Chapter 34: Who Is Governing Karma?

The golden crow set westward, the jade plate hung high, yet it was obscured by layers of dark clouds.

Beneath the night's veil, Wan Ning Mountain seemed to have lost its light, only a deep darkness flowing.

Having left the market at noon and traveled for four hours, he has now gone over three hundred li into Wan Ning Mountain.

Wan Ning Mountain isn't large; three hundred li brings you to its deepest part.

Here, one is already in a remote deep mountain forest seldom visited by people.

Ancient trees thick enough for two people to embrace stand everywhere; the miasma here can already injure cultivators at the early Qi Refining stage.

Wang Ping is already at late Qi Refining, and his body tempering is near completion.

Such miasma cannot harm him in the slightest.

Just as he wondered how much farther he had to go, he suddenly realized his spiritual sense could no longer detect those cultivators.

He paused, stood still thinking, and Wang Ping, striving to control his body, quietly moved forward.

Ten zhang from where his spiritual sense faded, Wang Ping halted.

Ahead lay a valley of jagged rocks below.

He glanced at the nearby ancient tree, climbed up in a few moves, and looked ahead.

At this moment, the moon obscured by the clouds finally appeared.

Vast silver moonlight poured down, bringing dappled light to the mountains.

Wang Ping strained his eyes and saw over thirty cultivators in the valley more than twenty zhang ahead.

But his spiritual sense extended ten zhang ahead detected nothing.

Such an abnormal situation made him dare not act rashly.

He merely crouched on the treetop, his gaze continually scanning back and forth over the valley.

After looking around, he didn't find the mysterious old man, while the cultivators were just circling in place.

Where is the old man?

Wang Ping continually searched the valley, yet found no trace of the old man.

Could he be outside the valley?

Wang Ping lightly descended from the treetop and quietly circled the valley.

Finally, on the other side he found two cultivators, one of whom was the cultivator who had left earlier that day.

The other was not the old man, but a refined middle-aged man about forty.

Could this be three generations of grandfather and grandson, with the old man not yet arrived?

Wang Ping thought that, but at that moment he discovered that the spiritual imprint he had left on the old man was actually on the middle-aged man.

Now Wang Ping understood: the old man was merely the middle-aged man in disguise.

Such a wondrous transformation technique is truly astonishing; Wang Ping's heart stirred slightly, wondering whether this technique could conceal spiritual roots.

Suppressing these thoughts, Wang Ping focused his spiritual sense, preparing to listen to what they were saying.

In the distance, Tie Lanshan and his son Tie Xiong were excitedly looking down at the situation in the valley.

Tie Xiong said worriedly, "Father, thirty-five cultivators have followed us this time; isn't our commotion too great?"

Tie Lanshan's gaze was calm, his weathered face showing no change; looking at the cultivators in the valley was like looking at a herd of livestock.

Regarding his son's words, he coldly said, "What's there to fear? Once we finish this haul, I will have sufficient resources, and at next month's Jewel Treasure Pavilion auction I will be able to obtain that Foundation Establishment spiritual item."

"By then I, Tie Lanshan, will assault Foundation Establishment; once successful, it will merely be killing a few dozen cultivators—who would dare seek trouble with me?"

Having said that, Tie Lanshan smiled and said to his son:

"Xiong'er, remember: the path of cultivation is about advancing oneself by any means; the cultivators below are our provisions."

"Their flesh and spiritual power can be transformed via the Blood Moon Grand Formation into pure spirit pills, blood pills. With these pills, you will not only enter the Great Perfection of Qi Refining before forty, but I, as father, can also use these pills to advance further on the road to the Great Perfection of Qi Refining."

"If one can condense spiritual power into two thousand threads, it will draw earth qi, increasing the chance of Foundation Establishment by twenty percent, and at the same time one can use earth qi to enhance some spiritual root aptitude."

"Alright, the moon is in position; we should activate the formation. The Formation Master of the Iron Family has lain dormant for a thousand years; reviving the Iron Family's prestige begins with us."

When Tie Lanshan spoke of the Formation Master of the Iron Family, his tone suddenly rose, and a flicker of fervor appeared in his eyes.

Tie Xiong nodded heavily, his face also showing fervor.

Next, father and son each walked to opposite sides of the valley, each forming hand seals, then each channeled spiritual power into the six positions within the valley.

In an instant, each of those six positions rose a pillar of light, and simultaneously all the surrounding moonlight was gathered.

A hum.

Having received a large influx of moonlight, the valley instantly underwent change, layers of radiance spreading.

Wang Ping could no longer see inside the valley, nor hear any sound; he only saw that the originally silver light now gave rise to strands of blood mist.

Tie Lanshan and his son constantly observed the valley's changes; when they saw the silver light produce red mist, their faces broke into excited smiles.

Tie Lanshan further said, "The Blood Moon Grand Formation has begun refining the qi and blood, as well as the spiritual power, of the cultivators below. Son, look well—this is the Blood Moon Grand Formation that once made our Iron Family shake the Desert Kingdom."

Desert Kingdom!

Wang Ping felt relieved; no wonder he had never heard of this family.

It turned out that this father and son came from beyond the western cliffs.

The surrounding moonlight was frenziedly gathered by the Blood Moon Grand Formation, illuminating a ten-li radius as bright as daylight.

No wonder the formation was set deep in the mountains and old forests—it's for fear of being discovered!

After a quarter hour like that, a crystal-clear, translucent blood-colored great pill slowly floated up in the valley.

And that wasn't the end; immediately after, a pill emitting a domineering spiritual power fluctuation also appeared.

Wang Ping, hiding in the dark, gazing at that blood-colored great pill, felt his flesh actually stir with an impulse to rush over and swallow them.

Fortunately he suppressed that thought.

At the same time a hint of astonishment rose in his heart: what kind of formation could actually sever the cultivators' blood and qi, as well as their spiritual power?

He felt that after taking that blood-red pill, he would likely break through to Great Perfection within a month.

As for that spirit pill, pure and flawless, it also carries a surge of life force; taking it would likely increase his spiritual power by a hundred strands.

Everything before him opened his eyes wide; indeed, the depths of the cultivation world are unfathomable.

On both sides of the valley, Tie Lanshan gazed at the one red and one hundred grand pills rising from within the valley, and laughed loudly to the sky:

"Hahaha! The Blood Moon Grand Formation has finally been set up; from now on, an endless supply of blood pills and spirit pills will be ours to consume."

"Son, from now on we will practice Dharma-body dual cultivation; Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul will no longer be obstacles for us."

Tie Lanshan laughed wildly, waving his hand to take the two grand pills back into his storage bag.

With the first spirit pill and blood pill, thereafter thirty blood pills and thirty spirit pills floated up one after another from the Blood Moon Grand Formation.

Tie Lanshan watched the blood pills and spirit pills floating above the formation, his whole body trembling with excitement, and then he laughed nonstop:

"Hahaha! They're all ours now—thirty spirit pills, thirty blood pills; we father and son have the resources to both break through to Foundation Establishment, lacking only the Foundation Establishment spirit item."

Tie Xiong's face also bore an excited smile as he said to his father:

"Father! Let's quickly gather these grand pills, then collect the storage bags of the cultivators below and leave this place at once."

Tie Lanshan came to his senses and praised, saying: "My son makes sense; let's withdraw from this place quickly!"

Whoosh!

Just as the two father and son were dismantling the formation, an arrow suddenly shot from Wang Ping's direction, aimed at Tie Lanshan.

In the valley, Tie Xiong happened to be facing Tie Lanshan, directly in the path of the incoming arrow.

Therefore, upon spotting the arrow, he slammed into Tie Lanshan to push him aside without a second thought.

He, however, was pierced straight through the body by that arrow, leaving a fist-sized, clean-through blood hole in his chest.

Blood poured down from the sky, the moon silent, as Tie Xiong slowly collapsed; in his daze, he seemed to see dozens of wandering souls laughing at him.

The heavens turn, the cycles revolve—who governs karma?

Tie Lanshan lifted his head, staring blankly at his son's falling figure, then let out a mournful cry:

"Xionger!"