Rumble!
The mountain began to shake violently, as if an earthquake had struck.
Wen Jiu turned his head and saw sinkholes opening all across the red maple woods.
It had all happened so suddenly that Wen Jiu was caught off guard. Only the area around the Chen family's grounds remained untouched.
Wen Jiu hurried toward it with the Black Zombie, then saw sword-riding cultivators flying out of the cave one after another.
They were members of the Night Patrol Division.
"Quick, quick, quick!"
Mu Canglong flew out first, carrying several Night Patrol Division disciples at the Qi Refining Second Layer who couldn't fly on their own.
After dropping them off, Mu Canglong immediately turned back.
Right behind him, most of the Night Patrol Division disciples came sprinting out, followed by the other disciples of Flying Immortal Peak. Once they were back on the surface, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but their stunned faces were still full of panic.
If they had been even a little slower and ended up buried underground, then even as cultivators, they would not have been able to withstand the force of all that earth and stone collapsing on them.
As the collapse accelerated, more and more Flying Immortal Peak disciples came charging out of the pit.
Not even a hundred breaths later,
there were already four or five hundred of them.
Soon,
Wen Jiu spotted Wang Nian.
Wang Nian looked shaken too, but the grin on his face was impossible to hide, even through his panic. It was clear he had made quite a haul. As soon as he saw Wen Jiu in the crowd, Wang Nian came over.
"Your big brother's struck it rich!"
Wang Nian slapped Wen Jiu on the shoulder.
Then he said excitedly, "Three Blood Robe Tower remnants at the Qi Refining Second Layer, and one at the Qi Refining Third Layer. The three of them had over a hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones between them, just in spirit stones. Add in the Peak Lord's reward, and I've made a year's worth of spirit stones in half a day!"
"Congratulations, Brother Wang."
Wen Jiu spoke with a heavy heart.
Wang Nian's grin froze. "What's wrong? You don't look like yourself."
"It's nothing." Wen Jiu quickly composed himself. If even Wang Nian could tell, how could the spy in Flying Immortal Peak not? "I only killed a few Chen family members. My haul is nothing compared to yours, Brother Wang."
"I told you to come with me, but you didn't dare... Let me tell you, that's how cultivation works: the timid starve, while the bold feast." Wang Nian spoke with delight, having completely forgotten that the woods around the Chen family were still collapsing.
Before Wen Jiu could say anything, Wang Nian went on, "If those damn Blood Robe Tower bastards hadn't suddenly shut down the array formation and deliberately caused the cave-in, I could've killed even more!"
He spoke with unrestrained excitement,
as if he still hadn't had enough.
But when he saw Wen Jiu sitting in silence, Wang Nian gradually calmed down too.
Soon,
Liu Xiao, Mu Canglong, and the others appeared one after another.
The seven elders also rushed out of the cave in turn. Three of them were badly weakened, and seemed to have suffered serious injuries.
Palace Chi, an elder of the Night Patrol Division, was among them.
Seeing their own elder injured, the various stewards hurried forward and took healing pills from their Storage Bags.
"It's fine. This old man can still hold on," Palace Chi said. Wen Jiu felt the memory that had haunted his mind suddenly explode back to life.
It was him!
It had to be him!
The voice differed somewhat from the one in the cave, but that tone, that way of speaking—Wen Jiu knew it too well.
That night had left a deep mark on him. He would never forget how small and helpless he had felt in Palace Chi's hands.
But there was someone else, too.
Who was he?
Wen Jiu's gaze swept over the other six.
But he didn't dare look too closely. He turned his eyes away and hurriedly asked Wang Nian beside him, "Brother Wang, are you all right?"
"I'm fine. I'm even planning to go back and have a child!" Wang Nian said seriously, then chuckled. "I like daughters..."
Wen Jiu nodded.
His face was full of smiles, but his mind was churning.
A deep unease lingered within him.
Still, when he thought of the Daily Settlement Panel's descriptions of Three Rivers Ghost Concealment and Blood Corpse Escape, and knew the other party absolutely couldn't uncover anything—at most, they could detect ghostly aura—he felt much more at ease.
A moment later,
the collapse stopped.
At Mu Canglong's command, Wen Jiu began clearing the battlefield, gathering up the demonic corpses and whatever remained of the Chen family's grounds.
The work gradually calmed him down, and his thoughts shifted from unease to the spoils he had gained this time.
Needless to say, there was the blood essence.
He had only gotten half of what was in the blood pool, but even that was an extraordinary amount. As for exactly how much, he would have to wait until the daily settlement before he could know for sure. But one thing was certain: whether he was cultivating the Black Zombie or practicing the Yin Sha Blood Curse Body, he had enough blood essence to last a long time.
There was also quite a bit of Death Qi mixed in with the blood essence. Perhaps it could raise his cultivation another level.
Qi Refining Third Layer?
Most likely!
Besides that, he had obtained Chen Feng's Storage Bag, along with the Storage Bags of three Blood Robe Tower members.
As he cleaned the battlefield, he probed inside them with his Spiritual Sense and found four hundred and seventy-three spirit stones alone.
Three first-order Low-grade Magic Tools.
Thirty-seven first-order low-grade talismans, plus pills and other things worth at least a hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones.
There were also cultivation methods and spells, which should be worth quite a bit too.
The most notable item was in Chen Feng's Storage Bag. It contained a technique from the Unorthodox Path.
Blood Ghost Hand.
It came from the Blood Robe Tower and had six stages.
This was the very technique Chen Feng had used to force Liu Xiao back with a single move. It far surpassed every corpse technique in the Yinzhou Corpse Raising Method. The reason was simple: it had been created by the previous Blood Robe Tower Master, Xue Mo San Qian.
It was one of the Blood Robe Tower's three great secret Unorthodox Path techniques!
"Whether I practice it or sell it, it's an excellent choice." Wen Jiu nodded to himself.
Apart from these things,
Wen Jiu had also found a rather strange token made of extraordinary material. There were only two characters on it: Tian Zuo.
Though he didn't know what the token was for, Wen Jiu didn't dare take it out to look. A Storage Bag could block other people's Spiritual Sense. If someone had left a Spiritual Sense imprint on the token, taking it out would be as good as exposing himself.
So he had better hide it somewhere when no one was around, somewhere inside Flying Immortal Peak that had nothing to do with him.
Once he found out what it was for, he could dig it up later.
A quarter of an hour later,
the Chen family's grounds had been completely cleared. Not a single thing had been left behind.
But as soon as the cleanup was over, shocking news spread among the Flying Immortal Peak disciples.
The Peak Lord had not returned!
The stewards who had been sent out to search had already come back, but there was still no sign of the Peak Lord.
A thought formed in everyone's minds at once.
Yet none of them could believe it.
"That Blood Robe Tower remnant couldn't even withstand a single move from the Peak Lord. How could he possibly have killed him?"
"The Peak Lord came from the Main Peak. He's a Personal Disciple under a Main Peak Elder, and all his abilities come from the Main Peak's top techniques. He must also have life-saving treasures from that elder. How could anything have happened to him?"
"Stop spouting nonsense. Maybe something just held the Peak Lord up. He's definitely fine."
As voices rose all around them,
Palace Chi stepped forward with a grave expression. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, prompting the people beside him to rush over and support him. But he shook them off and declared resolutely, "All Night Patrol Division stewards and officers, follow this old man into the cave at once to search for the Peak Lord!"
At Palace Chi's words,
the elders from the other divisions spoke up as well.
A group of cultivators at the Qi Refining Third Layer and Qi Refining Fourth Layer, along with all seven elders, plunged back into the collapsed cave.
Wen Jiu watched them.
It struck him as ironic.
Elder Palace Chi really was an award-winning actor.
After such a vivid performance, no one would believe the Peak Lord's death had anything to do with him.
"No, I have to take that exam... I have to go cultivate at the Main Peak. I can't stay at Flying Immortal Peak."
Wen Jiu made up his mind at once.
As for reporting Palace Chi?
Forget it.
He didn't even know who the other person was.
And even if he did, he didn't want to gamble with his own life.
I've been asking for recommendation votes and monthly votes this whole time.
I forgot to ask for the most important thing: continued reading!
Continued reading!
I'm begging you, fellow cultivators, please keep reading!
The new-book period will be over soon, so please hang in there a little longer and don't put the book on hold just yet.
Next Monday, we'll be competing for a spot in the Sanjiang selection. Every continued read really matters to me!
It really, really matters!
Please, please keep reading!
If we make it into the Sanjiang selection, I promise to post ten chapters on launch day! Ten chapters!!!
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