Chapter 1760: The Tampered Order

The monster’s mouth was enormous, large enough to swallow at least three Wu Shidaos. As Wu Shidao walked past it, he noticed its belly rising and falling rhythmically. Suddenly, three snake heads emerged from behind the monster, hissing as they approached him.

These were not real snakes, but the tails of the Lesser Taowu, each with eyes. They not only observed visitors but could also sense their emotions. These creatures were indeed remarkably perceptive. Wu Shidao felt a flicker of nervousness, and they immediately detected it. If they sensed anything amiss, the tiger-like Lesser Taowu would awaken and immediately lunge at him.

Wu Shidao secretly recited an incantation, forcing himself to remain calm. “It’s me,” he said. He was an old acquaintance, and familiarity bred a degree of leniency. The snake heads circled him, scrutinizing him for a moment to confirm his identity before retracting. The main body of the Lesser Taowu remained with its eyes closed. Wu Shidao then quickly proceeded.

Behind the Lesser Taowu was a small door, just wide enough for one person to pass through. It was the guardian beast; any intruder would have to overcome it first.

Beyond this door was another cave. This cave was smaller, and once the door closed, it became a sealed chamber with impenetrable stone walls on all sides. There was no clutter in the cave, only a rectangular counter made of cold stone in the very center. It was ten feet long and six feet wide, completely unadorned.

He walked to the front of the counter and tapped its surface three times. With a clank, the counter opened by itself. It was empty inside, with what looked like a metal disc at the bottom. Wu Shidao closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Only then did he take out Sect Master Xiao’s personal directive and the bottomless bag Bai Ziqi had given him, placing both into the disc. With another clank, the stone counter closed. Life or death, success or failure, hinged on this step.

He turned to look at the opposite stone wall. There was, in fact, a hidden door in this wall, leading to the final two levels of the treasure vault. However, it was usually impossible to open, accessible only during the quinquennial inspection and audit. Normally, from elders to ordinary disciples, anyone wishing to deposit or withdraw items could only proceed as far as this secret chamber. They would then place their directive into the counter and wait for verification. Once verified, the Scale Demon behind the hidden door would begin to allocate the materials, which would then be pushed through the counter to the disciple.

From start to finish, the disciple and the Scale Demon never had to meet face-to-face, which minimized interference from living beings with the demon’s work. If the directive failed verification, the Lesser Taowu and the steward outside would immediately receive a notification and rush over to investigate. This procedure was not only strict but also impersonal, with no room for flattery or ingratiation. Wu Shidao recalled that the previous old steward had told him, the first time he entered this secret chamber, that humans were prone to idleness and could be exploited, making them unsuitable for this role.

He stepped back two paces and began to wait, his palms unconsciously slick with cold sweat. The directive dropped into the counter’s bottom disc and was quickly transmitted behind the hidden door, where it was collected by the Scale Demon. The disc was, in fact, a part of the Scale Demon itself.

The demon itself appeared as a standard bronze-colored balance scale, with a wide base, a heavy-duty beam, and a large bronze pan on each side. As it lifted Sect Master Xiao’s handwritten order, the ruby on its forehead emitted a red light, instantly illuminating the paper and making it transparent. The authenticity of the handwritten order could be discerned at this step. If it had been altered, forged, or even merely embellished, the text would turn green. Two breaths later, the verification passed. The handwritten order was confirmed to be Xiao Wencheng’s authentic work, and the magical fluctuations within it belonged to him. With the verification complete, a silver weight appeared on the Scale Demon’s base.

The weight had a peculiar shape; it looked like an ordinary small water bucket, similar to a standard steelyard weight, but it possessed limbs, allowing it to run, bend, and retrieve items like a human. It rolled over the handwritten order, and the characters indicating the quantity of materials adhered to the weight: eighty thousand jin of top-grade profound crystals!

Next, the Scale Demon would retrieve the materials according to the weight. Its form vanished from behind the hidden door, then immediately reappeared on the outermost level of the treasure vault. As Wu Shidao knew, there was a cavern dedicated to storing profound crystals here, with dozens of large shelves lining the walls, half of which were filled with treasure chests of various sizes. Inside these chests were profound crystals of various grades.

The Scale Demon appeared directly in front of the narrowest row of shelves, raising its pan high. The silver weight, after jumping onto the shelf, grew to at least half a person’s height. It skillfully opened a chest lid and tilted the entire box forward—with a cascade, the profound crystals poured out of the box and landed directly onto the scale pan below! The profound crystals in this box were of a reddish-purple or purplish-black quality, commonly described as “red enough to turn purple.” Not long ago, when the Emperor’s Dew was abundant, He Lingchuan spent several days collecting it and only managed to acquire a dozen pieces of this quality. Yet, in an unassuming cave of the Illusion Sect, there was simply a whole large chest of them.

Once one box was emptied, the weight-figure moved to the second box. Every profound crystal landed precisely in the pan, never touching the ground, and no matter how much was poured, the bronze pan never overflowed. If one looked closely, they would notice that the profound crystals shrank drastically as they entered the pan; an entire boxful would reduce to merely a sesame-sized speck. This was five hundred jin of profound crystals! In the blink of an eye, the second box was also emptied. The weight-figure unhesitatingly moved to the third box, then the fourth… Until it accumulated five thousand jin, it jumped onto the scale pan to weigh it. It was exactly the right amount, no more, no less. Afterward, it continued to move profound crystals. The scale tilted, and those five thousand jin of profound crystals poured cascadingly into the bottomless bag. The opening of the bag was small, and the profound crystals were not poured quickly.

The Scale Demon’s movements were nimble, but “eighty thousand jin of top-grade profound crystals” was truly an enormous quantity, difficult to handle quickly. Any intelligent being would have doubted the number on the handwritten order, even if it was indeed Sect Master Xiao’s authentic script and contained a trace of his true power. But the Scale Demon would not; it merely executed commands mechanically. The reason Qianhuan dispatched it to guard the treasure vault was precisely its mechanical nature and its adherence to rules. Beings with higher intelligence develop self-awareness; with self-awareness come distractions. Living in the treasure vault, dealing with so many priceless treasures every day, who could resist developing ill intentions? Qianhuan, having seen through human nature, therefore chose such a dull and uninteresting, yet loyal and selfless, magical artifact to guard the treasure vault.

However, there are pros and cons to everything. The Scale Demon was actually a tool spirit, incapable of self-doubt or self-judgment. It was precisely this point that Wu Shidao exploited. He secretly altered Sect Master Xiao’s directive using the mirage powder bestowed by Miaozhantian, changing the mention of “eight hundred jin of medium-grade profound crystals.” As the Scale Demon was originally one of Qianhuan’s magical artifacts, it was not at all surprising that it could not detect its master’s illusion. Since it was its master’s command, it had to execute it meticulously and flawlessly. Eighty thousand jin of top-grade profound crystals, not a single piece less!

Time passed, little by little, as over a hundred chests of profound crystals entered the bag.