One of those treasures was the very courtroom they stood in, or to be specific, the entirety of the black medallion tower. The entire tower was a single entity, and either because it was built from a unique treasure such as the mimicry chaos sky metal, and countless other ascendant grade and saint grade treasures mixed in, but the tower had a sentient spirit, and it was the true protector of the judges, inquisitors and other workers that inhabited.

Why was Yang Qing always adamant about not leaving the headquarters, even when seduced by irresistible offers? It wasn’t that he was a strong-willed person that could effortlessly resist temptations. He wasn’t, in fact, he was self-aware that he was one of the most weak-willed people in the Order, easily susceptible to bribes. Soft life Yang Qing and Always scheming Yang Qing would not have been born if he was.

Self-preservation was the thing that kept him from succumbing to the Order’s ‘vicious’ attempts, and the source of that self-preservation was the building they were currently in. It was his safe haven, and yes, the countless arrays and the powerful cultivators that roamed its halls contributed to that safety, but his greatest confidence was the building itself and the spirit entity it birthed.

“How strong is that entity?” Yang Qing once curiously asked as his curiosity for the esoteric and the mystic got tickled.

The person he asked told him this, that spirit, in the time it took someone to finish a cup of tea, had sufficient strength to raze ten rank-one organizations, to the ground, destroying everyone and anything. That was the day Yang Qing developed a deep love and veneration for the building and vowed to never leave it.

Of course, behemoths like the Jade Leaf Academy or the Thousand battle hall pavilion were not included in the ten, but rank one organizations, were rank one organizations for a reason, and destroying ten in such as short amount of time was no small feat.

Part of what made the tower such a great threat was its ability to manipulate space and the void as it willed. Distance was immaterial to it.

Yang Qing used that aspect of it to deliver the scroll. The other treasure he used was an old friend, Veiled Destiny.

With its mastery over karma, it could effortlessly track Shao Ren’s location, using the strong karmic thread that had linked him to Wu Mingli and his mother.

Karma was a powerful dao of similar rank to time and space, and in terms of difficulty, one could say it was harder than the two. Even now, there was no clear guideline on how to cultivate it, with only those who have reached the later stages of the domain realm rumored to be capable of sensing its power, and even then they couldn’t freely manipulate it as they wished, not like Veiled Destiny could. The best they could do was isolate themselves and the areas they were around from being spied on or attacked using it.

Almost every single entity that was capable of using and manipulating karma was born with the ability to do so and was not trained in it, which was what made karmic experts so scary. They had esoteric means of attack at their disposal that one didn’t even know how to fight or defend against.

The only sure way one could defend themselves against them was if they had karmic dao treasure, or if you broke through to the soul formation realm. At that stage, one was sensitive enough to respond and even retaliate to its attacks. A late-stage domain expert could defend themselves against it too, but their means were restricted to passive defense.

From the information, Hou Dehui had shared with him about the Golden Bamboo Pavilion, all three founders of the Golden Bamboo Pavilion were in the late stages of the domain realm, and wherever Shao Ren was, there was a high chance, one of those leaders was closeby.

If it had been anyone else but Veiled Destiny they could have likely shielded the location from karmic deduction, but who was Veiled Destiny? Yang Qing knew nothing about its mysterious origins, only that it was powerful enough to deduce even the karma of an early-stage soul formation expert, despite their apparent immunity to karmic deduction. A late-stage domain expert, no matter how deep their accumulation was nothing in its eyes.

As for why he went through all the trouble of sending the scroll like that, it was for deterrent of course. A reminder to the Golden Bamboo Pavilion and the Gold Leaf Empire who exactly they were dealing with, and judging by their solemn expressions, the message had been delivered, loud and clear.

..

As Yang Qing was lost in his musings, Gong Jie and Duan Hu were having a private discussion of their own.

“Do you regret letting them live?” Gong Jie derisively asked.

Complex emotions flashed in Duan Hu’s eyes as his gaze fell on where Wu Mingli and his mother had stood.

“I am not too sure,” he finally answered as he brought his attention back to the stout elder.

“But I do feel regret..” he added. What the regret was about, he didn’t expound on it and Gong Jie didn’t ask.

“Letting them live..” inwardly thought Duan Hu as he smiled bitterly.

Gong Jie had misunderstood the whole thing and Duan Hu wasn’t about to correct him. Back then, it wouldn’t have been strange for Wu Mingli or his mom to be eliminated as they left, and Gong Jie had assumed that the only reason they survived the journey was due to him. After all, it wasn’t strange when dealing with troublesome matters for one to get rid of the root and the stems to rid oneself of future troubles.

Wu Mingli and his mother being alive, meant someone stepped in and guaranteed their life, and for those involved, few people could do that and he happened to be one of those people, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

The truth of the matter was neither he nor Shao Ren cared much about them. They were inconsequential figures, and an elephant doesn’t concern himself with the misgivings of an ant.

Even if Shao Ren had gone after them, he wouldn’t have pursued the matter as he didn’t explicitly or implicitly forbid it. Wu Mingli and his mother’s surviving was just dumb luck that they were so insignificant at the time that Shao Ren couldn’t even be bothered to seek then out.

But now, that insignificant figure had already caught up to them and was now baring his fangs at them, and as long as Wu Mingli survived his duel, which Duan Hu felt the chances were high he would, after all, he hade the Jade Leaf Academy behind him, then it wouldn’t be too long before he became the inconsequential figure.

He couldn’t help but shake his head at how things had turned before he let out yet another sigh as his gaze fell on the three cultivators with complaints, two he recognized intimately, and he knew why they were here.