Free Web NovelAt this moment, hearing Cao Mi’s words, Wei Tu could easily guess that, like him, she had long been interested in spirit crystals and deeply desired them.
It was just that, due to her injuries earlier, she hadn’t been in a position to make a move. So, she had kept her ambition in check.
Now that the opportunity of the “Flying Serpent Island Ruins” had come up, she clearly wasn’t going to let it slip away.
In truth, aside from bartering, this was the only legitimate method for most Nascent Soul cultivators to obtain spirit crystals.
After all, not everyone could do what Wei Tu did—killing a cultivator of the same level alone and taking their spirit crystal resources.
“If Junior Sister Cao wants to go, then I’ll accompany her,” Wei Tu said after a short pause.
Mining spirit crystals did involve some danger. But it was manageable. As long as luck didn’t turn too bad, it should be fine.
Besides, he was also short on spirit crystals right now. Going to the ruins to mine some aligned with his goals too.
And more importantly—
Cao Mi wasn’t his subordinate. He couldn’t just expect her to follow his suggestions, but reject hers when it was her turn.
That would eventually strain their relationship, no matter how close they were.
Respect had to go both ways.
“Thank you for understanding, Dao Brother Wei,” Cao Mi said with a bright look in her eyes, expressing sincere gratitude.
…
Just like before—
Wei Tu and Cao Mi only had a brief exchange in the market. They didn’t meet up properly even though they were about to leave Yuangjun Island together.
The two of them deliberately concealed their connection, each treating the other as their own secret trump card.
Now that the plan was set, they didn’t delay. After disguising themselves and changing clothes, they left Yuangjun Island half a day apart.
“After you left, the Blood Flood Dragon Merchant Guild did show some attention, but they didn’t send anyone to tail you. Seems like that Ninth Princess isn’t planning to make a move on you,”
Cao Mi said with a teasing smile after they regrouped somewhere secluded.
She still remembered how Wei Tu had several romantic entanglements back in the Yingding Division.
Although it didn’t seem likely between him and Lüqiu Qingfeng, with someone like Wei Tu… anything was possible.
After all, Wei Tu was no ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator—he was dual Nascent Soul in both body and dharma.
He was certainly worthy of someone like Lüqiu Qingfeng.
‘A woman’s heart is like the bottom of the sea.’ Wei Tu didn’t catch Cao Mi’s deeper thoughts. He assumed she was only joking. Nodding slightly, he simply noted that Lüqiu Qingfeng was decent enough and dropped the subject.
Then the two continued traveling in silence.
As they neared Flying Serpent Island, they split up again.
Five days later—
Wei Tu and Cao Mi arrived one after the other at Flying Serpent Island, a central sea island in the Donghua Demon Kingdom.
Before the ruins appeared, Flying Serpent Island was obscure—just a normal third-rank spirit island.
But once the ruins were discovered and confirmed to be a spirit ruins site, the island immediately gained fame throughout the Donghua Demon Kingdom.
Now, the surrounding area was crowded with no fewer than dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators, all camped nearby waiting for the ruins to open.
“So this is the ruins?”
After arriving, Wei Tu finally understood why those who discovered the ruins hadn’t tried to hide the island and claim it for themselves.
The reason was simple: though both ruins and secret realms were subspaces attached to the cultivation world, secret realms were much more stable.
At the very least, they didn’t have what these ruins did—dense spatial cracks all around the visible outline in the sky.
These spatial cracks were obviously caused by the Flying Serpent Island Ruins colliding with the main space of the cultivation world due to its unstable structure.
But because of this instability, the ruins were discovered by nearby cultivators, giving Wei Tu and Cao Mi the chance to come here.
“These spatial cracks are way more dangerous than the tunnels connecting two cultivation realms. If anyone carelessly touches them, even a Nascent Soul ancestor could die.”
Wei Tu looked up at the cracks suspended in the air, shining with blinding white light like blades. Like the other Nascent Soul cultivators, he sat cross-legged nearby and waited for the ruins to open.
The reason this realm was called Guixu Sea was because various ruins were scattered throughout the sea.
Ruins like the Flying Serpent Island Ruins—classified as “spirit ruins”—weren’t as common in the Guixu Sea cultivation world. But after many years, their number had become quite significant.
So, cultivators here had already figured out a pattern for when spirit ruins opened. freёwebnoѵel.com
Once a spirit ruins site’s spirit crystal vein produced a surge of spiritual energy, those spatial cracks would begin to expand and merge, eventually forming a safe passage wide enough for cultivators to enter.
Based on Wei Tu’s observations, with the spiritual energy density in the Flying Serpent Island Ruins, it would probably take another one to two years before a spiritual energy tide formed.
In other words, in about one year, he and Cao Mi would be able to enter the spirit ruins.
“But so many Nascent Soul cultivators have already gathered here. With just Cao Mi and me, getting a large amount of spirit crystals won’t be easy,” Wei Tu thought to himself as he swept his gaze over the crowd.
Fortunately, maybe because the Flying Serpent Island Ruins weren’t high-tier, there wasn’t anything in them that late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators would care about. So not a single well-known late-stage cultivator had shown up nearby.
Even so, the Nascent Soul cultivators present were no pushovers.
Among them were seven mid-stage Nascent Soul powerhouses—that number alone was shocking!
“He actually came?” Just then, a flash of golden light flickered in Wei Tu’s eyes as he spotted a familiar figure in disguise.
—After nearly 100 years of cultivation, his Sun-Gazing Golden Eyes could now pierce through the usual disguises of early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.
That person wasn’t a stranger. It was none other than the Old sect master Gu he had bumped into on Jinglei Island over 20 years ago.
‘Since the Old sect master Gu is here, then the other cultivators from Spider Heart Sect must also be around…’ Wei Tu activated Ancestor Chilong’s awareness to help search the area for suspicious cultivators.
Soon, with Ancestor Chilong’s assistance, Wei Tu spotted someone among the crowd—a horse-faced man who looked a lot like Holy Son Faguang.
Clearly, Holy Son Faguang and the Old sect master Gu were using the same tactic he and Cao Mi had chosen—acting separately.
This strategy had its advantages. It prevented others from focusing on them or targeting them directly, and it allowed one party to be used as a hidden trump card when needed.
“That junior named Holy Son Faguang has noticed you too,” Ancestor Chilong reminded him.
“What? He noticed me too?”
Wei Tu was surprised.
After all, he had only managed to spot the Old sect master Gu and Holy Son Faguang by relying on his Sun-Gazing Golden Eyes and Ancestor Chilong’s late-stage Nascent Soul divine sense. Neither of these was something easily obtained.
“Spirit insect,” Ancestor Chilong said concisely.
Hearing that, Wei Tu grew a lot more cautious. But then he remembered he wasn’t alone—Cao Mi was with him—and that worry faded.
Things weren’t like they were back then.
Twenty-plus years ago, he was just a newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivator, with limited combat techniques and only slightly stronger than Ying Ziming.
Now, things were different. Not only had his cultivation gone up by a minor realm, but he also had two powerful weapons—the Golden Flame Pearl and the Immortal-Slaying Arrow Gourd.
Plus, with Cao Mi by his side, they could summon the Yin-Yang Demon Corpse together. That was enough to fight even a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator—let alone two early-stage ones.
If he ran into Lüqiu Qingfeng or Lüqiu Jinyuan, he might hold back for now.
But two early-stage cultivators? He wasn’t so timid.
Besides, the enemy was in the open, and he was in the dark.
Even if they had spotted him, they definitely didn’t know he had a partner like Cao Mi by his side.
...
“It’s Wei Tu.”
While Wei Tu and Ancestor Chilong were discussing, Holy Son Faguang—disguised as a horse-faced man—glanced at the green-eyed spider crawling over his hand, licked his lips, and let out a cold smile.
He had never gotten close to Wei Tu before. He didn’t have anything with Wei Tu’s scent on it either. But just this “Ghost-Eyed Demon Spider” in his palm was enough.
This creature could see Wei Tu’s true identity!
The Ghost-Eyed Demon Spider was a sacred spider of the Spider Heart Sect. Unlike ordinary spirit spiders, it was extremely sensitive to a cultivator’s divine soul. It could instantly recognize a person’s true soul essence.
The body could be changed, but the soul was hard to alter.
No matter how much Wei Tu changed his appearance, he couldn’t block the Ghost-Eyed Demon Spider’s probing gaze into his soul.
“Old sect master Gu, take a guess. Who do you think I just discovered?” Holy Son Faguang smiled and sent a voice transmission to the Old sect master Gu several hundred steps away.
“Who?” The Old sect master Gu was clearly intrigued.
As the son of the Earth Spider Matriarch, Holy Son Faguang had a high status in the sect and was always arrogant. Ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators rarely caught his attention.
So now, if he was paying special attention to someone, then that person had to be extraordinary—not just some nobody.
“Wei Tu,” Holy Son Faguang replied, softly speaking those two words.
“What, it’s him?”
The Old sect master Gu was stunned at first, then his face immediately lit up with joy.
Over 20 years ago, after Wei Tu withdrew from the Blood Flood Dragon Merchant Guild, he was no longer considered an enemy of the Spider Heart Sect.
But… that didn’t mean they had let him off.
Not because they were the vengeful type.
If it had been some random cultivator, they wouldn’t have cared to go after him.
But Wei Tu was different.
Back then, it was Wei Tu’s spirit eye technique that had seen through their ambush setup on Jinglei Island and caught them off guard.
Such a powerful eye technique—they had never seen anything like it. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
Of course, they had long been coveting it.
Now that fate had brought them back together, there was no way they’d let this opportunity slip away.
“Good thing you brought the Ghost-Eyed Demon Spider from the sect this time. Otherwise, it really would’ve been hard to track Wei Tu down. His ability to hide his identity is no joke.”
The Old sect master Gu chuckled.
After Holy Son Faguang’s reminder, he had immediately sent his divine sense sweeping toward Wei Tu’s direction. And that was when he realized how incredibly well Wei Tu had concealed his aura and disguised himself.
In this area, it wasn’t even an exaggeration to say that Wei Tu outclassed him tenfold.
“I heard Wei Tu’s from a sect in another sea region. If I kill him and take his cultivation techniques and secret arts, there’ll be no consequences for me,” the Old sect master Gu thought greedily.
Divine Stone Sect was just a small Nascent Soul sect.
At his current cultivation level, he had already reached the peak of what any of their ancestors had achieved. Pushing further with their techniques would be extremely difficult.
So, his only choice was to seize techniques from other sects and strengthen himself that way.
In other words, killing Wei Tu to patch up his weaknesses had become a necessity.
“Once we enter the Flying Serpent Island Ruins, you and I will team up—just like when we killed Ying Ziming. Then we take him out too!”
Seeing that the Old sect master Gu had been swayed, Holy Son Faguang curled his lips into a smirk. A confident, cold expression appeared on his face as he spoke calmly.
