The sight before him made him raise an eyebrow.
In the clearing at the center of the mine, seven or eight cultivators in matching gray-blue Daoist robes were surrounding and attacking a slender figure covered in blood.
Dust swirled through the center of the mine.
The figure under attack was a girl who looked no more than fifteen or sixteen. Blood had soaked most of her moon-white dress.
Her hair was disheveled, and a Dharma Artifact had slashed a wound across her face. Blood trickled down her cheek and dripped onto the loose stones beneath her feet.
Her cultivation was only at the early Golden Core stage.
Yet despite her injuries, the girl still bit her lip and clutched a crack-riddled spirit sword with both hands, her stance stubborn and resolute.
There was no fear in her eyes, only a ferocity that bordered on obsession.
The seven or eight cultivators attacking her were all at the mid Golden Core stage or late Golden Core stage. A silver Black Tortoise emblem was embroidered on the left breast of each of their robes.
Chen Changqing recognized that emblem.
A subordinate faction of the True Martial Immortal Sect.
As one of the ten great righteous sects, the True Martial Immortal Sect had numerous small and medium-sized sects and aristocratic clans under its wing. These factions acted under its banner, throwing their weight around in their respective territories.
"You little brat, hand it over if you know what's good for you, and we of the Black Tortoise Hall might leave your corpse intact!"
Their leader was a fierce-looking middle-aged cultivator at the peak of the late Golden Core stage. He held a bronze-colored saber, its blade still stained with the girl's blood.
Several of his companions chimed in with threats.
"That's right. A little