50: Chapter 50 Cliff City

The gale howled, and the abyss was as dark as ink.

Gu Shen stepped onto the thick iron chain bridge, with an unfathomably deep rift valley beneath his feet.

The cold wind whipped across his cheeks, yet it could not disperse the thick, bloody stench permeating from Qingmu Cliff on the opposite bank.

He reached the end of the chain bridge.

Two massive stone lions, seemingly cast from pig iron, stood guard on either side, while four Body Cultivators clad in heavy armor, exuding the Spiritual Pressure of Qi Refining Level 8, blocked the path.

They were not Sect Disciples; they bore no Sect insignia, and their eyes revealed the ferocity of those who had long lived by licking blood from the edge of a blade.

These were the private soldiers of the mysterious Foundation Establishment Stage Cliff Master of Qingmu Cliff.

"To enter the cliff for refuge, no matter who you are or what enemies you've provoked, as long as you pay the life-buying fee, the Cliff Master guarantees your safety for three months."

The leading Body Cultivator extended a giant palm clad in an iron gauntlet, his voice like muffled thunder, "Entry fee: two Low-Grade Spirit Stones."

What a rip-off.

In ordinary Loose Cultivator markets, the entry fee was at most a few crystal shards. Here, it was dozens of times higher.

But in the face of life and death, Spirit Stones were merely worldly possessions.

Gu Shen said nothing; his Divine Sense probed into his storage ring, and he took out two Low-Grade Spirit Stones and tossed them over.

With his aura suppressed to Level 5 Qi Refining by Thousand Faces, he looked just like an ordinary refugee.

The Body Cultivator caught the Spirit Stones, tossed a rough wooden plaque engraved with the characters 'Qingmu' to Gu Shen, and waved him through.

Stepping into Qingmu Cliff.

The scene before his eyes was like a massive, hollowed-out beehive.

Countless Immortal Caves of varying sizes were carved along the steep cliff walls, with wooden walkways crisscrossing between them.

Unlike the orderly nature of other markets, every inch of open space here was packed with ragged, panic-stricken Loose Cultivators.

Hawking cries, painful groans, and stifled arguments, mixed with the pungent smell of Spirit Medicine and rotting flesh, filled the entire Cliff City.

"Top-quality Rejuvenation Pills! Only three Spirit Stones! A holy medicine to save your life!"

"Does anyone have blood-replenishing Spiritual Plants? I've had thirty percent of my vital essence drained by that evil Formation in the White Bone Forest; I am willing to trade a Medium Grade Spell for it!"

Gu Shen lowered his bamboo hat and threaded through the crowded throng, observing coldly.

There were too many Loose Cultivators who had escaped from the White Bone Forest. Most bore extremely heavy depletion and external injuries.

Medicinal Pills in the Cultivation World were already expensive, and now they had been driven up to exorbitant prices.

Gu Shen did not rush to peddle the top-quality healing items in his storage ring. Before figuring out how deep the waters of Qingmu Cliff ran, flaunting wealth was tantamount to seeking death.

He followed the walkway to a relatively wide trading platform in the middle section of the cliff wall.

This was where the most people gathered.

Suddenly, a hysterical shout came from ahead.

"Get out of the way! Don't block the path! I need to see the Cliff Master!"

An old man, shriveled all over like dead wood, pushed through the crowd like a madman, stumbling toward the center of the platform.

The flesh on half of his body had almost withered down to the bone, clearly the result of his vital essence being forcibly extracted by an extremely tyrannical force.

"Is that Shen Sanshi? He is proficient in the 'Earth-Piercing Escape Technique'; did he actually manage to crawl out of the White Bone Forest underground alive?"

Someone recognized the old man's identity and exclaimed.

Shen Sanshi fell to his knees in the center of the platform with a thud, his withered, single hand desperately clutching a jade box wrapped in layers of mud seals from his bosom.

"I don't want Spirit Stones! I need High Grade Medicinal Pills that can replenish vital essence! I dug up a mutated, top-quality blood ginseng deep beneath the White Bone Forest!"

Shen Sanshi's voice was hoarse as he fiercely smashed the mud seals on the jade box.

Hum.

The jade box cracked open a slit.

In an instant, an extremely pure and potent vitality, so thick it made one's pores relax, mixed with a trace of heart-palpitating, extreme Yin Evil Qi, seeped out from the crack.

Gu Shen stood behind the crowd, his pupils suddenly constricting.

Relying on his powerful Divine Sense at Qi Refining Level 7, he clearly saw a remnant root lying in the jade box, only the size of a fingernail, crystal clear like red agate throughout, and still covered in soil.

"What kind of blood ginseng is that? Such rich vitality!" The surrounding Loose Cultivators instantly turned red-eyed and greedily pushed forward.

"A bunch of idiots; that is not blood ginseng at all."

A thunderclap exploded in Gu Shen's mind, and he instantly connected everything.

On the edge of the White Bone Forest, he had seen with his own eyes those ghastly white bone trees that drained the vital essence of Loose Cultivators, and he had deduced that what was being nurtured at the center of the Formation was the blood marrow lotus.

This Shen Sanshi could not possibly know about the conspiracy of the two major Sects; he had simply been using the Earth-Piercing Escape Technique to drill deep underground in a desperate bid to escape his hopeless situation.

And the roots of that Blood Sacrifice Array, in order to absorb the Yin Qi of the earth veins, had long since spread like a spiderweb deep into the underground of the White Bone Forest.

This red-agate-like remnant root was clearly a small piece of associated blood root that Shen Sanshi had encountered while escaping underground, blocking his path. He, not understanding the situation, had forcibly severed it and brought it out!

Boom!

Before anyone could get close.

Three incomparably powerful Spiritual Pressures descended from the top of the cliff with a roar.

Three commanders of the Cliff Master's private soldiers, at Qi Refining 9th Layer, smashed onto the platform like meteors, the violent gale directly blowing the surrounding Loose Cultivators several yards away.

The leading commander's eyes were cold; without a word of nonsense, he strode up to Shen Sanshi.

"An exotic treasure has appeared; the Cliff Master has ordered this item to be confiscated. As for your life, the Cliff Master rewards you with a High Grade Blood Pill; it is spared."

The commander snatched the jade box and resealed it with a Talisman. Then, he grabbed the dying Shen Sanshi with one hand and turned into a streak of light, heading straight for the most magnificent Immortal Cave at the top of the cliff.

Clean, efficient, and extremely tyrannical.

The Loose Cultivators on the platform were silent as cicadas in winter; they dared to be angry but not speak, assuming the Cliff Master had once again forcibly seized a mutated blood medicine.

But Gu Shen's heart sank little by little.

The Foundation Establishment Stage Cliff Master of Qingmu Cliff had no idea what a hot potato he had snatched.

The roots of the blood marrow lotus were connected to the core of the Formation like mother and child. Shen Sanshi had severed a piece; the demonic cultivators of the Blood Fiend Sect who set up the Formation would definitely notice.

They wouldn't even need to send a large army; they only needed to follow the Karma of the Blood Sacrifice remaining on that remnant root, and the Sect's Law Enforcement Squad would be able to track down Qingmu Cliff with precision, like wolves smelling blood!

"This is a death mark." Gu Shen evaluated coldly in his heart.

This Qingmu Cliff could not be saved.

The prosperity and safety here were just the final countdown before the great purge. In as little as three to five days, or at most half a month, the two behemoths of the Great Yu Cultivation World would follow this severed root and grind this place into powder.

"Time is running out."

Gu Shen was extremely clear-headed. He had to use the fastest speed to extract the supplies he needed during this chaotic countdown, and then escape before the storm arrived.

He turned and walked toward an Immortal Cave rental office in a corner of the walkway.

The manager was a fat man at Qi Refining Stage 4, who was boredly fiddling with an abacus.

"The most remote, lowest-level stone room, rent for ten days." Gu Shen's voice was hoarse as he slapped three Low-Grade Spirit Stones directly onto the table.

The fat man took the Spirit Stones and tossed Gu Shen a Restriction jade plaque engraved with the character 'Ding' and the number ninety-seven.

"Bottom level, near the abyss's poisonous miasma. You are responsible for your own life and death."

Gu Shen took the jade plaque and walked all the way down along the simple stone steps at the edge of the cliff wall.

The further down he went, the heavier the humidity became, and the smell of blood was instead masked by the poisonous miasma surging up from the depths of the abyss.

He used the jade plaque to unlock the Restriction of Stone Room Ding-97.

It was extremely narrow inside, with only a stone bed. Water droplets were seeping from the walls.

Gu Shen activated the stone room's Restriction and sat cross-legged on the stone bed.

"Those Loose Cultivators who escaped from the White Bone Forest are most in need of life-saving medicine that can remove Evil Qi and treat external injuries. And I, am not lacking in this at all."

Gu Shen's eyes were cold as knives.

He was going to use this stone room to combine mundane, non-spiritual medical materials with the Spirit Medicine of the Cultivation World to concoct a batch of "top-quality emergency medicine" with extremely low costs that could instantly cleanse Evil Qi and heal external injuries.

Then, he would go and pry open the Storage Pouches of that flock of fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered above, exchanging them for the Cultivation Technique and life-saving trump cards needed for the Late-Stage Qi Refining. Before the Sect arrived, he would fly far away.