The Jia Ma Geniuses in a Sorry State

Contrary to anything they had imagined, what the Eight Gates provided for first-class VIPs was not a room, but an entire private Courtyard!

After arriving at his own Courtyard, Yun Congxin sent his Soul Power surging from between his brows and carefully searched the spacious room. Only after confirming that nothing was amiss did he take the newly acquired Cultivation Technique out of his Storage Ring and open it.

"Not a Blood Sect Cultivation Technique..." Yun Congxin was somewhat surprised. After carefully checking it again, he marveled inwardly, No wonder that brat turned himself into something neither human nor ghost. This is an incomplete Heavenly Underworld Sect Technique!

The Heavenly Underworld Sect was one of the notorious major powers of the Central Plains. Yun Congxin still remembered the original novel describing the sect's bloody, brutal cultivation methods.

The Heavenly Underworld Sect's techniques were exceptionally sinister and cruel. Anyone cultivating a Heavenly Underworld Sect Technique could forcibly devour another person's Dou Qi, but that convenience came with one condition: they had to devour the flesh and blood along with it.

Simply put, it was a Hannibal-exclusive edition of the Star-Absorbing Art.

Their Dou Techniques were correspondingly bloody. Compared to them, even the magical beasts of the Magical Beast Mountain Range had class.

Furthermore, the Heavenly Underworld Sect's way of training disciples was exceptionally cruel. As the saying went: bring ginger, garlic, and scallions when you leave, lest you make the young sect master grieve. Drink some cooking wine before the fight, so he needn't marinate you all night.

Every true disciple of the Heavenly Underworld Sect would enter the sect's forbidden grounds after reaching a certain level of cultivation, where they would begin a thrilling, nerve-racking battle royale. These fellow disciples, who normally spent every day together discussing the finer points of being human, would then begin a bloody slaughter of one another.

The last person to emerge alive from the forbidden grounds would become a core figure of the Heavenly Underworld Sect—a future elder, or even its sect master.

Compared to that process, even breeding venomous creatures in a jar until only one survived counted as "friendship first, competition second."

Yun Congxin could not understand how an organization dedicated to slaughtering its own members managed to hold together, just as he could not understand how the Heavenly Underworld Sect's Cultivation Technique could claim other people's flesh, blood, and Dou Qi for the practitioner while rapidly raising their cultivation level.

"Downright uncanny..." Yun Congxin let out a long sigh. The image of that blood-attribute Dou Qi brat, neither human nor ghost, surfaced in his mind again. This time, he finally understood why the Heavenly Underworld Sect's members could remain presentable despite being such experts at "being human," while that brat had cultivated himself into something resembling a dried corpse.

This incomplete Heavenly Underworld Sect Technique cut off at an absolutely perfect point—right before the most crucial part.

"With a thing like this, it's a miracle that brat didn't cultivate himself to death..." Yun Congxin tossed the Cultivation Technique back into his Storage Ring and muttered with some regret.

He was not actually interested in cultivating such sinister, crooked methods. He was merely curious about how this Hannibal-exclusive Star-Absorbing Art worked.

Never mind the enormous flaws in the Heavenly Underworld Sect's Cultivation Technique—the original novel had explicitly stated that everyone throughout its history who cultivated this technique to its utmost heights had died miserably from its backlash. Given Yun Congxin's present condition alone, he had absolutely no need to defy the condemnation of the entire world by cultivating such an evil art.

Rather than cultivate this thing, he might as well eat medicinal pills like meals!

Three days later, on a sunny afternoon with a gentle breeze, Xiao Yan and the other three finally reached Black Seal City.

When they found Yun Congxin, he was lounging lazily in a rocking chair in the Courtyard, basking in the sun.

"Elder Yun?" Seeing Yun Congxin sleeping soundly with a Cultivation Technique covering his face, Xiao Yan rubbed his nose with a wry smile and called softly.

"Hmm?" Woken by the call, Yun Congxin pulled the Cultivation Technique off his face, glanced at Xiao Yan, and said lazily, "You're here? Did everything go smoothly?"

Looking at the fellow enjoying life like a retired old man, Yao Ye and her sister both instinctively clenched their teeth.

"It... it was all right. All right..." Xiao Yan smiled bitterly. Even he felt that the past few days had been as terrifying as a nightmare.

For the past three days, Yun Congxin had eaten and slept, slept and eaten, occasionally heading out to sample the Black-Corner Region's local specialties. He had also set aside a little time to study the golden energy in his Niwan Palace and the incomplete Heavenly Underworld Sect Technique in his possession. He had been living like an immortal.

The past three days had been just a little different for Xiao Yan's group. They had fallen into traps by day and been robbed by night, engaging in heated exchanges of opinion with the bandit gangs of the Black Domain Great Plains at every waking moment.

Together with the mercenaries hired by the merchant, they had matched wits and strength with the Black-Corner Region's outlaws, repelling six large-scale attacks in three days. Aside from those, there had been countless small clashes and harassing raids that kept them from sleeping at night.

Who knew what was so appealing about the merchant's cartload of ordinary ingredients for healing medicine that it had attracted so many bandits willing to throw their lives away?

Even more exhausting was that, faced with such intense fighting and hardships far beyond those of an ordinary escort job, the mercenaries—staunch believers in pay above all—had decisively gone on strike!

Halfway through the journey!

They demanded that the merchant double their pay, or they would wash their hands of the job and head straight home.

This directly forced the caravan to stop halfway along the road, and the sounds of the two sides negotiating drew the largest attack they had faced in those three days.

In the end, faced with the gleaming swords and sabers in the hands of the Black-Corner Region's outlaws, the merchant who valued money over his life finally gave in. He agreed to the mercenaries' demands and guaranteed an additional payment to the Mercenary Corps for every subsequent attack.

Xiao Yan, who had already been preparing to take the others and flee, could not help breathing a sigh of relief at this.

"No wonder the profits in the Black-Corner Region are so high. Even if it kills me, I'm never chasing a bargain like this again..."

So said the merchant who had nearly lost his life.

Except for Nalan Yanran, whose complexion was hidden by her Ice Silk Silkworm Mask, the other three all looked haggard, with dark circles under their eyes, like corporate drones who had worked overtime for days on end.

"Tired? Then go get some rest. Whatever it is, we can talk over dinner. Don't disturb my afternoon nap..." Yun Congxin covered his face with the Cultivation Technique again. "The three of you have rooms in the side wing over there. Xiao Yan's room is in the courtyard next door. I've already booked them all..."

Xiao Yan shrugged indifferently and went to find his room and rest.

"We... are staying here?" Looking at Yun Congxin, who had acted like a lord and master from beginning to end, Yao Ye felt her anger flare. She frowned as she spoke.

"Where else? You're my maids now, not princesses of the Jia Ma Empire. Didn't Jia Xingtian tell you that?" Yun Congxin still remembered his intention to put this girl in her place, so he drawled lazily, "Where would you stay if not here? Am I supposed to personally brew... Oh, right. Since we're on the subject, brew me a pot of good tea before you go to bed."

Nalan Yanran gave Yao Ye, who was lightly biting her lip with defiance written all over her face, a sympathetic glance. Then she led Yao Yue, who was already too sleepy to keep her eyes open, to the side rooms to sleep.

"Yes, Sect Master Yun..." Yao Ye practically spoke those words through gritted teeth.