442: Chapter 452 The Hidden Clues of the Underworld

At this moment, Elder Qingquan was still wearing the same washed-out green Daoist robe, but he appeared somewhat travel-worn. A few more strands of messy white hair had appeared at his temples, and a trace of fatigue that could not be hidden showed between his brows. However, his eyes, sharp as a hawk's, flickered with a daunting cold light in the dark night.

He held a vermilion wine gourd in his hand and was tilting his head back to take a large gulp of strong liquor.

"Disciple Su Ming pays his respects to Mister."

Su Ming stopped three zhang away from the bluestone and performed a respectful Daoist bow.

Elder Qingquan lowered the wine gourd, casually wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth, and swept his gaze over Su Ming. Sensing the deep and restrained spiritual Qi within Su Ming's body, a flash of satisfied appreciation crossed his eyes.

"Tumbling around in this mortal world for the past few days, your aura hasn't been disturbed at all. Not bad." Elder Qingquan's voice carried a hint of raspiness as he patted the bluestone beside him. "Sit down and talk."

Su Ming followed the instruction and sat cross-legged on the other side of the bluestone.

Elder Qingquan took another sip of wine. After a moment, he let out a long breath of turbid Qi and began to recount his journey to Northern Mang over the past half month.

"After I arrived in Northern Mang, I didn't alert anyone. I followed the lingering corpse Qi directly to the lair of the Northern Mang State Preceptor." A flash of disdain crossed Elder Qingquan's eyes. "It was an eerie palace built underground. That person's cultivation had actually been forced up to the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment. Unfortunately, his Foundation was pitifully hollow; one look and you could tell he was a freak forcibly fed with various messy raw souls and Medicinal Pills."

Elder Qingquan gave a cold laugh.

"I only used three moves. The first broke his protective yin wind, the second severed that scrap-metal staff of his, and with the third, my Sword Qi was resting against his neck. That man usually acts with overbearing authority in Northern Mang and is worshipped as a god by the Northern Mang Khan, but before a true Cultivator, his bones were as soft as a loach. He lost his nerve after one sword strike and knelt on the ground weeping bitterly."

"Only after I performed a Soul Search and a strict interrogation did I discover a colossal joke."

Elder Qingquan shook his head, his tone carrying a hint of absurdity.

"That fellow isn't an orthodox Disciple of the Nether Abyss Sect at all. Originally, he was just a commoner gathering herbs in the deep mountains of the northern border. Decades ago, while gathering herbs, he accidentally fell into a hidden cave. Inside, he found a Nether Abyss Sect medallion and half a volume of a tattered Jade Slip containing a Cultivation Technique."

"That technique was obscure and difficult to understand. As a Loose Cultivator without a master's guidance, he actually relied on his own blind guesswork to forcibly grope his way onto an evil path of cultivation. Over the last decade or so, relying on those half-baked evil arts, he played god and ghost in Northern Mang, summoning wind and rain, and managed to become a State Preceptor of the highest rank. Those so-called 'Corpse Puppet Iron Cavalry' were also just inferior products he made by imitating others, using a remnant formation to forcibly control corpses."

As Elder Qingquan spoke, he flipped his wrist.

A faint light flashed in the night as he casually tossed two items onto the bluestone in front of Su Ming.

Su Ming looked closely.

It was a pitch-black medallion emitting a faint chill, carved with eerie ghost-face patterns. This medallion was identical to the one Su Ming had seized when he killed the Black-Robed Man at Black Wind Mountain.

Beside the medallion was a black Jade Slip whose edges were severely carbonized and tattered.

Faint traces of Yin-baleful Qi were circulating on the Jade Slip.

Su Ming's heart jolted. He carefully extended a tiny thread of Divine Sense wrapped in a layer of water-attribute spiritual Qi to probe it.

Recorded within that Jade Slip was indeed the refinement method for the 'ten thousand souls banner'. However, the vast majority of the content was missing, leaving only some crude methods for collecting raw souls and inscribing Soul-binding Runes.

But at the end of the Jade Slip, a location was marked in an extremely ancient script.

"Mystic Nether Grotto."

"Do you see it?" Elder Qingquan stared at the Jade Slip, his voice becoming solemn. "That fake State Preceptor confessed that the cave he fell into back then had these three characters carved on the internal stone walls. Mystic Nether Grotto was precisely a secret stronghold established by the Nether Abyss Sect in the northern border back then. His harmful skills and this half-volume Jade Slip were all dead man's relics he picked up there."

Elder Qingquan looked up and gave Su Ming a deep look.

"You kid really have good luck. The Black-Robed Man you killed at Black Wind Mountain was actually a Named Disciple this Northern Mang State Preceptor took in his early years. That man had only learned a smattering of the basics before being sent to Daxing to contact Marquis Yongchang. If you had encountered this State Preceptor himself back then, even if his Foundation was hollow, he could have finished you ten times over just by the crushing weight of his Realm."

Su Ming lowered his head and acknowledged the words without being overbearing or humble. Naturally, he wouldn't tell Elder Qingquan that he had trump cards like the xuantian ring and Lin Yu; he simply accepted this "good luck" in silence.

Elder Qingquan hung the wine gourd back on his waist. "In that great war between righteous and evil back then, although the Nether Abyss Sect was destroyed, a centipede dies but never falls down. Since their stronghold has been discovered, the Sect will naturally send someone to deal with it. This is not something you or I need to worry about now."

Elder Qingquan stood up, the night wind making his Daoist robe flutter loudly. He looked down at the vast night scene below the mountain, his tone becoming a bit more relaxed.

"On the Northern Mang side, once that State Preceptor died, the Corpse Puppet Iron Cavalry he controlled also collapsed. The Northern Mang Khan saw that the situation was hopeless, and the entire army's morale completely dissipated. Northern Mang's original national strength was far inferior to Daxing's, and it relied entirely on those fearless iron cavalry to hold on. Now that the cavalry is ruined, it won't be long before Northern Mang's peace delegation comes to the capital of Daxing to beg for mercy like a dog."

Elder Qingquan turned around and looked at Su Ming.

"The Northern Mang delegation is coming from the grasslands. Even with whipped horses, it will still take half a month to reach the capital. As the Sect's mediating envoy, I must remain in the capital to oversee things until the two countries sign the treaty. But you are different."

A rare flash of gentleness appeared in Elder Qingquan's eyes.

"You are idle anyway. I remember you were born in the Daxing Kingdom. From the capital, with your current pace, it's only a few days' journey."

"Go. Go back and take a look."

Elder Qingquan waved his hand.

"We who Cultivate immortality emphasize severing mortal ties, but it does not mean being cold and heartless. If the heart has lingering attachments, the Great Dao is hard to achieve. Cultivating immortality is about achieving clarity of thought. Go settle your mortal Karma, see the people you should see, and repay the kindness you should repay. When you return to the Cloud Hidden Sect, you can focus on being a True Disciple with peace of mind and stop worrying about these petty mortal affairs."

Upon hearing these words, Su Ming's heart skipped a beat.

Qingshi Town.

Su Ming took a step back and gave a deep, extremely respectful bow to Elder Qingquan.

"Thank you for your consideration, Mister. This Disciple will set out immediately."

There were no redundant words.

Su Ming turned around, his figure turning into a grey afterimage that instantly blended into the vast dark night, speeding toward Qingshi Town in the south.