Fishing in Troubled Waters

"Run! Something happened at the Treasure Pavilion."

"People are being killed! So many people are dead."

"What Seven Kill Sect? I've never heard of this faction before. Though, over twenty years ago, there was a Seven Kill Army under the Marquis of Tiannan."

"Don't worry about that now, just run!"

Chen Xuan frowned and leaned out to look out the window.

He saw a crowd of people on the street, fleeing in panic from the direction of the Treasure Pavilion. Some were disheveled, some were covered in blood, and some were even barefoot, clearly running for their lives in a desperate scramble.

Chen Xuan's heart tightened.

Something happened at the Treasure Pavilion?

He recalled that when he left the Treasure Pavilion, the auction was still ongoing, and the grand finale item, the Seven Kill Sword, had not yet been auctioned off.

It seemed that someone had caused trouble at the auction.

"Seven Kill Sect..."

Chen Xuan muttered the name, the rumors he had heard at the tavern flashing through his mind.

The Seven Kill Sword was the personal weapon of the former Marquis of Tiannan.

He vaguely sensed that this matter was not simple.

But this was not his concern.

His goal had been achieved; the Marrow Cleansing Pill was in his hands, his foundation had been improved, and he had successfully broken through to the Zhuqi Realm.

Tiannan Prefecture City would likely be unstable from here on out, and continuing to stay here would only drag him into unnecessary trouble.

Atop a tall building in the city.

Three figures stood with their hands behind their backs, watching the warriors of the Seven Kill Sect slaughter their way out of the Treasure Pavilion and head toward the city gates.

Standing in the middle was a man in his forties with a scholarly appearance, wearing a cyan robe and a piece of mutton-fat jade hanging from his waist, exuding a gentle, refined temperament.

This man was Shen Qianqiu, an elder of the Guiyuan Sect.

To his left stood a man in his fifties, dressed in a white brocade robe with golden sword patterns embroidered on the cuffs, his arms crossed over a precious sword.

To Shen Qianqiu's right stood a middle-aged man in a blood-red robe with a sinister face and cold eyes, faint blood-colored true energy circulating around him.

These two were Liu Rufeng, an elder of the Ten Thousand Sword Villa, and Li Baichuan, an elder of the Blood Fiend Devil Sect.

"The Seven Kill Sword requires the blood of one hundred thousand people to unlock the inheritance of Sword Venerable Shasheng. Tiannan Prefecture is the perfect place for it; let them do the killing."

Li Baichuan's voice was cold, like a chilling wind from the underworld, carrying a bone-chilling malice.

"One hundred thousand lives—this is not something our three sects can easily do ourselves, so this sin must be borne by them."

Liu Rufeng's expression was calm, as if he were stating a trivial matter.

One hundred thousand lives were merely numbers in his eyes, necessary sacrifices to unlock the inheritance.

As an elder of the Ten Thousand Sword Villa, he had long been accustomed to life and death; for the sake of the sect's interests, sacrificing a few mortals was not worth mentioning.

"Heh heh heh, and here I thought the Ten Thousand Sword Villa and the Guiyuan Sect prided themselves on being righteous paths. To obtain the inheritance of Sword Venerable Shasheng, you're still sacrificing one hundred thousand people. How is this any different from the devil path?"

Li Baichuan sneered, his eyes full of mockery.

Although he came from the devil path, he despised the hypocritical faces of these righteous sect members most of all—doing the same cruel things while always finding a pile of high-sounding excuses for themselves.

"The world is built on the law of the jungle; those who achieve great things do not fuss over trifles. Since the Seven Kill Sect is willing to do this dirty work for us, let them do it."

Shen Qianqiu's tone was flat, without a ripple of emotion.

"Heh, a bunch of hypocrites, wanting to be whores while still demanding a memorial archway for their chastity."

Li Baichuan continued his verbal assault.

However, Liu Rufeng and Shen Qianqiu ignored Li Baichuan's mockery.

At their level of cultivation, their faces had long since become thicker than city walls; these few taunts meant nothing to them.

"It is time for our subordinates to begin the pursuit!" Shen Qianqiu withdrew his gaze and said indifferently, "Although this is a pre-arranged script, the acting cannot be too fake. We must play the part to the end. If the people of the Seven Kill Sect realize we knew their plan all along, it might lead to complications."

"I shall take my leave first."

Li Baichuan felt there was no point in staying with these two hypocrites. His figure flashed, turning into a streak of blood-red light that vanished from the spot.

He had to go and arrange for the disciples of the Blood Fiend Devil Sect to conduct the pursuit.

Of course, that was just for show; the true purpose was to ensure that the Seven Kill Sect could successfully complete the task of slaughtering one hundred thousand people.

At this moment, the city was in total chaos.

Cries of battle and screams could be heard everywhere.

After the Seven Kill Sect bloodied the Treasure Pavilion, they fled toward the city outskirts, while Seven Kill Sect martial artists appeared in many places throughout the city, killing people everywhere to create chaos.

These sect members were all suicide squads.

However, the chaos was mainly concentrated in the East District where the Treasure Pavilion was located, and the gates of the East District had already been closed, forbidding anyone from leaving.

Chen Xuan walked quickly along the street toward the South City Gate.

His footsteps were light, and he wove through the crowd with ease.

The enhancement of his five senses brought about by the Zhuqi Realm allowed him to anticipate the movements of the crowd in advance and find the fastest path.

The streets were filled with panicked pedestrians.

Some were fleeing to the west, some were huddled by the roadside shivering, and some were holding their children and crying; the entire East District was like a pot of boiling porridge, filled with the bubbles of chaos.

Just as Chen Xuan crossed a side street and neared the Treasure Pavilion area, a burst of intense fighting sounds suddenly came from ahead.

"Clang, clang, clang—"

The crisp sound of blades clashing echoed in the air, mixed with angry shouts and screams.

In an alley not far ahead, two groups of people were engaged in a chaotic battle.

Both groups were masked, their martial arts styles were messy, and they used different techniques, but their strikes were exceptionally ruthless, with every move aimed at killing.

Four or five corpses already lay on the ground, blood pooling everywhere.

"Hand over the Marrow Cleansing Pill; we saw it first."

"Bullshit, first come first served; whoever grabs it, it belongs to!"

"You're courting death!"

The melee grew more intense, and both sides were blinded by bloodlust.

"Marrow Cleansing Pill?"

Chen Xuan's heart stirred as he looked not far away.

That was the direction of the Treasure Pavilion.

The main building of the Treasure Pavilion had been split open by a massive crack from the Seven Kill Sword, the entire pavilion teetering on the verge of collapse with bricks and tiles scattered everywhere, and a large section of the back wall had collapsed, revealing a pitch-black passage inside.

People were constantly crawling in and out of that gap; some went in empty-handed and came out carrying items, but those who emerged with items were immediately intercepted by people outside.

"The people in the auction hall were slaughtered by the Seven Kill Sect, but time was tight, and some of the items won at auction were still there and hadn't been taken by the Seven Kill Sect martial artists. These people are fishing in troubled waters, scavenging wealth from the dead."

Seeing this scene, Chen Xuan quickly understood what was going on.

He even vaguely sensed true energy fluctuations from deep within the Treasure Pavilion—it wasn't just people fishing in troubled waters and scavenging from the dead; there were Zhuqi Realm experts wanting to take advantage of the fire to loot the Treasure Pavilion.

Seeing this, Chen Xuan decisively tore a piece of cloth from a corpse nearby to cover his face and darted rapidly toward the front.

Martial arts manuals, divine weapons, and sharp blades were of little help to him; he had only one goal, and that was to obtain the Marrow Cleansing Pill.

If he could obtain five Marrow Cleansing Pills, that would be even better.

In this way, his bone structure and aptitude could be upgraded from medium to medium-high.