DIV Chapter 29: Shocking News

That estate was indeed not far away.

After just a quarter of an hour, the two arrived.

Li Chang'an remained vigilant throughout, as this was after all the lair of two robber cultivators, and there might be traps they had set up inside.

Therefore, he sealed Wang Er's cultivation.

He had his puppet body and Big Yellow follow Wang Er to retrieve the treasure from underground in the estate.

Before long, that treasure appeared before Li Chang'an's eyes.

"It's actually a Spirit Eye!" Li Chang'an was surprised, then overjoyed.

This item was indeed priceless!

The cultivation world had the concept of "spiritual veins," and Qinghe Market was built upon a second-tier spiritual vein.

Spiritual veins could gather heaven and earth spiritual energy, and cultivating within them was far more efficient than in areas outside the spiritual veins.

Therefore, any cultivation force, whether family or sect, would first seek a spiritual vein before establishing themselves.

A Spirit Eye was essentially a rudimentary form of spiritual vein.

With careful cultivation, it could be transformed into a small-scale spiritual vein.

"Even without cultivation, it possesses the function of gathering spiritual energy, and its effect far surpasses that Small Spirit Gathering Plate I obtained before."

Li Chang'an felt joy in his heart and controlled his puppet to collect that Spirit Eye.

Spirit Eyes could also be carried around.

If cultivated into a spiritual vein, though the ability to gather spiritual energy would be stronger, it would become fixed from then on and very difficult to move.

Beside him, Wang Er watched helplessly as Li Chang'an took away the Spirit Eye.

Though he felt unwilling and reluctant in his heart, he dared not obstruct at all.

As long as he could survive, he could sacrifice anything!

"Li Chang'an, are you satisfied with this Spirit Eye?" Wang Er asked anxiously and cautiously, his heart tense.

"Quite satisfied!" Li Chang'an smiled, his tone very gentle.

Seeing this, Wang Er finally felt relieved.

It seemed Li Chang'an intended to honor his promise and let him go.

But suddenly, a cold light flashed before his eyes.

"Swish—"

Wang Er's body trembled as he covered his throat with his hand, his pale face filled with panic.

Fresh blood continuously gushed out, staining his clothes red.

He staggered back several steps, his voice trembling.

"You... you promised you wouldn't kill me..."

"Fellow Daoist Wang, you're a robber cultivator after all. How can you easily trust others?" Li Chang'an asked him in a surprised tone.

Wang Er's eyes widened as he pointed at Li Chang'an with his blood-stained finger.

"You... you..."

Moments later, he collapsed on the ground, all breath gone, dying with his eyes wide open.

Li Chang'an casually threw out a Fireball Talisman, burning the corpse clean.

"Time to return."

He cleaned up all traces and set out on his journey back.

...

During the few days he was away, the market hadn't changed much, everything remained as usual.

Inside his house, Li Chang'an took out Wang Da and Wang Er's storage bags, counting the contents of each one by one.

"These two had quite a few good items in their storage bags."

The spirit stones, pills, talismans, magical artifacts, and so on in both storage bags, when combined, were worth no less than what the cave dwelling's owner had left behind.

After all, the cave dwelling's owner had used most of his resources for Foundation Establishment.

"Some things I can't use can be sold, but it's inconvenient to sell them in the market. I could try the black market." Li Chang'an pondered.

Outside the market, there was a black market that specialized in trading various unsavory items.

The black market was a mix of dragons and snakes, chaotically managed, and far more dangerous than the market.

Previously, Li Chang'an lacked sufficient strength and dared not go to the black market.

Now he had enough confidence.

"I don't need to personally enter the black market. I can just control my puppet to go in." Li Chang'an thought it over.

With a thought, he took out that manual of the Thousand Faces Divine Art from his storage bag.

"Before that, I should first learn to change my aura."

...

Over the following months, Li Chang'an continued as before, staying indoors and focusing on cultivation.

The cultivation difficulty of the Thousand Faces Divine Art was greater than he had anticipated.

He cultivated for a long time before barely reaching the small success realm, able to barely change his own aura.

On this day, at evening, Li Chang'an sat cross-legged with his eyes slightly closed.

The aura on his body slowly transformed.

Soon, he gained a fierce quality, his entire body shrouded in faint fiery spiritual energy, clearly appearing to be a fire spiritual root cultivator.

Beside him, Big Yellow's eyes showed some confusion.

"Woof?"

The Li Chang'an before him seemed to have completely become a different person.

However, the spiritual contract connection between them remained.

It was precisely because of this that Big Yellow was so confused.

"Big Yellow, even you almost didn't recognize me?" Li Chang'an laughed heartily, very satisfied with this technique.

Even his own contracted spiritual beast had doubts, let alone others.

The next day, Li Chang'an wore a face mask and changed into new attire.

He left the market and headed straight for the black market.

"Of those magical artifacts I obtained before, except for the Shadowless Net and Ghost Needle, the rest can be sold."

Halfway there, he pondered silently.

"Now that I have ample funds, I should buy several more protective magical artifacts. With my current cultivation level, I can barely activate first-tier superior-grade magical artifacts..."

While thinking, he suddenly perked up his ears, hearing some unusual sounds.

Not far ahead, shouting and cursing could be heard faintly.

Moreover, the owner of that voice was someone Li Chang'an recognized.

"It seems to be Senior Zheng's voice." Li Chang'an slowed down and concealed his aura.

He controlled his puppet to quietly approach where the sound was coming from.

Before long, a bloody scene appeared before Li Chang'an's eyes.

In the forest ahead, more than ten corpses of Zheng family cultivators lay scattered about, each having died in an extremely tragic manner.

Li Chang'an's heart turned cold.

"Who dares to attack Zheng family people in a place so close to the market?"

At this moment, in that forest, only one Zheng family cultivator remained alive.

That person was named Zheng Yunting, a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

"It really is Senior Zheng."

Li Chang'an's gaze focused, his expression somewhat grave.

Previously, when Chu Daniu was being pursued by robber cultivators, Li Chang'an had saved him.

When the two returned to the market, they encountered a Zheng family patrol team.

Leading that team was Zheng Yunting.

At this moment, he was covered in wounds, his armor stained red with blood, one arm broken, looking utterly miserable.

"Come on! Who else wants to try my sword?" Zheng Yunting roared, gripping his long sword with his remaining hand, swinging it in all directions.

Around him were more than ten black-clothed masked cultivators.

Each had impressive auras and cold eyes, like a pack of jackals.

"Zheng Yunting, how does it feel to watch your juniors being killed one by one?"

One of them spoke, his voice cold.

Zheng Yunting's eyes were fierce as he stared intensely at that person.

"Just you wait, my Zheng family will never let you go!"

"Hmph! The Zheng family?"

That person sneered, seeming completely unconcerned.

"Your Foundation Establishment mid-stage ancestor can't live much longer. His previous appearance was just putting on a strong front! Once he dies, can the remaining Foundation Establishment ancestor alone withstand the pressure from the Cao and Wu families?"

"Complete nonsense!" Zheng Yunting swung his sword and shouted angrily.

In the shadows, Li Chang'an was secretly shocked.

He seemed to have overheard some incredible news.

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