Palace Master, Where Are Your Clothes

Seeing Lie Tianxiong pass out, Shi Wanshan immediately stepped forward, squatted down, and grabbed his wrist.

As soon as his fingertips touched Lie Tianxiong's sleeve, he frowned.

Ordinary cultivators usually wore their storage rings on the ring finger or middle finger of their left hand, but Lie Tianxiong's hand was completely bare.

"Strange, where is the storage ring?"

Shi Wanshan muttered, turning to Lie Tianxiong's right hand, but the result was the same.

He simply pinched Lie Tianxiong's fingers, feeling them one by one, but still found nothing.

Li Xuanfeng also came over, his gaze sweeping over Lie Tianxiong. "Martial Uncle, could it be hidden in his robes?"

Shi Wanshan nodded and reached out to tear open the collar of Lie Tianxiong's robe. With this pull, his fingertips suddenly felt a cold, hard sensation.

His eyes lit up. Feeling down along the collar, he unexpectedly found a dark black inner armor on the inside of the robe.

The inner armor was made of a special material, with faint runes flowing on its surface. Although stained with some dust, it could not hide its extraordinary nature. It was clearly a protective treasure armor capable of resisting spiritual energy attacks.

"Good heavens, he hid it quite deeply."

Shi Wanshan stripped the inner armor off Lie Tianxiong and casually tossed it to Li Xuanfeng.

"Keep this for now. This inner armor looks like at least a Heaven-grade treasure."

Shi Wanshan then lowered his head to grope around Lie Tianxiong's waist. He discovered a short blade tucked into the back of Lie Tianxiong's waist. The blade was narrow and sharp, and the hilt was carved with the flame totem of the Burning Heaven Palace. Even though it was unsheathed, he could feel the scorching spiritual energy radiating from the blade.

He pulled out the short blade. A flash of blade light passed, and it actually roasted the air in the cave until it was slightly hot.

Shi Wanshan weighed the short blade a couple of times and stored it in his own storage ring.

"Where did this old thing hide his storage ring? Otherwise, there might be some good stuff inside."

Still not giving up, he lifted the hem of Lie Tianxiong's robe and dug around the seams for a long time. He only pulled out a few loose threads; he didn't even feel a scrap of fabric that could serve as a hidden pocket.

"Martial Uncle, could it be that Lie Tianxiong's storage ring has already been robbed by someone else? When we first saw him, his wretched appearance looked as if he had already been robbed once."

Li Xuanfeng guessed, looking at the two large lumps on top of Lie Tianxiong's head.

Shi Wanshan stopped his movements. Thinking about it, it made sense, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud. "This old thing is quite miserable. Robbed twice, even his life savings have been hollowed out."

As soon as his laughter faded, he looked at the sect master's robe on Lie Tianxiong, which was stained with dust but still showed exquisite patterns. Suddenly, his eyes rolled, and he reached out to untie Lie Tianxiong's robe belt.

"Martial Uncle, what are you doing?"

Li Xuanfeng was stunned, almost dropping the inner armor in his hands.

"You don't understand."

Shi Wanshan stripped off Lie Tianxiong's sect robe while shaking it triumphantly.

"This is the special sect robe of the Palace Master of the Burning Heaven Palace. The material is woven from Flame Light Silk, invulnerable to water and fire. Moreover, the totem on it is a symbol of identity in the Burning Heaven Palace. We might be able to use it in the future, hehe!"

As he spoke, he shook the sect robe clean, folded it, and stuffed it into his own chest. He then carefully checked Lie Tianxiong's inner garments again—there was indeed nothing hidden—before finally giving up.

Shi Wanshan lightly kicked Lie Tianxiong, who was left with only his underwear on the ground. His tone was full of regret, yet it also carried a bit of satisfaction.

"Although we didn't find the storage ring, having this inner armor, the short blade, and the sect robe means it wasn't a wasted trip."

Li Xuanfeng nodded. The two carefully erased their traces inside and outside the cave. Not only did they use spiritual energy to smooth out their footprints, but they also put back the broken stones that Lie Tianxiong had knocked over when he fainted.

They even took away the empty porcelain bottle of healing pills that had fallen on the ground before turning to leave.

In the cave, Lie Tianxiong remained lying on the ground. The old and new lumps on his head were exceptionally conspicuous. With only a thin pair of underpants left on his body, he looked exactly like a beggar who had been stripped bare.

No one would have guessed that this once majestic Palace Master of the Burning Heaven Palace would end up in such a state today.

The cold air in the cave seeped into his body. His groggy consciousness was jolted awake by the chill, and he suddenly opened his eyes.

His eyes were met with bare rock walls. The old lump on his head was still throbbing with pain, and the newly added lump felt swollen and numb. When he touched it, he gasped in a breath of cold air.

"Hiss... which bastard sneak-attacked me again!"

Lie Tianxiong propped himself up on the ground, wanting to sit up. As soon as he exerted force, he felt a chilly draft over his body. Looking down, his pupils instantly shrank.

The specially made Flame Light Silk sect robe on his body was gone. Only a pair of underpants remained. His lower back felt empty; the Heart-Burning Blade tucked there had also vanished into thin air!

"My blade! My clothes!"

He frantically groped around the ground, his fingers digging into the stone crevices, but he couldn't even find a shadow of any fabric.

The porcelain bottle of healing pills he had previously tucked into his chest and the inner armor he wore were all gone.

From head to toe, apart from this pair of underpants to cover his modesty, he had actually been stripped completely clean.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Lie Tianxiong angrily pounded the ground. The lumps on his head hurt even more from the shock, and his vision went black in waves.

He remembered the figures of the two masked men before he passed out, and he remembered the spiked club that had accurately smashed onto his head. A familiar sense of frustration welled up in his heart.

It was exactly the same as the last time he was beaten—a sneak attack where he had no power to fight back. This time, he was robbed until only his underpants were left!

Just then, a flurry of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the cave, mixed with Yan Cangyun's shouts.

"Palace Master! Palace Master, are you alright?"

Lie Tianxiong suddenly looked up, only to see Yan Cangyun and the Black-robed Elder stumbling into the cave. Both of them were pale, and their robes were stained with dirt. They had clearly just woken up not long ago either.

As soon as Yan Cangyun entered, he saw Lie Tianxiong's appearance. He was so shocked that his eyes almost popped out. "Pa-Palace Master, where are your clothes?"

Saying this, he wanted to take out a long robe from his storage ring to drape over the sect master, but his hand failed to feel the ring.

Yan Cangyun then reacted, hurriedly touching his fingers and rubbing his wrist. The glowing storage ring and the wristguards carved with Burning Heaven patterns had all vanished.

He instantly panicked. "Mine is gone too! After I passed out just now, they must have taken it away..."

The Black-robed Elder also noticed something was wrong and touched his own fingers.

The storage ring originally worn on his ring finger was gone. The jade pendant around his neck and the small cloth bag in the hem of his clothes had all disappeared without a trace. His expression changed drastically.

"My storage ring! It was taken away by someone!"

The three looked at each other in dismay, and the air in the cave instantly froze.

Lie Tianxiong looked at the wretched appearance of the two, and then thought of his own encounter. A surge of anger rushed straight to the top of his head.

"It was those two masked men! Not only did they sneak-attack us, but they also robbed all our things!"

"But who are they? To actually have such strength to easily knock us out? This damn secret realm restriction!"

The Black-robed Elder gritted his teeth, his eyes full of unwillingness.

"Inside the storage ring were the spirit stones and magical artifacts I had accumulated for years, and now they are just gone..."

Yan Cangyun also stomped his feet in anxiety.

"Sect Master, were the two people this time the same two who sneak-attacked us last time?"

Lie Tianxiong opened his mouth: "This time the two of them were masked, and their speed was too fast. I didn't see clearly again..."

After speaking, his old face flushed red. As the dignified Palace Master of the Burning Heaven Palace, he had been beaten repeatedly without even knowing who did it.

The more Lie Tianxiong thought about it, the more flustered he became, and the throbbing pain on the top of his head grew increasingly obvious.

Lie Tianxiong took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing his raging fury.

"Forget about who they are! Hurry out and gather the disciples. Turn this area upside down! Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, you must find those bastards!"

Upon hearing this, Yan Cangyun instinctively wanted to agree, but then he suddenly thought: even if they found them, what could they do?

Given the strength of those people, if they really found them, they probably wouldn't be able to escape the fate of being beaten up by them once again.

Yan Cangyun gulped and whispered, "Palace Master, should we... bring more people before we search? Those two are not weak. Now that we've lost our magical artifacts and storage rings, I'm afraid..."

The Black-robed Elder also nodded along, a hint of apprehension in his eyes. "That's right, Palace Master. Safety first. Once we gather all the disciples and set up the Burning Heaven Array, I don't believe we won't be able to catch them!"

Looking at the cowardly appearance of the two, Lie Tianxiong was so angry he almost fainted again.

However, he also knew that without his protective inner armor and the Burning Heart Blade, and with Yan Cangyun and the Black-robed Elder lacking the magical artifacts from their storage rings, they were indeed no match for those two masked men.

He gritted his teeth and said fiercely, "Fine! Go gather the disciples first! But remember, no one is allowed to speak a word of what happened today!

If other factions find out that the Palace Master and the elders of the Burning Heaven Palace were stripped down to their underwear, our Burning Heaven Palace will completely lose all its face!"

The two hastily agreed, turned around, and hurried away.

Inside the cave, only Lie Tianxiong was left. He sat on the ground, touching the two swollen bumps on the top of his head and looking at his empty wrists, with only one thought left in his mind.

"Those bastards, don't let me run into you again! Otherwise, I will definitely strip you completely naked and throw you into the Burning Fire Furnace!"