Wang Xiuyun's reminder made the heart that Chu Ge had originally settled feel vigilant once more, as she suspected that the stronghold of the Heaven and Earth Incense Cult might not be easily wiped out.
He secretly rejoiced that he had always been steady and cautious, and his several previous strikes had not exposed his true identity.
Otherwise, if Lord Lin of the Demon Suppressing Division could not suppress the Heaven and Earth Incense Cult's stronghold, and he himself were targeted because he stuck his neck out, that would spell huge trouble.
After all, he was merely a minor rogue cultivator martial artist, with at most an older sister inside the Hidden Water Sect to rely upon.
Yet the Heaven and Earth Incense Cult was far more powerful than the Hidden Water Sect; it was simply the difference between an international conglomerate and a local business.
If he blatantly offended the Heaven and Earth Incense Cult, he might end up bringing trouble to his sister as well.
Carefulness lets you go anywhere in the world, while rashness makes it hard to take a single step.
Steady, I must develop steadily; I am only currently in the Four Martial Arts Realms of the Mortal Realm and have no qualification to show off yet.
After admonishing himself inwardly, Chu Ge carried the three antique items gifted by Wang Xiuyun into the Secret Chamber.
He sacrificed the items into the Dragon Clock one by one.
Based on past experience in sacrificing old items, unless they were antiques that had lingered for a long time in places brimming with spiritual essence, normal antiques of several hundred years often yielded only a wisp or two of exotic force after sacrifice.
Among them, only antiques exceeding seven or eight hundred years were likely to have precipitated a great deal of heaven and earth exotic force.
As for these types of antiques, depending on their size, even the least of them could contribute upwards of five strands of exotic force.
Chu Ge was also unclear about the ages of the three antiques Wang Xiuyun had contributed.
However, after sacrificing them one by one, the information revealed by a small wine pot gave him a start.
Jade Phoenix Pattern Gold Wine Pot: Description: (This is a wine pot formerly used by Lu Zongzhao, the Twelve Exotics: Wine Exotic. The Wine Exotic tasted fine wines across the world, yet no wine could make him drunk for even a single night, making him an extraordinary person of the world. It is suspected that within this wine pot, a trace of wine liquid and aroma sealed by jade beads remains. To Lu Zongzhao the Wine Exotic, this was fine wine, but to the overwhelming majority of people in the world, this is a highly toxic liquid. Even sniffing a whiff of the wine aroma would likely render one dead drunk and unconscious. Yet this wine pot has a mechanism set within it; only Lu Zongzhao the Wine Exotic can open it!)
The Twelve Exotics: Wine Exotic? It sounds like someone very formidable. It seems this wine pot should be something left behind by some Force Condensation Realm powerhouse. There might be abundant exotic force within it.
Chu Ge pondered inwardly, No, what's even more precious is perhaps that the wine liquid and aroma within it are considered extremely toxic to the vast majority of people. If used well, that becomes a life-saving item.
Thinking of this, Chu Ge could not help but surge with intense interest.
Contained within his Five Mao Mountain Marvelous Skill were also left path skills such as the Five Poisons.
Poison was considered one of the most routinely used and famous skills on the left path, spreading far wider than paper-cutting, shadow puppetry, embroidery, and the like.
Almost many people could formulate some simple poisons on their own.
Yet the Five Poisons skill recorded in the Five Mao Mountain Marvelous Skill possessed special poison-making formulas belonging to a type of mixed poison, which could be called Miao Jiang Gu Poison.
Only, Linyuan City lacked suitable venomous material ingredients, and in the past Chu Ge had only formulated some fungal poisons with low toxicity.
Now, if the Dragon Clock could extract a potent wine poison from the wine pot, it would also be regarded as a powerful supplement to his poisonous arts means for him.
The Dragon Clock required time to refine items as well.
Chu Ge temporarily suppressed the anticipation in his heart and continued to tinker with the Auspicious Ruyi Charm and the Thousand Mile Kite inside the Secret Chamber.
Inside the Wang Family household.
After returning, Wang Xiuyun proceeded directly to the storehouse to inspect the numerous antiques collected by Wang Youcai.
"Eldest Miss, do you really want to make a trade with that Young Master Chu using those antiques? And trading for his restaurant at that? The location of that restaurant is rather out of the way, you know."
"Indeed. Those antiques just sit at home gathering dust. This time bandits entered the city, and the storehouse was almost wiped out as well. I'll make the call to trade them away; Father won't say anything."
While picking and choosing, Wang Xiuyun replied absentmindedly.
Thinking of Chu Ge's current state of caring about those antiques even more than she did, she could not help but feel a mixture of exasperation and amusement.
What could possibly make a person change so drastically?
However, knowing that Chu Ge was indeed close to breaking through to Third Realm Bone Refining, she felt a vague sense of anticipation well up in her heart again.
According to what Hu Xuezhi said, Chu Ge had only been practicing martial arts for two and a half years.
If he truly broke through, this martial arts aptitude would be quite exceptional, counting as a genius even within a great clan like the Yun family.
She had simply misunderstood him previously.
"Eldest Miss, the times are chaotic now, and assets within the city have already begun to depreciate. Merchants are even preparing to leave Linyuan City. Last time we acquired those properties of his, that already—"
"Enough!"
Seeing that Steward Zhang was still chattering endlessly by her side, Wang Xiuyun rebuked impatiently, telling him to shut his mouth.
The bit of gold and silver for the trade was not regarded by her at all, nor did it amount to much for her Wang family.
Ever since she was betrayed by Ding Ying yesterday and enlightened by that mysterious older gentleman, her temperament had also transformed greatly.
People all changed, and human nature was the most unfathomable thing of all.
Rather than gambling on human nature, it was better to place a bet on reality.
Toward Chu Ge, although she held past affection, she now valued his potential far more.
The potential Chu Ge currently displayed allowed her to catch a glimpse of the shadow of a genius.
She was willing to cultivate friendly relations and invest at this time; perhaps in the future the other party could even become a great aid on her path of cultivation.
The next day, outside Linyuan City, the morning mist was hazy and the air was icy cold as the snow in the mountains gradually began to thaw.
A very thick layer of hard ice covered the mountain path, freezing around the roads like candle tears dripping from a candle.
Upon closer inspection, the congealed hard ice was actually blood-red.
In the snow accumulated on both sides of the road, several headless corpses frozen stiff lay sprawled haphazardly on the ground.
Two mountain wolves were gnawing energetically, the white mist puffed from their noses and the crunching sound of their fangs chewing making one's hair stand on end.
"Scram!"
At this moment, a shout suddenly came from down the mountain path, and several sturdy figures rushed over wielding sabers, their faces flushed red with vigorous blood vitality and their eyes sparkling brightly.
Intimidated by the imposing aura of the few individuals, the two mountain wolves let out low whimpers and immediately tucked their tails and fled.
The men turned the corpses over to face the front and took a look, all of their expressions changing.
"My lord, these corpses... they seem to be hunters from the nearby mountains? But what is this ghostly state, what on earth happened?"
One of them turned around to report to a stout-bodied, stately-looking short-bearded man behind him.
"Hmph..." The short-bearded man whose facial hair resembled steel needles had a pair of bright leopard eyes, and he frowned as he observed the corpses on the ground.
He saw that these corpses had all lost their heads, their torsos shrunken like skin and bones, and dense black blood vessels exposed on the surface of their skin like an intricate black web, as if all the blood in their bodies had been sucked dry—very bizarre indeed.
The short-bearded man was naturally none other than the City Guard Captain, Tian Youji.
He squatted down to inspect carefully, discovering puncture holes on the shoulder areas of several corpses as if pierced by fangs, causing his expression to shift slightly.
"A jiangshi?"
"A jiangshi?" The expressions of several accompanying bailiffs were blank and panicked, feeling a visceral fear.
Tian Youji frowned, his eyes glowing to a piercing degree as he pondered inwardly, Some evil path person is slaughtering the common folk of the nearby villages. Could it be that Lord Lin's disappearance was because he ran into the other party?
He had barely meditated on this when he abruptly and faintly heard the subtle sound of breathing coming from the wind and snow, and immediately stood up to shout low.
"Who!?"
Swish—
He suddenly leaped forward, his whole body's blood vitality surging to form an energy barrier that blasted away the surrounding snow, arriving abruptly at the cliff's edge.
At a single glance, he saw that lying on the branch of a crooked-neck cliffside arbor at the precipice below was actually a person, clad in a tight warrior's outfit embroidered with golden finches and piercing tigers!
"Lord Lin!?"
Tian Youji's expression changed abruptly, and the other bailiffs were all struck dumb with shock.
What kind of person could severely injure Lin Hongtu of the Demon Suppressing Division, who was well-versed in exotic force martial arts and wielded the One-Character Lightning Spear, to this extent?
Could it be that after the Heaven and Earth Incense Cult, some other monsters and demons had shown themselves?
Before you continue