Chapter 131

"Zhenwu Hall?" Qin Shuo raised an eyebrow.

Earlier, he had heard He Mingjing mention it—Zhenwu Hall, like the Demon Suppression Division, was one of the three major violent organs of Great Li.

It was founded at the very beginning of Great Li's establishment, when Great Li's founding emperor Pei Yunlong selected elite experts from numerous sects under his command to form it.

A violent organ integrating assassination, siege-breaking, intelligence, beheading, and more, its reputation was immense.

After the founding of the state, Zhenwu Hall had always been regarded as the emperor's sword; for six hundred years, its favor had never waned, making it the foremost of the three major violent organs of the court, bearing the responsibility of monitoring the world, suppressing local powers, and apprehending fugitives.

Unlike the low-profile reputation of the Demon Suppression Division.

Zhenwu Hall's influence spread across all provinces and prefectures of the world; even in a remote place like Black Water City, it had intelligence outposts—truly a colossal entity.

In contrast, the Demon Suppression Division, which monitored demonic movements across the world, was far more low-key.

This was mainly because the Demon Suppression Division mostly operated in deep mountains and dense forests; even when it occasionally appeared in bustling markets, it was only after subduing demons, and it would swiftly depart, hence its low profile.

Even in many places—for example, within Black Water City—many people were unaware of the Demon Suppression Division's existence.

"Anything?"

Qin Shuo's eyes flickered with vigilance.

If he remembered correctly, this person earlier, together with the Wind Thunder Valley disciple who had tried to dissuade Fu Lingyuan, should have been observing the battle from the same position.

In other words, the other party knew that Wind Thunder Valley disciple.

Perhaps, Zhenwu Hall was also involved in this killing game targeting him.

At the very least, the other party was informed but did not intervene, which already revealed their stance and problem.

Thinking this, Qin Shuo's gaze instantly turned cold, his right hand resting on the hilt of his blade, ready to draw at any moment.

"Qin Brother, you misunderstand—today's matter has nothing to do with our Zhenwu Hall."

Seeing Qin Shuo's hostile expression, Chen Jin'an rubbed his nose, somewhat embarrassed, and said:

"I came to invite Qin Brother to join our Zhenwu Hall."

"Someone as young and outstanding as Qin Brother, possessing divine abilities—we of Zhenwu Hall would be eager to win him over; how could we possibly harm him?"

"No interest."

Qin Shuo refused decisively.

Naturally, he would not believe Chen Jin'an's explanation.

Even if the other party truly had no involvement in today's killing game, they likely still had countless ties to Wind Thunder Valley.

At present, he had more important matters to attend to and did not wish to engage in evasive talk with the other party to uncover their true intentions.

He immediately stopped paying attention to Chen Jin'an and leapt toward the Fang family's residence.

Cut the grass, remove the roots!

Since he was already locked in a deadly feud with the Fang family's main branch and the Song family's collateral branch, he naturally would not leave himself a future threat—he would eliminate all dangers today in one sweep.

Bang bang bang...

On this day, the sound of bowstrings twanging never ceased within Songyang Prefecture City.

The direct descendants of the Fang family and the collateral disciples of the Song family—regardless of age—were all killed by a single arrow, blood flowing like rivers.

Especially within the Fang family's main residence, corpses lay scattered across the wilderness, not a single survivor.

The core disciples of the Fang family led by Fang Lin, Fang Yue, and Fang Yan, though Fang Yongping had already transferred them early, were still traced by Qin Shuo's Heavenly Wolf Divine Sense and found nowhere to hide—each was shot dead by an arrow.

As for the Song family's collateral branch, Qin Shuo naturally would not show favoritism; he dragged them out from their hidden residences throughout the prefecture city and sent them to the underworld to reunite with Song Ci.

The slaughter continued until dusk.

After confirming no omissions remained, Qin Shuo began confiscating property.

The Fang family had occupied the prefecture city for decades, amassing countless riches; besides various real estate deeds, their silver and banknotes amounted to a hundred thousand in great number.

Adding various antiques, calligraphy, paintings, and rare treasures, all were packed by Qin Shuo into boxes and exchanged at pawnshops for banknotes.

These things were useless to him; it was more practical to convert them into banknotes to buy exotic beast meat.

As for the real estate deeds, he had just moved into a villa of the Song family when, shortly after, all the major families of the prefecture city began sending people to negotiate, expressing willingness to take over the Fang family's properties at high prices.

To this, Qin Shuo refused none who came.

He directly set the condition: whoever could gather the most exotic beast meat in the shortest time would receive the Fang family's properties.

Upon hearing this, the entire Songyang Prefecture City sprang into action.

Major families began frenziedly buying on the market; within half a day, the exotic beast meat in Songyang Prefecture City was completely purchased.

Even the towns and counties near the prefecture city were swept up in the frenzy, and the price of exotic beast meat rose steadily.

Seeing the exotic beast meat piled up like mountains, with more continuously arriving, Qin Shuo wore a satisfied smile.

He placed his palm upon the meat mountain; the Taotie Cauldron instantly activated, and in the blink of an eye, the thousand-jin meat mountain vanished before his eyes, as if it had never existed.

As one meat mountain after another disappeared, the energy accumulation of the Taotie Cauldron surged violently and rapidly.

【Prompt: Energy sufficient!】

【Refinable materials: Wind Thunder Treasure Furnace, Shake Mountain Divine Intent Map!】

【Special note: Dragon Elephant Golden Body requires the host to reach Condensing Truth Great Perfection before the next refinement can proceed!】

【Please select one of the refinable materials to refine!】

"Wind Thunder Treasure Furnace!"

Qin Shuo's thoughts turned.

The next second, his consciousness was pulled into the Taotie Cauldron.

Immediately after, light and shadow shifted—he seemed to have traveled through an unknown length of a bizarre, fantastical passage.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in a familiar alchemy chamber.

"This is the City Lord's Mansion!"

Seeing the familiar display before him, as well as the rare medicinal herbs he had just consumed and refined not long ago, Qin Shuo instantly recognized his current location.

"Three qian of earth spirit flower, one stalk of tiger-killing grass, one liang of stone gall liquid..."

Inside the pill chamber, Xue Chengkong carefully controlled the pill furnace's temperature while continuously adding various medicinal ingredients and spirit liquids into the furnace.

Gurgle gurgle!

As more and more rare medicinal ingredients were incorporated, a rich medicinal fragrance wafted from the pill furnace; merely sniffing it lightly gave one a feeling of lightness and transcendence, as if about to merge with heaven and earth.

"It's the Heaven Reaching Pill!"

Qin Shuo's heart stirred.

He had read Xue Chengkong's pill-refining notes, in which the records regarding the refinement process of the Heaven Reaching Pill were extremely detailed, including this kind of medicinal fragrance that made one feel as if about to ascend to immortality.

Boom!

Just as Qin Shuo was immersed in this fragrance, the scarlet pill furnace suddenly emitted a dull thud without warning.

Immediately afterward, the pill fire inside the furnace extinguished, and thick black smoke began to rise.

"Eh... it failed!"

Qin Shuo was astonished; he hadn't expected that Xue Chengkong, renowned as the dual absolute of pills and arrows, would also have times of pill refinement failure.

But thinking about it, it made sense—this Heaven Reaching Pill was independently developed by Xue Chengkong, and its process inevitably involved numerous failures; it couldn't be achieved in one go.

Indeed, regarding pill refinement failure, Xue Chengkong showed no discouragement at all, but instead began adjusting the heat and dosage.

Thus, he repeated this over and over.

Along the way, he also refined pills commonly used by martial artists, such as Blood Qi Pills and Peiyuan Pills, but the one he refined most frequently was still this Heaven Reaching Pill in which he placed great hope.

Hum!

After an unknown period of time, even Qin Shuo began to feel mentally fatigued.

Only then did he hear the Wind Thunder Treasure Furnace tremble slightly, and a rich, almost tangible medicinal fragrance spread throughout the pill chamber.

Immediately afterward, Qin Shuo saw Xue Chengkong lift the furnace lid and take out a pearl-round, jade-smooth, lustrous white medicinal pill from within.

"Success!"

Qin Shuo's spirit lifted.

Immediately afterward, text prompts appeared before his eyes:

【Ingredients: Wind Thunder Treasure Furnace!】

【Refinement Progress: Refined!】

【Refinement Effect: Heaven Reaching Pill (Perfect), Peiyuan Pill (Perfect), Blood Qi Pill (Perfect), Strengthening Bone Pill (Perfect)...】

【Current energy reserves sufficient; continue refining other ingredients?】

Refining all of Xue Chengkong's accumulated pill-refining experience over more than a decade, even though Qin Shuo possessed great mental strength, he also felt a wave of fatigue.

During the more than ten years since the Heavenly Meridian shattered, Xue Chengkong had conducted tens of thousands of pill refinements, involving hundreds of pill formulas and thousands of medicinal ingredients.

And these experiences and memories have now entirely become Qin Shuo's, forming his foundation in the Dao of pills.

It can be said without reservation that after refining the Wind Thunder Treasure Furnace, Qin Shuo is a living dual absolute of pills and arrows.

Whether in pill-refining technique or Wind Thunder Archery, he has already reached a peak, sufficient to be listed among the True Disciples of Wind Thunder Valley.

In the following days, Qin Shuo remained secluded, beginning to refine the Heaven Reaching Pill.

Through property deeds and contracts, as well as tens of thousands of taels of silver and silver notes, besides exchanging for massive quantities of exotic beast meat from various major clans, he also obtained various kinds of renowned materials and precious medicines.

Among them were the medicinal ingredients required for refining the Heaven Reaching Pill.

After witnessing Fu Lingyuan's domineering act of stomping Yue Shan into the ground with one foot, Qin Shuo was also stimulated and urgently desired to enhance his strength.

Just as Qin Shuo lay low, not venturing out, peacefully refining pills and preparing to break through the Condensing Truth realm.

Inside the City Lord's Mansion.

Shao Hanshang was anxious like an ant on a hot pan, pacing back and forth in the lakeside pavilion.

"Elder Brother Chen, what exactly is that Qin-surnamed youth thinking? Why has there been no movement at all until now?"

"Elder Brother Shao, what action do you hope he would take?"

Chen Jin'an sipped tea leisurely.

He naturally understood why Shao Hanshang was anxious.

Because on that day, Fang Yongping, on his deathbed, had loudly begged him for help; given that youth's decisive and ruthless nature, he had slaughtered the entire Fang household, young and old—there was no reason to uniquely leave Shao Hanshang, the mastermind behind the scenes, untouched.

The only explanation is that the youth's ambitions are vast, not merely seeking Shao Hanshang's life.

What Chen Jin'an cannot comprehend is that, despite so many days having passed, that youth remains hidden in the mansion, holding back without acting—what exactly does he intend?

"I have already sought aid from the sect; as long as another three to five days pass, the sect will certainly dispatch a True Disciple Elder to handle this. I just fear..."

Before Shao Hanshang could finish speaking, a confidant hurriedly came to report:

"Report, Sir: He Mingjing has escorted the criminals from Black Water City into the city; they are currently detained by the prefectural officials."

"Additionally, the Flying Star General of the Demon Suppression Division has already led a group of Demon Suppression Captains into the city."

"They are currently staying at the Drunken Immortal Residence."

"Flying Star General?"

Chen Jin'an raised his eyebrows.

Vaguely, he seemed to guess what that youth intended to do...

Killing people is insufficient to vent anger; only by confiscating property and exterminating the clan can future troubles be completely eliminated!

But Shao Hanshang, as the Prefecture Master of Songyang Prefecture, is not only a disciple of Wind Thunder Valley but also an official recognized by the imperial court.

How can one make him suffer the confiscation of property and extermination of his clan?

The answer is...

Colluding with demons!