Chapter 398: Chapter 308: Behind-the-Scenes Scheming (Part 2)
Fang Qingyuan was not stingy in his praise. He took out many delicacies from his Immortal Mansion to reward Jinbao for his bravery. Afterward, he retrieved the rhinoceros’s corpse, tossed it into the Immortal Mansion, and left it for the Bee Queen inside to lead the processing and butchering.
After years of refining elixir pills, the Bee Queen had become quite adept at handling medicinal materials. The body of this Moon-Gazing Rhinoceros contained many parts suitable for alchemy. Once the Bee Queen had picked out the parts it found valuable, the rest would be sorted. The sellable items would be accumulated for Fang Qingyuan to trade for Spirit Stones at Nine Stars Square, while the unsellable parts would be buried in the Immortal Mansion’s black soil to enrich its foundation.
By a rough estimate, this massive, thirty-foot-long rhinoceros could net Fang Qingyuan an income of nearly fifty top-grade Spirit Stones. It was just a pity that demon beasts at the late-stage of Foundation Establishment were already very difficult to find along the fringes of the Barbaric Wilderness.
Moreover, killing this giant Moon-Gazing Rhinoceros came with great risks. For instance, Jinbao, who had been so full of pride just a moment ago, suddenly wore a tense expression. But Fang Qingyuan had already acted a step ahead, sweeping up Jinbao and rapidly fleeing in another direction.
Several dozen breaths after Fang Qingyuan and Jinbao left, a Golden Core Demon Beast appeared on the scene. It sniffed the lingering scent of blood on the ground and instantly flew into a rage. It gave relentless chase in the direction Fang Qingyuan had fled. However, after pursuing for just over a hundred li, the beast stopped, its expression hesitant. In the end, it resentfully turned back.
The territory ahead belonged to another Golden Core Demon Beast. If it crossed the border, it would mean war. It couldn’t risk injury by entering another Golden Core Demon Beast’s domain to hunt down Fang Qingyuan, all for the sake of a single capable subordinate.
Fang Qingyuan was now perched atop a tall, ancient tree. Through his telepathic senses, he knew that the Golden Core Demon Beast with the scorching aura had already departed. This didn’t surprise him. Thanks to the Voice of All Things, he could pinpoint the locations of these Golden Core Demon Beasts well in advance, allowing him to guide Jinbao to safety.
Otherwise, an ordinary Cultivator who killed a late-stage Foundation Establishment demon beast would surely face the wrath of a Golden Core Demon Beast. Without a powerful trump card, most would only dare to drive such beasts away, not kill them.
Even with the advantage of his Divine Technique, Fang Qingyuan didn’t dare to hunt indiscriminately. After all, he couldn’t be certain that he wouldn’t provoke a Golden Core Demon Beast into a frenzy. If several of them were to team up and hunt him relentlessly, he would be forced to flee for his life.
The intelligence of Golden Core Demon Beasts was not much less than that of humans. They only seemed ’naive’ because of their lack of contact with outsiders. But in recent years, Cultivators had been pouring into the Barbaric Wilderness in droves, and these Golden Core Demon Beasts had long since learned to be shrewd.
....
Over the next few days, Fang Qingyuan continued to search for his disciples by following the sect’s markers, all while evading the senses of the Golden Core Demon Beasts. But the deeper he went, the more he felt that something was amiss.
’Logically speaking, a group of Qi Cultivation Cultivators, even if trapped deep in the Barbaric Wilderness, couldn’t possibly have crossed the territories of so many Golden Core Demon Beasts to make it this far. Any further and they would be crossing the territory of the Cloud-Clawed Lizard and entering the domain of Jinbao’s uncle, the Golden Reng Bear Owl Beast.’
Sensing that something was amiss, Fang Qingyuan thought for a moment before disguising himself. He recalled Jinbao into the Immortal Mansion and released tens of thousands of Scorpion-tailed Bees, spreading them out in a fifty-li radius to act as his eyes and ears.
As the number and variety of Bear Beasts began to increase, Fang Qingyuan knew he was approaching the domain of the Golden Reng Bear Owl Beast, Bear Wind. He recalled his first meeting with Bear Wind several years ago, an encounter witnessed by many from the Pill Alliance. This brought to mind a prohibited law of the Great Zhou Academy: the crime of "privately consorting with a Nascent Soul Ancient Beast of the Wilderness." At the thought, Fang Qingyuan’s expression turned grim.
’Could this be a ploy? Are they using the safety of my sect’s disciples to force me into contacting Bear Wind again, just so they can collect evidence to use against me?’
’The Qingyuan Sect was granted a three-generation enfeoffment, so it can’t be attacked openly. Is that why they’ve resorted to such a scheme? Privately consorting with the Ancient Beasts of the Wilderness is a serious crime. While it isn’t a capital offense that would lead to the clan’s extermination, if the charge sticks, the Qingyuan Sect’s righteous claim to its enfeoffment could be revoked.’
’Who could it be? The Zhang Family?’ Fang Qingyuan shook his head. ’The two Foundation Establishment Cultivators of the Zhang Family are still at each other’s throats, fighting for the position of Patriarch. They have no time to worry about the Qingyuan Sect. Besides, the Zhang Family lacks the power for such a plot.’
’The Dongming Sect of the Far East Alliance? Ever since the incident with the Zhang Family, the various powers in the Far East Alliance have certainly grown wary of me. But would they go so far as to lay such a trap?’ Fang Qingyuan dismissed the idea. These Sect Clans, whose strongest members were only at the late-stage of Foundation Establishment, were in no position to get involved in something of this magnitude. ’At the very least, the Pill Alliance wouldn’t sell information to them.’
Fang Qingyuan mentally ran through his hidden enemies, eliminating them one by one, until his focus landed on the Spirit Wood Alliance and the Li Huo Alliance. ’These two major powers have the resources to carry out such an intricate plot. And most importantly, they have a motive.’
’Especially the Li Huo Alliance. In recent years, their territory has expanded significantly toward the Far East Alliance, and in some places, it now borders the Pill Alliance’s lands once again.’
Fang Qingyuan could understand the thirst such a behemoth had for Spiritual Land. The Li Huo Alliance contained tens of thousands of Cultivators and nearly a thousand sects. The number of new Cultivators born each year was in the hundreds. As time went on, all these new Cultivators would require resources. If the alliance didn’t expand outward, it would inevitably descend into a brutal civil war over its own finite resources.
Exporting the risk of war was always preferable to fighting a civil war. What puzzled Fang Qingyuan, however, was that the Li Huo Alliance had just swallowed a swath of territory near Shandu from the Spirit Wood Alliance only a few years ago. ’Why are they so eager to expand again already?’
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