Taking Revenge Along the Way

The Hidden Immortal Pavilion stronghold Lin Yi spoke of was located in a valley a hundred li south of Hengshui City.

It was not far, so the two flew there directly on their artifacts.

The valley was protected by a Mist Illusion Array. After entering an Underground Palace, they found Night-Luminescent Pearls embedded one after another in the corridor walls.

"A Spirit Gathering Array, a small spiritual land? Brother Lin, you have made quite an investment."

Lan Chang'an looked around and praised him.

Before entering the Underground Palace, he had swept it with his divine sense and found no ambush.

"Haha, I was fortunate enough to discover this Underground Spring a few years ago. That was how I managed to cultivate this spiritual land. Of course, its cultivation effects definitely cannot compare to a First-Order Spiritual Vein."

Lin Yi laughed heartily, a flicker passing through his eyes.

Fortunate enough to discover it?

Lan Chang'an merely smiled without speaking. Unless one had extraordinary luck, how could an Underground Spring hidden deep below the earth be so easily discovered?

"As expected, I could not hide it from Brother Lu."

Lin Yi sighed and revealed the truth. "I killed a Rogue Cultivator and learned of this Underground Spring from his mouth. For the sake of convenient cultivation, I simply built my stronghold here."

There were quite a few Stone Halls in the Underground Palace, and they encountered two mortal martial arts experts along the way.

"Pavilion Master."

When they reached a Stone Hall, someone was guarding the entrance—a Rogue Cultivator at the Qi Refining Second Layer.

Lin Yi nodded and led Lan Chang'an into the Stone Hall.

A pungent smell of medicinal herbs mixed with charcoal fire wafted over.

Lan Chang'an looked closely and saw a Pill Furnace in the depths of the Stone Hall, with Spirit Wood Charcoal placed beneath it.

Before the Pill Furnace sat a disheveled, ragged man. Both his legs had been severed at the knees, and he was controlling the fire beneath the furnace.

"Pavilion Master Lin."

The ragged man turned his head, his face filled with obsequious respect.

"Daoist Lu... has come as well?"

Seeing Lan Chang'an, the ragged man froze for a moment, then immediately put on a fawning smile.

"Xia Feilun?"

Lan Chang'an was startled. He could barely recognize the other's identity from that haggard face.

"That is right. It is Xia Feilun."

Lin Yi smiled and confirmed it.

"Daoist Lu must be very curious how he ended up here."

"Two months ago, this man was beaten with a staff one hundred times by Golden Cloud Valley and expelled from the sect. After leaving the sect, Rogue Cultivators whom he had previously swindled with Inferior Cores and poisoned pills gathered to take revenge, beating him severely. In the end, I was kind enough to rescue him and provide him with a stable job..."

Lin Yi explained the sequence of events.

As he spoke, Xia Feilun secretly cast pleading looks at Lan Chang'an.

Lan Chang'an glanced at his legs. They had been severed too cleanly at the knees.

His cultivation had fallen to the Qi Refining Second Layer, and there seemed to be Restrictions placed on his body as well.

Lan Chang'an appeared thoughtful, but he did not plead for Xia Feilun.

Ten years ago, when they had kept their appointment at the Gathering Immortal Pavilion.

As an alchemy apprentice, Xia Feilun had relied on his status to treat the three of them with contempt, even mocking Lan Chang'an verbally.

He had even tried to sell Inferior Cores to Lan Chang'an and the others.

Who could have expected that he would now be captured by Lin Yi, locked in a little dark room, and turned into an alchemy tool?

"Brother Xia, work hard. As long as you refine pills for me for twenty years and repay the debt of saving your life, I will let you return to reunite with your wife and daughter."

Lin Yi laughed heartily, feeling utterly satisfied.

They left the alchemy Stone Hall.

Lan Chang'an sold a batch of Talismans to Lin Yi.

Previously, Lin Yi had mainly purchased Basic Talismans and First-Order Talismans.

This time, he bought a small number of Mid-Grade Talismans.

Once again refusing Lin Yi's invitation to become deputy pavilion master.

Lan Chang'an rode his magical artifact away from the Hidden Immortal Pavilion stronghold.

Half a month later, Lan Chang'an rode a Spirit Steed Horse down an official road.

A long convoy of carriages appeared in the distance.

Lan Chang'an did not think much of it and prepared to pass by, until he sensed fluctuations of spiritual power—and more than one source.

Cultivators?

After some thought, Lan Chang'an rode into the nearby forest.

Before long, a convoy of at least a hundred people passed by.

Most of the convoy consisted of mortals, but at least twenty people carried spiritual power fluctuations.

"Huh! Zheng Wugong!"

A dark-skinned, muscular man sat atop a tall Spirit Colt. A centipede-like scar ran across his cheek, nearly reaching his neck.

This man was the Zheng Family's sole remaining elder at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.

Lan Chang'an remembered him because twelve years ago, Zheng Wugong had led a group to intercept and kill their batch of Immortal Seedlings.

In that battle, only six of the ten Immortal Seedlings had survived.

Lan Chang'an circulated the Evergreen Art, concealing his aura until he resembled withered wood. Even Zheng Wugong, at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, could not detect his observation.

"Is Zheng Wugong leading his clansmen in a migration?"

Thinking back to the conflict between the two families three years ago, the Zheng Family of Bamboo Leaf Mountain had submitted to the Maple Leaf Huang Family.

Now that Zheng Wugong was leading his clansmen away, he clearly did not wish to live beneath another's roof. He planned to seek another place to develop and preserve the Zheng Family's cultivation Lineage.

If they continued relying on the Huang Family, the Zheng Family's fate would be to be completely swallowed up by them.

Lan Chang'an had also come from a cultivation Lineage in his Previous Life, and he understood well how much such families valued the inheritance of their bloodline.

The convoy went far away.

Lan Chang'an was about to continue on his journey.

At that moment, two more Spirit Steed Horses appeared on the official road. A man and a woman rode them leisurely, looking around from time to time and checking behind them for pursuers.

"This journey has been peaceful. Neither the Mu nor Huang families made a move. For the Zhou Family's sake, perhaps they truly have let us go."

The Round-Faced Middle-Aged Man at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer said.

"It is a pity we have not avenged Yan'er. Once we leave, who knows when, in this lifetime, we will be able to take revenge?"

The Ugly Woman beside him, at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, said unwillingly.

"Revenge? How many times have you brought it up along the way? That Lan Chang'an has been hiding in the Mu Family all this time. How could he possibly give you an opportunity?"

The Round-Faced Middle-Aged Man said impatiently.

He also wanted to help his younger sister Zheng Feng take revenge, but he had not expected Lan Chang'an to be so cautious. In nearly ten years, he had never heard of him leaving.

"You think Lu has spent these years hiding from your revenge?"

A voice rang out, three parts astonished and three parts amused.

"Who is it?!"

Zheng Feng and Zheng Dong were greatly startled.

They saw a white-robed youth riding a Spirit Steed Horse emerge unhurriedly from the forest.

"Lan Chang'an?!"

The Ugly Woman Zheng Feng's eyes widened. After staring blankly for a moment, her eyes split with fury, and she revealed a cruel smile.

"There is a road to heaven, yet you refuse to take it. Instead, you have delivered yourself right to our door?"

Zheng Feng rubbed her eyes, the fat on her face trembling as she nearly suspected she was hallucinating.

In her dreams, she had encountered Lan Chang'an more than once or twice.

"What is that smell?"

Zheng Dong's nostrils twitched. He sensed something wrong, and his body suddenly went limp and weak, making it difficult to breathe.

"Not good, poison..."

Brown spots surfaced on their faces, and their bodies swayed as though they might collapse.

"You little thief! You actually poisoned us—"

Looking at Lan Chang'an standing upwind, Zheng Feng's face was full of hatred and unwillingness as she struggled to retrieve a Detoxification Pill from her Storage Bag.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

A Mid-Grade Magical Artifact flying shuttle flashed through the air like cold lightning, spraying two blossoms of blood more than ten feet away.

Before the violent poison of the Marrow-Corroding Powder could fully take effect, Lan Chang'an raised his hand and brought down his blade, severing both their heads.

He stepped forward and took their Storage Bags.

Lan Chang'an rode his Spirit Steed Horse, affixed a Wind Speed Talisman, and departed with the wind.

Zheng Wugong was one or two li away, so Lan Chang'an was not worried about being caught.

Half an hour later.

Having sensed something amiss, Zheng Wugong rode his great saber through the sky.

Seeing the two decomposing corpses on the ground, Zheng Wugong's expression darkened, and he warily looked around.

"This is... poison from Marrow-Corroding Powder?"

After carefully examining the corpses, Zheng Wugong could not help crying out.

He knew that Zheng Yuanhua possessed this kind of deadly poison.

Zheng Yuanhua had died under strange circumstances during the operation to receive Ge Alchemist. Later, they suspected that he had died at the hands of the Evil Cultivator Liang Shaotian.

Because at that time, the Old Ancestors of both families had been at the frontline Mine Area.

The Mu Family had only one Qi Refining Ninth Layer cultivator at home, making it impossible for them to threaten Zheng Yuanhua's life.

Zheng Wugong's expression shifted between light and dark. For the moment, he had no clue.

He did not dare linger. With trepidation, he led his clansmen onward in their migration, fearing that the Mu Family or Huang Family might refuse to spare his branch.

"Only this much? It seems the Zheng Family has truly fallen on hard times."

Half an hour later, Lan Chang'an sorted through the Spoils of War in the Storage Bags.

The two Qi Refining Mid-Stage cultivators had provided fewer than a hundred Spirit Stones, three Low-Grade Magic Tools, and pitifully few other resources such as pills.

Those three Low-Grade Magic Tools could only be fenced later when he found an opportunity.

Lan Chang'an had decided on revenge because he saw that the two were alone and neither had advanced to Qi Refining Late-Stage, allowing him to kill them with ease.

Moreover, even if the impoverished, migrating Zheng Family later deduced that he was the killer, they would lack the ability to seek revenge.

More than ten days later.

Lan Chang'an returned to Jade Moon Mountain Villa and asked around about the Zheng Family.

This branch of the Zheng Family had indeed migrated away.

It was said that, in order to ensure a safe migration, Zheng Wugong had personally gone to plead with the Beast Taming Zhou Family.

The younger generations of the two families had intermarried before, and the Zhou Family did not wish to see the Huang Family grow more powerful. Thus, they spoke up and told the two families not to pursue and kill this migrating branch of the Zheng Family.

Returning to his residence in the courtyard.

Lan Chang'an took a Spirit Pet Bag from his robe and opened its Restriction.

Squeak!

A huge brownish-yellow Rat Demon leaped out of the Spirit Pet Bag.

It was the Earth Rock Rat.

"I have raised you for three years, yet you still have not advanced to First-Order Late-Stage. If you do not break through soon, I will sell you to a mine."

Lan Chang'an threatened it, then took out a two-hundred-year-old spirit fruit from his Storage Bag and tossed it to the Earth Rock Rat.

"Squeak squeak..."

The Earth Rock Rat's eyes lit up as it frantically gnawed on the spirit fruit.

Since the precious medicinal herbs in his possession were difficult to fence, he might as well use them to feed his Spirit Pet, though it was somewhat like throwing pearls before swine.

Lan Chang'an waved his hand, letting the Earth Rock Rat burrow from the house's basement into the ground.

Two years ago, he had signed a Spirit Pet Contract with the Earth Rock Rat and no longer needed to rely on a Beast Taming Token.

He had purchased the Spirit Pet Bag from a clansman at September Pavilion.

Because the Beast Taming Zhou Family was the local overlord, Spirit Pets and Spirit Pet Bags were relatively common in the surrounding area.