Chapter 993: Why Is He Not Scared of Poison?
Could it be the Devil Sect? Zu An wondered if even Yun Jianyue had arrived. In order to be a sentry in this kind of place, cultivation was actually secondary, but one’s senses had to be top-notch. Just how powerful would someone have to be to be able to take out all the sentries without even giving them any chance to react?
However, he immediately rejected that idea because Yun Jianyue had no reason to make such a bloody scene. If she had really done it herself, she would have made sure to do it elegantly.
Zu An stealthily left the entrance and headed farther inside. As expected, the sentries in the valley had all been dealt with, and there were no figures in sight on the watchtowers above. The sentries there had probably experienced similar fates.
He was about to go back and investigate what was going on by the entrance when his ears twitched a bit. He heard several footsteps approaching from a distance. He quickly leapt onto a tree, borrowing the cover of the leaves to hide his body.
Soon afterward, a group of black-clad individuals ran over. They began to sort out the messy clothes, bloodstains, and other visible traces. They scattered some kind of powder, and the bloodstains on the ground quickly disappeared.
Zu An naturally knew why they had done something like that, but it wouldn’t help! Those sentries were all dead. Don’t tell me you’re all going to change into their clothes and pretend to be them?
As long as the governor’s side wasn’t stupid, they would definitely bring people familiar with the area with them. Those people would immediately recognize that something was off. In that case, what would be the point of taking the risk?
But what was surprising was that the black-clad group quickly left after cleaning things up. They didn’t impersonate the guards. What was even more surprising was that they actually left the corpses where they were.
Zu An was stunned. However, the most shocking thing was still to come. Soon afterward, the corpses actually stood up! They rocked back and forth unsteadily at first, but then gained their footing. Eventually, they raised their spears and stood guard again, the only difference being that their faces were much paler than before.
Zu An felt a chill run down his back. If not for the fact that he had seen them dead himself just then, he would have thought they were still alive.
“Insect-controlled corpses?” he muttered to himself. This was a world of cultivators, so he naturally wouldn’t believe in the supernatural. He immediately thought of a kind of secret technique he had encountered before. It was a corpse-controlling technique that used insects. The dead would then move as if they were still alive. There has to be a user of that technique nearby!
Zu An looked around him. The massive valley was completely quiet, with branches and leaves scattered everywhere. The black-clad individuals he had seen before had already completely vanished; how was anyone supposed to find them now?
But even though normal people couldn't find anything, that didn’t mean Zu An couldn't. He reached out his left hand, and the jade badge diagram flickered. He began to control the valley’s small creatures to help him in his search. Three-dimensional figures gradually took form in his mind. Those black-clad individuals who were hiding in the dark showed up clearly one after another.
Zu An couldn't help but appreciate the jade badge’s miraculous abilities. Even though it didn’t have any offensive capabilities, it acted just like a radar, allowing him to see through everything. As such, he quickly found his target.
Sitting behind the lone wolf-shaped boulder was a shriveled elder. A wave of black energy surged around him as he sat, and the nearby grass was black and shriveled.
“A human-shaped biohazard,” Zu An said mockingly. He had already run into several cultivators whose cultivation methods turned them into monsters. What was the point of living at that point? If you tried to get close to a cute girl, you'd already poison her to death before you could even hold her hand, let alone do anything more intimate. You’re already guaranteed to be without any heirs!
He shook his head and stealthily moved toward the mountaintop. The locations of every single black-clad individual had appeared in his head, so he didn’t alert any of them. With Mirror Mirage to hide his aura, he was able to quickly climb a tree near the black-clad elder.
With his current cultivation, he could easily end the elder’s life in a single strike. But after some hesitation, Zu An gave up on that thought. First of all, he wasn’t sure if the elder was Yun Jianyue’s subordinate and didn’t want to hurt any of her people. Secondly, he still needed the old man to control the sentries, or else the governor’s fleet would realize that something was strange with the valley and they would choose not to enter it.
There were a few dozen feet between the two of them. Zu An had sucked away Thick-Browed Daoist’s ruthless and bloody true ki and never had any time to properly digest it. Now that he had some free time, he was going to purify the vicious energies. Otherwise, something bad might happen later on when he had to fight.
Many hours passed just like that, and the sun reached its zenith. Zu An opened his eyes, feeling the surging true ki within him. He had been at the eighth step of the ninth rank before, and now, he was already at the peak of the ninth rank. He was now really at the doorstep of the master rank.
“As expected, the further one gets, the harder it is to climb,” he remarked. Every single small increase in cultivation needed a tremendous amount of ki. All of Thick-Browed Daoist’s cultivation had only been enough for him to rise one small step.
Just then, the black-robed elder opened his eyes. He stood up and hid behind the giant boulder, secretly observing everything that was happening in the valley.
“They’re here,” Zu An muttered. He was also high up, so he could see the situation in the valley.
A group of people slowly appeared; in the lead was a general with a long lance in his hands. His figure was majestic and awe-inspiring as he sat on the leading steed, his bronze eyes scanning the surroundings vigilantly for any dangers.
He seems quite vigorous and tough; his body carries a killing intent that can only come from the battlefield. He should be Yi Commandery’s Martial Supervisor Yang Sheng. Zu An sighed inwardly. The imperial court really was full of talents. Even a martial supervisor in a local region had this level of cultivation!
Zu An swept his gaze over them. There were no prison carriages, only a single airtight carriage. That was probably the governor’s carriage. The Governor Manor was covering up Qiu Honglei’s transfer under the guise of an inspection tour. There weren’t too many guards, only roughly a hundred or so. They had probably done that to fool everyone else.
After all, if they really did end up alerting the Devil Sect, and the Devil Sect Master herself personally interfered, having a hundred or a thousand people wouldn’t make much of a difference in front of a grandmaster. That was, of course, unless they brought an army capable of casting rune formations.
He didn’t see the Yi Commandery City Lord Sang Hong had mentioned. Zu An figured that he was probably at the very end to hold up the rear.
Zu An thought the black-clad individuals would make a move, but they didn’t do a thing the entire time. He frowned. He couldn't wait any longer, or else it would end up affecting Golden Token Seven’s plans.
The black-robed elder suddenly realized that there was danger nearby. Black mist surged all around him and he quickly raised his palm. He began muttering chants as well.
Even though he was shocked that someone had been able to get so close to him without him noticing, he had confidence in his own poisonous mist. Normal cultivators would turn into white bones on contact. Even those of higher cultivation ranks would find being affected by the black mist extremely troublesome. They might not even be able to completely get rid of it for an entire year.
As long as the other party evaded, he would have enough time to summon his puppets. At that point, he would be able to escape whenever he wanted, so the situation would be entirely within his control.
However, his eyes immediately widened, because he saw a white jade-like hand thrust straight through the thick black mist and tap his chest. His final thought before he fainted was, Why isn’t this person afraid of my poison at all? Don’t tell me he’s already above the master rank?
Zu An frowned. He tossed the old man aside in disgust. Even though he wasn’t scared of the poison, poisons usually smelled bad. He really hated having such smells on him.
When the black-robed elder fell unconscious, the sentry soldiers seemed to lose their souls. All of them collapsed onto the ground like noodles. The troops below were alarmed, having clearly noticed the abnormalities above.
Zu An didn’t hesitate and slammed his palm on the boulder in front of him. The several ton boulder rumbled as it smashed down.
“Enemy attack!” a soldier screamed, sounding the alarm.
Yi Commandery’s Martial Supervisor Yang Sheng, at the very front of the procession, was the fastest. With a tap of his toes, he quickly brandished his lance as he rushed toward the descending boulder. If the boulder hit their group, the casualties would be extremely severe.
The spear in his hand thrust out like lightning, blocking the giant boulder from below. He didn’t use brute force, but rather redirected it to the side. Even so, the momentum of the several ton giant boulder was massive. Zu An had also sent it flying, so it carried the force of his nine ranks of cultivation. Yang Sheng’s lance bent to its limit, looking as if it might break apart at any time.
“Ahhhh!” he roared, forcibly flinging the boulder several feet away. Even though that wasn’t too long a distance, it deviated from its original trajectory, thus buying enough time for the others to react. However, that already made the energies within him stir violently. He could even vaguely sense some internal pain.
Yang Sheng readjusted his condition while examining the current situation. Suddenly, someone shot out from behind him at lightning speed. His eyes narrowed. In that instant, he had already discerned that the other party’s cultivation wasn’t beneath his own. Furthermore, the other party’s grasp of timing was absolutely vicious. The ambush had come right when he had just expended all of his strength and needed a moment to recover!