Shushan Southern Courtyard

The Grand Protector reported what had occurred during their investigation of Yuanshi Tianzun back to the Lord of Taiyin. "Yuanshi Tianzun is a man of deep sentiment and unbending pride. As long as we control his family, getting rid of him will be effortless," the Grand Protector said agitatedly. "An unknown power could interfere with me, but it might not be able to interfere with you." The misty figure condensed from black yin energy spoke calmly, "Put this matter aside for now." *What?!* The Grand Protector almost doubted his own ears and said urgently, "Yuanshi Tianzun has limitless potential. Given time, he will surely become a second Fu Qingxuan. Leader, I know that as the Lord of Taiyin, you do not think much of a Level 7 Day Wanderer, but please do not be careless. Your subordinate is willing to strangle this threat in the cradle for you." Ling Tuo's cool, majestic voice sounded: "Cease all actions against Yuanshi Tianzun. Not only will I spare him, but I will also give him a helping hand. "As for Songhai, have someone keep watch there. Don't let anyone approach that teacher. When the time comes, I will go in person." Unwilling to accept this, the Grand Protector said, "Leader, Yuanshi Tianzun is advancing too fast. He must be eliminated—" On Ling Tuo's indistinct face, the hollow eye sockets silently gazed at the Grand Protector. "Shanhe Yongcun, your malice toward Yuanshi Tianzun runs deep." The Grand Protector jerked his head down. "Your subordinate obeys." The black, misty figure collapsed, shrinking back into the spirit talisman scroll. The Grand Protector quietly put away the scroll. Sect Master Chunyang, who had been constantly trying to soothe his own temper, could bear it no longer. He let out a sinister, eerie sneer. "What is your leader plotting now? The only reason I agreed to cooperate with the Dark Night Rose is that the rift between you and Yuanshi Tianzun is irreconcilable. "Now your leader tells me that all plans targeting Yuanshi Tianzun are to be abandoned, and that he'll even give him a helping hand?" A hoarse voice came from beneath the Grand Protector's cloak: "I understand the leader's thinking now. The authorities want to gather the shards of the Compass of Light to open the Sun dungeon and help the Taiyi Sect Master obtain the authority of the Sun. "But the Merchant Guild and the Association of God of Beauty refuse to hand over their shards because the person they are backing is Yuanshi Tianzun." Hearing this, a surge of jealousy welled up in Sect Master Chunyang. "So your leader wants to help Yuanshi Tianzun to give the Association of God of Beauty and the Merchant Guild hope, keeping them at an impasse with the Five Elements Alliance." The Grand Protector nodded. "It seems the leader still needs some time to wear away the power of the Sun on the Merit Roster." *** The next morning. Having gotten up early, Zhang Yuanqing deleted all the chat logs from his phone, logged out of the messaging app, plugged in the charging cable, and left the phone on the desk. Then he sat down and waited silently. A few minutes later, the Spirit Realm notification sounded by his ear: [Ding! Spirit Realm map opening. Entering the Spirit Realm in 60 seconds. The Spirit Realm you are entering this time is "Shushan Southern Courtyard," Number: 45.] [Difficulty Rating: A] [Type: Multiplayer (Death-type)] [Main Quest: Deal with the anomaly shrouding the Southern Courtyard.] [Note: Non-Spirit Realm items cannot be brought in.] [Dungeon No. 45 Introduction: Black smoke escaping from the main hall shrouds the Southern Courtyard. The footsteps, laughter, and shouts within the black smoke... are sharper than a swordsman's blade.] The scene suddenly blurred. When his vision cleared, Zhang Yuanqing found himself standing at the foot of a mountain. Before him lay a cracked stone stairway, above him was an azure sky, and ahead stood a majestic, towering peak. At the summit, a cluster of buildings was faintly visible. Withdrawing his gaze, he looked down at the winding steps in front of him. Not a single step was intact, with clumps of wild grass sprouting from the fractures. "Finally, not a large-scale dungeon," Demon Eye Heavenly King's voice came from behind him, laced with emotional relief. Zhang Yuanqing turned around and saw the Palace Master, Demon Eye, Fu Qingyang, and Xiahou Aotian three or four meters behind him. Only five Dominators had entered the dungeon this time. "Although small dungeons take less time, their danger density is higher than large ones. For classes lacking endurance, it's a nine-in-ten chance of death," Fu Qingyang said in a low voice. While they spoke, the Palace Master, dressed in a bright red gown, pointed toward another mountain in the distance. "Is that where Shushan's main hall is located?" About three hundred meters away from their peak stood a taller, more imposing main peak, where the clusters of buildings were even denser. "A single sect split into two dungeons—dungeons like this are rare, which shows Shushan's danger level exceeds S-tier." Xiahou Aotian took out a black metal case. "I'll send drones over to scout it." He popped the lid open, and micro-drones lifted off automatically one after another, hovering in midair. Xiahou Aotian pulled out neural connection wires, attached them to both of his temples, and steered the drone swarm toward the main peak three hundred meters away. His drones ran on electricity and featured built-in cameras and audio-recording devices, no different from ordinary drones. The only black technology was his custom modification: the video feed transmitted back did not rely on radio signals. Instead, it relied on his psychic power. The visuals were piped directly into his brain. Facing such a high-difficulty dungeon, Zhang Yuanqing and the others had plenty of patience, even if they felt Xiahou Aotian's attempt to scout the main peak was superfluous and unnecessary. The drone swarm left the Southern Courtyard peak, skimmed over the mountain forest, and just as they neared the main peak, they suddenly slammed into an invisible barrier. Several drones exploded into pieces on the spot. "There's a barrier; we can't get through," Xiahou Aotian immediately controlled the remaining drones to fly back. Fu Qingyang said, "Go take a look at the summit of the Southern Courtyard." With his eyes closed, Xiahou Aotian nodded and steered the drones over the mottled, cracked stone stairs and past the mountain forest, rapidly approaching the buildings atop the summit. Soon, from his bird's-eye perspective, the Southern Courtyard complex grew nearer and nearer. He saw golden hall roofs, collapsed pavilions, tiled roofs strewn with dead branches, and stone slabs, bricks, and cobblestone courtyards covered in thick layers of rotting leaves, overgrown with verdant weeds. "The Southern Courtyard area is pretty big. There are three golden-roofed halls, a square to the west, and the east looks like living quarters..." Just as Xiahou Aotian was describing the layout of the Southern Courtyard, the feed suddenly went pitch black. The drones captured dense, fog-like black smoke surging from all directions. The propellers whined shrilly, the downwash making the black smoke roil violently. Xiahou Aotian slowed his flight speed and circled within the black smoke. He didn't need to do anything; simply keeping the drones in the black smoke was enough. *Thud, thud, thud...* Suddenly, amid the piercing whine of the propellers, Xiahou Aotian caught the faint sound of footsteps. The footsteps lasted for a dozen seconds or so before fading away. The buildings around the outer perimeter of the Southern Courtyard reappeared in his mind. However, only then did Xiahou Aotian realize that at some point, one of the drones had been destroyed. Xiahou Aotian's expression changed. "One of my drones was destroyed." "How completely normal!" Demon Eye Heavenly King scoffed. Xiahou Aotian huffed coldly. "Use your brain! The drones are linked to my consciousness. If any of them was destroyed, I would notice instantly. But it wasn't until the black smoke dispersed that I realized I'd lost one." He immediately shared his finding with his teammates. Fu Qingyang listened in silence, then asked, "From the drone entering the Southern Courtyard to the black smoke shrouding it, roughly how long was that?" "Three minutes." "From the black smoke shrouding it to the footsteps arriving, roughly how long?" "One minute." Fu Qingyang said, "Test the accuracy of the data." Xiahou Aotian steered the drones to continue circling. About ten minutes later, the black smoke struck again. This time, Xiahou Aotian lost another drone. "Except for the three minutes turning into ten minutes, the rest of the data didn't change." He looked toward Fu Qingyang. Money Prince remained expressionless. "Continue testing the data." After three more tests, everyone obtained precise data. Upon first entering the Southern Courtyard, the black smoke arrived after three minutes, followed by footsteps one minute later, immediately triggering the attack. After that, the black smoke triggered once every ten minutes in a repeating cycle. Fu Qingyang said, "The black smoke possesses the ability to blind the senses. To eliminate the danger, relying solely on drones won't work. This is a Dominator-stage dungeon; yin corpses below the Dominator stage are no different from drones. We must enter the Southern Courtyard ourselves." He then looked toward the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter. "The intensity of the attacks cannot be estimated for now. Be ready to heal at a moment's notice." Wearing her silver mask, the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter nodded slightly. Fu Qingyang immediately led Xiahou Aotian and Demon Eye Heavenly King to begin ascending the mountain. Just as Zhang Yuanqing was about to follow, a waft of fragrant breeze drifted past, and the Palace Master of Halting Slaughter flopped onto his back. Wrapping her pale, slender arms around his neck, she giggled. "Yuanshi, carry me." Up ahead, Fu Qingyang, Xiahou Aotian, and Demon Eye Heavenly King paused in their tracks, turning their heads coldly to look back. *My brother-in-law is right ahead. Cuckolding his sister right in front of his face isn't appropriate, is it...* Zhang Yuanqing sighed, supported the Palace Master's perky rear, and quickened his pace up the mountain. He soon surpassed the three of them, leaping up the mottled, cracked stone stairs. "Next time, I'm going to craft a phone out of Spirit Realm materials, take a photo, and send it to Guan Ya," Xiahou Aotian declared, voicing his outrage at this disgustingly sweet display. For them, a mountain six hundred meters above sea level took only a few breaths to reach the summit. The end of the stairway opened onto a stone-paved flat ground roughly four hundred square meters in area, where a golden-roofed hall, a pavilion, and a small weed-choked garden stood. At the far end of this flat ground were thirty steps, which led to another flat ground, forming a total of three terraced levels. Each level featured a golden-roofed hall. This was the basic layout of Shushan Southern Courtyard. Fu Qingyang looked toward Zhang Yuanqing. "Yuanshi, perform stargazing to deduce our future course of action." He issued orders methodically, his thoughts clear and his demeanor composed, like a calm commander. Zhang Yuanqing nodded, sat cross-legged on the spot, and brought out the Daluo Astrolabe to perform his deduction. In less than five minutes, he opened his eyes, frowning. "After we enter the hall, we'll encounter black smoke. I can't deduce what happens after that. The black smoke blocked my Stargazing." Combining this with the dungeon's briefing, he offered his conjecture: "The introduction to Shushan Southern Courtyard has obvious supernatural elements. There is the power of a Night Wanderer in this dungeon. The black smoke should correspond to the concealment of Taiyin." Demon Eye Heavenly King curled his lips. "That happens to be your area of expertise. A high-difficulty dungeon like this won't give us many chances to cut corners. I suggest we go straight into the hall." Xiahou Aotian scrutinized him. "When there's no Fire Specialist around, are you the one acting as the Fire Specialist?" Demon Eye Heavenly King rubbed the athletic headband on his forehead and sneered, "Have you always been so commendably brave?"