Entering the Path of Immortality, Cultivating a Hundred Arts: Chapter 41 - Arousing Suspicion (Please Bookmark)

Li Feng’s words left Cui Cui feeling somewhat distressed. However, she quickly composed herself, a smile returning to her delicate face.

"I can help you take your revenge. I will work hard at my cultivation."

A warmth stirred in Li Feng’s heart.

"Revenge is not so easily accomplished. It might take decades. Are you prepared to wait that long?"

As he spoke, he began searching the belongings of the six corpses. Elders of the Heavenly Crane Sect were sure to have substantial assets. Before long, he had gathered quite a few valuable items. Inside the storage bag of the green-faced cultivator, he found a large quantity of spirit stones, second-tier array materials, and a sect communication token. The battle halberd he carried was also a magnificent piece of divine weaponry, clearly worth a small fortune.

Once Li Feng understood how to operate the communication token, he played the same trick again, sending a distress signal to the Heavenly Crane Sect. He did not hold high hopes, however; a trap like this was unlikely to be effective a second time. He cast the matter aside and continued to examine the remaining corpses.

The other storage bags were equally bountiful. In total, he recovered 150,000 spirit stones, 1,000 talismans, 100 bottles of medicinal pills, and countless spiritual materials. As for the six Foundation Establishment corpses, Li Feng did not intend to waste them; he could refine them into puppets to bolster his defenses.

After busily scrubbing the ruins of all traces, the two bowed repeatedly before the remains of the Green Mountain Master before taking their leave.

Meanwhile, in the Heavenly Crane Hall of the Heavenly Crane Sect, the Heavenly Crane Patriarch stared at the distress signal returned by the communication token, his face turning ashen. Half an hour earlier, the soul tablets of the six elders had shattered, signifying that they had met with misfortune and fallen one after another. How could the dead send a distress signal? Even if the Heavenly Crane Patriarch were dim-witted, he would have realized by now that someone had laid a trap.

He felt a deep sense of humiliation. It was he who had personally ordered the six Foundation Establishment elders to retrieve Jin Yanzi. Setting aside the loss of not recovering Jin Yanzi, the resources spent by the sect over a hundred years to cultivate these six elders were immense. Even during the great war with the Blood Cloud Sect, the sect had only lost a few Qi Refining disciples.

"Investigate this immediately!" The Patriarch’s pressure filled the entire hall, making it difficult for those present to breathe.

The Sect Master of the Heavenly Crane Sect said with concern, "Patriarch, I fear this matter is linked to the person who murdered our sect disciples in Qingfeng Town."

The Patriarch dismissed this conjecture. "The murderer who posed as a core disciple of the Blood Cloud Sect is merely a mortal. How could he possibly kill six Foundation Establishment elders?"

The Sect Master could offer no explanation; the entire affair was shrouded in strangeness.

He soon hit upon a plan. "Patriarch, I have a scheme to test the identity of the culprit."

After the massacre in Qingfeng Town, he had immediately sent men to investigate. According to the surviving servants of the Liu household, the man was named Li Feng—a mortal whose parents had died young. He had only managed to poison the sect disciples through trickery. Even if Li Feng were blessed with great immortal fortune and had obtained a cultivation manual, he could not possibly have become a match for six Foundation Establishment masters in such a short time, let alone kill them.

As it happened, this mortal named Li Feng had inadvertently solved a pressing problem for the Heavenly Crane Sect. For nearly a hundred years, the Heavenly Crane Sect and the Blood Cloud Sect had coexisted peacefully, which had led the Guiyuan Imperial Court to grow suspicious and look for ways to suppress the Heavenly Crane Sect. By chance, Li Feng’s masquerade as a Blood Cloud Sect disciple had provided both sides with a pretext. The two sects had played along, staging a grand performance of hostility. From the very beginning, the conflict between the two had never been as severe as rumors suggested. The so-called "all-out war" to eradicate the Blood Cloud Sect was nothing but nonsense. The Heavenly Crane Sect only wanted to appease the suspicions of the imperial court, and the Blood Cloud Sect held the same intention. Who would waste time starting a sect-wide war over a mere sect disciple?

Still, the Patriarch had been furious with the crafty brat at first, nearly falling into his trap. The Blood Cloud Sect had also been secretly searching for the thief, but the man had vanished into thin air, and despite numerous inquiries, no news had surfaced.

***

Time passed swiftly. In the blink of an eye, more than two months had passed since the killing of the six Heavenly Crane Sect elders. During these two months, the Danju Workshop had undergone significant changes. Since Jin Yanzi remained missing, the three inspectors of Anhe City declared him dead. Simultaneously, the workshop began recruiting new tenants.

Undercurrents surged within the city. Many factions had their eyes on such a lucrative position and were eager to seize it. The Tianqi Clan was not to be outdone and began pulling strings everywhere. Under Li Feng’s specific instructions, the Spirit Plant Hall specially gifted the person in charge of the workshop a few Kunyuan Pills along with a large amount of spirit stones and spiritual materials. Li Feng had not forgotten how the Murong family had bribed the official to make things difficult for him in his previous simulations.

The bustle of the marketplace was of no concern to Li Feng. Every day, he focused his mind; when he wasn't refining pills, he was crafting talismans. With an inexhaustible supply of monster resources provided by Lei Peng, he could produce three hundred second-tier talismans and refine fifty batches of pills in a single day without feeling the slightest bit of fatigue.

This was due to the foundation of his ten spirit roots and the long-lasting, steady nature of the Evergreen Technique. While having many spirit roots slowed cultivation efficiency, it also allowed for a deeper pool of spiritual energy than that of ordinary cultivators.

To this day, Hong Ling remained unaware of his identity as a talisman master. Li Feng had also warned Cui Cui not to reveal too much about her background in front of Hong Ling. One must learn to keep one’s strengths hidden in the world of immortality to avoid being ensnared in someone else’s schemes. Li Feng had never lowered his guard against a woman as beautiful and dangerous as Hong Ling. He knew well that she was no mere "pretty vase." As long as they had mutual interests, they could maintain harmony, but should a disagreement arise that grew irreconcilable, Hong Ling would strike without hesitation. She would not allow anyone or anything that threatened the revival of the Tianqi Clan to exist.

At noon that day, as Cui Cui was practicing, the aura around her shifted. Li Feng, who was hunched over his desk crafting talismans, felt the change in the room and stopped his brush to watch.

Cui Cui excitedly exited her meditative state and came before Li Feng, boasting, "Brother Li, I’ve broken through to the third level of Qi Refining! Now you have to admit I can be of help to you."

In just two months, Cui Cui had gone from a mere mortal who had just stepped onto the path of cultivation to the third level of Qi Refining. The difficulty of such a feat was unimaginable. No one knew what extraordinary treasure Lei Peng had given her during their private conversation that day. Li Feng recalled that in the ruins, there had been a moment when Cui Cui’s body was enveloped in seven-colored light. Her sudden surge in cultivation efficiency was likely related to that light. However, Cui Cui never spoke of it in his presence, and Li Feng was tactful enough not to pry. Everyone had their secrets. Even though Cui Cui trusted him deeply, she still kept a little something for herself.

Li Feng smiled and gently tapped her nose. "Breaking through a single level is nothing to be so happy about. Wait until you’ve mastered the basics of talisman crafting before you start bragging."

At the mention of talisman crafting, Cui Cui’s spirits deflated instantly. Li Feng shook his head helplessly. Cui Cui’s talent for crafting was abysmal. For every technique he taught her, she would make a different mistake every time she tried—and the mistakes were so bizarre and varied that they were truly outrageous. Yet, from these very errors, Li Feng had gleaned many lessons and benefited significantly. While Cui Cui made no progress, his own skills had improved considerably.