Chapter 35: The Cause of the Disaster
Feeling Chen Chao's killing intent, Guo Xi's expression kept changing.
A moment later, he said with a trembling voice, "You're really going to kill me?!"
Chen Chao did not answer him. He just narrowed his eyes and prepared to swing his blade.
"You can't kill me! I'm a disciple of Three Streams Manor, my sect is the number one major sect of the southern qi refiner lineage! If you kill me, there's no way that you'll survive!"
Guo Xi really panicked. He sensed that Chen Chao really had the thought of killing him.
"If you let me off, I promise that I'll forget about this. I can swear a blood oath and never pursue this matter again. Trust me, killing me isn't a good thing. The sect behind me won't let you off. If you let me go, I can even resolve the problem stemming from them.”
“There are also many good stuff on me, I can give them all to you! If that's not enough, I can even go back and get you..."
The current Guo Xi was panicked to the extreme. He no longer looked like he was strolling idly in a courtyard with ready plans to meet any situation.
He only wanted to live at this moment. He would do anything in order to survive.
"I can live if I don't kill you? Do you believe these words yourself? As for the things on you, they will also be mine after killing you..."
Chen Chao smiled and continued, "In this aspect, you seem to be even inferior to that b!tch."
After he was done saying this, Chen Chao was not prepared to talk anymore.
……
……
A streak of blade light flashed past.
An additional headless corpse appeared here.
A head rolled on the ground, dripping with blood.
A speck of light similarly swept past in front of Chen Chao from his glabella.
Chen Chao did not attempt to stop it, because he was destined to be unable to stop it.
He just kicked this head in front of him down the abyss.
After confirming that Guo Xi was dead, he only did one thing: that was to find the skygold currency and magic artifacts that these guys were carrying on them and kept them.
Then, Chen Chao sat down on the cliff and was not in a hurry to leave.
For some unknown reason, a gust of wind suddenly blew up from under the abyss, flapping his black shirt.
Chen Chao looked at that bottomless abyss.
He knew what he had done.
Killed four young qi refiners.
These four people came from foreign land cultivation sects and came here for that section of dragon vein. In order to not let this news leak, they were definitely going to kill him. So there was no problem with him killing them.
But did the imperial court know about this matter?
What kind of role did that Warden Li play in this?
Putting everything aside, even if they wanted to misappropriate the dragon vein, now that the dragon vein was fine but they died at his hands. What would be the result?
What would the imperial court think? When the foreign cultivation sects denounced him, who would protect him?
Was it worth it for the imperial court to oppose foreign cultivators for the sake of a puny little warden, a measly Divine Trove martial artist?
At that time, would it be the imperial court that came to kill him? Or foreign land cultivators?
Chen Chao sighed, his brows full of gloominess.
He did not regret killing these few qi refiners. Because they were destined to not spare him.
Since they would not let him off, then even if it was repeated ten thousand times, he would kill them too.
He had to survive the present before he could think about what to do in the future.
Pressing the saber hilt at his waist, Chen Chao fell into deep thought.
He remembered the matter of killing demons these few years for no reason. Demons always acted alone, but there were exceptions too. Some demons would gather together. When the young were killed, the elderly would naturally come out to take revenge. Facing such a situation, other than running, there was another solution, which was to kill the old one too.
The present situation was roughly the same too. However, the sects behind these few people were behemoths to Chen Chao. Even to those big shots in the Divine Capital, they were not willing to provoke them at will too.
Wipe out the sects behind him and set things right once and for all? He could only fantasize about it.
But even if this was a forced mate, there would always be a glimmer of hope too.
Where the lease of life lies, it completely depended on whether or not he could capture it.
Chen Chao narrowed his eyes.
He stood up from the cliff and slowly returned the way he came.
……
……
Southern qi refiner lineage, Three Streams Manor had a deep background; an existence that was the acknowledged leader.
The entire Three Streams Manor was covered with clouds all year round. Major and minor formations were set up in the mountain. If ordinary people strayed into this mountain, they would be instantly annihilated even if they only reached the foot of the mountain. And if they did not get the sect's permission, ordinary disciples could not descend the mountain at will too.
Three Streams Manor's mountain pass gates were incomparably magnificent. It was established in front of the mountain, as if they were taller than the Divine Capital's city gates.
The three large characters, Three Streams Manor, were written above by their founding ancestor with an ethereal immortal air. It had already existed for over a thousand years now.
Today's Three Streams Manor was as quiet as ever.
Two gate-keeping Three Streams Manor disciples were chatting idly in front of the wooden table under the mountain pass gates.
Undoubtedly, they were just talking about which senior apprentice sister on which mountain peak was prettier.
"Senior Apprentice Sister Chen is pretty and good-tempered. Anyone who becomes Senior Apprentice Sister Chen's Dao companion in the future will definitely be blessed."
"Not necessarily. I like Senior Apprentice Sister Mo even more. Her legs are really long."
"Senior Apprentice Sister Chen is better..."
"Senior Apprentice Sister Mo..."
The two people had their own opinions and actually started arguing for some time. It was just that their voices were not loud. Even if they noisy, it was very hard to alarm the entire Three Streams Manor too.
All the way until the two people saw a hint of blue light coming from the horizon. They shut their mouths somewhat absentmindedly.
A moment later, the sound of a bell rang in the mountains.
Then, the two people both lowered their heads.
They naturally knew that blue light; it was Three Streams Manor's means of communication. After each Three Streams Manor disciple went up the mountain, they would have a mountain-returning light planted between their eyebrows by their master. If they were to encounter an accident outside one day, this mountain-returning light would break out of their glabella and return to the sect.
The methods of foreign land cultivator sects were roughly the same.
However, if the killer's cultivation realm was sufficiently high or they had some magic artifact on them, they could stop this grain of mountain-returning light too. But there would often be a longevity lamp in their sects too.
If the person dies, the lamp would extinguish.
They could similarly learn about the news of death.
……
……
"Wondering which senior apprentice brother or sister has died."
"There didn't seem to be many disciples who went down the mountain these few days, right?"
"There's quite a few, there should be over a dozen of them. Almost all of them are traveling alone."
"I wonder which sect dares to provoke our Three Streams Manor. Truly tired of living!"
"Maybe it's some demon. Then it would really be quite unlucky."
……
……
When that blue light went up the mountain, many Three Streams Manor disciples saw it. Hence, they stopped one after another and started speculating who the owner of that mountain-returning light was and the cause of death.
The blue light arrived at the top of the mountain.
A large hall was standing here as if it was in the clouds.
Many people had already gathered in front of the hall at this moment.
There were men and women, but most of them looked middle-aged.
The middle-aged man in front was Three Streams Manor's leader. He reached his hand out to catch that blue light. Waving his sleeve, ripples gradually appeared before their eyes and an image appeared before everyone.
It was precisely the scene of Chen Chao killing Guo Xi before.
Seeing this scene, a middle-aged daoist nun cried out involuntarily, "Xi'er!"
She was precisely Guo Xi's master, Three Streams Manor's Emerald Cloud Peak's peak lord.
She expended a great deal of effort for Guo Xi to be able to go down the mountain to carry out that matter. But what she did not expect was that she did not receive good news about Guo Xi. Instead, what she got was the news of Guo Xi's death.
Although she had more than Guo Xi this one disciple, since she gave this opportunity to Guo Xi, it was sufficient to show how much she valued Guo Xi.
"Junior Apprentice Sister Wang, my condolences."
Ripples reappeared and that image had already dissipated. The function of the mountain-returning light was just like this.
"Senior Apprentice Brother Tu, please stand up for Xi'er!"
The middle-aged daoist nun turned to that middle-aged man, her eyes brimming with hot tears, looking somewhat miserable.
The middle-aged man nodded his head and said solemnly, "Of course. A puny little warden actually dares to kill someone from my Three Streams Manor. Justice must be upheld!"
"Junior Apprentice Brother Li, I'll have to trouble you to make a trip to Wei Prefecture and apprehend that person back. I reckon that the Great Liang Dynasty won't dare to stop us either. After he's apprehended, I'll definitely make him suffer and die, then grind his bones to dust!"
Hearing that, a middle-aged man with ordinary looks walked out. Nodding his head, he said in a solemn voice, "I definitely won't fail!"
The middle-aged man glanced at the middle-aged daoist nun. Musing for a moment, he said softly, "Junior Apprentice Sister Wang, you should go too and bring Xi'er's corpse back while you're at it."