Displaying His Strength!

Sun Hangchun's expression changed abruptly.

He turned to look behind him, his gaunt fingers instinctively pressing against the Storage Bag at his waist. The composure on his face vanished without a trace.

"Fellow Daoist Shi, you've misunderstood. I would never-"

"Shut up, you old thing!"

Shi Jian spoke in an even tone. His enormous bear head turned slightly, and his nostrils twitched twice.

"Two at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage. One is ninety zhang behind you to the left, hiding behind that dead cypress. He smells of inferior Dust-Warding Pills."

"The other is sixty zhang away, above the cliff to the right. He used a concealment talisman, but he let his Qi presence leak. His state of mind is unstable."

He paused, then slowly turned his eyes toward Sun Hangchun, scrutinizing him.

"Well, Fellow Daoist Sun?"

"Did you bring two helpers to capture me? Or... did you come to kill me and hunt a Demon Beast?"

Cold sweat beaded on Sun Hangchun's forehead. The thought had certainly crossed his mind, but he had only thought about it. He had never acted on it.

Still less had he expected someone to follow him!

On his way from Hongtian City, where the Sun Clan was based, to Mingqiu Mountain, he had deliberately taken a detour of three hundred li and changed direction twice. He had not even told anyone in his clan the purpose of his trip.

Who on earth had followed him?

The dead cypress, inferior Dust-Warding Pills...

Sun Hangchun's pupils contracted.

Of Hongtian City's three great clans, the Sun Clan refined pills, the Ye Clan made talismans, and the Lin Clan forged artifacts. Only cultivators of the Lin Clan, who spent their days in the company of furnace fires, used Dust-Warding Pills to rid themselves of the smell of smoke.

And the Lin Clan made those things for its own use and sale. Their quality had always been abysmal...

The cliff to the right, a concealment talisman...

The Ye Clan.

The Ye Clan was the only one in Hongtian City that made talismans!

"The Ye Household and the Lin Household!" Sun Hangchun gritted his teeth, a vicious glint flashing through his clouded old eyes. "It's those two old dogs!"

Shi Jian sneered inwardly.

Well, there was no need to keep acting. The shock and anger on the old man's face couldn't be faked, and his emotions were fluctuating wildly. A Foundation Establishment cultivator nearing the end of his lifespan wouldn't have the energy to put on an act with him here, either.

"It seems they didn't come for me," Shi Jian said leisurely.

"They came for you!"

Sun Hangchun's face turned ashen, but he quickly regained his composure. He lowered his raspy voice to a near whisper. "I'm afraid they've had their eyes on me for a long time..."

"Word must have leaked that I left the city to find a spirit beast to form a contract with."

"So they don't want you to find someone to back you."

"That's right." Sun Hangchun smiled bitterly. "If my Sun Clan gained the protection of a Foundation Establishment spirit beast, we'd still have a chance to turn things around. How could the Ye and Lin Households sit by and watch?"

"If they kill me here, the Sun Clan will be like a snake with its head cut off. Within ten years, everything our clan owns will pass into someone else's hands. It might even be destroyed overnight!"

He held nothing back, nor was there any need to.

The cards were already on the table. Concealing anything would only arouse suspicion.

Shi Jian's mind raced.

Two at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage, plus Sun Hangchun at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage, and Shi Jian himself. Four Foundation Establishment cultivators had gathered on Mingqiu Mountain. In a small place like Hongtian City, this would count as a battle between the very strongest.

Of course, that wasn't what Shi Jian cared about. What he cared about was what good this could do him and what he could gain from it.

Kill them to silence them? Help Sun Hangchun eliminate two rivals?

He could do that.

But why should he do it for free?

"Fellow Daoist Sun."

"You just said I could name my price?"

Sun Hangchun froze, then caught on. The bitterness on his face deepened.

Good grief, this bear was even shrewder than he had thought.

With things as they were, even if an ordinary spirit beast didn't flee in fright, it should at least have hesitated. But this one was already discussing his price.

"What do you mean, Fellow Daoist Shi?"

"It's simple." Shi Jian raised a bear paw and held up five claws, their tips gleaming with a chilling light in the moonlight.

"Half of your Sun Clan's annual income goes to me. Spirit rice, Spirit Stones, pills-any form will do."

Sun Hangchun sucked in a breath.

"Half?!"

"Too much?" Shi Jian tilted his head, his tone as casual as if he were discussing what to eat that night. "Then you can choose not to hire me."

He jerked his chin toward the two directions.

"But before you leave Mingqiu Mountain, you'll have to ask whether those two agree."

Sun Hangchun's lips parted, but his words caught in his throat, and for a long while he couldn't get them out. Shi Jian was plainly asking for the sky, but he had no choice but to agree.

"Deal."

The two words were practically squeezed through the old man's teeth. Giving up half the profits was even more painful than killing him.

Yet he had no choice. In the end, it was for the sake of staying alive.

Shi Jian nodded in satisfaction. His goal achieved, there was no need to keep hiding his strength. "Fellow Daoist Sun, don't just stand there."

With that, the bear's figure sprang into action.

Shi Jian's body became a black storm, hurtling straight toward the dead cypress on the left. His movements were so swift and fierce that he seemed a different beast from the lazy one he had been moments ago.

A figure immediately scrambled out from behind the dead cypress. It was a gray-robed old man with a sinister face, and the short-hammer Law Artifact in his hand sent out rippling waves of spiritual light.

"Beast! You're courting death!"

Before he had finished speaking,

Shi Jian's bear paw had already swept toward him.

There were no flashy Law Techniques, no head-on clash of interwoven spiritual light. It was simply one clean, straightforward blow: the sheer physical strength of a Foundation Establishment Realm Demon Beast, and a bear Demon Beast famed for its strength at that.

That blow carried thirty-five years of power!

How could an ordinary cultivator possibly withstand it?

The paw came down. Spiritual light shattered, the short hammer flew away, and the protective spiritual light around the gray-robed old man was punched clean through as though it were made of paper.

"Impossible! You're only at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage!" the gray-robed old man cried in terror. A spray of blood burst from his mouth, and his presence weakened instantly.

Shi Jian gave no answer, simply continuing to strike.

The second blow fell.

The gray-robed old man was smashed into the ground. Broken stones and blood flew, and the old man fell silent, dead on the spot.

From start to finish: three breaths, two blows!

Above the cliff, the other figure saw this and took to his heels without the slightest hesitation, as if he'd seen a damn ghost!

"Where are you going, pal?" Shi Jian's voice came from behind him, full of lazy mockery. He didn't give chase...

Because there was no need to chase him at all.

Though Sun Hangchun was old, he had prepared a spell the moment Shi Jian struck. A withered vine burst from the earth and promptly coiled around the fleeing man's ankle.

A tremendous force slammed the man into the ground. Countless vines then slithered like snakes, binding his limbs, while countless thorns pierced his flesh and severed all his meridians...

"Ye Mingyuan!" Sun Hangchun's raspy voice was thick with killing intent.

The cultivator called Ye Mingyuan turned around, an ingratiating smile still on his face. "Brother Sun, this is all a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!"

"I was just passing by..."

Before Ye Mingyuan could finish, Sun Hangchun's face turned cold, and he snapped his neck in one swift motion. After withdrawing his Method Formula, he turned a brooding gaze toward Shi Jian.

Under the moonlight, the black bear was unhurriedly patting the blood from his paws and licking his fur, as casually as if he had just swatted a fly.

He had killed a Foundation Establishment cultivator in three breaths.

And he had crushed him with sheer physical strength. If Sun Hangchun and Shi Jian hadn't reached an agreement just now...

A chill ran down Sun Hangchun's spine.

"Impressive skills, Fellow Daoist Shi." Sun Hangchun cupped his hands, his tone more than ten times as respectful as before. "Since we have made a deal, I will naturally keep my promise."

"May I ask when you will accompany me back to Hongtian City, Fellow Daoist Shi?"

Shi Jian sprawled once more on the great boulder polished bright by moonlight. He yawned and said with an unconcerned look, "Don't rush. Search these two for their Storage Bags first."

"..."

Sun Hangchun said nothing and silently searched the bodies.

Shi Jian narrowed his eyes, the corners of his mouth lifting almost imperceptibly.

Half?

That was only the starting price.

Once this old thing dies, the entire Sun Clan will belong to me, Shi Jian.

No, to be precise, it will all belong to me and my descendants!

His gaze traveled past Mingqiu Mountain's ridges, which stretched for a hundred li, and finally settled in the distance, toward the place called Hongtian City...

There was a second-order Spirit Vein there, as well as spirit fields and a complete human cultivation inheritance.

There, a new master would arrive.

Only this master had the face of a bear.