Volume 4 Chapter 46

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Volume 4 Chapter 46: The Harvest

Xu Qingfan’s eyes were fixed on the purple-clad man’s clothes because he suddenly realized he hadn’t searched him yet. Perhaps checking might reveal something.

Moreover, the purple outfit of this man seemed to be the exclusive attire of the "Ming" organization. Keeping it might prove unexpectedly useful in the future.

With this in mind, Xu Qingfan turned around and approached the man in purple, beginning to search him. After a while, he only found a strange token in the man’s possession.

The token was neither gold nor copper, but shone with a peculiar light. Engraved on it were the characters "Lie" and "Three."

"’Lie,’" Xu Qingfan murmured to himself as he stared at the character on the token. "’Lie’ must be his master’s name, and ‘Three’ is his code. The man in purple mentioned ‘Yu’ and ‘Zhou’ before. Plus, possibly Zhang Xusheng’s ‘Yellow,’ suggesting this mysterious ‘Underworld’ organization might be structured around the celestial sequence: ‘Heaven, Earth, Dark, Yellow; Universe, Infinity; Sun, Moon, Stars.’ This means there might be at least sixteen core members in the organization."

Thinking of this, Xu Qingfan felt a heaviness in his heart. Given the purple-clad man’s formidable strength, his master "Lie" must be even more powerful. Moreover, this "Ming" organization surprisingly has fifteen cultivators whose strength is on par with his own, and their actions are so strange and mysterious. Therefore, the purpose of this organization’s creation is indeed thought-provoking.

Finding nothing more, Xu Qingfan sighed softly, then stripped the purple clothing off the man and buried him. Stripping a dead man’s clothes was already uncomfortable for Xu Qingfan; he couldn’t bear to leave the body exposed in the wilderness. Moreover, leaving it out could easily be discovered by the man’s comrades, hindering Xu Qingfan’s future actions.

After burying the man, Xu Qingfan stared blankly at the purple clothes in his hand. After a long while, he laughed at himself, saying, "I must be foolish, it seems I’m inexperienced with killing and raiding."

Xu Qingfan suddenly remembered that any cultivator would use the "Sleeve Space" technique to store their belongings, unlike ordinary people who keep them inside their cloak.

Previously mentioned, the so-called "Sleeve Space" technique involves using barrier magic to create a space within a sleeve of clothing, with its size depending on the cultivator’s skill.

Then Xu Qingfan made the purple robe float in the air, gathering Spirit Qi inside him, and pointed at the robe, commanding, "Break!"

As Xu Qingfan’s voice rang out, the purple robe shimmered with light, followed by a continuous clinking sound, as hundreds of various items fell at Xu Qingfan’s feet—artifacts, elixirs, a pile of spirit stones, and some mysterious items, each emitting a strange light that dazzled the eyes.

"No wonder whether in chaotic times or prosperous ones, there are always bandits and robbers. Making money turns out to be this easy; I’m rich now."

Staring at the heap of items on the ground, even though Xu Qingfan was now an elder protector of Jiuhua Mountain, receiving a significant amount of tribute every sixty years, he still felt dizzy looking at the items before him, muttering to himself.

This was the life savings of a Condensed Core Stage cultivator. And this person in the purple robe had been cultivating for an unknown amount of time, his savings vastly different from someone like Xu Qingfan who had just stepped into the Condensed Core Stage.

Xu Qingfan had decent self-control. Seeing so many items at once made him dizzy, but he quickly regained his senses. With a wave of his right sleeve, he collected all the spirit stones from the heap on the ground, leaving behind a dozen or so unknown items for further study.

Xu Qingfan bent down and picked up a purple jade bottle, examining it closely. Among the other things, he was most familiar with this bottle because he had seen the purple-robed person use it to capture the souls and essence blood of several cultivators.

As soon as he held the jade bottle in his hand, Xu Qingfan felt a surge of malevolent energy rushing from his arm to his head. Under the influence of this energy, various desires in Xu Qingfan’s heart began to magnify uncontrollably, startling him. He quickly focused his mind, struggling to suppress the evil energy.

After expelling all of the sinister energy from his body, Xu Qingfan let out a long sigh. He hadn’t expected the items in the hands of the person in purple to be so dangerously evil. It’s fortunate it was Xu Qingfan; if it had been any other cultivator not yet at the Condensed Core Stage, they might have been controlled by this sinister force.

Gathering Spirit Qi in his hands, Xu Qingfan picked up the purple jade bottle once more and examined it carefully. He saw three words formed by black mist on the bottle, "Tian Sha Bottle." This must be the name of the bottle.

But this name gave Xu Qingfan a great shock in his heart.

"Tian Sha, Tian Sha. Could it be…"

It was the words "Tian Sha" that suddenly reminded Xu Qingfan of an ancient and long-lost art in the cultivation world, also called "Tian Sha."

This art was created by the Demon Ancestor, who combined the vengeful spirits and blood essence of cultivators, and through a special method, refined these into a massive sinister energy called Tian Sha. This energy could influence the minds of those around, amplifying their desires exponentially until they lost themselves in them. During the Demon Ancestor’s chaos, countless people perished, and "Tian Sha" played a crucial role.

According to ancient texts Xu Qingfan had read, Tian Sha formed from the vengeful spirits and blood essence of ten Lingji Stage cultivators could influence the minds of ordinary people within hundreds of miles for a year.

"Could it be that the endless chaos in the mortal world these past years is because someone has secretly placed Tian Sha everywhere? For ordinary people, it might just cause a bit of irritability. But as the saying goes, the higher the position, the stronger the desire in one’s heart. How would the emperors and ministers be affected by Tian Sha? If so, it’s easy to understand why these years have been plagued by constant wars in the mortal world and why cultivators have mysteriously disappeared."

Xu Qingfan thought to himself.

Just as Xu Qingfan thought he was getting close to the truth, he sensed something was amiss. If it really was the doing of Tian Sha, although he came to this possibility by considering the "Tian Sha Bottle" in the hands of the person in purple, there were so many highly intelligent individuals in the cultivation world. How could no one else have thought of this possibility?

"Could there be something I’m not considering?" Xu Qingfan pondered with a frown.

"If my earlier deductions hold true, then Zhang Xusheng, who joined ‘Netherworld’ at some point and is known as ‘Huang’, created ‘Tian Sha’ to bring chaos to the mortal world. Meanwhile, the purple-robed cultivator continued to secretly collect blood and vengeful spirits on the battlefield. What is the purpose of the ‘Netherworld’ organization? In this world, intelligent beings never act without reason. There must be some benefit for them. So, what advantage does the ‘Netherworld’ get from their actions? If the goal was merely to weaken the cultivation world’s power and to take over, that would be understandable. But why cause chaos in the mortal world as well? The mortal world is the foundation upon which the cultivation world exists. Destroying it would not benefit them. Could they be remnants of demon cultivators? Yet, knowing Zhang Xusheng, if the ‘Netherworld’ were remnants of demon cults, or were merely aiming to dominate the cultivation world, Zhang Xusheng would never have joined them."

After a long time of thinking, Xu Qingfan still couldn’t come up with anything. The information in his hands was still too scarce.

Sighing, Xu Qingfan put the "Tian Sha Bottle" into his sleeve, deciding not to dwell on these matters any longer. He shifted his attention to the remaining magical artifacts and elixirs on the ground instead.

From Xu Qingfan’s observations, among these items was a high-level Earth blood knife-like artifact, along with three middle-class Earth artifacts and seven or eight bottles of spiritual elixirs, whose uses were unknown. Remembering Old Beggar’s years of crafting artifacts for people in the markets, Xu Qingfan thought he must be someone knowledgeable with a deeper understanding of artifacts far beyond that of ordinary cultivators. Thus, he decided to ask him about the uses of these artifacts and elixirs after returning to Jingxiu Mountain.

Additionally, two particular things caught Xu Qingfan’s attention. One was a wheel-like artifact; Xu Qingfan couldn’t determine its rank. The wheel bore engravings of dozens of lifelike and fierce demon beasts, including those the person in purple used to counter the "Infinite Sea Array" and Xu Qingfan. Xu Qingfan felt this wheel might be related to the ability of the person in purple to conjure spirit-imbued demon beasts for attacks. So, he carefully put it away.

The other was a Greenwind Bird that had fallen into a deep sleep. Judging by its appearance, it was a rare "Greenwind Bird," which comes in male and female pairs, able to sense each other’s presence from a thousand miles away, and capable of flying at incredible speeds, rivaling the "Cloud Riding Technique" of Condensed Core Stage cultivators. It’s the best choice for long-distance communication.

Seeing the "Greenwind Bird," Xu Qingfan felt a slight stir in his heart, so he put it into his sleeve as well. Without hesitation, he transformed into a gust of gray wind, swiftly heading toward Jingxiu Mountain. He was worried about Old Beggar’s safety and recalled telling Little Black before chasing the person in purple to leave one cultivator alive among the others. Going back now, Xu Qingfan thought he might get some additional information from that cultivator.