No one knew what they would actually find in the secret stores.

It might be good, it might be bad, or it might be neither.

But regardless of how good or bad the discoveries were, Su Chen wanted to be the first to know. This was the only way to maximize his benefits — by getting the first pick, he could take anything good and avoid everything bad. Taking the initiative meant that you would always get to choose first.

Su Chen didn’t want to give up that kind of privilege, so he was going to fight for it even if he was going to incur some suspicion.

Thankfully, Zhu Xianyao didn’t suspect him.

After the assassination attempt, Zhu Xianyao’s trust in Su Chen had greatly increased. No matter what, she would never suspect him anymore.

She felt that Su Chen’s suggestion was only natural.

“I never expected that you would have so many hidden talents,” Zhu Xianyao said as she stared at him meaningfully.

To Zhu Xianyao, Su Chen probably seemed like someone who had pretended to be a pig in order to hunt the tiger.

Su Chen could only reply, “It wasn’t that high before, but after my bloodline awakened, I felt my consciousness power increase quickly. I don’t know if it was because of my bloodline or because of the wounds I had sustained.”

“If being wounded was enough to increase a person’s consciousness energy, I’d be willing to be hit seven or eight times a day,” Zhao Jingwen laughed.

“Keep dreaming,” Zhu Xianyao snorted. She handed the Nine-Eyed Jade Python Belt over to Su Chen. “Here.”

Once he received the sash, he began to set up the Origin Formation.

The best place for setting up this kind of Origin Formation was in the castle’s main hall. That place was both in the middle of the castle and an empty space, allowing him to lay down the entire Origin Formation.

Zhu Xianyao didn’t waste any time before bringing everyone down to the main hall.

Su Chen pulled out the Origin Formation Disk in the main hall. He had yet to place it when he suddenly heard footsteps from outside.

Culler charged over angrily. “Young Miss Zhu, what on earth are you doing?”

“Exactly what you’re seeing. We’re setting up an Origin Formation here.”

Now that things had reached this point, Zhu Xianyao had no interest in continuing to play games with Culler.

Culler savagely said, “Leader wasn’t wrong. You guys were never sincerely trying to do business here.”

“So what?” Zhu Baiyu took a step forward and reached forward, grabbing Culler by the throat. “Brat, stay put if you want to keep your life. Otherwise, I’ll kill you right now!”

Culler harrumphed and remained silent.

Su Chen felt his heart jolt slightly. He said to Zhu Xianyao in a low voice, “Be careful, there might be something wrong with this guy.”

“Then I’ll kill him right now!” Zhu Xianyao said.

“No, wait a bit! Once we’ve opened the secret stashes, we can use him as a guide,” Su Chen said.

He placed the Origin Formation Disk on the ground. A brilliant wave of light began to pulse out from the disk, illuminating the entire main hall.

Su Chen stood in the center. He immediately felt his vision ripple as his consciousness suddenly surged.

Countless consciousness tendrils began to leak out of his body, fluttering furiously on a level invisible to the naked eye. A strong wind started blowing through the main hall.

This was the physical manifestation of Su Chen’s consciousness energy growing stronger. His ability to influence the external environment also grew more noticeable.

At this moment, Su Chen was already wearing the Nine-Eyed Jade Python Sash. With the support of the Origin Formation, his consciousness energy had reached around 800 or so, but he still could not sense any fluctuations from within the castle.

“Tianyang, catch.” Zhu Xianyao pulled off the jade bracelet from her wrist.

The Clear Bright Bracelet could raise his consciousness power by another 120 units. Zhu Xianyao had relied on that to raise her consciousness power to around 300 units. Even though it was rather feminine in appearance and Su Chen felt a bit awkward wearing it, now was not the time to fuss about small details like that.

Unfortunately, he was still a bit short of a thousand.

Su Chen pulled out the vials of Spirit-Sobering Medicine and drank them all in one go.

It was only possible to drink three vials of Spirit-Sobering Medicine at once, and the effects would diminish with each successive vial; the fourth vial would have no effect whatsoever.

The three Spirit-Sobering Medicines gave Su Chen an additional 150 units of consciousness power, pushing him through the 1000 unit barrier.

A powerful current of consciousness energy surged forth, generating a tornado within the main room. His consciousness power had taken physical form and brought with it an immense pressure that bore down on everyone in the room, as if they were in the presence of an awe-inspiringly powerful person.

This was consciousness pressure!

Consciousness pressure that came from an extremely powerful individual.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Even though Su Chen’s physical strength had yet to reach that level, the consciousness pressure he exuded was at the level only a supremely powerful human could emit. His mere presence was enough to strike fear into everyone’s hearts and overwhelm them to the point that they spontaneously wanted to bow down and worship him.

If Su Chen were to use a consciousness technique right at this moment, everyone would definitely fall headfirst into it.

Unfortunately, even so, he still could not sense any traces of Kapius’s hidden stores.

His expression shifted slightly. “I still can’t sense anything.”

“How could this be?” Zhu Xianyao said

They had expended so much time, money, and energy to reach this point, but was it still impossible to find any traces of Kapius’s secret stores?

That was too disappointing.

“Let’s not be too hasty. A thousand units is just the entry point; perhaps it’s still a bit too low.”

“Use the scroll!” Zhu Baiyu said.

“Wait a moment. There’s still this.” Su Chen pulled out another item. It was the Nightmare Snake Origin Crystal he had won from the Sea of Clouds Auction back then.

Everyone was stunned. They hadn’t expected Su Chen to have hidden such a treasure on him. Zhu Baiyu’s eyes glittered strangely.

When he placed the Nightmare Snake Crystal in the Nine-Eyed Jade Python Sash, Su Chen’s consciousness power increased by another hundred units.

However, Su Chen still failed to discover anything of note.

He gritted his teeth and tore open the scroll.

Boom!

A massive burst of consciousness energy exploded forth from Su Chen’s body. His consciousness power had already reached 1370 units at this point.

As his consciousness energy continued to climb, the entire main hall was subjected to the pressure coming from Su Chen’s body.

At this point in time, the consciousness pressure wasn’t merely affecting their consciousnesses anymore and it could pose a physical threat to them. As long as Su Chen wanted to, he could activate his consciousness power to incapacitate a large group of people. Normal people would immediately become like zombies, and even people like Zhu Xianyao who had made significant attainments in cultivating would find it hard to resist.

This was exactly why the Spirit Race was so frightening. They could rely on their powerful consciousnesses to easily control a human’s intelligence and use illusion techniques on them.

Once his consciousness power reached this point, Su Chen finally felt that something was different from before.

“I can feel it!” Su Chen yelled loudly.

“What is it?” Zhu Xianyao yelled with excitement.

“It’s a vortex, an energy vortex...... It’s right...... Right on top of us,” Su Chen said as he looked up at the ceiling.

However, the ceiling of the main hall remained flat, with no sign of any kind of energy vortex in sight.

“It hasn’t shown itself yet,” Zhu Xianyao blurted out.

Su Chen immediately realized something. “It’s consciousness power, my consciousness power isn’t enough to get it to fully manifest. Dammit, we’re still short, but I’m already right at the edge! I can sense it, it’s right there! I just can’t get it to show itself!”

Su Chen began to yell with some irritation, “A hundred thirty units, I’m only short a hundred thirty units!”

This secret stash could only be opened with a full 1500 units of consciousness power.

But where would those hundred thirty missing units come from?