Seized by the System

Chen Tianxiao rubbed his aching skull and left Azure Mountain. His head felt like it was about to burst.

The Azure Mountain was embroiled in a major crisis and all the men were affected. He was the only unaffected one as he had already become a spirit, which was a stroke of luck coming from an unfortunate event.

After all, he was better off than his fellow bed-ridden disciples. He could at least run and jump around and look and sing.

However, he was baffled by one thing. Why was Gu Buwei unaffected?

Unless…

A terrifying thought flashed across his mind. He quickly suppressed it and refused to speak it out loud.

Nonetheless, it was improbable and too far-fetched. A better presumption would be that he had the ability of Divining by the Clouds, which helped him with taking advantage of fortuitous situations and avoiding unfortunate ones. He must have distanced himself from the place of infection.

That could not be either. He regularly spent his days together with the patients, tending to them, so how could he not be affected?

Some mysterious talisman given to him by the Grandmaster must have done the trick. No, the Grandmaster had no reason to favor an outsider over his own disciples.

From the looks of it, it must be due to his own luck.

Dammit! He was on a similar level with Gu Buwei, yet the latter could not only enjoy his life at the Azure Mountain; He attained great power and solved problems with ease, too. Despite running into a crisis like this, he could keep himself out of harm’s way.

He was exactly like Yunzhongzi in “The Investiture of the Gods”. With all those talks about Merits and Virtue, surely there was some sort of Merit protecting him? (TN: “The Investiture of the Gods” is an ancient Chinese novel about deities and demons.)

Chen Tianxiao could not wrap his head around the entire situation. Suddenly, he was struck by an idea. He did not know, but he could ask that person. He should know about it.

He heard that he had rather good relations with Gu Buwei and saved his life once.

Chen Tianxiao walked out of the gates and left the Lunaette by floating towards the ground.

Soon, he bumped into said person.

“You’re finally out…” Vigilante A stopped him at mid-air and remarked coldly.

“Eh, please forgive me, Venerable One. Due to the ongoing trouble at the Azure Mountain, the gates are shut tight and I don’t even have the chance to come out.” Chen Tianxiao groaned.

Of course, he would not reveal the truth. In fact, it was Shang Qingshan who would not let him out.

“You’re lying. It seems that I’ve been too lenient towards you. Fine, time for you to go back to jail.” Vigilante A waved his arm. Chen Tianxiao could not fight back and vanished.

At the Draconic Penitentiary.

Fang Ning sat in the office and observed Anderson roughing up Chen Tianxiao in the torture chamber via the surveillance camera.

This rascal was dishonest and had the cheek to lie to him.

It was rather easy to find out that he was lying. Even Gu Buwei could leave the Azure Mountain, so how could Chen Tianxiao not find an excuse to do so?

Did he actually take Master Fang for some softie?

It was true that he was soft-hearted, but that was only reserved for good people. He would show no mercy towards people with evil intentions.

He had Sir System seizing him anyway, so he did not have to go through any sort of phobia of killing people…

Not an hour had passed and Chen Tianxiao finally yielded.

Anderson’s ability to rough up spirits could be understood clearly. Although it had not shown its face for a long time, it was not Fang Ning. Even if Fang Ning did not pay attention to him, it was learning and improving itself every day.

“Have mercy, Venerable One! I’ll tell you the truth.”

Chen Tianxiao was out of breath and pleaded in the torture chamber.

At last, Fang Ning told Anderson to stop via the surveillance camera’s communication channel and listened to that fellow’s testimonial.

“Actually, when I entered the mountain gates, I met the Grandmaster and told him everything about this matter, including the part where you wanted me to be an inside man.”

Hmph, no doubt about that.

His answer hardly surprised Fang Ning.

After all, in the Era of Mythology, it was not so easy to be an inside man unlike in the past.

Back in the day, as long as one received comprehensive training and possessed remarkable willpower, one could then become a doomed spy.

Currently, however, there were many mysterious techniques that could be used, including those for detecting spirits. If not for the protection provided by special talismans, the spies could not evade detection from the powerhouses.

As for those who could evade detectors, they were unsuitable as spies as it was too costly.

Chen Tianxiao was just a spirit, so how could he resist Shang Qingshan who controlled an entire grotto-heaven Arcane Realm?

When both individuals met, the former had to surrender and come clean about everything.

Now, Chen Tianxiao was facing him. It was the exact same situation.

This was the pain of a weakling in the Era of Mystery. You might not fear death, but you would be unable to keep a secret.

“The Grandmaster didn’t tell me of his actual reason. However, he allowed me to tell you that his reason was that the gods didn’t dare to enter the Azure Mountain. Since I came out this time, he told me again that if you ask about the reason, I’ll tell you that the Azure Mountain is located on an extremely mysterious node where gods who set foot in the area will be suppressed and end up as feed for this realm. They can’t do anything about it despite their powers, as they’ve to go against the weight of the Earth and even the entire universe…” Chen Tianxiao explained.

“Ah, I see.” Fang Ning exclaimed in surprise.

Sir System took the opportunity to mock him. “Aren’t you the same, you only know those two words.”

“Stop it with your nonsense. I mean, it’s no wonder Shang Qingshan’s so insolent when confronting the gods. He wants to anger them on purpose in order to make them attack the arcane realm. Unfortunately for him, these gods are millions of years old. If they can retain their emotion of anger, they can also control it, so they won’t fall for this trap easily. He’s just doing so out of convenience since there are so many gods and there are bound to be several gullible ones anyway. When he meets one such god, it’ll mean a huge profit to him.” Fang Ning analyzed the big picture meticulously.

“I get it now, no wonder that geezer’s so fierce. Thanks to your cowardice, we didn’t enter his place. Looks like that arcane realm’s specialty is to suppress powerhouses and turn them into feed. It seems that each arcane realm has its own unique characteristic, which is really bizarre. Who created them anyway?” Sir System wondered.

“We’ll ponder about this matter later. At least we’ve resolved an important question.” Fang Ning deeply understood the concept that there were always people who were better than them.

Sir System might be powerful in battles, but it was not invincible. Hence, it must remain humble and vigilant to safeguard itself.

At the same time, Chen Tianxiao forced himself to ignore the pain and announced. “Venerable One, I have one more important secret to report to you.”

“Speak. If it’s good, I shall show you mercy.”

“No man is safe from the trouble at the Azure Mountain, except for Gu Buwei. I suppose he has some sort of talisman or Heavenly Merits to protect him…”

Indeed, a scoundrel who sold out his fellow clan member for personal gain.

Nevertheless, Fang Ning did not punish him as this piece of news was rather valuable.

“Gu Buwei once witnessed the birth of the Two Divine Monuments and he’s probably protected by some Heavenly Merits. This piece of news is very valuable, at least I now know that the Heavenly Axiom is still revered by the God of Plagues. He won’t let his disease infect people with such merits.” Fang Ning felt relieved as another major question had been answered.

Earlier, when Gu Buwei visited him, he was puzzled over his normal condition.

It was not convenient for him to inquire. He could not simply examine whether Gu Buwei was male or female or ask whether he was in cahoots with the God of Plagues.

Now, with Chen Tianxiao’s reminder, he immediately understood that the God of Plagues avoided targeting people with Heavenly Merits with his virus, just like how he avoided targeting women. This only increased the difficulty of reaching illumination and ascension.

This conclusion was worth a lot to him. Fang Ning finally grasped that the Earth’s Heavenly Axiom was not something created just for show.

It might not be as mature as the Heavenly Axiom of the Upper Realm. Still, it was a formidable object in this realm.

The gods who descended to Earth had their powers stripped to the core. Thus, they must regard the presence of the Earth’s Heavenly Axiom with reverence.

This was also the very reason why they came up with all kinds of methods, such as using an Earthling like Hook, to attack the Earth’s Heavenly Axiom.