Chapter 1770: Tampered Instructions

The monster's mouth was very large, at least enough to fit three Wu Shidaos. He walked past it, seeing its belly rising and falling rhythmically, but suddenly three snake heads emerged from behind it, approaching him and hissing. These were not real snakes, but the tails of the Yaotao, all with eyes, which could not only observe visitors but also feel the other party's emotions.

These things were truly sensitive, and Wu Shidao felt a bit nervous in his heart, which was actually smelled by them.

Once judged to be different, the tiger-like Yaotao would wake up and take a bite directly at him.

Wu Shidao secretly operated his mental method, forcing himself to calm down: "It's me."

It was truly an old acquaintance, and there was a three-point affection upon meeting. The snake heads circled to look twice more, determined that he was genuine, and then shrank back.

The Yaotao main body had never opened its eyes the whole time.

Only then did Wu Shidao walk forward quickly.

Behind the Yaotao was a small door, only allowing one person to pass through.

It was a guardian beast, and once an enemy broke in, they had to pass its level first.

After passing this door, it was another mountain cave.

This cave was small, and once the door was closed, it was a secret room, with stone walls on all four sides that were airtight.

There was no clutter in the cave, only a rectangular cold stone counter in the center, one yard long and six feet wide, without any patterns.

He walked to the front of the counter and knocked three times on the counter surface.

With a clatter, the counter opened by itself, and it was empty inside, except for a metal round plate at the bottom.

Wu Shidao closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then took out Sect Master Xiao's handwritten order and the General General Wu Di Bag given by Bai Ziqi, and put them into the round plate together.

"Clatter," the stone cabinet closed.

Life or death, success or failure, depended on this step.

He turned his head to look at the stone wall opposite. There was actually a shadowless door on this wall, leading to the last two layers of treasure caves, but it couldn't be opened at all usually, and could only be entered for inspection and account checking once every five years.

Usually, from Elders down to disciples, they could only stop at this secret room when storing or taking items, and then put the handwritten order into the counter to wait for verification.

Once passed, the scale-pan demon behind the shadowless door would start to allocate materials and then push them to the disciple through the counter.

From beginning to end, the disciple and the scale-pan demon didn't need to face each other, which reduced the interference of living people with the scale-pan demon's work.

Once the handwritten order failed verification, the Yaotao and managers outside would immediately receive the news and rush over to check.

This set of procedures was not only strict but also heartless, without any opportunity to get close or say good words in the middle.

Wu Shidao still remembered that when the previous old manager took him into this secret room for the first time, he said that people would be slack, and people would be tricked, so it couldn't be used here.

He took two steps back and began to wait, unknowingly his palms were full of cold sweat.

The handwritten order fell into the bottom plate of the stone cabinet and was soon transmitted behind the shadowless door, to be collected by the scale-pan demon—

The plate itself was a part of the scale-pan demon.

This monster's appearance was a standard bronze-colored balance, with a wide base, a load-bearing straight rod, and a large bronze-colored plate on each side.

It just picked up Sect Master Xiao's handwritten book, and the red gem on its forehead emitted red light, instantly turning the paper surface transparent.

Whether the handwritten book was true or false, this step could distinguish it. If it had been tampered with, forged, or even modified, the font would turn green.

After two breaths, the verification passed.

This handwritten book was recognized as Sect Master Xiao's own handwriting, and the magic power fluctuation in it also belonged to him, so the verification was correct. Thus, a silver weight jumped out from the base of the scale-pan demon.

The shape of the weight was very strange, looking like an ordinary scale weight on the outside, like a small bucket, but it had hands and feet, and could run, bend over, and take things like a person.

It rolled on the handwritten book, and the handwriting about the quantity of materials stuck to the weight.

Eighty thousand jin of top-grade Profound Crystals!

Next, the scale-pan demon had to grab materials according to the weight.

Its figure disappeared from behind the shadowless door, and immediately flashed to the last layer of the treasure cave.

Just as Wu Shidao knew, there was a rock cave here specifically for storing Profound Crystals, with a dozen rows of large shelves against the wall, half of which were filled with treasure chests of various sizes.

Inside these treasure chests were Profound Crystals of various grades.

The Scale-Pan Demon appeared directly in front of the narrowest row of shelves, holding its scale pan high.

After that silver weight jumped onto the shelf, it grew larger, at least half a person's height. It opened the chest lid with extraordinary proficiency and tilted the entire chest forward—

Clatter, clatter, clatter—the Profound Crystals inside rushed out of the chest and landed on the scale pan directly below! The Profound Crystals in this chest were all of a reddish-purple or purple-black quality; as the saying goes, "red to the point of turning purple," which is exactly this color. Not long ago, when the Emperor Flowing Plasma was at its peak, He Lingchuan had spent several days collecting only a dozen or so pieces of this quality of Emperor Flowing Plasma paste.

Yet in this inconspicuous cave of the Illusion Sect, there was just a whole chest of them, casually lying there.

Once one chest was emptied, the little weight figure moved to the next.

Every single Profound Crystal landed precisely on the pan without ever falling to the ground, and no matter how much was poured, the bronze pan never filled up.

If one looked closely, one would notice that the Profound Crystals shrank drastically as they entered the pan; a whole chest poured in only amounted to a sesame-sized speck.

This was five hundred jin of Profound Crystals!

In the blink of an eye, the second chest was emptied.

The little weight figure moved on to the third, fourth, and so on, without hesitation...

Until it had gathered enough, it jumped onto the scale pan to weigh them; sure enough, it was exactly the right amount, not a bit more or less.

Afterward, it continued to move the Profound Crystals; the scale tilted, and those five thousand jin of Profound Crystals poured with a rustling sound into the bottomless bag.

The mouth of the bag was only so wide, and the speed at which the Profound Crystals were poured was not fast.

The Scale-Pan Demon's movements were nimble, but "eighty thousand jin of top-grade Profound Crystals" was truly a massive number, making it difficult to finish in a short time.

Any sentient being would feel suspicious of the number written in the letter, even if it were indeed Sect Master Xiao's own handwriting, containing a trace of his true qi.

But the Scale-Pan Demon would not; it simply executed orders mechanically.

The reason Qian Huan had sent it to guard the treasury was precisely because of its mechanical nature and its tendency to follow rules to the letter.

Beings with high intelligence would develop self-awareness; once they had self-awareness, they would have more distracting thoughts.

Being in the treasury and dealing with so many supreme treasures all day, who could avoid harboring evil intentions? Qian Huan had seen through human nature and thus wanted such a dull, uninteresting, yet loyal and selfless magic tool to guard the treasury.

However, there are pros and cons; the Scale-Pan Demon was actually an artifact spirit, possessing neither self-doubt nor the ability to make its own judgments.

Wu Shaodao had seized upon this point, using the Mirage Powder bestowed by Miao Zhantian to secretly alter Sect Master Xiao's written order, changing the description of "eight hundred jin of mid-grade Profound Crystals."

This Scale-Pan Demon was originally one of Qian Huan's magic tools; it was not at all strange that it could not see through its master's illusion.

Since it was the master's order, it had to be executed thoroughly and meticulously.

Eighty thousand jin of top-grade Profound Crystals—not a single piece could be missing! Time passed bit by bit, and over a hundred chests of Profound Crystals went into the bag.

(End of chapter)