Two rows of large trees extended inward, with a golden road beneath them.
At the end of the road was a pond ten zhang in size.
By the pond, dozens of Spiritual Lotuses had unfurled their green leaves.
Two Immortal Cranes preened their feathers by the pond.
Several Spirit Turtles crawled onto the bank, basking in the sun, and seeing the two of them approach, they showed no fear, comfortably stretching out their hind legs.
Passing through the spirit screen, they finally saw the courtyard gate of Residence C-Shen.
Pushing the door open, the courtyard inside was a full ten mu in size, planted entirely with exotic flowers and rare herbs.
Mist steamed from one corner of the courtyard, revealing a hot spring suitable for bathing.
Directly facing the courtyard gate were three main rooms with golden roofs and red walls, with a row of green-tiled, grey-bricked wing rooms on each side.
This Immortal Cave was more than a hundred times better than an Outer Sect Disciple's small courtyard.
"Go on in, little prodigy, grab your things and get out of here quickly.
Such a good place, what a pity, it no longer belongs to you from now on," Kang Shenjun regained his composure, his eyes filled with schadenfreude, a look that said, 'If I can't have it, neither can you,' as he looked at Qian Duoduo.
There was no one in the Immortal Cave.
"Liu Lao, Liu Lao," Qian Duoduo called out in his mind.
Assuming Jin Buhuan's identity and returning to his own courtyard, if he acted like a stranger, Kang Shenjun would become suspicious.
He later calmed down and realized that Jin Buhuan's memory actually contained all the information about Residence C-Shen; he had simply been too flustered to recall it.
"Go into the main room," Liu Boli, who had been absent for a long time, replied concisely.
Taking a deep breath, Qian Duoduo lowered his head and walked towards the main room with the golden roof and red walls.
Kang Shenjun followed behind him, looking around curiously at the scenery in the courtyard.
The Immortal Cave of a core Inner Sect Disciple was not a place any Outer Sect Disciple could casually enter.
"To the left, the bedroom," Liu Boli directed Qian Duoduo.
Upon entering Jin Buhuan's bedroom, it was so simple it could be called crude.
There were no decorations on the white walls, no bed, no tea table, only a lotus-shaped yellow meditation cushion.
"Does Jin Buhuan just sit on that to rest or Cultivate every day? Shouldn't there at least be a bed to sleep on when he's tired?"
The little prodigy's bedroom was beyond Qian Duoduo's imagination.
Do ninth-grade Inner Sect Disciples not just lie around usually?
"The brick in the corner by the window, open it," Liu Boli spoke as if he were in his own home.
However, when Qian Duoduo opened the brick, there was nothing beneath it, only a small hole about an inch deep.
If one didn't look carefully, it just looked like a small indentation in the underground rock.
Not only was the hole small, but there was nothing inside it.
What to do?
Qian Duoduo was about to ask Liu Boli when his command echoed in Qian Duoduo's mind.
"Fill the hole with Spiritual Qi."
Qian Duoduo was about to circulate his Qi.
Suddenly, he felt the air around him turn cold and quickly turned around, only to see Kang Shenjun's expression change, holding a wooden sword in his hand.
"What are you trying to do?" Qian Duoduo saw Killing Intent emanating from him, unsure of how he had offended him.
Seeing that Qian Duoduo had noticed, Kang Shenjun plunged the wooden sword fiercely towards his crown.
Qian Duoduo lunged forward, throwing himself into his arms, his hands tightly gripping his wrists.
Kang Shenjun pressed down with force, but the wooden sword stopped three inches from Qian Duoduo's head, unable to press down even a bit further.
Qian Duoduo pushed forward, causing Kang Shenjun to retreat several steps, then used his head to ram Kang Shenjun's jaw, forcefully smashing his wrists against the wall.
The life-or-death crisis unleashed a surge of immense strength within Qian Duoduo.
Under continuous impact, the wooden sword in Kang Shenjun's hand slipped away.
Qian Duoduo seized him by the neck, "Why do you want to kill me?"
Kang Shenjun coughed twice, "I bet you would lose, and I lost as a result."
Kang Shenjun was part of Zhu Anquan's group; he should have bet on Qian Duoduo winning no matter what, but he stubbornly believed Qian Duoduo would lose and instead placed his bet on Ren Rong.
His brain, it seemed, was twisted.
"How much money could you possibly lose? You want to kill me for that? Tell me the truth, or I'll strangle you!" Qian Duoduo tightened his grip.
Having witnessed his desperate demeanor during the prison fight, Kang Shenjun quickly said, "Jin Buyong offered ten thousand gold coins for your life, Senior Brother Bu Huan, I was wrong!"
"Where are the gold coins?"
"On me." Kang Shenjun's eyes darted to his waist.
Qian Duoduo patted his waist and felt a palm-sized pouch.
"This is a Storage Pouch; you can see inside it with Spiritual Awareness," Liu Boli said softly from within the Golden Toad.
Qian Duoduo swept his Spiritual Awareness over it, and indeed, there was a space about three feet in size inside the pouch, filled with a pile of gold coins.
Pushing Kang Shenjun away, Qian Duoduo picked up the wooden sword from the ground, "Go outside the Immortal Cave and wait."
Kang Shenjun coughed a few times and reluctantly exited, standing outside the courtyard gate.
Qian Duoduo squatted down, lowered his head, and with a pinch of the Golden Light Condensing Coin spell seal, the Spiritual Vein, already surging with Spiritual Qi, immediately released a thick stream of Spiritual Qi.
He aimed it at the hole and forcefully poured the Spiritual Qi in.
As the Spiritual Qi overflowed, the small hole lit up, and the light spread outwards, activating a Formation the size of a spiderweb.
The white wall behind the meditation cushion silently opened, revealing a small storage compartment, where a single Dharma Bead lay quietly.
This Dharma Bead was recorded in Jin Buhuan's memories.
The high-grade artisan artifact lost by the Jin family was a string of Dharma Bead bracelets, enshrined in the Jin family ancestral temple; when worn, it could increase cultivation by ten percent.
The thief, in his panic, broke the string of the bracelet, scattering the Dharma Beads.
Before he could collect them all, he was caught by Jin Buhuan's father.
The Jin family refused to listen to any of his explanations, especially the Grand Elder, who immediately labeled him a thief and searched Jin Buhuan's home many times over.
During the family law punishment at the ancestral temple, Jin Buhuan's father caught a glimpse of this Dharma Bead left behind by the thief.
"It is the only clue to prove my innocence and find the thief."
Before he died, Jin Buhuan's father secretly handed the Dharma Bead to Jin Buhuan, "Do not think of avenging me until you reach the Golden Core Realm."
Jin Buhuan dared not carry the Dharma Bead with him, so he used this Formation to hide it in his Immortal Cave.
Qian Duoduo knew there was a Dharma Bead in the Immortal Cave, but he didn't know where the Formation was.
He took out the Dharma Bead and noticed two small characters engraved on it: "Tian Shu."
What did this Tian Shu mean?
As he pondered, Liu Lao used his Spiritual Awareness to tell Qian Duoduo, "Go to the other rooms, grab some random things, then leave."
There was nothing much in the other two rooms of the main house, only some old clothes and a few broken items.
Qian Duoduo picked out two or three changes of clothes from them, tied them into a small bundle, and slung it over his shoulder.
"That's all." Qian Duoduo walked out of the courtyard gate, took off his orange robe, threw it to Kang Shenjun, and put on one of Jin Buhuan's old outer garments.
With the orange robe removed, Qian Duoduo officially transformed from an "Inner Sect Disciple" into a "Utility Disciple."
Exiting the Inner Sect archway, and passing the Martial Arts Field, the high platform now had two young men in grey robes.
The intensity of the fighting hadn't lessened, and there were still just as many spectators.
Watching such martial displays every day probably made the day pass quickly.
Kang Shenjun glanced at the high platform, then lost interest and walked on with his head down.
Following him, they turned right, which was a new direction.
If they had turned left, they would have returned to the Jail.
"The new direction is the Gold Vault, maybe not as good as the Outer Sect, and certainly not as good as the Inner Sect's first district, but it's definitely a hundred times better than the Jail, and ten thousand times better than starving in the village!
Since that's the case, what is there to fear?"
Qian Duoduo's mouth curved into a grin, he took a few deep breaths of the Spiritual Qi-rich air, and quickened his pace.