Subsequent Cultivation Realms

"How did you find me?"

After confirming that no one else was around, Zhou Feng asked again.

Xiong Dan remained stubbornly defiant and bluntly declared,

"Let me make this clear first! I'm an Inner Sect disciple now! You probably don't understand what it means to kill an Inner Sect disciple—"

The reason Xiong Dan was acting so tough, aside from other factors,

was mainly because of his status as an Inner Sect disciple.

Unlike Outer Sect disciples, Inner Sect disciples were already registered within the sect.

Anyone who had fought their way from the Outer Sect into the Inner Sect could be considered an elite.

Naturally, such elites could not be casually expended like Outer Sect disciples.

Moreover, many places within the sect required Inner Sect disciples to guard them.

For example, some of the Outer Sect's Meat Gu Caves required at least Qi Induction Realm cultivation to guard.

Therefore, Inner Sect disciples were not to be killed without cause. This was an openly stated rule within the Inner Sect.

But in a place like the Three Gu Sect, almost no one actually enforced such a rule.

Inner Sect disciples poisoning and plotting against one another was hardly worth mentioning.

Still, it could not be done openly. Once someone blatantly killed an Inner Sect disciple,

they would leave behind a weakness that other Inner Sect disciples could use to attack them.

It was said that this was meant to cultivate cautious and prudent personalities in the disciples, because the Three Gu Sect had rivals as well.

And those sects were even more fanatical than the Three Gu Sect.

These were things one could only come into contact with after entering the Inner Sect.

While in the Outer Sect, no matter how talented one was, they would not learn such information.

Xiong Dan now hoped to use this information gap to bluff Zhou Feng and save his own life.

His earlier show of toughness had also been meant to make his words more believable.

To make Zhou Feng think that Xiong Dan truly had the confidence to act so boldly.

Xiong Dan had always been someone with little schemes of his own, let alone after spending several months in the Inner Sect.

As long as one stayed in the Inner Sect for a few months, even the most inflexible person would become more worldly.

Otherwise, they would simply die.

Thus, Xiong Dan delivered this kind of deception with perfect ease.

Unfortunately, Zhou Feng did not fall for any of it.

Zhou Feng considered himself no clever man. He could not compete with smart people in schemes and calculations.

So whenever he did anything, he was simple and brutal, going straight for the core of the issue.

He did not beat around the bush with people. Just like his fighting style, he was direct and straightforward!

"Not answering?"

Zhou Feng kicked Xiong Dan directly in the groin.

As a man himself, he knew very well that this weakness was almost impossible for any man to endure.

"Ah!!"

Xiong Dan's face instantly turned pale, his eyes bulged slightly, and a miserable scream tore from his throat.

"You have one more chance!"

Zhou Feng asked again without expression.

After feeling that icy coldness, Xiong Dan did not dare play any more tricks and immediately confessed everything.

"The Scent Gu! I found you using the Scent Gu!"

As he spoke, Xiong Dan took out the Scent Gu.

Scent Gu?

A bug that resembled a snail shell appeared in Xiong Dan's palm.

This was also the first time Zhou Feng had seen a Gu insect with his own eyes.

After placing the Scent Gu into his Storage Bag, Zhou Feng questioned him again.

"Why are you working under Zhao Wu? Haven't you already reached Qi Induction? What realm is Zhao Wu in now?"

He fired off three questions in a row.

These were the three things he most wanted to know at the moment.

The most important was probably Zhao Wu's cultivation realm. After all, what Zhou Feng was doing now

had basically put him in direct opposition to Zhao Wu, making Zhao Wu his enemy.

Under such circumstances, Zhou Feng naturally wanted to know more about his enemy.

Faced with his questions, Xiong Dan actually revealed a trace of helplessness.

"It's all because I don't have enough spirit stones! Otherwise, would I be this pathetic? Damn Bloodthirsty Gu!"

As he spoke, Xiong Dan suddenly became crazed.

Spirit stones!?

That was right! Breaking through to the Qi Induction Realm meant being able to enter the Inner Sect from the Outer Sect.

It also meant falling from one pit into another, even deeper pit.

Starting from the Qi Induction Realm, cultivation required the aid of spirit stones.

Because the Bloodthirsty Gu needed spiritual energy to transform, and merely absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth could not possibly satisfy it.

At that point, every Inner Sect disciple had to earn spirit stones.

Most deadly of all, after the Bloodthirsty Gu absorbed spiritual energy, its demand for blood vitality would also increase.

Spiritual energy triggered transformation, while transformation required a massive amount of blood vitality to support it.

Under such circumstances, all Inner Sect disciples were run ragged.

They fought one another to the death for even the slightest bit of resources.

What left Xiong Dan most desperate was that the Inner Sect was divided into many factions, with at least one elder behind each faction.

These factions formed interest groups one after another. For a lone drifter like Xiong Dan, trying to snatch food from the mouths of these interest groups was far too difficult.

In the end, with no other choice, he could only become Zhao Wu's lackey.

As for Zhao Wu's exact cultivation, Xiong Dan did not know, but he had heard that Zhao Wu had recently begun preparing to gather qi.

"Gather qi? Is that the realm after Qi Induction?"

Zhou Feng frowned slightly.

"That's right! At the Qi Induction Realm, one begins absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. After that come the two realms of Gathering Qi and Condensing Qi, and then the Spirit Platform Realm!"

Xiong Dan told Zhou Feng about some of the realms that came afterward.

This was considered common knowledge in the Inner Sect, though Xiong Dan did not know much about realms beyond the Spirit Platform Realm.

After that, Zhou Feng asked several more questions.

Xiong Dan answered every one of them.

"Alright! Goodbye!"

After finishing his questions, Zhou Feng decisively twisted Xiong Dan's neck.

The entire process took less than half a second. Xiong Dan did not even have time to react.

He had just finished answering one of Zhou Feng's questions when darkness fell before his eyes.

Zhou Feng even made sure Xiong Dan was truly dead by repeatedly smashing a stone into his chest.

Until Xiong Dan's chest caved in.

"I'm sorry! I can't let you go!"

Leaving those words behind, Zhou Feng shook the blood from his hands and turned to leave.

Patrolling disciples should arrive soon to clean this place up, so there was no need for him to trouble himself with it.

Afterward, he headed directly toward the Hall of Transmitted Skills.

Hall of Transmitted Skills

It was as deserted as ever. Hardly any Outer Sect disciples came here.

"Someone else has reached Qi Induction? Not bad!"

The moment Zhou Feng arrived at the Hall of Transmitted Skills, he heard an aged voice.

Then, a token and a keepsake were tossed out.

"Kid, take the token and keepsake, and you can head straight to the mountainside to enter the Inner Sect! Remember to join the Flying Eagle Society. You're one of us!"

The token looked similar to the one he had received before, except it had a few more patterns.

Then there was a keepsake shaped like a flying eagle.

Wait! He seemed to have found this keepsake on Xiong Dan's body.