Tying Up Loose Ends

Night fell. After Lu Yang dug up the Heaven Herding Grass, the Golden Core cultivators fell from its thrall, lying motionless in the marshland. If anyone happened to stumble into this place and witnessed the scene of corpses strewn everywhere, they would flee immediately in terror, fearful of whatever uncanny presence lingered here. A grey figure drifted down from the sky. Seeing the utter shambles before him, he picked up the useless remnant roots of the Heaven Herding Grass, his brow furrowing deeply. "Who did this?!" Fury surged within his chest. Years of preparation had been ruined in a single stroke; this matter demanded a reckoning. He had been far away in the Demon Domain when he suddenly lost all sense of the Heaven Herding Grass's movements, prompting him to rush over immediately. Regrettably, he had arrived too late. The Heaven Herding Grass had already been harvested. "Rewind!" His hands formed incantation seals—intricate, ancient, and moving fast enough to leave behind afterimages. This was a grand divine ability in his repertoire, capable of retracing time to view past events. A screen of light materialized before him. On it, a Golden Core cultivator uprooted the Heaven Herding Grass by its roots; this was the furthest back in time his ability could reach. "What insolence! A mere Golden Core junior dares ruin this venerable one's great work! "This face... I'll remember you!" The grey figure gritted his teeth, glaring viciously at Lu Yang. Even if he had to search heaven and earth, he was determined to track Lu Yang down, reclaim the Heaven Herding Grass, and tear him into ten thousand pieces! "I'm just a nobody. Why bother remembering me?" a lazy voice chimed in from the side. "Who's there?!" The grey figure startled. The loss of the Heaven Herding Grass had thrown his mind into disarray; in his agitation, he hadn't noticed someone standing nearby. "It's you! You dare show your face before me?!" The grey figure's eyes narrowed upon recognizing Lu Yang's appearance. Ruining his grand plan, plucking his Heaven Herding Grass, and having the gall to show up—did this junior take him for some kind of pushover who lacked a temper? Wait, no. He's only in the Golden Core stage. No matter how agitated I was, it would be impossible for me not to notice a Golden Core cultivator hiding right beside me. It was a trap! He shot toward the sky, attempting to flee, only to see an immense net plummet from above and envelop him. "Cultivating Heaven Herding Grass in secret and slaughtering living beings! Either face execution on the spot, or come back obediently with me to stand trial!" Commander Zeng stepped slowly out from another fold of space, standing beside Lu Yang with eyes blazing with anger. Ten Void Refining cultivators manipulated the Heavenly Net. No matter what techniques the grey figure employed, he could not break free from its confinement. Commander Zeng narrowed his eyes. The methods the grey figure used were remarkably ancient, unlike anything practiced by Body Integration cultivators of the current era. "It seems he is an ancient Body Integration cultivator secretly cultivating Heaven Herding Grass to refine into pills and elevate his realm." A Void Refining cultivator's cultivation fluctuated wildly, but that didn't mean they were completely incapable of taking action. These ten Void Refining cultivators' cultivations were fluctuating as well, but they could ensure that at any given moment, two of them stood at the Body Integration stage. Coupled with Commander Zeng on the ground, that made three Body Integration cultivators—more than enough to activate the Heavenly Net. The Heavenly Net was a secret treasure from the Great Xia Dynasty's treasury, stationed at Demon Quelling Pass as one of their trump cards against demon race invasions. So long as their target wasn't an elder of the Dao Seeking Sect, the Heavenly Net could suppress any Body Integration cultivator. The grey figure clearly lacked the prowess of a Dao Seeking Sect elder; otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to cultivate Heaven Herding Grass in the first place. "Take him away!" Commander Zeng barked the order, and the ten Void Refining cultivators hauled the grey figure back toward Demon Quelling Pass. "How did you know there was someone behind the Heaven Herding Grass?" Commander Zeng asked curiously on the return journey. "Even the Heaven Herding Grass itself had no idea it was being cultivated by someone." That was the result Commander Zeng had gotten from interrogating the Heaven Herding Grass personally. "The grass didn't know because the mastermind likely modified its memories," Lu Yang said. "There are two reasons I suspected someone was behind it. "First, the location of the Heaven Herding Grass was too much of a coincidence. Its ability is controlling Golden Core cultivators, and the exact spot where it appeared happened to have the dense forest's highest concentration of Golden Core demon beasts and cultivators. It was as if someone deliberately planted it there to make foraging easy for it." "I considered that as well, but couldn't it genuinely have been a coincidence?" "That brings me to the second reason. Commander Zeng might not know this, but during my battle with the Heaven Herding Grass, it first used an array formation to disrupt my Directional Teleportation Talisman. Those talismans are crafted by Nascent Soul cultivators, while the grass only controlled Golden Core cultivators; there was no way it could have learned how to interrupt a Directional Teleportation Talisman from Golden Core puppets. "Furthermore, it used the Mountain Shifting Grand Array to displace the entire marshland—another array formation that the Heaven Herding Grass shouldn't have known. "Someone had to have taught the grass these techniques for self-preservation, and then modified its memories out of fear that it might expose his existence. "Since the Heaven Herding Grass allows a Body Integration cultivator to advance by a minor sub-stage, that person was bound to be at the Body Integration stage. "Such an important asset would definitely have a tracking mark placed on it. Once the mark vanished, he would be sure to come check. That was why I asked Commander Zeng to step in and lay an ambush here for the mastermind." Commander Zeng waved a hand dismissively. "How could you call it asking a favor of me? This is my duty as commander. If anything, I should be thanking you. If not for you, who knows how much longer that Heaven Herding Grass and the mastermind behind it would have remained hidden, and how many more lives they would have claimed." Chatting as they walked, the two returned to Demon Quelling Pass. Commander Zeng had to interrogate the grey figure through the night, so he parted ways with Lu Yang. Lu Yang arrived at the inn, where Meng Jingzhou and the other two had already bought a spread of good dishes to celebrate Lu Yang's breakthrough to the Golden Core stage. "Come, come, come! A toast to Lu Yang's breakthrough to the Golden Core stage—cheers!" The four raised their cups and drank them down in hearty gulps. "Now that Lu Yang has advanced to the Golden Core stage, the three of us need to speed up our progress too. I've got a bit of an idea. What about you two?" Meng Jingzhou asked. "I'm considering condensing a Golden Core related to illusions. As for how to form it, I still need to look into it," Tao Yao said. "I haven't figured out what kind of Golden Core I want to condense yet," Man Gu said, scratching his head with an embarrassed grin. "No rush. We have plenty of time. At our age, aside from Lu Yang, the three of us cultivate faster than anyone else around. There's no need to rush too much," Meng Jingzhou cautioned Man Gu not to be impatient. Man Gu nodded, acknowledging the advice. "I need to return to the sect to consolidate my realm. A flying boat happens to be leaving tomorrow, so I won't be heading into the dense forest with you guys." The three understood completely. Lu Yang was already at the Golden Core stage; if he continued hunting demon beasts with them in the dense forest, they wouldn't feel the slightest sense of danger, and the effectiveness of their experiential training would be severely compromised. Early the next morning, Lu Yang bought some local specialties from Demon Quelling Pass, packed up the Heaven Herding Grass, bid farewell to Meng Jingzhou and the other two, and boarded the flying boat. Lu Yang chose not to fly back to the Dao Seeking Sect under his own power for two reasons. First, the distance between Demon Quelling Pass and the Dao Seeking Sect was too vast; a Golden Core cultivator's spiritual energy reserves weren't sufficient, requiring lengthy stops to rest, which made it inefficient. Second, Lu Yang had a fear of heights. Naturally, it was mainly the first reason. Inside the flying boat's cabin, Lu Yang prepared to inspect this glittering Invincible Core. Entering his spiritual space, he found the Immortal Fairy fast asleep. She truly slept without regard for day or night. "Mmh... Lu Yang, you're here?" The Immortal Fairy rubbed her eyes, greeting Lu Yang groggily. Lu Yang had originally intended to ask the Immortal Fairy what uses the Invincible Core had, but as the words reached his lips, he changed his mind: "Fairy, how about you sleep a little longer?" "Works for me." The Immortal Fairy flopped back down and instantly fell fast asleep. Lu Yang: "..." I was just being polite!