The structure that had been partly swallowed by nature was a large one, Edrick judged that it hovered in the ranges of a hundred meters in height, and about half of that in width, where vegetation had not grown, one could see that it had once been built out of a pale, reddish stone of sort, a material Anoteros had not seen at all in the realm yet.

“Alright, from the moment that I will step inside of that temple, it will begin, I will be marked by the Red Guardian, and it will probably show up within a few minutes, if I am not incorrect, it will be fixated on stopping me, and thus, won’t bother with you even if you were to get in its way” explained Xiao, the plan had been rehearsed multiple times already, but the protagonist was clearly getting nervous as it was time to put it into action.

Basically, he would use his knowledge to sprint directly for the training puppet, an incredible treasure that the original protagonist had seldom used, or rather, that the author had probably deemed too overpowered, and thus, silently ignored after it was used a few times.

Something Xiao did not quite get, activating the puppet was pretty expensive to begin with, and the more advanced thing you tried to make it teach you, the more costly it would be, the author would have just needed to make the prices difficult to meet to balance things out, but Xiao supposed that the author was more interested in having his main character add more women to his harem…

In any case, the Red Guardian was fast, powerful, and had an ability that made it very annoying to fight, not to mention that despite being silent, it was very likely to be as smart, if not smarter than the average human as well. As it was, Xiao stood no chance in a fight against the Red Guardian.

He had no idea how powerful Edrick truly was, but he frankly doubted that the noble scion could kill it either, but he might be capable of injuring it at least, since the Guardian should indeed not pay any mind to anything else for as long as there was an intruder within the temple.

“You repeated the same thing dozens of times already, I remember it” calmly replied Edrick, who had already found a seat on a piece of rubble that had come loose from the temple.

“Alright… Then, let’s go” the protagonist breathed in and out, his crimson eyes focusing intently as he pushed against the ground, soared up the stairs, and soon began to move deeper into the temple.

‘Say system, can he die right now?’

Xiao is still protected by the plot. The storyline has not diverged strongly enough to render him vulnerable

‘I thought so’

So there was no point in not further gaining his trust by being of help, and also, Edrick suspected that this little venture was not part of the plot to begin with, as clearly, Xiao had viewed him as the only option to be of help, which made little sense as Zixuan Elt wouldn’t normally be here were the plot going as it should.

So if anything, it seemed like Xiao getting that puppet of his would be another blow to the expected timeline of events.

The young noble merely watched as the protagonist was soon swallowed by the ambient darkness within the temple, and whilst waiting for the Guardian to show up, he wondered about his future plans, of which he had many.

Anoteros was a multitasker, a flock-slayer that only needed one stone- So naturally, his plans for the future were a bit all over the place. There was a plan to start a business using this realm and the Lodestone he had gotten from Haoyu.

But there was also the matter of where exactly he would put his residence after he decided to transport it elsewhere. Edrick was not planning on remaining within the Myriad-Arm Sect for too long. There was a whole world to explore.

He also needed to develop his residence, as well as develop his wives and maids. His prized possessions could not just be left to gather dust and stagnate whilst he progressed. That would just be sad and grossly wasteful.

His properties should be at their best, but unfortunately, not all of them could be easily developed. For example, to assist Fanqia in taking her abilities to the next level, he would have to get his hands on the Velvet Pixie cultivation techniques, which were all held by the royal family.

Edrick’s renown was far from enough to gain access to the royal palace and make that sort of demand. No, he needed to develop a powerful business first to gain the attention of the crown, but not just that, he needed to become more powerful and prove himself to be an invaluable asset.

That way, he would be able to fully get away with making outrageous demands.

As for the purpose of getting stronger… He naturally had thoughts of seeking bloodlines, specifically, bloodlines from creatures whose names were in the cultivation techniques he practised, namely, the Five-Legged Devil Goat and Guardian Hippopotamus.

Not only would acquiring additional bloodlines bolster his inherent value as a noble cultivator, but it would certainly allow him to advance the techniques into physiques at an incredible speed.

And if he could quickly increase his strength by a good amount, he would be able to court Bai Xing and Jingyao Zhenniao. Marrying them would not only increase his status by a lot, especially once he had children with them, but it would also make him eligible to learn more about their respective sutras.

‘Mmh, and I can’t forget Haoyu as well…’

Though right now, he already had something in mind to do directly after the secret realm, namely, to put his plan to make Shu loyal forever.

Thinking about this plan, Edrick almost felt like laughing aloud, but before he could even have the occasion to do so, a distant figure began approaching, a red dot over the horizon.

The Red Guardian.

It seems like it had been busy elsewhere when it detected an intrusion. It had already been nearly five minutes since Xiao had entered.

“Welp, let’s see what can be done about this…” the noble scion rose from where he was sitting, preparing to shoot an arrow. The space between him and the Red Guardian was being reduced every second, but the distance separating the two of them was still great at the moment. But Anoteros took a shot anyway.

The arrow soared through the air, fired with utmost precision, aimed where the Red Guardian was going to be rather than where it had been at the moment Edrick let go of the string.

Unarmed, the Red Guardian merely swatted away the high-speed projectiles, its hand barely even nicked by this action.

Edrick raised an eyebrow.

Did Xiao really expect him to get in the way of this thing? Anoteros had detected no attempt at deception from the rather easily read protagonist, so did this mean that the Guardian was more powerful than the protagonist believed?

“Mmh…”

‘Let’s try one more thing’