The Unlucky Elder

Several days later, the black-robed men pursuing Su Baichen returned to the Soul Hall Branch in a sorry state.

Within the grim main hall, the stench of blood mingled with the oppressive sound of ragged breathing.

The group that had departed in such grand fashion now had torn robes, with many bearing scorched marks and wounds that had yet to fully heal. Their auras were weak and listless.

The Soul Hall elder leading them wore such a dark expression that water could have dripped from his face. The oppressive air around him left the Soul Envoys on duty in the hall silent as cicadas, scarcely daring to breathe.

Thinking of the utterly humiliating pursuit, resentment churned in the elder's chest. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. With a sharp sweep of his sleeve, he sent a white jade teacup on the nearby table flying.

"Bang—crack!"

The teacup smashed viciously against a wall engraved with strange runes, shattering into pieces as fragments scattered everywhere.

"Damn it! How did this happen?!"

The elder's growl echoed through the hall, full of savagery and unwillingness. "Those damned puppets... they actually self-destructed! They made us suffer such terrible losses!"

The scene from not long ago uncontrollably surfaced in his mind. They had thought they were about to complete their encirclement and drive the slippery Su Baichen into a desperate corner.

Just as they sneered that Su Baichen had exhausted all his tricks and believed the Su Baichen before them was the real one, he revealed a strange smile. Then his body shone with a blinding light, followed by an earth-shattering explosion!

The violent energy blast swept outward, instantly swallowing the unprepared squad.

The explosion had been terrifyingly powerful, far beyond anything an ordinary puppet could possess. It had been more like a carefully designed death trap.

Low-level Dou Zongs had been blown apart on the spot, leaving not even bones behind. Mid-level Dou Zongs were grievously wounded and near death. Even high-level Dou Zongs had been left filthy and disheveled by the sudden self-destruction, their blood and qi in turmoil.

Seeing this, the elder immediately thought of the other teams pursuing Su Baichen and contacted them at once.

The news he received left him standing there, motionless. The other teams had encountered the same situation and suffered grievous casualties as well.

Every target pursued by the various teams had been a puppet!

"That damned Su Baichen! I will never forgive you!"

The elder ground his teeth, every word seeming to squeeze through the gaps between them.

He felt especially humiliated. In the previous attempts to capture Su Baichen, the other team leaders had ultimately failed to seize him as well, but they had at least brought all their men back intact, without any losses.

But what about this time? He, a dignified elder of the Soul Hall and a Dou Zun-level expert, had personally led the team. He had intended to show those previous "failures" what it meant to capture someone effortlessly and complete a mission cleanly and efficiently.

Yet he had never imagined that reality would slap him so resoundingly across the face.

Su Baichen had not only toyed with every one of them in the palm of his hand, but had also made him pay a terrible price in such an extreme and humiliating fashion.

He had tried to show off, only to be brutally humiliated instead. His pride and reputation had both been stripped away completely.

"Damn it! If I had known, I never would have been tempted by those few seventh-tier medicinal pills Old Man Muguo promised!"

Filled with regret and resentment, the elder cursed Old Man Muguo, who had recommended this operation, countless times in his heart. "Now this is great. We failed to catch the man, so the pills are even further out of reach. And I've disgraced myself utterly in the hall, becoming everyone's laughingstock!"

"Damned Su Baichen! This isn't over between us!"

"Aah! Aah! Aah!"

The roar he had suppressed to the limit finally erupted. Accompanied by powerful fluctuations of Dou Qi, it made the entire room hum as the runes on the walls flickered uncertainly.

The Soul Envoys guarding the door lowered their heads even farther, terrified that the elder's fury might spill over onto them.

Meanwhile, deep within the main hall of the Soul Hall, inside an alchemy room filled with a rich medicinal fragrance and a chilly aura.

The flames of the pill furnace had just gone out, though residual warmth remained. Old Man Muguo slowly placed a medicinal pill the size of a longan, glimmering with a dark luster, into a jade bottle.

He let out a long breath, a trace of satisfaction appearing on his face after his exhaustion.

After regulating his breathing for a moment, he seemed to suddenly recall something and muttered, "By now, the team sent to capture Su Baichen should have returned."

"For this operation, I specifically invited that hot-tempered fellow to act personally."

Thinking of this, a faint, calculating smile curled across Old Man Muguo's lips. "With a Dou Zun expert leading the team to capture a mere Dou Zong like Su Baichen, even if he has a few tricks up his sleeve, it should be effortless. This should be a sure thing."

"By now, Su Baichen must have been escorted back. It would be the perfect time to interrogate him thoroughly..."

His gaze gradually sharpened and turned cold as his thoughts drifted deeper.

The dim light in the alchemy room fell across his half-lit face, making him appear especially sinister.

"Yao Chen..."

Old Man Muguo nearly soundlessly spoke the name. His fingertips gently rubbed the warm jade bottle as a cold gleam flickered in his eyes. "I know you are definitely not dead."

"Hmph. No matter what trick you used to escape your shell, no matter where in the world you have hidden... I, Mu Gu, will drag you out!"

Indeed, it was precisely because of the unexpected factor known as Su Baichen that certain events had indirectly changed.

Back then, Yao Chen had indeed been more wary of his disciple Han Feng because of Su Baichen's subtle warning.

However, years of affection between master and disciple made it difficult for him to fully believe that the disciple he regarded as his own son would truly betray him.

Unfortunately, reality was crueler than he had expected. Even with his guard raised, Yao Chen was ultimately ambushed by Han Feng, Old Man Muguo, and the others. Driven into a desperate situation, he directly chose to self-destruct in order to seek a slim chance at survival.

At the time, most of those present believed that Yao Chen's body and soul had been utterly destroyed.

But the meticulous Old Man Muguo had keenly caught a trace of an extremely weak, fleeting spatial fluctuation at the instant Yao Chen self-destructed.

Afterward, he carefully inspected the place where Yao Chen had self-destructed and found it abnormally clean. None of Yao Chen's belongings remained, and there was not even a trace of soul fragments or debris from a Storage Ring in the surrounding area.

Others might have believed that the self-destruction had been so powerful that it reduced everything to nothing. But Old Man Muguo firmly believed in his own judgment—Yao Chen had most likely survived with grave injuries, his soul carrying his lifelong collection as it fled to some unknown place.

After returning to the Soul Hall, Mu Gu began quietly investigating every person, matter, and object closely connected to Yao Chen. Following the clues, he eventually noticed the Dou Zong named Su Baichen.

From his manner of doing things, his sudden improvement in alchemy, and his past dealings with Yao Chen, everything about him seemed suspicious.

Later, Han Feng confirmed that Su Baichen was indeed Yao Chen's friend despite their age difference. His alchemy skills were extremely high; even Yao Chen had publicly admitted that he was inferior to him.

More importantly, Han Feng mentioned that Su Baichen seemed quite displeased with him, Yao Chen's direct disciple, and had privately warned Yao Chen several times to beware of him.