Qin Xuan drank several mouthfuls of spirit dew, feelings of unease stirring in his heart.
He sorted through the information he had just obtained several times.
Both the Huanyin Sect and the Renmao Sect were demon sect factions capable of clashing with Guanjiang Mountain. Right now, the undercurrents swirling around Jinghu Manor were far too perilous for him.
The Renmao Sect wanted Madam Wei's treasure medicine, and they were using the Huanyin Sect because the Huanyin Sect wanted to move against Madam Wei and even Yuansong Temple.
The Xieling Sect had come for Geng Zhi's secret and had ended up serving as a pathfinding stone for both demon sects.
The captive had said just now that the Huanyin Sect had close ties with the demon clans. The spider demon that had attacked him and Huaimin earlier had likely been dispatched by them, only to be thwarted by the Western Religion.
In that case...
Given the Lan River Water Mansion's connections with the demon clans, General Manager Black Catfish, who bore a deadly grudge against him, was bound to know something. That was why the crab demon under him had acted so brazenly.
The crab demon had gone to the Hawk's Beak Mountain God Temple, and then visited the Yishui River God's Mansion.
Having received word from the great black catfish demon, those Divine Way deities had grown emboldened, which was why their hostility toward Qin Xuan had become increasingly blatant.
Thinking up to this point...
From these disparate details, Qin Xuan had nearly untangled the entire situation across the commandery city, connecting everything that had unfolded in recent days.
The Western Religion from Xiniuhezhou, alongside the two demon sects from Nanshanbuzhou—the Renmao Sect and the Huanyin Sect—were currently locked in conflict with the local powers of the Eastern Ascendant Continent, Guanjiang Mountain and Chongjin Pass. Meanwhile, the demon clans and Divine Way forces watched from the sidelines, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
These orthodox lineages were engaged in a high-stakes game. Whatever the orchestrators behind the scenes intended to accomplish, it was not something a mere Embryonic Breathing Realm Qi Refining cultivator like him could meddle in.
The thought left him with lingering dread.
Yet he was already trapped on the board, unable to see the whole picture clearly, having been dragged into the fray without even realizing it.
Everything that had taken place in the commandery city during this period was now almost entirely clear to Qin Xuan...
Mist cloaked Hawk's Beak Mountain as the night deepened into ink.
Qin Xuan leaped onto a precarious crag. White vapor swirled all around him, obscuring the vegetation only inches away. Gazing toward Pingyuan Commandery City in the distance, he could see only a dim trace of yellow along the horizon, the city walls and towers completely indistinguishable.
"Seeking immortality and inquiring into the Dao is truly no easy task."
He murmured to himself, and the little red fox on his shoulder chimed in: "Young Master, my grandfather always says that so long as you don't end up as a corpse in a coffin, there is no trouble that cannot be solved."
"Your grandfather is right."
Qin Xuan set his worries aside and smiled. "What else did your grandfather say?"
Mei'er narrowed her eyes and smiled. "Grandfather also said that to be a fox, one must be clever, and one must also learn how to bewitch people."
"Have you learned?"
"Not yet. Young Master, could you let me try bewitching you? Mei'er hasn't had the chance to practice yet."
"Fine. If you can actually bewitch me, I'll consider your cultivation a success."
Bantering with her lightened his mood.
He made up his mind that once he returned to the city, he would inform Senior Mao of everything that had happened here.
He had to be in the know so he could seize the initiative.
Otherwise, he would constantly feel unsafe.
Carrying the disheveled man's corpse, he retraced his steps to the spot where Shi Biao had been reduced to ashes.
Arriving here, his connection with the cat grew noticeably clearer. Following that sense along the way, he had not gone far before he finally discovered the group's encampment.
A sunken basin suddenly opened up before his eyes.
Mountains encircled it on all four sides like an embrace. Viewed from afar, the raised ground in the very center resembled a colossal burial mound, its partially collapsed earthen seal overgrown with mugwort and briars.
Descending into the depression, Qin Xuan spotted a stone beast half-buried in the soil. Beside it stood monumental stone human statues used in the ceremonial guard of honor for vassal kings. Though decapitated, missing arms, and leaning askew, the imperial grandeur of the past remained vaguely recognizable.
Moving forward, he could faintly make out several pitch-black cavern mouths that resembled bottomless tomb passages.
As the wind swept past, a wailing sound drifted from within the caverns.
Footprints coming and going marked the ground in abundance. Qin Xuan leaped down into one of the openings.
Inside lay an entirely different world, partitioned into neat earthen chambers. Each chamber resembled a sleeping quarter, and judging by the utensils within, it was precisely where the Renmao Sect cultists usually resided.
This had to be the place.
Ancient luminescent fluorspar stones dotted the ceiling, identical in style to the ones in the false tomb where the painted immortal maiden had resided.
It truly was the Pingyuan King's tomb.
The moment he entered this place, Qin Xuan felt an overwhelming sense of danger, as though something were watching him at every single moment.
"Young Master, over that way!"
Many underground passages branched out, and it was impossible to tell which one led into the tomb's depths. Even with the little fox pointing the way and his mental bond guiding him to the cat, he remained exceptionally cautious.
After advancing a hundred paces, the path ahead abruptly ended.
Before him was a gaping, bottomless pit!
The surrounding walls were a mixture of stone and earth, while the depths below were completely black and impossible to see into. Only continuous gusts of dark yin ghost wind and evil qi surged up from deep beneath the earth.
Qin Xuan did not dare look down, constantly sensing that he might meet the gaze of some demon or monster.
Suspended from the ceiling right beside the abyss were seven wooden cages, dripping with blood.
Qin Xuan looked up, his eyes nearly tearing at the seams. Inside each cage was a child; the eldest was no more than ten, while the youngest was barely seven or eight. Boys and girls alike had been stripped of their clothes, and the blood was dripping directly from their bodies.
The fat cat was locked in another cage, drooping listlessly. Catching sight of Qin Xuan, it was overcome with joy and let out a loud "Meow!"
Ignoring the cat for now, Qin Xuan hurriedly took down all the wooden cages hanging overhead.
Remnants of food scraps mingled with excrement inside the cages, giving off a foul stench.
"Not dead! This one still has breath too!"
Surprise and joy showed on his face. The children's feet had all been slashed open with sharp blades to drain their blood; this was the method the Renmao Sect used to lure the ancient yaksha ghosts lurking in the tomb.
Fury blazed within him, making him want to slaughter every last one of those fiends.
He quickly dissolved several pellets of qi-replenishing bait and fed them to the children along with spirit dew.
He gave the largest share to one of the children, but the injuries proved too severe, and the child could not be saved.
"Young Master, you did your best."
Seeing the deep compassion in his eyes, the little fox felt immense reassurance; that very compassion had once saved her as well.
Qin Xuan sighed softly, covered the deceased child with a piece of clothing, and then gave a gratified smile, for six of them had survived.
"Meow~"
The cat cried out again, looking at Qin Xuan imploringly. Qin Xuan still paid it no mind, looking instead at several stalks of spirit grass growing along the cliff wall of the bottomless chasm.
"Are these what you wanted?"
"Yes!"
Mei'er said excitedly, "That is jeweled-canopy spirit grass, a great medicine! For the demon clans, it can even be considered a lightning-struck treasure medicine capable of refining demon blood, with the miraculous effect of reshaping one's bones and shedding one's mortal frame."
"I only need one stalk. Even if you cannot take the rest, Young Master, selling them will fetch a tremendous price."
Qin Xuan gazed down at the great pit leading straight into the depths of the tomb, unsure of how to retrieve them. If they were easy to obtain, the Renmao Sect cultists would not have left them untouched.
"How should I retrieve them?"
The little fox glanced at him. "The wind blowing up from beneath this tomb is the dark yin ghost wind, and it carries Soul-Eroding Cold Evil. The former can trigger immense demonic thoughts and cause one's soul to lose control, while the latter can corrode spiritual qi and make one lose their mind. The people from the Renmao Sect couldn't possibly harvest it."
"Beneath this deep pit lurk many ancient ghosts. A single misstep, and one will perish here."
"I... truth be told, I don't know either. But you seem to possess a pure qi on your person, Young Master, like the substance contained within the spirit dew. If you use that pure qi to defend yourself, you can withstand the dark yin ghost wind and the Soul-Eroding Cold Evil, making plucking the treasure grass quite effortless."
With that, she looked at him with an expectant, nervous gaze: "Young Master, can you do it?"
"I can."
Qin Xuan nodded, then instructed, "Close your eyes and don't peek. If you look, I'll feed you to a fiend."
"Oh, okay!" Mei'er obediently shut her eyes, even clamping her little paws tightly over them for double assurance.
Qin Xuan then barked up at the fat cat overhead, "Close your eyes as well, or I'll pluck off your bells before feeding you to a fiend!"
"Meow-ow-ow-ow~!"
The fat cat let out a startled cry and immediately spun around, presenting its rear toward Qin Xuan to show that it would never peek.
Qin Xuan had no idea where any pure qi was supposed to come from, but he figured that even without it, it wouldn't really matter.
Without hesitation, he circulated the Taiyin Soul Transformation Art and released his fiend...
……
Chapter 48