123: Chapter 123 The Dragon of the End of the World

The meeting was still ongoing.

After Lv Xu of the Tianque Sect took a step back regarding the mineral vein distribution, that Eighth Realm Sect Master of Black Rock Valley did not speak again, simply sitting in the corner and resting his eyes.

Deputy Sect Master Pei of Ziping Cave was currently confirming the details of the joint student recruitment with representatives from several medium-sized Sects, her voice steady and monotonous.

The allocation plan for the Spirit Stone mineral veins had basically been finalized.

Relying on Xie Feng's shameless bickering, the Qingyun Sect obtained the priority mining rights for the new mineral vein on the southern foot of Cangyun Mountain. In exchange, the Qingyun Sect would undertake a portion of the bizarre suppression missions for the Tianque Sect over the next three years.

Sect Master Shen Du was fairly satisfied with this result.

Xie Feng sat slightly behind and to the side of Sect Master Shen Du, his tripartite pupils beneath the veil half-closed.

Having just finished bickering, he prepared to rest for a moment.

He pulled back the majority of his Qi perception, leaving only an extremely thin layer covering the area of several feet around him, and began to zone out while leaning against the back of his chair.

At the rear position on the east side of the venue, a man and a woman were standing beside a stone pillar, conversing in low voices.

They wore the standard regular attire of the Xiangfu Palace, with a cyan base and a circle of extremely fine lightning patterns embroidered on their cuffs.

The Xiangfu Palace was not ranked very high in Qingzhou, but its Legacy was extremely ancient, famous particularly for pupil techniques and mechanism arts.

At this Sect assembly, the person who came from the Xiangfu Palace was a Seventh Realm Elder, and the two youths were accompanying Disciples, following along to listen in and gain some worldly experience.

The young girl was named Qian Huaping, with Fifth Realm cultivation, specializing in the ingenious hand lineage within the mechanism arts.

Her fingers were extremely slender and long, with her fingertips covered by a very thin layer of Qi film—the traces left behind from years of practicing delicate manipulation.

At this moment, she was pulling on the youth's cuff.

"Senior Brother Lu, you have been looking over at the Qingyun Sect since just now. Stop looking; they are of the proper Third Rank. What will happen if a Fifth Realm Disciple like you stares at them and gets caught?"

The youth was named Lu Mingyuan, also in the Fifth Realm, specializing in pupil techniques.

Deep within his pupils shimmered a very faint amber light pattern, which was the sign that the Xiangfu Palace's true transmission pupil technique, Obstacle-Breaking Eye, had been Cultivated to Minor Achievement.

Hearing Qian Huaping's words, he did not withdraw his gaze, instead sweeping another glance toward Xie Feng's direction.

"Don't you find it strange? The hem of his cloak is weighed down so heavily; there must be a lot of things stuffed inside. Externally, rumors say he resolved the Shituolin Swamp all by himself—perhaps he relied on those very things. If I could just take a look with the Obstacle-Breaking Eye! Just one look! Perhaps I could see what those are."

Qian Huaping applied a bit more force to the hand tugging at his cuff. "Lu Mingyuan, those are things others traded their lives for. What is the point of you taking a look?"

"This is not what a righteous Sect should do." Qian Huaping released her hand, her tone calming down, "The very first ancestral precept left by the Ancestral Masters of our Xiangfu Palace is not to peer into other Sects' true transmissions. Have you practiced the Obstacle-Breaking Eye for three years just to peek into other people's pockets?"

Lu Mingyuan was left silent for a moment by her words, but the amber light pattern deep within his pupils did not fade.

His gaze swept past the great Cultivators of the Seventh and Eighth Realms in the venue, landing on those several highly unnatural heavy sagging spots at the hem of Xie Feng's cloak.

"Junior Sister Qian, you are right, this is not what a righteous Sect should do. But if I just take a look, he won't lose a piece of flesh. If it is a Magical Artifact, I won't touch it. What if it is a Secret Manual? With your ingenious hand! You might just be able to copy one. Isn't your father worrying about making a Breakthrough to the Seventh Realm? What if that Secret Manual contains methods concerning breaking through the Bottleneck?"

Qian Huaping's lips moved slightly.

Her father had been stuck at the Peak of the Sixth Realm for over a dozen years, having tried every Medicinal Pill and studied every Cultivation Technique, yet he simply could not break through that barrier.

She was silent for a few breaths, then completely withdrew her hand from Lu Mingyuan's cuff.

She did not agree, but neither did she stop him again.

Lu Mingyuan took a deep breath and slowly activated the Obstacle-Breaking Eye.

The amber light patterns suddenly brightened deep within his pupils, and extremely fine, dense Divine Sense pierced through the overlapping layers of Qi fluctuations in the venue like needlepoints, probing toward the exterior of Xie Feng's cloak.

The Obstacle-Breaking Eye could penetrate multiple layers of Qi barriers and clothing, directly peering at the outlines of the items on the target's body.

He could see the outlines of those books—one, two, three—hanging inside the pockets of Xie Feng's inner lining.

That extremely thin stone slab was placed right at the outermost layer.

Then he saw the yellow sign.

The symbols on the stone slab, at the very same instant his Obstacle-Breaking Eye touched it, branded themselves into the depths of his consciousness in a manner faster than light and more direct than Divine Sense.

He saw a body of water that was pitch black and profoundly deep, its surface reflecting stars that did not belong to this world.

He saw a collapsed pavilion, every single stone brick of it engraved with the exact same symbols.

He heard someone whispering in the depths of the pavilion, the voice extremely soft and gentle, as if reciting a poem or chanting a prayer.

He could not understand those languages, but he could sense that voice calling out his name.

Before The King in Yellow could even invade his dreams, Lu Mingyuan suddenly saw a colossal city.

Lu Mingyuan's body swayed slightly, and then he slowly toppled backward.

His eyes were still wide open, and the amber light patterns deep within his pupils had extinguished, replaced instead by a very faint, thin yellow mist that was slowly spreading across the surface of his eyeballs.

Qian Huaping grabbed hold of him, preventing him from striking the stone pillar. Her ingenious hand instinctively locked onto his pulse gate, and her Qi probed inward to find his Divine Sense in complete chaos, as if someone had poured a basin of ice water over him from head to toe and immediately shoved him into a furnace to bake.

"Senior Brother Lu? Lu Mingyuan! What is wrong with you?"

After several breaths, Lu Mingyuan slowly opened his eyes.

The layer of yellow mist deep within his pupils had vanished, and he looked at Qian Huaping.

"Junior Sister Su, you are right."

"Indeed, we shouldn't do this kind of thing."

His voice was extremely hoarse.

He gently pushed Qian Huaping's hand away from his pulse gate, supported himself against the stone pillar to stand up, turned his back to the ongoing proceedings in the exact center of the venue, and walked out without looking back.

"My last name is not Su! My last name is Qian!"

Qian Huaping stood in place for a moment, then quickly followed after him.

Xie Feng's Qi perception observed this entire scene from beginning to end with crystal clarity.

He leaned against the back of his chair, his tripartite pupils beneath the veil slowly turning toward Sect Master Shen Du, lowering his voice to say:

"Sect Master, a young man just used a pupil technique to look at me."

Sect Master Shen Du held his teacup without turning his head, his lips barely moving: "And then?"

"Then he left on his own."

"He didn't go crazy?"

"Probably not?"

"Then he's lucky to be alive."

Meanwhile, Lu Mingyuan on the side had recovered his normal expression, and then slowly pulled out a weird-looking object from his sleeve.

This was a brass-colored, small, and slender rectangular box with many tiny depressions on it. From one side of the box, five soft metal tubes extended outward, and at the end of each tube was a one-inch-long metal needle tip.

"Junior Sister Qian, come here for a moment."

"What is it?"

Then Lu Mingyuan fiercely shoved this thing right against Qian Huaping's head!

Yet everyone present, even including Xie Feng, did not discover this scene!

Next, Lu Mingyuan pulled out another strange thing.

This device was about one foot tall.

It was made of bronze, its surface engraved with intricate patterns, and a red gem was embedded at the top.

"Hello, hello? Can you hear me? This is 'Dragon at the End of the World', I have found 'Pushing Yog-Sothoth for a Lifetime'." (If you don't remember, please look back at the middle of Chapter 86)