Old Yang Scams Them

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. No one had time to react—and even if they had, it would have been impossible to stop it.

The instant Old Yang saw a tattoo appear on Black Five's neck, he immediately shouted at the top of his voice.

"Er Han, take the two of them out! Hurry!"

Old Yang knew all too well how to give the most efficient commands in a crisis. Especially with someone like Er Han, he had to give clear instructions. Then Er Han's body would carry them out before his mind even had time to process them.

Just like now. Er Han's face still wore an uncertain, astonished expression, and his eyes were somewhat vacant.

Yet the instant he heard Old Yang's words, every muscle in his body tensed. His heartbeat abruptly doubled, and his whole body seemed like flammable oil, ignited in an instant.

Without thinking at all, his body had already transformed into a blurred afterimage. He tucked the Village Chief and Yu Ziqing under one arm each, slammed open the door behind him with his back, and charged out with his back to the room.

At the instant Old Yang shouted, all four of his limbs moved at once. His signature explosive leap sent him fleeing toward the outside in a single bound. At the same time, his throat bobbed and his tongue curled, spitting out a Black Stone that landed squarely on Black Five.

By the time Black Five died violently and collapsed to the ground, less than half a breath had passed, and there was no living person left inside.

After one breath, a Rune appeared between Black Five's brows. A soul-stirring chant drifted out, faint as a mosquito's buzz at first, then growing louder and louder.

Along with the chanting, a point of light spread out from between Black Five's brows like ripples expanding across water. Then it immediately rolled back like a receding tide, curling back in.

At that moment, the Black Stone on Black Five was stirred by the ripples of light. When the ring of light rolled back, a great mass of black smoke immediately surged out of the stone and merged into the Rune between Black Five's brows.

With a sharp pop, the Rune shattered, and the increasingly loud chanting abruptly stopped.

The black smoke that had been drawn out shrank back into the Black Stone.

At the same time, deep in a mountain range, dense vegetation surrounded the area. Gigantic trees dozens of yards tall stood everywhere, their crowns competing for sunlight and crisscrossing to fill every gap, leaving everything beneath them as dark as night.

A seven-story tower stood there.

Beneath the tower, a man with sunken cheeks and a face covered in tattoos stood on a raised platform, waving his arms and speaking passionately to the crowd below.

Suddenly, his expression shifted. He raised his right index finger and pressed it against his brow, and a Rune appeared.

Seeing his movement, the people below, who had been listening with rapt attention, immediately began chanting loudly. Wave after wave of sound rolled out, yet did not travel very far. Instead, as the waves of sound pressed together, a soul-stirring power began to spread.

Tattooed Face wore a solemn expression, killing intent flashing from his eyes.

A core member had leaked a secret that must not be leaked, triggering a forbidden technique and suffering backlash on the spot.

He was going to see who it was. Every Rune belonged to a specific person, and every one was different. As long as he sensed it, he could immediately know who had suffered backlash and died. He could even see the surroundings while he was at it.

At the same time, he could borrow the crowd's power to chant the Dharma Canon. Perhaps he could even control the people near the traitor who were not very strong. If he could not control them, leaving a seed behind would work too.

Most importantly, he could sense the auras nearby. Once a traitor leaked a secret, he only needed to capture the auras of the people beside him. Perhaps he could identify the traitor, or at least narrow down the general area and determine what kind of cultivation method would produce such an aura.

He might not be able to identify them immediately, but the next time he encountered them, he would recognize them at once.

This was how they concealed their secrets. It had never failed them, so almost no one in the organization would leak secrets they should not. Even those who had defected would not reveal certain secrets.

He had thought this connection had gone so smoothly that he would be able to obtain even more information.

However, the moment the connection formed, he sensed an exceedingly strange power. It forced its way through everything like a guest boldly presenting itself, charging into his perception first.

Tattooed Face was extremely decisive. He severed the connection and shattered the Rune at the first opportunity. To be safe, he even forcibly severed that strand of soul power of his own.

He grunted. His face shifted between blue and green, and the sharpness in his eyes dimmed somewhat.

His soul had been injured.

"A trap!"

He no longer remembered what power the other party had used in the trap. The strand of soul power that had touched that force had already been forcibly severed, causing it to burn itself and vanish without a trace.

He only knew that it could be described with a few words: strange, overbearing, and chilling. Even if he encountered this power again, he would not recognize it. Yet in that brief instant of contact, he had already realized that the master of this power was absolutely far stronger than he was.

Since the other party had been capable of tracing the connection back, if he dared leave behind even the slightest mark, they might already have locked onto his approximate location.

If that powerhouse personally took action, they might find this base in less than seven days.

Fortunately, he had reacted quickly enough and decisively enough.

Tattooed Face staggered and sat down on the ground. He took out a purplish-black pill and swallowed it. His complexion improved slightly, but how could damage to his soul recover so easily?

The ring of light around Black Five had come quickly and vanished just as quickly.

After several breaths, everything had settled. While everyone was still uncertain and alarmed, Old Yang had already walked toward the Earthen Kiln.

The Village Chief waved at the people who had come running after hearing the commotion outside.

"Go back to sleep."

No one asked any unnecessary questions. At most, they took another look to make sure everyone was unharmed, then turned around and went back to sleep.

The group entered the Earthen Kiln again. The Rune between Black Five's brows had already vanished.

Everyone looked at Old Yang. Old Yang narrowed his eyes slightly and glanced at Black Five on the ground.

"Don't be nervous. Someone had planted a forbidden technique in him—the Silent Curse, perhaps, or something else. Now that he exposed a secret he was not allowed to speak of, he suffered backlash and his soul scattered. He did not even get the chance to become a ghost.

"Besides, no one will know where he was, and no one will discover what happened here. They might not even know that the one who died was Black Five."

Old Yang explained to Yu Ziqing the general purpose of this kind of forbidden technique and how the people behind it tracked their targets. Then he continued.

"The Seventh Floor's base has never been discovered. There have been several times when people thought they had found it, but those were all abandoned bases. There was little valuable intelligence.

"Because the forbidden technique was triggered by a secret, the person who was tracking us just now would certainly have been extremely cautious. At the slightest mishap, he would immediately withdraw. He would learn nothing.

"And if he was too cautious, he might even suffer severe damage..."

Old Yang glanced at the Black Stone on the ground and could not help laughing.

Old Yang gave Yu Ziqing a slight hint, and Yu Ziqing immediately understood. He followed along with a laugh like a squealing pig.

Old Yang was truly wicked...

This Black Stone was a fragment of the Jade Tomb. Its owner had certainly been a supreme powerhouse in life, but now this Black Stone was merely a fragment of the Jade Tomb.

Something like this was simply perfect for frightening people.

The people of the Seventh Floor did not dare gamble. For someone who had planted a forbidden technique to reveal a secret at the cost of his own life was, under ordinary circumstances, never a simple matter.

If they won the gamble, at most they would learn who was nearby. They still would not be able to retaliate immediately.

If they lost, their base would be exposed. Then, most likely... no, without a doubt, the entire household would ascend to heaven, and the base would be wiped out.

There were far too many people who wanted to eradicate them.

That included some of the clients who had once bought their intelligence.

Yu Ziqing thought about it. If he put himself in their place, he probably would have made the same decision. In such a situation, there was simply too much to lose.

With Black Five's fate as a warning, when interrogating the Black Goat, Yu Ziqing knew which questions might be impossible to ask.

As a beast, the Black Goat recovered a little faster than Black Five. After taking half a dose of the antidote, it had already regained its consciousness.

The interrogation went smoothly. For some reason, after regaining consciousness, the Black Goat did not seem to mind the others. But whenever it saw Yu Ziqing, it became even more frightened than when it had been dazed. Its limbs stayed rigid the entire time, as though it had been frightened stiff and was pretending to be dead.

Yu Ziqing took the information he had obtained from interrogating Black Five and asked it all over again in a different order. He even suddenly inserted some questions into the middle and asked them again.

After half a day, the rust in the gaps of the Rusted Sword fell away once more, completing its judgment. Yu Ziqing concluded that there should not be any lies.

Feeling that he had asked almost everything, Yu Ziqing did not intend to delay any longer. He continued questioning it.

"Where is the Seventh Floor's base?"

The Black Goat's eyes were filled with terror, and even its mouth trembled, but it stubbornly refused to say it.

Yu Ziqing shook his head slightly. It seemed this fellow knew that speaking meant certain death.

"Deal with it."

Whether judged by his own principles or by the safety of himself and the village, a beast like this could not be left alive.

Er Han made the move. He drew a sharp blade and, like Butcher Ding carving up an ox—or in this case, a sheep—cleanly and efficiently finished off the Black Goat. The process went unusually smoothly.

At the moment of its death, the Black Goat was clearly terrified and seemed desperate to do something. Yet its body remained rigid, utterly unable to move. In the end, it stretched out its neck and awaited slaughter, finally breathing its last. Its eyes seemed to hold a trace of relief and release.

It seemed that dying like this was already the best possible outcome.

Yu Ziqing did not quite understand. Old Yang, standing beside him, was also somewhat puzzled.

"Did they eat so much Spirit-Confusing Medicine that it damaged their brains?"

"Probably. I checked at the time. They licked up nearly all the Spirit-Confusing Medicine I scattered. They ate even more of it than Jinlan Mushrooms..."

Old Yang stared at the slain Black Goat and pondered for a long while, yet he could not find any way the Black Goat could still have a chance at survival or possibly send out a message under such circumstances.

Then he looked at Yu Ziqing, seemingly deep in thought.

"Dispose of the Black Goat's corpse. Also, it should have a demonic core. I want it."

In the end, they dug out a demonic core the size of a pinky finger, which Old Yang swallowed in one bite. The Black Goat's corpse, along with the wooden basin used to catch its blood, was thrown into the Locust tree forest at the village entrance.

The layer of fallen leaves was like flowing sand, quickly swallowing everything that had been thrown inside.

This time, the Locust tree forest changed slightly.

A thin layer of blood qi and black qi emerged from the thick layer of fallen leaves, then spread throughout the entire Locust tree forest and was absorbed by the locust trees.

Some of the gray, withered leaves and flowers on the locust trees regained their vitality. Some branches even sprouted new shoots. A sinister wind appeared out of nowhere in the Locust tree forest, stirring the drooping flowers and turning them into a rustling, indistinct whisper.

Thanks to the Level-Eight Pig Herder for the ten-thousand-coin tip, and thank you for your affection and support.