Chapter 96

Jia Zhengfeng didn't say much.

He waved his hand and drove out the newly arrived reinforcements of the Changsheng Sect disciples from the hall.

The incident at the Nether Demon Mine was like a heavy stone slab pressing on his heart; even these days, when he cultivated, visions kept arising in his mind, and the phantom realm continuously showed scenes of that day.

Several times, Jia Zhengfeng was frightened by the visions to the point of vomiting blood, nearly suffering cultivation deviation.

Among the core disciples that the Changsheng Sect had painstakingly cultivated from childhood with countless resources, there actually hid a terrifying existence like Boxi.

Although Boxi's cultivation was weak, he somehow used some evil technique and could actually match Jia Zhengfeng in frontal combat, even threatening his safety.

What a terrifying method.

Such methods, such a layout—once Jia Zhengfeng recalled them, his whole body shuddered with chills, and his heart turned icy.

Boxi, along with those few disciples who underwent mutations, were all elites nurtured from childhood by the Changsheng Sect—yet they have become like this… So, the Changsheng Sect, which has always been adept at using the "Way of Longevity" to dig corners and plant spies, just how deeply has its interior been infiltrated?

Where did Boxi and them come from?

What exactly does that terrifying force intend to do?

Compared to the psychological pressure Boxi and them brought upon Jia Zhengfeng, the incident at the Nether Demon Mine where Shibao beat him up, forcing him to self-mutilate an arm and flee, was merely a trivial matter.

Feeling vexed, Jia Zhengfeng picked up an antiquated bronze halberd, held it, left the hall, silently departed from his Shibao, specifically walked through the dark, unlit corners, and began to leisurely wander around Swordblade City as he pleased.

Just outside his temporary residence in the Shibao, a huge stone tower constantly emitted noises of clamor and drumming.

The high-ranking members of the Yan family in Swordblade City, those violent maniacs whose every cell brimmed with violence and whose every pore oozed filthy blood, were again holding their customary midnight banquet.

In the dead of night, they frenziedly ate grilled meat, guzzled strong liquor, and unrestrainedly expended their excessive energy.

From within the stone tower continually came women's shrill screams and painful gasps; the worldly-experienced Jia Zhengfeng naturally knew what was happening inside.

The Yan family's survival philosophy is simple and brutal—the strongest warriors possess the best resources, using iron and blood to carve out living space for their people.

The Yan family's upper echelon are all somewhat hysterical battle maniacs; they habitually solve every problem with violence, and in their daily lives, every move is filled with hysterical savagery and brutality.

Just like such midnight banquets, each morning a varying number of female slave corpses are carried out from the stone tower.

"A bunch of bloodthirsty, brutal beast‑like humans… but I like them this way." Jia Zhengfeng climbed onto the city wall, stood on the wall gazing at that stone tower ablaze with lights.

Suddenly a burst of fire shot out, then another burst of fire shot out.

The clashing of heavy weapons rang out, the distinctive muffled tearing‑through‑air sound of heavy arms continued, followed by piercing mad laughter and women's terrified roars; clearly, a high‑ranking Yan family warrior had drunk too much and was fighting over a woman.

With a "Boom!", a burly figure engulfed in blazing fire roared as he was thrown out of the window.

He fell from a window several meters high, slammed hard onto the hard stone slab ground of the courtyard, and couldn't get up for a good while.

At the window appeared another figure similarly wreathed in fire; the tall figure wore a horned helmet, held a great axe in his left hand, and gripped the shoulder of a petite woman with his right, shaking her vigorously while holding her at the window.

"Soft‑egg, hahaha, your woman is mine now… don't worry, I'll give her back to you after tonight… hahaha!"

From inside the stone tower came synchronized stomping and cheers; the Shi Family warriors were cheering for the victor, while those lying outside on the floor groaning and cursing… let the losers lie there, who would bother with them?

Jia Zhengfeng held his halberd, gave a mysterious smile toward the stone tower, then turned and looked toward the plain outside the city shrouded in darkness.

Although the Yan family is not skilled at management, all suitable land outside Swordblade City has still been reclaimed into fields, planted with various edible crops.

These edible crops are basically not luminous plants; only in places where the soil is truly poor and rocks abound, and where some tenacious luminous vegetation grows, do such plants appear.

Specks of blue, green, white, and dark red fluorescence flickered, and various kinds of luminous tiny insects fluttered lightly.

The light was dim; even with Jia Zhengfeng's strength, he could only see about ten miles away relying on that faint, murky glow. Squinting, he looked into the distance and saw several sneaky rat‑people crawl out of pits, scurry into the fields to steal food.

These are the rat‑person slaves of Swordblade City; because they were starving to the point of being unable to endure, they dared, under cover of night, to go out and forage for wild food.

Jia Zhengfeng furrowed his brows, disgustedly glanced at those few rat‑people—naked, skin‑and‑bone, and ugly—gave a soft hum, flicked his finger against the halberd, and whispered: "Since these reinforcements have all arrived, the warning document I sent back should have been received by the Sect Master… could it be that there's really no response at all?"

In the dark corner behind him, a mass of thick black shadow swayed.

Jia Zhengfeng said in a low voice: "Go again to send a letter to the main hall, and say…… if we cannot uncover the origins of Boxi and the others, I dare not act freely here…… who knows how many more like Boxi are around me?"

"Hurry back to the main hall and send a letter…… just say, please have the Sect Master come up with a reliable method."

Jia Zhengfeng's face darkened as he clenched his left hand tightly.

The left arm, born of a secret technique, suddenly shot with intense pain; although it had been nourished with good medicine for over a month, this newly grown arm remained very fragile.

Jia Zhengfeng felt another surge of vexation, he abruptly turned and, facing that mass of darkness, shouted in a low voice: "These days, keep your eyes locked on those brats…… if any of them is suspect, allow you to strike first and report later…… first cripple their limbs, then you may subject them to harsh interrogation……"

His body trembled slightly as he gritted his teeth and snarled low: "A thorn in the back, unable to sit or lie peacefully…… if we don't root out these damned traitors, how can I unify the Cangyan Realm? Rely on this bunch of useless old fogies?"

He stomped his foot hard, then Jia Zhengfeng pointed again at the stone tower: "Or… rely on this bunch of beasts?"

After cursing softly a few times, Jia Zhengfeng explosively leapt up, stepping on a gust of wind, and like a predatory owl in the night, silently shot out of the city wall, gliding away into the distance.

He had no particular goal, didn't know where to go—he just wanted to vent a bit of the gloom in his heart.

He soundlessly glided past those few rat‑people stealing food; a swing of his halberd sent their heads tumbling silently to the ground, their bodies containing not a drop of blood, all plasma sucked dry by the antiquated, variegated bronze halberd.

Jia Zhengfeng glided like a ghost past the twelve hut settlements outside the city; the more than four thousand serfs of Swordblade City living in those settlements were slain by his halberd within a quarter of an hour.

A red line ran from the spear tip straight through the shaft to the butt; when this red line filled the entire halberd, Jia Zhengfeng stopped, bit the spearhead into his mouth, and took a deep inhale.

A stream of pure essence‑blood transformed into threads of vital energy that continually flowed into Jia Zhengfeng's mouth.

Jia Zhengfeng's slightly weary face quickly turned lustrous and radiant, every pore almost emitting light. He gulped down the vital energy, and a mighty surge of life force instantly spread through his body.

The overly rich life aura left Jia Zhengfeng temporarily unable to bear it; the dense life energy sprayed from his pores, quickly diffusing within a hundred‑meter radius.

The crops within that hundred meters instantly surged upward as if bewitched.

The ground‑nut mushrooms, which normally grow only a little over a meter tall, shot up to seven or eight meters in just a few breaths; the pasture grass, normally only two feet long, grew with a series of "crack‑crack" sounds into several dozen meters.

Jia Zhengfeng narrowed his eyes, Blood Light flickered in his pupils, utterly intoxicated as he exhaled a mouthful of rich vital energy, holding half of the halberd's spearhead in his mouth, murmuring: "Our sect's divine art… truly… unsurpassed in the present age, its creation endless."

The essence‑blood energy churned within, the vast life force nourishing his entire body.

At this moment Jia Zhengfeng felt as if he were drunk on old wine, having stuffed himself with several piles of hallucinogenic poisonous mushrooms; he floated, light as a fairy, standing in place his whole body faintly swaying, as if a breeze drifted from each pore, his mind gradually soaring heavenward……

The Changsheng Sect's nefarious arts are terrifying in power.

Not only does it allow one to retain eternal youth, but during cultivation it also brings an endless stream of pleasure that makes one intoxicated and unable to extricate oneself.

The longer one cultivates, the more intense the pleasure felt, the harder it is to break free, and the more frenzied the cultivation becomes……

As the Third Vice Sect Master of the Changsheng Sect, Jia Zhengfeng possesses a profound realm and mighty strength; the pleasure he receives is at least a hundred, even a thousand times that of a newly initiated disciple. Boundless bliss is like a volcano exploding deep within his soul, blasting him into a state as if he had ascended to immortality, completely oblivious to the outside world.

Two miles away, in a mass of smoke and cloud that perfectly blended with the night, Wu Tie stared at Jia Zhengfeng with snow‑bright eyes.

A cold wind blew from Jia Zhengfeng's direction, carrying a strong smell of blood.

Behind Jia Zhengfeng was a crude settlement of makeshift huts.

No need to look; just from the bloody smell in the wind one knows what Jia Zhengfeng has just done.

Jia Zhengfeng's body convulsed, his eyes glazed as he clung to the spearhead; he suddenly sank weakly to the ground, and mighty streams of essence‑blood qi surged through him, his face flushing red then paling, shifting unpredictably between the two, while threads of hot air rose from his head.

Usually, when cultivating the Changsheng Sect's evil arts, Jia Zhengfeng did so in a secret chamber with extremely tight security.

After all, while cultivating he was extremely vulnerable, completely oblivious to any outside disturbance.

Only today, because he felt depressed and also because he was in the Yan Family's domain, with War Blade City additionally under several Yan Family Elders who had secretly defected to Jia Zhengfeng, he considered this place utterly safe.

Although there might still be traitors like Bo Xi hidden among his subordinates.

But when he had just left the city, he had already ordered his trusted experts to keep close watch on his followers.

Therefore, this place is safe.

Therefore, Jia Zhengfeng slaughtered wantonly, using his long halberd to devour the essence‑blood of thousands of serfs, then cultivated the Changsheng Sect's evil arts, immersing himself in boundless pleasure.

Before his eyes, seven‑colored light and shadow twisted and shifted.

By his ears, celestial birds sang aloud.

His whole body went limp and tingled, as if a peerless beauty were lightly rubbing her body against his.

Wu Tie quietly watched Jia Zhengfeng.

Beside him, Lao Bai and the others simultaneously covered their mouths, daring not to make a sound.

Lao Bai and company did not know who Jia Zhengfeng was, but the aura emanating from him was vast and terrifying—a master they could not possibly contend with.

Wu Tie drew a deep breath, countless thoughts flashing through his mind.

"When narrow roads meet, the brave prevail…"

Regarding Jia Zhengfeng's condition, Wu Tie found hundreds of possibilities in the knowledge passed down by Lao Tie.

But no matter which possibility, Jia Zhengfeng is now in his weakest, most powerless state.

Wu Tie reached out his hand to Lao Bai.

Lao Bai glanced at Wu Tie's tense, excited expression and hastily produced a small metal bottle stuffed tight.

Wu Tie unscrewed the metal bottle's lid, gripped it tightly, and, without sound, rose three inches off the ground, drifting toward Jia Zhengfeng.

His drift was soundless, like a ghost.

Inside the bottle was the deadly rotten bone marrow concocted by Lao Bai—a full bottle; as Lao Tie put it, even ten thousand of the largest gray‑rock lizards would be killed by it.

The Wind‑Cloud Banner at Wu Tie's waist swayed lightly, strands of smoke and cloud wrapping his body to completely conceal any sound or movement he might make.

Wu Tie thus came before Jia Zhengfeng and lightly grasped his long halberd with his right hand.

This guy was utterly lost in a hazy fantasy, boundless joy filling his body; his body twitched slightly, his teeth clenched hard on the spearhead, sucking on it like a nursing infant.

Strands of essence‑blood qi continually flowed from the spearhead into Jia Zhengfeng's mouth, then continually merged into his whole body.

Wu Tie gripped the long halberd; the next instant, his primordial vigor erupted like a flood, driving his whole body to unleash terrifying power as he thrust the halberd forward with all his might.

The long halberd, over a foot in length, pierced Jia Zhengfeng's neck, protruding half a foot from the back of his skull.

Jia Zhengfeng's entire cheek was torn open, his jaw dropped off, exposing his bloody throat.

Wu Tie without hesitation shoved the full bottle of rotten bone marrow straight into his throat, then, gripping the long halberd with both hands, he slashed left and right.

The long halberd was extremely sharp, and Jia Zhengfeng's head fell silently.

This was a thoroughly evil weapon; wherever the long halberd passed, Jia Zhengfeng's essence‑blood instantly boiled, the halberd's tip flashing with Blood Light, about to devour his entire essence‑blood, when the white egg lying on Wu Tie's chest began to beat violently.

Yet the long halberd could not prevail; the white egg throbbed, swallowing Jia Zhengfeng's entire essence‑blood and soul in one gulp, leaving nothing behind.