She slowly approached the building as closely as possible. She cautiously poked her head out to look through the window, but quickly realized that it was too dark inside to see anything. Reluctantly, she activated [Qi Sensing] to look inside. Unfortunately, this made it easier for the enemy to detect her, but she had no other choice.

  Huh... There's no one there. She thought to herself. Her ability covered the entire building, so she had no doubt that there was indeed no one there.

  “Be careful, they might be using [Qi Suppression],” Minnie suddenly interjected.

  It was one of the basic skills that every self-respecting cultivator knew. However, May doubted that was the case.

  That would mean their Suppression is stronger than my Sensing. I highly doubt that. They would have to be at the Foundation Establishment stage or higher. However, if that were the case, they would have noticed me on that hill. She replied in her mind to Minnie.

  “Perhaps, but it's still worth being cautious. There may be some traps inside.”

  May had to agree on that. Caution was paramount, especially under the circumstances

  She went inside, keeping a close eye on the situation thanks to her [Qi Sense]. Looking around, she found nothing interesting. The cottage looked abandoned. A broken rake leaned against the wall, and there were only rat droppings in the kitchen.

  Where had they gone?

  She was convinced that there must be a hidden passage somewhere. However, even with her [Qi Sense], she was unable to find anything suspicious. If she hadn't seen the three men enter earlier, she would have given up long ago, concluding that there was nothing worth her attention here.

  “May, look at that door. Aren’t they a little suspicious?” Minnie asked.

  May looked at them more closely. They looked quite ordinary. May walked closer and entered the room behind them.

  I've been here before, May replied. There's nothing in the room except for that old crib.

  “I didn't mean the bedroom that the door leads to, but the door itself. I think there's something drawn on it.”

  May frowned. Because of the darkness, it was difficult for her to see anything. She was currently relying only on [Qi Sensing], which, although it allowed her to see outlines clearly, but at the same time tended to flatten colors into a bluish glow.

  She had to turn off her ability for a moment. She had to admit with difficulty that there were some complicated patterns in a barely visible reddish-pink color on the door.

  A formation... Damn.

  Although she initially found learning formations easy, she had been having problems with them for some time. This was mainly because she devoted almost all her time to alchemy. When it came to formations, she was far behind the rest of her class.

  She tried to recall all the information she had about them.

  The formation was about a meter long, and various symbols were inscribed in a rectangular shape. The darkness did not make her task any easier. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to even begin. There were dozens of unknown symbols on it. After a moment, she noticed that the formation resembled a doorway itself...

  Ugh... Minnie?

  “The cost of explaining how it works is two thousand.”

  So be it. Otherwise, I have no chance of doing anything.

  Minnie began to explain. “It's a second-level formation called the Simple Key-Door Formation.”

  It doesn't look simple to me at all. May replied with a frown.

  “To the uninitiated, yes. It's quite well done, so it was probably made by someone at the Master level in formations...”

  May swallowed hard. This was bad news. Master level in any Path meant a high level cultivator. Even her master, Hua Tang, was a Master in the path of Alchemy. This meant that her potential opponent was potentially at the same level as her Master...

  Unmoved by her thoughts, Minnie continued her explanation of the formation. "The formation before you is the second part. You are standing in front of what is known as the 'key.' Hidden within it is the information that allows you to open the first part of the formation: the 'door'."

  "Huh... That’s strange. Why is the key out in the open? Shouldn't they have hidden it better? Minnie, does this mean I'll be able to open the first part using this?"

  "No. They didn't need to hide it because the key itself is useless. What matters is the method of activation, which you don't know," she replied calmly. "Even if you find the 'door,' you won't be able to use the key. If you try to simply activate it with Qi, your enemies will certainly find out immediately."

  "Huh... Minnie, how much would it cost to activate the key?"

  "About ten thousand? It’s a fairly good formation, but its creator didn't include any forms of defense. They likely doubted anyone would even try. If it had better security, the price would be several times higher."

  It's not that strange. Master Path rank in formations is rare. Even in the capital, you can probably count them on one hand... May noted. She also thought that this would make it much easier to find the potential creator of the formation. But never mind that for now. I still have to find the first part of the formation the 'door' first, don't I?

  "Exactly. What good is the key if you don't know where the door is? That’s fairly obvious," Minnie confirmed.

  She began searching for the 'door'. She examined all the physical doors closely to see if the 'door' was hidden on any of them.

  "I don't want to discourage you, but wouldn't it be a bit too obvious if the 'door' was actually located on a door?" Minnie laughed.

  May sighed in irritation. She had secretly hoped that Minnie would offer her some help this time as well.

  “Well, the ‘Key’ was on a door, so I was hoping that would be the case here too…” she replied uncertainly.

  “Heeey… in that case, since the ‘Key’ was on a door, maybe the ‘door’ will be on a key?”

  May paused for a moment, trying to process her words, but she felt as if her brain had momentarily stalled. “What are you even talking about?! If you don’t intend to help, then shut up!”

  Minnie chuckled softly, clearly delighted that she had managed to annoy May, and fell silent.

  Unfortunately, it took her longer than she had expected. Eventually, however, she found something that resembled a formation. It was similar to the first one, but much larger, even though its symbols were much simpler.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  The formation was located inside a wardrobe. She let out a small laugh to herself, recalling a book she had once read about kids who traveled through a wardrobe into a new world.

  Minnie?

  “Yes?”

  Is this the formation?

  “Yup. That’s the first part: the ‘Door’,” Minnie replied. “Go over to the ‘Key’ and place your hand on it. Once you purchase the activation from the system, you’ll have about a minute to step through the ‘Door’ into Narnia before the formation closes. Any questions?”

  “Not particularly,” she answered, heading back toward the first formation she had found. She slowly touched it with her fingertips, and shortly after, a system notification appeared before her eyes.

  The 'Key' formation glowed with a faint reddish color. It looked rather ominous, but with no time to think too much about it, May headed toward the room with the wardrobe.

  May took a deep breath and stepped hesitantly into the massive wooden wardrobe, laughing to herself at the sheer absurdity of the situation. Similarly to the first one, the ‘Door’ formation was glowing red, though it was several shades brighter.

  “You have to touch this formation as well,” Minnie said suddenly. “The formation needs to verify that this is the same Qi energy that activated the ‘Key’ formation.”

  May did as she was told and reached out to touch the formation. The symbols on the formation began to writhe and spin in every direction. They shifted into various geometric patterns that pulsed, brightening and dimming in turn. Finally, the formation vanished, revealing a dark corridor before her. Goosebumps broke out across May’s skin.

  “Hurry up,” Minnie urged. “The formation will close soon.”

  Although May would have preferred to have a little more time to think about whether this was really a good idea, her legs automatically took a step forward. She had already spent too much money on it.

  Everything indicated that it could be dangerous. Once again, for no reason, she was asking for trouble.

  However, it was too late for regrets now. She had taken a risk, but she could also benefit from it. Not to mention that she could save the lives of innocent people this way. That alone was a sufficient reason.

  “I see them…” Shortly after entering, her [Qi Sensing] picked up several individuals.

  She swallowed hard. She easily identified the three men she had seen earlier. Fortunately, there was no one else there who posed a threat to her. That comforted her slightly; if someone stronger had been present, she would have had to retreat, even if it meant losing money without any profit.

  The alchemist I spoke to earlier is being blackmailed… so I don’t necessarily have to fight him. If I can win him over to my side, it will be a two-on-two fight.

  He was at roughly the same cultivation stage as May, despite likely being more than three times her age. The other two men were also at a comparable level. Therefore, it could be a balanced fight.

  May began her silent descent.

  However, that wasn't the most interesting thing she discovered. She also detected the kidnapped victims. There were far more than the bounty notice had indicated. She could make out the silhouettes of over twenty people, though unfortunately, the majority of them were already dead.

  Dammit… [Qi Sensing] isn’t perfect enough for me to know the situation exactly, but… it’ll be best to launch a surprise attack!

  Such a move was, of course, considered "dirty" and dishonorable, but then again, her opponents were evil cultivators experimenting on humans, why should she apply the rules of honor to them? Scum like them didn't deserve mercy.

  She went down to the last step and peeked out slightly. She immediately had to cover her nose, as the stench in the air was unbearable. It was exactly what she had expected. A prison for barely alive people who looked like they had come out of a horror movie.

  She struggled to hold back the tears that began to well up in her eyes. She couldn't bear the sight.

  It was a horrible sight of cut-up bodies, skin discoloration in all colors, and people lying on operating tables. There were no signs of life in their eyes, which were festering and wide open. Their faces appeared to be rough and dry like parchment. In addition, they were not dressed and were clearly malnourished.

  A bald man sat at a table reading something. Finally, he spoke. “More than two kilograms of liberty cap mushrooms are missing, as well as feathers from Snow Colpena.” His voice seemed so malicious.

  Lang Shao swallowed and, looking at the floor, replied quietly. “They're hard to come by... It's the middle of winter...”

  Shao was trembling as if he were about to be executed. Suddenly, a lightning-fast blow knocked him back several meters. He hit one of the cells, and the whole room filled with a steel rumble. He was hit straight in the head; a normal person would never have survived such a blow.

  The people who had been in the cell recoiled in a frenzied panic. One woman lost her footing and fell into the corner, panting heavily and nervously scratching her neck. She closed her eyes and seemed to be praying. All the kidnapped victims seemed to be on the verge of insanity.

  May did not expect the situation to escalate so quickly. She had never seen anyone so crazy before!

  Suddenly, the bald man got up and approached him. He knelt on one knee and kissed the man lying in pain on the forehead. Then he began to stroke his head, like a mother putting her child to bed. May felt like throwing up when she saw this situation.

  “Oh, my dear Shao...” he said, stroking his face. Lang struggled to keep from grimacing and closing his eyes. He knew he couldn't do that. “We're being so considerate of you, and you...?”

  “I...”

  He didn't let him finish and put his finger on his lips. “Shhh....”

  They continued in this strange situation. Lang Shao lay on the floor after being struck, terrified and afraid to even blink, while the bald man rubbed his head where he had been hit. This lasted a few minutes.

  The other man didn't even glance at this strange situation and was absorbed in one of the dead women, whom he had just begun to cut up on the floor.

  “But we forgive you... But you have to try harder, you know...? Here's another list...”

  Lang Shao took it in his hand and, as he began to read, seemed close to tears.

  “Something wrong...?” asked the bald man in a gentle voice.

  “No... I… Just… Don't have that much money...” he said with difficulty. “Business has been slow lately... I've already taken out all the loans I could… To finance this place and…”

  He didn't manage to finish his sentence, as he was struck in the face and fell limply to the ground. The man, apparently, wasn't satisfied, as he began kicking him all over his body. When he finished, Lang, curled up and bent over, let out a suffocating sound of his inability to catch his breath and coughed up some blood.

  “Don't kill him,” the man interjected suddenly, without even taking his eyes off the woman he was disemboweling like an animal, cutting out her organs one by one.

  May didn't even want to try to guess what the purpose of this was. At first, she thought it was just an ordinary autopsy, but... Nothing indicated that anymore. Still, she hoped it was something more than just desecrating a corpse.

  “He'll live as long as he's not a constant nuisance to us,” he said.

  The second man only snorted. "You know perfectly well that because of that damn penicillin, his business has become useless. Half of his products aren't even selling anymore."

  The bald man turned toward him in a rage and shouted, "And why would we care about that?! It's his own fault his little business is collapsing! He should have thought ahead!"

  Suddenly, he turned back toward Lang Shao, who was lying on the ground, and grabbed him by the collar, hoisting him up. "We don't need you, you know? You've already given us a safe haven for our little experiments, far from any prying eyes... Plus, you took the fall for the disappearances... You only had money, but since you’ve become so poor... what use are you to us exactly?"

  Having said that, he threw him against the wall like a ragdoll.

  "Hey, Umi! Let's just kill him! No one will find us here! Besides, he's too much of a liability."

  "Please, no..." he choked out, clutching desperately at the man's leg.

  "Shut up!" the man shouted, kicking him squarely in the chest again.

  “There's no need. He might still be useful if the sect starts snooping around again. And his disappearance could be suspicious.” He said calmly, looking at the woman's cut-out liver.

  “We'd make it look like suicide. The sect would think he was guilty and killed himself because of his conscience or some other bullshit.”

  May took a step back and tried to process the situation. She was lucky that they were so talkative today and had given her everything on a silver platter, but at the same time, she had to witness such cruel scenes.

  So... He paid for this place and the equipment? Fuck, even if he doesn't experiment on these people himself, he's still just as guilty! He may be their victim, but he undeniably funded this whole damn venture!

  May reached into the small, handy bag she had with her and pulled out a dagger. She hadn't come here completely unprepared. She had a few healing potions, medicines, wards, and weapons.

  “We need him, for fuck sake Liu! Are you deaf?” he hissed suddenly, finally looking at him for the first time. After a moment, however, he returned to his task. “He won't do anything stupid. Not when it comes to his wife.”