Inside the pavilion, Xia Ningshang was busy refining pills while Yang Kai plotted how to get his hands on those Void King grade medicinal ingredients from Scarlet Moon's treasury.
After going over his options, there was really only one way.
Use the Stone Puppet!
The Stone Puppet could move through the earth without making a sound, and because it was an extremely unique lifeform, it was nearly impossible for others to detect its life fluctuations. Back when Yang Kai had been a guest at the Myriad Illusion Mountain's Glazed Gate, he'd used a Stone Puppet to steal a massive quantity of Myriad Illusion Glazed Crystal, which became a key material for constructing the Void King grade warship.
But this time the situation was somewhat different from back then.
Though the Myriad Illusion Mountain had been heavily guarded by the Glazed Gate, there had still been openings to exploit — the Glazed Gate's powerhouses had never imagined that any living creature could pilfer Myriad Illusion Glazed Crystal right under their noses.
Scarlet Moon's treasury, on the other hand, would be guarded with a level of security that probably made Myriad Illusion Mountain look like a joke.
The Stone Puppet was useful, but its intelligence was limited. If he sent it out recklessly, it would almost certainly alert the enemy.
He'd have to act personally.
With that thought, Yang Kai wasted no more time. He waved his hand, and a golden Stone Puppet materialized before him. This particular puppet was Little's only known kin, but due to various circumstances at its birth, its spiritual soul had been left incomplete, rendering an already low-intelligence creature about as animate as an inanimate object.
It suited Yang Kai perfectly as a stand-in for a doppelgänger.
Having absorbed large quantities of Yang Kai's pure gold blood, it had taken on a pale golden hue.
Studying the golden Stone Puppet before him, Yang Kai gave a slight nod. The sliver of an increasingly robust avatar soul in his Sea of Consciousness shot out in a flash and plunged into the golden puppet's body.
In the next instant, the dull eyes of the golden Stone Puppet regained a glimmer of vitality, seemingly becoming far more limber.
Yang Kai closed his eyes, his expression shifting subtly.
No matter how many times he experienced this, it still felt extraordinary. By injecting his avatar soul into the golden Stone Puppet and making it his doppelgänger, Yang Kai felt as though he had split into two separate beings.
He could feel every emotional fluctuation and sensation of his true body. At the same time, everything the golden Stone Puppet saw and heard was laid bare before him.
It was an indescribably wondrous experience — something beyond words.
He didn't rush into action. Instead, he first tried controlling the golden Stone Puppet's movements with his avatar soul. Only after familiarizing himself with this peculiar body did he shift into motion, plunging straight into the ground.
The solid earth was like nothing to the golden Stone Puppet. Its unique physique allowed it to merge seamlessly with its surroundings, moving through the underground unimpeded, like a fish gliding through water.
Not a soul in the palace detected a thing.
Yang Kai had already gotten the treasury's location out of Shan Qing Luo, so there was no need to search around. He fixed his bearings and headed straight for it.
Judging the distance and position, it didn't take long before the golden Stone Puppet arrived beneath the treasury.
Yang Kai quietly sent out his spiritual sense, probing upward.
Just as he'd expected, even this deep beneath the treasury, there were restrictions in place. The moment his doppelgänger's spiritual sense reached out, it encountered an invisible barrier blocking its path.
That invisible barrier didn't seem particularly strong. Yang Kai's mind stirred, and he subtly increased the power of his Divine Sense, concentrating it into a focused beam and striking into the void.
In all honesty, this was merely a probing attempt. Yang Kai kept his power as minimal as possible, not daring to push too far. He believed such a faint probe wouldn't draw anyone's attention.
But the instant his spiritual sense made contact with the barrier, a terrifying aura suddenly erupted from somewhere within the palace.
The sheer force of that aura made everyone tremble to their core.
In the intangible realm, it was as though an invisible pair of eyes had appeared in the void, surveying the entire palace and observing the movements of every last person. Under that gaze, no one dared so much as twitch.
The aura rippled outward, sweeping across the entire palace in moments, then vanished without a trace.
Quite a few people collapsed to the ground in disarray, sweat beading on their foreheads. Even Void Return realm cultivators found their limbs weak and their bodies going soft.
"What is Lord Scarlet Moon looking for?"
"Who knows — did someone do something in the palace to anger her?"
Everyone buzzed with speculation, utterly unable to figure it out.
Everyone knew that powerful aura belonged to Lord Scarlet Moon, and she alone could silence the entire palace with a single thought.
Yang Kai had been startled too. He hadn't expected Scarlet Moon's reaction to be so swift. Had the Stone Puppet clan not possessed their unique physique — able to merge perfectly with the surrounding earth — his doppelgänger would definitely have been exposed.
After that scare, he didn't dare continue tampering with the treasury. He hastily controlled his doppelgänger and beat a rapid retreat.
In Scarlet Moon's bedchamber, she furrowed her brow slightly, a look of puzzlement on her face, and murmured, "Strange... the treasury's restrictions were definitely triggered, so why can't I find anything?"
She couldn't make sense of it either.