Volume 1 Volume 5 Chapter 141

Volume 5 Chapter 141: Past Events (Part 3)

Putting aside his pity for Liu Huaxiang and his doubts about Liu Huaxiang’s identity, Xu Qingfan slowly floated to Mr. Liu’s side and helped him gather the bodies of the seven demon beasts.

The inner cores, eyes, claws, skin, bones, and even the ordinary flesh of the demon beasts are rare treasures that can be used for crafting weapons or making medicine. A powerful demon beast like the "Ice Giant Elephant," which is close to a heavenly level, has body parts that are extremely rare treasures. If just one piece were to be thrown into the cultivation world, it would cause many cultivators to go wild and fight over it.

Clearly, Mr. Liu was very skilled in these matters. In just a moment, he had dissected the seven corpses, each the size of a hill, with blood flowing everywhere. The inner cores from the seven demon beasts had been removed by Mr. Liu and placed separately. Although the seven cores were covered in blood, their faint spiritual light and strong Spirit Qi waves were still clearly visible.

At that moment, Mr. Liu was peeling off the claws from the seven demon beast corpses. It was clear he did not want to miss any useful parts from these poor demon beasts who had rushed to protect their master, only to end up captured by "Xuanwu." Now they were dead, and under Mr. Liu’s hands, they could not even keep their whole bodies. How tragic.

Although he was kept there under the pretext of helping with the bodies, it was obvious that Mr. Liu had done this many times before, unlike clueless Xu Qingfan. Xu Qingfan wanted to help, but found that Mr. Liu had already done everything he could and couldn’t do. Mr. Liu seemed to think of everything, while Xu Qingfan could only stand there, staring in amazement as Mr. Liu deftly dismembered the massive demon beast corpses in an instant. He could only watch from the side.

Noticing that Xu Qingfan had floated beside him and his expression became clear again, Mr. Liu smiled slightly and turned to ask, "Have you figured it out?"

Xu Qingfan nodded and said softly, "To you, he is your brother Liu Xiang, but to me, he is just Liu Huaxiang. No matter what identity he had or what he kept hidden from me, that is enough."

Mr. Liu smiled and nodded, agreeing, "That is enough."

Mr. Liu truly deserves the name "Mr. Many Treasures." He was passionately focused on the treasures. Even while talking to Xu Qingfan, he didn’t stop for a moment. In just a little while, he collected the precious blood from a snow-colored seal’s body into a jade bottle. His eyes were filled with excitement, completely different from the slightly sad old man he was when he spoke to Xu Qingfan before.

As Xu Qingfan stood by, watching Mr. Liu work with great skill, Mr. Liu frowned and instructed him, saying, "You can’t handle the technical tasks. Do something else and clean the blood from those inner pills, bear bile, and claws."

While speaking, he also skinned the seal in front of him and began grinding its bones into a fine powder to collect.

Under Mr. Liu’s guidance, Xu Qingfan hurriedly carried a large pile of precious materials toward the nearby icy sea to wash off the blood. He thought to himself, no wonder Mr. Liu didn’t clean up the demon beast bodies in front of other masters; he must have been worried about losing face.

Xu Qingfan had seen Mr. Liu smile, show sadness, and look serious, but no matter how his expression changed, he always had the elegance of a master. However, now with that excited look, he seemed like a miser from the earthly world. Seeing Mr. Liu act like this for the first time made Xu Qingfan feel dizzy, as he didn’t look like a master at all.

As Xu Qingfan began to clean the blood off the precious materials, he suddenly remembered something and turned to Mr. Liu, asking, "Mr. Liu, does that mean you are very familiar with my Jiuhua ‘Void’ generation?"

At this moment, Mr. Liu had completely cleaned the seal’s body. After removing the bones, precious blood, fur, claws, eyes, inner pills, and organs, the once huge body was left with just a small pile of meat. Mr. Liu’s thoughtful expression clearly showed he was considering whether these scraps were useful.

After hearing Xu Qingfan’s question, Mr. Liu turned to answer, "I am very familiar with them. Back in the day, Jiuhua had five masters, and they were very famous. I couldn’t stand Liu Xiang betraying our family, so I often went to Jiuhua to duel with him. I got to know those five old guys pretty well, but since they were very close to Liu Xiang, our relationship wasn’t great…"

While speaking, Mr. Liu finally showed mercy and left the pile of scraps alone, walking toward the snow-colored ice bear. Xu Qingfan couldn’t help but feel relieved for that pile of meat.

After a slight hesitation, Xu Qingfan asked, "What kind of person do you think Zhang Xusheng is?"

Upon hearing Xu Qingfan’s question, Mr. Liu seemed a bit taken aback; it was clear that he held Zhang Xusheng in very high regard, to the point that his movements with the frozen bear’s body paused for a moment.

After pondering for a moment, it was clear that Mr. Liu did not know how to evaluate Zhang Xusheng, and finally, he just said, "He is a genius."

Feeling that this answer was not enough, he added, "He is a profound genius that no one can truly understand."

"Could you share more about Zhang Xusheng?"

Zhang Xusheng is a great enemy of Jiuhua, more dangerous than the "Ming" organization, and Xu Qingfan, as the future sect leader of Jiuhua, naturally wants to know more about Zhang Xusheng.

After hearing Xu Qingfan’s question, Mr. Liu showed an expression of uncertainty about where to start, and after a moment, he slowly said, "At that time, Zhang Xusheng was the most skilled among the five grandmasters of Jiuhua, although he was the last to enter Jiuhua Mountain. However, it is said that after entering Jiuhua, he practiced some unknown cultivation methods, but no one knew which sect those methods came from or what powers they had."

After a pause, Mr. Liu continued, "Zhang Xusheng always gave the impression of a refined scholar; while he had a somewhat soft demeanor, he easily won people’s favor. He spoke little and was very quiet, but when discussing the ways of cultivation, he became very talkative, and almost everyone liked him. When Liu Xiang decided to pass the sect leader position to Zhang Xusheng, no one among the three older masters objected. Honestly, when it was heard that Zhang Xusheng had betrayed Jiuhua and killed his three senior brothers, everyone in the cultivation world who knew him found it hard to believe, thinking it was just a rumor."

As Xu Qingfan was cleaning the various heavenly materials in his hands, a thoughtful look appeared in his eyes, and he asked, "However, according to what you said before, although Zhang Xusheng has the highest skills among the five grandmasters, if nothing had happened, Master Li—I mean, Martial Uncle Liu—would eventually surpass him, right?"

To Xu Qingfan’s surprise, Mr. Liu’s answer was no.

"Not necessarily."

"But you just said that Martial Uncle Liu is a late bloomer and gets faster at cultivating. If the events of the past hadn’t happened, he would eventually surpass everyone else, right?"

Mr. Liu slowly nodded and said, "In theory, that is true, but I am not sure if the talent and strength Zhang Xusheng showed back then were truly his. There are so many hidden things about him, as I mentioned before; he is a genius that no one can fully understand."

Xu Qingfan asked, "Have you ever sparred with him?"

A look of memory appeared in Mr. Liu’s eyes as he said, "I have sparred once, and back then I was not his match. As for now, I have mastered several very profound secret techniques and created powerful magical treasures, while Zhang Xusheng has greatly increased his power by using his own secret techniques and achieved the Immortal Body. It’s uncertain who is stronger, but one thing is clear: even if I am stronger than him, I could never kill him."

Xu Qingfan seemed to think deeply and nodded slightly.

"Don’t worry, I will protect Jiuhua for you in the future. Remember, I still have six or seven hundred years to live."

Seeing that Xu Qingfan seemed a bit worried, Mr. Liu comforted him.

Xu Qingfan slightly nodded his head to show his thanks.

Yet, in his heart, Xu Qingfan was thinking about something else. Zhang Xusheng’s secret method was mainly to extend a person’s life and improve their potential, and later it developed into the practice of achieving an Immortal Body. But as far as Xu Qingfan knew, such a method of extending life was usually studied by cultivators when they felt their lifespan was running out and there was no chance for further progress. However, that genius Zhang Xusheng had plenty of time left, and there was still much room for improvement in his realm. Why did he then choose to study that cruel method of extending life?

The reason, it seems, may never be known.

While Xu Qingfan was lost in thought, Mr. Liu swiftly turned seven bodies, each the size of a hill, into seven piles of small flesh. He collected all the useful items and put them aside.

After Xu Qingfan cleaned all the blood-stained treasures, Mr. Liu looked at their results, nodded in satisfaction, and suddenly turned to Xu Qingfan and said, "You also helped out, so take some of these treasures."