Devouring Soul Emperor

Chapter 333: Chapter 333: Only the Martial Soul Hall

"If he won’t take on any missions, we can just lure him out."

"Start with the people around him. Then you can lead him out. As long as we get him far away from the County City, everything will be easy. And while we’re at it... we can get rid of that guy named Xia He, too."

Mu suggested after a moment’s thought.

"Impossible! If I do that, the chance of me being exposed is too high!"

When he heard he would be the one to lead Chu Qingyun out, Liu Canghai immediately refused.

"You won’t do it?"

Mu sneered. "Over the past few days, we’ve ambushed and killed a total of one hundred twenty-four Small Spirit Realm Guard Generals from the Celestial Wind Army. Would you like me to recite their names for you, Lord Guardian Liu?"

"You..."

Liu Canghai gritted his teeth, feeling utterly helpless.

He was in too deep now. There was no getting out easily. His only choice was to see it through to the bitter end...

「The next morning.」

He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but Chu Qingyun felt that his Primordial Power seemed to have become a bit looser, not as condensed as before.

He had received a complete inheritance of the Alchemy Dao. He not only had a deep understanding of alchemy, but he also knew a great deal about the use of elixirs.

Elixirs might seem to have no side effects. After using one, you don’t suffer from obvious physical harm or a period of weakness, unlike with some low-level Secret Techniques.

However, as an Alchemist, Chu Qingyun knew that elixirs which forcibly increased one’s strength could not be used frequently.

Take the Violent Yuan Pill, for example. After consuming it, one’s Primordial Power would go berserk, causing a drastic increase in strength.

But if one used Violent Yuan Pills frequently, the constant berserking of Primordial Power would cause the Primordial Power, and even the Primordial Liquid in one’s Qi Sea, to become loose and lose its density.

The downside to this was obvious: it would directly cause one’s own strength to weaken over time and could even damage their Martial Dao foundation.

It was just like the five first-level Martial Spirits from the Martial Soul Hall that Chu Qingyun had encountered before.

As for elixirs like the Green Wind Swift Shadow Pill and the Giant Elephant Frenzy Pill, while they didn’t have this problem, consuming too many of them would lead to building a tolerance.

This so-called tolerance meant that the more one consumed a certain type of elixir, the less effective it would be in the future.

For example, if you consumed too many Spirit Level strength-enhancing elixirs, their effect would get weaker and weaker.

Even if you then took King-level or even higher-grade elixirs, as long as they were for enhancing strength, the effect would be greatly diminished.

Because elixirs are so precious, ordinary Martial Artists only use them as a last resort, so this issue never arises for them. However, Alchemists—especially those who also wish to achieve something in the Martial Dao—must pay attention to this problem!

Aside from these two problems, there was another aspect Chu Qingyun had always paid close attention to: a sense of complacency in his heart.

On the path of the Martial Dao, the most fundamental things were one’s own Primordial Power, Martial Soul, body, Sword Techniques, and even Secret Techniques. Elixirs, in the end, were merely external objects.

They were fine to use in an emergency, but over-reliance on them would severely impact one’s own Martial Dao.

This principle was the same as when Chu Qingyun obtained a Puppet in the Martial Master Realm. He only ever used it at critical moments and never became dependent on it.

’Elixirs can be sold for money, but I can’t become too dependent on them... Wait, I think I still have two outstanding payments of Military Merits I haven’t collected...’

Speaking of selling for money, Chu Qingyun suddenly remembered he had two outstanding batches of Military Merits.

One was from the Dueling Stage. The captains who had challenged him and lost didn’t have enough Military Merits to pay him at the time. He wondered if they had paid up after all this time.

The other was from the Cloud-Mo Village mission. The Great Xia Dragon Guard had delayed the reward payout because they needed to confirm that Mo Tianyun was truly dead.

Although neither sum of Military Merits seemed like a lot to the current Chu Qingyun, no one would ever complain about having too many merits, so he decided to go and collect them.

As he walked, Chu Qingyun noticed that the atmosphere within the Great Xia Dragon Guard’s encampment seemed to have become very tense again. It reminded him of when he and Sun Daxiong first arrived.

’Did something happen again?’

Chu Qingyun was a bit puzzled.

He had been focused on his life-or-death challenges and matters concerning elixirs these past few days, so he hadn’t paid much attention to other affairs. Naturally, he was unaware that over a hundred Small Spirit Realm Guard Generals had died outside the city.

Within the Great Xia Dragon Guard, anyone who reached the Spirit Realm was specially given a Soul-Imbued Talisman.

Thus, when the hundred-plus Small Spirit Realm members were ambushed and killed by the Martial Soul Hall, each death was discovered shortly after it happened.

At first, no one paid it much mind. After all, casualties during missions were quite normal. But as more and more Soul-Imbued Talismans shattered, it gradually attracted attention and raised alarm.

The Military Merits from the Dueling Stage had long been paid off. A total of 4,925 Military Merits were transferred to Chu Qingyun in a single payment.

’Strange, the Dueling Stage seems much quieter than usual...’

Chu Qingyun shook his head, muttering to himself, and headed for the mission office. But when he arrived, he only grew more puzzled.

The mission office was also noticeably deserted.

’This doesn’t make any sense. Both the Dueling Stage and the mission office serve all Six Armies of the Great Xia Dragon Guard.’

’Logically speaking, even if they aren’t bustling with activity every day, they shouldn’t be this deserted.’

The mission to kill Mo Tianyun had also been confirmed.

After all, when Chu Qingyun killed him, many people had been watching. Verifying it posed no difficulty at all.

After the one thousand two hundred Military Merits were credited to his account, Chu Qingyun looked at the person at the mission office and couldn’t help but ask, "Has something happened these past few days? I feel like something is off everywhere I go."

"You don’t know yet, my lord?"

The person looked up, a very surprised expression on their face.

Seeing Chu Qingyun nod, the person explained, "My lord, over the past ten or so days, there has been a massive number of deaths among the Small Spirit Realm Guard Generals across all Six Armies of the Great Xia Dragon Guard. The armies with fewer losses still lost nearly a hundred, while in the Liuyun Army, which has the most, the number is supposedly approaching two hundred."

"Right now, the entire Great Xia Dragon Guard is investigating this matter with all its resources."

"Moreover, all the Small Spirit Realm members who died out there had accepted missions. They were killed on the road while heading out."

"Therefore, the Six Great Army Commanders have all issued an order for the Small Spirit Realm Guard Generals to be cautious about accepting missions during this time, or better yet, not to accept any at all. For missions that absolutely must be done, they are assigned by the Grand Commanders and Military Lords, and many Small Spirit Realm experts are dispatched to go together."

After hearing this, Chu Qingyun instantly recalled being attacked by the Martial Soul Hall on his way back from completing the Iron Blade Gorge and Cloud-Mo Village mission!

To cause the Great Xia Dragon Guard to lose seven or eight hundred Small Spirit Realm experts in just a dozen days... in all of Lianshan County, the only power with such capability... was the Martial Soul Hall!