this person got some news, believing there was a great opportunity here, which is why he killed the Golden-Backed Mantis. But when he couldn't make heads or tails of things in the cave dwelling, he ended up ambushing us..."
As it turned out, there probably really was a Foundation Establishment stage opportunity inside; the Daoist kept muttering something about a "legacy," though it was unclear what kind of legacy it actually was.
"What about the other two?"
After finishing his explanation, Du Ziteng looked past Jiang Hong and asked.
With her mind in complete turmoil, Jiang Hong knelt beside Pei Qingyan and recounted her own experience as well.
Zhong Tie had suddenly turned on them and tried to kill them, while Lin Wan had relied on an endless stream of Rank 2 Talismans to bludgeon him to death.
Du Ziteng picked up on a small detail: "You said with a wave of her hand, Zhong Tie's belongings ended up in her grasp?"
"That's right."
Prompted by his question, Jiang Hong recalled that the Foundation Establishment Stone Statue had used the exact same trick, and Lin Wan had even called out a warning at the time, telling them to hold onto their formation flags.
However, her mind was entirely elsewhere now, and she said to Du Ziteng, "There's no time to lose, let's leave quickly. Lin Wan has plenty of methods at the Foundation Establishment level and possesses a Lesser Teleportation Talisman, so she should have no problem surviving."
More importantly, they needed to get Pei Qingyan to a medical clinic right away.
Du Ziteng handed Pei Qingyan's paper boat to Jiang Hong, which Pei Qingyan had given him before losing consciousness.
"I've already tended to his wounds; he's not in mortal danger for the moment. Take him and leave first. I'll wait a bit longer."
Jiang Hong took the flying boat, gave him a deep look, nodded, and left with Pei Qingyan.
Du Ziteng sat cross-legged once more.
Right at the beginning, when Lin Wan had asked about Duangong Cliff without knowing anything about the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, he had wondered if she had an ulterior motive.
Combined with the telekinetic retrieval technique identical to the stone statue's, and the "legacy" mentioned by the Foundation Establishment Daoist, it was abundantly clear that the other party had come specifically for this so-called legacy.
...
Left to herself without outsiders around, Lin Wan took out *Taking Things from a Bag*—the materialized version of the Telekinetic Underwear Retrieval manual.
The book seemed to be summoned, spontaneously glowing and floating in the air as it led her all over the passageway, occasionally opening a door where there was seemingly no path.
She guessed that the four or five archways she had seen at the very beginning all led to rooms she had already explored during this process.
Mindful of the legacy, she was extremely restrained in what she took, not even fully looting the night pearls or niches on the walls.
In the first room, a fist-sized bead floated in mid-air, looking much like an ordinary night pearl.
It was only when she flipped through related records in a book nearby that she realized this was actually a fine magical artifact.
"Stealing Bead:
"When activated, it conceals all spiritual fluctuations, making it difficult for even Foundation Establishment practitioners to detect!"
A fine treasure indeed.
Lin Wan found an ordinary bag to store it in and hung it from her waist for easy activation at a moment's notice.
The second and third rooms held no surprises; they seemed to be places where pills and talismans were stored, mostly consisting of fragmented scraps, with only a few books holding any real value.
The fourth room.
This stone chamber was several times larger, its four stone walls chiseled full of dense grooves, and every groove held various "limbs":
Iron arms, stone legs and feet, bronze torsos, wooden joints... a motley assortment.
In the center were piled several uncompleted puppets, the most familiar-looking one resembling the stone statue guarding the entrance.
So that hadn't been a stone statue at all—it was a stone Foundation Establishment puppet.
Countless years had passed, and these limbs were severely damaged, so Lin Wan picked out a few that still looked relatively intact and stowed them into her Storage Bag.
Thanks to the generous contributions of everyone from the Baiyun Sect, otherwise her Storage Bag really wouldn't have had enough space.
The table was covered with books, along with an open copy of the *Puppetry Manual*.
Combined with the previous books on alchemy and talismans, Lin Wan had acquired some fine study materials for her upcoming gap period before joining a new sect.
Happily continuing to follow *Taking Things from a Bag* further ahead, she reached the fifth main hall, where the golden-glowing book transformed into a stream of light and struck the stone platform right in the center.
There, a golden jade slip was suspended.
Triggered by the stream of light, the jade slip suddenly burst into brilliant radiance, projecting a human figure from within.
It was a man in his early twenties with sword-like eyebrows slanting into his temples, a high nose bridge, and a slight upward curve at the corners of his mouth, exuding an unmatched, arrogant heroic spirit.
"To be able to see this projection means you have already obtained the two legacies of this deity: Taking Things from a Bag, and the Cultivation Seizure here.
"Furthermore, the Golden Core Stage version of Taking Things from a Bag is also recorded right here. Once you reach the Golden Core Stage, you will be able to treat defensive restrictions as nothing and directly snatch items straight out of someone else's Storage Bag!"
Lin Wan, who was still marveling at the fact that Venerable Miaoshou wasn't an old man, was instantly captivated by the contents of his words.
The Golden Core Stage version of Taking Things from a Bag could directly take items from inside someone else's Storage Bag!
What kind of concept was that?
She was currently able to directly steal Storage Bags because the Qi Condensation stage lacked spiritual light protection, but once practitioners reached the Foundation Establishment stage, that became very difficult to pull off.
And now you're telling me I can directly reach into someone else's Storage Bag?!
Doesn't that mean in the middle of a fight, the opponent would reach for their Storage Bag, only to find their pills gone, their magical artifact gone, and their talismans gone?! How is anyone supposed to play against that?
That pill you're eating looks awfully familiar, and that talisman you're using looks awfully familiar too—damn it, isn't that mine?!
Venerable Miaoshou's voice continued:
"Of course, this will not be the end. Once you reach the Golden Core Stage, the jade slip will lead you to my true cave dwelling, where you will obtain my most complete legacy.
"Junior, take my legacy and turn the cultivation world upside down!"
Foundation Establishment stage Cultivation Seizure, Golden Core Stage Taking Things from a Bag.
Lin Wan stepped forward excitedly, just about to take the jade slip when the light shifted and another figure materialized.
It was still Venerable Miaoshou.
Only this time, Venerable Miaoshou didn't look quite as young; his hair was mixed with black and white, his entire body bore the weight of heavy exhaustion, and his expression was gloomy.
"'Take my legacy and turn the cultivation world upside down.'"
Instead of looking at the "camera" as before, he lowered his head and let out a long sigh:
"I have always encouraged my disciples this way, teaching them to let go and soar to the heavens step by step."
This version of Venerable Miaoshou from a different time period wore a look of bewilderment in his eyes.
"Yet now they are all dead.
"Whether blessed with extraordinary talent or possessing peerless magical arts, world-renowned and famous across the lands, they all met a premature end midway."
He slowly raised his bloodshot eyes, his gaze piercing through the river of time to fixate squarely on Lin Wan:
"The turning of karma, retribution is relentless!
"This is my vicious retribution, and it was also them digging their own graves.
"Junior!
"Even among thieves there is a code, you must remember the lesson of my past mistakes!"
The golden light flared brilliantly, and Venerable Miaoshou's figure shattered with a loud crash, transforming into countless points of light across the sky that enveloped the jade slip containing the legacy and shot straight between Lin Wan's eyebrows.
Deeply touched by the great cultivator's sorrow, Lin Wan stood rooted to the spot, lost in sudden enlightenment.
A long-dormant sword light silently slashed toward her head.