Corpse Shelling

Ning Xiaochuan shook his head, and only then did that voice disappear. Setting aside his thoughts, he smiled. "It's nothing. Let's go! We're heading back."

Murong Wushuang's face lit up with delight. "Brother Chuan, so you live at Begonia Manor. That's one of the largest estates in Nanshan Village, occupying the most fertile land. Many of the surrounding residents are fed by Begonia Manor's fields. I heard Begonia Manor is a great estate with the Marquis Mansion behind it. Is that true?"

Ning Xiaochuan smiled without admitting or denying it. "Don't you want to become a Martial Dao expert, to become a Divine Dragon Warrior? Come find me at Begonia Manor in a couple of days. I might be able to help you become a Martial Dao expert faster."

Murong Wushuang's expression became somewhat awkward. He lowered his voice. "To tell you the truth, Brother Chuan, I really don't dare go to Begonia Manor. I've owed three years of annual dues already. Several of Begonia Manor's stewards know me, and once they see me, they'll definitely demand payment again. If I don't pay, they'll beat me! Begonia Manor has a great family and a great business. If they get serious, I can't afford to provoke them."

Ning Xiaochuan climbed into the Azure Deer Carriage and smiled. "Report my name when you arrive. Say you're my friend. I doubt anyone would dare make things difficult for you."

Murong Wushuang said in astonishment, "Really? Brother Chuan, what status do you have at Begonia Manor? Don't tell me you're the manor lord's nephew?"

"The lord of Begonia Manor doesn't have a nephew." Ning Xiaochuan smiled.

The Azure Deer Carriage left Nanyue Mountain.

At the market in Nanshan Village, Murong Wushuang got off and went home, while Ning Xiaochuan and Yu Yan drove the carriage back to Begonia Manor.

Ning Xiaochuan had spent a total of four days in Nanyue Mountain. The stewards, managers, maids, servants, and guards of Begonia Manor had all been worried sick, afraid something had happened to him. Someone had even reported the matter to the Marquis Mansion.

Though Ning Xiaochuan was not well regarded in the Marquis Mansion, he was still the Marquis's legitimate grandson. If anything had happened to him, the servants of Begonia Manor would probably all have lost their heads.

The moment he returned to Begonia Manor, Steward Qiu came to question him. "Young Master, where have you been these past few days? Every guard in the manor went out looking for you, but none of them could find you. Yesterday, Fourth Master personally came to Begonia Manor. He was quite angry and said that once you returned, you were to go to the Marquis Mansion and report your safety to him, so he would not worry."

"Ning Qianwu actually came to Begonia Manor." Ning Xiaochuan knew perfectly well that the Fourth Master of the Sword Pavilion Marquis's Mansion was no good bird and had always wanted to get rid of him.

Would he really care so much about my safety?

By now, he has probably bought off everyone in Begonia Manor!

Without betraying anything on his face, Ning Xiaochuan said, "This manor lord has been unwell recently and needs to recuperate in the manor. I'm afraid I cannot go to the Marquis Mansion to report my safety to Fourth Master. Steward Qiu, take me to the Marquis Mansion to report my safety to Fourth Master!"

Having said that, Ning Xiaochuan stopped wasting words with him and drove the Azure Deer Carriage into the manor.

Ning Xiaochuan drove all the servants from the small courtyard where he lived, leaving only Yu Yan behind.

He moved the Blood Toad Wood down from the Azure Deer Carriage and planted it in a flowerbed blooming with autumn begonias.

This place was close to Sealed Cliff and beside a mountain waterfall, hidden behind layer upon layer of vermilion pavilions. It was an ideal place for the Blood Toad Wood to grow.

The Blood Toad Wood itself possessed spirituality. The moment it touched the soil, its roots automatically burrowed into the earth.

Before long, the Blood Toad Wood had completely taken root in the soil. Its nine branches swayed in the wind, leaf after leaf emitting blood-red radiance, while a faint woody fragrance drifted through the air.

A current of mysterious spiritual energy naturally gathered between heaven and earth. The soil gave off a faint bloody glow, and the surrounding Heaven and Earth Profound Qi became nearly twice as dense, still continuing to increase.

Given time, this place might truly become sacred soil, a spiritual land.

"Yu Yan, pass down the order. From now on, no servant is allowed to enter Purple Qi Garden." Ning Xiaochuan gave the command.

Night fell, and the moonlight was like water.

Moonlight spilled over the leaves of the Blood Toad Wood, making the crimson leaves even more scarlet. A faint blood-colored glow veiled them as grains of light fell from them, like a divine tree of the Netherworld.

Ning Xiaochuan sat cross-legged beneath the Blood Toad Wood. Blood-colored motes continuously fell from the tree and scattered over his body, where he absorbed them.

"Clang! Clang!"

Within Ning Xiaochuan's heart, the Demon Sword trembled without cease, ringing sharply. It drove his blood to flow faster and faster, while the Earth Martial Essence Qi hidden deep within his blood broke down increasingly quickly into Martial Dao Profound Qi, merging into his body.

Ning Xiaochuan's blood had already retained Earth Martial Essence Qi from the Old Marquis's efforts to extend his life over the previous ten years. If all that Earth Martial Essence Qi were fully awakened, it would be enough to bring him into the Divine Body Realm.

Therefore, the Earth Martial Essence Qi within the Gold Thread Purple Wood could remain there for now. He would absorb it after fully awakening the Earth Martial Essence Qi within his body.

The blood-energy power of the Blood Toad Wood could activate the Demon Sword. Under the Demon Sword's stimulation, the Earth Martial Essence Qi decomposed even faster.

One hour of Ning Xiaochuan's cultivation was practically equal to ten days of cultivation for those young geniuses. The Martial Dao Profound Qi within him grew at a rapid pace.

At midnight.

"Save me... save me..." That aged voice began to ring in Ning Xiaochuan's ears again, like an old ghost calling souls, making one's hair stand on end.

Ning Xiaochuan could not cultivate in peace at all. He slowly opened his eyes, hesitated for a moment, then abruptly rose to his feet. With a leap, he shot more than thirty feet into the air, kicked off the wall, and sprang several dozen feet higher, landing atop Begonia Manor's seventy-foot-high wall.

In the night, the entire manor seemed tranquil. Four or five armored guards were still patrolling atop the wall.

Ning Xiaochuan moved with incredible speed, like a ghostly shadow. He slid down from the wall and ran toward Nanyue Mountain, his body swallowed by the darkness.

Ning Xiaochuan's cultivation had reached the Profound Qi Eighth Level. With all the Martial Dao Profound Qi in his body circulating at full force, he ran even faster than an Azure Deer Horse.

Each step carried him more than seven meters. He was as swift as if flying.

In less than an hour, he reached the foot of Nanyue Mountain again. Staring at the vast black mountain mass before him, he plunged into the depths of the mountain.

He did not know how long he had threaded through the forest, but he finally returned to the place where Yue Wuyang and Minister Tian had fought two days earlier. Searching amid the jagged mountains, he eventually found an impact crater within a valley.

The crater measured more than sixty meters across. It was filled with shattered stones and lingering, powerful waves of Martial Dao Profound Qi.

At the center of the crater lay a pitch-black object, charred and scorched, resembling either a human "corpse" or a beast's "corpse."

Ning Xiaochuan stood at the edge of the crater and hesitated for a moment. In the end, he jumped down into it, stepping over broken rocks as he approached the blackened "corpse" one step at a time. He placed his finger beneath its nostrils.

"There's no breath left. It seems he's dead." Ning Xiaochuan withdrew his hand and prepared to leave.

"Sizzle, sizzle!"

Suddenly, the charred "corpse" split apart. From within stretched a withered, aged hand, its fingers still burning with bone-green Ghost Fire.

The "corpse" cracked open, and a hand reached out from inside.

Even Ning Xiaochuan, with his extraordinary mental fortitude, was startled. He abruptly took a step back.

"Save... save me..." An aged man in black crawled out of the "corpse" and collapsed on the ground, barely clinging to life. His back and the crown of his head had suffered devastating injuries. His spine was broken, and a large part of his skull had shattered.

After uttering those two words, he did not move again.

Ning Xiaochuan crouched down and stared at the old man in black robes. Feeling the dense Evil Qi emanating from him, he did not know for the moment whether he should save him.

This old man in black robes should be Minister Tian of Dark Emperor City.

Two days earlier, Minister Tian had been struck by Yue Wuyang's palm. As he fell from the sky, he had sent a strand of Divine Sense into Ning Xiaochuan's ears—Ning Xiaochuan had also been in Nanyue Mountain at the time—asking Ning Xiaochuan to save him.

It was precisely because of this that Ning Xiaochuan had been restless these past two days, constantly wondering whether he should return to Nanyue Mountain and take a look.

Tonight, while Ning Xiaochuan cultivated Martial Dao Profound Qi, Minister Tian's words had kept echoing in his mind, leaving him unsettled and nearly causing him to suffer cultivation deviation. In the end, he had decided to come to Nanyue Mountain and determine whether this man was truly dead.

"As a physician, one cannot stand by and watch someone die. Whether he is a good man or an evil one, before a physician, he is still a patient."

Ning Xiaochuan rubbed his palms together and drew a deep breath. His gaze became resolute. "No matter what kind of world this is, people should ultimately uphold their own principles. If one cannot even uphold one's principles, then one is not far from falling into depravity."

Ning Xiaochuan hoisted Minister Tian onto his back, then quickly left the crater and vanished into the forest.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Not long after Ning Xiaochuan left, three figures flew out from the forest and landed beside the crater.

All three were young. The leader was a beautiful blue-haired, green-eyed woman with a tall, slender figure and long legs. She held a spear as thick as a bowl in her hand, while a dense layer of Martial Dao Profound Qi enveloped her body.

Had Ning Xiaochuan left half an hour later, he would have discovered that these three were the three Dragon Elephant Warriors he had seen at the Nanshan Village market. Only now, none of them rode Dragon Elephant mounts.

"Minister Tian is the foremost of Dark Emperor City's Four Great Ministers, yet before the Marquis, he was still no match at all. It seems the Marquis's cultivation has already reached a realm beyond anything we can imagine." One of the men, just over twenty, stared at the corpse in the crater and spoke coldly.

The beautiful blue-haired, green-eyed woman also had a look of admiration in her eyes. "The Marquis is the Youngest Martial Venerable in the history of the Yulan Empire. Great destiny gathers upon him; he is beyond our imagining. Hm? No... something is wrong..."

Two beams of light, three feet long, shot from the blue-haired, green-eyed woman's eyes. Her pupils spun like two black holes as she fixed her gaze upon the corpse at the center of the crater.

"Whoosh!"

Her body floated lightly into the air and landed beside the corpse. Her expression abruptly changed. Powerful Martial Dao Profound Qi erupted from within her as she held her spear horizontally before herself, vigilantly watching the surrounding forest as though facing a formidable enemy.

"Captain, what is it?" a cold-faced man asked.

The beautiful blue-haired, green-eyed woman said, "Minister Tian used the divine ability of Corpse Shelling, deceiving the Marquis's Heart Spirit Perception. What remains here is merely an empty corpse shell. His true body has already escaped."

"What do we do now?"

The other two Dragon Elephant Divine Martial warriors also grew grave and began guarding against the surroundings.

The blue-haired, green-eyed woman said calmly, "Zuo Jinfeng, immediately return and report this matter to the Marquis. Quickly, it must be quick. You Zui, mobilize Nanshan Village's garrison and have them dispatch three thousand soldiers to search Nanyue Mountain. Minister Tian has suffered severe injuries; he definitely cannot have escaped far."

Zuo Jinfeng and You Zui both understood the gravity of the matter and swiftly departed.

"Minister Tian, that devil, wasn't killed after all. Now this is serious trouble. If an expert of his level seeks revenge, the entire Imperial City will be thrown into turmoil." The blue-haired, green-eyed woman stared again at the corpse shell and gave a soft cry of surprise. She noticed two rows of footprints on the ground, which meant someone had arrived before them.