247: Chapter 247 Duanmu Stele

After Su Chengyuan and his group flew away from Ten Thousand Snakes Valley, they did not take the main roads, did not enter towns, and did not fly their artifacts more than thirty zhang high, instead traveling along the border between the mountains and the dense forest, close to the ground.

For the first two hours, no one spoke.

The matter in Ten Thousand Snakes Valley was too significant. They had killed fifteen Foundation Establishment Disciples of the Xuanyin Sect and had also made off with the third-rank strange fire that the other party had spent fifty years laying out and nurturing. This was a crime that would mean an irreconcilable feud with any Nascent Soul Great Sect.

Everyone understood this point, but since they were the participants themselves, what else was there to say?

Su Chengyuan was flying in the middle of the Formation, with Li Shi on his left and the two Protectors, Liu and Wang, on his right.

He turned his head to scan the twelve Loose Cultivator Guards following behind. The expressions of the twelve people varied; some were still pale-faced with shaky legs, some were flying with their heads down, not daring to think too much, while others, like Zheng Bei, had normal expressions.

No one fell behind, and that was enough.

Su Chengyuan took out a handful of Medicinal Pills for restoring spiritual power from his Storage Pouch and distributed two to each person.

The quality of the Medicinal Pills was excellent, melting upon entering the mouth; after consuming them, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator could recover thirty percent of their spiritual power in less than half a cup of tea.

After the twelve Loose Cultivators swallowed the Medicinal Pills, their flight speed became significantly steadier.

Three hours later, the disguise and aura-masking talismans on everyone had lost their effect.

After arranging the shop affairs in Luoxia City, Zhao Shan had chased after them, determining their position using a communication talisman.

When he caught up, he was drenched in sweat, and only two percent of his spiritual power remained. Su Chengyuan and the others had not intentionally waited for him, so he had had to chase after them with all his might.

"How is the situation in the city?" Su Chengyuan asked about the overall movements in Luoxia City.

Zhao Shan replied with slight relief: "After the people from the five major forces came out of the valley, those who were dead were dead, and those who were injured were injured. Each family is currently busy treating and attending to their own people, so they have no time to care about anything else for now."

"What about the chamber of commerce's shop?"

"It hasn't been affected. The Qi Refining brothers are guarding it and doing business as usual. They didn't know about the matter of the twelve temporary Guards to begin with, and many things were kept from them anyway. Even if someone really came to inquire, they wouldn't be able to say anything of substance." Zhao Shan paused, "When I left, I only told the people in the shop that I had matters to handle back at the Prefecture City, without explaining much, and they didn't ask much either."

Su Chengyuan nodded and didn't ask further, instead giving new arrangements to the team.

"Everyone cannot travel together."

Everyone was taken aback: "Why?"

"Seventeen Foundation Establishment Cultivators flying in a group is too big a target. If you happen to be spotted by some merchant Loose Cultivator on the way, and later that Golden Core True Person chases after you and asks around, 'Have you seen a dozen Foundation Establishment Cultivators flying by together?', do you think they would remember?"

Everyone immediately realized and nodded in agreement.

Su Chengyuan split the team into two.

Zhao Shan would take the twelve temporary Guards along the northern route, while he himself would take Li Shi and the two Protectors along the southern route. The two routes would be separated by more than three hundred li, maintaining contact via communication talisman and exchanging locations every six hours.

If either side encountered danger, the other side did not need to provide reinforcement and should retreat on their own.

Su Chengyuan handed a portion of the Medicinal Pills he had to Zhao Shan, "If your spiritual power is insufficient, swallow the Medicinal Pills to recover, but when your Divine Sense cannot hold up, you must land and rest for a while; otherwise, rush with all your might."

Zhao Shan put the Medicinal Pills away, took the twelve people, and distanced himself toward the north, quickly disappearing above the dense forest.

Su Chengyuan watched that group go far away, then turned and patted Li Shi's shoulder: "We are taking the southern route."

From Ten Thousand Snakes Valley to the Tianlan Province City, the distance was over one hundred thousand li.

But both teams had to avoid all towns and the surrounding hundred-li radius, and they had to detour around the sphere of influence of the Canglan Prefecture's Tianyang Sect, so the actual journey would be thirty to forty percent longer than the hundred thousand li base.

Fortunately, the team consisted entirely of Foundation Establishment Cultivators, and they had Spirit Pills to continuously replenish their spiritual power, so their speed was several times faster than when they were dragging the Qi Refining Guards along.

Su Chengyuan estimated that if they rushed with all their might, they could reach the Tianlan Province border in about twenty days.

Twenty days—could that Golden Core Cultivator track their movements and catch up?

Su Chengyuan was not sure. Although he had made many arrangements, the other party was, after all, a Golden Core True Person from a Nascent Soul Great Sect, and no one knew if they might have some special means.

He pushed this question to the back of his mind; thinking too much was useless, and it was more important to hurry.

Four rays of spiritual light lowered their altitude, skimming over the continuous mountain ridges, and flew at full speed toward the northeast.

At noon on the second day, Duanmu Bei finally arrived at Ten Thousand Snakes Valley.

He had come using the Xuanyin Sect's secret technique for fast travel, which consumed a great deal of magic power, and by the time he reached the entrance of the valley, only sixty percent remained.

However, upon arriving, he discovered that Ten Thousand Snakes Valley no longer existed.

The long, narrow entrance originally sandwiched between two rock walls was buried by a large amount of rubble, with piles of loose stones reaching several zhang high, interspersed with charred shrub roots and fragmented rock chips.

The entire area was permeated with a heavy residual aura of spiritual power explosions, traces of at least a dozen Second-rank detonation talismans having been detonated simultaneously.

Duanmu Bei stood above the ruins, his face livid.

He waved his hand, and his Golden Core magic power transformed into an invisible giant palm, lifting the rubble blocking the valley entrance layer by layer.

The sound of giant rocks rolling and falling echoed in the empty valley for a long time.

When the bottom of the valley was revealed, Duanmu Bei's complexion changed from livid to ashen.

The ground was bare; there was nothing left.

The Array Inscriptionss, the magma fissure, the Ten Thousand Spirits Nurturing Origin Array he had personally laid out fifty years ago—everything had been completely destroyed.

On the ground, only some dark red vein remnants that were about to dissipate remained; those were the final traces left after the Formation had operated.

At the location of the fire source, a circular fissure with a diameter of three chi in the center of the creek bed remained, but the magma channel below the fissure had cooled, and the surface of the solidified dark red magma was covered with a layer of ash.

Inside, it was already empty.

Duanmu Bei knelt by the fissure for a long time.

Then, he used his Golden Core Divine Sense to repeatedly scan a radius of ten li, not missing a single inch of ground or a single piece of rubble.

There were too many things he could sense, yet he could not see anything clearly.

Nearly a hundred residual traces of spiritual power from different sources were stacked together, and nearly two days had passed; the high temperature and the aftermath of the explosions had long since pulverized the most minute imprints.

Duanmu Bei stood on the valley floor, carefully distinguishing with his Golden Core Divine Sense for half an hour, and in the end, he could only roughly sort out the traces of three groups of people.

This meant that while the Sect Disciples were fighting those allied forces, another group of Cultivators had appeared afterward.

As for who the third group was, where they came from, and what their cultivation level was, he did not know.

Duanmu Bei slowly stood up, his gaze finally falling on the pile of rubble that had been blown down at the valley entrance.

Second-rank detonation talismans, a significant quantity, handled cleanly and efficiently—such actions were clearly premeditated.

His figure rose rapidly into the air, flying out of Ten Thousand Snakes Valley.

On a barren slope three or four li outside the valley entrance, a dozen or so Loose Cultivators were scattered, looking toward this side from afar.

After Duanmu Bei landed, he let his Golden Core-level Spiritual Pressure naturally diffuse, and the air within a radius of several li suddenly became heavy.

The dozen or so Loose Cultivators on the periphery could not even run; their legs went weak, and they all knelt on the ground with a thud.

No one could escape.

Duanmu Bei scanned the faces of these people one by one; most were in the Qi Refining stage, with only two or three in the Early Foundation Establishment Stage.

He asked about what had happened in the valley over the past few days.

These Loose Cultivators, trembling, told him everything they knew: the five major forces had entered the valley in a group, suffering heavy casualties in less than two days, more than half the people were missing when they came out, and then the valley entrance had been blown shut.

As for who did the bombing or what exactly happened inside, these Loose Cultivators had no idea.

They hadn't even entered the valley entrance; all the news was gathered from inside and outside Luoxia City.

After hearing this, Duanmu Bei didn't ask any further, but gathered the people together, made them kneel side by side, and then flew above their heads, slowly raising his right hand.

A stream of ink-colored magic power was pushed out from his palm, and then a giant palm covering a vast area appeared, slapping down fiercely.

For a Golden Core Cultivator who had been Cultivating the Xuanyin Sect's Cultivation Technique for hundreds of years, killing a group of Loose Cultivators whose strongest were only at the Early Foundation Establishment Stage was merely a matter of waving his hand.

It was just that at this moment, Duanmu Bei was enraged because of the events in the valley, so this palm strike was clearly fueled by emotion.

A moment later, the barren slope became completely silent.

Duanmu Bei withdrew his hand, turned, and flew toward Luoxia City.