Barren Grassland.
Deep in the woods, a young man hid in the shadows as Spirit Insects continually burrowed into his body.
"Two Fourth Tiers and one Second Tier. Anyone can tell that the Second Tier is some rich kid."
An Ye's lips curled slightly.
"If I prepare properly, I can avoid those two Fourth Tiers, then lure the Second Tier into the Mystic Array I've set up.
"Then all those treasures will be mine.
"They killed my Spirit Insect Clone?
"I'll kill their master."
At last, An Ye transformed into countless Spirit Insects and vanished from the spot.
He had to prepare a few things. There were others nearby, too, so he would have to keep operating under Liu Huo's name.
The Hidden Heaven Sect always acted in extreme secrecy. There was no way the Young Sect Master would personally get involved and announce his name on the spot. That guy had to be using a fake name.
Although An Ye had been far away at the time, the voice giving that name had still reached his ears.
He hadn't dared look. The other person was too powerful, and he'd been afraid his gaze would be detected.
Hearing Lu Shui's answer, Le Feng furrowed his brows, feeling that the information he'd received wasn't very useful.
Lu Shui knew his information wasn't worth much, either, so he spoke again:
"Name your price."
The meaning was clear: he wanted to buy information about the Barren Grassland.
Hearing that, Le Feng replied:
"I paid a steep price for this information. The information about Liu Huo is indeed useful to me, so I'll give you a discount, Fellow Daoist: one Fourth Grade Spirit Stone."
Spirit Stones were divided into grades from First to Ninth.
First Grade Spirit Stones were the most common, while Ninth Grade Spirit Stones were the purest. Ten First Grade Spirit Stones equaled one Second Grade Spirit Stone, and so on.
To ordinary people, Fourth Grade Spirit Stones were very expensive.
Lu Shui didn't hesitate in the slightest. He simply said:
"Here."
Zhen Ling immediately tossed over a Fourth Grade Spirit Stone.
They still had quite a few Spirit Stones on them, most of them given to the young master by the clan leader.
Le Feng took the Spirit Stone. He realized this person really didn't come from an ordinary family. He might be from the Dongfang Family.
It was just that he'd never heard of anyone like him in the Dongfang Family.
"According to what I've learned, the Barren Grassland isn't an ordinary place. It's the site of a sealing ground from Ancient Times," Le Feng said.
It seemed the information was somewhat useful. Lu Shui immediately said:
"Go on."
Seeing that Lu Shui was interested, Le Feng was happy to continue:
"Supposedly, an Evil God is sealed here, right at the very center of the island."
Lu Shui started toward the center. As he passed Le Feng, he asked:
"What are the details?"
Le Feng instinctively followed him, but quickly came to his senses. The other man was setting the pace.
This man was no simple character. He'd have to be careful.
"Supposedly, the Evil God was imprisoned here by his sect for committing some offense, so he could reflect on his mistakes.
"But for various reasons, he was never released.
"The earthquake may mean he's escaped, or it may mean the formation has disappeared.
"It's hard to say which parts are true."
"Is an Evil God actually a god?" Lu Shui asked as he walked.
The word "god" reminded him of the book on his person.
Le Feng shook his head. He was curious why Lu Shui would ask such a question, but still answered:
"No. 'Evil God' is a general term, something like our Evil Cultivators, though the two may not be on the same level."
Lu Shui nodded and said nothing more.
Seeing this, Le Feng immediately said:
"If Fellow Daoist Dongfang has nothing else, then I'll take my leave."
Lu Shui glanced at him, paused, and asked:
"Why are you looking for Liu Huo?"
If the other man was trying to kill him—Liu Huo—then Lu Shui wouldn't mind dealing with him right here.
Le Feng saw the way the other man was looking at him and felt a little uneasy. He replied:
"Liu Huo claimed to be a Hidden Heaven Sect Disciple, yet he's a disciple of a prestigious sect who stopped people on the road to rob them. And the people he robbed were some of my friends. I couldn't stomach it, so I wanted to confront him and demand an explanation."
A lie. Lu Shui knew it without needing to check. Still, he didn't mind if the other man wanted to cause trouble for Fake Liu Huo.
In the end, he simply nodded.
Le Feng prepared to take his leave.
"If you get any information, please let me know. I'll certainly repay you handsomely."
As he spoke, he left Lu Shui a Sound Transmission Talisman.
Then he set off.
Lu Shui had Zhen Wu put the Sound Transmission Talisman away. It might come in handy later; this man seemed well-informed.
At the very least, he knew about the Barren Grassland's secret. Whether it was true or not, that was far more useful than what the people the Lu Family had sent to investigate had learned.
If they had questions, they could ask him again.
But the man hadn't even left a phone number. It seemed he was wary of Lu Shui.
Indeed, Le Feng was wary of Lu Shui. Although Lu Shui looked like he had only Second Tier Cultivation, Le Feng couldn't shake his unease, and it had made him abandon the idea of working with him.
Working with him felt like scheming with a tiger.
"I mustn't provoke him," Le Feng thought.
After the Lu Family helped Dongfang Chacha, she had replenished her purse.
Then she turned to Xiang Yu and said:
"Xiang Yu, let's go to the center and take a look."
Xiang Yu shook her head.
"Miss, it's too dangerous. We should leave."
"We'll just follow the same route as before. Liu Huo just got into trouble over there, so he definitely won't stay in that area," Dongfang Chacha tried to persuade her maid.
They'd come all this way. Not checking it out would be a real waste.
At that moment, the Black Clad Woman beside them said:
"Miss Dongfang, are you going to the center? If you like, you can come with us."
The woman had her hair tied up. She was one of the people in charge of the Lu Family's investigation of this place.
An Yu, with Fourth Tier Peak Cultivation.
"Huh? Is that really okay?" Dongfang Chacha asked, delighted. Although her aunt was the Lu Family Matriarch, she'd never planned to trouble the Lu Family.
That wouldn't be right.
An Yu nodded.
"Of course. We're going back to investigate, too. We just got some unexpected information from a Hidden Heaven Sect Disciple, and we want to go back in and verify it.
"But Miss Dongfang will need to follow our instructions."
"No problem," Dongfang Chacha agreed at once.
Xiang Yu naturally had nothing to say.
Lu Shui's destination was the center, of course. He wanted to confirm whether that so-called Evil God was still there.
He also wanted to find out how much the Pollution had to do with the Evil God.
But they hadn't gone far when Lu Shui narrowed his eyes. There was something up ahead. It seemed their movements had drawn someone's attention.
Looking at the rather interesting things before him, Lu Shui said:
"If anything happens, don't panic."
Zhen Ling was confused, but Zhen Wu froze.
There it was again. The young master had said the same thing last time on Floating Sky Island.
Not long after he'd said it, something had happened.
Now that he'd said it again, had the young master spotted something they couldn't?
Zhen Wu began to grow wary.
But after staying alert for a while, he realized there was no danger. When he tried to ask Lu Shui about it, he froze.
Whether there was danger around them or not, it couldn't change what he saw.
Lu Shui was gone.
By then, Zhen Ling had come to her senses, too.
She also realized that Lu Shui had vanished.
"Where did the young master go?" Zhen Ling asked, stunned. She seemed to have spaced out for a moment, and the instant she came to, Lu Shui was gone.
Zhen Wu furrowed his brows and said:
"The young master told us not to panic. He must have noticed something. Let's look around."
Had the young master meant it? Zhen Ling was a little surprised. She'd heard Zhen Wu tell her about what happened on Floating Sky Island, but hadn't thought much of it.
She just hadn't expected that the young master really could foresee certain surprises.
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