A "tumultuous" and tense night passed.
A pale white light appeared at the edge of the sky, gradually turning into a light red, resembling the blush on the face of someone who had drunk a little wine.
When the sunlight shone into the mountain crevice, Chen Dengming felt an inexplicable sense of relief.
He only felt that this single night was truly long enough, the most agonizing night he had experienced since coming to the Cultivation World.
His stomach emitted a "grunting" sound of hunger, and the Blood Centipede Gu and Golden Silkworm Gu that had accompanied him as companions throughout the night were clearly hungry as well, emitting a buzzing sound.
Chen Dengming took out some purchased demon beast jerky to feed the two Gu.
Looking at these two ultimate lethal weapons that were as closely connected to him as blood, now also following him through rough and bumpy journeys, he could only feel a sense of self-mockery.
He had thought that with his own methods, not to mention turning his hands to cover clouds and rain, at least after leveraging power a few times and adding Gu-refinement techniques, he could gradually gain a firm foothold, grow bigger and stronger, and slowly rise up.
As a result, Chen's title had not yet become widely known, and the share from the Gu creature market had not even reached the second distribution, yet he was once again forced to leave the gathering place, living a displaced life.
"Rogue cultivator, isn't this exactly what a rogue cultivator is? Having no fixed residence, a small rogue living a displaced life."
Chen Dengming laughed heartily, taking things very much in stride.
At least he still had quite a bit of savings now, and he was also close to breaking through to the Qi Cultivation Fourth Level.
He took out some spirit rice, cooked it, and ate.
Afterward, he took out the bundle hidden inside the mountain crevice, put on the Human Skin Mask and bamboo hat, and carefully walked out of the mountain crevice, preparing to take a distant look at the situation of the gathering place before going to find Jiang Qiang.
The formation disk crafted by the other party was of great use to him, and given the current environment, areas where the other party had set up formations were much safer.
When walking to a riverbank, he saw two corpses.
They were wrapped in a strange spider-web-like mucus and corroded beyond recognition, quite cruelly.
He did not dare to get too close, worried that this was a trap set by a demon beast.
He walked further down a path.
He saw the upper half of a female corpse floating on the river surface.
With no clothing wrapping her body, the other half had long since disappeared to who knows where, likely one of the pitiable people from the previous night.
Chen Dengming frowned. Having seen too much, this kind of cruelty made him feel slightly uncomfortable in his heart, so he quickened his pace and left.
Ever since then along the road, Chen Dengming successively encountered quite a few people.
There were mortals walking together in groups, as well as cultivators.
Almost all of them maintained a strong sense of wariness toward unfamiliar people they encountered.
There were women holding small children in their arms, crying bitterly in front of corpses.
There were also cultivators silently cremating the corpses of their companions.
It could be seen that the expressions on the faces of many mortals were filled with confusion and bewilderment, turning their heads from time to time to look back at the gathering place, and some were even walking back, not daring to stay outside the gathering place anymore.
After the impulsiveness of last night, some people had calmed down.
They felt that it was safer inside the gathering place; after all, there were no demon beast invasions.
Even if cultivators from multiple factions engaged in a great battle, it was impossible to fight every day.
Now that the fighting was over last night, it should be much safer.
However, most of those who made this decision were mortals.
Many cultivators intended to wait and observe the situation for a short time after leaving the gathering place.
They possessed a certain level of self-preservation ability, and they had all already received news, knowing that the Luo Family and the Zhu Family were very likely to have a major battle.
The fierce battle in the gathering place last night might just be an appetizer.
Once the two Cultivation Families started fighting, any rogue cultivator in the gathering place, one count as one, running slowly would simply be cannon fodder.
"This fellow Daoist, are you going out to seek refuge? Why not join us and huddle together for warmth? There were demon beasts roaming in the wild last night after all, and if we stick together, it will be much safer."
Walking to the foot of a hillside not too far from the gathering place, Chen Dengming was observing the condition of the gathering place in the distance.
A middle-aged cultivator approached, stopping ten zhang away, and cupped his fists with a smile under Chen Dengming's vigilant gaze.
Chen Dengming glanced from afar at the three cultivators standing not far away, who looked like companions of this middle-aged cultivator, and one of them turned out to be a familiar face.
He recalled for a moment and remembered that the familiar face should be a cultivator from the Merchant Alliance, whom he had once seen by Master Hu's side, but he had not expected that he had also run out now.
"No need! I like to travel alone!"
Chen Dengming cupped his fists in refusal.
The middle-aged cultivator was startled, then didn't say anything more, smilingly nodded, and turned to leave.
Seeing this, the three people in the distance whispered to each other, looking at Chen Dengming with gazes carrying a slight trace of mockery, clearly already viewing him as a foolish person who thought too highly of himself.
Chen Dengming was unwilling to invite trouble, observed the gathering place for a while, and quickly left.
Judging from the surface, after the fierce battle last night, the gathering place was temporarily peaceful.
However, as for exactly how many people died last night, which faction gained the upper hand, and why the war started, he did not know these news for the time being.
Not knowing, wasn't that sometimes also a kind of happiness?
At the very least, someone who had a thorough grasp of the news at this very moment was suffering greatly.
Precisely because he knew too much and had involved himself too deeply, his two feet were now deeply stuck in the quagmire, making it very difficult even if he wanted to extricate himself.
At this moment, he was in a rather dim room, and his heart was even dimmer than the room, filled with irritability and struggle.
An indifferent and cruel voice came from behind him.
"Xu Ning, you have already reached a point of no return. It won't be long before the Luo Family becomes overwhelmed with their own troubles, and the resources of this land will belong to our Zhu Family to manage from then on. If you honestly work for our Zhu Family, you will still have a meal to eat."
Xu Ning raised his head from the darkness. At this moment, his appearance was simply far more haggard and disheveled than when he was full of high aspirations in the past, his eyes covered with red bloodshot veins and deep eye bags, looking as if he had not rested properly for over ten days continuously.
He said in a hoarse voice, "I am merely a cultivator at the Qi Cultivation Sixth Level. Your Zhu Family has far too many cultivators of my strength; why bother valuing me so much?"
"Hehehe—"
The person behind him chuckled and said, "You don't need to belittle yourself. People of your strength are indeed not a few in our Zhu Family, but neither are they many, and every single one of them is precious.
Precious people should do precious things, and fine porcelain will not clash with earthen pots.
Your value is similar to what it is now—helping us do things that aren't so precious within a rogue cultivator gathering place."
Xu Ning closed his exhausted eyes and said, "The Luo Family will not let me off. I only hope what you said is true."
"What we say is naturally not wrong, otherwise we wouldn't have declared war so unscrupulously.
Xu Ning, put away your little cleverness. I once asked you for that kid with the Gu-refinement technique, yet you actually feigned compliance while acting otherwise, attempting to lure him to the Brocade Workshop and ordering people along the way to interrogate him out of his Gu-refinement technique.
I can only say you are too naive.
Since you had misgivings about Lüo Bing and didn't dare to kill him, did you really expect to rely on intimidation alone to force him to speak the Gu-refinement technique? You expected to play both sides between our Zhu Family and the Luo Family—is that even possible?"
Xu Ning furrowed his brow, saying, "I helped you afterwards as well, handing him over to you. It was the people you sent out who failed to catch him."
"Sigh—"
A sigh came from behind, and footsteps gradually walked away as the voice spoke.
"That's right, so you are still alive now because you have already chosen a side. Unfortunately, that bunch of trash was truly useless, failing to even capture a kid at the Qi Cultivation Third Level.
Forget it. There is still one matter now; you must join forces with Lin Hu to go and do it. That Qian Yuan on Hutong Street has escaped.
Catch him, finish him off, hang his corpse up, and display it outside the gathering place. This is our Zhu Family's declaration to all rogue cultivators!"
Ruthless! Too ruthless!
Xu Ning clenched his fists, yet he knew he had nowhere left to run and had to do this.
Once he, a former person of the Luo Family, killed Qian Yuan, who was also a person of the Luo Family, it would mean he had completely boarded the Zhu Family's ship.
At the same time, Qian Yuan's death was also the Zhu Family's greatest provocation against the Luo Family's bottom line.
If the Luo Family chose not to swallow this humiliation, then the two Cultivation Families would go to war.
If the Luo Family endured it, from then on the gathering place, including the numerous surrounding resource points, would completely belong to the Zhu Family.
Xu Ning collapsed limply onto the ground, his entire head covered in cold sweat.
In the past, he had always only used some women as commodities to conduct minor transactions with the Zhu Family, never daring to have overly deep interactions.
He had not expected that now, due to a moment of foolishness, he could no longer turn back.
Because of his coveting of power in his hands and the various hard-won wealth, he ultimately failed to ruthlessly pull himself away from this vortex.
What about Chen Dengming? Shouldn't Chen Dengming have escaped?
That group of cultivators from the Iron Forest Hall said they had already inflicted injuries on him, and he had managed to escape by a stroke of luck.
An injured Qi Cultivation Third Level cultivator, in the chaotic wilderness of today, if he didn't die by the dark hands of cultivators, he would surely die in the jaws of demon beasts, right?
Thinking of this, Xu Ning felt that the pain and disparity in his heart suddenly felt much more bearable. He had failed to escape, but Chen Dengming dying could even less be considered escaping...
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