"You all... help clean up the battlefield."
Shen Changchuan put away the Soul-Snatching Bell and noticed the patriarchs of the various villages, who had stopped halfway through their escape. He called out to them.
He paused midway through his words,
and that brief pause made several of them turn pale.
Fortunately, what followed made them breathe a sigh of relief.
He was merely assigning them work, not settling scores after the autumn harvest.
The men hurriedly got to work themselves, searching the corpses around them and gathering all kinds of spoils.
Shen Changchuan swept his gaze over them,
but said nothing.
Come to think of it,
these fellows had fled before the battle even began, scattering in every direction.
That really did leave him somewhat displeased.
But on further thought,
they were not his, Shen Changchuan's, subordinates.
On the contrary,
the patriarchs of these villages were, in a sense, his patrons.
Sixty to seventy percent of their yearly harvest had to be offered up to him.
Since they were patrons, what was there to criticize?
It was like readers paying to subscribe to your novel—so what if they said a few words about it being padded?
The customer was king,
and whoever paid was the boss.
With that thought,
the displeasure in Shen Changchuan's heart naturally vanished like smoke in the wind.
"Come to think of it, they're only at the Qi Gathering Third and Fourth Levels. It's perfectly normal for them to be afraid in the face of such powerful enemies."
Considering the considerable tribute they offered every year,
Shen Changchuan even took the initiative to find them an excuse.
He walked to the black-clothed leader's corpse, casually picked up a twig, and hooked up the Storage Bag beneath the man's right sleeve.
His luck was not bad.
The battle had not damaged the Storage Bag.
Shen Changchuan poured mana into it and broke open the mark left by its original owner.
A space of roughly seven or eight cubic meters appeared within his senses.
Shen Changchuan carefully searched through the gains inside.
But very soon,
his brows furrowed slightly.
Because there were far fewer things inside than he had expected!
There were only twenty or thirty Spirit Stones.
There were eight or nine hundred jin of Spirit Grain, along with all manner of Demon Beast materials, miscellaneous items, ores, and the like, which took up a great deal of space.
But all those odds and ends combined were probably worth no more than One Hundred Spirit Stones.
Besides that, there was only a low-grade Dharma Artifact longsword and a bottle of pills.
Poor.
Truly too poor!
Shen Changchuan was somewhat disappointed.
Having experienced the rich spoils left behind by the Four Fiends of Heshan, he truly found the present haul beneath his notice.
You were at Peak Qi Gathering Sixth Level, and the leader of the Four Fiends of Heshan had been at the same realm.
Yet they had been far richer than you!
Leaving aside everything else, that single Dharma Artifact, the Soul-Snatching Bell, was worth six or seven times all the wealth in this Storage Bag!
Shen Changchuan could not help sighing inwardly and lightly shaking his head.
With a turn of his palm,
a bottle of pills appeared in his hand.
He opened the stopper, examined the pills' shape and color, then smelled their scent.
His expression changed slightly at that moment.
"All right, it seems I spoke a little too loudly just now."
Shen Changchuan muttered inwardly.
Without leaving a trace, he stoppered the jade bottle and returned the pills to the Storage Bag.
Within his heart,
he became incomparably solemn at that moment.
The scent of Azure Origin Water Grass—
there was no mistaking it!
Not long ago,
he had refined an Azure Origin Water Grass seedling himself.
Even now, he vividly remembered that scent which made the soul feel utterly clear and lucid!
The scent emitted by this pill, which likewise made the soul feel crystalline and clear,
was almost exactly the same as what he remembered!
Shen Changchuan was certain
that the main ingredient of this pill was absolutely Azure Origin Water Grass.
And it was mature Azure Origin Water Grass at that!
"Even an Azure Origin Water Grass seedling is extraordinarily valuable, let alone mature Azure Origin Water Grass—and one that has been refined into a pill?!"
"I remember there is a pill that uses Azure Origin Water Grass as its primary ingredient, called the Azure Origin Purifying Spirit Pill."
"And this pill is worth no less than an Out of Body Pill!"
Shen Changchuan narrowed his eyes.
An Out of Body Pill
was a breakthrough pill that could raise the odds of a Ninth Layer Qi Gathering Peak cultivator breaking through to the Out of Body Stage realm.
Its value was self-evident!
The Azure Origin Purifying Spirit Pill, which could compare with it in value, was unimaginably precious!
"Azure Origin Water Grass."
Shen Changchuan's thoughts shifted,
because he recalled the Azure Origin Water Grass seedling beneath the Great Bay River.
He recalled the incident twenty years ago at Great Bay Village, when a Shen Family branch member died and the Hu Family was exterminated.
"Such a precious spirit herb is not some common cabbage."
"Could it be that somewhere hidden in this Border Wasteland, such a rare heaven-and-earth Spirit Item is produced?"
Shen Changchuan's gaze flickered uncertainly.
He had long suspected that something was amiss.
Back then, the Hu Family Patriarch of Great Bay Village had only been at the Qi Gathering Seventh Level.
With such strength, sending any Ninth Layer Qi Gathering cultivator would have been enough to sweep through everything.
Why would it require that true Shen Family cultivator of the Out of Body Stage realm to come personally?!
That was like using an anti-aircraft cannon to swat a mosquito!
Though he had sensed something strange,
Great Bay Village had subsequently passed from Shen Shiying to Shen Changchuan in succession.
Nothing particularly unusual had happened during that time.
Even if he wanted to investigate,
he had no direction to pursue.
Unless he went to meet that Shen Family true cultivator of the Out of Body Stage realm and asked him in person, he would have no way of understanding the reason.
But that was clearly impossible.
"Stop, stop, stop. Don't think about so much for now!"
There were too many things involved. Shen Changchuan felt a wave of headache coming on and hurriedly cut off his thoughts.
These matters were too far away. He would deal with them later.
"What is not important for now. The most important thing at present is to find out where this pill came from, and who knows about it!"
Shen Changchuan quickly withdrew his thoughts
and returned to the key matter that required attention now.
"Right, where are those two people who were being chased?"
Only then,
did Shen Changchuan react.
He called out to ask the people around him.
As the ones being pursued, they might know the identities of these black-clothed men.
Yet the patriarchs of the various villages, who were searching for spoils nearby, all looked at one another and shook their heads, indicating that they did not know.
The battle had erupted too suddenly,
and they had fled far too decisively.
As a result, no one had paid any attention at all to the fleeing figures—one adult and one child—whose pursuit had sparked the conflict from the beginning.
"Um... that old immortal master asked about our identities just now. He also had us pass on a message to the immortal masters, saying that he would repay them handsomely in the future. Then he hurried away with his companion."
At that moment,
several mortal martial artists who had been at the rear of the convoy stepped forward and spoke tremblingly.
"Did he not leave behind any information about his identity?"
"No."
Shen Changchuan could not help deeply furrowing his brow as well.
But he did not waste any more words.
He immediately gave the order:
"Pack everything up as quickly as possible. We leave at once!"
Shen Changchuan vaguely sensed
that they might have become entangled in some trouble.
But there was nothing to be done about it.
Those black-clothed men had attacked them first. They could not possibly put down their weapons, offer no resistance, and simply let themselves be slaughtered, could they?
They should leave first and talk later!
Very soon,
everyone efficiently packed up the spoils and set off once more.
Shen Changchuan remained at the rear.
After thinking for a moment,
he unleashed more than a dozen fireballs in succession, burning away every trace of the battle.
He then swiftly followed the convoy as it departed.
Before you continue