Clang! Clang! Clang!

There was a party of five or so cultivators from small sects battling with empty suits of armour. The levels of these cultivators were not low, with two of them in the 7th rank and the rest in the 6th rank. The terrifying thing were those silver suits of armour – they were unafraid of pain and could not bleed or be crippled. Even if you chopped off the head, the rest of the body would keep swinging at you with their sharp axes or hammers. The rogue cultivators were understandably at their wits end fending off these suits of armour.

After a moment of observation, Van understood that these seemingly empty suits of armour were actually ghost guards stationed in the ancient manor to defend its treasures. When he extended his spiritual sense out, he could sense many dormant ghost guards stationed all around the manor, their numbers were frightening and some were even the equivalent of a 9th rank cultivator.

[It is important to avoid triggering them as much as possible].

At that moment, Van was spotted.

"Hey, you! Please help us!" A young man with rather timid looking features shouted. Despite his appearance he was one of the cultivators in the 7th rank.

Van wasn't an idiot – to be from as small sect and yet have achieved the 7th rank this rather timid-looking youth would still have the pride of a genius. To ask for Van's help like this stunk of an ulterior motive. This was especially considering the fact that the group of five people, given enough time, would probably be able to defeat the ghost guards they had triggered. Van had been able to detect this within milliseconds of entering the scene, owing to his new spiritual sense which allowed him to grasp the entire battlefield within a breath.

The group of cultivators probably didn't expect that Van would see through the situation so clearly. They continued to shout and struggle, shrieking occasionally as legless suit of armour fell down but continued to hack at their ankles.

A condescending smile lifted the corner of Van's lips; but it was gone too quickly for any of them to see it.

Van's figure vanished like smoke and appeared in the midst of the battle. The group of small sect disciples were elated.

CLANG!

A black axe swung tyrannically forwards and cleaved a ghost guard cleanly in half, crus.h.i.+ng the spiritual core of the suit of armour and immediately rendering the ghost guard dead.

The two halves of the metal suit fell loudly to the stone floor.

The small sect disciples exchanged looks. They gulped.

"Thank you for helping us, fellow cultivator. What is your name?"

"Van," The red-haired youth grunted.

CLANG!

His obsidian battle-axe cleaved another silver suit of armour in half.

The group of small sect disciples watched silently as they continued to fight the remaining suits of armour.

The timid-looking youth shot Van a weak smile, "My name is Timothy. My teammates and I are from the Broken Cloud Sect."

"Brother Van, if it weren't for you appearing now, we would have been overrun by these nasty ghost guards. This ancient manor is full of treasures but unfortunately these treasures are defended by too many ghost guards. How about you team up with us and we'll split the treasures evenly between us? We are only a small sect so we are happy gaining any treasures at all."

Van tried not to roll his eyes. If he 'teamed up' with them, it would be him doing all the leg work while they reaped the benefits of clinging onto a golden thigh.

What 'happy gaining any treasures at all?' An equal split would mean that their Broken Cloud Sect made ma.s.sive gains on the back of Van's hard work.  

Van still had the niggling feeling that this situation was not all that it seemed. These cultivators from the Broken Cloud Sect still had another motive that they had not revealed yet.

"Sure," The red-haired youth said.

Timothy's placid brown eyes flashed but he smiled broadly, showing a slightly different temperament than the timid persona he had been projecting.

"We have already been here for a day now, and identified that the most valuable place in here is located behind the central area of the manor, we believe that it is the treasury. It should contain many valuable items. However, there's a few guards there who are in the 7th and 8th rank," Timothy explained.

Van hid his sneer. Clearly there were even 9th rank ghost guards near that area, yet this Timothy fellow lowered their level by an entire rank to entice him to go there.

Very well, this daddy would go along with it!

Van nodded magnanimously, "How generous of you to share this discovery. Let's go to the central area and see if we can find a way to enter the treasury safely."

Having defeated all the ghost guards in the entrance way, the group consisting of the Broken Cloud sect disciples and Van moved to go towards the central area. a vast hall filled with dusty portraits along the walls. No matter how hard Van looked, the faces depicted in those dusty portraits faded out of his memory as soon as he tried to remember them. He shook his head.

"The entrance to the treasury is down the stairs," Timothy suddenly came to Van's side.

The red-haired youth nodded. At the moment the ghost guards stationed at the bottom of the stairs were dormant, but Van knew that they were actually in the 8th rank. There was two of them there, but Van suspected that originally there was more as there were areas bereft of dust in the shape of their footprint. It seemed that the Broken Cloud disciples had been here for a few days already, rather than just the one day they claimed. Over these few days they had slowly but steadily whittled down the guards that remained guarding the treasury.

His spiritual sense extended into the treasury. The chamber was small compared to the great hall, but filled to the brim with treasures. Each and every treasure gave off a profound aura, indicating that they were high-ranked treasures worth fighting for. Even Van's heart started pumping when he saw what was within. It was a shame that the waist pouches could only contain so much – he would have cleared the whole place out himself if he could. At that moment, Van spotted two hulking figures at the back end of the treasury. His hackles raised.

As he had sensed before, there were two 9th ranked ghost guards concealed within the treasury. With gleaming golden armour and gleaming great axes, they were an intimidating sight to behold.

Van now realised that the Broken Cloud disciples didn't know that inside the treasury itself, 9th ranked ghost guards waited – otherwise they would have given up from the get go.

 With this new knowledge, Van felt that the scenario was off once more. It could be that the Broken Cloud disciples wanted Van to distract the 9th ranked ghost guards while they legged it with the treasures… but it was alarming that they believed he would be capable of defeating a 9th ranked ghost guard.

Secretly in his heart Van believe he would be able to do so where he to exert his full abilities, but the concern was that no one in the Monster Mausoleum knew the true depth of his skill.

Had he been seen through?

Or was there a third player here, machinating both his and the Broken Cloud disciple's actions?

At that moment, a new figure ran into the front hallway. From the colour of their robes, it was another Broken Cloud disciple. Who knew where they came from, but it was clear that Timothy and the others were familiar with them.

"Not good! Incoming!"

The group cursed, but to Van's ears they sounded hollow.

Hot on the heels of this new figure, four ghost guards appeared. Their armour was clearly a grade higher than the ghost guards they had fought before – a s.h.i.+ny silver with gold tr.i.m.m.i.n.g.

Van's eyes narrowed. These ghost guards had the equivalent rank of a 7th level Qi Distillation cultivator.

Timothy turned to Van with a pleading look on his face, "Brother Van, we are so close to reaching the treasury. If we fight those 7th rank ghost guards here we will wake up the 8th ranked ghost guards in front of the treasury, potentially killing us all. I saw that you have a good movement skill earlier, it would be easy for you to distract the 8th ranked ghost guards and lure them away so that we can quickly kill these 7th ranked ghost guards and take some things from the treasury. We will find you afterwards and give you an equal share!"

Timothy smiled, "How does that sound?"