Young Noble Be Monster Slaying
Chapter 908: Where's My Cleaver? (I)

After leaving the Xuanle Heavenly Sect, Chu Liang's group walked forward at a leisurely pace. The fog was thick, but lights flickered up ahead.

Soon after, the fog before them gradually cleared and revealed a brightly lit tavern, abuzz with the clinking of cups, clattering of tiles, and lively conversation. An unexpectedly delightful aroma drifted out from the tavern. 

Through the tavern's window, Chu Liang's group could see a burly man with a large belly standing in the center of the main hall. He wore an apron and had a piece of cloth wrapped around his head. In his hand was a gleaming cleaver, and on the chopping block lay a blood-red bone. With each swing of his cleaver, his rolls of fat swayed, and he cleanly chopped off a chunk of bone.

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

As Chu Liang and the others approached the tavern, more than a dozen waiters in colorful garments rushed out and surrounded them. 

The waiters called out, "Exalted immortals, come and try the dishes of our Cloudfare Pavilion!"

"Even if you walked another hundred thousand li, you won't find food this delicious."

"In all of the heavens and the earth, there's only one place like this."

Wearing smiles so bright that they looked eerie, the waiters forcefully pushed Chu Liang's group into the tavern. The cook who wielded the cleaver didn't look up at all, fully focused on chopping up the bone in front of him.

Clang, clang, clang, clang...

The waiters sat Chu Liang's group down at a table and served them tea with practiced ease. 

"Exalted immortals, please enjoy your meal."

A moment later, the waiters brought out plates of dishes that looked and smelled delicious. However, the cook had never stopped hacking at the bone this whole time, so where had the food come from?

As Chu Liang stared at the unidentifiable bones the cook was chopping up, a chill crept up his spine. Naturally, he didn't dare touch a single bite of the food.

Nevertheless, Chu Liang's group could not simply refrain from eating the food.

The cook suddenly raised his gaze from the bone and glared at them. He questioned fiercely, "Why aren't you eating?!"

No one answered. They all simply looked at him.

The cook raised the cleaver upright with a vicious glint in his eyes. "Why aren't you eating? Do you think my cooking is bad?"

Caiyi had been quietly observing the surroundings this whole time.

Hearing what the cook said, she suddenly spoke up. "Where's the food?"

"Isn't it on your table?" the cook retorted.

Caiyi stared straight into his eyes and shot back, "The table is clearly empty. There's nothing on it."

"Nothing at all?" The cook scratched his head, his gaze wavering in hesitation. "All right, I'll make you another serving."

He raised his cleaver again and resumed chopping that same bone.

"But there's nothing on your chopping block either. What exactly are you chopping?" Caiyi asked.

"There's…" the cook uttered, his gaze turning blank. He stumbled back two steps, murmuring, "There's nothing? There's—"

A loud crack ripped through the air, and the tavern shook violently. The lively, bustling tavern vanished in an instant. In its place stood a dilapidated, pitch-black cave dwelling. The glow of the bright colors had turned into eerie ghostly qi. All that remained was a broken wooden platform where a towering skeleton stood, clutching a rusty cleaver.

Impressed by Caiyi, even the Azure Dragon couldn't help but remark, "As expected of the Dao Master of Myriad Forms. I doubt there's any illusion in this world that could trap you."

It would not have been impossible to break the illusion with brute force, but even eighth-realm Eminent Ones would have had to pay a steep price. Otherwise, the Divine Nine and Terrestrial Ten's expedition into the Divine Ruins would not have resulted in only one survivor, and even he had returned gravely injured.

The ideal method for destroying the illusions was to identify their weak points, like Caiyi had done. However, she might be the only person in the world capable of such a feat.

"Every Great Dao has its own strengths. What the Great Dao of Taiyi can do, I certainly can't," Caiyi said with a soft laugh.

Then she rose to her feet, intending to leave.

"Hang on." Chu Liang glanced at the towering skeleton. "He's not going to come back to life, right?"

"He shouldn't, unless another living person comes in here for the first time," Caiyi answered. She was a little puzzled as to why Chu Liang asked that, though.

Hearing that, Chu Liang immediately dashed over to the skeleton in a few quick strides.

He muttered, "Esteemed senior, you've long since passed. I doubt you'd want your treasured cleaver buried with you, gathering dust. I can see the cleaver has a sharp edge and a spiritual nature. It probably still dreams of becoming a weapon that shines gloriously on the battlefield. So, I'll take it and help it become famous. If you're willing to let me take it, say nothing. If not, blink once."

He stared at the decayed skeleton of the cook, whose eye sockets lacked not just eyeballs but, of course, eyelids.

After a brief pause, Chu Liang gave a deep bow. "Esteemed senior, you overflow with generosity."

He then grabbed the cleaver and gave it a tug. The skeleton had quite a tight grip on it, so it didn't come loose on the first tug. He struggled for quite a while more. Then finally, there was a loud crack, and he wrenched the cleaver free.

However, the skeleton's right wrist now drooped slightly. It looked like it had snapped from the force.

After countless years, even the remains of Eminent Ones would decay and lose form. Yet, this cleaver bore only patches of rust, and spiritual energy had accumulated in that rust, marking it as a treasure. Clearly, this cleaver was of an exceptional grade.

In perilous lands, there were always great treasures to be found. If there seemed to be none, then it only meant the seeker lacked a good pair of eyes to spot them.

When Chu Liang returned to the group, the others looked at him with an odd expression. That expression… was just like the one that the Mount Shu Sect disciples had when they looked at Di Nufeng.

Chu Liang suddenly felt insulted. "Why are you all looking at me like that? I just didn't want a treasure to sit there, gathering dust. Is that so wrong?"

…

Two wisps of chilling wind swept past, carrying lingering traces of a sound wave.

Daoist Cangyun sat cross-legged on the ground. He was covered in bloodstains, and the most horrifying among them was the freshly dried bloodstain around the hole in his chest. The sight of his internal organs pulsing rhythmically in the middle of the dark red bloodstain was rather gruesome.

Beside him, Daoist Cangqiu didn't look much better. His upper body, including his face, was covered in claw marks. The golden-red wounds were overlapping like centipedes, twisted and grotesque.

Earlier, that boy from the Xuanle Heavenly Sect suddenly went berserk, catching them off guard. The two eminent eighth-realm Eminent Ones only managed to subdue him after exhausting every ounce of strength they had, ending up in a miserable state.

"They've passed another checkpoint. Let's move forward as well," Daoist Cangyun said, rising to his feet. "If they get any further, we'll lose their trail."

His Great Dao of Governing Balance granted him a unique ability to track people from afar. He could hear sounds from a thousand li away without being noticed. If he had used an ordinary spying divine skill, there was no way the eighth-realm Eminent Ones in Chu Liang's group would not have detected it.

As the Dao Master of Governing Balance, Daoist Cangyun could glean traces of qi and information from the wind that passed by him. That meant Chu Liang's group would not sense any fluctuations of foundational qi, so Daoist Cangyun and Daoist Cangqiu remained undetected.

"Can't we go around instead?" Daoist Cangqiu asked, still seated on the ground. The incident with the boy from the Xuanle Heavenly Sect had clearly left him shaken. "What if we're wrong again this time?"

"There's no end to the pavilions and towers within Thousand Pavilion Valley. No matter what detour you take, you'll eventually run into a checkpoint. And if you don't enter the buildings, where will you go to find the hidden treasure? At least with them forging ahead, we use their method of clearing each checkpoint as a reference. When we reach new areas, will you even know how to proceed?" Daoist Cangyun retorted.

"But that reference was wrong too," Daoist Cangqiu replied, obviously holding a grudge.

"That's because the timing was off. We didn't know it then," Daoist Cangyun said, looking ahead. "This time, we'll follow the fox demon's method exactly. It will definitely be right."

Daoist Cangqiu spent a moment feeling conflicted, but he ultimately stood up as well.

He declared angrily, "Once we get the hidden treasure of the Immortal Pavilion, I swear I'll storm Mount Shu and grind that thief Chu Liang into dust!"

Daoist Cangqiu had clearly pinned all his resentment on Chu Liang.