Cultivation cauldrons, flying shuttles, and Yin Thunder

In an alley north of the market.

The burly man in black pushed open the courtyard gate and strode inside.

In the main room, a man and two women sat around a table. At the burly man's arrival, they immediately rose respectfully to greet him, calling in unison, "Eldest Brother."

"Mm, sit." The burly man answered indifferently, his gaze settling on a voluptuous woman in a plain dress and veil among the three. A smile appeared on his face.

"Seventh Sister, if you hadn't drawn the attention of that Golden Core cultivator from the Yin-Yang Sect, the three of us would never have slipped in so easily."

"As they say, the most dangerous place is also the safest. Ying Yang would never imagine that I'd be hiding here right now."

The woman in the plain dress knitted her slender brows. "But Eldest Brother, this is no place to stay for long. If the Yin-Yang Sect discovers us..."

The burly man sat squarely in the seat of honor and smiled faintly. "You'll handle one more matter for me shortly. We'll make a feint in the east and strike in the west, drawing Ying Yang away, and the three of us will be able to fly far and high."

His words betrayed considerable wariness of Ying Yang.

The woman in the plain dress pressed her lips together, then nodded in assent.

The burly man gave her a long look and said meaningfully, "Seventh Sister, you're now a True Disciple of the Ghost King Sect, with a splendid future ahead of you. You mustn't invite any more trouble over our affairs. Once you've finished this task, the great inner-demon oath you swore to me back then will be considered fulfilled."

Disbelief appeared on the woman's face. The other man and woman in the room also turned to look at her, their expressions complicated.

"I'll do whatever you ask, Eldest Brother." The woman in the plain dress rose again and gathered her skirts in a bow to the burly man.

The burly man said gravely, "Go to the Li Fire Heavenly Palace for me and find someone named Ren Jiuhun. Just give him my name and tell him my current circumstances. He'll know what to do."

"I understand." The woman's eyes shone, and hearing that she was to leave the market lifted a stone from her heart.

To create an opportunity for the three of them, she had deliberately engineered a conflict between a True Disciple of the Ghost King Sect and cultivators from the Black Flame Sect, drawing a Golden Core cultivator of the Yin-Yang Sect into intervening.

Given enough time, this affair might well arouse suspicion.

"Second Brother, how is the search for cultivation cauldrons going?"

The burly man turned to the small, thin man beside him.

The man replied respectfully, "With Seventh Sister's help, we found five more. They're all ordinary inner disciples of the Yin-Yang Sect, so there shouldn't be too much trouble."

"Don't we have enough trouble already?"

The burly man smiled faintly, rose, and walked to the bedroom door. When he pushed it open, five female cultivators lay huddled on the floor inside, each with a talisman attached to her, sealing her magical power and Divine Sense.

"What a pity Ying Yang is pressing us so hard that we can't find any Foundation Establishment cultivators practicing Dragon-Phoenix Guidance for now," he said regretfully.

The woman's eyes flickered. "Eldest Brother, are your injuries all right?"

The burly man said with easy nonchalance, "I'm relying entirely on these cultivation cauldrons to keep me alive. Perhaps one day I'll finally be free of it all."

The woman remained silent, seeming to understand somewhat why the man before her would release her from her great inner-demon oath.

"Seventh Sister, go."

The burly man entered the inner room and undid his black robe, revealing his powerful, broad upper body. Red and black sinews interlaced across his bronze flesh.

These sinews formed the image of a hideous evil spirit, writhing as though alive, as if about to burst out of his body.

"Yes, Eldest Brother."

The woman lowered her head and withdrew. After glancing at the other man and woman, she turned and left the courtyard.

The burly man was about to close the door when he suddenly stopped and turned to the pair outside.

"Second Brother, Third Sister, you've followed me for so many years. While I still have a breath left in me, how about I take you to gamble on another great opportunity?"

Eight hundred li southeast of Five Dragon Island.

Although it was dawn, the sky was gloomy. Dark clouds covered the sea, and rain poured down.

Through the murky sky, two Snow Lion Talisman Beasts arrived, pulling a carriage.

Sitting inside, Fang Hong felt the energies throughout his body flowing smoothly. As his magical power circulated through his spiritual meridians, it had gained a measure of liveliness and agility.

Sure enough, Netherworld Heavy Water magical power was best suited to weather like this.

When he reached the sky above a deserted island, the candle flame in the Fate Mirror rose a little higher.

This is the place.

He immediately put away the carriage above the deserted island and descended alone.

This was his first time using the Fate Mirror to deduce someone else's whereabouts, and he himself had some confidence as to whether it would succeed.

But that female cultivator from the Ghost King Sect had, after all, intervened in his fate and become entangled in its karma...

If I look only at [Will resolving future troubles go smoothly?], this place shows signs of great fortune.

He went to the highest point on the deserted island, faced Five Dragon Island, concealed his form and aura, and quietly began to wait.

I'll wait here for her for a few days. If she doesn't come, I'll return to the sect and have Fang Jian deal with her.

At that moment, Fang Hong was like an exceptionally patient predator, quietly awaiting the appearance of his prey.

The heavy rain showed no sign of stopping.

Occasionally, streaks of flight light passed through the distant sky, but they were far away, and the Fate Mirror gave no response, so Fang Hong paid them no heed.

Several hours later, a point of spiritual light flickered amid the wind and rain on the horizon, drawing closer from afar!

That direction was precisely where Five Dragon Island lay.

Fang Hong's expression grew solemn. The instant he spotted that point of spiritual light, the candle flame in the Fate Mirror within his Sea of Consciousness suddenly surged.

He immediately took out a black talisman and slowly pressed it to his chest!

The next moment.

A mass of dense black mist roughly a zhang across immediately spilled from the talisman, enveloping his entire body.

His aura vanished into thin air in an instant, as though cut off by the black mist.

A moment later, the black mist slowly dispersed, and his figure disappeared along with it.

A second-tier low-grade invisibility talisman.

Concealed amid the wind and rain, he quietly took out a Kui Water Yin Thunder and held it hidden in his palm, clearing his mind of stray thoughts without any unnecessary thought remaining.

The point of spiritual light seemed slow but was actually swift, gradually approaching. Judging by its course, it was headed neither to one side nor the other, but directly over this deserted island!

Before long, Fang Hong could make out the shape of the Dharma Treasure within the spiritual light.

It was a bone-white flying shuttle with pointed ends, shaped like a spindle. Its entire body was pure, flawless white, with black and red runes shaped like insects and birds flickering over its surface.

The White Bone Escape-Heaven Shuttle!

The Donglai Gazetteer recorded this treasure among the flying artifacts commonly used by Ghost King Sect cultivators.

It really is a Ghost King Sect cultivator.

The thought flashed through Fang Hong's mind, and he abruptly launched the Kui Water Yin Thunder in his hand.

This second-tier high-grade Thunder Pellet, refined by Fang Jian, instantly became a streak of eerie purple-green light. Like a perfectly straight, fine thread, it pierced the curtain of rain without a sound and struck the oncoming White Bone Escape-Heaven Shuttle.

The White Bone Escape-Heaven Shuttle tore through the wind and rain filling the sky, speeding onward.

The treasure's interior was one zhang wide and three zhang long. Its walls seemed transparent; looking out from within, everything outside was visible.

The woman in the plain dress sat inside the flying shuttle, her thoughts occupied entirely by the burly man in black and the affairs of the Li Fire Heavenly Palace.

Suddenly, her outward-reaching Divine Sense and spiritual perception touched a hair-raising aura of vicious Baleful Intent.

When she looked up, a mass of eerie purple-green light had already exploded outside the White Bone Escape-Heaven Shuttle.

The next moment, countless dazzling arcs of lightning spilled outward, forming a thundercloud that enveloped the flying shuttle.

Rumble!

The deafening sound reverberated over the sea.

The thundercloud churned and surged, spreading more than ten zhang across. Thunderbolts packed its interior, and crackling lightning darted back and forth.

For a moment, the dazzling, blazing-white lightning lit up even the gloomy sky nearby.