CBGC - ch149

Chapter 149 A Haze of Doubts and Suspicions (Part One)

The instant Su Tingyun noticed the anomaly, she immediately activates the spiritual barrier, trapping the corpse and the insects inside.

Within the barrier, densely packed black insects crawl around, continuously smashing against her shield with such force that they refuse to stop even when their flesh becomes bruised and bloody. It's a frenzied and terrifying sight.

The deceased appears to be an elderly hunchback, with a withered figure and a weathered face, resembling a layer of old bark stretched over bones. His body was devoid of much flesh, with the hump on his back appearing more pronounced, as if a large pot is strapped behind him.

At this moment, however, his back is like a burial mound, with black insects continuously pouring out. Some are as large as fingernails, others as small as sesame seeds. The insects are shrouded in black mist, making the flesh and blood underneath look indistinct. The man's body has already been hollowed out by the insects, with all organs missing.

He shouldn't be that old himself, but because there's only skin left with the insects inside, he looks just like an old man.

At this moment, someone among the onlookers exclaims, "Isn't that Chu Xiongzhou?"

Chu Xiongzhou is a cultivator in the Golden Core stage. He's neither too young nor too old, and normally appears as a middle-aged man. Just a few days ago, he went up the mountain to collect herbs with several other cultivators, but none of them returned, and there has been no news of them.

Everyone thought they probably encountered some high-level spirit beasts and met with misfortune. Now, it seems what they encountered might have been even more terrifying. A fine Golden Core stage cultivator has unexpectedly turned into such a disgusting monster...

Su Tingyun carefully searches with her divine sense but doesn't find any other clues. She probes the insects with spiritual energy and sees that they don't react much to it. These insects apparently don't feed on spiritual energy.

She crushes them with spiritual energy, but even under her current cultivation level, the insects don't instantly die, lingering with a breath left. Despite their flesh being crushed, they still wildly scurry around under the thin shroud of black mist.

After a short consideration, Su Tingyun summons the Heavenly Fire to burn them. As soon as the Heavenly Fire appears, the swarm of insects panics, fleeing in all directions away from the fire. However, Su Tingyun's Heavenly Fire is immensely powerful now. The flames blaze fiercely, turning all the insects along with the corpse into ashes. Amidst the flames, wisps of black smoke rise and dissipate in the air, accompanied by several piercing cries of agony.

The intense fire burns for a while, and soon everything within the barrier turns to ashes, completely consumed by the flames.

"Have you ever seen parasites like these?" Su Tingyun turns to her side, tilting her head slightly as she looks at Liu Feizhou, and asks.

She's never seen these, but an alchemy master like Liu Feizhou should have more knowledge in this aspect than her.

"I have never come across these," Liu Feizhou feels uncomfortable in his heart, and his response is stiff.

Never been seen before, emitting black mist, not feeding on spiritual energy, fearing Heavenly Fire, and still possessing a familiar aura of malignancy. These poisonous insects are likely to have come from the Demon Realm of the Dual Realm Mountain.

It's only been a few days, and the demonic creatures from the Dual Realm Mountain have already spread to Jinxiu City? If these bugs can parasitize infinitely... just now, if she hadn't used a barrier to block the spread of the poisonous bugs, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

On a side note, the Beauty Scroll also spread from Jinxiu City.

When they saw it back then, they didn't know what the scroll was, and neither did they know its value. It was bought by a cultivator from the Luminous Moon Sect and eventually ended up in the hands of Zhang Zhizi. Who brought the Beauty Scroll to the Wang Family's Shop to sell it?

Was that person not affected by the Beauty Scroll? Was he inherently strong, or was he simply not chosen by the Beauty Scroll? If it's the former, could that person be related to Xuanyuan Wentian?

"Previously, we discovered that the Beauty Scroll from Ningxi's shop was a demonic artifact, and the energy on that Scroll is very similar to the sinister aura on the poisonous insects on this man now. I'll go back and ask Ningxi to see if they can find out who sold the scroll."

After explaining it to Liu Feizhou, Su Tingyun returns to the Wang Family Shop in the Rain Alley. As she comes in, Wang Ningxi and Bai Chengyu happen to be coming downstairs, so Su Tingyun asks directly.

"I was the one who acquired that painting," Wang Ningxi holds a high position in the Wang family. She has an exceptional eye for appraising treasures. It's precisely because she gave her approval that the Wang Family Shop bought the seemingly ordinary painting. Although the beauties depicted in the painting are exquisite, but being a mundane work of art devoid of spiritual energy, its value naturally isn't high.

Wang Ningxi furrows her brows in thought. "The one who sold the painting was an old man with a stopped back..." Unexpectedly, after saying this, Wang Ningxi's expression changes abruptly. "No, it was a young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, around seventeen or eighteen..."

Her speech becomes somewhat disjointed, one of her hands press against her forehead, the other supporting the temple of her head. Her complexion instantly pales, as if drained of blood.

Wang Ningxi's body sways slightly, but Bai Chengyu protectively supports her and helps her sit down, and only then does she start to feel slightly better.

"I can't remember it at all. My memory is completely chaotic..." Wang Ningxi's eyes reveal horror. She nervously asks, "That painting, is it very sinister? Has it fallen into the hands of bad people?"

"Yes," Su Tingyun nods, then she thinks for a moment, "I'll look around."

Her divine sense doesn't specifically extend out, instead, she meticulously examines every item in the Wang Family Shop, trying to find anything wrong.

The Beauty Scroll appeared in the Wang Family in Jinxiu City. That deceased Chu Xiongzhou has obviously been dead for a long time. It's evident that the movements of his body were controlled by those demonic insects from the demon realm. He didn't explode too early or too late but insisted on reaching Jinxiu City to sit near the Rain Alley, close to the Wang Family Shop. If it weren't for Liu Feizhou impatiently kicking him, perhaps he could have lasted a while longer.

So why did the Demon realm's poisonous insects come to Jinxiu City's Wang Family? What secrets does the Wang Family hold?

Be it an object or a person, Su Tingyun looks over them one by one. She notices that the cultivators in the Wang Family are generally not very strong; there are only a few in the Golden Core stage, more in the Foundation Establishment stage. The Qi Concentration stage cultivators make up the majority, with quite a few Qi Refinement cultivators.

This is the strength of a city of independent cultivators. If it weren't for the support of the Alchemy Ancestor, Jinxiu City would never have been able to develop to this extent.

What is the relationship between the Dan Zu and the Wang Family? Why is the Alchemy Ancestor so good to them? For this question, it would be more reliable to ask Dan Zu's young apprentice.

Su Tingyun sends a message to inquire, and the response she receives from Liu Feizhou is direct: "Wang Ningxi is my master's daughter."

Uh...

That certainly explains why the Alchemy Ancestor supports Jinxiu City so much. Su Tingyun doesn't see anything unusual, but in the back alley of the Wang Family's house, a seemingly ordinary broom catches her attention for a moment longer.

The broom is placed on the bluestone steps at the door, seemingly unremarkable. However, when her divine sense sweeps over it, Su Tingyun feels something peculiar. Upon closer inspection however, she can't discern any issues.

Just as she's about to shift her focus, the door opens, and a thin, elderly man emerges from the house, picking up the fallen broom and placing it neatly against the wall.

The moment he raises his head, Su Tingyun's divine sense happens to notice his cloudy eyes. His black pupils are very small, while the whites of his eyes are unusually large, making his eyes look particularly terrifying and chilling.

This person is only at the Qi Refinement stage, with a bone age of no more than a hundred years. But his appearance is already very aged, and his body seems very frail. It seems he may not have too many years left to live.

After leaving the house, he goes to the pharmacy to fetch some medicine. He seems quite familiar with everyone there, although the young lad at the pharmacy isn't particularly courteous to him. He just nods obediently in response to the lad's scolding, only breathing a sigh of relief once he has the medicine in hand. Upon returning to the back alley, instead of going straight into the house, he sits on the steps at the doorway for a while, lazily squinting in the sunlight.

He's a low-level cultivator. Even though he's in a city of cultivation families like Jinxiu City, and has some connections with others, he's still looked down upon. Though not to the point of losing his life, he's constantly subjected to disdain, making his life quite difficult.

Despite being a very ordinary person, for some reason, Su Tingyun can't help but take several more glances at him. As he squints at the sky, Su Tingyun even feels like he's looking at her.

After some thought, she asks Wang Ningxi about the man's identity.

Su Tingyun thought that Wang Ningxi would need to go and investigate, not expecting her to be a very enthusiastic girl who knows the people of the Wang Family very well, regardless of their status.

"That's Little Gen. The back alley is where the servants of the Wang Family live." Perhaps realizing that using "Little Gen" to describe him isn't quite appropriate, Wang Ningxi pauses for a moment before continuing, "He's only ninety-seven years old now. When he was born, his aptitude wasn't bad, but his meridians were damaged by someone. Because of unsuccessful treatment, he gave up on himself. When both his parents passed away, he had no one to rely on, so he completely fell silent."

His parents sacrificed themselves for the Wang Family, so the Wang Family didn't neglect Little Gen. They provide him with spirit stones every month to sustain his livelihood and allow him to get medicine for free. Compared to other places, the Wang Family treats him pretty well. He has been staying in Jinxiu City, living idly within the city for years. Without going out to explore, his aptitude was never able change. As a result, he grows older day by day. Despite being only in his nineties, he already looks very old and is nearing death.

He's a very ordinary person.

There's nothing unusual about his behavior, and he has lived in Jinxiu City for about a hundred years, so everyone knows him well. There can't be anything wrong with such a person, can there?

Su Tingyun is now in the Mahayana stage of cultivation, with a strong primordial spirit. She can't see anything suspicious at all. After scrutinizing for a long time, she finally lets go of her guard and shifts her gaze elsewhere. As a result, the entire Jinxiu City is turned upside down, but she still doesn't see anything amiss. Instead, she catches sight of some beautiful scenes she shouldn't have seen, making her feel awkward.

Wang Ningxi herself can't remember how the person who sold the painting looked like. She goes to ask the shopkeeper if he remembers anything about the person who came to sell the painting that day. As a result, everyone's accounts differ. Many people remember the person who came to sell the painting, but each person describes a different individual. Finally, someone suggests, "Not many people go to the Qilian Mountains, and even fewer come back alive. Why not investigate who went to the Qilian Mountains?"

The Beauty Scroll has a connection with the entrance to the demon realm in the Qilian Mountain Range, that's why Su Tingyun mentioned the Mountain Range. When the other party mentioned that detail, she immediately thinks about who exactly had been to the Qilian Mountains!

There's no need to investigate this; even Little Bai would know. However, deep in Qilian Mountains, there's no more Orchid Tongue Grasses. It's just a matter of finding out who has left the Qilian Mountains alive. But without asking Little Bai, Su Tingyun knows of two people who entered the Qilian Mountains and came out alive.

From the Qiankun Array Hall!

Initially, in order to find medicinal herbs for Li Xinmei, experts from the Qiankun Array Hall went to the Qilian Mountains. In the end, only two returned. One was an elder from the Qiankun Array Hall, and the other was Ning Xuzi, Xiao Mei's Master.

Could it be related to them?

It just so happens that Su Tingyun was planning to visit Xiao Mei after buying something, to show off her new body. Now, it's even more imperative to go.