Chapter 245: Cheater (1/2)

“Why is the spiritual Qi growing fainter?” The white-garbed Cai Yue, who dressed like a young lord, awoke from her cultivation.

She was the daughter of Cai Lan, the head of the Blood Skull. She was at the late Lesser Heaven stage, only one step away from entering the Heaven stage, and the reason why she had been practicing day and night for the past week was that she hoped to make the breakthrough as soon as possible.

Not long ago, the Blood Skull had had a conflict with the Dark Moon. Cai Yue had joined the battle, but sustained injuries.

She attributed her injuries to her low cultivation base, and thus had been rather eager to improve.

She had used that cultivation room many times long before Nie Tian came along. Therefore, she knew those rooms and the intensity of the spiritual Qi in them like the back of her hand.

The sudden change disturbed her cultivation and significantly undermined the rate at which she took in spiritual energy.

She endured the change and continued to cultivate for a while. However, she discovered that not only did the intensity of the spiritual Qi in the room not recover to its original level, but it even kept deteriorating.

Cai Yue had never been known for her patience, so she put her cultivation on hold and walked out of her room.

“Little lord.” The moment she walked out, Shi Qing, administrator of the first floor, trotted to her and asked with a flattering smile on his face, “Shall we call it a day?” Shi Qing thought she had finished her cultivation for the day.

“Uncle Shi!” Face cold, Cai Yue asked with a punitive tone, “Is there something wrong with my cultivation room? Why is the spiritual Qi on the decline?”

Shi Qing stood aghast. “How can that be?!”

Cai Yue gave a cold harrumph. “You’re welcome to take a look for yourself!”

“Alright, let’s me check it out.” With these words, Shi Qing followed Cai Yue into her cultivation room. Eyes narrowed, he carefully examined the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the room.

It took only a few second for Shi Qing to realize the anomaly. Then, he said, “I can’t believe that you’re right!”

Face filled with dissatisfaction, Cai Yue asked, “What’s going on, Uncle Shi? What’s wrong with this cultivation room? I don’t usually have such a zest for practicing cultivation. If I tell my father about this, I’m afraid he won’t let you off easily!”

Shi Qing’s expression flickered as he hastily apologized to her and said, “Please hold on a second.”

He stepped to the center of the room where there was a jade column. Then, he gently placed his skinny hand on it as he unleashed his psychic awareness.

A short while later, Shi Qing opened his eyes. With a strange expression on his face, he muttered, “I can’t believe that the spiritual Qi is flowing to that other room…”

“Just what exactly is going on, Uncle Shi?” asked Cai Yue.

Shi Qing pondered for a while before explaining with a bitter face, “Little Lord, you should know that the two cultivation rooms on each floor are actually connected to one another. Beneath the rooms lies the spell formation that summons power from the spirit stones we put there and transmits it to the rooms.

“If the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in one room is consumed faster than the speed at which it is being replenished, a hidden spell formation will be triggered, and the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth will naturally flow over from the other room to balance out the difference.”

Upon hearing these words, Cai Yue immediately realized what was happening. “So you’re saying that the man in the other room is consuming the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth past the output capacity of the spell formation?

“The spiritual Qi in his room is running so low that the spiritual Qi in my room flowed to his?”

Shi Qing had a strange expression on his face as he said, “Yes, it appears so. However, we built these two rooms to meet the ultimate speed at which Lesser Heaven stage cultivators can absorb spiritual Qi. Even cultivators at the peak of the Lesser Heaven stage couldn’t possibly absorb spiritual Qi faster than our spell formation produces it.

“This seems impossible.

“No one has ever triggered that hidden spell formation ever since it was set up.”

Shi Qing’s words intrigued Cai Yue. She asked, “Uncle Shi, are you sure that man is at the Lesser Heaven stage?”

“Of course!” Shi Qing said with a serious expression. “I examined him when he came. He’s at the late Lesser Heaven stage. I can’t be mistaken.”

Cai Yue snorted and said, “Do you know who he is? He stole the spiritual Qi that’s supposed to be mine. I won’t let him off easily!”

“He’s Li Ye’s friend,” Shi Qing said with a bitter expression.

“He’s that fatty’s friend, so what?” Cai Yue’s tone wasn’t pleasant at all. “If Li Ye dares to stop me, I’ll beat him up too!”

“Little Lord, the problem is that, technically, he hasn’t done anything wrong.” Shi Qing had a headache over the tough situation. “Even though he overconsumed the spiritual Qi, he paid for the cultivation room, so we must honor the rules. Those rules are what hold up our reign. Since he’s not in violation of them, we can’t just go in there and arrest him.”

“I don’t care!” Huffing, Cai Yue stormed out of the room in an attempt to settle things with Nie Tian.