Chapter 400 - Shen Qing

With the sound of rustle, the branches began to shake, and three figures, all of whom were at the peak of the Foundation Building Realm, appeared in front of Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue. The next second, a smirking voice sounded. “Junior Brother Han, it surprised me that you found me. It seems that your cultivation has increased greatly recently.”

The man who spoke was no other than Qi Yan, who was clad in red. Xiao Chen turned around and smiled slightly, saying, “If I even couldn’t find a Core Forming Realm cultivator like you, following behind me, wouldn’t I be a joke?”

Qi Yan narrowed his eyes. “Why did he just look like a different person in just two hours? Shouldn’t he be scared when he saw me at these barren mountains?” he thought to himself.

“Junior Brother Han, let’s get it straight. Hand over the Grudge Cauldron, and I will send it to Tai Yin Cavity for you.” When Qi Yan spoke, there was a cold flash in his eyes. Apparently, he was planning to quietly remove these two Han brothers, and his three underlings had now revealed the dagger in their arms.

Xiao Chen smiled, and carried the box containing Grudge Cauldron in his hand, saying, “Well, Senior Brother, maybe you can come and get it in person.”

Qi Yan’s eyes narrowed and he felt more and more surprised as he wondered, “Hasn’t he realized that he is going to be killed? Or what tricks did he want to play?” Nevertheless, at the Core Forming Realm, he was not afraid of a cultivator at the Foundation Building Realm. He slowly walked over and said flatly, “Junior Brother Han, don’t use any tricks …” When speaking, he pressed his palm on the box.

However, he immediately felt numb all over as if he had got a shock. When he responded, he could not even move his fingers. Seeing this, his three underlings immediately drew out their daggers, but after they took only one step forward, they found themselves unable to move any longer. It seemed that they got bound by a strange force in a moment.

The four looked horrified. Qi Yan was the first one to react, and he couldn’t help but be shocked. “He is in the Nascent Soul Realm!” He soon realized something, and asked in a panic, “Who are you?”

Now, Xiao Chen had entered the last stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, and he was almost as powerful as Elder Xu. At this moment, trapped in Xiao Chen’s Absolute Domain, Yan Qi and his three underlings were unable to move at all as if they had been trapped in a quagmire, and they looked very scared.

Qi Yan was caught by horror, a horror from death. Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue must have a purpose in sneaking into the Corpse Refinery Sect, so Qi Yan would not be able to survive since he had found them. “Slap!” A crisp sound reverberated in the woods as Su Lianyue walked over and slapped Qi Yan fiercely on the face.

“Are you here under Elder Xu’s order?” Xiao Chen asked lightly.

Qi Yan looked terrified, and said in a quavering voice, “Yes! Yes! I’m too shallow to recognize your eminence and offended you two immortals. Please spare my vile life. You can rest assured that I will never say a word about this.”

People are afraid of death, especially someone who would be promoted soon like Qi Yan. Xiao Chen replied indifferently, “Only dead people won’t speak.”

As soon as this statement was made, the four people felt like falling into an ice cellar. Of course, Xiao Chen was only scaring them. It was not the time to kill them because Xiao Chen needed them to return to report.

“Please, please don’t kill me!” Qi Yan was frightened to tremble. At this moment, the only idea he had was to live. Xiao Chen looked at him and smiled before saying, “OK, but I want a ray of your Soul’s Life Source, is it okay?”

For a cultivator, it was very dangerous to have his so-called Soul’s Life Source grabbed by others. As long as his Soul’s Life Source was shattered, he would die immediately unless he was a supernatural person like Yu Yangzi.

Therefore, many major forces would control their subordinates basically by taking and keeping those subordinates’ Soul’s Life Sources. Each disciple of Corpse Refinery Sect had been required to leave a trace of their Soul’s Life Sources in the sect to prevent future rebellion. Hidden Fragrance Wafting under the Moon, the sect Qingluan was in, had a similar rule.

Of course, there was another benefit of Soul’s Life Source. Once someone died outside, his clansmen might be able to use his Soul’s Life Source to revive him, so some large families usually also kept their members’ Soul’s Life Sources within the clan. Of course, they would hide these souls well.

Upon hearing that they were let off, Qi Yan and his three underlings immediately said, “Thank you, Great Immortal. Thank you for sparing my life.”

Xiao Chen stopped talking and handed the black box containing Grudge Cauldron to Su Lianyue. Then, he took out a piece of jade and pointed between Qi Yan’s eyebrows with two fingers, and immediately pulled a plume of blue smoke into the jade.

When Qi Yan saw that his Soul’s Life Source fell into the hands of others, his face went pale instantly, and he went down on his knees and trembled, saying, “I will never say more than half a word … And I only hope that when Great Immortal leaves, you can return my soul …” The more he said, the lower his voice was.

Xiao Chen answered with a smile, “It depends on your performance.” After saying that, he reached backward and immediately took a trace of the soul from each of Qi Yan’s three underlings. Given that he was in the late stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, he could take the souls of the Foundation Building Realm cultivators easily.

The three underlings looked pale as well, slumped, and were afraid to speak. Xiao Chen looked at Qi Yan and said, “You know what to say when you go back. Be careful not to spill the beans.”

“Sure! I will! Please rest assured, Great Immortal!” Qi Yan nodded quickly for fear that he would lose his life if he replied slower than expected.

Xiao Chen no longer looked at these three men, and said to Su Lianyue, “Let’s go. It’s not too far from the Tai Yin Cavity.”

They left the woods and continued to walk westward for dozens of miles. Although it’s almost noon, the Mountain of Myriad Caves was gloomy, the trees covered the sky, and the closer they were to the Tai Yin Cavity, the colder they felt. Su Lianyue could not help but beat several quivering in a row.

Finally, after a while, they saw a distant mountain peak surrounded by clouds and mist, like Chang Yin Cavity. They thought it must be Tai Yin Cavity. They walked to the foot of the mountain, and after they used the token given by Elder Xu to remove the blindfolding fog, they saw long stone stairs leading up. Compared with the Chang Yin Cavity, Tai Yin Cavity looked a lot grander, and there were pruned pine and cypress on both sides of the stairs.

The two walked up to the stairs and walked for a while. They saw someone holding a box up in front of them. Presumably, the other sects also came to send the grudges. When they almost reached the end of the stairs, Xiao Chen saw two centuries-old Corpse Puppets standing on the two sides of the top, and there were four disciples of Tai Yin Cavity next to them, one by one checking the identity of the person who carried Grudge Cauldron.

Xiao Chen frowned and looked at Su Lianyue, who also frowned. Sometimes, it was easy to deceive human beings but hard to deceive the walking dead like Corpse Puppets. Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue all regretted that they shouldn’t have washed away the Corpse Qi on their body last night.

“Why don’t the two of you come up here?” a disciple of Tai Yin Cavity shouted at them.

Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue hesitated no more and went up and handed the box to the two Tai Yin disciples. The two disciples opened and checked the box, and then one of them asked, “What about the token?”

Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue handed their tokens to them hurriedly. After the two disciples checked the tokens, they nodded while saying, “Well, go to the hall and wait there for Senior Brother Shen Qing.”

Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue breathed a sigh of relief, took back the box and their tokens, and were pending to move. Suddenly, the two Corpse Puppets moved, and at the same time, they shot two cold gazes at Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue.

“Wait! Stop!” Seeing the Corpse Puppets reactions, the four disciples responsible for checking the identity of the visitors immediately stopped Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue and looked nervous. Some people who were not far away ahead of them turned back and looked at Xiao Chen and whispered to each other, “What’s going on?”

Xiao Chen’s heart sank, and he had a bad foreboding. At this moment, a man’s clear voice came from the distance saying, “They are my Junior Brothers.”

Xiao Chen looked up and saw a man in black cloth standing in the distance. The man was as tall as him. Xiao Chen learned from Han Yun’s memory that this man was Shen Qing, and at this moment, he had a strange feeling.

“You go to Tai Yin Mansion and wait there for me. I still have something to consult with Elders now.” After saying that, Shen Qing went further away, leaving his back to them. Somehow, Xiao Chen felt it a little familiar.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you are introduced by Senior Brother Shen Qing. Now, please go this way.” A disciple responsible for checking the identity smiled, and the two Corpse Puppets also stood back as if nothing had happened.

Xiao Chen smiled slightly at the four, and walked with Su Lianyue to the inner square. After walking for a while, he saw many palaces, carved beams, and white jade steps. If it’s not for the gloomy atmosphere here, the sect would be as splendid as other Cultivators’ sects.

It took them almost one hour to reach a large palace called Tai Yin Mansion, and along the way, they saw many stone statues and buildings. Corpse Refinery Sect was really a strange sect that it named its palace as a mansion, and its External Sect was forbidden to name any of its buildings as “palace”. Even an Internal Sect disciple would be punished if he mentioned taboo words.

There were already more than a dozen people sitting in the hall. They laughed while chatting, so there was no need to be restrained. They seemed to have been here many times. Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue entered the hall and sat down casually, and someone brought tea and snacks to them in a while.

Although the Corpse Refinery Sect belonged to Devil’s Practice, in fact, as long as one didn’t do anything or say anything wrong, there would be nothing wrong with him. Especially, one shouldn’t say anything wrong or ask anything that shouldn’t be asked. In the words of some Elders, knowing too much was not a good thing. Thus, sometimes, the consequences of saying the wrong things were more serious than doing the wrong things. Therefore, the members of the Sect were spiritless and they spoke little.

About half an hour later, a man in black cloth walked in. Seeing him, the people in the hall immediately stood up and greeted him respectfully, “Senior Brother Shen Qing.”

Shen Qing was handsome, with a sharp outline of his face, and usually did not laugh at all, but basically, no one would see him get angry. He never showed any emotion, so he was highly regarded by several elders of External Sect and was most likely to rise to be a disciple of Internal Sect.

Xiao Chen trembled suddenly, and Shen Qing immediately looked at him and Su Lianyue, and nodded at them while saying, “Junior Brother Han Yun, Junior Brother Han Yu.”

Xiao Chen smiled gently and replied, “Senior Brother Shen Qing.”

Xiao Chen felt familiar with Shen Qing, but he couldn’t tell why he would have such a feeling. Judging by Han Yun’s memory, Shen Qing should be at the peak of the Core Forming Realm, but when Xiao Chen carefully used Divine Sense to check on Shen Qing, his sense was blocked by a mysterious aura from him, so he couldn’t help but shiver just now, and was a little lost.