48: Chapter 48 Rogue Cultivator

The man's words were cut off in his throat.

His entire body convulsed violently; his back arched and then slammed down, his head striking that broken brick once more. This time, the impact was heavier; with a dull thud, the broken brick shattered into two.

His lips turned pale instantly, his teeth gnashed with a creaking sound, the fat on his face quivered in layers, and beads of sweat rolled down from his forehead, streaming into his eyes.

He held on for over a dozen breaths, during which his teeth bit through his lower lip, and a trace of blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth, dripping onto the collar of his silk robe.

Then he loosened his bite, his voice squeezing out through his teeth: "I'll tell! I'll tell! I will say whatever you ask!"

Jiang Yan withdrew his Qi.

The man gasped for air in large gulps, his chest heaving up and down, the fat on his face quivering along with it.

Jiang Yan waited until he caught his breath before asking for his name.

"Zhou Tai." The man swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. His voice was still trembling, but it was much clearer than before. "My name is Zhou Tai. A retainer of Prince Yongs Mansion."

"Cultivation base?"

"Qi Refining Stage 2."

"Master lineage?"

Zhou Tai's eyes flickered. Just for an instant—his gaze drifted half an inch to the left, then immediately retracted.

But the pair of eyes he was facing saw that instant clearly.

Jiang Yan did not speak. He flicked his finger again.

This time, the Qi was thinner and sharper than the last.

Zhou Tai's whole body was like a fish thrown onto the shore, his body bouncing on the floor tiles; his lips turned from white to purple to gray, and a rattling sound came from his throat.

Broken bricks and coal cinders dug into the flesh of his back, and his silk robe was worn through in several places.

Ten breaths. Twenty breaths.

By the twenty-fifth breath, Zhou Tai could no longer hold on. His right hand clawed frantically at the ground, his fingernails digging into the cracks of the broken bricks, splitting one in half; blood seeped from under his nails.

He rasped out a sentence that was unintelligible.

Jiang Yan withdrew his Qi.

Zhou Tai lay slumped on the ground, his whole body looking as if it had been fished out of water, sweat soaking through his silk robe and sticking it to his body.

He dared not look at Jiang Yan again, staring instead at the half-collapsed kiln roof above him as he spoke, his voice as raspy as sandpaper grinding against sheet metal.

He was not a Cultivator with a master's lineage.

A few years ago, he was a hunter in the mountains of Luzhou; his parents had died early, and he lived alone in the mountains by hunting.

Late that autumn, he went into the mountains to chase an injured muntjac, pursuing it to the bottom of a cliff where the muntjac crawled into a rock crevice hidden by vines.

He pushed aside the vines and followed it in, discovering that hidden behind the rock crevice was a stone chamber chiseled out by someone.

Inside the stone chamber was a dried corpse leaning against a corner, having been dead for who knows how many years.

In front of the dried corpse were a few items.

A Cultivation Technique called "Changchun Gong", and a few bottles of Medicinal Pill.

The ground was engraved with dense characters—it was a last will and testament.

Jiang Yan interrupted him: "What did the last will say?"

Zhou Tai swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing again.

His voice was no longer trembling as he spoke, but it was intermittent; he spoke as he thought, pausing several times to recall the details.

The person who had passed away was surnamed Li, named Xuan, and came from a place called Xuri Ridge, which was a cultivation Family under something called the Taixuan Sect—the Li Family of Xuri Ridge.

He had pursued an enemy deep into the Jin Kingdom and fought a great battle with them, suffering heavy injuries; his Meridians were shattered by seventy or eighty percent, and he had been struck by a strange poison.

His cultivation base had plummeted from the Late Stage of Qi Refining all the way to the Early Stage of Qi Refining, and finally, due to the combination of poison and injuries, he died in that stone chamber.

The last will stated that if a fated person obtained his Legacy, he earnestly requested that they take the opportunity in the future to return his remains to the Li Family of Xuri Ridge, and the Li Family would surely offer a generous reward.

Jiang Yan's expression did not change when he heard "Li Family of Xuri Ridge"; he went over it in his mind—he had never heard of this name.

The Taixuan Sect was over in the Northern Yan Kingdom, which matched the information Zhao Xuancheng had provided.

He asked: "Are you cultivating the 'Changchun Gong'?"

"Yes," Zhou Tai said. "Li Xuan left behind quite a few Medicinal Pill. Relying on the Medicinal Pill and the Cultivation Technique, I cultivated to Qi Refining Stage 2 in three years. But the Medicinal Pill are running out, and my Aptitude is poor—"

"What Medicinal Pill did Li Xuan leave behind?"

"peiyuan pill, First-Rank High Grade." Zhou Tai licked the wound on his lip where he had bitten it; traces of blood still stained the corner of his mouth. "There were also Ning-Shen Pills and antidote pill, and their grade was not low. I've eaten all the peiyuan pill, but there are still some Ning-Shen Pills and antidote pill left."

Jiang Yan continued to ask.

Detailed information about the stone chamber—which mountain in Luzhou, which path to take to enter, the shape of the cliff, the color of the vines, the width of the rock crevice.

He broke the questions down into very small pieces, pursuing them one by one, verifying every detail repeatedly.

Zhou Tai had been tortured by the Qi twice, so this time he answered whatever was asked.

The route in the mountains he described did not follow the official road, but rather followed a hunter's habits—turning in from an abandoned logging trail at the foot of the mountain.

Passing three streams, the direction of the stream flow was east-west, and then in front of the cliff was an old pine tree that had been struck by lightning; the trunk was split in two, half still alive, and half withered and blackened.

Jiang Yan listened to him repeat it twice; these landmark signs used by hunters appeared consistently in every description, with no contradictions.

"Are you not going to return the remains to Xuri Ridge?" Jiang Yan asked.

Zhou Tai grinned.

The smile was ugly, with traces of blood still on his lips and teeth. The moonlight illuminated his fat face in half-light and half-shadow, the scar on his face looking like an insect pupa in the darkness.

"Return them?" he said. "Who knows if that Li Family is a virtuous household or a bunch of ruthless, hypocritical people?

I am a Loose Cultivator with low cultivation base, showing up with the relics of a dead person; if they claim I killed the person and stole the treasure, I wouldn't even have a chance to explain.

Besides, I don't even know where Xuri Ridge is. The territory of the Taixuan Sect is over in Northern Yan; Northern Yan and the Jin Kingdom are mortal enemies, and I don't even dare to leave the Jin Kingdom."

Jiang Yan did not comment on his explanation and continued to ask about the Storage Pouch. Besides the Cultivation Technique and Medicinal Pill, what else was in Li Xuan's Storage Pouch?

Zhou Tai said: "Magical Artifact, Talisman, spiritual materials. And a token."

Jiang Yan asked what kind of token.

"Purple copper, the size of a palm." Zhou Tai gestured on his chest with his finger. "It had some ghostly symbols carved on it, I couldn't understand them. Li Xuan's dried corpse was clutching that thing in its hand, and hadn't let go even when he died."

"Anything else?"

"No."

After listening, Jiang Yan reached out and pressed his hand onto the top of Zhou Tai's head.

Zhou Tai's eyes widened suddenly, and he opened his mouth, wanting to say something; his lips moved, but no sound came out.

He suddenly regretted that his mouth had been too fast—if he had held back some information, perhaps he could have lived a little longer.

Soul Searching Technique activated.

The moment his Divine Sense forcibly intruded, Zhou Tai's eyes rolled back, his body trembled violently, his teeth gnashed with a rattling sound, and white foam mixed with traces of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, dripping down his chin onto the silk robe on his chest.

The fat on his face quivered in layers as he convulsed, looking in the moonlight like a puddle in the mud that had been stepped on.