"Open!" Hao Yufandan forcibly revolved his cultivation base, expelling 4.67 grams of his longevity blood. A bright red-orange banner with flowing green stripes appeared above his head. This was Hao Yufandan's life treasure, the Vermillion Ant Vexillum. Each flap of its banner could produce a million ants. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These multicolored ants were denoted with a single character on their backs. Red '毫' ants were the most common, followed by Orange '釐', Yellow "分", Green "錢", and Blue "兩". Indigo "斤" ants were SSR units with a 0.005% drop rate. They can only be pulled in a gacha after the user spends real money on paid in-game currency. Violet "擔" ants have a bone-refining cultivation base. A single one can hold its own against ten mortals, however it is not often that even a single one might appear among tens of millions. (TL note: The Chinese characters represent units of weight, 1 tael = 1.316 oz "毫 (1/10,000 tael)", "釐 (1/1000 tael)", "分 (1/100 tael)", "錢, (1/10 tael)", "兩 (1 tael)”, “擔 (50 kg)").

The inked soldiers surrounding Hao Yufandan were immediately pushed aside, staining the floor black. These black spots eventually dissipated, turning into a fine mist.

“Seal!” Mu Yanbei pointed towards the banner. The paint brush in his grip started to crack and wither, its black hairs gradually transitioned to a grayish, pale white.

Hao Yufandan's face paled as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. The banner above him ceased momentum before falling to the ground, erupting in cold flame.

"Transcendental Art, All Triangles have Four Corners!" Tienshi Wudan clasped both palms together, summoning his dharma treasure. Behind him, a teacup the size of a child's fist appeared. This teacup was slightly tilted, constantly pouring out a silver liquid onto the floor. However to Mu Yanbei, what looked to be a liquid was actually innumerable orthocentric triangular prisms laid out side by side, forming a net of universal laws and constraints.

Just as how all of mass has a pulling force, just as how nuclear fission produces heat and energy, the universe is defined by a set of absolute values. The same can be said for mathematics. Adding one plus one will always come out to two, and adding two plus two will always equal four. However, at a transcendental level, these mere concepts presiding over reality are all simply a part of a definitive dao. A cultivator who reaches a certain level can even bend these immutable concepts to their whims.

The Nameless Saint was such a figure, someone who had reached a pinnacle of his cultivation path in his lifetime. Even a mere teacup that touched his lips sparsely throughout a lifetime had become imbued with a supreme dao. However he too had a mortal lifespan and eventually succumbed to the sands of time. After innumerable eons, all that remained of him was a small tea cup, however its existence represents the sheer and immeasurable distance between heaven and earth, of man and immortal, that a human at the pinnacle of cultivation can even drink the primordial laws constituting the universe itself as if were an afternoon tea.

Just as his predecessors before him, Tienshi Wudan's attempts at understanding the merit laws confined within this teacup were futile. He was no different from that of a caveman using a high-tech rifle as a club. However in this case, just wildly swinging around the club was enough. Following Tienshi Wudan's activation of the array, Mu Yanbei had become ensnared, surrounded by innumerable glass shards, each one containing a complex mathematical computation threaded into the foundations of the confined space.

Inside the array, Mu Yanbei's thoughts moved rapidly. In the time it took for a fly to flap its wings, he had managed to solve 0.017% of the array. Mu Yanbei reached out with his hand and crushed a fragment of the dao with an enclosed fist. A mere fifth-order calculus equation, not enough to reach the apex.

Mu Yanbei narrowed his eyes, he was still a far ways off from making any dent in the array. This would not do, Mu Yanbei had no intentions of unraveling the boundary restriction step by step. He immediately clasped both palms together and opened his internal aperture. "Martial Skill, Thirteen Steps Crossing Peninsula!"

Splash! A night sky adorned with a subset of twinkling stars, shined brightly inside a body of water. Within this grand ocean encompassing the sky, gentle white clouds slowly drifted. A school of fish maneuvered around a flock of birds, as shimmering auroras peered through the depths. In every direction, a moss-covered valley spread. North, south, east, and west, the aperture continued to expand. White mist covered the mountain peaks, as the overhead waters cast luminous shadows down on the valley. A wave of qi swept over its surface.

Outside the array, Tienshi Wudan suddenly grew pale and staggered to his knees. The outer walls of the barrier began to crumble as iridescent shards of glass fell scattered across the floor. Outside the store, a young girl holding on her mother's hand looked into the shop's window and pointed inside. "Mama, mama. Look! Why are there mountains and rivers inside that store? I can see an ocean in the sky!"

The mother tugged her daughter's hand along. "Oh, it is just some cultivators fighting to the death over a trivial matter, again. Don't stare too much Xishui, you might catch their stupid."

"Okay." The little girl nodded and skipped along.

Back inside the store, Tienshi Wudan and Hao Yufandan found themselves unable to move an inch. The entire space was filled with a dense qi, as if everything were underwater. A suffocating pressure pressed down on them. Koudai grit his teeth. His root chakra "海底輪" had not yet recovered from Sean Wu's attack earlier in the day. Without the flow of qi circulating through his body, he did not stand a chance of coming out unscathed from Mu Yanbei's attack. Koudai Fang Jin cursed under his breath. When he had made a prayer to the heavens earlier in the day to never come across Sean Wu again in this lifetime, Koudai Fang Jin did not imagine the heavens would be so malignant as to grant him an early death.

A figure stepped out from within the secluded domain. Mu Yanbei spoke eloquently with arms folded behind his back. "Had it been anyone else, you might have had a chance, however it is your misfortune to come across me. Now hand over the medicinal herb."

Tienshi Wudan and Koudai Fang Jin could feel a cold sweat on their backs. Mu Yanbei was like an asura that stood at the height of the world, looking down on all of life with a contempt for life. Their cultivation levels were only half a realm apart, however the difference in strength was like heaven and earth. It was as if comparing the number two with the number three. Three is obviously bigger than two!

Hao Yufandan stumbled down to one knee, before coughing up a mouthful of blood and then shouting. "Go ahead and do your worst! I will never give up this medicinal herb for as long as I draw breath!"

Koudai Fang Jin could not help but look over at Hao Yufandan. Dude, are you f*cking serious right now? Go see a doctor or something. Why are you still trying to get yourself killed over some medicinal herb that can be purchased two stalls down the block at a 50% upcharge?

"Very well, then let-" Mu Yanbei paused, he reached into his robe and withdrew a paper talisman. Reading over the message on the paper talisman, his expression changed, and his eyes lit up. Without saying another word, Mu Yanbei immediately leapt onto a flying sword and flew out the door.

Koudai Fang Jin was momentarily stunned. Mu Yanbei could have crushed the three of them underfoot, but chose to leave instead. He did not even bother to give the three of them a passing glance on the way out. What important matter had caught his attention?

下一幕

An incense time passed…

Mu Yanbei dispelled his sword aura and landed beside an olive-faced young man. "I came as fast as I heard, our little sister has been found?"

"Worry not." Mu Liang, the youth beside Mu Yanbei smiled. "I had already sent out some people to look for her."

"Good." Mu Yanbei stood upright with arms folded behind his back. "I wonder if she is sleeping and eating well. I happened to bring a...“

"Fourth brother! Eight brother!" Just then, a dark-haired youth landed beside them and clasped hands.

"You found her?" Mu Yanbei asked expectantly, eyes shining.

"Yes. We located them based on the hairpin they had on their person. We have verified that it is indeed the Mu clan’s legacy treasure. It is, without a doubt, the Winter Solstice Tigress." The dark-haired youth replied, stepping to the right. Behind him was a young man, with unremarkable features. He stood there in a daze, staring blankly at Mu Yanbei.

"Mu Liang." Mu Yanbei stared at Sean Wu.

"Yes, elder brother." Mu Liang was expressionless.

"...This is not our little sister."

"No, it is not." Mu Liang replied.