——Has your brother ever stolen anything?
——Steal? Are you kidding me? Other than when he was ten and stole a manhole cover from the abandoned steel factory to buy me snacks, he's never taken anything from anyone else!
Li Qianxia said it with pride, but most people hadn't even taken a manhole cover from an abandoned steel factory; her brother's moral standards were considered low.
Hearing Li Qianxia say this, Yang Qinglan felt relieved.
Stealing a manhole cover was something from a thousand years later. Guanyin from the Song Dynasty had died by then, so could she still manage the petty thefts of the Marxist era?
As they say, a couple's hearts beat as one, and Li Changzhou thought the same way.
No sooner had the golden basket left the Turquoise Pool and exited the North Heavenly Gate, heading towards the Tongtian River, than it was spotted by a black hawk, who reported it to him.
Anything "Guanyin" handled, Guanyin recognized instantly, and she explained it to him in just a few words.
[Stealing? Hahaha!] Li Changzhou laughed out loud, [If she's earmarked for retribution, I'm just a fish trapped in the net with no way out, but stealing?]
[Take back the Numinous Power...]
[The bamboo basket you used to catch that carp, wasn't it you who passed it on to me? Have you forgotten?]
[...What I meant was: the bamboo used for the basket that captures the Numinous Power.]
[...Does that count as stealing? Aren't the affairs of cultivators presumed to be in the hands of the virtuous?]
To this point, Guanyin only gloomily replied: [The golden basket has arrived.]
Li Changzhou opened his eyes, and the Slaughter Blade was unsheathed—
[Wait!] Guanyin shouted, [If you cut down the golden basket, you're slapping my face in front of the Queen Mother. I won't be able to step down from this, and I'll have to intervene even if I don't want to. Go take the carp, and I'll teach you a trick to slip away, giving me an out while dealing with the Numinous Power so it doesn't cause trouble later.]
Li Changzhou sheathed the "Slaughter Blade", stepped off his cushion, walked out the door, and headed for the carp pool.
Guanyin eyed the "Slaughter Blade," pondering whether she could catch such a strike while in the Turquoise Pool.
Given Li Changzhou's understanding of "Guanyin"—after knowing her once in the Song Dynasty's South Sea and spontaneously entering his brain from then on—he might actually be slain by the Slaughter Blade if he got close enough.
She wasn't worried about "Guanyin" being killed; she was worried that Li Changzhou provoking "Guanyin" would draw the attention of both the Heavenly Palace and the Western Heaven.
[Speaking of which,] Guanyin suddenly sighed, [the game really doesn't have any loopholes. You make a move, Granny Gui leaks information; you take a step, still with my help, and here I am, ready to take you down—truly perilous, every step heart-pounding.]
To evolve from a princess of a mundane kingdom to the great compassionate Bodhisattva was a tough path for Guanyin, but it wasn't like feeling the whole universe was targeting her, laying traps at every turn for the player to stumble into.
Players can only stumble into them.
If they survive the stumble without dying, only then can they continue.
[Had it not been for the Bodhisattva, I'd still be tangling with the Great King of Numinous Power, or crossing the Tongtian River to resume the journey for scriptures, following halfway behind Tang Seng. This time, it's actually gone quite well.]
Li Changzhou had no complaints.
To him, Guanyin's boundless magical power and the snipers on the deserted island are equally threatening.
From being targeted by snipers on his first game entry to being deceived by the hateful 2D in the desert, he had become accustomed to it over time.
Every player has undergone the same.
In the fish pond, the Great King of Numinous Power saw Li Changzhou approaching and felt that things were not going well. His scales tensed like metal, ready to break the last bit of bamboo qi restraint from inside him, but with a swift scoop from Li Changzhou, he immediately lost his strength.
This carp, called 'Numinous Power' and capable of summoning wind and rain, freezing the Tongtian River, was strong in spirit.
[Hurry!] Guanyin urged.
Li Changzhou pinched the Great King of Numinous Power with his left hand, formed several seals with his right, and chanted under his breath.
"Go!"
He threw the carp in his hand.
The restraints in the sky locked onto the Great King of Numinous Power, dragging him into the basket.
"It's him!"
"That thief is refining a treasure, don't let him succeed!"
A watery sword light streaked across the sky, shattering the golden basket with a snap, and the Great King of Numinous Power fell into the Tongtian River, flicking his tail and disappearing.
Li Changzhou: "..."
Guanyin: "..."
[...That basket, strong as it is, anyone who has stolen before will be constrained by it unless they have more magical power than me, at least sixty-nine thousand years worth. Yet, as frail as it is, someone who has never stolen can shatter it with a single strike.]
[...I've seen it for myself.]
Li Changzhou turned to look; three sword lights hovered above the Tongtian River, two men and one woman, all with a decent manner and good looks, pretty much scoring six points each.
Their cultivation was just so-so; the two younger ones hadn't become immortals, while the elder one had, but only possessed third-level Earth Immortal magical power.
Li Changzhou could kill them with a mere sneeze.
And the three who could be killed by a sneeze dared to meddle in his battle with the South Sea Guanyin, which could only mean... "Why would the sane be mad enough to do this?"
Only someone truly maddened could do such a thing.
A thread of Immortal Light enveloped each of the three. Li Changzhou took a closer look, and through the Immortal Light, he saw their true forms—the Immortal Swords.