Chapter 36: Chapter 33 Storm_1
Soon, the body of Liu Xingren was completely devoured by a dozen mountain wolves.
Lu Yan turned around and left, finding a hidden crevice in a cliff. He picked a leaf similar to banana leaf, wrapped the ’Vajra Body’ secret scripture and silver tickets in it, and placed it into the crevice, blocking the opening with a stone.
Not only was the crevice hidden, but its location was excellent. Rainwater wouldn’t seep in, so the silver tickets wouldn’t be dampened by the rain.
After having hidden everything, Lu Yan swiftly returned to the bandit hideout.
The Martial Marquises from the Liu Family had not returned yet.
Lu Yan went to the location where he had fought with Liu Xingren, found the scattered scales on the ground and buried them, then went into the bandit hideout and approached the altar.
Even with previous preparation, the sight of the altar still startled Lu Yan.
The men of the Red Sleeve Army stood upright on the altar, all their eyeballs and hearts missing.
There were even two Red-clad Guards and Wind Patrol members standing on the altar.
The remaining Red-clad Guards and Wind Patrol members were sitting around the altar with placid expressions on their faces, their eyes closed, not moving. But from their breaths, it was obvious they were still alive.
"Luck, I guess," Lu Yan thought to himself.
He assumed that the Martial Spirit was intending to use all the Red-clad Guards and Wind Patrol members as sacrifices for the Demonizing Ceremony. It was obvious that the ceremony was interrupted before its completion when the two Martial Marquises from the Liu Family arrived, allowing these people to be saved.
"Should I move all the silver taels away?"
Lu Yan pondered but eventually dismissed the thought.
The Liu Family’s Martial Marquises might return any moment. If discovered while moving the silver taels, he would have no words to defend himself.
Additionally, if the bandit lair was empty of silver, it would look strange and could lead to questioning from the Liu Family’s higher-ups, causing unnecessary trouble.
Better to be cautious and not too greedy.
Mimicking the Red-clad Guards, Lu Yan sat cross-legged beside the altar, closed his eyes, and quietly waited.
Time passed slowly, and the sky began to brighten.
"Eh, what happened to me?"
"Why am I sitting here?"
"That’s...the Martial Spirit’s Demonizing Ceremony."
Voice after voice descended from around him.
Lu Yan opened his eyes at the appropriate time, revealing a look of bafflement.
The Red-clad Guards and Wind Patrol members around the altar were all waking up. They were no fools; seeing the sight on the altar, they naturally understood what had transpired and showed expressions of lingering fear.
However, they were also curious about what had interrupted the Martial Spirit’s Demonizing Ceremony and saved their lives.
And where did the Martial Spirit go?
Lu Yan mingled in the crowd, aptly showing an expression of confusion and fear.
At this moment, Lu Yan felt something and looked towards the bandit hideout.
Two burly old men were hurrying here.
"Clan Elders, they’re Clan Elders."
"We pay our respects to the Clan Elders."
The Red-clad Guards collectively knelt down.
The members of the Wind Patrol, however, looked fearful.
If the Liu family’s two Martial Marquises were to take action against them, none of them would escape.
However, the two Martial Marquises clearly didn’t intend to harm them, they merely glanced at them and said, "You’re awake."
"Clan Elder, were you the ones who saved us? Thank you for rescuing us."
The more intelligent ones kneeled down to express their gratitude.
"Mm, the Martial Spirit has been driven back by us."
One of the Liu family’s Clan Elders nodded.
The Red-clad Guards all thanked them in unison and Lu Yan also followed the crowd to express gratitude.
"Where is Xingren? Why isn’t he here? Has anyone seen him?"
The other Clan Elder asked.
Before they entered the hideout, they had searched for Liu Xingren in the surrounding area but found no trace of him. They thought he had entered the bandit hideout.
However, there was also no trace of Liu Xingren after they entered the hideout.
The crowd looked at each other in bewilderment.
Liu Xingren? They hadn’t seen him.
All they remembered was entering the hideout, seeing the Martial Spirit performing the Demonizing Ceremony, just about to flee when their heads spun, plunging them into darkness. When they woke up, it was already like this.
Liu Xingren, wasn’t he with them all along? Why can’t he be found?
A sense of impending doom vaguely formed in the hearts of the two clan elders from the Liu Family.
Just then, two figures rushed over quickly.
An elderly man, who looked to be in his sixties, and another a little younger, around forty.
But they had one thing in common: they were tall and robust.
The two Martial Marquises of Liu Family were already quite burly, but these two men were even more so.
Their height was probably similar to the Liu’s Martial Marquises, about 2.2 meters, but they were bulkier, their bodies covered with thick fat and muscle, just like two giant bears.
"Clan Elder, it’s the Clan Elder."
"Greetings, Clan Elders."
This time, it was the turn of the Wind Patrol to be overjoyed.
These two men were indeed the two Wu’s Martial Marquises.
The men of the Wind Patrol finally breathed a sigh of relief. Facing the two Martial Marquises of the Liu Family earlier, they were under extreme pressure.
The gap between a Martial Marquis and a non-Martial Marquis was enormous.
Without a Martial Marquis to anchor it, a clan could not even be called a feudal lord, much less possess a ’Blood Land Vein’
"Liu Yuansong, Liu Yuanfu, you two arrived quite early. I heard that a Martial Spirit appeared here. Well, where is the Martial Spirit? Did you kill it?" The elder man from the Wu Family said.
"Old Wu, stop probing. You’ve seen it yourself; the Martial Spirit is in the midst of the demonizing ceremony, about to step into becoming a Martial Marquis. Even if the two of us joined forces, we would find it hard to kill it. We could only severely wound it, but in the end, it still escaped," said Liu Yuansong, one of the Martial Marquises from the Liu Family.
"Escaped?"
The two Wu Marquises were not entirely convinced, but they had arrived too late and encountered nothing, thus they couldn’t ascertain whether Liu Yuansong’s claim was truthful or not.
However, Lu Yan deciphered some inferred meanings from their conversation.
First, a Martial Spirit can be killed. It didn’t really have an immortal body, but it was very hard to kill.
Secondly, Liu Yuansong deliberately concealed information about the Ancestor of Liu Family being here before. But why?
Does it indicate that the Ancestor of Liu Family had the capability to kill the Martial Spirit and had even killed or captured it already? But he didn’t want the Wu Family to know?
Last night, only the two Martial Marquises of Liu Family, Liu Xingren, and Lu Yan saw the Ancestor of Liu Family come here.
Liu Xingren was now dead, and besides the two Martial Marquises, only Lu Yan knew about it.
He planned to keep this information to himself.
If he were to spread the news, he wouldn’t even know how he’d end up dead.
The two Wu’s Martial Marquises, knowing that they couldn’t extract any information from Liu Yuansong and Liu Yuanfu, let out a cold command: "Search!"
"Search everything together!"
Liu Yuansong also gave the order.
Quickly, the silver ingots of the Red Sleeve Army were discovered.
The two great clans would naturally not start a war over this small amount of Silver Tael, thus they discussed and equally divided up the find. Subsequently, they each led their people away from here, returning to Changfeng City, leaving behind only a few people to look for Liu Xingren.
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed with no trace of Liu Xingren. Everyone acknowledged that Liu Xingren’s prospects were grim.
The higher-ups of the Liu Family were furious and issued an order for a thorough investigation.
The two Martial Marquises of the Liu Family were clear that Liu Xingren was not killed by the Martial Spirit. If he didn’t die by the Martial Spirit’s hand, then he must have been killed by a human hand.
During this time, those who participated in subduing the rebellion that day were all called in for questioning one by one.
But Lu Yan’s cover was clean, and since he was only a second limit-breaker, who would suspect him. In the end, after some hassle, the matter was dropped.
Meanwhile, news came from Wu Family’s side that Wu Chaokong, a promising figure in the current Wu Family generation, also disappeared on Juchi Mountain.
Lu Yan suspected that Wu Chaokong was most likely killed by the Martial Spirit.
Initially, Wu Chaokong and Liu Xingren fought against the Martial Spirit together, but in the end, one died and the other got injured.
Wu Chaokong was killed in the wilderness, and his body was probably eaten by beasts, leaving no trace. It would be strange if they could find anything.
A month had passed since the incident of going into the mountain to suppress the rebellion, and it was only then that things started to slowly settle down.
At this time, Lu Yan, after changing his appearance, quietly went into the mountain and retrieved the ’Vajra Body’ secret manual and the silver tickets.
He counted; there were altogether 6,000 Silver Taels worth of tickets.
Adding to this the more than 1,000 Taels he had not yet spent, he now had possession of a huge sum of over 7,000 Silver Taels.
"Vajra Body."
Lu Yan opened the secret manual and started reading it carefully.
