Martial Sage from the Vajra Skill

Chapter 307: Chapter 174: Questioning (2)

"I don’t know who did it, but if I find out, I’ll definitely treat them to a drink," Zhang Yong said with a laugh.

To see these enemies die one after another... there was nothing more gratifying.

...

On Beast King Peak, Cao Jin’s face was murderous.

"Who did this?"

He couldn’t help but roar in anger.

He never imagined that the one time he didn’t go to meet Cao Rong, the man would be killed.

This was another disciple from his Cao Family who had the potential to enter the Inner Sect. Once Cao Rong also entered the Inner Sect, the Cao Family would leap to become the number one family in Qingyuan County.

By then, the so-called Four Great Clans would be no more; the other three would become vassals to his Cao Family.

"I don’t know!" Li Shun, the one who brought the news, shook his head.

They hadn’t even found Cao Rong’s body, so of course they didn’t know who the killer was.

Even if they had, it would have been useless. Too many people in the Purple Sun Sect cultivated the same Cultivation Techniques. Unless you witnessed it yourself, it was impossible to identify the killer based on the corpse alone.

If murderers were so easy to find, people wouldn’t be robbing and killing each other in the first place.

"What did he win at the auction?" Cao Jin asked.

Cao Rong had reached Gang Qi Great Success. If he hadn’t won something valuable, he wouldn’t have been targeted by an expert.

Cao Rong’s skills were not weak either; an ordinary person couldn’t have killed him.

"Reportedly, just a bottle of Ten-Perfection Rejuvenation Pills."

Cao Jin’s brow furrowed deeply. "Is there any other news? Spit it all out at once."

Li Shun hesitated before gritting his teeth. "I heard that when he left the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion, he was with Xu Yang. But nothing happened to Xu Yang..."

The implication was that Xu Yang might know something.

A trace of doubt appeared in Cao Jin’s eyes. "When did he get mixed up with Xu Yang?"

As far as he knew, Cao Rong was supposed to hate Xu Yang. He had even suspected Xu Yang of killing Gu Haoming. How did they suddenly get friendly?

Li Shun shook his head, unable to answer.

"You can go back. I’ll go question that Xu Yang myself," Cao Jin said.

"If I may ask, Senior Brother Cao, what will be done about Sharp Wind Hall?" Li Shun asked, mustering his courage.

He had come all this way, eagerly hoping to find out how Cao Jin would handle Sharp Wind Hall.

He was more or less one of Cao Rong’s lackeys. If Cao Jin abandoned Sharp Wind Hall, people like Zhang Yong, who hated Cao Rong, would surely take their anger out on him.

Cao Jin waved his hand dismissively. "Disband it!"

He had no interest in managing Sharp Wind Hall. In the beginning, it had a decent number of members, twenty or thirty people. But in nearly three years, they had died off until only a dozen or so remained.

How much profit could be squeezed out of a dozen people? It would just demean his status as an Inner Sect Disciple.

Hearing this, Li Shun’s face turned pale.

He wanted to say more, but Cao Jin just roared, "Scram."

He had eagerly run over to curry favor, only to end up like this. Mentally cursing all the women in Cao Jin’s family, Li Shun hurried away.

...

At daybreak, as Xu Yang walked out of his courtyard, he saw Cao Jin approaching him. "I heard you left the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion’s auction with Cao Rong the day before yesterday," Cao Jin demanded.

Xu Yang put on a grief-stricken expression and shook his head. "It’s true that Brother Cao and I left the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion together. We were on good terms, and he invited me to return to the Sect with him. However, I had something to do, so I parted ways with Brother Cao right after we left. I never expected such a tragedy to occur."

Many people had seen him and Cao Rong leaving the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion together. He had anticipated this and simply made something up on the spot.

As for whether Cao Jin believed him, that was Cao Jin’s problem.

Cao Jin might be an Inner Sect Disciple, but his Cultivation was not yet at Marrow Cleansing Minor Achievement. Xu Yang wasn’t afraid of him at all.

’If he tries to ambush me outside the Sect, I’ll just take care of him as well.’

Cao Jin said coldly, "Do you take me for a fool? How could it be such a coincidence? Besides, don’t think I don’t know that you and Cao Rong had no friendship to speak of."

"Every word I’ve said is true. If Senior Brother Cao doesn’t believe me, there’s nothing I can do."

Xu Yang’s expression also turned cold. He ignored Cao Jin and strode away.

"You..."

Cao Jin was furious. He raised his hand, intending to strike, but ultimately, fear of the Sect’s rules made him slowly lower it. He watched Xu Yang’s departing back with murder in his eyes.

’Whether Xu Yang killed Cao Rong or not, with an attitude like that, as long as he dares to leave the Purple Sun Sect, I’ll kill him.’

Unfortunately for him, he had someone watch Xu Yang for several days, but Xu Yang never left the Purple Sun Sect.

Time slowly passed. Sun Tao and two others left the Purple Sun Sect once again to prepare for this year’s Outer Sect Competition. The disciples of their year were all mustering their strength, hoping to secure a good ranking in the competition and enter the Inner Sect in one fell swoop.

The geniuses on the Ten Heroes List were also competing in secret. Each one wanted to be the fourth person to achieve Marrow Cleansing.

Xu Yang rested for a while, then took on a mountain patrol mission. When he wasn’t cultivating, he would guide Xu Qing in her Martial Techniques.

One day, a piece of news spread throughout the Outer Sect: Han Feng, fourth on the Ten Heroes List, had announced his breakthrough to the Marrow Cleansing realm, becoming the fourth among the Ten Heroes Geniuses to do so.

When this news came out, it once again proved to everyone that the rankings on the Ten Heroes List were not wrong.

Half a month later, Xiong Kun, who was fifth, also announced he had achieved Marrow Cleansing.

"Who’s next, Lu Ren or Xie Zhan?" all the Outer Disciples wondered.

Originally, Xie Zhan was sixth on the Ten Heroes List, but in last year’s Outer Sect Competition, Lu Ren defeated him to become the new sixth. Now, everyone wanted to know which of the two was truly the real number six.

Soon, everyone found out who number six was. Half a month after Xiong Kun’s breakthrough, Xie Zhan also announced he had reached Marrow Cleansing, while Lu Ren was still in bitter closed-door cultivation. Everyone concluded that Lu Ren’s victory over Xie Zhan last year had been a fluke.

"I don’t have a family to support me; I have to rely on myself for everything. If I had family support, I would have been confident of reaching Marrow Cleansing a month ago."

In his room, Lu Ren’s face was full of resentment. He had finally managed to surpass Xie Zhan in the rankings, only to have the position snatched back.

He believed his talent was superior to Xie Zhan’s, but because of his poor reputation, no great family was willing to sponsor him. He had to fight for every single resource himself.

"In this year’s Outer Sect Competition, the top three will definitely be Xie Zhan, Xiong Kun, and Han Feng."

"Not necessarily. There’s still over a month until the competition. Maybe Lu Ren will break through."

"Xu Yang didn’t dare to participate in the competition last year. Will he be a coward again this year?"

"He has to participate this year, unless he’s given up on entering the Inner Sect."

"Su Zhe’s loss last year was so pathetic. If he loses to Xu Yang again this year, he’ll probably be too ashamed to show his face."

...

As the competition drew near, talk about it became more frequent. Xu Yang, as the last-ranked of the Ten Heroes, was also mentioned quite often.

Because Su Zhe had challenged him last year and he hadn’t participated, many people were looking forward to a clash between him and Su Zhe in this year’s competition.

Some wanted to see him suffer misfortune, while others hoped he would teach that young master Su Zhe a lesson.

"If Xu Yang dares to get on stage, I can defeat him in ten moves."

Su Zhe shouted publicly, "Xu Yang, are you going to keep being a coward in his shell again this year?"

Just like last year, he began to challenge Xu Yang from a distance.

Hearing this, Xu Qing’s anger flared. If her brother were to show his full strength, he could crush Su Zhe with a single finger.

"Brother, you’re going to participate in the competition this year, right?" she found Xu Yang, fuming. "You have to help me give that Su Zhe guy a good thrashing. He’s so annoying, trying to use you to make a name for himself!"

Xu Yang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The way Xu Qing spoke, it was as if she were the one being challenged by Su Zhe.

"He’s not just trying to use me to make a name for himself. We have a bit of a grudge between us."

Xu Yang laughed. "Don’t worry about it. A buffoon like him... I can crush him anytime. You can’t kill people in the Outer Sect Competition, so arguing is just a waste of breath. Let him shout all he wants.

"Let me teach you a principle: if you don’t act, fine. But when you do, it must be a killing blow. If you can’t guarantee a one-hit kill, then you continue to lay low, lull the enemy into a false sense of security, and strike to kill when they let their guard down."

Xu Qing nodded thoughtfully. "I get what you mean. The dog that bites is the one that doesn’t bark."

After saying it, she realized she had just compared Xu Yang to a dog and quickly stuck her tongue out playfully.

"You little rascal!" Xu Yang scolded with a laugh.

The siblings paid no more mind to Su Zhe’s antics and began their training.

Over a month ago, Xu Qing had already reached Gang Qi Minor Achievement. Her main focus now was familiarizing herself with its power.

Although all of Xu Yang’s Martial Techniques had reached Great Success, the Fuyue Bear King’s Palm had the wonderful effect of strengthening one’s Heart Spirit. Even after reaching Perfection with it, he persisted in practicing it daily, and his Heart Spirit grew increasingly powerful.

One day, Xu Yang finished his cultivation and stepped into the courtyard. He saw Zhang Yong and Sun Tao sitting there with sorrowful expressions, but Jiang Ping was nowhere to be seen.