Hun Mieba

"You..."

"What about me?"

"I..."

"What about you?"

Yao Ling stared at Fan Tian with her big, watery eyes, her face full of anger. "You dog of a man, you just said you'd been with me these past few days. Have you got a guilty conscience?"

Fan Tian immediately waved his hands.

"You don't know a good heart when you see one. I was vouching for you! I, Fan Tian, stand straight and sit upright. My conscience is clear."

"This fruit was a great stroke of fortune for my Sound Valley. It's incredibly rare. It's the betrothal gift I'm saving for my future wife!"

Fan Tian suddenly took Yao Ling's delicate hand, an infuriatingly cheeky expression spreading over his face.

Caught off guard, Yao Ling's heart fluttered, and her neck flushed crimson. For a moment, she even forgot to pull away. Then she hurriedly shook him off. "Pah, you lecher! What sort of wife would demand such an expensive betrothal gift?"

"Then tell me, what would it take to marry an Emperor Clan young lady like you?" Fan Tian pressed.

Yao Ling pursed her lips, looking slightly awkward as she stammered, "Me? A Soul Spirit Fruit alone wouldn't do. At the very least-at the very least, he'd have to be one of the best of the younger generation. And in the future, he'd have to become a five-star Dou Sheng, surely."

After saying that, Yao Ling covered her mouth and stopped paying attention to Fan Tian. With light, graceful steps, she went over to the cabinet and began sorting medicinal ingredients.

The patriarch of her Yao Clan was not only a late-stage seven-star Dou Saint, but also the foremost alchemist on the entire Dou Qi Continent, without equal.

She, Yao Ling, was destined to attain an emperor realm soul. Surely her man would at least need the potential to become an eight-star Dou Saint. But she had been afraid of discouraging Fan Tian, so she had said five-star Dou Sheng. She truly couldn't go any lower.

She knew perfectly well that a Central Plains genius like Fan Tian would begin cultivating more slowly after becoming a Dou Zun. His ceiling in this lifetime might be no more than a one- or two-star Dou Saint.

But that was already the highest an ordinary person without a Dou Di bloodline could reach through cultivation.

"Miss Yao Ling, if I become a nine-star Dou Saint someday, I'll go to the Yao Clan and ask for your hand. Will you marry me?" Fan Tian suddenly tossed out the question with an air of nonchalance.

Yao Ling's delicate hands trembled slightly, and she froze.

Her cheeks grew a little warm.

Looking at Fan Tian's youthful face, the fifteen-year-old Yao Ling felt an inexplicable stirring in her heart. She hesitated. "You dog of a man, if you can cultivate to nine-star Dou Saint, no woman on the entire Dou Qi Continent will be able to turn you down. If you become a Dou Sheng before thirty, I'll consider it."

"Such harsh conditions?"

"Pah! I have talent, a figure, and a good personality. The line of men pursuing me stretches from the Eight Clans all the way here! I'm giving you a chance to court me, and you think my conditions are harsh?"

"Do you have any close female friends? The really pretty, gentle kind, with standards that aren't so high?"

"Get lost, you dog."

Even deep into the night, Sacred Pill City remained extraordinarily lively.

Fan Tian changed into a dark gray robe and wandered around.

He had a busy night ahead. He had already activated his spirit devouring ability to conceal his aura.

Spirit devouring could not only extract Dou Di bloodlines and propagate a clan, but also devour and absorb others' souls, as well as alter the aura of oneself or others.

The Hun Clan had managed to collect all eight pieces of Ancient Jade because the ancestral hall elders of the Gu Clan and the other clans had turned against them at the most critical moment.

Take Gu Yang, an ancestral hall elder, for example. His five-star Dou Sheng cultivation couldn't stir up much of a storm, but without his help, Hun Tiandi could never have obtained the Gu Clan's Ancient Jade.

Had Gu Yang betrayed them? Was he an undercover agent for the Hun Clan?

Of course not.

The real Gu Yang was already dead. The nihility devouring flame had stuffed the soul of a Hun Clan expert into Gu Yang's body, using a knockoff spirit devouring secret art to fuse the two into one.

Even Gu Yuan, a peak nine-star Dou Saint, couldn't detect anything amiss. That was what made spirit devouring so terrifying.

For these great clans, possession, resurrection, and rebirth from a wisp of a remnant soul were nothing new. They had no shortage of methods.

The ancestral hall was a vital place where the Ancient Jade was guarded. It couldn't possibly have been left without any precautions.

One could only say that the Tunling Clan was far too uncanny.

Fan Tian kept changing his aura and clothes, wearing a lifelike false face as he handed out leaflets everywhere.

Luo Linglong had given him the mask, which counted as a treasure. The leaflets, of course, were his own work.

Fan Tian had revised their contents again and again. The matter was of tremendous importance: he had to make people believe it while keeping himself safe.

Naturally, he couldn't simply hand them out all over the streets. That would make it easy for someone to catch him.

Sacred Pill City housed many small and medium-sized alchemist families. They depended on the Pill Tower for their livelihood and were bound to it by countless threads.

Fan Tian found several families with Dou Zong members and slipped the notes inside without a sound. Alternatively, he grabbed a few Dou Wangs and had them deliver the notes to their patriarchs.

In some of the larger medicinal ingredient trading districts, Fan Tian furtively left behind low-grade Storage Rings. There was nothing inside them but a single note bearing several freely flowing lines.

In secluded corners, on unnoticed roadsides, and in noisy, crowded auction houses, Fan Tian kept dropping notes. Some he simply tossed onto the ground. In short, while ensuring his own safety, he distributed all three thousand.

Afterward, he returned to Yao Ling's shop and fell straight into bed.

After Fan Tian's relentless pestering, Yao Ling had reluctantly agreed to let him sleep in a guest room for a thousand gold coins a night.

Lying in bed, Fan Tian took deep breaths. A trace of Yao Ling's scent still lingered in the room-a very distinctive fragrance. Others might not have noticed it, but with the Tunling Clan origin, Fan Tian had an exceptionally keen nose.

In the original novel, when the Yao Clan was destroyed, Blondie had fled with Yao Ling, nearly sucking her dry of blood along the way. Just thinking about it made his heart ache.

Fan Tian absolutely could not allow that to happen. He was taking charge of the Yao Clan's affairs.

His wife's family-he had to look after them.

That night, Sacred Pill City erupted.

At first, some patriarchs of the alchemist families dismissed it as a joke and paid it no mind. But as more and more leaflets appeared, they began to realize the gravity of the situation.

Then the Pill Tower's higher-ups began receiving reports one after another. After passing through several hands, the leaflets finally reached Xuan Kongzi.

As one of the Pill Tower's three great leaders, Xuan Kongzi's face darkened. Profound fear gripped his heart, and he immediately summoned every Dou Zun of five stars or above for an overnight meeting.

Before long, the Pill Tower's Dou Zun experts personally mobilized, carefully searching every corner of the city. Anyone behaving suspiciously was taken away for questioning...

Roughly half an hour later, Xuan Kongzi and the other two arrived at the Little Pill Tower.

The Pill Tower Grand Elder, Old Monster Lin, was equally pale. That morning, the Spirit Clan's patriarch had brought people to block their doors, and before things had even settled down, this had happened. For all these years, he alone, a two-star Dou Saint, had struggled to hold the Pill Tower up. Sometimes, he truly wanted to throw down his burden and quit.

The note flowed on at length in one unbroken outpouring, leaving its readers with pounding hearts and trembling dread. It read:

[A letter to the Ancient Races]

My name is Hun Mieba, the most loyal clansman of our patriarch, Hun Tiandi.

Today, our clan boasts two nine-stars under one roof. Besides our patriarch, a peak nine-star, we also have an early-stage nine-star Heavenly Flame-the nihility devouring flame.

After devouring the origin of the Tunling Clan's last patriarch, Lord Void gained the spirit devouring ability. For a thousand years, Lord Void has used the six clans' Dou Di bloodlines as a wellspring, secretly devouring their experts to strengthen our clan.

Our clan's bloodline flourishes more with each passing day. We now boast a hundred Dou Shengs and a thousand Dou Zuns. As a member of the Hun Clan, I am immensely proud.

Today, I, Hun Mieba, am telling you openly: Gu, Lei, Yan, Yao, Shi, Ling, and Xiao, listen well! Not one of you will escape. Not even a Dou Di returning from the dead can save you. You have my word.