Cultivation starts with picking up attributes
Chapter 119: Ch-119: Full of Lies

Chapter 119: Ch-119: Full of Lies

The morning after their return, the Feilun Sect was unusually quiet.

No horns. No alarms. No feasting. Just the distant hum of formation walls adjusting to the returning Root Division team.

Tian Shen stood alone before the ancient pavilion nestled beside the Feilun Tree’s roots, where the Sect Master often held his audiences.

He looked more traveler than hero—dust-streaked, robes patched with scars, eyes red-rimmed from a long night of definitely not sorting treasure.

The sliding screen parted.

"Enter."

Came the calm, sonorous voice within.

Tian Shen stepped into the pavilion.

The Sect Master stood with his back to him, gazing at a miniature spiritual map of the continent carved into a massive stone basin.

The jade pillar, once prominent near the Central-Eastern border, was now gone.

Without turning, the Sect Master asked.

"What did you find?"

Tian Shen bowed.

"The breach allowed limited access. We encountered resistance and eventually spatial collapse. No clear markers remained stable."

"In short," the Sect Master said, finally turning, "you found nothing."

Tian Shen’s face didn’t change.

"Not of strategic value, no."

The Sect Master studied him for a long moment, as if waiting for a confession. Then spoke out.

"You lost a scroll last week. A minor ledger on formation. And yet here you are, face steady while telling me the greatest Secret Realm anomaly in a century had no usable returns."

Tian Shen cleared his throat.

"There were... some environmental anomalies. And an old banner. But the formation energies were unstable."

"Unstable," the Sect Master echoed, amused.

"Yes," Tian Shen said. "Very."

The Sect Master reached into his sleeve and pulled out... a cracked spirit stone.

Stamped with a pawprint.

He held it between two fingers.

"One of the our disciples found this outside the breach. They think it’s a coded challenge."

But Tian Shen didn’t flinch.

"Possibly."

The Sect Master raised an eyebrow.

"Your Fox companion? Where was she?"

"She was never there," Tian Shen said without hesitation.

A beat passed.

Then the Sect Master laughed—softly, but with a hint of genuine enjoyment.

"Very well."

He turned back to the basin.

"Let the others dig. Stir each other into a frenzy. You and your team will rest. Quietly. No sharing of what you didn’t find. Understood?"

Tian Shen smiled faintly.

"Understood."

"And Tian Shen?"

He paused.

The Sect Master didn’t look back.

"Next time you loot a sacred Vault before the rest of the continent arrives... don’t leave a pawprint."

"...Yes, Sect Master."

...

Meanwhile, in the Hidden Sky Vault ruins...

Three ships from the Flaming Sun Sect hovered above the fractured jade ridge. Elders and disciples combed the mountainside like desperate ants.

One elder knelt before a scorched spot on the cliff.

"There was a portal here," he muttered. "I could feel it."

The talisman readings fluctuated erratically.

"Any luck with residual energy?"

Asked another.

"None. It’s like the realm folded in on itself and erased all traces. We’re picking up just echoes, not essence."

Farther down the slope, a disciple ran up, out of breath.

"Reporting in! We found... a tree root!"

"A... root?"

"Yes! It looks spiritual!"

The elder examined it.

"This is just a normal tree root with spiritual residue. Probably from the Feilun Tree."

A pause.

"...Did Feilun Sect already arrive?"

"They say they only scouted and left early."

"And took nothing?"

"Yes, Elder."

A long silence followed.

Then the elder stood up and screamed into the mountains.

"LIARS!"

...

Across the Eastern border, similar scenes unfolded.

The Crimson Needle Pavilion found nothing but broken terrain and a few talisman shards burned beyond recognition.

The Floating Cloud School attempted to trace spirit signatures but kept circling the same dead coordinates.

The Golden Palm Sect declared the Vault a hoax and went home sulking.

Whispers began to spread through the cultivator world.

"The Vault must’ve been a mirage."

"Maybe it was only ever accessible to a chosen few."

"Or maybe... someone emptied it."

Every sect suspected someone.

Everyone knew it had been raided.

But no one had proof.

...

Back in Feilun Sect...

The Scout Division resumed quiet training in a back courtyard. A subtle current of smug satisfaction danced through the air, but no one spoke of it openly.

Yi Fen practiced new array configurations, a subtle smile on her lips. Her talismans seemed to shine just a little brighter, her confidence more grounded.

Jun Lin cleaned his spear while quietly humming an ancient war song. He had added a new charm to his weapon—a glowing sigil that hadn’t been there the week before.

Xu Wei used his newfound wealth to commission snacks from all five kitchens, claiming "intensive calorie recovery" as justification.

He waddled between courtyards with a spirit-beast-sized bun in one hand and a peach in the other.

Little Mei napped in a hammock woven from spiritual vines, chewing spirit fruit and carving fake pawprints into rocks just in case.

Drowsy floated beside her, wearing an ornate circlet as if it were a snack tray.

No one asked where it came from.

Tian Shen sat by a pond under moonlight, flipping open a jade slip. The ancient sword manual glowed faintly.

Feng Yin approached, scrolls tucked under one arm.

"Nice reporting today."

She said dryly.

Tian Shen glanced up.

"It wasn’t a lie, not completely at least."

"No. Just... generously vague."

She sat beside him.

"They’ll keep searching for months."

"I know."

"They’ll hate us more when they realize we didn’t even leave the trash."

"I know."

A pause.

Feng Yin leaned back against the tree trunk.

"...We’re definitely getting blamed if anything else goes wrong in the region."

"Absolutely."

She smiled.

"Worth it."

Tian Shen looked at the stars above, quiet.

Feng Yin nodded.

"But the real danger might still be buried."

"But until then," he said, voice calm, "let’s train. And enjoy being rich."

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment longer.

Then, from across the courtyard, Xu Wei yelled.

"WHO STOLE MY PEACH PUDDING?! I specially sealed that!"

"I was never here!"

Little Mei shouted from the hammock.

Drowsy belched softly and drifted behind a tree, glowing faintly pink.

Tian Shen didn’t even look up from his jade slip.

"The real mystery," he murmured, "is how that pudding vanished before you even walked away from it."

Feng Yin chuckled.

Xu Wei stomped into the courtyard like a man on a mission, pudding rage in every step.

His cheeks were puffed, and his spirit pouch flapped loosely at his hip—emptier than his stomach and his pride.

"I left it under triple seal, next to my backup storage bag!"

He shouted.

"With Triple seals!"

Jun Lin didn’t look up from polishing his spear.

"Your first mistake was thinking food is safe in a courtyard with a fox and a floating glutton."

Little Mei opened one eye from her hammock.

"I only took half. I left the spoon, didn’t I?"

"You left the spoon... in my pouch!"

She yawned.

"A parting gesture of respect."

Drowsy drifted by overhead, looking decidedly unconcerned as she hiccuped softly and glowed a pleasant shade of peach.

Feng Yin buried her laughter in a cough, while Tian Shen turned a page in the glowing sword manual with exaggerated calm.

"Xu Wei," he said mildly, "a man must be prepared to lose everything in pursuit of enlightenment. Your peach pudding is a lesson in detachment."

"I’ll let this slide only because boss said."

Xu Wei growled, slumping onto a bench.

From the far wall, Yi Fen finally looked up from her formation diagrams.

"If you lots put as much energy into training as you did into food theft and dramatic lies by omission, you’ve been at least able to fight boss equally already."

"We didn’t lie."

Jun Lin said.

"We omitted aggressively."

"Strategically."

Tian Shen added.

Feng Yin looked at the group, then around the peaceful courtyard—at the faint glow of sealed treasures hidden beneath floorboards, at the newly upgraded training dummies that no one had asked about, at the sudden surplus of rare spirit herbs growing a little too conveniently near Little Mei’s nap spot.

They had looted a sacred Vault, misreported the truth, and returned rich beyond reason.

And yet, for now, the sky was calm, the Sect was quiet, and no one had asked too many questions.

It was, she realized, the most peace they’d had in months.

"I’m not complaining," she said aloud, stretching her arms. "But it almost feels..."

Tian Shen’s expression didn’t change, but he closed the jade slip slowly.

"It is. But do not worry, it won’t last."

Feng Yin glanced at him.

"The Secret Realm... I think there’s more to it."

"Which means someone else might trigger it again."

"Or worse," Tian Shen said softly.

Across the courtyard, Little Mei sat up slightly in her hammock.

"You mean like... Vault 2.0: The Revenge?"

"Vault 2.0," Tian Shen muttered. "Please no."

Feng Yin sighed.

"Don’t jinx it."

Tian Shen cracked his knuckles. "Doesn’t matter, Whatever comes next, we’re stronger than before. And more importantly—"

He patted the sword manual.

"—experienced."

Drowsy floated upside down in a lazy circle, emitting a musical chime. Feng Yin smiled, then stood.

"Well, I have reports to forge, talismans to encrypt, and a sect to deceive."

She gave Tian Shen a mock salute.

"Enjoy your illegal enlightenment."

He returned it with a wry bow.

"Good luck with the paperwork."

As she walked off, the stars glittered overhead—too bright, too sharp.

Tian Shen stayed seated by the pond.

Somewhere, deep beneath the world’s surface, the Hidden Sky Vault trembled once more.

But here, tonight, they were quiet.

Not victorious.

Not innocent.

But still together.

And—for the first time in a long while—free.

And across the Sect, the stars above Feilun shone just a little brighter.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.