Free Web NovelChapter 450: Chapter 248: Huangfu Ren Who Wants to Seize a Body (2)
’The Beast Bones alone were purple-grade, so that Demon Beast must have been incredibly powerful. And this guy slaughtered it before it could even mature.’
Cheng Zongyang was furious!
’It was just as I expected! Back then, even the guards were carrying Beast Bones, which told me they didn’t value them much.’
’The bones I collected on two separate occasions were worth more than twenty thousand Points. I can’t even imagine how valuable a complete skeleton would be!’
’And this wasteful idiot not only killed the Demon Beast, but he even divided up its bones.’
But on second thought, he could understand why he had made that choice at the time.
Faced with the temptation of a breakthrough and the reality of his lifespan running out, killing a Demon Beast to extend his own life was the more practical option.
’If I were in his shoes, I probably would have done the same thing.’
’The problem is, I’ll never find myself in that kind of situation!’
"You actually killed it?! You son of a bitch!"
He couldn’t suppress his rage. His hands clenched abruptly, as if he were about to crush the soul from the Huangfu Ancestral Land. But Huangfu Ren hurriedly shouted, "It’s not dead! It’s not dead! It’s not dead!!"
Cheng Zongyang paused, frowning. "Not dead? How is it not dead after you extracted its Spiritual Soul?"
Huangfu Ren quickly explained, "It’s really not dead, and I don’t know why. But it became... stupefied. I later left it to guard the ancestral land, but in the end, it jumped into the Ghost Abyss and disappeared."
Cheng Zongyang immediately understood what lay at the bottom of the Ghost Abyss.
Cheng Zongyang continued his questioning and learned that the Demon Beast Bone came from the skeleton of a Demon Beast Huangfu Ren had found at the bottom of the sea.
He then asked about the Eye of the East Sea and found out that Huangfu Ren had been down there before.
"There is only endless darkness there. Even in my state back then, on the verge of a breakthrough, when I could touch the bottom of any normal seabed, I couldn’t fully descend into that sea cave. It’s like an endless abyss."
Cheng Zongyang was once again certain that it was the East Sea Abyss.
After that, Cheng Zongyang couldn’t be bothered with him anymore. He took out a Middle Tier Soul Crystal Stone and tried to see if he could capture the soul inside it.
However, the message that appeared was not what he expected.
—
[Target is a Half-Divine Soul Body. A High Tier Soul Crystal Stone is required for collection.]
—
’A Half-Divine Soul Body?’ Cheng Zongyang was surprised now. ’It’s not a simple Soul, nor is it a complete Divine Soul body.’
A moment later, however, he felt his own thinking was a bit foolish. ’A normal Soul wouldn’t have the ability to possess someone’s body.’
He immediately called Luo Dingran to ask. Upon hearing the question, Luo Dingran replied, "Yes, we have them. We purchased three of them yesterday. Also, Luo Daoist would like to request some Array Materials. This subordinate cannot authorize it, so I must ask for your decision, my lord."
Hearing this, Cheng Zongyang said at once, "As long as it’s related to the Array he’s researching, whether it’s books or materials, it’s all approved. The only condition, of course, is that our Points allow for it."
"Yes, my lord. But is there a limit? We can’t just be buying materials that cost tens of thousands of Points each, can we?" Luo Dingran pressed.
After a moment of thought, Cheng Zongyang said, "Limit it to the Teleportation Array. We won’t consider anything else for now."
"Yes, sir," Luo Dingran replied with a cupped-fist salute.
Soon, Luo Dingran returned with a High Tier Crystal Stone.
As a result, although Huangfu Ren’s Divine Soul resisted the High Tier Crystal Stone, it was ultimately pulled in. Amidst endless fury and curses, Huangfu Ren was absorbed into the Soul Crystal Stone.
Seeing the progress bar increase by 100 points, his eyes showed a hint of surprise. ’This Half-Divine Soul Body is actually worth a hundred ordinary Souls.’
’Looks like I’ll have to find some time to reconstruct Huangfu Ren later.’
After dealing with the matter of Huangfu Ren, he took out the translated copy that had been sealed with grease and wax.
After breaking the seal, he found a small booklet made of a special type of paper inside.
The cover read—three words: *Innate Qi Technique*.
When he opened it and looked inside, the content was basically identical to the translation he had requested before. This left Cheng Zongyang quite puzzled.
’Why didn’t it just reward me with this translated copy from the start? Why did it have to include the stone carving?’
But the little house gave no answer, so Cheng Zongyang didn’t dwell on it. He gave the booklet to Luo Dingran to pass on to Ding Xing for research, then left the Wilderness World.
This trip, it could be said, resolved several of his major concerns.
The translated copy wasn’t a dictionary, the Demon Beast Bone wasn’t a system reward, and he learned that there were indeed new things to be found—but that unknown creature was still at the bottom of the Ghost Abyss.
In his estimation, the reason his Soul Crystal Stone couldn’t collect any Souls in the Soul-Loss Pit was likely because the corpses, Souls and all, had been devoured by that unknown creature at the bottom, allowing it to survive to this day.
He had no intention of exploring it for now. If it turned out to be too powerful and killed him instantly, he wouldn’t even have time to escape into the Wilderness World!
When Li Xuejin woke up, Cheng Zongyang simply told him that he had been poisoned and had fallen unconscious, but that the Huangfu Ancestral Land was completely unharmed. If he didn’t believe it, he could go investigate it again.
Li Xuejin believed him. There was no need to lie about something so easily verifiable. And to be frank, even if something had been taken, there was nothing he could do about it. He had already prepared himself for that possibility when he first led Cheng Zongyang to the ancestral land.
「The next day, at the Celestial Break Gang headquarters.」
Li Lu gathered everyone from the various halls for a meeting in the courtyard.
Li Lu publicly announced that Li Xuejin would become the gang’s new Master, responsible for all internal affairs. He also told everyone about Li Xuejin’s former identity.
Regardless of whether they had heard of him before, everyone approved of Li Xuejin joining the gang. What followed was a comprehensive briefing on various internal affairs to quickly bring Li Xuejin up to speed on their operations and future development plans.
Cheng Zongyang was not present. Instead, he was at home cultivating the Acupoint-Sealing Hand.
Everything was now stable and progressing steadily. Although there were still many things that required his personal attention, they were all related to his own affairs.
He basically no longer needed to worry much about the Cheng Family or the Celestial Break Gang.
「Seven more days passed in the blink of an eye.」
On August 9th, a horse-drawn carriage slowly entered Jade Peak County Town through the West City Gate. The travel-worn Ma Yue smiled happily as he looked at the increasingly bustling County Town.
On the official road leading into the town, he saw the Wilderness Rice at the village entrance, nearly ready for another harvest.
With a supply of grain, the County Town had recovered some of its former prosperity. Every household had new hope. These were good times, and they would only get better.
A short while later, the carriage slowly came to a stop at the back door of a residence in Yunli Lane.
After a knock, a servant opened the door. Upon recognizing Ma Yue, the servant immediately went to report to the Steward.
When Zhang Zeyu heard that Ma Yue had returned, he immediately had the servant show Ma Yue to the living room while he went to the study to make a report.
When Cheng Zongyang heard Ma Yue was back, his face lit up with pleasure. He said to Zhang Zeyu, "Send him back to Tiantuan Village and lock him up."
"Yes, Young Master," Zhang Zeyu replied with a cupped fist. He then personally led away the Martial Artist who had been sent over for the Young Master to practice Acupoint Pressing on.
In the rear courtyard’s living room, Cheng Zongyang was slightly taken aback when he saw Ma Yue’s face, which was as weather-beaten as a farmer’s from sleeping out in the open.
"Hey, now. If you ran out of money, you should have said something. You didn’t have to resort to roughing it in the wild, did you? Was it really that tough?"
Upon hearing this, Ma Yue gave a cupped-fist salute and said with a wry smile, "The border, where the death toll is highest, is almost all mountains, forests, and plains. There are no inns or anything of the sort. This subordinate could only build a simple shelter to live in. With Inner Replenishing Pills and other medicines, I basically just focused on my Martial Arts Training. It wasn’t what I’d call ’tough’."
Only then did Cheng Zongyang notice that Ma Yue’s Cultivation had already reached the Eighth Grade. If he hadn’t missed his medicinal baths while he was away, he would probably be at the Seventh Grade by now.
After speaking, Ma Yue pointed to the Stone Stele leaning against the doorway and a small cloth bag, saying:
"My lord, I’ve brought back the Stone Stele. This bag contains a dozen or so Crystal Stones. As for the fifty Crystal Stones you had Xu Dong send, this subordinate placed them in several Chaotic Burial Mounds. By the time I reached the County Town, those Crystal Stones should have all lit up. There are many Chaotic Burial Mounds and death pits over there. These Crystal Stones..."
Cheng Zongyang then listened as Ma Yue recounted his experiences and discoveries in those places.
Of course, his discoveries consisted of abandoned wilderness villages and deserted towns.
In war, it is always the common folk who suffer.
After listening to the report, Cheng Zongyang had Zhang Zeyu fetch one thousand taels of silver and some Elixirs. He then said:
"This isn’t a lot of money, but consider it compensation for your troubles. As for the Elixirs, they’re all usable by Lower Three Grades Martial Artists. Take them, and don’t refuse. Go home and spend three days with your family. After that, you’ll have to set out again, and there will be quite a few more."
Seeing this, Ma Yue cupped his fist. "Yes, my lord. Then this humble one will take his leave. I will return in three days."
"Mm, spend quality time with your family. Don’t worry about anything else," Cheng Zongyang reminded him again.
After Ma Yue departed, Cheng Zongyang put the small cloth bag into his market stall and then turned his attention to the Stone Stele!
He was eager to see just how powerful the Soul Gathering Stele had become after a month of wantonly absorbing Souls!
