273: Chapter 271 They are Ghost Cultivators

"Want to kill the Old Man... you actually want to kill the Old Man!!!"

Su Hongling's eyes were so red they seemed about to drip blood, and her pretty little face was filled with hair-raising ferocity and tyranny.

"A... Mahayana Stage Body Cultivator?!"

The Tribulation Transcendence Stage Old Man was scared out of his wits, his scalp tingling with numbness.

Body Cultivators were already invincible among those of the same rank, let alone a Mahayana Stage Body Cultivator on the verge of going berserk!

In a void passage like this where one couldn't use Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, a Body Cultivator was the absolute king!

"Run! Split up and run!!"

The Old Man let out a shrill roar, no longer caring about his subordinates. He bit the tip of his tongue again and sprayed three mouthfuls of Essence Blood in succession. His figure instantly transformed into a wisp of blood mist, his speed skyrocketing once more as he risked his life to drill into the depths of the void.

He fled quickly, but the two Mahayana Stage subordinates behind him weren't so lucky.

Especially that Mahayana Stage Cultivator whose right arm had been struck by Mu Qingxue's Ice Sword, causing the entire limb to turn necrotic and black.

He was already heavily injured, and the circulation of spiritual energy in his body was sluggish. He was already struggling in this violent void passage, and the moment the Old Man fled, he was instantly left at the very back.

"Grand Elder! Save me! Don't leave me behind!!"

That Mahayana Stage Cultivator desperately reached out with his remaining left hand, trying to grab the corner of his companion's clothes, but the other fled faster than a rabbit, turning into a black dot in the blink of an eye.

He looked back, only to see that blood-colored rainbow rushing toward him with an Aura that could destroy heaven and earth.

"No!! I'll take you down with me!!"

In a desperate situation, people often erupt with a final madness. Knowing there was no hope of escape, a trace of vicious determination flashed in this Mahayana Stage Cultivator's eyes. He let out a wild roar, and a dazzling white light erupted from within his body.

He was going to self-detonate!

A Mahayana Stage Cultivator self-detonating inside a void passage would have enough power to trigger a terrifying void collapse. He wanted to drag this red-clothed Female Demon Lords down with him!

"Risk it? You're not worthy!!"

Su Hongling's voice, filled with tyranny and disdain, exploded above his head.

Facing a Mahayana Stage Cultivator about to self-detonate, Su Hongling didn't show the slightest intention of retreating; instead, her speed increased.

In mid-air, her waist arched back violently, her hands tightly gripping the hilt of the [no edge] great sword. At this moment, the muscles all over her body bulged to the extreme, and golden battle patterns flowed over her skin like living things.

"For this old lady... deflate back!!!"

With a roar that pierced the void, Su Hongling swung that great sword as heavy as the stars, smashing it down upon the glowing Mahayana Stage Cultivator who was about to self-detonate, as if swatting a fly!

This was a one-sided crushing with no suspense whatsoever!

The moment the great sword smashed down, the Protective Aura outside the Mahayana Stage Cultivator's body was like a fragile soap bubble, unable to hold out for even a ten-thousandth of a breath before shattering with a bang.

Immediately after, that terrifying Law of gravity, enough to split heaven and earth, poured unreservedly onto his Physical Body.

There was no earth-shattering sound of self-detonation.

Because before the energy inside him could completely explode, his entire being was forcibly flattened by this unreasonable brute force!

"Pfft!"

It was like a ripe tomato being hit hard by a hammer.

This dignified Mahayana Stage powerhouse directly turned into a burst of blood mist in this violent void.

Instant kill! Not even a trace of a remnant soul could escape!

"Hmph! Brittle as a piece of tofu!"

Su Hongling hovered in the void, wiping the blood from her face. Her red pupils stared fixedly at the two blood lines in the depths of the void that were about to disappear, a trace of strong unwillingness flashing in her eyes.

Although her strike just now had killed one instantly, she had also paused for a moment in the void due to the reaction force.

In that instant, that old loach of the Tribulation Transcendence Stage and the other Mahayana Stage had already burned their final Lifespan and completely drilled into the depths of the spatial turbulence, losing their tracks.

"Consider yourselves lucky for running fast! Don't let this old lady catch you next time, otherwise I'll crush your bones inch by inch and boil them into soup!"

Su Hongling spat hatefully.

Though she was violent, she wasn't stupid.

This was the deep void, with no spatial coordinates. If she continued to chase blindly, even her Mahayana Stage Physical Body could very likely get lost in the spatial turbulence, never to find the way home.

More importantly, the Old Man was still waiting at home!

Thinking of this, Su Hongling restrained the Evil Qi around her, reached out into the blood mist that hadn't yet fully dissipated, and snatched a black storage ring and an unbroken identity jade token left behind by the deceased Mahayana Stage Cultivator. Then she turned around and followed the spatial trajectory she came from, returning as a streak of red light.

...

Inside the Star Sea Treasury.

The atmosphere at this moment seemed eerily quiet.

Su Lin, dressed in the Starlight Dharma Robe, stood with his hands behind his back on the floating crystal walkway, looking calm.

Mu Qingxue, dressed in white and holding her Ice Sword, stood quietly by his side like the most loyal guard, though her pale blue eyes would occasionally sweep over the intact corner of Su Lin's robe to confirm he hadn't suffered even a scratch.

Meanwhile, Gu Qiuyue was squatting on the ground without any decorum, holding her golden abacus, her golden eyes filled with tears of absolute heartache.

"My Ten-Thousand-Year Black Jade floor... my Nine Heavens Star dome... and these three Top-Grade Spiritual Vein sealing pillars that have been cracked by the shock..."

Gu Qiuyue flicked her abacus while checking the vault's battle damage. With every bead moved, her heart bled.

"These damn rats! How many Spirit Stones will it take to fix this! I will definitely collect this debt ten or a hundred times over from the Sect behind them!"

Luo Ximei, on the other hand, leaned lazily against an intact stone pillar with her arms crossed, a dangerous light swirling in her platinum-gold right eye as if she were still savoring the slaughter from earlier.

Just then, the void above the vault suddenly distorted violently, and the blood-colored rift that had already closed was forcibly torn open again by a tyrannical force.

"Bang!"

With a dull thud, Su Hongling's petite but oppressive figure jumped down from the rift and landed heavily on the crystal walkway, once again stepping two deep pits into the already cracked walkway.

"Oh, my great aunt! Step lightly! This walkway is polished from East Sea Top-Grade Crystal Mother! Every step is worth its weight in gold!"

Gu Qiuyue looked at the crystal cracking again underfoot and let out a tragic scream, nearly fainting from the heartache.

"Stop howling, Sixth Junior Sister. I'll just go to another world and pull back a few jade mountains for you later."

Su Hongling waved her hand dismissively. She strode toward Su Lin, her little face that was originally full of Evil Qi instantly switching to a brilliant, credit-seeking smile the moment she saw him.

"Old Man, I'm back!"

She presented the black storage ring and a blood-stained jade token in her hand to Su Lin like a treasure, boasting: "That old loach leading them ran too fast and even burned his Lifespan. I was afraid of getting lost, so I didn't chase him to the death.

However, the Mahayana Stage running slow behind them was smashed into blood mist by my sword! These are the spoils stripped from his body. See if they're of any use!"

Looking at Su Hongling's blood-stained face that was smiling so brightly, a sense of helpless warmth welled up in Su Lin's heart.

He reached out, not to take the spoils, but naturally used his sleeve to wipe a smear of blood from her cheek.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Su Lin's voice was gentle and calm.

Su Hongling's body stiffened slightly. Feeling the warmth from Su Lin's sleeve, her red vertical pupils instantly curved into two crescent moons, and her invisible tail behind her was practically about to point to the sky.

"No! How could trash like that hurt me!

Old Man, are you worrying about me? Hehehe..." Su Hongling giggled, even pushing her luck by rubbing her face against the back of Su Lin's hand.

"Ahem!"

Several extremely deliberate and sour coughs immediately came from the side.

Luo Ximei stared coldly at Su Hongling's opportunistic actions and spoke sourly: "Second Senior Sister, it's just killing a lone Mahayana Stage, what's there to show off?

If you hadn't run so fast, this venerable one could have whipped three of such trash to death."

"Exactly. You didn't even catch the main culprit, yet you have the nerve to act spoiled and claim credit here."

Mu Qingxue also coldly added a jab, and the surrounding temperature instantly dropped a few degrees.

"You're just jealous! Jealous that the Old Man cares about me!"

Su Hongling glared back without backing down, tightly hugging Su Lin's arm to assert her dominance.

Seeing that a Shura Field over who was more favored was about to erupt, Su Lin coughed lightly at the right time, withdrew his arm, and shifted everyone's attention to the business at hand.

"Alright, stop fooling around."

Su Lin's expression became solemn as he reached out to take the black storage ring and blood-stained jade token from Su Hongling, examining them with piercing eyes.

"These people being able to silently infiltrate the Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce's Star Sea Treasury means they are definitely not ordinary roaming Loose Cultivators.

Qiuyue, come and take a look at this jade token."

Upon hearing this, Gu Qiuyue immediately put away her expression of heartache over the Spirit Stones and stepped forward quickly.

As the Great Proprietor of the Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce, who controlled the world's wealth and intelligence network, her vision and knowledge were naturally extremely broad.

She took the jade token and examined it carefully in her palm.

The jade token was a strange dead gray color throughout, its material neither metal nor jade. It was extremely heavy and emitted a cold Aura. The front of the token had no Sect emblem, only a very complex, twisted rune drawn in dark red cinnabar, while the back was blank.

"This material... seems to be the [nether soul stone] rumored to be produced in the Nine Serenity Abyss."

Gu Qiuyue's brows furrowed, her expression becoming increasingly grave. "This kind of stone is extremely difficult to mine and has a strong effect of devouring Divine Souls. Ordinary Sects would never use it to make identity tokens."

She closed her eyes and sent a strand of Divine Sense cautiously into the black storage ring. A moment later, she opened her eyes, her face turning somewhat grim.

"Revered Master, besides some Top-Grade Spirit Stones and a few Magic Treasures of decent quality, there's nothing in the storage ring that can prove their identity.

No cultivation manuals or Secret Manuals, no Sect letters, not even a single personal item with a personal mark."

"These people are like they appeared out of thin air, so clean it's terrifying," Gu Qiuyue said in a deep voice.

"Being clean is a clue in itself."

Su Lin stood with his hands behind his back, his deep gaze flashing with the light of wisdom in the dim vault.

"No identification means they are hiding intentionally; using an extremely dangerous material like nether soul stone as a token means the power behind them is massive and extremely secretive.

And being able to deploy one Tribulation Transcendence Stage and four Mahayana Stages at once, equipped with an ancient treasure like the [boundary-breaking divine talisman] to carry out an assassination and robbery mission..."

Su Lin sneered, his tone certain: "Looking at the entire Cultivation World, there are no more than three forces with such foundations and motives."

"Does Revered Master mean they are people from those hidden Holy Lands?"

Luo Ximei stepped forward, the dangerous light swirling in her platinum-gold right eye.

"Hmph, those hypocrites who call themselves the Righteous Path, haven't they done plenty of dirty deeds behind the scenes?

If they were envious of Sixth Junior Sister's wealth and sent people to secretly plunder it, it would fit their way of doing things."

"No, not the Righteous Path Holy Lands."

Mu Qingxue shook her head coldly, her gaze falling on the gray jade token. "When I fought them just now, I felt the fluctuations in their spiritual power.

It wasn't the vast and upright spiritual power of Righteous Path Cultivators, but it was definitely not the violence and bloodiness of the Demonic Path either."

"Seventh Junior Sister is right."

Su Lin nodded and gave Mu Qingxue a look of approval.

He walked to the remains of those Mahayana Stage Cultivators, reaching out his finger to lightly pinch the spiritual power fluctuations remaining in the air.

"Feel this residual Aura carefully."

Su Lin closed his eyes, as if savoring an extremely complex flavor.

"No bloodlust and madness of the Demonic Path, because the techniques of demonic Cultivators mostly stem from desire and destruction, their Aura being arrogant and overbearing;"

"No wildness and primality of the Yao Race, because the Yao Race cultivates their Bloodline and Physical Body, so their Aura must carry a desolate air;"

"And certainly no chaos and nothingness of the Foreign races; the Laws of Foreign races are incompatible with our world, and their appearance would cause strong rejection from the Laws of heaven and earth."

Su Lin opened his eyes and swept his gaze across his four disciples.

"They are Ghost Cultivators!"

As soon as these four words were spoken, the air in the vault seemed to drop to the freezing point instantly.

"Ghost Cultivators?" Su Hongling carried the great sword, scratching her messy red hair with a puzzled face. "Old Man, did you misjudge them?

I've hacked Ghost Cultivators before. Those guys all carry the stench of rotting corpses and that disgusting Yin Evil Qi.

But although these guys are cold, they are very clean, without even a trace of Corpse Qi."

"There are many Ghost Path techniques in the Demonic Path that specialize in the Divine Soul, but they all return to the same origin. As long as it's a Ghost Cultivator, it's impossible to completely cover up that Death Qi."