While Zhang Wan holed up in the academy and focused on drawing talismans, Fengliu Commandery began to fall into turmoil.
Ten days after the Wu Family announced that it was selling the treasures in its possession, large numbers of martial artists flooded into Fengliu Commandery.
They all came under the banner of purchasing cultivation resources from the Wu Family, but once they entered the city, some martial artists began running amok.
Although the martial artists of the Jade Bone Sect stationed there went out to suppress them, without the strength of a Prenatal martial artist, the Jade Bone Sect's forces guarding Fengliu Commandery found it difficult to quell all the chaos.
At the same time, after the Jade Bone Sect's guards were distracted by those unruly martial artists, martial artists who had grudges against the Wu Family began to strike at it.
Every day, Wu Family martial artists were attacked.
Especially those Wu Family members who became separated from the others after leaving the family grounds—they were always ambushed and killed.
Some were powerful enough to kill their attackers in return or escape with their lives.
But more Wu Family martial artists were slaughtered on the spot, their bodies mutilated and their heads separated.
Even though Zhang Wan stayed in the academy and never went out, he could still hear the news.
Clearly, the situation in Fengliu Commandery was rapidly worsening. The Jade Bone Sect's forces guarding Fengliu Commandery were insufficient to suppress everything; otherwise, matters would not have developed to this point, and the news would not have reached the Beginner Martial Arts Academy in the outskirts, spreading like wildfire and refusing to die down.
Even the instructor martial artists of every grade solemnly warned all the students that, whether they had business or not, they should stay in the Beginner Martial Arts Academy and avoid going out for the time being.
If they really went out, they would bear responsibility for their own life or death! The academy would never dispatch large numbers of martial artists to search for a few individual students. At a time like this, the academy had to concentrate its strength and ensure everyone's safety!
It absolutely would not disperse the academy's strength for a few individual students and plunge the entire academy into danger.
This tense, dangerous atmosphere also spurred Zhang Wan into action.
While secretly drawing talismans to add to his arsenal, he also invested some experience points into his cultivation.
However, he had not lost his reason. He invested only a little, raising his cultivation to the peak of the Second Level Postnatal before stopping.
"I've accumulated seven or eight of each of the five types of Postnatal low-grade fire talismans. If I really encounter danger, relying on these talismans, no one below a Postnatal sixth or seventh level can possibly take me down!"
Although they were only Postnatal low-grade fire talismans, once their numbers rose, Zhang Wan was confident he could fight even a Postnatal fourth- or fifth-level martial artist.
Even if he could not win, he could still escape safely.
And Zhang Wan continued to bury his head in drawing talismans, increasing the number of talismans in his possession.
Once the total number of fire talismans exceeded a hundred, even if a Sixth Level Postnatal martial artist stood before him, Zhang Wan was confident he could bury the opponent beneath a mountain of talismans!
Even now, Zhang Wan always had several Fire Barrier Talismans, Fire Robe Talismans, and Fire Escape Talismans stuck to his body.
Even if someone suddenly launched a sneak attack, the Fire Barrier Talisman could buy him the time he needed to react and strike back!
If he was unlucky enough to encounter a formidable existence he could not handle, these fire talismans could still buy him enough time to use experience points and raise his cultivation.
But if that happened, he would have to flee to the ends of the earth and vanish without a trace.
This was the situation Zhang Wan least wanted to encounter. But if he really met such a formidable opponent, he would not hesitate—his own life was always the most important thing.
Basically, Zhang Wan had considered every situation that might occur and prepared strategies to deal with them.
At the same time, Zhang Wan also felt somewhat puzzled.
Although Fengliu Commandery was not in the core region ruled by the Jade Bone Sect, it was still located in the central area.
How could the Jade Bone Sect allow Fengliu Commandery's law and order to become so rotten?
Given the Jade Bone Sect's size and strength, the moment someone began causing trouble in Fengliu Commandery, it should have immediately dispatched a Prenatal martial artist or a large number of Postnatal martial artists to suppress them.
How could it have done nothing?
Could it be that some problem had arisen within the Jade Bone Sect?
This thought involuntarily surfaced in Zhang Wan's mind.
But as long as Old Ancestor Jade Bone was fine, every other problem was merely a minor one. And Old Ancestor Jade Bone, according to what he had heard, still had more than a hundred years of life left. His death was still far off.
Surely no True Core expert from the Wu Kingdom had been so bored that they went and fought Old Ancestor Jade Bone recently, leaving both sides badly wounded?
Zhang Wan shook his head with a laugh.
The possibility was not very high.
If that had really happened, it would not be only Fengliu Commandery that was in chaos.
Having ruled out that answer, Zhang Wan could only think that the Jade Bone Sect was plotting something.
"No, that's not right. It isn't the Jade Bone Sect plotting something. It should be someone within the Jade Bone Sect plotting something!"
"One Fengliu Commandery isn't worth the entire sect coming down to scheme over."
"Then what, exactly, is that person plotting?"
Based on the current situation, Zhang Wan managed to guess at a tiny part of the truth. Unfortunately, he still knew too little. No matter how good his guesses were, he could not glimpse the whole picture.
While Zhang Wan was lost in wild speculation, a vortex of spiritual energy suddenly appeared in the Wu Family of Fengliu Commandery, and a powerful pressure spread outward with the Wu Family at its center.
In an instant, every martial artist in Fengliu Commandery who sensed that pressure changed color.
A vortex of spiritual energy, along with that pressure—this clearly meant someone was breaking through to the Prenatal realm!
And considering that direction, as well as the recent news that the Wu Family was selling treasures to gather funds to exchange for a Prenatal Pill, the martial artists immediately realized that someone in the Wu Family was attempting to break through to the Prenatal realm!
Panic seized the hearts of these martial artists.
Quite a few of them had committed crimes in Fengliu Commandery during this period. Some had even taken advantage of the chaos to attack Wu Family martial artists in secret.
If a Wu Family member really reached the Prenatal realm, they would be in for a reckoning—and they would not come out of it well!
But no matter what they thought, it was already too late.
Once the vortex of spiritual energy appeared, it was no longer something they could stop.
Even if they rushed over now, they would not make it in time.
Win or lose, all they could do was watch.
Just as these martial artists waited uneasily, the vortex of spiritual energy suddenly collapsed, and the constantly rising pressure rapidly withered away before vanishing without a trace.
A sorrowful wail spread through the entire Wu Family.
In stark contrast, most of the outsiders in Fengliu Commandery were overjoyed!
The news that a Wu Family martial artist had failed in the attempt to break through to the Prenatal realm soon spread. Everyone learned that, after first losing a Prenatal expert to death and then suffering a failed breakthrough attempt, the Wu Family no longer had any chance to rise again!
The entire Wu Family had become a plump piece of meat on the chopping block!
It was not only the martial artists in Fengliu Commandery—even martial artists elsewhere came rushing over after hearing the news, hoping to carve off a juicy piece of meat from this feast that was the Wu Family!
Large numbers of Postnatal martial artists surged toward Fengliu Commandery.
In the short week after the Wu Family martial artist's failed attempt to break through to the Prenatal realm, the number of foreign Postnatal martial artists in Fengliu Commandery exceeded a thousand!
Besides these foreign Postnatal martial artists, quite a few Postnatal martial artists who had long lived in Fengliu Commandery also set their sights on the Wu Family, hoping to seize the chance to gain enormous benefits.
The Wu Family, having lost its Prenatal martial artist, was like a tiny sailboat facing these Postnatal martial artists amid raging waves. Any random wave could smash the ship and drown everyone aboard.
But even though the Wu Family martial artists were as cautious and careful as they could be at this point, with profits at stake, both the incoming foreign Postnatal martial artists and those in the city engaged in fierce clashes with the Wu Family martial artists.
The number of dead and wounded increased day by day.
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