Chapter 466: Smiling San Sheng
In the hall, Jiang Hao lowered his head and thought about the next steps. Once he resolved matters here, the commotion would likely calm down to
some extent.
The reason he hadn’t been deceived by Feng Jing earlier was that he had secretly activated the Heavenly Cauldron.
Under its illusion, how could Yin Wei have appeared?
So, when he sensed the opponent’s sneak attack, he outwitted him.
Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened.
During the confrontation, he also activated the Immortal Mountain Sea Shield to increase his strength.
The opponent was quite skilled and managed to avoid a direct hit.
However, regarding Yin Wei, he needed to inquire with others to see if he could gather some more information.
Feng Jing was too powerful. If he started playing tricks, Jiang Hao might not be able to firmly suppress him.
Down the mountain, a group of people was rapidly approaching.
The leader was a late Gold Core Realm man.
He looked composed, but he felt slightly uneasy.
After a while, they stopped in a hidden area, and some people followed suit.
“What’s wrong, Senior Brother?” Ren Shuang asked.
They were disciples of the Blackheaven Sect and were sent on a mission to investigate the commotion regarding the Blood Wish Path.
The people practicing it were acting recklessly and cruelly. The sect couldn’t afford to stand by, even though the distance was quite far.
“This mountain is close to the Heavenly Note Sect. Although it’s not that near, it’s still within their range. We should be cautious,” Situ Jian said.
“Senior Brother, do you think that the one behind this attack might really be Jiang Hao? Or did he order someone to do this?” Ren Shuang asked curiously.
By now, she had recovered to the middle stage of the Gold Core Realm. Soon, she would advance to the late stage. Whenever Jiang Hao was mentioned, she instinctively touched her neck.
She still remembered what happened back then when he slashed at her neck. His gaze had been cold and calculative as if he could kill her at any moment.
Even though her cultivation had caught up with those from that time, that feeling of trepidation had never left her.
“It’s not him. He’s not the kind of person who gets involved in such matters. Clearly, someone wants to push him into the spotlight,” Situ Jian said.
“If the immortal sects target him, would the demonic sect send someone too?” Ren Shuang asked.
“No,” Situ Jian said firmly. “Last time, they didn’t send anyone, and they’re even less likely to do so this time. If such a person appears, we either make friends with them or avoid them. Junior Sister, you must think it over carefully. Don’t act impulsively. If you’re on my team, it’s best to remain silent. If you say the wrong thing at the wrong time, don’t blame me for the consequences.” Ren Shuang lowered her head and didn’t respond.
After waiting for a while, Situ Jian and the others continued forward.
A short while later, the outline of a mountain village came into view.
“It seems the information was correct. There really is a gathering of Blood Wish Path practitioners here,” Situ Jian said. He sent someone to contact the seniors in the vicinity.
There was definitely an expert behind the proliferation of the Blood Wish Path.
Although he was in the late Gold Core Realm, the Blood Wish Path had lots of Gold Core Realm cultivators and even powerful backers.
There might even be Primordial Spirit Realm cultivators among them. In any case, it was safer to call a Soul Ascension Realm senior for backup.
After notifying the others, they waited.
However, the village was unusually quiet.
Situ Jian tried to project his senses and found that there seemed to be no signs of life inside.
‘So unusual!’
“Let’s go around the side and take a look,” he said.
After a while, they arrived at a guarded area.
Surprisingly, the guards seemed to be looking inside.
Something must have happened inside the stronghold.
Moments later, cries of alarm rang out, and the two guards fled on their flying swords.
“Wait… If no one chases us, we’ll intercept them.” Situ Jian didn’t hesitate to make a decision.
Soon, they captured the two guards.
“What did you see?” Situ Jian asked.
“They’re dead! All of them!” one of the guards said. He was trembling in fear.
“They’re all dead?” Situ Jian was surprised.
“Yes!” the guard said.
“You two, come with me. The rest of you… stay here and wait for reinforcements,” said Situ Jian to his group.
Finally, he took Ren Shuang and a junior in the early stage of the Golden Core
Realm and headed in.
At first, they were cautious, but after entering the main gate, they were shocked by the scene before them.
There were many people here, but all of them were lying on the ground. Their bodies were broken, and their vitality extinguished.
The methods used were extremely cruel.
“Separate and investigate carefully,” Situ Jian instructed.
Ren Shuang and the others didn’t hesitate and began to examine the area.
After some time, the junior in the early stage of the Golden Core Realm returned.
“Junior Brother, what did you find?” Situ Jian asked.
“All their storage treasures are gone, and there are no survivors. Furthermore, everyone here is a Blood Wish Path cultivator. They range from Foundation Establishment Realm to the Golden Core Realm,” the junior said.
Situ Jian wasn’t surprised. He had seen it as well.
Moreover, after circling the area, he found that there was no sign of struggle. This indicated that the killer was stronger than all the people here.
“Senior Brother, come over here and look!” Ren Shuang shouted.
Situ Jian didn’t hesitate and hurried over to her.
It was a square, with massive wooden pillars erected. Ren Shuang was in front of one of the pillars.
“What’s wrong?” Situ Jian asked.
There were bodies here, but nothing seemed unusual.
“There.” Ren Shuang pointed at the wooden pillar.
The two of them looked over and saw a carved smiley face on it.
It was a grotesque, malevolent smile.
Situ Jian was taken aback. He had seen a similar smiley face in a book before.
“Smiling San Sheng?”
The Blackheaven Sect knew about this person because his magic treasure was
still in their possession.
“Is he telling us that he’s here and can come to our sect at any time to take back what belongs to him?” Ren Shuang asked.
Situ Jian couldn’t say for sure. It wasn’t something he could consider. He would leave it to the seniors to decide.
“Let’s figure out what happened here first and then wait for the seniors to arrive.”
The Blood Wish Path practitioners should quiet down for a while after this.
‘Most of them are here.’
This was their mission.
Although they didn’t know what had happened exactly, their mission was accomplished.
Any other unexpected discoveries would be left to the sect to figure out.
At this moment, from a hidden spot in the sky, Jiang Hao watched Situ Jian and the others.
‘It seems like I’ve seen them somewhere before.’
After some thought, he finally remembered.
‘Situ Jian…’
A disciple of the Blackheaven Sect whom he had met at the mines. He was indeed quite skilled. Now he had reached the late stage of the Gold Core Realm.
Then, he turned and left.
In fact, he wanted to stay for a while to see if someone was pretending to be dead or if any of the Saint Bandits were aware of the situation here.
He hadn’t expected that he would find the disciples of the Blackheaven Sect, who had arrived just in time to clean up.
Jiang Hao disappeared from the spot.
He returned to his residence in the Heavenly Note Sect.
He went inside and sat down. This time, he had retrieved quite a few storage treasures.
It was a good opportunity to see how many spirit stones he had collected.
He took out the nearly shattered storage treasure, which belonged to Feng Jing.
As a Soul Ascension Realm cultivator, he shouldn’t be too poor.
However, if he were the same as Jiang Hao, he might have only a few hundred spirit stones.
Fortunately, Feng Jing was different from him.
After a quick check, Jiang Hao found 9,679 spirit stones.
Considering his cultivation realm, this was still somewhat lacking.
But luckily, there were other things inside..