Chance Encounter at Yunwang Mountain

"The entry appeared?"

Li Jun froze for a moment.

He had originally thought entries would only appear while he was cultivating.

He had not expected that simply mixing a medicinal liquid would actually activate an entry too.

"Purple Lightning Thunder Bud... that seems to only appear during the thunderstorm season."

Li Jun looked outside the house. Wasn't this a coincidence?

Right now was thunderstorm season!

"Junior Brother! Are you there, Junior Brother?"

"Senior Sister Yin?"

Li Jun paused. It was actually Yin Caiwei.

"Senior Sister, what brings you here?"

"Ah, Eldest Senior Sister said you might be rather busy lately, so she told me to come lend you a hand."

Yin Caiwei said with a smile.

Li Jun's gaze shifted slightly, then he smiled and said, "Eldest Senior Sister really is thoughtful. Very well, I happen to need to go out these next few days to find some medicinal herbs. Senior Sister, please help me feed the Spirit Ox!"

"Sure thing!"

Yin Caiwei agreed readily.

Li Jun gave Yin Caiwei a brief explanation of the current feed formula.

"Good thing I prepared enough Emerald Cloud Bamboo Shoots these past few days. Otherwise, if they were discovered, that would be troublesome."

The Emerald Cloud Bamboo Shoots and the milk were his secrets, and he absolutely could not let anyone discover them.

"I wonder whether Shen Xiyue sent Yin Caiwei over to truly help, or to monitor me in a roundabout way."

Many possibilities arose in Li Jun's mind.

The next day, Li Jun descended the mountain early.

With the experience from last time, he changed into a different outfit this time, covering himself tightly from head to toe.

To ensure his own safety, Li Jun spent the beginning wandering around the nearby wild mountains.

For one, it was to familiarize himself with the surrounding terrain; for another, he wanted to see if anyone was following him from behind.

After confirming that no one was tailing him, Li Jun took advantage of the night and left the Azure Cloud Sect directly.

Yunwang Mountain.

Li Jun held down his bamboo hat and gazed at the cloud-wreathed mountain range before him, his heart settling slightly.

This place lay south of the Azure Cloud Sect, already on the outskirts of the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Unlike the peril-ridden inner region, most of the demonic beasts appearing around Yunwang Mountain were first-tier demonic beasts.

Though second-tier demonic beasts existed, most entrenched themselves deep within the mountain range and rarely stepped out of their territories.

At the foot of the mountain lay Yunwang Lake, nestled against the mountain and beside the water, and the spiritual energy there could not be considered thin either.

As a result, spiritual herbs grew thickly for dozens of li around, and it had always been a common place for Azure Cloud Sect disciples to go when seeking herbs or undertaking trials outside.

"Rustle, rustle..."

Rain fell. At the distant horizon, a bolt of purple lightning crashed down.

Looking at the thick smoke rising among the distant mountains, Li Jun knew he had come to the right place.

The Purple Lightning Thunder Bud was a second-tier spiritual plant. As its name implied, it often appeared on lightning-struck wood during thunderstorms.

For trees struck by thunder, under the scouring of spiritual energy, there was a certain chance they could use the power of lightning to give birth to a tender bud; this was the Purple Lightning Thunder Bud.

Li Jun groped his way along the night road toward the mountaintop. The closer he got to the summit, the stronger the scorched smell in the air became.

However, after searching a large circle, he still did not find even a single bud.

But Li Jun was not anxious.

The Purple Lightning Thunder Bud existed for only a very short time, and it was a favorite tonic of many demonic beasts.

He had only just arrived. Even if some had appeared earlier, they had probably already been eaten by other demonic beasts.

"I'll hide first. I'm bound to run into one eventually."

Li Jun directly hid in the bushes. He refused to believe he could not stake one out.

"Damn it! Where did this blasted bird come from?! If you've got guts, don't run!"

Li Jun burst into curses, truly unable to endure it any longer.

For three days straight, every time he saw a Purple Lightning Thunder Bud appear, that damned bird would snatch it away at an extremely fast speed.

But maddeningly, he still could not quite catch up.

"That bastard's speed is really fast. It's almost closing in on a level-two demon beast, isn't it?"

Li Jun's fists clenched until they cracked. He only hated that he was not strong enough; otherwise, he would not have had to swallow this humiliation.

"But why did that thing steal so many Purple Lightning Thunder Buds? There's no way it can digest that many in a short time."

Li Jun sank into thought. There was probably something fishy about this.

"Deep in the mountains... could there be something there?"

He looked in the direction that damned bird had flown off and felt it was necessary to investigate.

Li Jun felt his way deeper into Yunwang Mountain. As he continued inward, a thread of bloody stench abruptly appeared in the air.

He took a porcelain bottle from his robes, then evenly smeared its contents over every part of his body.

This was a medicinal powder recorded in the Fusang Hand, specially used to conceal one's aura.

Even a level-two demon beast would have a hard time discovering him unless it walked right up to him.

"Damn it, why do we have to do this kind of job every time?"

"What else? Isn't it because we're outer sect disciples? Be thankful they didn't drag you off to use as a medicinal primer!"

"Exactly, exactly. I heard First Senior Sister has been refining pills recently, and quite a few people seem to have died. It was miserable as hell!"

"Shh! Don't run your mouth! You don't want to live? Is that something people like us can discuss?"

"..."

Li Jun lay prone in the bushes and parted a small gap to look ahead.

"Disciples of the Azure Cloud Sect?"

In a stone forest ahead of him, five Azure Cloud Sect disciples dressed in night-walking clothes were lying there motionless.

"Right, Old Zhao, what exactly happened with Oak Garden? How did something go wrong when everything was fine?"

One of them spoke, and the other three also turned their gazes toward the last person.

"I don't know, but Senior Sister Yao said there's a high chance a spy appeared. The other side came specifically to destroy Oak Garden."

The moment this person's voice rang out, Li Jun's pupils constricted.

This guy was actually Zhao Wenjie?

"He still hasn't been dealt with?"

Li Jun frowned, somewhat surprised.

Originally, he had thought Zhao Wenjie had either been expelled from the sect or had already kicked the bucket.

Who would have thought he would run into him here?

"A spy? Could it be someone from Medicine Peak? Senior Sister Yao and First Senior Sister have never gotten along, and the disciples of the other two peaks probably wouldn't have that kind of nerve."

"It really is possible. Old Zhao, did you know? I heard the only one at Medicine Peak that escaped disaster was First Senior Sister's Spirit Ox. Supposedly that day, First Senior Sister's Spirit Ox just so happened to be out taking the air and grazing. What a coincidence, huh?"

"I heard that too. And the one raising the ox was the guy who pointed out there was a problem with First Senior Sister's furnace temperature that day. What was his name, Li something?"

"His name is Li Jun. He used to be from Oak Garden."

Zhao Wenjie spoke coldly. He was far too familiar with that name.

"Old Zhao, you don't think he's the spy, do you? Isn't he unable to cultivate? Even if he were a spy, there's no way he could silently and mysteriously contaminate all the oak trees without anyone knowing, right?"

Zhao Wenjie said nothing.

In the past, he would not have believed it, but that day he had sent Liu Yan and the others to Medicine Peak to seize Li Jun.

But afterward, there had not been the slightest scrap of news.

No person alive, no corpse dead.

Liu Yan and the others seemed to have evaporated into thin air.

Combined with what had happened this time, Zhao Wenjie increasingly felt that this Li Jun really might be the spy Shen Xiyue had planted in Oak Garden.

If Yao Yuzhi could begin laying out chess pieces several years ago, then as the chief disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect, how could Shen Xiyue's methods possibly be lacking?

Seeing that Zhao Wenjie was silent, the others tactfully stopped asking.

"Enough, Old Zhao. Didn't Senior Sister Yao say it? In a while, the Artifact Peak elder will submit a request to the Elder Council to mine Black Rock Mine, in order to deal with the extreme celestial phenomena that may appear this year."

"When the time comes, inner and outer sect disciples from the Four Peaks will all be mobilized. Senior Sister can take that chance to clean out that batch of people. It'll both purge the inside and count as a return gift for Shen Xiyue."

Not far away, Li Jun's gaze sharpened.

He had not expected to hear such explosive intelligence here.