Chapter 164

"What are you all panicking for? Master Wei isn't the only descendant—he's just more talented, so the old master favors him a bit more. Besides, there may still be other ways to remedy this."

"Brother Zhao, what kind of remedy are you talking about?" At these words, everyone turned to him in surprise, someone unable to hold back their question.

"Obviously, we find the killer who murdered Brother Wei!"

"Even though Brother Wei is dead, if we bring his killer's head to the old master, even if we're at fault, it'll greatly reduce his rage—and we'll likely survive."

"So now isn't the time to complain. Use this time to search the nearby area for traces left by the killer—try to identify him and figure out which direction he fled. That's what matters." Zhao's gaze swept over the others, cold and sharp.

"Brother Zhao speaks sense. Split up and search the area quickly—we arrived too fast for him to have gotten far. He might still be hiding nearby." Hearing this, the others suddenly understood and scattered in all directions.

One raised his hand and tossed a talisman; it ignited in the wind, turning into a swirl of blue light that circled above.

Another muttered incantations, his eyes glowing crimson as he carefully scanned the burned grassland.

Yet another hurled a transparent crystal ball, from which streams of white threads shot out, sweeping wildly through the surrounding air.

…

"There's blood here… several demon wolves were killed—looks like they were kicked to death and cut down by magical tools. There are also many traces left by the wolf pack."

"A few drops of essence blood on the grass—likely Brother Wei's. No trace of the killer's essence blood."

"My Breaking Spell Light detected nothing—he's not hiding nearby."

…

A string of fruitless reports darkened the scholar's face.

"Useless fools—you can't even handle this small task? Let me do it myself."

"Luckily, I had foresight—I smeared a drop of Blood-Linking Elixir on Brother Wei's green armor. I'll burn my own essence blood to activate the secret technique and sense his approximate direction."

"But doing this will severely damage my primordial energy. Afterward, each of you must hand over half your spoils from this realm as compensation."

At these words, the other Mo Luo Sect disciples exchanged uneasy glances, hesitating deeply.

"What? Are your lives not worth a little resource and treasure?"

"Think carefully—I may not be a true disciple of this sect, but I'm still among the top three in the inner sect. My father is a Foundation Establishment elder here. Even if Master Wei blames me, I can bear some of it. But you? Heh…" Zhao threatened bluntly.

"Brother Zhao's Blood-Linking Technique will severely drain his primordial energy—asking for compensation is reasonable. I'm willing to give half my spoils from the rest of the realm. Right now, the most important thing is for Brother Zhao to activate the technique quickly—don't let the killer escape!" One finally gritted his teeth and agreed, then turned to urge the others to follow suit.

After exchanging glances, the others could only reluctantly nod in agreement.

Seeing this, the scholar's expression softened. He bit his fingertip, then swiftly formed hand seals while muttering incantations.

His entire body turned crimson, and several blood-red spiritual runes surfaced on his forehead. As the incantation grew louder, the runes spread across his face, nearly covering it entirely, making him look profoundly unnatural.

"Puff."

From his bitten fingertip, a jet of blood shot out—nearly a foot long. It spiraled once nearby, then instantly dissolved into a blood mist that shot sharply in one direction.

"That way! Chase after him!"

Seeing this, the scholar's spirits lifted. He raised his hand and released a pale green wooden boat.

The other Mo Luo Sect disciples, overjoyed, leapt into the air and landed on the boat.

The wooden boat trembled slightly, then shot forward as a streak of green light toward the mountain range.

…

At this moment, Wang Yu, over twenty li away in a dense forest, leapt swiftly between towering trees, moving rapidly while sorting through the contents of his newly acquired storage bags.

Inside the storage bags of the two Hei Hun Sect disciples, besides ordinary talismans, medicine vials, and over a hundred spirit stones, were two bone forks, a bone whip, and seven or eight well-crafted white bone demons.

The bone shield and spirit banner, though both seventh-tier magical tools, were already damaged and needed repair before they could be used again.

In addition, two external disciple identity tokens from the Hei Hun Sect.

So they were just external disciples—no wonder their storage bags held nothing valuable.

Wang Yu muttered to himself, tucked away those two bags, then pulled out the two storage bags dropped by the green-armored youth. He scanned them with his spiritual sense—and his spirit reeled.

His swift leaping form suddenly halted, landing atop a massive tree.

"This is…"

Wang Yu slapped one storage bag, and a burst of white light erupted from its mouth—two talismans of differing colors appeared in his hand.

These talismans were unlike any he'd ever seen—they weren't paper, but thin slivers of beast hide.

One hide bore countless silver spiritual runes, over sixty in total. Though no bigger than a palm, each rune was sharply visible, faintly forming a complete talisman pattern.

Within this pattern lay layer upon layer of additional runes, incredibly intricate and complex.

Even with Wang Yu's powerful spiritual sense, a brief glance at the pattern made him dizzy and disoriented—as if an invisible force was pulling his gaze deep into the runes, refusing to let it move.

Wang Yu's heart pounded—he knew something was wrong. With his immense mental strength, he forcibly tore his gaze away from the hide and turned to the other "talismans."

The pattern on the second hide was simple—almost crude. It depicted only a single blood-red long knife.

The blood-red knife was drawn crookedly, its center blurred, as if partially erased—had his spiritual sense not faintly sensed the terrifying spiritual power hidden within the hide, he might have mistaken it for a child's scribble.