"Elder!"
"Elder Gong!"
"Elder Gong, you're badly injured. If you don't treat your wounds at once, they may only get worse."
The Night Patrol Division disciples hurriedly spoke up.
Gong Chi's expression hardened. He swept a cold gaze over Mu Canglong and the others who had tried to stop him. "Can none of you tell what matters most? Compared to the Peak Master's death, are my injuries really so serious? Come with me. Now!"
Gong Chi's words brimmed with anger.
If Wen Jiu hadn't known Gong Chi's true nature, he would have taken him for a model disciple of Flying Immortal Peak.
And, in truth, that was exactly what happened.
Gong Chi's speech won the respect of many Flying Immortal Peak disciples.
Some even began pleading with the people from the Inspection Hall, asking them to let Elder Gong treat his wounds first.
But the three Inspection Envoys' gazes remained cold. One swept his eyes over the disciple who had pleaded, making the other retreat in fright.
Then the leader spoke again, his voice icy. "If anyone else dares to ramble, they'll be punished as a remnant of the Blood Robe Tower!"
The Inspection Envoys' ruthlessness left the Flying Immortal Peak disciples too afraid to draw a full breath, and forced the elders and stewards to obediently enter the main hall.
It also left many disciples uneasy. They had heard of the main peak's Inspection Hall, but had never seen it before. They hadn't expected its Inspection Envoys to be so overbearing.
What they said next made the Flying Immortal Peak disciples' expressions change.
"Starting today, no Flying Immortal Peak disciple may leave the peak. Anyone who leaves without permission will be treated as a traitor to the sect!"
With that, the three entered the main hall.
The thirty cultivators in golden robes took up positions at the front and began questioning the Flying Immortal Peak disciples one by one.
Each of them also held a golden spirit beetle.
Whenever a Flying Immortal Peak disciple answered, the golden-robed cultivator would glance at the beetle in his hand.
Clearly, the spirit beetle could somehow tell whether someone was lying. Wen Jiu just didn't know how it worked.
At the thought, Wen Jiu quickly held his breath.
He carefully watched how the golden spirit beetles reacted when others answered, while preparing his own response in his mind.
Soon, a golden-robed cultivator came before Wen Jiu.
He asked just one question.
"Where were you before and after Peak Master Ji's accident?"
Wen Jiu answered honestly. "When the Peak Master went after the Blood Robe Tower remnants, I was with the Night Patrol Division disciples, clearing out the Chen family... After we finished, I went inside with everyone else, but I got scared and came out early. It wasn't long after I left that the cave started collapsing."
"Scared?"
The golden-robed cultivator's expression tightened. He hurriedly looked at the golden beetle.
When he saw that it hadn't reacted at all, a trace of displeasure appeared in his eyes.
Clearly, it was because Wen Jiu had said he was scared.
But Wen Jiu didn't care.
The cultivator could think whatever he wanted.
As long as he didn't trigger a reaction from the golden beetle, that was all that mattered. Besides, Wen Jiu really had been scared. When he heard Gong Chi's voice back then, he'd been terrified of being discovered. Otherwise, he wouldn't have used Blood Corpse Escape twice in a row.
The golden-robed cultivator spoke coldly. "You may leave, but don't leave Flying Immortal Peak. Be ready to answer more questions at any time."
"Thank you, Senior."
Wen Jiu cupped his hands.
Then he turned and slowly made his way out of the crowd.
Before leaving, Wen Jiu glanced back at the main hall.
He hoped the Inspection Envoys from the main peak's Inspection Hall would actually uncover something.
Even if they couldn't—
he hoped they would keep everyone tied up for a while.
There was still some time before the Flying Immortal Peak Apprentice Disciple examination.
When he got home, Wen Jiu told Wang Nian's mother through the closed door what had happened while Wang Nian was being questioned in the main hall, so she wouldn't worry.
There was no way he'd go inside to tell her.
Wen Jiu still knew how to keep proper boundaries.
After telling her, Wen Jiu returned home, put what had just happened out of his mind, and began drawing talismans as he waited for Midnight.
Soon,
Midnight arrived.
The Daily Settlement Panel appeared!
The moment it did, Wen Jiu's eyes went straight to the information about the essence blood the Corpse Eye had harvested.
[Absorbed a large amount of Cultivator's Essence Blood through the Corpse Eye. Essence blood condensed from fifty thousand mortals: panel experience +1, essence blood +173, +5000, Death Qi +2000.]
But what made Wen Jiu's expression change wasn't the 5000 essence blood or the 2000 Death Qi. It was the fifty thousand mortals.
The Blood Robe Tower remnants had actually killed more than a hundred thousand mortals for that pool of essence blood!
What were they trying to do?
A hundred thousand.
Maybe an entire county in the mortal world had only a hundred thousand people.
In other words, the Blood Robe Tower had killed the people of an entire county for their blood.
"This..."
Honestly,
Wen Jiu was genuinely shaken.
For a long while, he couldn't say a word.
At last, he understood why those Qi Refining cultivators despised Wicked Heretics.
Did mortals' lives really mean no more to them than grass, to be cut down whenever they pleased?
Then Wen Jiu looked at the remaining essence blood and Death Qi on his personal panel.
[Death Qi remaining: 57+2000] [Corpse Qi remaining: 341] [Cultivator's Essence Blood remaining: 2368+5173]
His remaining Death Qi had reached 2057, enough to carry him straight into the Qi Refining Third Layer.
His remaining Cultivator's Essence Blood had reached a staggering 7541. If he wanted to cultivate the Yin Sha Blood Curse Body, he might be able to raise it straight to the fourth layer, letting his body withstand spell attacks from Qi Refining Third Layer cultivators.
Among all the Qi Refining Third Layer stewards on Flying Immortal Peak, no one would be his match!
But Wen Jiu couldn't bring himself to feel happy. He had never thought of himself as a good person, but knowing that the five thousand essence blood he'd gained came from the lives of fifty thousand mortals made it hard to steady his thoughts.
If he had to absorb a cultivator's essence blood, even if the cultivator was one of his own, Wen Jiu wouldn't hesitate as long as they were already dead.
He wouldn't feel the slightest guilt.
But mortals were different.
Especially fifty thousand of them.
Wen Jiu's feelings shifted, just a little.
After a long silence, he finally calmed down and stopped dwelling on it. But he made a quiet vow: once he was strong enough, he'd kill every Blood Robe Tower remnant he came across. He'd show no mercy.
Then,
Wen Jiu turned his attention to another settlement. It was actually about the Blood Ghost Hand.
He'd only taken a quick look earlier, but the Daily Settlement Panel had directly recorded it as one of his skills.
The skill section had gained Blood Ghost Hand.
[Skill: Blood Ghost Hand Initiation (0/100)]+
He could use essence blood to raise it directly.
But Wen Jiu hesitated for a few breaths as he looked at the plus sign.
He definitely couldn't cultivate the Yin Sha Blood Curse Body right now, and he couldn't spend his remaining essence blood on cultivating the Black Zombie, either.
Rather than keep hoarding it, he might as well use some to forge himself a new trump card.
The Blood Ghost Hand seemed like a good choice.
After all, the Corpse Eye's spell could only be used once, and he still couldn't draw a top-grade first-tier low-grade Soul Seizing Talisman.
"If I master the Blood Ghost Hand, it won't matter if anyone finds out. I can just say I looted it as spoils of war." Wen Jiu murmured, then made up his mind and began adding experience.
In an instant,
the Blood Ghost Hand entered the first stage.
[Skill: Blood Ghost Hand, First Stage (0/500)]+
Wen Jiu added more.
The Blood Ghost Hand advanced to the second stage.
[Skill: Blood Ghost Hand, Second Stage (0/1000)]+
Then came the third stage.
[Skill: Blood Ghost Hand, Third Stage (0/2000)]
After reaching the third stage, Wen Jiu chose not to raise it any further. The three upgrades had already consumed 1600 of his remaining essence blood. And even if he'd wanted to push it further, he couldn't have.
Although the Blood Ghost Hand didn't demand much of a body-refining cultivation, that was only true before the third stage.
To reach the fourth stage, he had to possess a body-refining cultivation. Otherwise, his body simply wouldn't withstand the backlash of the Blood Ghost Hand. It was certainly powerful, but everything had two sides.
Wen Jiu checked his remaining essence blood.
[Cultivator's Essence Blood remaining: 5941]
"I'll hold on to it for now and see whether I use it to improve the Blood Ghost Hand or cultivate the Yin Sha Blood Curse Body."
With that,
Wen Jiu's gaze fell on his remaining Death Qi.
If he wanted to,
he could enter the Qi Refining Third Layer at any time.
But advancing to the Qi Refining Third Layer at a time like this wouldn't be a good idea.
"Never mind. I'll think about it later. I can enter the Qi Refining Third Layer whenever I want, anyway." After making up his mind, Wen Jiu closed his personal information panel, then sat cross-legged on the bed and began using Yin Magic to nurture corpse blood.
The Corpse Eye had absorbed the corpses of six demons. He wondered how much corpse blood it could nurture.
Since he wasn't going to raise his Qi Refining cultivation right away, he would naturally cultivate the Black Zombie first and quickly raise it into a Walking Corpse.
During this trip, he had discovered that once the Black Zombie concealed its aura, even a Qi Refining Fourth Layer cultivator couldn't tell its true cultivation.
That was undoubtedly wonderful news.
From now on, he could cultivate the Black Zombie without drawing attention.
The stronger the Black Zombie became,
the more quietly it could move.
The more quietly it moved,
the stronger Wen Jiu could become.
Perfect!
[Good night, fellow cultivators...]
Before you continue