Chapter 383: Chapter 137: Signs of Mutation, Killing Steward Jian
The torches burned brightly, illuminating one deserted island after another, with the shadows of trees and shrubs flickering, and the birds and beasts on the island scattered in all directions.
The three hundred demon soldiers searched an entire night and even dragged out more than ten hiding cultivists on the surrounding deserted islands, interrogating them severely one by one, but those cultivists were all clueless and confused, none knew anything about the disappearance.
As dawn approached...
The demon soldier leader leapt into the sea again, grabbing a steel fork while swimming around.
As it swam, it suddenly shivered and raised its head to look, seeing a line of dense black smoke like a black screen blocking ahead.
The world lost its color, like a ghost wall standing strong, rooted in the ground, reaching up to the sky.
"Evil Spirit Reef Realm... the ghostly aura is that thick now." The leader couldn’t help but mutter.
"Boss, shall we go over and check it out?" a demon soldier asked.
The demon soldier leader looked at the billowing black smoke of the reef realm, a strong feeling of disgust arising from its heart. Instinctively, it didn’t want to approach that ghostly place, so it looked at the sky and said coldly, "No one would hide over there, let’s go back... we’ve caught some cultivists already, we can report back."
As it turned to leave, a keen-smelling demon soldier nearby sniffed and said, "Boss, I... I seem to smell incense."
Upon hearing this, the demon soldier leader’s huge body immediately froze. It stiffly turned its neck and sniffed again, saying, "I don’t smell anything, did you smell wrong?"
Another demon soldier beside said, "Who would light incense here? Are they crazy? Even the remnants of the Illusion Mountain Sect’s cultivists wouldn’t dare to violate this taboo, would they?"
The keen-smelling demon soldier sniffed again, the smell of seawater mixed with an inexplicable coldness in the air, stimulating its body and mind. The demon soldier said, "Maybe I smelled it wrong."
"You definitely smelled it wrong, no one would burn incense here. Even if they did, it would disperse in no time, and you wouldn’t smell it." Another demon soldier said, "Without worshipping those ghostly things, where would the incense come from that doesn’t disperse?"
The demon soldier leader, seeing the conclusion reached, impatiently said, "Return!"
A row of demon soldiers escorted the captured cultivists, splitting waves, heading north.
To these demon soldiers, escorting cultivists who no longer had flying swords was as easy as holding a chicken.
...
...
Dawn...
Golden beams of light slanted down onto the dwelling of the Bixiu Island cultivists, following the waterfall over the pond.
Early in the morning, many cultivists had already gathered here.
But with the "Purity Pill" crafted by Li Xuan, the cultivists came here no longer for washing but to fetch water or enjoy some morning sunshine.
This time was a precious luxury for the unfortunate cultivists surviving in the tunnels.
Li Xuan lay in his mud hut.
Tong Jia’s strong legs were still entwined around him, pressing tightly.
As a partner, Tong Jia never asked Li Xuan about the past.
Perhaps she didn’t dare to ask, or perhaps she thought there was nothing curious about a cultivist escaping from the Cloud Top Heaven Island?
In times of distress, with no family left, managing to find a suitable man to live with, Tong Jia thought she was already blessed.
Li Xuan was pondering about the Upper Jingyu Country.
He wondered if those demons had done some searching.
But no matter, he would visit that Demon Country again.
Next time, he would go in a different guise, not using a cultivist’s flying sword, but with the power of demons and monsters.
Get up.
Have a meal.
Organize the Vermilion Flame Vine harvested yesterday, preparing for alchemy.
Gather around the Yin Ore to cultivate.
Have a meal.
Continue cultivating at night.
The partner yawned, calling to go home for sleep.
Li Xuan’s day quickly passed.
The next day, he spent an entire day completing alchemy by the underground pond.
The rising smoke would be partly veiled by the mist from the pond’s waterfall, alongside the spells cast by nearby cultivists creating much commotion.
After one day...
The Spirit Gathering Pill was done.
This time, a batch yielded 58 pills.
As usual, Li Xuan took 4 pills, handing the rest over to Lu Yanwu for distribution.
When Lu Yanwu was distributing, Li Xuan saw Steward Jian once again stepping out from the crowd, whispering something to Lu Yanwu, who then handed her two Spirit Gathering Pills.
Steward Jian took the Spirit Gathering Pills and turned to give them to her partner—Xu Zishi.
Xu Zishi was overjoyed, even putting his arm around Steward Jian in public.
Steward Jian also leaned in docilely.
The two displayed a truly loving manner, clearly having become partners!
Others respected Steward Jian, leading to an extension of respect towards Xu Zishi as well.
Xu Zishi’s demeanor had changed, from his initial timidness to a more inexplicably arrogant attitude.
Li Xuan quietly glanced at the two without saying anything, yet inside he felt a strange, awkward sensation... knowing that Steward Jian initially showed kindness to him.
If he were just an ordinary cultivist, he might have fallen into the trap, and the one cuddling with Steward Jian would be him.
The feeling of disgust in his heart grew stronger.
...
...
In a blink, several days passed.
Li Xuan, under the pretext of gathering herbs, came again to a deserted island.
Tong Jia wanted to come with him, but he directly refused.
After skillfully harvesting the Vermilion Flame Vine, he took out incense brought from Great Zhou from the deserted island.
He lit it.
Incense smoke curled upwards, drilling underground following Li Xuan’s intention.
Suddenly...
"Hm?"
Li Xuan looked at the incense smoke in surprise.
Usually, the smooth path of the incense smoke was strangely swaying today.
’Incense smoke that wouldn’t be disturbed by the strongest winds, why is it swaying today?’
Li Xuan was somewhat puzzled, watching the twisting incense smoke swaying left and right as if many people were blowing on it from the side, one after another, the smoke remained intact but horribly twisted.
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