Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

Chapter 318 The Slow-Moving Carriage

The Blood Fiend was furious at Mo Wen's fighting style and wanted to get away as soon as possible. So he gritted his teeth, took out a small bright red porcelain bottle from his pocket, unscrewed the cap and opened his mouth to pour the pill into his mouth. But the moment he raised his hand, Sikong Nong, who was hiding to the side, shot out several ice spikes in unison.

'Snapped'

With a soft thud, the porcelain bottle was propelled several feet away by the ice spikes. Several other ice spikes shot straight at Blood Fiend's face, but he quickly dodged to the side and roared angrily:

"Shameless brat, how dare you ambush this old man!"

Sikong Nong didn't reply, continuously firing ice spikes at Xue Sha's face. This time, Sikong Nong had learned his lesson and no longer aimed at vital areas covered by clothing, fearing that the man might be wearing protective armor or something similar, wasting his energy. Sikong Nong's ice spikes were formed from his spiritual power, and their attack strength was much greater than Mo Wen's manipulation of tree branches and leaves. Even Xue Sha, a mid-stage Heaven Rank cultivator, dared not ignore them. He could only constantly dodge and defend.

The combined attack from Mo Wen and Sikong Nong left the already exhausted Xue Sha in a sorry state, even knocking away his life-saving elixir. Coupled with the internal injuries he sustained during his duel with Shi Potian, Xue Sha couldn't help but vomit blood several more times.

"This is a top-quality Blazing Sun Pill! Attribute-enhancing pills of this quality are rare! Hehe, I'm in luck!"

Gan Ran walked over, picked up the porcelain bottle from the ground, poured out the pills, and was overjoyed. High-quality attribute-attribute pills are more expensive and more effective than ordinary pills. The Blazing Sun Pill is a fire-attribute pill, specially made for fire-attribute cultivators. Its effects are several times stronger than ordinary pills of the same level. If that Blood Fiend had swallowed it, his spiritual power would have recovered quickly.

"You dare to do this, you brat!" Xue Sha shouted angrily at Gan Ran. This was his life-saving pill, a high-quality Heavenly Profound-grade pill that he had obtained at great cost. Now that Gan Ran had taken it, it was tantamount to cutting off his escape route.

"Any more? Take them all out and let me see. You don't need them anymore anyway, so why don't you just give them to me for safekeeping!" Gan Ran said jokingly.

"Don't be too smug. None of you will escape the Blood Wolf Gang's pursuit!"

Knowing that he had no chance of survival surrounded by the four, the Blood Fiend hardened his heart and decided to self-destruct. He wanted to use this extreme method to deliver the final blow. If he succeeded, at least one of the four, including Shi Potian, would die.

But Shi Potian, who had been watching silently from the sidelines, was not about to give him that chance. When he saw that something was wrong with the man, he immediately unleashed the Ghost King Blade with all his might.

'puff! '

With a whoosh, the Ghost King Blade, like a black lightning bolt, swiftly pierced through Blood Fiend's body, its broad blade cleaving him in two.

"Clean this up and get out of here quickly!"

Having recovered seventy to eighty percent of his power, Shi Potian felt the commotion here was too great, and someone must have already noticed the anomaly. He needed to leave as soon as possible.

After quickly erasing some obvious traces, the four chose to leave the mountains and forests, crossing them to reach the designated location to meet up with the embroiderer and the others.

"You guys go first, I'll stay here and see if I can find anything!"

Mo Wen handed the Blood Fiend he was carrying to Gan Ran and said.

"Alright, be careful!"

Shi Potian knew what Mo Wen wanted to do and didn't object, so he led the way and left.

After the three had gone far away, Mo Wen used his cane to make a few marks on the grass and tree roots in some inconspicuous places near the battlefield. Then he jumped onto the tree branches, leaped between them, and jumped towards a hillside three or four miles away.

The hillside was higher than the fighting area and had many dense trees. Mo Wen concealed himself on a branch of a large tree, adjusted his breathing, and after a moment, no one could detect that a person was standing in the tree. Mo Wen seemed to have become a branch of this large tree.

Sure enough, less than a quarter of an hour after Mo Wen and the others left, someone arrived at the scene of the fight.

Four warriors dressed as household guards arrived on horseback. Mo Wen used his abilities to clearly see the four men; they were from the Qiu family. After carefully surveying the surroundings, they left without lingering.

Mo Wen wasn't surprised at all by the arrival of the Qiu family. Although it was already sixty or seventy miles away from Tianxin City, this area was still within the Qiu family's sphere of influence. Naturally, they would be able to get the news and come quickly.

Shortly after the Qiu family warriors left, three men in black appeared. Mo Wen immediately recognized them as the people he was waiting for—Xue Sha of the Blood Wolf Hall.

The leader of the Blood Fiends wore a wide-brimmed bamboo hat. Mo Wen and the others now knew that those wearing bamboo hats were Earth-level Blood Fiends. Those not wearing bamboo hats and with their faces covered were Profound-level and Yellow-level Blood Fiends.

The three quickly circled the area before stopping at the spot where the last fire-elemental warrior had been killed. The leader took out a bronze mirror about a foot in size and placed it on the ground. He then used his finger sword to draw many strange symbols around the mirror. After that, he took out four thumb-sized crystals and placed them around the mirror according to their positions. Once everything was ready, the man crossed his arms in front of his chest, his fingers constantly changing and intertwining, while he softly chanted indistinct incantations. He then quickly circled the mirror three times before standing down. Finally, he clasped his hands together and pointed at the mirror with his index fingers pressed tightly together.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed across the surface of the bronze mirror, and then the mirror gradually became deeper in depth. Before long, scenes appeared on the mirror. Scenes of Shi Potian fighting with the fire-elemental Xue Sha, Mo Wen, and the other three, as well as the warriors who had initially blocked the way, all appeared on the screen.

The 'Sky-Gazing Mirror' can retrieve images within a range of fifty zhang (approximately 35 meters), and can retrieve events from as far back as thirty days ago, or as short as a quarter of an hour. If the person being searched for has not been in the searched area for more than a quarter of an hour, the 'Sky-Gazing Mirror' will not be able to find anything.

This is a unique spiritual treasure of the Feather Emperor Palace, and its appearance in the hands of the Blood Fiends speaks volumes. While observing the fight between Shi Potian and the others, the Blood Fiends never expected that Mo Wen was also watching them from the opposite hillside. Mo Wen, through his own methods, not only saw everything they were doing, but also heard their every word clearly.

"Lord Yan, the two people who met us were the ones who bought the bile of the Golden-Eating Turtle in Tianxin City not long ago. Your guess is correct, they are indeed a group, and they have been lurking in Tianxin City since returning from Hexuan City."

One of the men in black pointed at Gan Ran and the other man and said.

"Have the identities of these four people been confirmed? Where are they from?"

"Recently, there have been rumors that this old man with the wood element is the disciple of the former master of Medicine King Valley. However, according to the Shadow Detective's investigation, the former master and disciple of Medicine King Valley disappeared more than seventy years ago, and no one knows their whereabouts. Therefore, the old man's identity still needs to be confirmed."

The identities of the other three remain unknown. The one wielding the ghost-head broadsword might be from Yingzhou, but no martial artist above the mid-stage of the Heavenly Rank in Yingzhou has ever heard of him, at least not in the last fifty years. The other two also appeared out of nowhere; there was never any word about them in the martial world.

"There's been no trace of them in the last fifty years, but what about fifty years ago? Didn't you check records from sixty or seventy years ago?"

"Fifty years ago, there were only records of people at the third level of the Heavenly Realm and those who had a significant influence at the time. Judging from their ages, most of them were around 100 years old. Fifty years ago, none of them qualified to be recorded."

"First they bought the bile of the Gold-Eating Turtle, then the Earth Flame Crystal. Their identities are unknown, and they seem to be able to predict our actions in advance. They also seem to have some knowledge of our background. After acquiring the treasures, they erased our secret marks and their movements are mysterious! It seems that our opponents this time came prepared!"

Wen Yanluo said without any emotion.

"They kidnapped Xuan Wuqi, apparently wanting to get something out of him! They haven't been gone long. We can use Wuqi to pinpoint their whereabouts. Should we chase after them now, or send a message to Xuan Sha in Qingling City to intercept them?"

"Don't worry, they can't escape. Have you found out the identities of those two women who were disguised as noblewomen buying the Thunder Concealment Stone?"

"No, their identities are also unknown, and they only appeared recently!"

Where is the person now? What is their activity?

"According to Shadow Assassin's report, two suspicious women left the city early this morning and headed towards Qingling City. They are very likely the two people who bought the Thunder Concealment Stone. Since we haven't found out if they were carrying any Thunder Concealment Stones, we can't be sure."

"You're all incompetent! They already knew how to remove the hidden marks, how could you possibly have detected them? Immediately send the images of those two women and their whereabouts to the Shadow Assassins and Xuan Sha in Qingling City, and tell them to capture those two women at all costs. Those two women and these four are all together. Have all Xuan Sha and above from Runze City and Hexuan City rush to Qingling City. I want to wipe them all out in one fell swoop!"

We've got the Bile of the Gold-Eating Turtle, the Earth Flame Crystal, and the Thunder Concealment Stone; all we're missing are the Fire Dragon Scale and the Void Gold. While the Void Gold is valuable, it's not rare and has a wide range of uses. It's available at major auction houses and equipment stores, so we can't track it. The only thing we can track is the Fire Dragon Scale. I'm certain this group is the ones who obtained the meteorite iron, and it might be quite large, otherwise they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to acquire refining materials.

Immediately notify headquarters and have them issue a message to focus on the trading of Fire Dragon Scales.

Our Shadow Assassins rushed to the scene immediately after the explosion that night, only to find nothing. What does this mean? It means their people were near the meteorite impact site; they knew beforehand that a meteorite would fall there, otherwise they couldn't have retrieved it without anyone noticing. They couldn't have arrived before us.

Moreover, when the meteorite first landed, it emitted enormous energy radiation, accompanied by heavenly tribulation lightning. Ordinary people simply couldn't get close, not even we could. There's only one possibility: multiple experts at the mid-stage of the Heavenly Rank or higher joined forces to cast a spell, forcibly isolating the meteorite's aura.

"Besides that one from the Wu Clan, there shouldn't be anyone else on the Tianxuan Continent who can accurately predict the time and place of the meteorite's fall, right?"

"A bloodthirsty fiend said."

"It can't be that person from the Witch Clan. That person was sealed away by the Hall Master and the others long ago and couldn't possibly have any contact with the outside world. Besides, we've already eliminated most of the Witch Clan members. At most, there are only a few underage orphans left. They don't have that kind of power."

"Who are they? How could they have predicted what would happen that night?"

“I think there’s a possibility that their hideout is nearby, and they happened to be there when the meteorite fell. That place is deserted, barren, and full of poisonous miasma and swamps. No martial artist in the Tianxuan Continent is willing to explore that place. So if they established their hideout there, it would be very difficult for them to be discovered, which would fit their identity perfectly.”

"Your speculation makes some sense. Have headquarters send some people in to take a closer look. In any case, this group deserves our close attention."

"Elder Yan, judging from the footage, Xuanwu Qi and the other two were lured away from the battlefield by this old man of the wood element. From this location, we can't see how they killed Xuanxin Jiu and Xuanren Si, or what they did to Xuanwu Qi. Should we go to that scene to observe and see if they have any other helpers?"

"Yes, it's suspicious that they deliberately lured the three away. Watching their fight will give us a better understanding of their background and will be helpful for future assassinations."

Wen Yanluo picked up the Sky-Gazing Mirror and followed his men toward the scene of Mo Wen's bloody fight with the others.

Mo Wen stood on a tree branch in the distance, watching their every move, and promptly relayed what he heard to Shi Potian and the others through the Soul Jade.

Upon hearing this, Shi Potian and the others immediately notified Xiu Niang and the others to stop advancing and wait to reunite with them before making further plans. Since Xue Sha had already guessed that they were a group, it would be even more dangerous to separate.

Shi Potian and his two companions found a secluded spot, awakened Xuanwu Qi in their hands, and after exhausting all means, finally obtained some information from the man. They were all subordinates of Wen Yanluo. Wen Yanluo was the leader of the Earth Fiend, one of the Five Fiends of the Blood Wolf Hall. The Five Fiends were Water, Fire, Wood, Earth, and Metal. The highest-ranking among the Five Fiends was the Earth-level Blood Fiend, followed by the Profound-level and Yellow-level. Each Fiend was divided into Yin and Yang teams, and the leader of each team was given the title of Yanluo, known as the Ten Kings of Hell. Experts above the Heavenly Rank Six were called Heavenly Fiends, and only Heavenly Fiends could obtain the position of Hall Master. The Blood Wolf Hall had several Hall Masters, but only one Hall Master, the Steward Hall Master, was in charge of the Five Fiends.

The Blood Wolf Hall's mission this time was carried out by Earth Fiend and Fire Fiend. Their main objective was to assassinate those who purchased auxiliary materials for refining meteorite spirit treasures and to search for the whereabouts of the meteorite.

The Earth Fiends were in charge of the movements in Yuzhou, while the Fire Fiends were responsible for Yingzhou. This time, the Earth Fiends, led by the Earthly Yama Li Wen, had planted assassins in every major auction house in Yuzhou. Upon learning which auction house was selling auxiliary materials for refining meteorite iron spirit treasures, they would immediately send men to track and assassinate them, and attempt to obtain the meteorite iron…

After learning that Wen Yanluo had a way to track the Blood Fiend named Xuan Wuqi, Shi Potian had an idea. He and his companions would meet up with Xiu Niang, knock the Blood Fiend unconscious, and place him in the carriage Xiu Niang was riding in. Then, they would take out several crossbow bolts, place them in a corner of the carriage, and tie them together with string to create a mechanism. If anyone touched the mechanism, it would trigger the crossbow bolts, which were all demon-slaying arrows with immense destructive power. After completing these steps, they would then conceal and disguise the mechanism.