190: He committed suicide, my condolences!

Half a month later.

After observing for a full half-month and confirming that everything was normal and no one was paying attention to White Crane Lake, Liu Xuan finally used his Earth Escape Technique to leave Lake Heart Island from underground and arrived at the previous underground space.

A flame lit up in the dark underground space, and Liu Xuan's body solidified from a hazy, earthy-yellow mist.

Two people were lying in the corner of the room, one shaped like a skeleton and the other as thin as a stick; neither had any aura, appearing like two corpses.

He raised his hand and tapped each of them on the center of their brows, and the two slowly woke up, a momentary confusion in their eyes.

"Greetings, Senior!"

"Greetings, Senior!"

Both were experienced in the Jianghu and instantly recovered from their confusion. Recognizing Liu Xuan as the Sword Cultivator expert who had injured them, they forced themselves to bow respectfully.

They weren't Liu Xuan's match even at their peak; now, with their Dantian mana exhausted and their Divine Souls severely damaged, they had absolutely no room to resist before him.

At the same time, a trace of joy flashed in their eyes. The Senior hadn't killed them directly, which meant they were useful to him, or at least they could save their lives.

"Senior, we are two brothers who are Cultivators in the territory of the Peach Blossom Sect. This interception of True Person Xiao's granddaughter was a high-priced commission we accepted."

"The employer did not appear, and we do not know their specific identity. We only know that they are also a Golden Core True Person. Based on our guess, it is likely that Golden Core from the Heavenly Sword Sect who previously had a grudge against True Person Xiao..."

The two counted as half-Robber Cultivators and often engaged in such money-for-murder dealings. They had no integrity; as long as they could save their lives, they felt no psychological pressure to betray their employer.

However, this was their first time doing this, because this was the first time they had failed.

"I can spare you!"

Liu Xuan listened calmly, and a translucent, spider-like insect appeared in his hand. He smiled and said, "Open your Divine Soul, and you may live."

After speaking, Liu Xuan looked at the thin old man, suppressed him with his Divine Sense so he couldn't move, and then placed the Puppet sub-gu on his head.

"No!!"

The thin old man's eyes widened, filled with horror, but his body couldn't move an inch.

The skeleton-like man fell back, shrinking against the wall, his eyes equally filled with terror.

A Gu insect! Such an evil thing actually coming from the hands of a Sword Cultivator completely exceeded their understanding.

Sword Cultivators, especially those at a high Realm, focused on breaking all laws with a single sword. They were always arrogant and disdained using such crooked, Evil Paths.

Most Sword Cultivators were relatively righteous and valued being upright and honorable; the joy they felt earlier was based on this common knowledge.

Things like Gu insects were insidious and evil, something many people from Demonic Sects couldn't even master. How could it be mastered by a pure Sword Cultivator?

The sub-gu burrowed into the thin old man's brain, crawling onto his Divine Soul and beginning to feed on it.

"Relax, it won't kill you; it will only merge with you!"

"It will hurt a little, just endure it. If you don't want to die, don't resist."

"Hum~"

The old man's eyes suddenly regained a trace of clarity, followed by a flash of determination. A moment later, the light in his eyes dimmed, and he completely lost his life force.

"Sigh!"

Liu Xuan sighed and looked at the skeleton-like man shrinking in the corner. "Is this your older brother?"

"He committed suicide, my condolences!"

The old man's cultivation was at the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment, and his Divine Soul Origin was strong; Liu Xuan couldn't easily control him as he had controlled Xu Bin.

At the critical moment, he would rather destroy his own Divine Soul than be parasitized by the sub-gu. Liu Xuan had no way to stop him.

Dead is dead! Liu Xuan looked at the skeleton-like man and smiled, "It's your turn!"

A massive Divine Sense suppressed the skeleton-like man, and Liu Xuan took out another sub-gu and placed it on his head.

"If you cooperate, I can preserve a portion of your self-awareness. Being alive is better than being dead, isn't it? Think about it carefully!"

Fearing that he would be like the thin old man and prefer death over humiliation, Liu Xuan kept speaking to soothe him.

Whether the skeleton-like man was more afraid of death or just terrified by his brother's fate, he eventually volunteered to merge with the sub-gu.

An unexpected joy; Liu Xuan closed his eyes and viewed the man's memories through the connection between the sub-gu.

The skeleton-like man was named Gong Wang, and the thin old man was his older brother, Gong Cai. Both were Elders of the Bone Fiend Sect, a subordinate Sect of the Peach Blossom Sect.

Besides this public identity, the two brothers were also Advanced members of the Robber Cultivator organization, the 'Black Wind Cult'.

The Black Wind organization came and went like the wind, acting quite secretly. It was a relatively 'formal' Robber Cultivator organization, and it was rumored that its true background was a certain bigwig from the Nascent Soul Upper Sect, the Peach Blossom Sect.

When the two brothers had nothing to do, they often accepted tasks within the cult and had done their fair share of murder and arson.

This time, they came to assassinate Xiao Ran because they had received the mission through connections within the cult.

Although assassinating the granddaughter of a Golden Core True Person was risky, the reward offered by the other party was truly generous—higher than the reward for normally assassinating a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator. The two happened to be short on Spirit Stones during this period, so they accepted the mission without hesitation.

'They actually didn't lie; they really don't know who the employer is!'

Liu Xuan continued to fast-forward through his memories; learning a bit more about other Sects was always good.

The Bone Fiend Sect! It counted as half an Evil Path Sect. They abandoned their weak flesh and blood and refined their entire skeleton as a Magical Artifact; to some extent, it could also be considered a type of Body Refining.

But they didn't completely practice Body Refining; they still focused on building their dao foundation in the Dantian. While they purely refined their bones as Magical Artifacts, they didn't completely abandon their Qi, blood, and flesh, just relatively weakened them.

The drawback of this Evil Path Cultivation Technique was that its upper limit wasn't high; the Golden Core was already the limit. Moreover, because their Physical Body was incomplete, the possibility of achieving a Golden Core Breakthrough was extremely low, to a hair-raising degree.

The advantage was that their cultivation speed was fast, their bones were as strong as Magical Artifacts, they could assist in refining mana, and they could assist in breaking through minor Realms. Furthermore, they came with their own natal Magical Artifact, making their combat power higher than average Cultivators of the same rank.

"What is this?!?"

Suddenly, through Gong Wang's perspective, Liu Xuan saw a burly man with a leopard's head and a human body laughing and chatting with the Golden Core Sect Master above.

A half-transformed Golden Core Stage Yao Beast! He had long heard that the Peach Blossom Sect was a mix of humans and Yao, and only now did Liu Xuan have an intuitive feeling for it.

The Peach Blossom Sect's territory was vast, at least a million li, much larger than the Heavenly Sword Sect's territory, yet the population was much smaller than the Heavenly Sword Sect's. Yao Beasts were entrenched everywhere, and they were also subjects of the Peach Blossom Sect.

Both were under the jurisdiction of the Azure Profound Sect, yet the difference between the Peach Blossom Sect and the Heavenly Sword Sect was so great mainly because the Peach Blossom Sect was on the border of the Azure Profound Sect. Further south was the Endless Great Mountains, the true territory of the Yao Race.

It was rumored that there were great Yao at the Soul Transformation Realm deep in the Endless Great Mountains, whom even the Azure Profound Sect was unwilling to easily provoke.

As an intermediary Sect that eased the relationship between the Yao Race of the Southern Frontier and the Human Race, the Peach Blossom Sect had always kept to itself and not interfered with the neighboring Heavenly Sword Sect. Usually, they would not accept missions to assassinate Heavenly Sword Sect Disciples; why would they assassinate Xiao Ran this time?

Not just Xiao Ran; through Gong Wang's memories, there were quite a few other assassination missions in the Black Wind organization targeting the Xiao Family, including his own Grandmistress, Su Waner.