The Falling Cloud Mountains lay on the edge of the Heavenly South Continent, their rolling peaks shrouded in miasma. Since ancient times, few people had ventured there. Yet precisely because of this, the mountains nurtured many natural treasures, drawing countless Rogue Cultivators and adventurers hoping to try their luck. Over time, several Market Towns had formed on the outskirts, where cultivators gathered on their own to trade.
Half a month had passed since Han Li left the Seven Mysteries Sect. He rested by day and traveled by night, avoiding official roads and cities and choosing remote mountains and wilderness instead. With his powerful spiritual sense and Shadow Step, he had encountered no trouble. Along the way, he had studied the fragments of the Flowing Wind Sword Technique plundered from Li Feiyu. Though incomplete, they offered some improvement to his movement speed. His cultivation had fully stabilized at the Qi Refinement Sixth Layer, and the seventh layer was no longer far off.
That day, following the map in his jade slip, he arrived at the largest market on the outskirts of the Falling Cloud Mountains-Falling Cloud Market.
Rather than a market, it was more like a crude stockade enclosed by a rudimentary formation. Its walls were low and built from earth and stone. Two lazy-looking cultivators at the second layer of Qi Refining guarded the entrance, charging each visitor one Lower-Grade Spirit Stone as an "entry fee." Inside, the streets were narrow and muddy, lined with crooked wooden huts and tents. Cultivators set up stalls wherever they found space, and cries of hawkers and haggling voices filled the air, mingling with the smells of sweat, medicinal herbs, and a faint trace of blood.
Most of the cultivators here wore ragged clothing and guarded expressions, with varying degrees of murderous aura about them. They were clearly Rogue Cultivators who had spent years licking blood from a blade's edge. Most were at or below the middle period of Qi Refining, while those in the late period already counted as experts. Occasionally, one or two concealed auras of Foundation Establishment cultivators could be sensed, but they vanished in a flash.
Han Li's arrival drew several gazes. Though he wore ordinary green robes, his youthful face and concentrated aura seemed somewhat out of place here. Many eyes swept over the Storage Bag at his waist with undisguised greed. But upon sensing his icy, unapproachable presence and the spiritual power fluctuations of the Qi Refinement Sixth Layer, most withdrew their gazes in frustration.
The strong devoured the weak. Here, that truth was laid bare.
Expressionless, Han Li paid the spirit stone and entered the market. First, he wandered aimlessly for a while to get a general sense of the local prices and available goods. Pills and talismans cost over thirty percent more than they did in the Seven Mysteries Sect, and their quality varied wildly. He spent fifty Lower-Grade Spirit Stones on a more detailed map of the Falling Cloud Mountains, marked with known danger zones and places where spirit herbs might grow.
Afterward, he entered the only respectable shop in the market—the Hundred Treasures Pavilion. The shop was small, but the goods on its shelves were much finer than those at the stalls outside. Its shopkeeper was a thin old man with a goatee and shrewd eyes, whose cultivation stood at the eighth layer of Qi Refining.
"What do you need, fellow Daoist?" The old man raised his eyelids and asked in a lukewarm tone.
Han Li got straight to the point. "Information on the Black Fiend Cult. The more detailed, the better. What's the price?"
A sharp gleam flashed through the old man's eyes. He looked Han Li over carefully, then lowered his voice. "Have you come on a sect mission, fellow Daoist?" When Han Li neither confirmed nor denied it, he stopped pressing and held up three fingers. "Thirty Lower-Grade Spirit Stones for basic information, including the known characteristics of the Black Fiend Cult's cultivation methods, their usual tactics, and several areas in the Falling Cloud Mountains where they may have been active recently."
Han Li frowned slightly. The price was steep. Still, he did not hesitate, taking out thirty spirit stones and placing them on the counter.
The old man put away the spirit stones, took a jade slip from beneath the counter, and handed it to Han Li. "Be careful, fellow Daoist. The Black Fiend Cult operates in secret, and its members fight without fear of death. Word also has it that they've been unusually active lately, as though they're plotting something. A few days ago, a hunting party of three or four Rogue Cultivators in the late period of Qi Refining mysteriously disappeared near Poison Dragon Marsh to the northwest. Some suspect the Black Fiend Cult was responsible."
Poison Dragon Marsh? Han Li committed the name to memory. He took the jade slip and swept his spiritual sense through it, quickly scanning its contents. According to the records, Black Fiend Cult members specialized in commanding corpses and refining souls. Their sinister, venomous cultivation methods could foul magical artifacts and erode spiritual power, often putting opponents of the same cultivation level at a disadvantage. Their bases were usually hidden in remote places thick with yin energy.
Having obtained the information he wanted, Han Li lingered no longer. He turned and left the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.
As he walked out of the shop and merged into the crowd, he failed to notice a figure behind a stall selling low-grade talisman paper in a corner of the market. Wearing a bamboo hat and concealing their aura completely, the figure swept a seemingly casual glance over his retreating back. Beneath the hat, the corners of their mouth curved into an almost imperceptible, icy smile.
Han Li found a crude inn that offered temporary lodging to cultivators and rented a quiet room. After setting up a warning restriction, he began studying the information jade slip and the map.
Poison Dragon Marsh lay in the northwestern Falling Cloud Mountains. It was a stretch of swampland shrouded year-round in poisonous miasma and inhabited by numerous venomous insects and demonic beasts. The conditions were harsh, but several unusual spirit herbs used to counter poisons and cultivate poison arts were also said to grow there. If the Black Fiend Cult truly had a base nearby, it was indeed a suitable location.
"Poison Dragon Marsh... it's on my way." Han Li's eyes flickered. The detailed map he had purchased marked a poisonous herb called the corrosive bone flower growing along the marsh's edge. It was one of the medicinal ingredients Mo Juren had previously sent his two disciples to find. It seemed that some of the materials the old fiend needed might also be connected to the Black Fiend Cult.
He decided to leave for Poison Dragon Marsh the next day. He would investigate the Black Fiend Cult's base and search for corrosive bone flowers. Perhaps he could uncover more clues about Mo Juren's schemes in the process.
That night, the moon was dark and the wind ran high.
Han Li was meditating in his quiet room, regulating his breath, when a nearly invisible strand of spiritual power, fine as spider silk, trembled slightly on the window frame where he had placed it.
Someone had triggered the warning restriction!
Han Li's eyes snapped open, cold light blazing in them, but his body remained motionless as a boulder. His spiritual sense spread silently outward like mercury pouring across the ground.
On the inn's roof, two black-clad men clung to the tiles like geckos, their auras suppressed to the utmost, as they crept toward his room. Neither was weak. One was at the Qi Refinement Sixth Layer, and the other was at the peak of the fifth layer of Qi Refining. Their movements were utterly silent; clearly, they were skilled in stealth and assassination.
Their target was none other than Han Li!
Robber cultivators? Or... the Black Fiend Cult? Han Li sneered inwardly. He had been in Falling Cloud Market for only a day, and someone had already marked him as prey. This place truly was a tangle of dragons and snakes.
The two black-clad men reached the roof above Han Li's room and exchanged hand signals. One took out a long, thin bamboo tube, apparently intending to use some sort of knockout smoke.
Before they could act, however, the window of the quiet room below suddenly opened without a sound!
A ghostlike figure in green floated out as though weightless, trailing a string of afterimages in the moonlight. In an instant, he appeared on the roof, standing squarely between the two black-clad men!
Both men paled in shock. They had never expected their target to attack first, much less move so swiftly!
"I've been waiting for you."
Han Li's icy voice rang out as both hands shot forward, black currents swirling around his fingertips as he reached straight for their throats!
The two black-clad men were seasoned fighters. Though startled, they did not panic, and both struck back at once. The cultivator at the Qi Refinement Sixth Layer slashed at Han Li's arms with a pair of poisoned daggers, while the other spat out a cloud of foul-smelling black mist, clearly some kind of poison art.
But Han Li struck faster-and harder!
Thud! Thud!
Two faint, muffled sounds rang out.
Though Han Li's fingers moved later, they landed first. Ignoring the daggers and poisonous mist, they struck both men precisely on their Adam's apples. Dark spiritual power erupted in an instant, snuffing out their lives!
The two black-clad men's eyes filled with incredulous terror. Their bodies stiffened, then collapsed limply.
[Ding! Killed two robber cultivators in the middle period of Qi Refining. Plundered seventy percent of their cultivation and a portion of their blood essence. Cultivation increased to the peak of the Qi Refinement Sixth Layer!]
Pure spiritual power surged into Han Li, strengthening his aura further. With practiced ease, he took their Storage Bags, then flicked out sparks to burn the bodies and erase all traces. The entire process was clean and efficient. In just two or three breaths, silence returned to the rooftop, as though nothing had happened.
Standing on the roof, Han Li swept an icy gaze over the sleeping market below. Who knew how many more greedy eyes lurked in the darkness?
He raised his head and looked northwest, toward Poison Dragon Marsh.
"It seems this journey won't be dull."
A storm was brewing, and slaughter would soon begin. This was precisely the path of cultivation he wanted.
His figure flickered, and he melted into the darkness like a night owl, returning to his quiet room. Tomorrow's journey to Poison Dragon Marsh was certain to be even more eventful.
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