The Red Moon Cult

Twenty soldiers watched as the three carriages were about to pass. One hawk-nosed soldier leveled his long saber.

"Stop your carriages at once."

The first carriage was driven by a grandfather and his grandson. The old hunter cupped his hands and said, "May I ask why you've stopped us, sir?"

As he spoke, several silver ingots slipped from the old hunter's sleeve.

The hawk-nosed soldier calmly pocketed the silver and pointed his saber at the two carriages behind them. "This has nothing to do with you! Some of the people in those carriages look familiar. I think I've seen their portraits on the wanted list for bandits."

The old hunter hurriedly said, "You've misunderstood, sir. They're servants recently hired by several masters in my household."

"Oh? Servants your masters just hired? Your masters aren't bandit chiefs, are they?"

"You jest, sir."

The hawk-nosed soldier narrowed his eyes. Several more soldiers came over, ready to use their blades to lift the carriage curtains stitched from animal hides.

Before their blades could reach them, someone inside lifted the curtains.

The scene inside the carriage came fully into view. There were four people: three young men and a hunchbacked middle-aged man. They were, of course, Liu Feng and his party.

The soldiers standing in front of the carriage were instantly drawn to Liu Feng inside.

A faint golden light shimmered across Liu Feng's palms. He was pressing one hand against a hunting falcon spirit monster, refining its blood essence.

"A Buddhist cultivator?" The hawk-nosed soldier furrowed his brows.

Before he could take another look, Shen Yushu said coolly, "Are you gentlemen hunting demons? You're on a mission, I take it. We have important business of our own, so how about we make things easy for one another?"

As he spoke, a wave of true qi surged from Li Si beside him, nearly knocking the soldiers in front of the carriage off their feet.

With true qi extending beyond his body, Li Si's strength needed no further explanation.

All twenty-odd soldiers present were martial artists. Their expressions turned grave in an instant.

"We are indeed busy hunting down Red Moon Cult fiends. We'd rather not invite trouble, either. Sir, please keep your servants in line," the hawk-nosed soldier said gravely.

"Thank you for the reminder. I'll make sure they behave," Shen Yushu replied with a cupped-hand salute and a smile.

Keep them in line? He would use these fourteen men if they proved useful, then dispose of them. If not, he'd sacrifice them as pawns to take the blow for him.

Seeing the three carriages leave, the soldiers said nothing more. But the cloaked figures kneeling on the ground grew agitated.

The youths pushed back the hoods covering their heads. Every one of them had a half-demon face, transformed after being tormented by the Red Moon Cult.

They flopped onto the ground and kowtowed toward the first carriage.

"Sir, save us..."

"Sir, sir..."

"Kill them."

The soldiers assumed the demons had realized they were wary of the man inside the carriage and were begging him to spare their lives. They couldn't be bothered to waste words, and raised their blades to strike.

The three carriages rolled farther and farther down the road.

Inside the first carriage, the three men wore grim expressions.

"That Corpse Refiner is connected to the Red Moon Cult!" Shen Yushu said, his face darkening.

Those demonized youths had called them "sir." The soldiers hadn't thought much of it, but the three of them knew exactly what it meant.

Zhu Li spoke up. "Demons that feed on blood are, like Corpse Refiners, extremely sensitive to qi and blood. They must have sensed that Blood Crystal and mistaken us for important figures in the Red Moon Cult."

If even the Red Moon Cult's mere lackeys could sense it, what if one of their real bigwigs showed up? That would be disastrous!

Liu Feng remained silent beside them. He casually tossed the falcon, drained of its blood essence, out the carriage window and pondered.

"Shen Yushu had planned to sell the Blood Crystal in the prefectural city in a day and a half. Now he's changed his plan and will sell it nearby instead. That changes the course of karma."

"I only hope we don't get entangled with Red Cloud again."

In the future scene Liu Feng had foreseen, he had seen Red Cloud, but not the demons or Evil Specters within it.

But the difference in strength between the two sides was too vast. He didn't need to worry about who was inside Red Cloud just yet.

As for the crimson Gu Fire on his body in the vision, it was most likely his second Exotic Gu, the Fire Eater, nearing hatching. By his reckoning, it should hatch within the next day or two.

"It would be best to avoid getting caught up in this karma. If not, and we're unlucky enough to encounter Red Cloud, I trust Fate Eye Insight will show me a new vision of the future." Liu Feng set aside his unease for the time being.

He turned to Shen Yushu and asked, "Senior Brother, who are you planning to find to sell the Blood Crystal to?"

Shen Yushu's lips curled into a sinister smile. His face began to turn blue, swelling with bumps of various sizes, and his limbs bulged as well.

In the blink of an eye, he had become a middle-aged man covered in oozing sores. Only then did he grin and say, "Naturally, we'll find a way to sell it to that notorious county magistrate of Lunan County! We'll be doing the people a service, won't we?"

Lunan County had a population of hundreds of thousands within the county seat alone. It wasn't exactly small.

Leaving the fourteen bandits waiting outside the city, Old Huang and Little Fuzi drove the carriage carrying Liu Feng and the others into town.

As the carriage turned into an alley, Shen Yushu, in the guise of a middle-aged man covered in oozing sores, slipped quietly out of the carriage and disappeared.

After parting ways with Shen Yushu, the carriage turned onto the main street. They planned to find a restaurant and wait for Shen Yushu to deal with the Blood Crystal.

Inside the carriage, Zhu Li looked at Liu Feng and said, "Once this business is settled, barring any surprises, we'll reach Shao Mountain in four days."

"When we look for traces of Eldest Senior Brother, we may run into White Sun Sect fiends. Be prepared. I may not be able to look after you."

Liu Feng recalled what Shen Yushu had said and replied as if it were an afterthought, "Thank you for the warning, Senior Brother."

"I just don't understand. Eldest Senior Brother is on the verge of undergoing Metamorphic Rebirth of the Second Body. Why would he choose this moment to pick a fight with the White Sun Sect? Do you know what they're fighting over?"

It wasn't exactly a coincidence that Eldest Senior Brother had chosen this moment to fight someone over something.

Liu Feng couldn't help connecting it to his experience in the Medicine Garden in Insect Valley. The garden was full of Gu Masters who had failed at Metamorphic Rebirth. They had met the tragic fate of Gu Transformation and eventually become fertilizer.

Before that former Eldest Senior Brother died, he had mentioned two ways to free himself from Insect Valley's restrictions.

One was to find a King Gu or a Spirit Gu. The other was to let an Evil Object corrupt oneself. King Gu and Spirit Gu were incredibly hard to find. Evil Objects, though rare, were not exactly uncommon.

At the thought, Liu Feng came to a deeply troubling suspicion.

"Neither Second Senior Brother nor I know the specifics, and there's no need for you to dwell on it. Just follow Master's orders and bring Eldest Senior Brother back," Zhu Li said, shaking his head.

As the two spoke, the carriage arrived at the entrance of a restaurant. Old Huang's voice came from outside.

"Third Master, we're at the restaurant. My grandson and I will go stable the carriage."

"Mm."

Zhu Li answered, left Li Si in the carriage, and climbed down with Liu Feng. Before them stood a restaurant named Near-Water Pavilion.

"Please, sirs, come inside." Before they had even reached the entrance, a waiter hurried over to greet them.

The two were about to step over the threshold when, suddenly, they each darted one step to the side. Someone flew between them.

The figure was a disheveled Daoist, his eyes so bleak he looked as if his parents had just died.

Someone had kicked him out of the restaurant. He got up from the ground as if nothing had happened, turned around, and started to leave.