Zhou Qingchen's Overture

"Spirit Sha possession?"

Ning Yuanshan stroked his long, thin beard as he gazed at He Ziren's corpse, brows furrowed in thought.

Pang Jian's expression did not change.

He had noticed earlier that the strange entities Han Duping called "Spirit Sha" had flown out of the corpses. Whenever they landed inside the bodies of Zhou Family or Ning Family servants, they drove them to turn on one another.

He believed that was a good enough explanation.

"He Ziren brought this on himself."

Ning Yao hurried over when she heard the news. As soon as she emerged from the pile of rocks, she said, "Uncle Yuanshan, you can't blame Pang Jian for this."

Ning Yuanshan sighed and lamented, "The He Family's young master died among our people. How am I supposed to explain this to them?"

"He wasn't the only one who died. Since He Ziren's cultivation was so high, the Spirit Sha controlled by the Demoness naturally took the chance to enter Pang Jian's body and do him as much harm as possible. I even think more Spirit Sha invaded him, taking advantage of the chaos to erode his thoughts, so the one possessing Pang Jian could succeed." Ning Yao took the initiative to clear Pang Jian of suspicion.

"That is certainly possible," Ning Yuanshan agreed.

Pang Jian's expression remained unchanged, but a strange ripple stirred in his heart.

He had thought the death of the He Family's young master would cause a commotion, and that the Ning Family would blame him no matter what. He had not expected Ning Yao to defend him of her own accord.

Moreover, Ning Yao looked somewhat relieved, as though he had helped her resolve some trouble.

"Pang Jian..."

Ning Yao knitted her brows, her bright, sparkling eyes fixed on his face.

She had noticed something strange.

Even if he had been possessed by a "Spirit Sha," it was Pang Jian who had personally killed He Ziren. Yet he had been far too calm, showing not the slightest panic. It was almost unreasonable.

"What is it?" Pang Jian asked, surprised.

"Have you... killed anyone before?" Ning Yao asked abruptly.

"Mm."

Pang Jian answered quietly. He hesitated before continuing, "I hunted in the Cenji Mountains for years. Some older hunters took advantage of my father being away and me being young. They tried to rob me of my prey and even attacked me."

Ning Yuanshan gave him a strange look. "Those hunters were older and more experienced than you, and you killed them?"

"I was lucky."

Ning Yao paused, then gave him a closer look, surprise glimmering in her beautiful eyes. She nodded. "We'll be relying on you a lot more before this is over. As for He Ziren's death... don't let it weigh on you."

Pang Jian tactfully left.

Suddenly, he saw Zhou Qingchen, far off in the pile of rocks, glance in his direction from beside the corpse of the most ferocious One-Horned Rhino.

There was something inscrutable in Zhou Qingchen's gaze, and Pang Jian could not make sense of it.

Zhou Qingchen then loudly ordered the Zhou Family survivors to unload all the belongings and bundles carried by the corpses and move them to the open ground ahead of the rocks.

Everyone inside immediately got to work.

The two Ning Family members and Zhang Heng, who had survived, put to use the warhorses they had tied up outside, which had never entered the rocks, sharing them with the Zhou Family survivors.

After He Ziren's death, Zhou Qingchen claimed the black warhorse he had ridden without the slightest hesitation.

Soon, the warhorses began crossing the rocks, carrying the bundles and belongings taken from the corpses and the One-Horned Rhino. Gradually, they made their way out of the rocky field.

Neither Zhou Qingchen nor Ning Yao showed much grief over the deaths of their family's servants.

Perhaps they were used to such partings between life and death. Or perhaps the servants' lives were too lowly to be worth mourning.

A short while later, only the One-Horned Rhino and the servants' corpses remained inside the rocks.

The Zhou Family and Ning Family had crossed the rocky field and were roasting meat over a fire on the other side, preparing to fill their stomachs before pressing deeper in.

Ning Yuanshan called Pang Jian over. After a moment's hesitation, Pang Jian headed toward them from the other side of the rocks.

On the way, he sensed that a considerable amount of "Profound Yin Power" still lingered among the corpses strewn across the rocky field. An idea occurred to him.

"I'll search around and see if anything was left behind."

Standing in a conspicuous spot inside the rocky field, Pang Jian called loudly to Ning Yuanshan ahead.

Those who had already left the rocks assumed that he was unwilling to give up and wanted to pick through the blood-soaked ground they had already searched for anything of value.

Nobody paid him any mind. They let him stay among the rocks while they roasted meat around the fire and discussed what to do next.

"Miss Ning, what's that boy's name?"

Zhou Qingchen turned the wooden spit with meat skewered on it. In the crackling firelight, he smiled at Ning Yao across from him and said, "You should thank him for killing He Ziren for you. I've heard that the boy was debauched and cruel, and didn't have a good reputation among the He Family."

"Ha. The fellow has some talent for cultivation, but I don't think he's worthy of you, Miss Ning."

Zhou Qingchen continued speaking as though to himself.

"His name is Pang Jian. But the real culprit behind He Ziren's death was the Demoness who controlled the Spirit Sha," Ning Yao said.

"That's true."

Zhou Qingchen smiled strangely and did not press the matter. Instead, he said, "The Demoness still has no physical body. She must be some kind of wandering soul sealed away by those old fellows at the Yin Spirit Temple."

He rubbed his sharply defined chin and gazed at the sizzling, dripping meat. His brows gradually furrowed. "The Demoness hasn't been out long, so she's still weak. That's why she hurried away once we broke free of the Demonic Sound."

"Mm. She'll be much stronger the next time we encounter her." Ning Yuanshan interjected with a worried look. "Sigh, I don't know where the Demoness came from. She laid an Array inside the rocks and even had people from the Yin Spirit Temple disguise themselves as Blood Moon cultivators. What is she after?"

"If I'd known those corpses in the rocks came from the Yin Spirit Temple, I wouldn't have gone in so early." Han Duping sighed. "Toying with things like Spirit Sha is the Yin Spirit Temple's specialty. If there are people from the Yin Spirit Temple in that deadly place, alive or dead, I'll be twice as careful."

He felt guilty for the deaths of so many people in there and for the heavy losses suffered by Zhou Qingchen.

"Don't blame yourself. No one could have guessed that the Yin Spirit Temple corpses were wearing Blood Moon clothes." Zhou Qingchen offered a few words of comfort, then continued, "If you ask me, they were wearing Blood Moon clothes before they died. If my guess is right, they killed Blood Moon members and changed into their clothes."

"Mm, they must have been trying to deal with someone else," Ning Yuanshan agreed.

Their group talked outside the rocky field, their voices carrying clearly.

"The Yin Spirit Temple set all this up?"

Inside the rocks, Pang Jian crouched behind a tall boulder where Zhou Qingchen and the others could not see him. He touched the Bronze Tablet, which had grown hot against his chest, and looked puzzled.

He had thought that if someone had deliberately made this rocky field, with its Yin-Locking Array, it might have been his father's doing.

After hearing what the others said, he was no longer so sure.

He pulled up the front of his clothes and looked at the Bronze Tablet. Even after heating up this time, it still had not returned to normal.

The tablet was shaped like a bronze door. Aside from being very hot, it showed no other unusual signs.

Yet he knew very well that he had been able to keep his wits clear and resist the shrieking only because the tablet against his chest had suddenly grown hot when the Soul-Absorbing Shriek sounded.

It was this Bronze Tablet that had helped him.

"This thing seems unusual."

He had a vague feeling that the only keepsake his father had left him might contain some sort of mysterious power.

Moreover, whenever the Bronze Tablet grew hot, if he focused on sensing the "Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art," his perception seemed to become much sharper.

Just like now.

When he calmed himself and tried to circulate the "Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art," he sensed that the faint "Profound Yin Power" remaining in the rocky field seemed to be seeping out from a single direction.

After pondering for a moment, he used his sharpened senses to search for the source of the "Profound Yin Power."

From time to time, he stopped to concentrate. Once he identified the direction again, he moved on.

After doing this several times, he reached a corner of the rocky field far from the others and spotted a gray-white rock covered in cracks.

The faint "Profound Yin Power" was slowly seeping out through the cracks in the rock.

The gray-white rock was not very large. After hesitating, he reached out and touched one of the cracks.

A rich stream of "Profound Yin Power" surged out through the cracks, chilling him to the bone.

The pure, powerful "Profound Yin Power" seeped into his body in an instant, stiffening his flesh and blood.

Startled, he quickly circulated the "Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art." The blue-black "Spirit Pot" he visualized in his mind immediately absorbed the "Profound Yin Power" that had entered his flesh.

Inside his Spirit Sea, this extraordinary "Profound Yin Power" quickly dissolved the dregs and impurities that looked like tufts of cotton.

"Using poison to fight poison?"

Pang Jian was secretly astonished.

He had not expected such an unremarkable, broken rock to hold so much "Profound Yin Power," or that it could help cleanse the impurities in his Spirit Sea.

Outside, Zhou Qingchen and the others continued their lively conversation.

Meanwhile, Pang Jian stayed crouched in this spot, his hand pressed against the crack in the gray-white rock, greedily drawing out its "Profound Yin Power."

He did not know how much time had passed. The noise outside gradually died down, and much of the filth and dross in Pang Jian's Spirit Sea had been cleared by the "Profound Yin Power" in the rock.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps slowly drawing near.

Without hesitation, Pang Jian picked up the small, broken rock, placed it in the Bamboo Basket on his back, covered it with a bamboo slat, and pretended to be searching around.

Before long, the tall, rough-mannered young master of the Zhou Family appeared alone.

Zhou Qingchen held a wooden spit strung with cooked meat. With a smile, he offered it to Pang Jian. "Have something to eat. I'll need you to lead the way again soon."

Pang Jian was somewhat flattered. He had not expected the most powerful person here to come find him and offer him meat.

He did not act coy. He accepted the spit readily and, hungry as he was, immediately tore into the meat.

The meat was browned and glistening with grease, but it was dry and tough, and took a lot of chewing.

Compared with the meat Pang Jian made from the beasts he hunted in the forest, Zhou Qingchen's offering tasted rather ordinary.

"Do you think my meat tastes bad?"

Seeing him frown, Zhou Qingchen laughed. "We're cultivators, not chefs. It's good enough that we managed to cook anything at all."

Pang Jian shook his head without saying anything.

"Miss Ning told me your name is Pang Jian, and that you're a hunter from around here." Zhou Qingchen thought for a moment, then suddenly asked, "If you make it out of the Cenji Mountains alive, would you be interested in coming with me to the Zhou Family?"

Pang Jian stared at him in surprise. He had not expected the Zhou Family's young master to try to recruit him.

"Think it over first. You don't have to answer me right away." Zhou Qingchen chuckled. "You can use this time to learn about me, Zhou Qingchen, and the standing my Zhou Family has in this world."

"My cultivation talent is average," Pang Jian said, frowning.

"Talent is only a stepping stone, not everything." Zhou Qingchen waved a hand. "I admire the ruthless streak you showed when you killed He Ziren."

With that, he laughed heartily.

Pang Jian's expression changed drastically.

Still laughing, Zhou Qingchen gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. "I was in the rocky field, and I saw He Ziren give you trouble and lift you high into the air. When the Demonic Sound shrieked, the Demoness was hidden in the White Paper Fan and launched a mental attack against me first."

"Her sudden attack left me unable to move for an instant, but I was still aware of everything."

"I noticed that not a single Spirit Sha left the rocky field at the time, so you weren't possessed either."

"As for how you managed to resist the Soul-Absorbing Shriek, I truly don't know. But no matter what, you seized that brief opening and dared to kill He Ziren decisively. I admire that."

"You're young, and you still have a chance to make up for your lack of talent. That's why I, Zhou Qingchen, am willing to take you in."

After offering this friendly overture, the young master of the Zhou Family left with the skewered meat, walking away with easy confidence.

Pang Jian chewed the meat in his mouth and watched Zhou Qingchen's tall figure. He did not say another word.

Only after Zhou Qingchen had completely disappeared did he breathe a sigh of relief, glad the young master of the Zhou Family had not noticed the strange rock in the Bamboo Basket on his back or taken issue with He Ziren's death.