"There are three fragments of this secret treasure, just enough for one each!"
"Good. Mere fragments can conceal heavenly secrets and hide our presence. How powerful would this secret treasure be if it were whole?"
"Indeed. What a pity!"
"Heaven bestowed this secret treasure upon the three of us. Perhaps it offers some guidance."
"What guidance?"
"This treasure can conceal heavenly secrets, which means that whatever we do in the future, we can use its power to erase our traces."
"What do you mean, Brother Qin? Do you have a good idea?"
"As the saying goes, horses cannot fatten without night grass, and men cannot grow rich without windfalls. If we keep developing our forces honestly, when will we ever become powerful? With our aptitudes, how can we attain Golden Core without vast resources to sustain us? If even Golden Core is beyond our reach, how can we speak of immortality?"
"I understand now. The immortal path demands struggle. Those who do not fight can only be trampled underfoot. So what if we become bandit cultivators everyone cries out to strike down? As long as there is hope of pursuing the immortal path, I would not hesitate even to fall into demonic ways!"
"Brother Qin, Brother Li, you... sigh, I understand. Do I not also wish to seek immortality? Since you both have this intention, I have nothing more to say. I can only risk my life to accompany you gentlemen!"
"Good! From this day onward, our three forces shall form an alliance and ascend the Great Dao together!"
"Good! We shall ascend the Great Dao together!"
"..."
One starry night after another.
"No, no, no! Who are you? Who exactly are you? What has our Azure Mist Sect ever done to offend you?"
"Demons! You are a pack of demons! Even as a ghost, I will never let you off!"
"Hahahaha! Do you know who we are? I am no fool. Go to the Yellow Springs with your questions unanswered!"
"You will all die horrible deaths!"
"The Azure Mist Sect, the Fire Cloud Sect, the Ye Household, the Earth River Sect, the Spirit..."
"We have been acting a little too frequently. We have already attracted the attention of the Spirit Creek Sect and the Crimson Firmament Sect. Let us lie low for a while first."
"What is there to fear? With the secret treasure concealing us, those two sects cannot trace anything back to us. After taking so many resources over the years, our cultivation has advanced by leaps and bounds. Soon, we will all reach Foundation Establishment Peak and even attempt to break through to Golden Core. We should strike while the iron is hot and press on in one vigorous push!"
"Once we attain Golden Core, why would we fear the Spirit Creek Sect or the Crimson Firmament Sect?"
"Let us be more cautious. After all, we have yet to reach Golden Core. If anything goes wrong, we will be consigned to eternal damnation."
"Very well. We shall follow your wise advice, Brother Li."
"The Lu Household, a force affiliated with the Spirit Creek Sect. To think a sword immortal has emerged among their clansmen. What good fortune!"
"The path of a sword immortal! If we could seize that inheritance, the Great Dao would truly be within reach!"
"Exactly. This Lu Household has already sown the seeds of its destruction!"
"We have been lying low for so long. It is time to stretch our muscles. Let us start with this Lu Household!"
"And the Wang Household too. Once our cultivation reaches Foundation Establishment Peak, we will strike immediately, destroy both households, and seize their resources and inheritances to attain the Great Dao of an undying Golden Core and embark upon the path of an invincible sword immortal."
"Hahahaha! Well said! Come, have some tea, have some tea!"
In a brief instant, Lu Chenxing had witnessed the entire process of three righteous forces degenerating into demonic bandit cultivators.
At the same time, he learned where the twelve Foundation Establishment cultivators attacking the Lu Household that night had come from.
They were indeed not from the Wang Household.
Instead, they came from a sect, a gate, and a household affiliated with the Crimson Firmament Sect.
The Blazing Yang Sect, the Divine Fire Gate, and the Zhao Household.
The leaders of these three forces had met while exploring a cave abode from High Antiquity together, then become friends because they were birds of a foul feather.
The special functions of those secret treasure fragments had then brought them into instant agreement, and they had fallen from righteous immortal forces into demonic bandit cultivators lurking in the shadows.
Had Lu Chenxing not made preparations in advance and requested Truth from Great Xia,
they might have succeeded again that night.
First, they would destroy the Lu Household, then the Wang Household.
They would pool the two households' resources to strive for a higher realm.
In the future, they might truly have succeeded in reaching the pinnacle of the immortal path.
But worldly affairs were ever-changing.
The result now was that the upper ranks of all three forces had been almost entirely wiped out.
As the strongest among them and the first to break through to Foundation Establishment Peak, Qin Wuxiang had been locked onto by the nuclear bomb and was doomed to die.
The others might have survived if they had been a little smarter and scattered to flee earlier.
Unfortunately, they had no idea what a nuclear bomb was.
Later, when they realized it was not chasing them, they had, of all things, taken the initiative to gather around Qin Wuxiang.
As a result, not one had survived.
Just then, Lu Chenxing sensed two locations in his mind.
They were precisely where Li Taichu's and Zhao Donglai's secret treasure fragments had fallen.
These three secret treasure fragments shared the same root and origin.
Within a certain distance, they could sense one another.
This treasure was mysterious, and its functions were also exceedingly wondrous.
Naturally, Lu Chenxing would not pass them up. He hurriedly called Lu Changfeng over to find the other two fragments as well, explaining to him along the way.
"Grandpa Patriarch, I know who those black-robed men were."
Lu Changfeng immediately perked up, guessing that Lu Chenxing might have found the answer in the mirror fragment left behind.
"They were not from a single force, but an alliance of three."
"The Blazing Yang Sect, the Divine Fire Gate, and the Zhao Household."
The Blazing Yang Sect, the Divine Fire Gate, and the Zhao Household!
Lu Changfeng began searching his memories for information about them.
He found that these three forces were not particularly far from the Lu Household.
And they all had one thing in common.
Their development in recent years had been extremely rapid.
Many Foundation Establishment forces secretly envied them.
To think their strength had actually come from the methods of demonic bandit cultivators. They truly were wolves in sheep's clothing!
"Over the past few decades, quite a few forces across the thousands of li of immortal territory in Heavenly River Commandery have been destroyed for no apparent reason."
"Were they responsible for any of those?"
Lu Chenxing nodded emphatically.
"The Azure Mist Sect, the Fire Cloud Sect, the Ye Household, the Earth River Sect-seven or eight forces, large and small, were all destroyed at the hands of these three forces."
"They truly are a pack of beasts!"
They acted without restraint, slaughtering entire sects and households at the slightest turn.
They stopped at nothing to obtain resources.
They wore the skin of righteous immortal sects while carrying out demonic deeds behind the scenes.
What damned path of bandit cultivation was this?
It should have been called the path of beasts instead.
Lu Changfeng was right to curse them, and Lu Chenxing deeply agreed.
Moreover, after that night's ordeal, Lu Chenxing could appreciate even more keenly just how perilous and cruel immortal cultivators were.
A peaceful righteous immortal sect could, at any time, become a hell on earth of ruined walls and broken buildings.
Even without offending a powerful expert,
one could still be killed for no apparent reason.
There truly was no reason to it at all.
The Lu Household had nearly...
Sigh. To live peacefully in this world,
never mind attaining the Dao and becoming an immortal-just staying alive
required constantly growing stronger.
I must grow stronger, strong enough that no one dares bully me!
Only then could he protect everything he wanted to protect!