After Zhou Qingchen left, He Ziren finally spoke. He fixed a cold stare on Pang Jian.
Like a lone wolf, Pang Jian sat by himself in a secluded corner, maintaining his meditative breathing posture.
Head bowed, he paid no attention to the Zhou and Ning families' exploration of the rubble pile.
He ignored He Ziren's words, too.
"I'm asking you a question."
When Pang Jian remained silent, He Ziren—who had taken an instant dislike to him—suddenly spoke in a chilling voice.
The He family's young master had been ignored by Zhou Qingchen for so long that his pent-up fury had nowhere to go. He hadn't expected a mere hunter to dare ignore his question as well.
Frowning, he looked over and noticed the sinister, frigid air spilling from the rubble pile had gathered thickly around Pang Jian.
He Ziren was immediately startled. He studied Pang Jian in surprise, then approached him with cautious steps.
Pretending not to hear him, Pang Jian had been so absorbed in his cultivation that he'd assumed He Ziren would leave him alone. He hadn't expected the He family's young master to keep pressing him.
With no choice, Pang Jian had to stop absorbing the "Mystic Yin Qi." He raised his head slightly and said, "I don't know."
"What are you doing?"
As he drew closer, the He family's young master felt the temperature around Pang Jian was extremely low. He had no intention of letting him off so easily.
"The spiritual energy locked away in this perilous place contains the insidiously poisonous Profound Yin Power. Ordinary people can't withstand it. If I'm not mistaken, you were absorbing the Profound Yin Power just now, weren't you? You... are actually unharmed?"
He Ziren sucked in a breath. As if he'd discovered a new continent, he lowered his voice and barked, "Boy, what wicked cultivation art are you practicing?"
Only someone with a suitable cultivation art—or a disreputable evil cultivator—would dare attempt to guide this kind of "Profound Yin Power" into their body and slowly refine its hidden, poisonous force.
The fact that a lowly hunter knew how to refine "Profound Yin Power" immediately aroused He Ziren's suspicions.
His cold gaze flickered as he scrutinized Pang Jian, considering several ways to torment him. Perhaps I can even get something unexpected out of this hunter.
Pang Jian said woodenly, "You're mistaken."
"I could be mistaken?"
He Ziren strode forward, grabbed Pang Jian by the front of his shirt, and lifted him off the ground.
The sharp-eyed He family's young master stared straight at Pang Jian and threatened him with a sneer. "Boy, you're a lowly hunter. If I'm in a bad mood, I can kill you just like that."
"And you..."
He Ziren grinned and hoisted Pang Jian even higher, mocking him. "If you dare lay a hand on me, someone of your birth and standing won't have a place to live anywhere in the Fourth Realm."
With his Pulse-Opening Realm cultivation, He Ziren's meridians flowed freely and his spiritual power circulated with ease. He was tremendously strong.
Under his powerful grip, Pang Jian—who was taller and more muscular than him—was lifted right off the ground.
Unable to plant his feet, Pang Jian hurriedly drew the long saber at his waist, ready to fight for his life.
"Whoosh!"
He Ziren shook his head with a sneer. A hazy radiance suddenly spread over his body as spiritual power covered him from head to toe.
"With that saber of yours, you can't even break my skin."
He swung Pang Jian back and forth, making him sway like a kite in the wind, and goaded him in a humiliating tone. "If you don't believe me, try it."
"Clang! Clang!"
Pang Jian really did swing his saber and strike at He Ziren's arm, but it was like chopping into a wall of bronze. He couldn't break He Ziren's skin or hurt him in the slightest.
He Ziren gave a strange laugh. "I told you it was useless."
Seeing that he couldn't do a thing to He Ziren—and that the man had him by the collar, holding him high in the air so he couldn't even escape—Pang Jian looked coldly toward the rubble pile.
The Ning and Zhou families needed someone familiar with the Cenji Mountains. Until their exploration mission was complete, they couldn't do without him.
He was going to make some noise.
"Answer my question, or you'll die right now."
He Ziren suddenly stopped swinging the hand that held Pang Jian, letting him steady in midair. Then he pressed his other hand against Pang Jian's dantian, where his Spirit Sea lay, and said softly, "As long as I can prove you're practicing an evil art, I'll have a reason to kill you. Ning Yao will understand."
Knowing he couldn't avoid it, Pang Jian let out a piercing scream in an attempt to attract the attention of the Zhou and Ning families.
But his scream was drowned out by a shrill howl that abruptly rang out from deep within the rubble pile.
This time, the strange howl was even more ghastly and terrifying. It no longer sounded like wind—it was more like the furious roar of some hidden demon!
As soon as the shrill howl rang out, everyone who heard it, whether inside or outside the rubble pile, began to bleed from their ears and noses, as if they were being bombarded by some evil mental torrent.
Not only the Ning and Zhou family members inside the rubble pile, but even the One-Horned Rhinos and the warhorses outside staggered as though struck hard. They all looked dazed and lost.
Pang Jian's chest grew warm. The Bronze Tablet pressed against his skin flashed with a faint light, keeping the howl from affecting his mind and will.
He came to his senses in an instant, then saw He Ziren's raised arm droop limply.
What was more, the hazy radiance that He Ziren's spiritual power had summoned around his body vanished as well.
Everyone inside and outside the rubble pile who had been assailed by the howl looked bewildered and lost, as if they no longer knew who they were.
As the piercing howl continued to ring out, Pang Jian immediately realized the people from the Ning and Zhou families had likely encountered another terrifying danger in the rubble pile.
When his feet touched down on the solid ground again, he gripped his long saber tightly with both hands.
The shrill howl seemed to possess a demonic power that could drag people into an evil abyss. Holding his saber, Pang Jian looked at He Ziren's vacant face, his eyes cold and deep as a frozen cavern.
After only a moment's hesitation, his expression turned fierce, and he drove the tip of his saber toward He Ziren's heart.
"Pfft!"
With the hazy spiritual radiance gone, Pang Jian's blade immediately pierced the He family's young master's skin and drove deeper into his chest.
The intense pain actually allowed He Ziren to resist the evil force contained in the howl. The agony abruptly jolted him awake.
Blood streamed from his ears and nostrils. The instant the He family's young master came to, he saw Pang Jian, afraid his strength wouldn't be enough, gripping the saber with both hands and driving it into his chest.
Born into the He family in the Fourth Realm, He Ziren was a young noble admired by every commoner. He simply couldn't believe his eyes.
His bloodied face looked terrifying. Fury and agitation filled his eyes as he glared at Pang Jian, who was still straining with all his might, trying to do something.
"Then I'll give it a try."
Pang Jian met his gaze directly. His voice and expression were utterly calm, his eyes without a trace of fear or unease.
The blade continued sinking in. Pang Jian's hands didn't tremble in the slightest, as though he'd done this countless times before.
"You!"
He Ziren opened his mouth through the agony that ripped at his heart, but all he could do was spew out a mouthful of thick blood.
"Boom!"
Like Liu Qi, he toppled onto his back, Pang Jian's long saber still lodged in his chest.
Using the strange howl as cover, Pang Jian had stabbed to death He Ziren, who had long been plotting against him. He took a deep breath and yanked his bloodied saber free.
As blood sprayed wildly, Pang Jian dodged like lightning, then looked toward the rubble pile with his blood-scented saber in hand.
He was trying to determine what terrifying crisis had befallen the Ning and Zhou family members inside. Then he saw one shadow after another drift out of the corpses of those Blood Moon cultivators.
The shadows were just as indistinct, resembling the "Beast Sha" aura that his "Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art" had drawn out before, which should have entered his Spirit Sea.
These shadows were shaped like people. Their rank was far higher than that of the "Beast Sha," so even Pang Jian could see them with the naked eye.
The shadows, formed from the souls of dead cultivators, flew out of their corpses and lunged at the Ning and Zhou family members. Some even slipped into the bodies of the living.
Those possessed by the shadows immediately lost their own thoughts and awareness, and began attacking the people beside them.
"Evil spirits? The dead?"
Pang Jian was quietly astonished. Stunned by this phenomenon, which went beyond anything he understood, he froze in place.
"Boom!"
A towering, deep-red mountain suddenly appeared behind the tall Zhou Qingchen, slowly hovering above his head.
The Red Mountain hung in midair, solemn and imposing. It released a mighty aura, as if it could suppress all evil beneath the heavens.
Zhou Qingchen had been dazed and stunned, but the moment the Red Mountain appeared, his mind returned to him. He raised his arm and shouted, "Red Clouds Filling the Sky!"
Brilliant red clouds burst forth from the majestic divine mountain as it slowly rose, enveloping everyone around him.
After Zhou Qingchen, Han Duping was awakened by the deep-red radiance. He stomped his feet and cursed. "They aren't Blood Moon people! They're from the Yin Spirit Temple! They were only wearing Blood Moon clothes! Damn it, members of the Yin Spirit Temple died in this perilous place, and their souls transformed into high-rank Spirit Sha!"
"People from the Yin Spirit Temple?"
Ning Yuanshan, Ning Yao, and the others were awakened one after another. They all cursed the Yin Spirit Temple cultivators for dressing in Blood Moon clothes after dying. Their disguise had fooled Han Duping and caused everyone to enter the rubble pile too soon.
Shouting loudly, Ning Yuanshan took out the Flame Dragon Stone Pillar he'd used earlier to fend off the "Beast Sha" for Pang Jian. Another sea of flames flared up, engulfing several people possessed by "Spirit Sha."
Under the scorching power that was both supremely strong and supremely yang, the "Spirit Sha" were forced out of their hosts and fled to the cool, shadowed areas nearby.
At that moment, Zhou Qingchen, Han Duping, Ning Yuanshan, Ning Yao, and the others all unleashed their power. They summoned their respective artifacts and hunted down the "Spirit Sha" whose forms had been revealed.
The several cultivators who had reached the Pulse-Opening Realm joined forces, either destroying or driving away the so-called high-rank "Spirit Sha."
"Giggle. You still didn't die."
A soft, bewitching laugh suddenly came from the White Paper Fan. When everyone turned to look, they saw blood-red bamboo stalks flying out of the paper one after another.
The blood-red stalks wove together in midair like bones and sinews, rapidly forming a graceful, misty blood-colored silhouette.
The blood shadow, whose true appearance remained hidden, floated above the ground, laughing as she glided through the air toward the depths of the Cenji Mountains.
"Little ones, I'm heading inside first. We'll meet again soon. Heh, I was trapped in that wretched fan for hundreds of years. Now that I'm finally free, I'll never let those old relics from the Yin Spirit Temple seal me away again."
The woman, her figure graceful and swaying, muttered to herself as she went, gradually fading from everyone's sight.
As she drifted away, the "Spirit Sha" that had escaped the Zhou and Ning families followed her from every direction, vanishing from everyone's view one by one.
Still shaken, the crowd wanted to pursue her, but she was far too fast. They could only watch her and the "Spirit Sha" disappear.
"Rumble! Rumble!"
Not long after she left, the One-Horned Rhinos ridden by the Zhou family began collapsing one after another.
Many of the cultivators who had come with Zhou Qingchen had died in the calamity. On the Ning family's side, only Ning Yao, Ning Yuanshan, and Zhang Heng remained alive.
In a short time, the Zhou and Ning families had suffered heavy losses. Their people were all disheveled and dejected, deeply shaken by the setback.
"How did He Ziren die, too?"
Once Ning Yuanshan had recovered, he went outside the rubble pile and immediately spotted the He family's young master lying in a pool of blood.
The gaping bloody hole in He Ziren's chest was still oozing blood. He lay on the ground, staring up at the sky, his face full of fury and resentment.
Pang Jian stood silently to one side, holding his bloodied saber.
Ning Yuanshan's expression turned stern. He asked coldly, "Did you do this?"
"I was possessed by the Spirit Sha, too," Pang Jian said helplessly.
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