He immediately released Wei Zhong's arm and shook his head.
"Five Spiritual Roots, all of them low-grade. Nothing worth cultivating."
Wei Zhong was even more puzzled when he heard him ask:
"Did you kill that little brat who cultivated the Blood Body Technique?"
Wei Zhong was startled. The matter of him killing Candle Daoren could be said to be known throughout the entire Li family, yet this person before him somehow knew that Candle Daoren had cultivated the "Blood Body Technique."
"What Blood Body Technique? This junior knows nothing of it. However, I did indeed slay an evil cultivator here the day before yesterday."
"Oh? Are you lying?"
The moment those words left his mouth, Wei Zhong felt his sea of consciousness tremble, and he nearly blurted out the truth.
But the Time Treasure Record entrenched within his sea of consciousness gave a faint shake and suppressed it.
"Every word this junior has spoken is true."
"Where is that cultivator's Storage Bag?"
"The battle was fierce. It was destroyed."
"Destroyed?"
A puzzled look appeared on the Red-Clothed Child's face.
"Fellow Daoist Red Beard, I inspected that cave. The traces of battle were extensive, and lingering spatial fluctuations remained within. The Storage Bag truly was destroyed."
Wei Zhong suddenly realized that, at some unknown moment, another white-robed Daoist with the bearing of an immortal had appeared beside him and was speaking to the Red-Clothed Child.
Yet the latter still refused to give up.
"Did you obtain an item shaped like a small sword from that cultivator?"
"No."
He then probed from every angle with other questions, but Wei Zhong's answers were all watertight.
Seeing that he had gained nothing, the Red-Clothed Child could only let the matter drop.
He turned to look at the white-robed Daoist. The two exchanged a glance, then vanished from where they stood.
In the air, the white-robed Daoist smiled at the Red-Clothed Child and said:
"Fellow Daoist Red Beard is still too merciful. Wouldn't a soul search of that child have revealed everything? Why go to such lengths to use the Truth Telling Spell?"
But the latter shook his head.
"I am not as hardhearted as you, Fellow Daoist Bai Heng. Though he is merely a minor Foundation Establishment cultivator whose potential has already run dry, he is still a cultivator of our human race.
Why not tell me what you discovered, Fellow Daoist?"
The white-robed Daoist said:
"After my investigation, a fierce battle did indeed take place inside that cave on the mountain. Although someone cleaned it up afterward, they still showed their hand before this old man.
The smell of blood inside was thick, identical to the scent of those Blood Bodies we killed before.
Moreover, the traces left by the battle show that this Blood Body was directly blasted to death by a single attack close to the Core Formation level. That attack reduced it to dust, then pierced through more than half the mountain without losing momentum."
"An attack method close to the Core Formation level? It seems that junior has stumbled upon some opportunity. Otherwise, he would not have entered Foundation Establishment at such an advanced age."
"What, Fellow Daoist Red Beard? Are you tempted?" Bai Heng teased with a smile.
The latter merely snorted.
"It is only at the Core Formation level. Nothing more than Talismans or talisman treasures. This old man has no interest in such things. For Spirit Transformation Cultivators like us, only a method of transcendence is of any use."
Bai Heng sighed at those words.
"Yes. That is why we have searched so bitterly, and finally found traces here of the legacy left behind by that Blood Venerable. If we can obtain his methods, they may well offer some enlightenment for our own path."
Red Beard scratched his head.
"Some junior who crawled out from who knows where actually obtained the Blood Venerable's inheritance, even taking the title Blood Sea True Lord and committing the deeds of an evil cultivator. He has truly soiled the Blood Venerable's name.
I heard that a promising disciple with an Earth Spiritual Root from the neighboring Nether Luo Sect was also harmed. What a pity."
Bai Heng stroked his beard.
"In my view, that junior calling himself Blood Sea obtained, at most, an incomplete inheritance. He must have mixed in some unknown Evil Arts himself, creating a technique like this that steals the lives of others."
Red Beard nodded in agreement, then asked:
"Speaking of which, Bai Heng, how many sets of inheritances have you collected?"
The white-robed Daoist replied:
"Eight and a half sets. One Jade Slip was accidentally damaged in a struggle."
"Haha, even after you complete that half set, you will still have one less than this old man. Speaking of which, I found one of my sets in a nearby mountain hollow. I do not know which junior buried it underground."
"Oh? There was actually a cautious junior capable of resisting such temptation. Perhaps he may have a chance to enter our realm someday."
"Hehe, the path of cultivation is so difficult. Being able to live until one's lifespan runs out is already a great blessing. Spirit Transformation?" Red Beard shook his head.
Naturally, Wei Zhong knew nothing of the discussion the two had after leaving. Nor did he know that the Jade Slip token of inheritance he had buried years ago had already been discovered and taken away by them.
He merely turned to Xie Linghua as she approached and asked:
"After Li Haowen left, did you see anyone come here?"
She shook her head and asked in confusion:
"No." Seeing Wei Zhong's deeply worried expression, she added, "What is wrong, Master?"
Wei Zhong said nothing. Instead, he thought of the two cultivators who had arrived so suddenly.
At the very least, they were Nascent Soul cultivators—or perhaps they were simply Spirit Transformation Cultivators.
Wei Zhong had never felt such helplessness before. They had come right up beside him, yet if they had not spoken first, he would have noticed nothing at all. With a single move, they had subdued him. He had not even been given a chance to flee into the cave heaven.
Fortunately, they bore him no ill intent. Thinking of this, he became all the more grateful for his own caution.
Sure enough, it had been right not to refresh his bone age all the way back to his youth in one go. Otherwise, with such trash aptitude—Five Spiritual Roots, every one of them a Low-Grade Spirit Root—entering Foundation Establishment in his twenties or thirties would have looked suspicious no matter how one viewed it.
Now, with a bone age of more than a hundred years, he was at the proper age for a normal Foundation Establishment cultivator.
That had only slightly dispelled their suspicions. But what secret technique had that child called Red Beard used? It had actually been able to shake his sea of consciousness and force him to speak the truth.
Fortunately, the Time Treasure Record had suppressed it. Otherwise, all his secrets would have spilled from his own mouth like beans pouring from a basket.
That would have been the true death trial.
Now, the two likely believed that he had killed Candle Daoren by using some immensely powerful secret treasure.
Just what mysteries did the Blood Sea True Lord's inheritance contain, for it to draw the investigation of two such great cultivators?
Wei Zhong had originally planned to retrieve the inheritance items he had buried years ago later, so that he could deal with enemies who might follow Candle Daoren's trail.
But after this incident, he no longer dared. Let those tokens and Jade Slips remain buried beneath the earth forever.
If people came from Hanzhu City, he would fight if he could win, and flee if he could not.
But after this incident, Hanzhu City would probably quiet down as well. With cultivators this powerful keeping watch, how could a city of Rogue Cultivators whose strongest were merely Core Formation cultivators have any chance to stir up trouble?
Did that mean he now had a chance to go and investigate?
In the past, he had been poor and weak. Now, things were vastly different.
Not only had he successfully entered Foundation Establishment, he had also gained his own spirit land and cave heaven. He could finally begin properly planning the road ahead.
First, he needed to begin breaking free from Azurewood Sect's monopolistic restrictions. Alchemy, talisman crafting, artifact refining, formations, and the like all had to be placed on the agenda.
With the proficiency Status Panel granted by the Time Treasure Record, along with his nearly endless lifespan, he could completely hone these arts to exceedingly high realms.
They would serve as provisions for his path of cultivation...
Before you continue