Chapter 135: Kidnapping, Bounty, and Chaotic Gifts

The sect leader succession ceremony was held as scheduled, and the Canluo Sect invited all major sects to attend.

Chu Danqing naturally followed along, eating and drinking for free at the venue.

The fifteen days he spent at Mount Canluo were truly comfortable; his cultivation progress was as steady as an old dog, and his series of skills, such as the Five Elements Spirit Beast Command Art, had already been upgraded to LV. 9.

The remaining 1 level would take another half a month to slowly grind out.

Along with this, his Basic Command had also been upgraded from LV. 1 to LV. 3.

The summoning consumable cost changed from -1 to -3.

During this period, Ziyu Jushi, just as Yuan Chong had said, sent over a generous gift.

【Pure Yang Glazed Treasure Incense ×60】

【Type: Offering Item】

【Quality: Excellent】

【Durability: 1/1】

【Effect 1: When used as an offering, the target of the offering gains 1 unit of incense merit.】

【Effect 2: Used during cultivation, it can increase cultivation efficiency by 100%.】

(Note: Limited to life forms such as souls and spirit bodies, and target objects like deities, immortals, and Buddhas.)

(Note: Limited to Common and Excellent quality inherited cultivation arts; for Fine quality inherited cultivation arts, the efficiency increase is only 10%.)

Chu Danqing had inquired about it; besides the high cost of production, the manufacturing process for this Pure Yang Glazed Treasure Incense was extremely cumbersome, with only a hundred sticks produced each year.

Thirty percent of these were acquired by the imperial court, and another twenty percent were released for trade.

The remaining twenty percent had to be used for various annual ceremonies, leaving only twenty sticks of treasure incense within Mount Canluo.

And one stick of this incense, with its exquisite craftsmanship, could burn for thirty minutes; the total for the remaining twenty sticks was only ten hours.

They were generally provided in advance to the geniuses in the sect, such as Zhuo Bufan, Zhao Mingqian, and others.

However, even for them, adding the portions from their masters that didn't need to be saved for them, they only got two or three sticks a year.

Ziyu Jushi sending him sixty sticks of treasure incense directly was indeed very sincere.

Chu Danqing took them directly to use as morning and evening incense for the Snake Soul.

He didn't need the bonus for his own cultivation, but it was different if he used the incense merit as a cultivation resource to nurture the Snake Soul.

If nothing went wrong, once the contract was completed, the Snake Soul's attributes might be able to reach the 10-point limit of the Reserve Rank.

After all, the Snake Soul was a House-Protecting Immortal, so the incense merit was quite suitable.

Even if this House-Protecting Immortal belonged to a mutated version, it could at least gain some benefits.

And it could only be used now; once the Snake Soul offering contract was completed, it wouldn't be able to consume incense merit anymore.

After all, it wasn't a proper House-Protecting Immortal; it had no body and possessed the Spirit Xiangliu bloodline.

It could only become a House-Protecting Immortal because the Paradise's rules were powerful; otherwise, how could such a bizarre life form appear?

Then, Chu Danqing's daily routine added one more task: nurturing the Snake Soul.

Life was becoming increasingly fulfilling; if he didn't still have to go find Xiong Zhigang to discuss the Blood Oath Alliance, he would have wanted to stay at the Canluo Sect.

And having accepted the gift, it wouldn't be good for him to leave early, so he waited until the succession ceremony began.

Near noon, the ceremony officially started.

Chu Danqing returned to his seat, acting like a tool, with a serious expression on his face, while his mind was thinking about whether to take a nap after the ceremony ended.

He was here to observe the ceremony, not to host it for others; sitting and watching was enough.

"Wait a moment!" A woman's voice drowned out the ceremonial music at the scene.

Chu Danqing raised an eyebrow; had the troublemaker arrived?

Following the voice, he looked over; it was a woman.

Her appearance is truly beautiful, with the air of a woman who walked right out of a PS program.

With her shout, everyone's eyes turned to her.

Zhuo Bufan's face showed hesitation, struggle, and a desire to speak but stopping.

"Demoness, you still dare to come!" Master Qingsui cursed in anger at the first moment, immediately raising his sword to take action.

But he was stopped by Ziyu Jushi.

"Miss Murong, Bufan is now the Canluo Sect leader; you and he are not suitable." Ziyu Jushi said calmly.

These words left Chu Danqing confused.

The Canluo Sect didn't forbid marriage; where did the "not suitable" come from?

"Today I am taking him away, and I'll see who dares to stop me!" The woman said coldly: "You clearly know he doesn't want to be the sect leader, yet you insist on forcing him."

Chu Danqing's eyes widened; he had heard of snatching a bride, but never of snatching a sect leader.

Sure enough, if a person lives long enough, they can see anything.

"That... let's talk this over properly." Chu Danqing stood up.

He had taken people's gifts and felt short-handed, so it wouldn't be good to shrink back at this time.

So he stood out to be a peacemaker.

Mainly, it was hard to take action; looking at these two, it was obvious they already had feelings for each other.

If this woman hadn't come to snatch the sect leader, she might have been standing beside Zhuo Bufan as the sect leader's wife, participating in the ceremony together.

The other party glanced at Chu Danqing, then ignored him, looked at Zhuo Bufan, and continued: "As long as you say the word 'no', I will immediately take you and fight our way out of Mount Canluo."

"Bufan, this is your duty." Ziyu Jushi said softly.

As the eldest disciple of the Canluo Sect, he had received the grace of being taught and enlightened since childhood, practiced the best martial arts, and used the best resources.

Even Zhuo Bufan's father being able to survive relied on the friendship between his junior brother Zhao Mingqian and Chu Danqing.

Otherwise, how could Chu Danqing possibly pay attention to him?

Now you say you're quitting; is this appropriate?

"I..." Zhuo Bufan's heart settled, and he opened his mouth to refuse the woman.

But just after saying the word "I", an anomaly erupted once again.

"Kill the corrupt officials, restore clarity!" Suddenly, a wave of shouting and flag-waving came, and hundreds of greenwood bandits and Jianghu evil sects were seen swarming up the mountain together.

With this posture, one didn't need to look to know they had been prepared for a long time.

Chu Danqing scratched his head; how did his own affairs get involved in this?

"Ziyu Jushi, is this what you meant by 'not much impact'?" Chu Danqing was slightly speechless.

This sudden situation also caught Ziyu Jushi off guard.

Seeing this, everyone drew their weapons, and the entire ceremony became tense.

Everyone could perceive that this group of people swarming up the mountain were not all Jianghu people.

The weapons they held were not something ordinary blacksmiths could forge, and some even had a set of inner armor.

If it were just the weapons, it could be explained as being forged with heavy gold, but adding the inner armor, everyone could see the conspiracy.

"Ziyu Jushi, please forgive us." A man at the head stood out and cupped his hands: "We did not intend to disrupt your sect's ceremony."

"It's just that this corrupt official..." The man said, reaching out and pointing at Chu Danqing, but before he could finish cursing, a crossbow bolt shot directly into his eye socket, piercing his brain.

On the spot, he turned into a corpse and fell down.

The atmosphere suddenly froze.

"That's it?" Chu Danqing said disdainfully.

The eyes of the repeating crossbowmen fell on that group of people; whoever became the bird that stuck its head out, they would shoot dead.

Inner armor? If you have the ability, put on a face mask.

"Everyone, do not be blinded by the bounty; the Sushen people are hoping we fight among ourselves so they can enter the pass." Ziyu Jushi took this opportunity to come out and ease the atmosphere.

The matter of someone wanting to snatch his disciple was no longer important.

"Heh, I think it's you old man who wants to swallow the million-bounty alone." Someone in the crowd provoked: "Brothers, together..."

*Whoosh~*

Before the provocateur could finish speaking, he was shot dead by the repeating crossbowmen.

This group of greenwood bandits and Jianghu evil sects had many people, and the repeating crossbowmen's bolts were indeed not enough.

But the problem was that they didn't have to kill everyone; whoever took the lead would be killed.

No one wanted to be that bird that stuck its head out.

After Chu Danqing estimated the position, he gave Dabao a look.

The next moment, the figure of the Single-Horned Flood Dragon emerged, and without hesitation, it released a large-scale poison-type area spell.

Dabao launched an attack suddenly, and the Tracing Tiger followed closely behind.

Since you won't make the first move, Chu Danqing won't be polite.

"Not good, this corrupt official doesn't follow martial ethics and actually launched a sneak attack!" No one knew who shouted that.

Chu Danqing didn't see it, but the repeating crossbowmen did, and one bolt shot him dead.

The battle erupted; in fact, the Canluo Sect and the various observing sects didn't want to fight at all; a peaceful resolution was best.

But they couldn't help that Chu Danqing had made the first move, so they could only bite the bullet and join in.

On the contrary, Chu Danqing was like an outsider, under the protection of the Wang Fu guards, occasionally throwing out spirit talismans and magic orbs.

The damage wasn't high, but the special effects looked very cool.

Watching the one-sided victory, Chu Danqing also muttered to himself.

With so many natives intervening, don't let them ruin his Shining Pattern.

He did want to tell them not to take action, but that wasn't realistic.

"Hope this isn't the last batch..." Chu Danqing could only pray.

As for summoning Guo Ming from the start, it was too late.

With so many people around, they wouldn't be embarrassed to just watch Guo Ming take action; they would all participate more or less.

Chu Danqing turned his gaze around and discovered something shocking.

That woman surnamed Murong seemed to have taken advantage of the chaos to take Zhuo Bufan and run away.

"Damn, I lost their sect leader." Chu Danqing's face turned green.

In the end, the root of this chaos was also him.

Before the chaos occurred, Zhuo Bufan had made up his mind to stay and be the sect leader.

From the words of that woman surnamed Murong and Zhuo Bufan's attitude, the other party was indeed not very interested in the sect leader position.

After about half an hour, the enemies who climbed the mountain were either dead or captured, and the entire ceremony became a mess.

Ziyu Jushi's face showed helplessness; he had wanted to use Chu Danqing's name, but didn't expect it to backfire.

Fortunately, the losses weren't great; with some operation, his reputation could be raised to a higher level.

The losses from fighting evil sects and bandits could be fully cashed in, just like the scars left on a warrior's body during battle are glory, not shame.

"Ziyu Jushi, I have something to say, you must hold on." Chu Danqing leaned over.

These words came from Chu Danqing's mouth; Ziyu Jushi decisively scanned the scene, only feeling the world go black, staggering back two steps, unable to stand steady.

Fortunately, Chu Danqing was quick-eyed and fast-handed, supporting him.

Ziyu Jushi knew what Chu Danqing was going to say; it was nothing more than Zhuo Bufan running away.

"No matter, I will go find Bufan and bring him back." Ziyu Jushi said, forcing a smile.

"Leave this to me; Dabao can track him." Chu Danqing patted his chest: "Even if I can't find him, I will give you an explanation."

"However, leave the cleanup of the scene to you."

Chu Danqing said, calling Dabao to go chase after them together.

The longer they dragged it out, the further they would run; they definitely had to move immediately.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 136 =====