How to Bring Common Sense to Xianxia World - Chapter 222: Yin Lan Vs. Zhang Tianlong

Seeing the alarm blaring and the red lights flashing, Monkey threw down the crystalline part in frustration.

“Snake! You b*tch! That part was the sound sensitivity crystal! And you just had to open your damn mouth while I was extracting it? Would waiting a few more seconds before talking have killed you!?” Monkey exploded in rage.

“What!? How would I know!? You didn’t tell me before trying to pull the damn thing out!”

“Which part of ’sound sensitivity’ do you not understand, you idiot!?”

The two started quarreling once again, but Ox quickly intervened.

“Please, both of you, calm down. Mr. Zhang and I will try our best to hold off the enforcers. As for you, Mr. Monkey, you only need to open the vault by any means necessary before Mo Jue or that Wei Chen comes back, just as we planned.”

“Got it!” Monkey nodded and quickly returned to his professional focus.

Ox then turned toward Snake. “Snake, you stay here and do not bother Mr. Monkey again. This is serious.”

“You damn Ox! Are you the leader of this operation or am I? I’ll go help all of you too!” Snake barked in anger before offering her assistance. She knew this blunder was her responsibility, she just did not want to admit it openly.

But Ox quickly shook his head. “Please stay here, Lady Snake. I know your condition. You cannot properly hold back your power, you might only make things worse for us.”

Hearing that, Snake could do nothing but grit her teeth. What Ox said was true.

“I sense more people coming down toward us. They are about to reach this floor,” Zhang Tianlong warned.

“Got it! Lead the way.” Ox quickly followed Zhang Tianlong up the stairs to hold off the enforcers.

Monkey also hurried back to his work, now using the loudest but most effective methods to remove the vault door mechanism. He brought out several artifacts designed to destroy the inner mechanisms. Earlier, he had already made sure the vault would not permanently lock itself the moment it detected internal shock by removing the necessary safeguard components beforehand.

The artifacts blasted and corroded the mechanisms inside while Monkey focused his spiritual sense on monitoring every change within the vault door, making sure he had not overlooked anything.

— Meanwhile – The Ground Level —

The moment the alarm blared to life, Yin Lan rushed from the lounge toward the vault alongside the enforcers and the Black Sword Squad under her command. During this time, she also noticed the city enforcers rushing toward the alarm.

Meanwhile, the Thousand Treasure Pavilion security quickly tried to clear the area and evacuate everyone, especially the mortal workers and all the guests staying in the same building as the vault.

After a few minutes, Yin Lan and her Black Sword Squad finally arrived at the ground floor staircase leading down to the vault. What greeted her was a scene of devastation. Dozens of bodies lay sprawled all over the place, unconscious. Some were injured, but none of the wounds were lethal.

The only figures still standing were two men.

The first was a man wearing an ox mask. His build was massive, layers of muscle stacked upon muscle, standing well over two meters tall. His robe barely concealed his powerful frame.

But what made him strange was that his clothes covered every inch of his skin, as if he feared the light. Whether it was his hands, neck, or any other part of his body, not a single patch of skin was exposed.

The second was someone she recognized.

Back then, during the broadcast of the inter-provincial competition, this was the man who fought Yun Feng to a standstill.

Zhang Tianlong.

Yin Lan looked at the two men staring back at her and the sword squad behind her. The pair did not seem aggressive. They had not initiated any attacks and merely stood guard at the staircase leading down to the vault.

“This is the private property of the Thousand Treasure Pavilion Conglomerate. You are trespassing on our grounds. Since neither of you has killed anyone, I assume you do not wish to offend us too deeply. I suggest you surrender so we can talk this out,” Yin Lan offered.

She could sense that both men were difficult opponents. If given a choice, she did not want to fight them either. And since no one had died, she was willing to offer them a way out.

The man in the ox mask noticed her offer and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Lady Yin. But we cannot do that. We still have a task to complete.”

“Then… I have no choice but to remove the two of you by force!”

With that said, she vanished and reappeared at the flank of the man in the ox mask while the sword squad charged from the front.

The man in the ox mask noticed her movement, but he did not bother guarding his rear. Instead, he focused entirely on the enemies in front of him. His back was completely exposed to her attack.

Yin Lan aimed for his legs. Since the man had not killed any of her young miss’s people, she had no intention of killing him either.

But before she could strike, Yin Lan sensed danger from behind. She quickly turned and guarded her vital points.

Clang!

A flaming fist smashed against her sword, sending her stumbling backward. She raised her head and saw Zhang Tianlong rushing toward her.

She quickly stepped aside and used the walls and ceiling as footholds to stabilize herself. Her Demonic Phantom Arts displayed their true power within the confined space.

As long as there was a solid surface to step on, she could move freely in three dimensions.

Zhang Tianlong engaged Yin Lan without saying a word. Both of them possessed cultivation at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. Zhang Tianlong held greater raw power, while Yin Lan was faster and more agile.

Despite being a Heaven’s Chosen, Zhang Tianlong did not want to escalate the conflict by heavily injuring the personal bodyguard of a girl engaged to a young master from a Hidden Ancient Clan.

A hidden sect like Heaven’s Spire Sanctuary had already caused him enough trouble. If not for Zodiac and their associate, the Underworld Palace, backing them, he would never have had the chance to bring the sect down.

And after his deal with the Zodiac was complete, he would still need to serve the Underworld Palace for one hundred years. That was the agreement he had made in exchange for their assistance in his quest for revenge.

He had no intention of owing them any more favors. One hundred years of service was already more than enough to irritate him.

Yin Lan’s sword was as fast as the wind and difficult to predict, while Zhang Tianlong’s flames made it nearly impossible to get close enough for a clean hit. The most Yin Lan could manage was stalling him without getting pushed back by the overwhelming force crashing against her blade.

Hoping that her sword squad could take down the muscular man in the ox mask.

But as she glanced toward the battle where her squad was engaging the man in the ox mask, she froze for a split second.

With each punch from Zhang Tianlong, her sword grew hotter and hotter. The blade was beginning to resemble a sword freshly pulled from a furnace. The heat transferred from the blade into her hand.

The wooden grip made from Demonic Blackwood, designed specifically to complement her Demonic Phantom Arts, was now working against her. The material was never known for heat resistance. On the contrary, it caught fire easily.

“Tch!”

Yin Lan clicked her tongue in irritation. Now she understood that her opponent was aiming to disarm her. The heat became more and more unbearable every time his flaming fists struck her blade.

She glanced at her people fighting the man in the ox mask. At this point, only two of them were barely still standing. It would not even take a minute for a brute like the man in the ox mask to knock them unconscious.

Yin Lan immediately threw courtesy out the window. Even if these men had not killed her people, if she still held back and refused to aim for their lives, her mission to remove them from this place would definitely fail.

She retreated several meters and took a deep breath according to the breathing method of the new combat technique the Patriarch had taught her. She had not mastered this move yet, as it was too powerful and did not suit her personality very well.

She waited for her last two squad members to be knocked down first.

Then…

“True… Sky Severing…”

She muttered under her breath before unleashing a terrifying slash toward Zhang Tianlong.

Zhang Tianlong’s survival instincts immediately screamed at him. He ducked down at once, but part of his hair was still sliced away.

As for the man in the ox mask, he was not so lucky.

His body was too massive, making it difficult for him to suddenly dodge out of the way.

As the slash approached, he quickly crossed both arms in front of himself to guard against the incoming attack.

“Arrrgggghhhhhh!”

The man in the ox mask poured all of his cultivation into resisting the strike.

His cultivation was surprisingly high. He was actually at the Soul Transformation Realm. That immense cultivation made the difference. It stopped the law of severing from cutting him cleanly in half.

But… it only delayed the inevitable.