Boom-!!!
The tremendous explosion reverberated through the valley, light and fire instantly swallowing Jiang Yunya.
The multicolored barrier around him lasted less than a moment before shattering with a crash. As though struck by a crushing blow, he plunged from his auspicious cloud, blood spraying from his mouth.
His Daoist robes were shredded, his entire body scorched black, and his aura weakened to an extreme in an instant.
"S-self-detonation?!" Jiang Yunya lay sprawled on the shattered rocks, unable to believe it.
If he had seen correctly, that figure had burned even the very essence of his soul. Who hated him so deeply that they would destroy both body and soul just to drag him down into death with them?
He managed to raise his head and look toward the center of the explosion. Not a scrap of the attacker remained.
Slightly reassured, Jiang Yunya hurried to take out a healing pill. His injuries were so severe that he could no longer even sustain his cloud-riding. He had to stabilize his condition as soon as possible.
Yet, just as Jiang Yunya was refining the pill, something inconceivable happened-
Not far away, the debris left by the self-detonation swept backward. A figure materialized from nothing, rapidly becoming distinct.
"Y-you're not dead?! No... that's impossible!"
Jiang Yunya's pupils contracted sharply, and overwhelming terror seized his heart. He struggled to activate a life-saving Spirit Talisman, but hampered by his injuries, he was still a step too late.
Chu Mo gave him no chance at all. The Scarlet Sun Needle shone with a fine radiance and pierced his skull in an instant.
Thud.
Jiang Yunya stiffened, then toppled over rigidly, all signs of life gone. Terror and confusion still lingered in his eyes.
[You killed a Level 8 · Deliverance Sect Grunt (red name)]
Chu Mo did not lower his guard. Almost as soon as he confirmed the kill, the [Mind-Cleansing Mantra] was already prepared in his hand.
His Soul Banner was indeed wondrous, but even it would struggle to wrest a soul away from the sect's "Disciple Registry."
Although he had spared no expense beforehand to purchase a [Concealment Talisman] capable of blocking Divine Sense and concealing his movements, only wiping the other man's memories completely clean would leave nothing to chance.
Yet, unexpectedly, before he could release the spell in his hand-
With the death of his flesh, Jiang Yunya's soul transformed of its own accord into a streak of five-colored light and vanished completely into the world, leaving not the slightest trace.
"What happened?" Chu Mo was puzzled, but his movements did not slow in the slightest. He swiftly gathered the loot orbs from the ground.
[Obtained [Soul Banner] ×1] [Obtained [Spell Coin] ×535] [Obtained "Five-Color Essence Absorption Manual"] [Obtained [Five-Element Profound Essence] ×1]
As the last golden orb entered his hand, Jiang Yunya's corpse silently crumbled into dust. A gust of wind scattered it completely into the world, leaving no trace that it had ever existed.
Chu Mo felt a slight chill, but had no time to investigate. After swiftly clearing away the surrounding traces, he left the scene without lingering another moment.
He returned to his Cave Abode, and the stone door closed once more.
Having disposed of an eyesore with a red name, Chu Mo felt considerably better-he had always been somewhat compulsive and could not stand seeing red bobbing before his eyes.
He sat cross-legged and began taking stock of his gains. Aside from the Spell Coins, only three pieces of loot looked particularly valuable.
The first was the Soul Banner. It, too, was a spirit embryo, identical to his Profound Scenery Refining Truth Banner in both design and aura, as though they had come off the same "assembly line."
"Exactly the same. They really are standardized spirit embryos." The corner of Chu Mo's eye twitched as he recalled what Lin Feng had said.
Later, he might dismantle it or feed it to his own Profound Scenery Refining Truth Banner to strengthen its foundation. He shook his head, put it away, and turned to the other two unusual drops.
[Five-Element Profound Essence] [Description: A mystical substance condensed by using a special cultivation method in conjunction with a specific Spirit Body to refine the essence of a cultivator's flesh and soul.] ["Five-Color Essence Absorption Manual"] [Plunder another's Dao Foundation to nourish oneself. Use the five internal organs as furnaces, gather special "great medicines" corresponding to the five elements, and feed them back into oneself to condense Five-Element Profound Essence.]
"No wonder..." Understanding dawned on Chu Mo. No wonder Jiang Yunya's corpse had turned straight to ash when he picked up that drop. The essence of his entire being had already been condensed into this object.
"Wait." He suddenly remembered the "Burning Heart Sutra" Liu Xian cultivated, and a thought surfaced. Could Liu Xian have been one of Jiang Yunya's "great medicines"?
"Well, damn. It's nesting dolls all the way down."
Liu Xian had treated him as a "Fire Meridian" to fuel his heart fire, while Jiang Yunya lurked behind the scenes, treating cultivators of specific methods, such as Liu Xian, as "great medicines" for condensing his own "Five-Element Profound Essence."
Then what lay behind Jiang Yunya? Could there be someone else there, too?
The more Chu Mo thought, the more terrifying it became. A chill climbed his spine, and his gaze drifted involuntarily beyond his Cave Abode.
This "Five-Color Essence Absorption Manual," which plundered people's Dao Foundations and refined people into medicine... could its true source be that very Martial Uncle Zhou who had shown Jiang Yunya "such special favor"?
If his suspicions were true, the danger involved far exceeded his earlier personal feud with Jiang Yunya. Once Zhou Huan returned from the other world and discovered what had happened...
Jiang Yunya never saw my true face before he died, and I cleaned up every trace at the scene. There should be nothing else I missed. Chu Mo silently reviewed everything.
Relying on the backing of a Foundation Establishment High Person, Jiang Yunya had made enemies throughout the outer sect. His loan-sharking and exploitation alone had left countless fellow disciples grinding their teeth in hatred.
As long as he showed nothing unusual, any suspicion directed at him should blend into the crowd without standing out.
As though confirming Chu Mo's suspicions, disciples from the Enforcement Hall came to question him the very next day. Several groups of Enforcement Disciples came this time, repeatedly questioning him, and the investigation was far more thorough than before.
Their expressions stern, the Enforcement Disciples questioned Chu Mo closely about his recent movements and his past dealings with Jiang Yunya.
Chu Mo handled them calmly, using his sixth-layer Qi Refining cultivation, far inferior to Jiang Yunya's, and the borrowed mantle of authority provided by the Hezhen Token to fend off their inquiries.
"Phew-" After seeing off the last group of Enforcement Disciples, Chu Mo inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
The scale of this investigation was truly considerable. The murder of an ordinary disciple would never have prompted anything like it.
I managed to bluff my way through, he thought. My cultivation is still too weak. If I were a Foundation Establishment cultivator myself, would I still need to worry about Zhou Huan's threat?
Chu Mo's gaze darkened, and his hunger for strength grew fiercer. He wanted to reach Foundation Establishment-and achieve "register-bearing mansion opening."
Yet on the fourth day after he committed himself to that goal and began cultivating even harder, a familiar face came to his door.
"Here, this is the 'great pill' Martial Uncle Yuan Bai asked me to deliver. He said it's your reward, to help you break through the bottleneck into late-stage Qi Refining!"
Ji Qing was as cheerful as ever, but the "great pill" beside him was rather unusual.
Chu Mo looked toward the "great pill" he indicated-
She wore a pale yellow dress. Though bound with ropes and looking somewhat bedraggled, her graceful figure was impossible to conceal. Through her loose black hair, he could just make out the fair profile of her face.
It was actually a female cultivator with bright eyes and pearly teeth.