System warning are so blaring inside his sea of consciousness, he immediately wakes up from his seat.
"Young Immortal Master, what's wrong?" asked Pei An.
He smiled to him and ruffled his head affectionately.
"It's fine, just some people impatient to meet new owners of Verdant Dragon Mansion."
"You mean someone try to enter the front gate, Lord Yan?" Zhou Wenhai also asked.
"Dad… does a bad guy want to capture us again?"
"Ahh… sweet little girl… with Brother Yan here you don't have to be worried."
Yan Qing assured this little girl who looked like she was afraid.
Although system said there are Immortal Ascension cultivator, but for hundreds years no one are able to breach this mansion.
So that means the defensive array protecting the mansion far more stronger than the rest cultivator out there.
Hence Yan Qing still relatively confident, although system give him warning.
"It's okay, you guys continue to eat, and make yourself at ease. If you are not confident in me, at least the mansion you guys can have confidence at mansion protective array."
"Lord Yan, I'm coming with you." Zhou Wenhai firmly stood and wanted to follow Yan Qing.
"Dad…" Yu'er tugged Wenhai's sleeves.
"It's fine, my sweet little girl. You are very brave so far. Let me go with Lord Yan just in case he needs a hand."
"Yu'er, stay here with everyone, okay?"
After Wenhai said that, he smiled to his precious daughter.
"Mmm…" her small head nodding sweetly.
"Lord Yan…" he cupped his hands to Yan Qing.
Oh well, might as well taking someone.
[ Assesing designated target ]
[ Name : Zhou Wenhai ]
[ Age : 38 ]
[ Spiritual Roots : Dual Woods and Ice ]
[ Cultivation : Core Formation Peak ]
"Whoa, dual wood and ice, very rare isn't it, Wenhai?" Yan Qing casually asked him.
Zhou Wenhai was surprised. "Lord Yan can see my spiritual roots?"
"Mhmm… don't ask how, I just know it."
[ WARNING! WARNING! ]
I'm on it!
"Alright, Wenhai, let's go see who is our uninvited guest."
Then Yan Qing leapt into the air, and Wenhai also jumped on the lake, and with his fast footsteps, it almost looked like he walked on the water.
*
Meanwhile, at the same time at the front gate that shaped like a small forest, three adult men wearing the same exact cultivator robe, red in color with embroidery shaped like sword and mandala, the three of them channeling their qi, trying to do something with the protective array.
"Brother Yuan, we channel our qi for a while now, but the array doesn't even react even a little," one of them said to the tallest guy between them.
"Zhen Yi, focus, this is our City Lord command," said the guy next to him.
Then the tallest guy took something from his qiankun bag.
A golden pen brush with a snow-white handle, that's the thing the tallest guy took from his bag.
"You guys keep channeling your qi, I'll try to create something from it."
Then he began drawing using the gold pen with snow-white handle.
His movements were very elegant, as if he wrote a story to soothe the souls.
"This array was open before. After hundreds of years being dormant, and even Heaven Immortal cannot break it, there must be some residual trace on how to open the array," he said while keep drawing something in the air.
"How to trace it? Even if Heaven Immortal can't open it, how can we, mere Dao Integration, see it?" said the first guy.
"Zhen Yi, the beauty of array and formation is, it doesn't necessarily need a supreme being to create a powerful array. As long as you have the right configuration and align with time precision, you can create a very powerful formation."
The guy named Zhen Yi nodded as if he understood.
"Most constellation are the ones that govern powerful formation. In ancient book, there are three major constellation: Beidou Qixing, Nandou Liuxing, and San Guang."
"What is the connection with this array and your drawing, Brother Yuan?"
"If I can determine what constellation governs the array, I most probably will be able to replicate it just by the trace of the qi on it."
"You understand that much? Damn, I guess people are right, you are the smartest among us," Zhen Yi replied.
"What I draw now is Heaven Veil formation, a minor branch of Tianji of Nandou Liuxing. I fortunately learned it from a powerful array master on the southern land."
"This Heaven Veil, just like its name, is supposed to conceal something, but I can configure it vice versa so it can open the concealment, or in this case, trace of qi."
"Brother Yuan indeed smart."
Not long after, this Brother Yuan frowned.
"What's wrong, Brother Yuan?"
"Either the person who opened the array is a powerful master, or he is just lucky that the array broke right at the time he wanted to enter this mansion," Brother Yuan explained.
"How so?" Zhen Yi asked.
"The trace of the key was just a very basic formation, not even a spirit gathering one. It's just some array to call wind. That was basically the first lesson in any array formation class."
"So either that, or the one that opened this array is a very powerful array master."
"You absolutely can't open the gate, Brother Yuan?"
Before Brother Yuan answered that question—
"You can't open the door?"
A voice came from one of the banyan trees near the array gate.
The three of them instantly looked in the direction of the voice.
"It counts as breaking and entering if you insist on modifying my array."
There, hanging on one of the banyan branches, a young man with silver platinum hair casually sat and dangled his feet from above.
Beside him, an older man with tattered clothes stood, as if he guarded the young man.
Brother Yuan tried to sense their cultivation with his spiritual sense.
The tattered guy was at Core Formation Peak, with… wait… what? A renewed dantian? How come?
While the young man who shouted at him, his aura definitely a Nascent Soul, far below him, but the strange thing is, beside the aura, everything on the young man's presence is nothing—yes, a nothing, like a blank void.
Something inside him alerted him… but alerted about what?
He was sure that his two colleagues also felt the same about the young man.
He cupped his hands to the young man.
"My name is Lu Jingyuan. These are my colleagues, Shen Cheng Wu and Han Zhen Yi. We have instructions from the City Lord to investigate this mansion, because someone saw a small convoy enter it."
"Does your City Lord also instruct you to forcefully break the array?" the youth said with a smile.
"No, forgive our intrusion. It's just that this mansion being sealed for hundreds years, then suddenly someone can easily enter it, it makes me curious," Lu Jingyuan explained.
"Your Tianji is not bad, even you can modify it."
Lu Jingyuan was surprised. This youth knows his seal?
"I'm Yan Qing. This guy is Zhou Wenhai, and this Verdant Dragon Mansion is my ancestral house from my grandmother paternal side, so yeah, of course it's open for me."
Now the three of them were surprised, since hundreds years ago the last person who resided in this mansion was a small cultivator family, but they all died during the beast tide that came without warning from the southern part of the city.
"Do you remember any famous Yan Family?" Chengwu whispered to Zhen Yi.
"Not at all… even our intelligence about reclusive families doesn't mention any Yan Family."
Yan Qing jumped from the banyan tree to the edge of the array, directly facing them.
"Now you know the owner of the mansion. Does anyone still have some matters to be discussed with me?"
"Again, we are sorry for the intrusion, but perhaps you can come with us to the City Lord mansion?" Lu Jingyuan continued.
"What for?" asked Yan Qing.
[ WARNING! WARNING! IMMORTAL ASCENSION DETECTED ]
[ DESIGNATED OBJECT ARE 1 LI ABOVE THE HOST NOW ]
[ ASSESING ENTITES ]
[ TARGET USING TALISMAN CONCEALMENT IMBUED WITH ONE OF THE SANGUANG FORMATION ]
Huh? Someone above me?
Then Yan Qing looked up at the sky, but seeing nothing beside starry night and moon hanging in the air.
He moved his finger, drawing an octagonal shape that imbued it with a little bit of qi, then he shot it to the sky right at the system designated location.
Few seconds afterward, a small explosion was heard from the sky.
The three guys looked with amazement and horror.
Then—
A woman descended from the sky, not in a hurry, as if stepping down invisible stairs.
Her robes fluttered gently in the night wind.
Moonlight washed over her form, revealing warm-toned robes embroidered with subtle cloud patterns. Her long hair was tied simply, held by a single jade ornament. One hand rested casually on a long polearm slung across her shoulder.
The air thickened. The spiritual qi trembled. Even the stars above seemed to dim slightly in response.
The three Dao Integration cultivators immediately cupped their fists, expressions solemn.
"City Lord."
Her gaze shifted curiously to Yan Qing.
"Little Brother, that San Guang Talisman wasn't cheap at all."
[ TARGET OBJECTIVE IDENTIFIED ]
[ Name : Mu Yaojin ]
[ Age : ??? ]
[ Spiritual Roots : Mythical Moon Body ]
[ Cultivation : Immortal Ascension ]
[ Threat Level : CALAMITY ]