*Whoosh!*
Watery ripples roared across the four walls.
Golden light radiated in all directions, surging forward like the turbulent waves of a mighty river, sweeping straight toward the black-robed man and hemming him in on all sides.
Before his aura could fall upon the silver-robed man, it was forcibly suppressed by the grand array.
The black-robed man's figure swayed slightly, and for a moment, he too was pinned in place by the golden light.
Yet he showed no hint of fear, gathering his spiritual power in an attempt to batter against the array.
Seeing that disaster loomed, the crowd in the hall fled in panic like scattering beasts. Only the distinguished guests in the private rooms on the second and third floors remained as immovable as mountains, though none stepped forward to help Mister Kan out of his predicament.
Suppressing his fury, Mister Kan suddenly bellowed, "Senior! Kan respects your profound cultivation, but the rules of this auction cannot be discarded! If Senior insists on acting this way, Kan will not hesitate to risk his old life to detonate this array and teach Senior an unforgettable lesson! I trust Senior can sense that this array possesses extraordinary might. Even if Senior can kill Kan, the price is surely one Senior would be unwilling to pay!"
Hearing this, the black-robed man paused. Looking at the menacing golden light, he finally drew back the spiritual power he had coiled to strike.
The weight lifting from his chest at last, Mister Kan relaxed his tone and cupped his hands to the black-robed man in conciliation. "I understand Senior's grief at losing this treasure, but what spirit medicine in this world is limited to Blood Essence alone? Now that the Ancient Immortal Battlefield is growing ever more perilous, cultivators beyond the pass have begun retreating into the cities one after another. Perhaps someone will bring back spirit medicines even more precious than Blood Essence. I beg Senior to quell your temper and search patiently; you will surely obtain your wish in time."
The black-robed man let out a cold snort, turned, and strode away.
Mister Kan had long since abandoned any thought of befriending this man. Someone so narrow-minded and capricious, who threw his weight around purely on the strength of his cultivation, might be useful, but getting too close was asking for trouble—it could easily invite catastrophe.
It was good that he was gone!
"Quickly, escort Senior to the tea room to rest!"
Mister Kan ordered his people to see the black-robed man off. Releasing a sigh of relief, he looked at the silver-robed man and could not help feeling secretly amazed.
This man certainly knew how to keep his composure.
Just moments ago, when the black-robed man's aura was bearing down right before his eyes, the silver-robed man had remained calm and collected, utterly unperturbed. Such temperament was the hallmark of a true master, far superior to that of the black-robed man. As long as his innate talent was not terrible, his future accomplishments would not be low.
If he could win this man's favor, he might prove to be a tremendous help in the future.
"Are there any other bids, fellow Daoists?"
Mister Kan waited a moment. When no one bid, he presented the Blood Essence to the silver-robed man and proclaimed loudly, "For fifteen thousand low-grade spirit stones, the Blood Essence belongs to this fellow Daoist!"
"The next item..."
...
Setting aside how the disrupted auction proceeded, after leaving the hall, the black-robed man was led into a tea room by two pretty young maidens.
The tea room also lay within the bounds of the grand array; before the auction concluded, no one was permitted to leave on their own.
"Exalted Immortal, please have some tea..."
The two maidens served the fragrant tea, trembling with fear.
The black-robed man snapped coldly, "Get out!"
"Yes!"
As if granted amnesty, the maidens hurriedly set down the tea and scrambled over each other to leave.
The black-robed man sat motionless. The face beneath the hood was none other than Qin Sang!
At some point, he had left Qingyang Market and come to Tianyou City, and had even staged this scene at the auction.
At this moment, how could there be even half an ounce of fury on his face? He was exceptionally calm, a contemplative look in his eyes as though he were pondering something.
He had put on this act and made a scene at the auction not because he was genuinely after the Blood Essence, but because he had a purpose of his own.
This had been premised on his having investigated Mister Kan's manner of doing things in advance and carefully measuring his actions. Otherwise, failing his objective and earning Mister Kan's deadly enmity first would have been a terrible loss.
The tea room was utterly silent. Qin Sang had not been sitting alone for long before a maiden's trembling voice came from outside: "Senior, the auction has ended..."
Afterward, he was escorted out like someone seeing off a plague god.
Upon leaving the auction, Qin Sang immediately melted into the shadows and quietly departed Tianyou City. Looking out over the vast expanse of murky marshland, he pondered for a moment, then spurred the Nether Silk Cloud, flying at full speed due east.
That was the direction of Qingyang City!
Not long after Qin Sang left, dawn began to break in the east, and a middle-aged man emerged from Tianyou City.
This man looked ordinary, yet he possessed an extraordinary air, clad in a plain robe like a Confucian scholar. Unfortunately, immortal cultivators did not judge by temperament, but by cultivation.
His aura was faint, appearing as though he had only just broken through to Foundation Establishment.
He walked out of Tianyou City on foot, and once he reached the marsh, he merely flew using a movement technique, at no great speed.
Whatever his aim was, he flew aimlessly over the marsh, occasionally making wide circles. After doing this for more than half an hour, he leapt down onto a withered tree.
Turning his head to examine the trail behind him, he confirmed that no one was following him, and a mocking sneer appeared on his face. "Cowardly rat! I didn't even bother to hide myself, and you still didn't have the guts to follow! Consider yourself lucky, you old bastard!"
This person was the very silver-robed man Qin Sang had targeted at the auction.
Before his voice had even faded, demonic energy surged around him, and he transformed into a streak of black light, flying east.
At this moment, his true aura was finally laid bare—astonishingly, he was at the False Core stage!
The streak of light moved with incredible speed, quickly soaring out of the marshland's bounds.
Ahead lay countless desolate mountains and ravines.
The silver-robed man did not slacken his pace at all as he penetrated deep into the mountain range. Before long, a faint gasp of surprise came from within the streak of light, which then veered and landed atop a mountain peak.
The silver-robed man looked puzzled, turning his head to stare north at a colossal mountain range that coiled like a giant dragon.
From that direction, a peculiar fluctuation was faintly drifting over.
This fluctuation belonged exclusively to a secret art known as the Heart-Devouring Insect gu, a memory from a very distant past.
Ever since his sect, the Kuiyin Sect, was destroyed, the few remaining Heart-Devouring Insect gus had perished alongside the Sect Master in the Yuanzhao Sect's self-destruction, and this secret technique had been considered lost to history.
Heart-Devouring Insects had long gone extinct, and the corpses preserved in glaciers were exceedingly rare. Even when the Kuiyin Sect poured the entire sect's strength into the search, they had only managed to collect that small number; finding more in the future would be nearly impossible.
After the sect fell, he and his master had been reduced to stray dogs, relentlessly hunted. It was only in the past decade or so, when the Lesser Cold Domain's cultivation world was occupied by the spirit tide and the Heaven-Traversing Alliance and the Yuanzhao Sect was no longer so aggressively overbearing, that they finally caught their breath and dared to move about openly in public.
The people who had once been controlled by the Heart-Devouring Insects had long since scattered, no one knowing where they had gone into hiding.
Yet one had actually appeared here.
The silver-robed man narrowed his eyes and gazed into the distance. He had an impression of this mountain range; beneath it lay a substantial spirit vein, home to no shortage of prime cave abodes. The fluctuation showed that this person remained motionless, likely deep in secluded cultivation within a cave abode.
*When I came by last time, I didn't encounter anyone. Could this person have just returned from the Ancient Immortal Battlefield? I wonder whose planted spy they are?*
The silver-robed man pondered silently. *There are countless secret methods in this world. The venomous gu created by the patriarch is difficult to dispel, but there might be ways to suppress it. Furthermore, if this Heart-Devouring Insect gu was planted before the sect's destruction, this person's cultivation is probably no simple matter—perhaps not inferior to my own. Relying on the insect gu alone might not be enough to control him...*
Chapter 416