Chapter 49 : Exploiting a Loophole

Chapter 49: Exploiting a Loophole

After Dong Jiayuan hurried off with the box in his arms, Long Tao remained alone in the private room of the teahouse, unhurriedly sipping the tea in his cup, which had already turned lukewarm.

He knew perfectly well that he had still concealed the most crucial part.

He needed to find a way to slip into the first core exploration team officially organized by the sect to enter the Secret Realm.

But this thought was far too shocking to voice aloud, especially to Dong Jiayuan.

Otherwise, the other party would only think he had gone mad—or suffered a qi deviation.

One had to understand that a sect-organized exploration team and those hastily cobbled-together private squads or loose independent cultivator groups were two entirely different concepts.

Especially the first batch, which served as the vanguard—every single member was either a personally transmitted disciple of a Peak Master or a renowned elite from the Inner Sect.

They rode the sect’s fastest and most durable Cloud Vessels, carried the highest-quality pills, artifacts, and talismans, and each of them bore at least one life-saving measure bestowed by a senior of their lineage, if not an outright treasure.

With a team of that caliber, even if something went wrong during the exploration of the Secret Realm, casualties were extremely rare.

At worst, they would merely expend resources and return with meager gains, suffering a loss but not fatalities.

More importantly, given Nan Yuchen’s status and importance, he would certainly only appear within this elite team.

Long Tao understood this clearly.

If he clung to blind luck and casually joined some later, ordinary team, by the time they arrived at the Secret Realm at a leisurely pace, the elite team would have long since finished exploring and returned.

At that point, the System Task would be declared a complete failure.

And the special Protective Coating developed by the sect—“Refusal Wood Paint”—had given him an exquisitely brilliant idea to exploit a massive loophole.

After finishing his tea alone and settling the bill, Long Tao rose once more and hurried back up the mountain, arriving at the Yunxia Affairs Pavilion, the sect department responsible for handling daily affairs and issuing tasks.

Although disciples generally regarded this place as somewhere to accept missions, its actual functions extended far beyond that; many ordinary sect archive records and material-allocation documents were also managed here.

Though it was already night, for a cultivation sect, important functional departments never distinguished between day and night—there were always people on duty.

Long Tao walked straight to an archive inquiry window staffed by a male disciple.

“Senior Brother, pardon the interruption.” Long Tao cupped his hands politely.

“I would like to look up the relevant archives for a type of coating developed by the sect some years ago, known as ‘Refusal Wood Paint.’ May I trouble Senior Brother to grant me this convenience?”

The on-duty disciple had been lying bored over the worktable.

Seeing someone approach, he lazily lifted his head.

Perhaps because nighttime affairs were few, he did not appear impatient and merely asked according to procedure,

“Mm… ‘Refusal Wood Paint’? Never heard of it… Around when was the project established?”

Based on the clues he already had, Long Tao replied immediately, “Definitely less than twenty years ago.

It should be a type of special coating used for Cloud Vessel surface protection.”

“Oh, a coating for Cloud Vessels, less than twenty years…” The on-duty disciple stood up and yawned.

“Then the archive should be pretty easy to find. Come with me.”

Long Tao followed him to the second-floor archive hall of the Affairs Pavilion.

He saw the disciple skillfully weave between several rows of tall archive racks.

Before long, the man pulled out a record volume that was not very thick and handed it over.

“Heh, there really is one! ‘Refusal Wood Paint’… that name’s about as straightforward as it gets.” The on-duty disciple casually joked, then asked with some curiosity, “But it’s so late—why did you suddenly think of checking this, Junior Brother?”

Long Tao’s expression remained unchanged; he had long prepared his explanation.

“Sigh, it’s Elder Liu from the Tiangong Pavilion. He participated in the development of this coating back then. A couple of days ago, he somehow remembered it again and asked us disciples who assist him to follow up on the later situation.”

Hearing this, the on-duty disciple casually flipped to the title page of the archive volume and glanced at the list of names.

Elder Liu of the Tiangong Pavilion was indeed listed.

He no longer harbored any doubts and merely reminded him, “I see. Then Junior Brother, you can consult it here. Just remember not to mess up the files. Bring it back down to me later.”

With that, he went downstairs to continue his duty.

Long Tao quickly opened the archive volume.

He had only one core objective: to find out exactly how many Cloud Vessels had already been coated with this “Refusal Wood Paint.” If the number was too large, his plan might collapse.

However, as he flipped through page after page at speed, the tension on his face gradually turned to surprise, and finally, he could not help but reveal a trace of suppressed delight.

The sect… truly had not taken this coating meant for a specific Secret Realm very seriously!

According to the detailed archive records, after “Refusal Wood Paint” was successfully developed, it was only test-applied to two Cloud Vessels.

One of them, a Cloud Vessel named “Mountain-Patrol Flood Dragon,” had even been sold to a small western sect two years ago.

In other words… within the entire Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect at present, there was one—and only one—Cloud Vessel coated with “Refusal Wood Paint.” Long Tao carefully noted down the ship’s name: the “Pitying Star”!

When the sect’s upper echelons received news of the opening of the Secret Realm entrance and decided to organize an exploration team, in order to deal with the bizarre spiritual energy overflow of the Azurewood Demon Forest, they would inevitably prioritize choosing this Cloud Vessel with protective coating as the transport for the exploration team!

“Heh heh… heaven truly leaves no path completely blocked! This opportunity was seized by me, Long Tao, after all!” His heart surged with wild joy.

Although he had absolutely no chance of joining the first batch of Secret Realm exploration teams through normal channels, as long as he could board this specific Cloud Vessel, he could still travel to the Secret Realm together with Nan Yuchen and the others.

For example… he could find a way to become a temporary maintenance worker aboard the vessel.

As for how he would enter the Secret Realm once they arrived? That could be figured out later.

First, he would get past the immediate obstacle.

Soon, Long Tao closed the archive volume, hurried down the stairs, and returned to the on-duty disciple.

“Many thanks, Senior Brother. I’ve finished consulting it.” He handed back the archive, then added in an offhand manner, “By the way, I’d also like to trouble Senior Brother with one more thing.

I’d like to apply to participate in the maintenance and upkeep work for the Cloud Vessel ‘Pitying Star.’”

After taking back the archive, the on-duty disciple did not find this request strange at all.

Since Long Tao was running errands for Elder Liu of the Tiangong Pavilion, applying to participate in maintenance work for a specific Cloud Vessel was perfectly normal—perhaps it was related to the follow-up of that coating.

“I can issue you an identity jade token for maintenance work here,” the on-duty disciple said as he took out a standard jade talisman and began entering information.

Since the other party was working under an elder of the Tiangong Pavilion, there was certainly no problem with technical ability, so he took the easy route and did not ask further about Long Tao’s background.

“But I can’t decide which Cloud Vessel you’ll be assigned to. You’ll need to take the jade token yourself to the Tiangong Pavilion, or go directly to the Cloud Harbor docks and apply with the stewards in charge there.”

“Alright, understood. Many thanks for the guidance, Senior Brother!” Long Tao accepted the warm, lustrous jade token, his heart settling.

The first step of the plan had gone fairly smoothly!