Chapter 12: 12. Ghost Valley

Yi Kai exchanges a nod with Ru Bao. They walk to me and bow. 

?

"We won't say anything about this to anyone, but please help us!" Says Ru Bao.

"What do you mean?"

"We know you are a master hiding his strength, please help us find Li Xing and get us out of here."

"Won't tearing the talisman work? Why are you-"

Yi Kai shows me two broken talismans, the talisman isn't working.

"My apologies senior, but all three of us planned to escape immediately after the competition started because we sensed something wrong-"

I sigh. "Escape huh... What about the money the association paid?"

"W-We will of course refund it with additional interest as compensation and shut our mouth about today's incident so I beg you! Please help us find the young lady!"

Young lady? They are addressing Li Xing formally which means... Does Li Xing have a high position in the sect, perhaps the daughter of the patriarch?

...

These two...are at the fourth stage of Qi Condensation. 

Hmmm...

"Alright, but you will have to do whatever I say."

They can't afford to betray me if they want to search for Li Xing.

We venture deeper into Ghost Valley. 

------------------

"Argh... My head." Says Li Xing.

Li Xing wakes up to find Xie Mo facing away from her, sitting on a rock not too far. "X-Xie Mo! What are you doing-"

But she comes to her senses, she realises that isn't Xie Mo but instead a rotten corpse wearing a robe with a similar design to Xie Mo's.

"..."

Li Xing attempts to get up and noticed a blue rope tied around her entire body. "What the?"

She struggles and wiggles but hits something behind her.

?

!!!

Rolling over, she realises every woman participant is tied up in this exact location. It is dark with subtle light shining into the area, there are bits and pieces of rubble lying around, she is in a run-down old building.

"My my, the gorgeous beauty woke up. What is the daughter of that run-down sect doing here?" A mysterious voice speaks around her.

!?

"W-Who are you?"

A man shows up from the shadow, his footsteps leaving behind trails of blood. He is completely covered with a black robe that has a red outer lining, leaving only the clothes around the eyes open for vision. 

"Blood sect?! Are you planning to sabotage this competition? Do you know the consequences of doing so?" Li Xing exclaims. 

"Haha! Consequences? There won't be any consequences. We are planning to pin this incident on the Heavenly Divine Dragon sect."

"W-What..."

The man snickers at Li Xing and caresses her hair. "My dear, your sect is already hopeless yet you are still trying helplessly to revive it. Is it for your mother? Or for your father? Or... Is it for that boy called Xie Mo?"

!!

"You!!"

"Kekeke..."

With that, the man stood up and disappears back into the shadow.

Li Xing gulps. "Yi Kai and Ru Bao... Please be safe."

-----------------

Two coyote beasts leapt at me from behind as I twirl my body and slash both at once.

One beast, a weird mush of rotten meat, shoots one part of its substance at me. I shift my body to the left to dodge it and thrust my sword at the beast, creating a powerful single-point shock wave that pierced through the beast.

It went limp as Yi Kai and Ru Bao hurriedly shuffles to the beast and collect their core.

I walk ahead of them. 

"S-Senior. Huff huff... Wait..." Says Yi Kai.

?

"Why? You said you will do everything I say right?" 

"Y-Yes but..." Says Ru Bao. Ru Bao points at the piles of corpses around us.

"You are not giving us enough time to collect all of the cores, you killed too many." Says Yi Kai.

I click my tongue. "Then why are you wasting time chit-chatting."

!!

"Y-Yes we will get to it quickly!"

I sigh as Yi Kai and Ru Bao panic. 

Hm? The smell of bones.

I look around. The dirt beneath my feet should be soaked in red blood, but... The dirt seems to "absorb" the blood, it has gone back to its original dark emerald colour. I've never seen dirt in such a weird colour.

Other than dead nature and rubble everywhere. There isn't anything worth noting here. 

The smell of the bones is coming from my east, I walk towards the smell and manage to find a small, black, murky pond. 

!!

Around the edge of the pond, a silver-white sprout sticks out from the ground. The smell of decomposing bones is sickening here.

"Argh!! What is that?" Says Yi Kai. They've caught up to me. 

"Pick up all of that," I say.

"H-Huh? T-That-" Ru Bao tries to say something but Yi Kai stopped him.

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Both of them obediently go over to pick the herbs up. 

I look at the pouch. I have around 109 beast cores, beast cores are also ingredients for pills so I secretly took some for myself.

Excluding my stash, I have 153 beast cores.

The higher the grade of the beast, the bigger the core and the lighter the colour. 

!

I sense movements above, I quickly hide behind huge rubble beside the pond.

"Huff Huff... We are done... What? Where did senior go?" Says Ru Bao.

"Hey, the both of you." Someone says from above. 

!!

A male cultivator is standing on a floating sword, I can't sense his cultivation base, someone at the core formation realm?

Behind that person are 3 more cultivators.

He lands beside Yi Kai. "I wonder if you would mind that I take those herbs you picked?" 

"Sorry, we can-"

A large pressure was exerted on Yi Kai and Ru Bao, both fell to their knees.

"I said, YOU WOULDN'T MINE IF I TAKE THOSE HERBS RIGHT?" The man smirks.

Judging by his attire, he seems to be from a wealthy family. He has long hair tied up in a ponytail with a jewellery hair tie.

I smile, should I give it a shot?

"Also, show yourself, the person behind that pile of rocks." The man says.

I pull out the tower artifact I got from Zi Mi and activate it on the cultivators. 

?!!!!!!

A pentagram appears underneath them and a giant yellow tower appears above.

"I-Impossible! An imperial treasure?!!! Why do you have it?! Isn't that stolen-"

The pressure increases by about tenfold around them, causing their entire body to slam to the ground.

"Y-You! Stop this at once! Cease the artifact! I am from the Mu Xue family residing in Tianwu!" He shouts.

!!!!!!

"I see, Mu Xue, understood," I say.

"Senior! The Mu Xue family is an imperial family! They will track us down to the end of the Murim if we kill even one of their offspring!"

I sigh. "Shut up and help me loot their corpse after the artifact is done, I don't know how to stop this thing even if I want to."

"Huh?! Wait!!"

The tower slams down into the 4 bodies. 

After a while, it glows and the yellow energy flows into my body.

However, I am more well-versed in controlling Qi now so I reject the cultivation base and disperse the yellow energy.

"..."

The tower disappears shortly, leaving only the belongings of the victims, not even a single bone or sign of the corpse can be seen.

Haha... So Zi Mi stole this artifact huh... 

Yi Kai and Ru Bao go to take the loot, I sit down on the rubble as I watch them work.

They run to me with bag after bag.

"They... Huff huff... They have really good stuff!" Says Yi Kai, trying to catch his breath. 

"A Mythical Fur robe from that guy! Even the subordinates have a once-in-a-lifetime fortune worth of things! If we sell all of these..."

Both of them look more excited about the loot than I am.

I extend my hand out.

...

They reluctantly pass the loot to me, I scramble through it and place everything into my pouch.

"Sorry, Senior. We need to hurry, about Li Xing-" 

"I know, I found her," I reply to Yi Kai.

!!?

I get off the rubble and walk to pick up a hairpin off the ground. It's a red flower hairpin, the one Li Xing wears.

...

There is air coming out from the edge of the rubble I sat on. I kick the rubble and it explodes into smithereens, there is a space below the rubble...

----------------

"Kekeke... Looks like all of the male participants are dead."

"What..." Mumbles Li Xing.

"The ritual will soon begin so don't be anxious my little jade beauty. You will witness the birth of the ancient blood tomb being erected from the womb." Says the masked man.

"Tomb?" I say.

!!!

"Who are you!" The masked man says.

I appear behind him instantly and attempt to decapitate him, but all I slice through is some red blood.

?

A pool of red blood materializes in the man behind Li Xing. 

"Bastard! How did you get in here? No, how are you even alive? I made sure that everyone marked with the blood curse is dead."

I smile.

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