Chapter 906: Chapter 900: There Is No Such Thing As A Free Meal
At the summit of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems.
Zhen Wu stood within the Hall Of White-Robes.
Beside him, mist-like Spiritual Qi rose from the corpse of the seven-colored falcon, while blood flowed unceasingly from its remains.
Gazing at the prayer mats within the Hall—positioned in the east, south, west, and north, where the Four Great Masters of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems once sat in cultivation—a complicated expression flashed across Zhen Wu’s handsome face.
“I never expected that you were one of us as well.”
Behind him, He Hao’s brows remained tightly knit.
Unless members of the Grand Tower engaged in direct combat, they were unable to perceive the “Dao Seed” within one another.
Upon arriving at the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems and clashing with Zhen Wu, even He Hao had been struck with indescribable shock.
Even now, he pondered silently, just how many of us are there?
It seems it isn’t just me; there are many others who harbor the same Dao Seed.
Zhen Wu asked, “Sect Master of the Eternal Immortal Sect? How exactly did you come to join the Grand Tower?”
Hearing this, He Hao hesitated for a moment before replying,
“Thirty thousand years ago. At that time, my clan was destroyed, and I bore a blood feud as deep as the sea.
That was when I encountered the people of the Grand Tower.
They took pity on my natural talent, imparting the Dao of Talismans to me and bestowing upon me the methods of cultivation.
But there is no such thing as a free meal in this world; the Dao Seed was the price I had to pay.
To the outside world, my background appeared spotless.
After I ascended the Nascent Divinity List, the elders of the Eternal Immortal Sect, who were traveling abroad in search of seedlings of immortality, sought me out.”
“And you?”
He Hao could tell that Zhen Wu’s situation likely did not differ much from his own.
The moment they had exchanged blows, he had also clearly seen Zhen Wu’s astonishment.
“I was once a Purple Robe. The Grand Tower possesses the Art of Corpse Stitching; for me to advance to the Void Refinement Realm was an effortless feat.”
Zhen Wu lowered his gaze, looking down at Ling Xu’s corpse on the ground.
“She shouldn’t have learned of the Grand Tower’s affairs, nor that our people were concealed here… and she certainly shouldn’t have died by my hand.”
It was only now, upon discovering the truth about Sect Master He Hao, that Zhen Wu truly realized the terrifying power of the Grand Tower!
His eyes turned red.
“From the moment I donned the White Robe, Huan Gui, Taotie, and Ling Xu had been concealing their true strength.
They knew that being exploited by the Grand Tower indefinitely was no way to survive.
They were secretly wary of the Grand Tower, knowing that one day this relationship of mutual benefit would come to an end, and so they made a great many preparations.”
“Over the years, I tried to tell them the truth, but the Dao Seed would always remind me: betrayal is synonymous with death!”
Zhen Wu exhaled a long breath.
“Every single preparation they made was fully within the Grand Tower’s control.”
He Hao lowered his head, glancing at his hands stained with the blood of his fellow sect members, and said no more.
“My orders were to retrieve the Three Corpses and, without exposing my identity, kill as many members of the Department of Immortal Suppression and the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems as possible.”
The two exchanged a glance.
They both sensed the desolation in the other’s expression.
There were a thousand things they wanted to say, yet the words were stuck in their throats.
“The Three Corpses are right here.”
Zhen Wu spoke no more.
With a casual wave of his hand, the Eight Trigrams formation map on the temple floor flickered with runic light, and the ground split open.
Instantly, the unique fragrance of Divine Blood assaulted their senses, and the opening revealed a bewitching display of colors.
However, the two suddenly froze in place.
“Where are the bodies?!!”
Zhen Wu exclaimed in shock.
The blood pool should have been filled with Divine Blood—the very supply used by all the Purple Robe Elders of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems.
Floating in the center should have been the headless torsos of the Three Corpses of Ling Tian.
The pool was inscribed with formations and made of high-grade materials; it should have been flowing with brilliance.
But now…
Within the blood pool, there remained only turbid, muddy blood.
This blood reeked with an incomparable foulness, yet it had been masked by the lingering fragrance of the Divine Blood.
It was only when the formation opened that the stench, steadily assaulting their noses, was revealed!
It wasn’t just that the headless torsos of Ling Tian’s Three Corpses were missing.
The interior of the formation—the very bricks and stones made of high-grade materials that contained the blood on all sides—had been stripped bare.
The ground was pitted and uneven, as if it had been bombarded by Spiritual power!
“This is absolutely impossible!
We had already decided to abandon the Three Corpses to secure a path of survival for the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems.
Those who know the location of the Three Corpses would never touch this place—how could anyone have arrived here ahead of me?!!”
Zhen Wu gritted his teeth.
Just then, the expressions of both men changed once again.
Tap-tap… tap-tap…
The sound of footsteps rang out clearly within the temple.
The filthy blood in the pool began to churn, as if it were alive, crawling up along the pitted edges of the pool and gradually spreading outward.
“Tch—”
It was the sound of a long sword dragging across the ground!
At the entrance of the temple, two figures appeared.
Li Dalong and Li Yaozu had arrived together!
No. Or rather, three figures.
Behind them, an ancestral spirit tablet was shrouded in black mist, appearing as if some great horror were about to emerge from it at any moment.
The father and son approached in silence.
Both were clad in armor, their demeanor solemn to the extreme.
Engraved upon their armor were the words [Li Yaotie’s Dad] and [Li Yaotie’s Elder Brother].
Yet, these inscriptions could not conceal the gravity of their expressions nor the killing intent that was fully revealed.
“He Hao? Zhen Wu?”
Li Yaozu followed his father into the temple, and the first thing that caught his eye was the seven-colored falcon.
He lowered his head slightly, his expression grim.
Seeing He Hao and Zhen Wu standing together, he realized it instantly: these two, just like Heavenly Lord Ning An, were both members of the Grand Tower!
Glancing at his father beside him, Li Yaozu suddenly understood.
No wonder.
No wonder his father had warned him not to disclose the affairs of the Grand Tower to anyone.
Now he realized that members of the Grand Tower could be hiding within any faction.
Rashly exposing them could easily trigger unforeseen consequences.
Perhaps if he had remained silent, Ling Xu would not have met such an end.
His father clearly placed no value on the lives of those from the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems, but Li Yaozu had wanted to spare them.
After all, these people had taken great care of Tianyi.
He just hadn’t expected that Ling Xu would die as a result.
“The Grand Tower truly possesses great capabilities.
Zhen Wu, one of the Four Great White Robes of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems, and the Sect Master of the Eternal Immortal Sect…
Had you not given yourselves away, I truly would not have guessed your identities.”
The chains binding the Heaven-Piercing Coffin to Li Dalong’s body rattled as they gradually loosened their hold on the coffin.
Propping one hand against the coffin, he frowned, gazing at the two men before him who had so defied his expectations.
“It’s you?!!”
Zhen Wu’s eyes narrowed slightly.
As he observed the calm and composed demeanor of Li Dalong and Li Yaozu, the truth suddenly dawned on him.
“It was you who secretly provided intelligence to the Department of Immortal Suppression and exposed the true strength of our Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems!”
He was certain of it now.
The Li family knew them far too well; even Heavenly Lord Ning An’s identity had been exposed by Li Yaozu.
It went even deeper… Li Dalong and Li Yaozu seemed to have been keeping watch over the location of the Divine Corpse of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems all along.
The moment the formation was opened, this father and son arrived.
“How is this possible?” He Hao was stunned.
Was this really the same clan that had been ostracized within the Department of Immortal Suppression?
The one that, even when this great war began, was dismissed as a negligible existence by so many factions within the Department?
“Hahaha! Where do you get such audacity?!!”
Zhen Wu suddenly burst into laughter.
“So it was you who took the Three Corpses, and you even dare to lie in ambush for our Grand Tower?
“You stalk your prey, blind to the hunter behind you—but ambition alone doesn’t make the final victor. And you think that’s you?”
But as he laughed, Zhen Wu found he could laugh no more.
The father and son merely gazed at him with mocking expressions, staring until his scalp went numb.
Without absolute confidence and strength, they would never possess such composure.
How could they dare?!!
Zhen Wu took a deep breath.
“Hand over the Three Corpses, and I can spare your lives.
The Grand Tower demands the lives of everyone here; only then can the matter of the Three Corpses be laid to rest.
The bodies of all the experts here will become their materials.”
But Zhen Wu was suddenly struck dumb.
Li Dalong raised his head.
Within the Heaven-Piercing Coffin, a boundless sea of death surged like a rising tide, and the Heaven-Imprisoning Chains shot forth like striking dragons!
“You hold them in too high regard!”
…
The great battle on the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems raged on without end.
Yet, amidst the chaos, two sneaky figures dressed in the black robes of the Mountain could be seen riding a grotesque, mismatched stitched beast.
“Amitabha. May the gods and immortals bless us. Bless us, two brothers, ensure this journey goes smoothly, and let no one spot us.”
Li Tianming had his palms pressed together in prayer.
To display such devout piety amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood was truly jarring to the extreme.
It made Li Tianqi, who was in front holding the reins, feel as though calluses were growing on his ears.
“Give it a rest, will you? What is there to be scared of?
We’ve traveled north and south for years. We’ve seen plenty of ghostly and supernatural things in Duskwild Prefecture and never flinched.
What does the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems amount to compared to that?”
“I’m scared… I’m scared, alright!”
Li Tianming looked aggrieved.
In his hand, a Storage Ring flashed with red light; inside it, a pool of blood could be seen, with a headless corpse lying within.
“Even Big Brother has been sent out, so where do you get such guts?
One wrong move, and both our lives end here.
I promised the elders and that person that I would take good care of you all.”
“Argh! Enough, enough!”
Li Tianqi covered his ears, his expression twisting in annoyance.
“Isn’t it just stealing a Divine Corpse? Our clansmen are fighting a war right now—isn’t that way more dangerous than what we’re doing?”
“Fighting a war?”
Li Tianming was stunned. “Fighting where? Isn’t it over once we steal the Divine Corpse?”
Hearing this, Li Tianqi rolled his eyes.
“The Grand Tower’s influence is massive, hehe.
Last time we were in the Ancestral Space, the clan had Su Chen search every corner of the world, and the ones he was looking for were exactly that bunch from the Grand Tower.”
“Look at the situation now: the Grand Tower wants to wipe out the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems.
We predicted this years ago, back when we found out Heavenly Lord Ning An was one of them.
But regarding the eradication of the Mountain… do you really think they’d feel safe leaving the job entirely to the Department of Immortal Suppression?”
“If it were you, would you dare entrust a matter of life and death to outsiders?”
Li Tianming shook his head. “Definitely not.”
“Hehe.” Li Tianqi grinned broadly.
“I reckon they definitely have more undercover agents. And besides… our clansmen are watching the Grand Tower right now.”
“Regarding the Three Corpses… the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems held the torsos, so the Grand Tower must certainly possess another portion.”
“Now that the Grand Tower has dared to make a move, our opportunity has arrived.
With so many of their people here, I refuse to believe there isn’t a single important figure among them.
Ideally, we can find their headquarters; then, the whereabouts of the rest of the Three Corpses will be brought to light.”
“The Department of Immortal Suppression? The Grand Tower? The Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems?”
“Hmph! Let them fight it out. We’ve been preparing for nearly a hundred years.
Our Li Clan is the true fisherman! We don’t just want their treasures; we want their corpses too!”
Li Tianqi yanked the reins of the stitched beast, his expression filled with excitement as they rushed out of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems.
“Let’s get out of here now and send the Divine Corpse back home. We might even make it in time for the big battle—Big Brother is waiting for us outside!”
“Nooo!”
Li Tianming’s face turned pale. “Tianqi, you promised that after we finished this one job, we’d quit! You liar!”
—
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