Hidden Secrets

"Just as I thought!"

Shen Changchun came to the scar-faced man's corpse,

and searched out a Storage Bag from inside his sleeve.

The Storage Bag was palm-sized and entirely earth-yellow.

Shen Changchuan circulated his mana and activated the runes near its opening. A storage space roughly two meters in length, width, and height appeared within his senses.

Inside that storage space,

there were Spirit Stones, Demon Beast materials, jade boxes sealing spirit herbs, medicinal pills, and all sorts of miscellaneous items.

A trace of delight appeared on Shen Changchuan's somewhat pale face.

It seemed that

most of these men's wealth had been kept inside this Storage Bag.

Thinking back on how perilous this battle had been, how he had nearly died several times,

after surviving all those dangers,

he had nevertheless struck it rich.

Shen Changchuan had no time to inspect the Storage Bag's contents one by one for now.

But leaving aside everything else,

this Storage Bag alone was already worth an exorbitant sum.

As far as Shen Changchuan knew,

a Storage Bag cost at least three hundred Spirit Stones.

And that was the price for black-market goods.

Someone might recognize it someday and come seeking revenge.

Genuine Storage Bags cost even more!

For Shen Changchuan, who had always been dirt poor, they had been something he could only gaze at longingly.

Even if there had been nothing inside this Storage Bag,

Shen Changchuan would still have felt that this trip had been worthwhile!

After storing the Storage Bag close to his body,

Shen Changchuan then removed the Soul-Snatching Bell from the scar-faced man's corpse.

He gave it a simple test.

He found that the Soul-Snatching Bell normally made no sound. Only when activated with mana did it ring.

And those sounds possessed a special effect against cultivators' Spiritual Sense and souls!

As for its power,

Shen Changchuan had experienced it firsthand.

At that instant, it had felt as if a huge club had smashed down at the back of his head.

He had nearly passed out on the spot.

"Good stuff!"

"Its power is formidable!"

"If I hadn't consumed Azure Origin Water Grass and tempered my Spiritual Sense, giving me Spiritual Sense comparable to the Qi Gathering Seventh Level, I'm afraid I would have fallen for that move earlier!"

Recalling that scene, Shen Changchuan could not help feeling a lingering chill of fear.

At the time, under the scar-faced man's relentless close-range attacks, he had expended an enormous amount of mana. He had been forced to deliberately expose a flaw, luring the other party into attacking so that he could create an opportunity to kill him in return.

But who could have expected

that fellow to take out something like the Soul-Snatching Bell?

As a result, even though Shen Changchuan had kept his mind taut,

remaining vigilant at every moment for the opponent's possible trump card, he had still been struck in an instant.

Had the scar-faced man not misjudged his strength,

failing to anticipate that Shen Changchuan, at the Qi Gathering Fourth Level, possessed Spiritual Sense as powerful as that of a Qi Gathering Late-stage cultivator, Shen Changchuan would never have found the chance to kill him in return.

In that battle, Shen Changchuan would have been the one to die!

Only because I fused with this body's memories and incomplete remnant soul, together with the effects of the Azure Origin Water Grass, did my Spiritual Sense reach the Qi Gathering Late-stage and allow me to withstand it, recovering my ability to move in a short time.

Otherwise, before this Dharma Artifact, I'm afraid I would have had no power to resist at all!

With this thing in hand, there probably aren't many cultivators below the Qi Gathering Late-stage who could stand against its wielder!

Shen Changchuan silently mused to himself.

At the same time, he became even more delighted,

because this great killing weapon

had now fallen into his hands and become his possession.

The stronger this Dharma Artifact was,

the better it naturally was for Shen Changchuan.

From what Shen Changchuan had felt earlier,

this Soul-Snatching Bell could definitely shake even a Qi Gathering Seventh Level cultivator!

It did not need to immobilize them completely.

As long as it could shake them and create even an instant's opening during battle, that would be enough to decide victory or defeat!

"It's just a pity that the Soul-Snatching Bell seems to consume too much mana."

"At my current realm, I'm afraid I can't use it many times in a single battle."

After only a few simple attempts at controlling it,

Shen Changchuan had already realized that this thing was an absolute glutton for mana.

He could not help greedily thinking to himself.

With the mere tenth of his mana remaining,

he was likely unable to ring it even once.

As countless thoughts flashed through his mind,

Shen Changchuan's hands and feet did not stop moving.

He first hung the Soul-Snatching Bell from his wrist and concealed it beneath his sleeve, making it convenient to use in battle.

After doing that,

and confirming that there was nothing else to be gained from the scar-faced man,

Shen Changchuan collected the Formation Disk buried nearby, which still contained Spirit Stones, as well as the scattered formation flags. He placed them all into the Storage Bag.

Though he did not know what Formation this was, nor how to use it,

a thief never left empty-handed.

Anything good naturally had to be taken along.

At this point, Shen Changchuan had cleaned up every gain from the surrounding battlefield.

He turned around,

walked to the unconscious Zhao Hantao nearby, and grabbed the man by the collar with one hand.

He headed outward, preparing to leave.

But at that very moment,

Shen Changchuan suddenly remembered something.

His steps halted.

His eyes flickered several times.

After thinking for several breaths and hesitating briefly,

he put down the unconscious Zhao Hantao, turned back, and stored the three corpses in the Storage Bag one by one.

Only then did he leave once more with Zhao Hantao.

Behind him,

only a mess of shattered trees remained,

along with bloodstains and other traces of battle on the soil, proving that what had happened earlier was not merely an illusion.

Yet these traces,

within this dense forest, would likely disappear before long.

Zhao Family Village.

Once a village nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains, easy to defend and difficult to attack, like a paradise beyond the world.

At this moment, more than half of it had been swallowed by raging flames.

Fire and smoke soared into the heavens.

Even from over a dozen li away, one could clearly see columns of black smoke rising endlessly into the sky like giant pillars.

Within the village, which had nearly become ruins,

corpses lay scattered through the surrounding alleys and collapsed houses, sprawled in pools of blood.

Corpses carpeted the ground.

The fortunate survivors had all fled into the deep mountains, panicked and helpless like headless flies, trembling in fear and not daring to show themselves.

At the same time,

inside the grand manor at the village's highest point,

Zhao Hantao's son,

Zhao Jingming, the notorious young wastrel known throughout the surrounding area, was kneeling on the ground, tears and snot streaming down his face.

"Why? Why?"

"My father already told you every part of that secret, and he did exactly as you demanded. Why are you still killing people? Why destroy the village?!"

Zhao Jingming knelt on the ground, covering his face with both hands. He hunched over, burying his face between his legs as his body shook with sobs.

The fierce crackling of flames outside and the crashing sounds of collapsing houses blended together, reaching his ears with perfect clarity.

Those souls struggling and wailing amid the flames seemed to be hurling the most venomous curses and hatred at him!

It was him!

It was all because he had opened the door to wolves that this village, once peaceful and tranquil, had suffered such a disaster!

Zhao Jingming's body shook without end.

He did not dare raise his head to look at the corpses lying in pools of blood around him,

nor did he dare look toward Zhao Family Village, already engulfed in flames outside.

He only wanted to be an ostrich burying its head in the earth,

unwilling to face this bloody reality.

"Heh heh, naturally it's to destroy all clues and traces. What else could it possibly be for?"

At that moment,

at the seat of honor,

Old Three of the Four Fiends of Heshan, his clothes stained with blood and his body radiating killing intent, wiped the blood from the sword in his hand after finishing his slaughter. He looked disdainfully at the cowardly Zhao Jingming below.

He rose to his feet,

holding his sharp sword as he slowly walked toward Zhao Jingming.

"According to the intelligence, that man is merely an illegitimate son of the Shen Family, one who receives no attention whatsoever. But he is still the Patriarch of the Shen Family's son. Once he is harmed—"

"Heh, although we four brothers of Heshan are already planning to flee far away into the Southern Yue Cultivation World after this and never return to this land, it would still be best not to provoke the retaliation of such a great Lineage."

Old Three walked to the trembling Zhao Jingming's side,

and whispered softly into his ear:

"As long as everyone who knows dies, and both you father and son of the Zhao Family vanish without a trace, when they investigate afterward, most suspicion will only fall upon you two. It will have nothing to do with us four brothers."

"Even if they truly become suspicious, by then we four brothers will likely have already inherited the legacy and flown far away. The Shen Family does not have the ability to stretch its hand into the Southern Yue Cultivation World tens of thousands of li away."

"On behalf of Big Brother, I thank you father and son!"

Old Three spoke in an eerie voice.

There was some mockery in his words.

Yet there was also a measure of genuine sincerity.

He truly was grateful to Zhao Jingming.

Who could have known

that the matter of the Hu Family Patriarch of Great Bay Village, a family with some reputation in the Border Wasteland back then, killing a collateral descendant of the Shen Family had actually involved the inheritance of an Out of Body Stage true cultivator?

And who could have known

that the person who had secretly reported the matter to the Shen Family, exposing the Hu Family's murder and ultimately bringing utter destruction upon them, had been Zhao Hantao, village chief of Zhao Family Village near Great Bay Village?

No one could possibly have imagined

that Zhao Hantao, a mere Qi Gathering Fourth Level minor cultivator,

a meek and timid farmer who quietly toiled in his fields, actually held a tremendous secret connected to the Ruins of an Out of Body Stage true cultivator!

Only an idiot like Zhao Jingming, who had never lacked food or clothing since childhood,

would talk about being unwilling to live an ordinary life, about pursuing a thrilling existence, and want to come mingle with rogue cultivators like them.

Ordinarily, when faced with such clear-eyed yet stupid fools,

they simply devoured them clean, bones and all.

Yet who would have thought that, in the process, a few flattering words would make him reveal such an enormous secret!

One had to understand,

that was the Cave Abode Ruins of an Out of Body Stage true cultivator!

An Out of Body Stage realm cultivator

was absolutely an invincible great figure in this Border Wasteland!

And according to their deductions, it was even a remnant left behind by a disciple of the Elephant Mountain Sect, which had perished three hundred years ago!

If they could inherit its legacy,

Not only did it give the four Heshan brothers hope of glimpsing the divine might of a Nascent Soul,

it would at least give each of them a chance to reach the Ninth Layer Qi Gathering realm!

Such heaven-toppling wealth had fallen into their laps,

and even if they might have to take considerable risks along the way, it would still be absolutely worth it!

"No, no, that's not right. The Shen Family, a great lineage like the Shen Family, won't be so easily deceived by you. You..."

Zhao Jingming trembled as he tried to say something in agitation,

but the sharp longsword

pierced in with a squelch,

already stabbing into his back, through his body, and straight through his heart.

Zhao Jingming's remaining words were lodged directly in his throat, never to be spoken again.

"Rest assured, Brother Zhao needn't worry about that. We four brothers have our own plans."

"Brother Zhao has bestowed upon us a fortune vast enough to drown the heavens. For such a great kindness, there is truly no way to repay it—so we can only send Brother Zhao's entire family, young and old alike, down the Yellow Springs to reunite."

"Rest assured, Brother Zhao. Your father will soon set off down the road to the Yellow Springs to find you as well. Don't worry about being lonely down there with no one to keep you company."

Zhao Jingming's body collapsed limply.

At the moment of his death,

his eyes revealed endless unwillingness and regret.

Father...

I'm sorry. I was wrong.

Looking at the corpse on the ground, Old Three's face revealed a faint, mocking sneer.

He wiped the blood from his longsword with a rag

and was about to turn and leave.

However,

at that very instant,

Clang!

A clear chime of bells rang through the empty house,

the sound seeming to carry some invisible magic as it bored straight into the depths of one's Spiritual Sense.

In an instant,

Old Three felt as though an iron rod had smashed viciously down onto his head,

leaving his mind in a haze,

and freezing his entire body in place.

My computer broke the day before yesterday, and it wasn't fixed at the shop until yesterday afternoon, so the second chapter was late.

I'm numb.

No money.

If I had money, I'd definitely buy myself a backup laptop.