Lin Fan spoke softly, his tone calm. "You were abducted and brought here to become vessels for the Demonic Path's blood refining. Tell me how you were abducted and how they caught you."
Still shaken, the three hurried to tell their stories, each vying to speak first.
After hearing their accounts, Lin Fan understood.
One of the young male cultivators was a fairly accomplished martial artist from elsewhere. He had been lured from another commandery city with promises of a generous monthly salary and ample martial cultivation resources.
The other male cultivator was a disciple of a small sect. While traveling to gain experience, he had met a like-minded companion, who claimed to possess a treasure that could help raise his cultivation. He had then been drugged unconscious.
The only woman had been in a cosmetics shop. After sampling the scent of a new perfume, she had suddenly passed out. When she woke, she was already here.
All of them had unwittingly fallen into the trap of this small Demonic Path outpost.
After reassuring the three, Lin Fan interrogated every subdued member of the Split-One Gang lying on the ground, one by one.
Under the overwhelming pressure of a Steel Force Realm cultivator and his various methods of extracting information, no one could conceal a thing.
Piece after piece of intelligence surfaced in an unbroken stream.
This place was indeed just one of countless small blood-refining outposts established on the periphery by Demonic Path experts.
They were deliberately set up along national borders, in remote towns, and beside official roads, using all manner of bait to lure martial artists: well-paid work for fighters, recruitment offers for independent cultivators, promises of help improving their cultivation.
Then, by knocking them out or drugging them unconscious, they captured a steady stream of living