240: Chapter 240 The Movements of Qiu Ya

Commander Su Qin departed.

Bai Chi walked out from the depths of the shrubbery and stood beside Wu Li, watching Commander Su Qin's figure move away, then asked in a low voice: "Old Ancestor, are we going to wait here now?"

Wu Li shook his head, shifting his gaze away from Commander Su Qin's back and toward another direction, his voice low.

"Let's go find an interesting fellow first."

"Follow me."

Bai Chi did not ask further and followed.

...

Half an hour later.

Outside Black Stone Ridge.

The outline of a small city appeared. The city walls were not high, built of gray-white stone, and the stone plaque above the city gate was engraved with two characters: "Pingchuan."

The city was not large.

It sat on the flat land between two low hills, with a narrow river running along its north side, where a few crooked willow trees grew by the bank.

Lights occasionally flickered in the city, but there were few, as if most households had already turned in for the night.

At the city gate, there were Cultivators on duty, two at the Qi Refining Middle Stage. They wore gray-blue short jackets of the same style, with an emblem the size of a copper coin embroidered on their shoulders. The pattern was crude, resembling water ripples winding around a mountain, and the specific Sect identity could not be discerned.

The largest courtyard in the city was located in the east, occupying a vast area with gray walls and blue-green tiles. A plaque hung above the lintel, inscribed with the three characters: "Qingshui Sect."

Within the courtyard walls, several roofs of varying heights could be seen, and lights were still on in the tallest pavilion.

"Old Ancestor, why are we following them?"

Outside Pingchuan City.

Wu Li did not enter the city; he stopped on a low slope outside, crouching on a rock smoothed by the wind, his gaze fixed on the direction of the gray-walled, blue-tiled courtyard.

In front of Wu Li's gaze...

General Qiu Ya led his three subordinates through the city gate, walking less than a hundred paces along the main street.

He stopped and turned his head to glance at a grocery store by the street. The lights were still on in the shop, and an old man was bowing his head, fiddling with the beads of an abacus.

General Qiu Ya did not look for long and turned to his subordinates behind him, saying directly:

"Be quick. We must leave before dawn."

The moment the words fell, the other three members of the Yao Race nodded in succession.

"Understood."

"Boom!"

As General Qiu Ya finished speaking, the three Yao soldiers simultaneously raised their heads, as if they had been waiting for this sentence for a long time.

Without any unnecessary movements, three streaks of gray-black Demon Power exploded from their bodies simultaneously, wrapped in a thick scent of blood and rotting earth, spreading along the street toward both sides.

The figures of the three Yao expanded rapidly within the Demon Power. Their Peak Second Stage cultivation erupted, fur tore, bones extended, and their respective Yao forms manifested.

A Gray-backed Wolf Yao, with thick limbs, dug its claws into the cracks of the bluestone slabs.

An Iron-bristled Wild Boar, with tusks turned outward and bristles standing upright on its spine, and a Black-striped Leopard Yao, with a slender figure and a tail slowly swaying behind it, as if ready to pounce at any moment.

"Yao!"

"The Yao Race is here!"

"Run!"

The nearby Mortals were shocked at this scene and scattered in all directions.

In response,

The Gray-backed Wolf Yao grinned and was the first to move. It kicked off the ground with all four claws, darting along the eaves on the right side of the main street, and landed on the roof of a house. Its iron-gray pupils swept over the lights flickering below. It opened its mouth, and a beam of gray-white light condensed from Demon Power sprayed from its throat, landing on the row of tightly closed doors across the street.

The wooden doors exploded, fragments splattered everywhere, and the candlelight inside was extinguished by the shockwave.

A few short cries had just rung out before they were suppressed.

Demon Power continued to overflow from the three Yao's bodies, spreading along the eaves and walls on both sides of the street, rapidly expanding in the night like ignited grease.

More and more lights were extinguished, and increasingly dense sounds of impact and shattering rang out everywhere. Screams also rose and fell one after another...

The entire Pingchuan City had gone quiet; after all, this was just a small city, and it simply could not resist General Qiu Ya's subordinates.

Soon.

There were no more cries coming from the street. Only the night wind passed through the gaps in doors and windows, occasionally picking up a few wooden splinters or scraps of cloth, blowing them further away.

The bloodstains on the street were still slowly spreading, seeping outward along the cracks in the bluestone slabs. As if drawn by some force, they were slowly flowing from all directions toward the middle section of the main street. The speed was not fast, but one could see those dark red trickles gathering bit by bit along the low-lying areas of the stone surface, like conscious streams of water being collected by a common goal.

"Hum~"

General Qiu Ya stood in the middle section of the main street, looked down at the bloodstains gathering on the ground, and took out a dark red bead from his bosom.

The bead was about the size of a pigeon egg, its surface smooth, and inside it seemed as if liquid was slowly flowing, emitting a gentle, dim light under the moonlight.

"This should be enough."

General Qiu Ya cradled the blood bead, opening his palm, and the speed of the flowing bloodstains around him accelerated, quickly being absorbed by the blood bead.

Soon.

The Gray-backed Wolf Yao was currently dangling a Human Race arm, crunching it to pieces, before dropping down from the roof and standing beside General Qiu Ya. It glanced at the bead and licked its crimson corners of its mouth.

"They are all dead. I reckon it will soon alarm the people from the Qingfeng Sect."

The Iron-bristled Wild Boar and the Black-striped Leopard Yao also walked out from the alleys on both sides, each stopping.

"Mere Qingfeng Sect, that is all."

General Qiu Ya, however, was completely indifferent.

Outside.

On the low slope outside the city, Bai Chi watched the situation before him.

"Everything the Old Ancestor did... was it just for that bead?"

Wu Li's gaze was still fixed on the direction of the city gate. After a moment of silence, he spoke: "Not just that."

"Keep watching."

..

Inside the city.

"Boom, boom, boom~!"

General Qiu Ya and his group's actions were still detected by the Qingfeng Sect.

It was just that the people from the Qingfeng Sect arrived slower than expected.

Ahead.

Three figures darted over from the direction of the city gate. In the lead was a middle-aged Cultivator wearing a gray-blue robe, with a lean figure.

This person was named Zhou Yan, an Outer Sect Deacon of the Qingfeng Sect, with Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivation, responsible for patrol duties in the Pingchuan City area.

He landed on the main street, his gaze sweeping over the corpses lying in pools of blood and the shattered doors. He then looked around both sides of the street, pausing on the bloodstains that had not yet cooled, his face turning from pale to green.

"Junior Martial Uncle, it seems the Yao Race is massacring the city!"

One person behind him pressed their hand on their sword hilt, their voice very low, as if afraid of alerting something.

Another person also landed beside him, their gaze sweeping over the shattered doors and scattered debris on the street, spiritual power slightly circulating at their fingertips, as if confirming whether there was any ambush nearby.

Zhou Yan's gaze extended along the main street, landing on the figure at the end of the street who was walking toward the city gate. He did not call out, his right hand already pressing onto his sword hilt.

"Yao Race abominations, how dare you! To actually commit such chaos under my Qingfeng Sect's jurisdiction!"

The moment the sword left its sheath, a streak of cyan Sword Qi slashed across the air, wrapped in a layer of fine spiritual light, skimming along the street toward General Qiu Ya's back.

"Qingshuang Sword Art: Wind-Slaying Stance!"

The Sword Qi glided along the ground, creating a trail of fine wind marks where it passed, causing loose stones along the way to roll.