Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 40: The Clear Mantra Chain Lock

"This isn’t some fireworks display—what’s there to look at?" Ma Congqiu was speechless at this junior disciple from the Qianji Sect. He looked like a pretty face with nothing behind it, and he talked like one too.

You Fushi suddenly looked up at him—just a brief glance, emotionless.

For a split second, Ma Congqiu felt like everything around him froze. It was as if an invisible hand was squeezing his throat. His expression changed instantly.

Ye Su seemed to sense something and turned her head to look at You Fushi, but all she saw was the little junior brother looking exhausted, eyes lowered, lazily shoving the Earth Illusion Lotus into her hands like he couldn’t even be bothered to hold it.

That strange pressure disappeared without a trace. Ma Congqiu even doubted whether he had imagined the whole thing.

No way, he told himself. This kid from the Qianji Sect isn’t even as strong as that Yi Xuan from before. I must have imagined it.

Still, the fear he had felt made him irritated with himself.

"The Four-Sided Staff is a special artifact used by the Ten Thousand Buddha Sect," Xu Chengyu said, looking at the unfamiliar staff on the lotus platform. "It can suppress demons and bring clarity of mind. Maybe this secret realm was once left behind by someone from that sect."

After speaking, he frowned and planted his sword into the ground.

Zhou Yun noticed something was wrong. "Senior Brother?"

Xu Chengyu raised his hand. "I’m fine."

The spiritual energy here was just too dense. He had only recently gained insight into sword intent and was struggling to suppress the turmoil within his spirit reservoir.

"You’re about to break through," Ye Su realized. "Brother Xu, just one of us needs to stay here."

A single Core Formation-level sword cultivator, plus Lu Jiu and herself, was enough. There were no beasts around—staying safe wasn’t a problem.

Spiritual energy was already surging toward Xu Chengyu. He looked at the three meditating cultivators—Ming Liu Sha and the others—then said to Congqiu, "Come with me. Junior Sister Zhou, stay and protect them."

Zhou Yun was a stronger swordswoman than Ma Congqiu. Xu Chengyu would feel more at ease with her watching over the others.

Their sect, the Sword Sect, had promised to protect the Qianji Sect. Now he himself was about to break through inside the secret realm.

But breaking through to Nascent Soul required a massive amount of spiritual energy—it would definitely disturb the others' cultivation. They had to move.

Once Xu Chengyu and Ma Congqiu left, Ye Su tossed the Mirror Armor into the air, activating a protective shield that covered Ming Liu Sha and the others.

Meanwhile, cultivators on the lotus platform were fighting fiercely, desperate to seize the staff. Not everyone recognized what it was, but it was obviously a powerful treasure.

Some stood nearby just watching, waiting to make a move at the right moment. Some even glanced over at Ye Su’s group warily.

"Ye Su," Lu Jiu said with a strange expression, "I think I’m about to break through too."

The spiritual energy here was so intense, she was absorbing and converting it involuntarily.

"Go inside," Ye Su said after a glance at the protective shield.

After Lu Jiu went inside and sat down to prepare, more cultivators at the center of the boundary started to stop what they were doing. They began placing defensive treasures around them to break through on the spot.

Ye Su’s eyes fell on Xu Chengyu in the distance, then swept over the other cultivators in breakthrough meditation scattered around. Her brow furrowed deeply.

Something wasn’t right. Too many people were breaking through at once.

Ma Congqiu had said earlier that he suspected there was some kind of array beneath them because the spiritual energy was too thick.

"Ye Su, I’m sleepy," You Fushi said again beside her.

Ye Su turned slightly to look at him, just about to speak, when she saw her little junior brother collapsing in her direction.

She reached out to catch him. "…Is he sleepy, not fainting?"

"What’s going on with them?" Zhou Yun had already seen that even Ma Congqiu had sat down in the distance—even though he was supposed to be standing guard.

Ye Su didn’t respond. Her face remained expressionless as she looked back toward the lotus platform.

At the center of the boundary, most cultivators had entered deep meditation to break through. Only a few were still conscious. On the platform, two cultivators had each grabbed one side of the Four-Sided Earth Treasury Staff.

Neither would let go. They both tried to pull the staff to their own side, while using their free hand to launch spiritual attacks at each other.

Because of their struggle, the small rings on the top of the floating staff began to sway, and the spiritual energy in the area started flowing toward the staff.

From the moment they grabbed it, both cultivators had their spiritual energy drained completely. Their bodies even began to wither.

Zhou Yun stared at them, horrified. Her face turned pale.

"There’s something wrong with these breakthroughs," Ye Su turned to her and asked, "Do you have any kind of protective artifact on you? Something your senior brothers don’t have?"

All three were direct disciples of the Sword Sect, but Zhou Yun’s background was special—she was the Sect Master’s daughter, so she should have more protection than the others.

Zhou Yun quickly checked her belongings. Finally, she touched the silver cloud-patterned collar around her neck.

"The Clear Mantra Chain Lock. The Wuxing Sect gave it to me when I was born. My senior brothers don’t have one."

"What’s the Clear Mantra Chain Lock?" Ye Su asked. She knew her way around artifacts, but had never heard of that one.

"Talismans," Zhou Yun explained. "The lock contains a Clear Mind Talisman placed by a grandmaster from the Wuxing Sect. Wearing it allows you to break through all illusionary barriers and temptations."

The higher one’s cultivation, the harder it was to bear children. So when the Sect Master of the Sword Sect had a daughter, it was a major event. All the major sects sent grand gifts. The 【Clear Mantra Chain Lock】 was among the most practical ones. Her father put it on her immediately, and she’d never taken it off since.

Ye Su nodded and gently propped the unconscious You Fushi against the stone wall. "Please look after them. I’m going to the lotus platform."

"But…" Zhou Yun looked at the two shriveled corpses on the platform. "That staff is dangerous."

Ye Su looked down at the Earth Illusion Lotus in her hand. "If we don’t try, everyone here is going to die."

"What?" Zhou Yun glanced around and suddenly noticed—all the cultivators in meditation were having their spiritual energy drawn away by the staff on the lotus platform. She anxiously looked toward Xu Chengyu and Ma Congqiu. Her senior brothers had been caught in it too.

Ye Su didn’t know why the Four-Sided Earth Treasury Staff was absorbing people’s energy. She didn’t have the 【Clear Mantra Chain Lock】. The only thing she had that others didn’t was the Earth Illusion Lotus.

Combined with the strange comment You Fushi had made earlier, Ye Su was willing to take the risk.

With the Earth Illusion Lotus in hand, Ye Su stepped slowly toward the lotus platform. The dense spiritual energy around her surged wildly toward the Four-Sided Earth Treasury Staff above—or rather, it was being pulled in.

【Four-Sided Earth Treasury Staff, seven feet tall, topped with three black obsidian lotus stands. Four outer edges hang with small circular rings. Clears illusions, subdues demons. Once owned by a Ten Thousand Buddha Sect disciple in the Divine Perishing stage.】

Ye Su had read this sentence once in a handwritten note tucked inside a book on the fifth floor of the Qianji Sect’s hidden archive. It was a loose slip of paper, torn and stuck inside by some elder.

Ye Su walked step by step up to the lotus platform, but didn’t touch the staff right away. She turned instead to look down. Her eyes narrowed slightly: A formation?

The boundary center was already on high ground, and the lotus platform was ten meters higher still. From there, she could clearly see most of the secret realm.

Ponds, lotus flowers, stone steps…

Ye Su couldn’t identify it precisely, but she could faintly sense the presence of a large formation. The way it drew in the surrounding spiritual energy reminded her of drawing talismanic symbols.

If Ye Su had a deeper knowledge of formations, she would have realized this formation wasn’t feeding energy to the staff on the platform—it was directing it toward the spot where they had previously found the Earth Illusion Lotus.

She turned back toward the staff and stared at it for a moment, then looked at the platform itself. Carved into it was a complex pattern.

Ye Su crouched down and studied the pattern for a while. Below, she could hear Zhou Yun urgently calling to her.

She extended her finger, drew a heavy line across the pattern with spiritual power, breaking it. Then she stood up and placed the Earth Illusion Lotus bud into the middle layer of the lotus stand.

At that moment, countless lotus leaves in the boundary began swaying in the wind. The lotus flowers bloomed to their fullest before instantly withering and drying up, as if something had drained them. Meanwhile, the Earth Illusion Lotus swelled from a bud into two lotus blossoms.

It really was beautiful.

Ye Su thought to herself, but it was a pity that the little junior brother was already fast asleep and wouldn’t see it.

"It stopped!" Zhou Yun shouted from below.

The cultivators in meditation were no longer having their energy drained.

Ye Su watched as the floating Four-Sided Earth Treasury Staff slowly descended. The triple lotus heads on its top flickered faintly with black light.

She hesitated for a moment, then reached out and grasped it.

—Nothing happened.

Ye Su, without hesitation, stuffed the Four-Sided Earth Treasury Staff into her Qiankun bag and walked down from the platform.

"They’re still unconscious," Zhou Yun asked nervously. "Will they be okay?"

"There’s still spiritual energy around. Zhou, do me a favor—swing your sword," Ye Su pointed casually at the nearby ponds. "Cut them open."

"How should I cut them?" Zhou Yun asked.

"However you like," Ye Su said. "Just break one of them so the flow of spiritual energy is interrupted."

Zhou Yun nodded, glanced into the distance at her two senior brothers, then drew her sword and leapt into the air. Her movement was light and ethereal, but when she brought the sword down, it struck with the weight of a thousand pounds—unstoppable and full of power.

Within the boundary center, where her sword fell, a deep gash split through the surface of the pond.

The pond cracked open, releasing murky water and sludge, exposing the formation stones hidden beneath. At that moment, the dense spiritual energy that had filled the boundary immediately began to dissipate.

"There really was a formation down here!" Zhou Yun frowned. "Whoever made this secret realm is vicious—setting up a formation just to drain cultivators’ spiritual energy."

As she spoke, she destroyed the formation stones inside with another strike.

Ye Su no longer paid attention to that, instead focusing on the meditating figures like Ming Liu Sha and the others.

Many of the cultivators who had been in a false breakthrough state slowly began to regain consciousness. Among them were Lu Jiu and Ma Congqiu. The rest were likely those who had genuinely been on the verge of breaking through.

"Senior Sister," Ming Liu Sha slowly opened his eyes. His face was pale as he stood up, then checked his spiritual core and said hoarsely, "Mid Foundation Establishment."

Losing spiritual energy during a breakthrough was never a good thing. As expected, when Xi Yu and Xia Er woke from their breakthroughs, they both looked unwell—Xia Er couldn't even stand and collapsed right back down.

The worst off was Xu Chengyu. He had already grasped sword intent and should have formed his Nascent Soul.

A faint blue glow surrounded Xu Chengyu’s body. His hands were folded over his abdomen as his consciousness drifted outward, sensing everything around him, reaching further and further. He was just about to complete the final step of forming his Nascent Soul—when something he encountered caused the soul form to shatter. He coughed up a large mouthful of blood.

"Senior Brother!" Ma Congqiu acted instantly, pressing on his Tianzhu acupoint to seal his spiritual energy.

Zhou Yun dropped to one knee and pulled a healing pill from her Qiankun bag, then fed it to Xu Chengyu. "What happened?"

There had clearly been signs that his Nascent Soul was forming. Why had it failed?

"We need to leave," Ye Su said, pointing upward to the others. "This secret realm is collapsing."

"Again?" Lu Jiu gripped her sword and shook her head in confusion. She had explored many secret realms, but only the last time—and now this time—had ended in collapse.

Normally, secret realms just open and close at random. They don’t fall apart.

"Probably because the realm’s stabilizing treasure was taken," Ye Su replied.

"Stabilizing treasure?" Lu Jiu looked surprised. She had been meditating and missed everything that had happened. "Who took it?"

Ye Su replied lightly, "I did."

"That four-sided… whatever staff—is that the stabilizing treasure?" Lu Jiu asked curiously.

Ye Su helped You Fushi to his feet. "It should be."