Screech!
A half-moon-shaped azure wind blade swept lightly through more than a dozen zhang of air like a flying swallow, slicing across Old Three's neck in the space of a breath as he stood frozen in place.
With a muffled splat,
Old Three, whose head was ringing and whose consciousness had sunk into chaos, failed to make any response at all before his head tumbled to the ground.
The headless corpse remained standing where it was, blood gushing from its severed neck like a spring.
At the entrance to the main hall,
Shen Changchuan's figure had appeared soundlessly at some unknown moment.
He held the Soul-Snatching Bell in his left hand and carried Zhao Hantao's body in his right.
As he looked at the Soul-Snatching Bell in his hand, a flicker of delight passed through his eyes.
This truly was a supreme weapon for magical combat.
With just that instant of action,
Old Three, at the Qi Gathering Fifth Level, had been unable to react in the slightest before Shen Changchuan effortlessly slew him.
Although the process consumed a great deal of spiritual power.
But with such a Dharma Artifact,
Below the Qi Gathering Late-stage,
There were probably not many people who could stand against him!
He was practically invincible!
Satisfied, Shen Changchuan tucked the Soul-Snatching Bell back into his sleeve.
Carrying Zhao Hantao's body in his right hand, he walked into the main hall,
And threw him onto the floor.
"Did you see that clearly just now? The deaths of these people and the devastating blow dealt to Zhao Family Village seemed to have been caused by the 'guests' you invited."
As he spoke,
A faintly mocking smile appeared at Shen Changchuan's lips.
"Inviting wolves into the house and bringing disaster upon yourself—Brother Zhao, I must say, this move of yours truly leaves Shen in awe."
The battle in the woods twenty li away
Had already ended half an hour ago.
Half an hour earlier,
After cleaning up the battlefield, Shen Changchuan had not immediately returned to Great Bay Village. Instead, he found a secluded corner nearby, sat down to meditate, and restored the spiritual power within him.
In order to recover his spiritual power as quickly as possible,
Shen Changchuan had even drained the spiritual qi from two Spirit Stones completely.
He had finally recovered eighty to ninety percent of his spiritual power,
And his depleted mental energy had also recovered considerably.
His combat strength had thus been restored as well.
At that time,
Shen Changchuan had initially planned to bring Zhao Hantao back to Great Bay Village and pry information from him about the people who had ambushed him this time.
But he soon realized something.
During the battle,
That scar-faced man had clearly called the weakest one, the Qi Gathering Fourth Level cultivator, Old Four.
There had plainly been three of them, so why was the youngest called Old Four?
Did that mean
They had another accomplice ranked third?
Once that thought arose,
Shen Changchuan found himself unable to sit still.
Who knew whether, after their attempt to kill him had failed, one of the fish that slipped through the net
Would bring further trouble down upon him later?
Moreover, although Zhao Hantao's Zhao cultivation lineage was small, it had operated Zhao Family Village for many years and should have accumulated some wealth.
For Shen Changchuan, who was currently poor as a church mouse,
It would be best not to waste it.
Thus, Shen Changchuan turned around and headed toward Zhao Family Village with Zhao Hantao in tow.
When he was still several li away from Zhao Family Village,
He saw black smoke rising from the village in the distance.
After swiftly drawing closer,
He discovered, as expected, that more than half of Zhao Family Village had already become ruins,
With flames roaring skyward.
Considering that he would later need to extract information from Zhao Hantao's mind,
Shen Changchuan splashed him awake with cold water,
Making him witness the scenes before his eyes so that a seed could be planted in his heart.
Afterward, with the aid of the Spirit Eye Technique, Shen Changchuan tracked the killers' trail all the way to the main hall in the center of the village.
He had also happened to witness Old Three stab Zhao Jingming to death.
"Brother Zhao, as the saying goes, every grievance has its debtor and every debt its owner. That man killed your son, slaughtered countless relatives and friends from your entire lineage, and destroyed your village. For such a towering hatred, I can be considered to have avenged you now."
"As repayment, I wish to know these people's identities and why they attacked me. That is not too much to ask, is it?"
Shen Changchuan spoke in a soft, distant voice.
However,
Zhao Hantao did not respond.
At that moment, Zhao Hantao stared blankly at Zhao Jingming's corpse not far away.
His eyes were utterly lifeless.
Half-kneeling beside Zhao Jingming's body,
Scenes of corpses strewn everywhere throughout the village kept surfacing in his mind. His lips muttered words such as, "Karmic retribution... it is all karmic retribution..."
At that moment, he seemed to have become an old man in his sixties, on the verge of dying from old age.
It was as though the final breath that had been holding him up had completely dispersed.
Shen Changchuan glanced at him.
He did not say anything further to provoke him.
This was also a good thing for Shen Changchuan.
This way,
His psychological defenses had collapsed.
It seemed that after returning, Shen Changchuan should be able to dig out even more information.
That was quite good.
Zhao Hantao's dantian had already been crippled. He could not stir up much trouble, so Shen Changchuan no longer paid him any mind and left him there.
He walked out of the village's main hall,
His figure rising lightly into the air as he stood at the highest point.
Facing the blazing inferno in the village and the deathly silent forests in every direction, he shouted:
"I am Shen Changchuan, Guardian Immortal Master of Great Bay Village! The bandits who attacked the village have all been executed! Villagers, return at once and attend to the aftermath in the village!"
With the support of spiritual power,
Shen Changchuan's voice echoed through the mountains and forests, producing reverberations across the open valley.
Shen Changchuan shouted three times in succession.
But clearly,
After suffering such a terrible disaster,
Not many of those who had survived by sheer luck dared to emerge.
Fortunately,
Just as Shen Changchuan was beginning to grow impatient,
Several people finally emerged from the forest one after another.
Immediately afterward,
More and more people came out.
Amid muffled sobs, they began cleaning up the wreckage of Zhao Family Village.
Afterward,
Shen Changchuan selected a new acting village chief from among those who had emerged first that day.
He instructed them to temporarily handle the affairs of Zhao Family Village,
And stabilize the situation for the time being.
At the same time,
He sent someone to Great Bay Village with a message, asking his maternal grandfather, Han Qinhu, to bring some people over.
After enduring this disaster,
Zhao Family Village had suffered grievous losses.
Moreover, Old Three had acted especially ruthlessly.
All those directly related by blood to the Zhao cultivation lineage of Zhao Family Village had been slaughtered to the last.
It could be said that the lineage had been exterminated.
In that case,
Zhao Family Village could already be considered ownerless.
After all, there were two mu of Spirit Fields.
Now that they had been delivered right before him for nothing, Shen Changchuan naturally had no intention of giving them away.
Having Han Qinhu bring people over
Was naturally meant to establish actual control over this place.
"Since Zhao Hantao dared to scheme against me, and I have now successfully killed him in return, these assets are naturally my spoils of war!"
Although Zhao Hantao was not dead yet,
Shen Changchuan could occupy Zhao Family Village's two mu of Spirit Fields with a clear conscience.
Who told Zhao Hantao to collude with outsiders to kill him?
Not only had the attempt to kill him failed, but Zhao Hantao had instead been killed by him.
Everything Zhao Hantao possessed naturally became Shen Changchuan's spoils of war.
"However, outsiders do not know the inside story of this matter."
"To prevent rumors from rising on all sides, I must use facts to stop the mouths of the masses!"
A gleam flashed through Shen Changchuan's eyes.
He thought of the three corpses in his Storage Bag.
At first, he had put those three corpses into the Storage Bag merely as a precaution.
If Zhao Hantao refused to speak even at death's door, he could still trace the origins of the three men through their appearances.
But now,
There was clearly a better use for them!
At once,
Shen Changchuan issued another order,
Telling the people below to send someone to summon the cultivators overseeing the six villages that had submitted to Great Bay Village, ordering them to come to Zhao Family Village as quickly as possible.
The corpses of the enemies who had tried to kill him, and the miserable state of Zhao Family Village—
The culprits,
And the truth would all be laid before the others.
"Both witnesses and physical evidence are present."
"With this, some may still harbor doubts, but it will not be a major problem. Most people will accept such a result."
"And there will be no great issue with my obtaining these two mu of Spirit Fields."
Shen Changchuan silently pondered.
Before you continue