The wedding was livestreamed by the sister, revealing his identity as a Taoist priest.

Longhu Mountain is the back mountain of the Qingwei School.

The ninth bolt of purple lightning struck.

Qin Shouyi retreated to a distance of thirty feet.

He had cultivated Taoism for forty years and had never seen anything like this.

Elder Zhao's legs were already shaking.

"Sect Leader... just how many layers of tribulation is this?"

Qin Shouyi did not answer.

He was counting.

The tenth one.

The eleventh.

The moment the twelfth lightning bolt struck, all the tiles above the secluded chamber shattered, but a beam of azure light shot up from the crack, forcefully blocking the lightning in mid-air.

Elder Li's lips trembled slightly.

"The Five Thunder Heavenly Heart Technique... the seventh level breakthrough should involve three lightning tribulations... at most six..."

"That's twelve questions already."

Elder Zhao replied, his voice weak.

"Not the seventh level."

Qin Shouyi closed his eyes.

"It's the eighth level."

The two elders turned to look at him at the same time.

The eighth level.

Elder Zhang is stuck in the eleventh year of the seventh level.

Four days after returning, he not only broke through the seventh level, but also directly broke through the threshold of the eighth level.

What exactly did the Celestial Master say to him?

"boom!"

The last bolt of purple lightning was thicker than all the previous ones combined, like a pillar of light reaching the heavens, striking straight down in the center of the secluded meditation chamber.

The ground shook.

Then... silence fell.

The three people stared at the half-collapsed seclusion room, holding their breath.

The wooden door creaked open.

Elder Zhang came out.

His Taoist robe had several holes burned in it, his hair was half disheveled, and his eyes shone with a frightening brightness.

Qin Shouyi strode forward.

He looked at Elder Zhang, his lips moved twice, and he asked a question.

"...You've broken through?"

Elder Zhang nodded.

"The eighth level."

The three words landed.

Qin Shouyi closed his eyes.

Elder Zhao squatted down.

Elder Li looked up at the sky and slapped his thighs hard with both hands.

"Snapped!"

"I!"

Elder Li's voice even changed tone.

"Why wasn't it me who went to Taiqing Palace to deliver the gift back then?!"

Elder Zhao squatted down and patted the ground.

"The Celestial Master only gave him one piece of advice! Just one! I've been stuck at the sixth level for nine years! Nine years! If only the Celestial Master had given me some pointers too..."

"Shut up."

Qin Shouyi opened his eyes, his tone heavy with sorrow.

"My card has been stuck for longer than yours."

Elder Zhang smiled as he observed the three people's reactions.

"What the Celestial Master said was actually very simple, just one sentence."

Three pairs of eyes shot over at the same time.

Elder Zhang opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"I cannot say it. The Celestial Master instructed that each person should understand their own path. Saying it would only be an obstacle for you."

The faces of all three people contorted simultaneously.

Their expressions were as if someone had opened a chest full of gold in front of them, then slammed it shut, saying, "No showing it to you."

……

The news spread very quickly.

The Taoist circle is not large, especially the top level.

Within three days.

Wudang, Taiyi Temple.

The sect leader, Fang Wuji, put down the phone and stood in front of the hall for a long time.

"Four days."

He kept repeating those two words over and over.

"Going directly from the seventh level to the eighth level takes four days."

The head disciple behind him spoke cautiously.

"Master, Elder Zhang's foundation was already quite good; perhaps this was just a natural progression..."

"fart."

Fang Wuji turned around.

"A bottleneck that's been in place for eleven years, and you call that a natural progression?"

He paced back and forth a few times.

"This new exorcist..."

Fang Wuji rubbed his fingers together, his tone complicated.

"Rumor has it he's only twenty-four?"

"Yes."

Fang Wuji remained silent for ten seconds.

"Go and retrieve that thousand-year-old purple Ganoderma from the storeroom."

The head disciple was taken aback.

"Master, that's the sect's most important feature..."

"A wedding gift for the Celestial Master".

Fang Wuji interrupted him.

"Let's do it this way."

The head disciple opened his mouth, then closed it again, and withdrew, accepting the order.

Similar conversations occurred on more than one occasion over these three days.

Maoshan, Shangqing Temple.

The sect leader convened a meeting of elders overnight, and the meeting's content consisted of only one word... "send what".

Laoshan, Taiqing Palace Branch.

The head of the courtyard personally spent three days searching through the storeroom, turning over every last item.

Gezao Mountain.

The sect leader and his junior brother had a fight because they both wanted to personally deliver the gift, but there was only one spot available.

Everyone says pretty much the same thing.

"Anything the Celestial Master can use is a treasure of the sect, and it cannot be treated lightly."

When this news reached Taiqing Palace, Master Xuanmo stroked his beard and laughed for a long time.

"It was worth it. Sending Elder Zhang to deliver the gift was definitely worth it."

……

Qingcheng International Convention and Exhibition Center.

Late at night.

Yingfei and his disciples have already left.

Most of the crowd in the exhibition hall had dispersed, leaving only staff cleaning up the venue.

Fang Shouye stood before the Seven Star Dharma Lamp, his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on it.

Shen Nianqing walked over.

"Mr. Fang, it's getting late."

Fang Shouye turned around, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke.

"Miss Shen, there's something I'm hesitant to say."

"Please speak."

"This lamp."

Fang Shouye glanced at the Dharma lamp.

"It's not safe to leave it in a hotel."

Shen Nianqing paused slightly.

Fang Shouye spoke a little faster.

"This exhibition hall of mine has constant temperature and humidity bulletproof glass, 24-hour security monitoring, and the highest level of cultural relic security system in the country. If Miss Shen doesn't mind, the Dharma lamp can be temporarily placed here, which is a hundred times better than a hotel safe."

Shen Nianqing thought for a moment.

"Okay, thank you for your help, Elder Fang."

Fang Shouye breathed a sigh of relief and said "good" three times in a row.

Shen Nianqing turned around and put the folded silk into her handbag.

She wanted to take the letter with her.

The lamp can be put aside temporarily, but the letter cannot.

……

Hotel, Presidential Suite.

Zhou Dechang, Ji Jingshan, and Fang Shouye sat around a coffee table covered with notes and photos.

"The ending angle of the seventeenth cloud seal script on the lamp body is different from that drawn on the Jiajing fragment."

Zhou Dechang pointed to a high-resolution photo.

"Because fragments themselves may contain errors."

Fang Shouye took over the conversation.

"Seeing the genuine article today, I found at least eleven differences from the fragments. The genuine article is much more exquisitely crafted."

Ji Jingshan held his teacup, his eyes filled with excitement.

"I'm not going to sleep tonight."

"I'm not sleeping."

The other two spoke in unison.

……

At the same time.

The old town of Qingcheng.

Deep in an alley without streetlights.

A single-story house.

The curtains were drawn tightly shut, and only one incandescent light bulb was lit inside.

Two people were sitting at the table.

He was a burly man, bald, with an old knife scar on the side of his neck that ran from his ear to his collarbone.

The other was thin, wore gold-rimmed glasses, and had a refined appearance, but when his eyes moved, there was no warmth in them.

The bald man had a laptop in front of him, with Weibo's trending topics page on the screen.

He stared at the "#Second Dowry Seven-Star Lamp#" for thirty seconds.

"And its value?"

He spoke, his voice rough.

The thin man pushed up his glasses, tapped a few times on the keyboard, and brought up several news reports.

"Fang Shouye's counterfeits are valued at two to three hundred million in the industry, but the genuine articles..."

He paused.

"It's impossible to estimate its value, but on the black market, this kind of thing can fetch a starting price in the tens of figures."

Ten digits.

The bald man put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it with a "click".

"Did you find the location?"

The thin man turned the computer screen. It displayed an architectural floor plan.

"Qingcheng International Convention and Exhibition Center, Zone B circular exhibition hall, with east and west entrances. The security system is Bosch BVMS, with 23 cameras, 6 night shift security guards, 2 patrol guards, and 4 fixed sentry posts."

He tapped a small, flashing dot in the bottom right corner of the screen with his finger.

"The signal source is here, and the Dharma lamp has not been moved; it is still in the display case."

The bald man exhaled a puff of smoke.

"I was supposed to leave tonight."

He glanced at the thin man.

"I never expected that God would send me a farewell gift."

He stubbed out his cigarette and stood up.

"Call someone."

The thin man looked up.

"The full name?"

"Call them all."

The bald man walked to the window, parted the curtains with his fingers, and glanced at the dark alleyway outside.

"We'll cross the border before dawn tomorrow."

He loosened the curtains.

"Only one night."