Du Xingze's Fury!

Whoosh!

Multicolored energy radiance shone, filling the ordinary little cave. For a short time, the concentration of energy rivaled that of certain extraordinary blessed cultivation grounds.

Natural treasures worth fifty million yuan burned away completely.

All the energy within them surged out and was drawn toward the Insect Codex, which frantically converted and absorbed it. Within the codex, streams of deep crimson inheritance power riddled the seal on its second page with holes!

Rumble!

Moments later, amid a thunderous roar, the seal on the Insect Codex's second page broke completely. Deep crimson inheritance power, thick as water, poured out, all of it surging toward Yang Yu.

Yang Yu greedily devoured this power!

Time passed—

Meanwhile, within Shangjing City's urban district, at the Ghost Infant Sect's base in the Shangjing Garden villa complex.

Du Xingze, master of the Ghost Infant Sect, was beside himself with rage!

Crash!

He hurled a treasured antique teacup from his desk onto the floor, smashing it to pieces!

"Useless! A bunch of useless fools!" Du Xingze roared.

"We sent so many men to deal with one measly Human Tier piece of trash, and he wiped them all out... a bunch of useless, good-for-nothing idiots!" The more Du Xingze thought about it, the angrier he became. He wanted to dig Elder Xu, who had led the team, out of hell and punish him mercilessly!

He could hardly help being furious. After an entire night, news of such a major incident had spread throughout Shangjing City's cultivation world.

Du Xingze could disregard the deaths of those sect disciples, even the death of the Earth Rank expert Elder Xu.

But there was one thing he could not disregard!

The Ghost Infant Sect's reputation!

His own reputation!

So many Ghost Infant Sect disciples, along with seven of its young experts and an Earth Rank elder of the older generation... had all been killed by an obscure Human Tier brat, wiped out in one fell swoop!

This was an outright slap in the face. After this incident, the Ghost Infant Sect had lost every shred of dignity!

Now, who in Shangjing City's cultivation world had not heard about it? Who did not see it as a joke?

The prestige the Ghost Infant Sect had built up over so many years had suffered a severe blow. At least for now, everyone regarded them as nothing more than a bunch of clowns!

After venting for a long while, Du Xingze gradually calmed down.

What was done was done. Further anger would accomplish nothing.

This matter had to be resolved!

Since that brat named Yang Yu had humiliated them so badly, he had to die! And he had to die in the cruelest way possible. Only then could they begin to wash away the disgrace he had brought upon the Ghost Infant Sect!

Du Xingze swept his gaze over the Earth Rank elders in the hall, who trembled and dared not utter a word.

At a glance, there were no fewer than forty or fifty of them!

"What are you still standing here for?" Du Xingze's gaze was vicious, the depths of his eyes filled with boundless flames of fury.

"Get out!"

"Investigate!"

"Find that brat as quickly as possible!"

"Bring him back, dead or alive... I'll hack him into pieces, rip out his soul, and imprison it! I'll make him endure the scorching demonic flames of purgatory for all eternity! Get moving! Find him!"

"If you can't find him, don't come back!" Du Xingze roared. As though granted a pardon, the Earth Rank elders hurried out of the hall. Each swiftly assembled his trusted subordinates and began casting a wide net across Shangjing City's urban districts, outskirts... and neighboring cities.

The Ghost Infant Sect wielded tremendous power when fully mobilized. At least within its own territory in Shangjing City, its authority was absolute... at that moment, even personnel within the government were called into action.

They pulled surveillance footage from along the roads and examined it bit by bit, piecing together Yang Yu's movements after the battle in an attempt to identify where he had ultimately hidden.

While the Ghost Infant Sect frantically investigated Yang Yu, several other factions in Shangjing City's cultivation world also followed the matter closely.

The government, meanwhile, suppressed all public discussion.

Such a major incident had occurred and drawn so many onlookers... yet by the following morning, it was as though nothing had happened. There was not so much as a whisper of it in the news.

Cultivators lay hidden throughout the world, and naturally maintained contact with national governments.

Countless ties and negotiations connected the two sides... ultimately, the government tacitly accepted the existence of cultivators, but cultivators were forbidden from recklessly stirring up major incidents or causing massive destruction in densely populated areas.

The Ghost Infant Sect's ambush on Yang Yu had already skirted the edge of this unwritten rule.

After the incident, the Ghost Infant Sect had paid a certain price before finally managing to bury the matter.

Cultivators might be powerful, but unless they reached the Innate Lifeform Realm... they still had reservations about confronting the machinery of the state and armored divisions equipped with powerful modern weapons.

The only consequence of provoking the machinery of the state was endless pursuit and encirclement.

Even if they escaped with their lives, they would inevitably pay an enormous price!

Unless driven into a corner, few cultivators would dare cross that line of deterrence.

Leaving the government aside.

In the northwestern district of Shangjing City, inside an antique dealership, in an underground space adjoining its basement warehouse.

Several people had gathered there.

Everyone present was a cultivator, and their auras were powerful... of the thirty or forty people there, at least half were Human Tier experts, and there were several Earth Rank experts as well.

The crowd surrounded a young cultivator like stars clustered around the moon.

The young cultivator stood on a fighting platform enveloped in azure energy, locked in fierce combat with an Earth Rank cultivator.

The young cultivator's aura fluctuated wildly, sometimes dropping to the Mortal Peak, sometimes soaring... straight to the peak of the Earth Rank!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

After a flurry of crackling bodily impacts, the two combatants on the platform broke apart.

Whoosh!

They stood at opposite ends of the platform, the energy around their bodies churning violently.

A smile appeared on the young cultivator's lips.

"Uncle Liu, thank you for going easy on me."

"I'm getting old." Uncle Liu, dressed in an azure Zhongshan suit, his face covered in wrinkles, shook his head. "Young Master Zifeng, you've grown even stronger. Unless my senses deceived me just now, you should already be at the peak of the Earth Rank... and your skill at concealing your aura has grown even more profound. Your disguise is indistinguishable from the real thing now. Even in combat, you can suppress your aura to the Mortal Peak without affecting your bursts of power in the slightest."

"I'm getting old. Young people these days really are growing more and more formidable. You're one example, young master, and last night, a young Human Tier expert named Yang Yu appeared here in Shangjing City. He even crossed the gap between tiers to wipe out a group of Ghost Infant Sect experts, killing the Earth Rank expert leading them."

"Times have changed... I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if you broke through to the Heaven Tier within ten years, young master."

Zhou Zifeng, the most outstanding expert of the younger generation at the Tongbao Antique Purchasing House!

Not yet thirty, he had already cultivated to the peak of the Earth Rank!

Had Yang Yu been there, he would have recognized this young cultivator immediately... he was none other than the young clerk who had received him at the Tongbao clearance purchasing shop on the thirty-second floor of the Ten Thousand Layers Tower and written him a letter of recommendation to the Divine Armament Pavilion.

P.S. Thanks to "Nameless and Heavenless" for the tip!