44: Chapter 44 Peeping Through

West of Pingyang City, a dilapidated courtyard. Dead silence.

Gu Shen stood against the wall, his face beneath the Thousand Faces mask cold and hard as iron. The thousand-tough black silk armor worn against his skin made him feel quite warm, yet he remained absolutely clear-headed.

In the dead-end alley separated by a wall, those two light footsteps stopped beside the deep ruts left by the caravan last night.

There was no conversation, only the faint sound of fabric brushing against fabric.

Gu Shen did not release his Divine Sense. With the enemy in the dark and him in the light, and given that the other party was highly likely to be a Cultivator as well, a collision of Divine Sense would be equivalent to an immediate declaration of war.

Relying only on the hearing of a Qi Refinement Level 6 Cultivator, which far exceeded that of a Mortal, he captured the movements outside the wall.

"Senior Brother, this is the place. The ruts are extremely deep, and there is a lingering smell of damp earth." A voice, kept extremely low, sounded.

"Grab a handful of soil and smell it." Another, slightly deeper voice commanded.

A moment later.

"Hiss... such heavy Yin Qi! The soil is mixed with white ash and bone fragments; this is yin-gathering soil that can only be dug up from a century-old mass grave!" The previous voice was laced with a hint of shock.

"Just as I thought." The deep voice gave a cold laugh. "I have long felt that the Black Tiger Gang in this Pingyang City was not right. A group of Mortal martial artists, acting like madmen for the past half-month, digging up graves everywhere. So, they were doing errands for those big Sects in the Great Yu Cultivation World."

"Senior Brother, could it be... that the Blood Sacrifice Array that Master mentioned in his transmission earlier is real?"

Silence fell outside the wall for a brief moment.

"Master's Life Tablet has already shattered." The deep voice carried suppressed killing intent. "The Danding Sect and the Blood Fiend Sect have blockaded the White Bone Forest, and thousands of Loose Cultivators have been slaughtered inside to serve as medicinal ingredients. This batch of yin-gathering soil must be sent to stabilize the foundation of that evil array!"

"Then what should we do? Should we intercept this caravan and avenge Master?"

"Fool!" The deep voice hissed. "With just the two of us at Level 5 Qi Refining? The Black Tiger Gang is transporting the soil to Dragon Tooth Valley in the north, where there must be elite inner-Sect members from the big Sects waiting. To intercept the caravan is to seek death."

"Then..."

"Follow them, tailing from a distance. The big Sects eat the meat, we drink the soup. The Black Tiger Gang is digging soil for them, so they will certainly bestow Spirit Stones or Medicinal Pills as payment to the Mortal Gang. The scraps that the big Sects turn their noses up at are a windfall for us Loose Cultivators. Once the Black Tiger Gang finishes the handover and returns to the city, we will intercept and kill those Mortal leaders on the way back, seize the reward, and leave!"

"Senior Brother is brilliant!"

The footsteps of the two sounded again, following the direction of the ruts, gradually fading into the distance.

It was not until the time it takes for an incense stick to burn that Gu Shen slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, his tense muscles relaxing.

"Men die for wealth, just as birds die for food."

Gu Shen sneered inwardly. Those two Loose Cultivators were not too stupid; they knew to avoid the sharp edge of the big Sects and pick on the soft persimmons of the Mortal Gang.

But they had miscalculated one thing: since the big Sects dared to entrust such an extremely secretive task as collecting materials for the array to a Mortal Gang, how could they not send people to keep a secret watch?

Those two going to intercept the leaders of the Black Tiger Gang would, nine times out of ten, run into the Sect Disciples guarding the shipment in secret, ultimately ending up with their souls searched and being silenced.

"Dragon Tooth Valley..." Gu Shen etched this location firmly in his mind.

This was an important transit point for the White Bone Forest blood array in the Mortal Realm. As long as the blood array was still operating, this Dragon Tooth Valley was a powder keg that could explode at any moment.

"I must absolutely not approach the North City, and even more so, I must not have any involvement with the Black Tiger Gang."

Gu Shen turned and walked back to the bed.

Although the main room of this dilapidated courtyard was simple, the Formation Plate of the Thick Earth Array underneath was faithfully operating. The Spiritual Qi in the three Low-Grade Spirit Stones on the Formation Plate had already been depleted by nearly seventy percent.

At this rate of consumption, it would last for at most five more days before the light screen dissipated.

Gu Shen took out a jar of iron-sealed meat from his storage ring.

He pried it open with the tip of his blade and swallowed it in two bites. The mouthful of salty, fishy meat paste provided the immense heat required for his Physical Body to function.

Afterward, he took out a crystal-clear glazed bottle, unscrewed the soft iron cap, and tilted his head back to take a gulp.

The clear, cold water slid down his throat, washing away the greasiness of the meat paste. This pure water, scavenged from the ancient Spiritless Ruins, although devoid of Spiritual Qi, lacked the astringent taste of Mortal well water and was extremely thirst-quenching.

After finishing his meal, his blood and Qi were replenished.

Gu Shen sat cross-legged, his hands folded over his Dantian.

The changing winds and clouds outside, the power struggles between the two Sects, and the desperate fighting of the Loose Cultivators had nothing to do with him.

His only task now was to polish his Qi Refinement Level 6 cultivation to the extreme within this absolutely safe shell, and even touch the threshold of the Late-Stage Qi Refining.

"Qi Gathering."

A wisp of pure cyan magic power overflowed from the cyclone in his Dantian, flowing slowly through his broad and tough Meridians, following the circulation route of the Longevity Art.

Time lost its meaning in this dilapidated room shrouded by a yellowish light screen.

...

Three days later. A torrential downpour began in the sky over Pingyang City.

Gu Shen opened his eyes.

These three days of quiet meditation allowed him to thoroughly refine the remaining insubstantial Qi from his last Breakthrough. His Qi Refinement Level 6 Realm was now as stable as a rock.

He looked down at the Thick Earth Array Formation Plate on the ground.

The three half-spent Low-Grade Spirit Stones had now completely turned into grayish-white powder, the last trace of Spiritual Qi having been drained dry. The yellowish insulating light screen flickered, like a candle in the wind, and finally, with a "pop" sound, completely dissipated.

"The Formation has stopped."

Gu Shen did not immediately replenish new Spirit Stones. In the Mortal Realm, maintaining Spiritual Qi fluctuations for a long time might instead attract the attention of passing Cultivators. Since the caravan and the Loose Cultivators from that night had already left, this dilapidated courtyard was safe for the time being.

He stood up, walked to the rotten window lattice, and pushed it open a crack.

The heavy rain poured down, washing the muddy dead-end alley.

Over these three days, the Black Tiger Gang's caravan had not appeared again. There had also been no movement from the two Loose Cultivators who had attempted to intercept them.

Pingyang City seemed to have returned to its stagnant, Mortal appearance.

However, Gu Shen's extremely keen Divine Sense detected something unusual.

In the air, amidst the originally thick turbid aura of the Mortal World, there was actually a trace of an extremely faint, blood-scented odor that only a Cultivator could smell.

This blood-scented odor was extremely strange; it was not the blood spilled from a Mortal death match, but carried a hint of the unique scorched smell left after a Cultivator's spiritual power dissipated.

Moreover, this smell was drifting from the center of the city.

"Are there Cultivators fighting inside Pingyang City?"

Gu Shen frowned slightly.

Mortal cities have always been Forbidden Grounds for Cultivators; even Loose Cultivators rarely engage in big fights where Mortals gather, to avoid accumulating too much turbid Karma.

Unless... some sudden incident had occurred that had to be resolved within the city.

Gu Shen's hand quietly pressed onto the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade wrapped in rags at his waist.

The Dao of Hiding is about not causing trouble, but it is definitely not about closing one's eyes and ears. If something happened in the city that spread to his hiding place, he must plan his retreat in advance.

"In any case, I must first prepare sufficient supplies. Since the Formation has stopped, I might as well make another trip to the ruins to explore the remaining areas on the second floor."

Gu Shen composed his mind. The heavy rain covered all sounds.

Deep in his Sea of Consciousness, the [Heaven and Earth Furnace] vibrated slightly, and white ethereal fire instantly enveloped his entire body. Gray mist swept through. Inside the dilapidated room, the figure dissipated into thin air.