Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 913 - 913 0552 Superb Skills_2

Chapter 913: Chapter 0552: Superb Skills_2 Chapter 913: Chapter 0552: Superb Skills_2 While speaking, Zhang Ting quickly made her move, taking away the pieces of Spirit Beast meat beside Qi Tian and the rest. She didn’t carry them far, just stepped back twice and gave the bowl a shake. The Spirit Beast meat flew out, and the spirit crow perched on her shoulder fluttered its wings to take flight, swift as lightning. A streak of Dark Light flashed through the air, and in an instant, the three bowls of meat that had flown up disappeared into the beak of the spirit crow.

Zhang Ting tossed the three bowls to Xiang Bo, who clumsily caught them. With a smug expression, she said, “Xiang Bo, did you see that? The quality of your Spirit Beast meat is so poor that the senior brothers disdain to eat it. I’ve fed it all to the spirit crow.”

Gao Jinmei’s brow furrowed, and she was about to take action to discipline Zhang Ting for her deception and for sowing discord between them and Xiang Bo, but Qi Tian hurriedly sent a psychic message to Gao Jinmei, warning her and Xia Xiaoming not to act. Zhang Ting was indeed in the wrong, but her actions did not warrant death. Of course, that was not the reason Qi Tian would condone her behavior; his main interest was the spirit crow on Zhang Ting’s shoulder.

Qi Tian had once secretly sneaked into several rooms of the City Lord’s Mansion, with the study being a particular focus of his attention. While he didn’t find any valuable clues there, he did come across some knowledge about the customs and culture in the Imperial Family Secret Territory, which is normally out of outsiders’ reach. The texts specifically mentioned the spirit crow.

The books stated that spirit crows were intelligent; they would choose their masters actively. Whoever was selected by them was bound to be taken away by the Imperial Family and brought into vital service.

Undoubtedly, the Imperial Family ruled over the Imperial Family Secret Territory. To be valued by them meant the possibility of direct contact with members of the Imperial Family, and hence access to the core secrets of the secret territory. Qi Tian had been worried about how to make contact with the members of the Imperial Family, and now such an opportunity had presented itself. How could he let it pass by?

Qi Tian believed that since Xiang Bo would have also seen the same culture-related materials he found in the City Lord’s Mansion’s study, Xiang Bo must be aware that Zhang Ting could be selected by the Imperial Family, yet Xiang Bo still treated Zhang Ting without courtesy. This meant that Xiang Bo had his own reliance, which belonged to Xiang Bo, not to Qi Tian. If he wanted to use Zhang Ting as a conduit to the Imperial Family, he had no choice but to befriend her.

Qi Tian briefly explained the situation to Gao Jinmei and Xia Xiaoming, detailing it so clearly precisely because he was worried their protective instincts could ruin his plan.

Once Gao Jinmei and Xia Xiaoming understood the situation, they both stepped back, leaving Qi Tian to play along with Zhang Ting’s act.

In the end, no one touched that pot of Spirit Beast meat. Using the excuse that the soup had grown cold and the meat less appetizing, Zhang Ting collected all of it. Whether she would later discard the pot of Spirit Beast meat was something only she herself knew.

When it came time for rest at night, Qi Tian and his companions sat on the ground, preparing to meditate throughout the night. However, Xiang Bo and Zhang Ting were reluctant to endure the discomfort of dining under the open sky. After setting up the tents they had brought, each crawled into their own. Zhang Ting’s spirit crow joined her inside her tent.

In the middle of the night, Qi Tian’s eyebrows twitched slightly. Although he appeared motionless, as if in deep meditation, he had actually kept a third of his consciousness awake to watch the surroundings. Moreover, both Gao Jinmei and Xia Xiaoming were sticklers for tradition, taking turns to keep watch at night wherever they were, refusing to entrust their and Qi Tian’s safety to any outsider.

Xia Xiaoming was on the night watch when he was about to move, Qi Tian sent a message to him, “Don’t move, pretend to cultivate.”

Xia Xiaoming immediately stopped his ascending body and sat back down, pretending to cultivate. It was then when a slit appeared in Zhang Ting’s tent, and a dark light shot out from the opening like a streak of lightning, flying away. It seemed to be holding something in its beak, first flying over the heads of Qi Tian, Gao Jinmei, and Xia Xiaoming. Something fell from the object held by the spirit crow, and they recognized it as a potent fragrance, which was extremely powerful. It was meant to knock out early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators with little effort. Even if it encountered middle-stage and late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, it should have some effect. Unfortunately, Qi Tian was never an ordinary Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, and Gao Jinmei and Xia Xiaoming were disguised Gold Core realm experts—the tiny bit of bewilderment fragrance could not possibly affect Qi Tian and the others.

Xia Xiaoming remembered Qi Tian’s instructions from the daytime and suppressed the urge to act. He was, after all, a Gold Core realm expert who had never in his life encountered someone bold enough to use bewilderment pills on him. Had this been in Wanjie City, he would have slapped them away long ago. But now, out of respect for Qi Tian’s orders, he had to endure.

After the spirit crow had used the bewilderment pills to knock out Qi Tian, it continued to carry the bewilderment pills towards Xiang Bo and the others. A streak of dark light faster than lightning passed by, and all Xiang Bo and his companions were affected, one by one being knocked out by the bewilderment pills.

Only then did the spirit crow stop. It landed on a nearby tree and cawed twice. A moment later, Zhang Ting crawled out of her tent with a smile of triumph on her face. She first walked up to Gao Jinmei and Xia Xiaoming, forcefully pulled off their Storage Bags, then moved to Qi Tian’s side and frankly took his away as well. After that, she walked over to Xiang Bo and the others, grabbing each of their Storage Bags.

Just when Qi Tian thought Zhang Ting was going to escape with the Storage Bags, she instead returned to her tent with a total of seven Storage Bags, sat down on the ground with a plop, and then reached for the Storage Bags.

As a cultivator’s personal belongings, Storage Bags are generally not open to outsiders; they’re like locked safes, and even if someone else were to take them, unless some strong measures or violent hacking were used, it would be impossible to open them. Of course, there are exceptions for specific circumstances, such as an ownerless Storage Bag, or if the owner, due to some special condition, did not apply any prohibitions or locks. In these cases, Storage Bags can easily be opened.

However, Qi Tian had sufficient reason to believe that neither Xiang Bo’s Storage Bags nor those of the guest officials would’ve been left unprotected. They all knew the difficulty of acquiring cultivation resources; how could they give outsiders the chance to covet?

But what happened next left Qi Tian dumbfounded. Somehow, Zhang Ting’s hand passed through the prohibition at the mouth of Xiang Bo’s Storage Bag like a ghost, reaching deeply inside.

Qi Tian was certain of this as he had been using the Heavenly Dao Engine’s function for sensing Spirit Qi to firmly lock onto every one of Zhang Ting’s movements, including every minute detail of the changes on the Storage Bags. He could affirm that the prohibitions really didn’t have any effect, as if unguarded, allowing Zhang Ting’s hand to pass through—it was unbelievable, almost magical.

Soon, Zhang Ting removed quite a few spirit stones, Spirit Beast meat, and other important cultivation resources from Xiang Bo’s Storage Bag, unabashedly transferring these resources into one she had prepared in advance. Then, using the same method, she moved all the important cultivation resources from the Storage Bags of the other guest officials into her own.

Then it was Xia Xiaoming’s turn. By this time, he had noticed the anomaly in Zhang Ting’s actions, and when he saw her reach for his Storage Bag, a trace of imperceptible disdain flickered at the corner of his mouth. He was, after all, a prestigious Gold Core realm expert. Although the Storage Bag he was using was meant to deceive others, he had set up many prohibitions on it. It was not something anyone could just tamper with.