Li Xuanxuan waited in the street for a bit. He saw no one, only the stark red blood that had seeped into the earth and stained it. He retrieved a jade talisman from his storage pouch and focused on it intently for a moment.
"Qiuyang's position is still changing... I can't tell if he's alive or if someone has taken his talisman..." he murmured to himself in worry.
The fact that Li Qiuyang was an unrefined Qi Cultivator made him vulnerable, especially amidst such widespread calamity. Li Xuanxuan clung to hope for his safety, though his certainty waned.
Anxiously, Li Xuanxuan watched the direction indicated by the jade talisman and began to move toward it.
After a moment's hesitation, he crammed the talisman into a crack in the wall. His hand glowed with mana light as he quickly wrote a few lines of words on the wall:
Qiuyang, if you're reading this, then wait for me here.
He secured the message with their family's encryption method before swiftly departing.
Walking down the street, Li Xuanxuan passed by a gruesome scene—bodies young and old lay scattered, their ends evidently violent. Amidst the debris, he noticed fragments of a jade bottle and two blood-stained white pills emitting a faint glow.
Years of experience working in the store allowed him to quickly identify them as Clear Mind Pills. These were used by cultivators to clear their minds and stabilize their qi to enhance cultivation. He promptly approached the pils and scooped them up. He wiped them on his robe first before casting a spell to remove the remaining bloodstain and squinted closely at them.
The pills had smooth surfaces and were well-made; clearly produced by a prestigious clan. Despite being stained with blood, their efficacy was only slightly diminished. Relieved, he sealed them in a jade bottle and resumed his search.
The corpse in the blood pool was desiccated, with its life force completely drained. However, Li Xuanxuan was undeterred. He searched the body, only to find that the storage pouch had already long since been robbed clean by the devil cultivators.
He rubbed the sleeve of the clothes that the corpse was wearing and realized that it was made of high-quality spirit cloth, suggesting that the deceased cultivator had a notable background. Without hesitation, he stripped the robe from the body and stowed it in his storage pouch.
After looting the corpse, Li Xuanxuan looked up and saw a shiny store sign across the street that read Elixir Pavilion .
His heart surged with excitement. Staring at the deserted entrance which reeked of blood, a greedy thought crossed his mind.
The devil cultivators must have raided this place in haste... perhaps they left something behind!
Elixir Pavilion was owned by the Yu Family of Cloud Crowned Peak. Just days before, Li Xuanxuan had purchased various items there. The selection of elixirs was extensive, and he could have easily spent all day browsing through their offerings.
Snapping back to reality, Li Xuanxuan immediately cast an Aura Restraint Technique on himself before quietly approaching the pavilion.
At the entrance, a cultivator dressed in brocade kneeled with his head drooped downward. Blood flowed down the steps from his hollowed chest—his heart had been stolen. Recognizing the man as the Yu Family's shopkeeper, Li Xuanxuan shuddered at the sight.
If I hadn't recognized that Thunder Pearl and acted swiftly, my family's store might have suffered the same fate... or worse!
Li Xuanxuan moved past the corpse and quickly searched the counter. Despite a thorough search, the grim reality was that it had been completely looted. The devil cultivators, fond of Spirit Stones, had evidently taken them all, leaving nothing behind.
The Elixir Pavilion was shrouded in darkness, littered with broken fragments of jade bottles and bloodstains. Using his spiritual sense, Li Xuanxuan managed to salvage five robes and seven pills—six of Embryonic Breathing and one of Qi Cultivation Realm.
He glanced back at the disrobed corpses. Feeling a twinge of remorse and guilt, he decided to cover them up with other fabric he found in the store before stepping into the pavilion's backyard.
The backyard was even dimmer and partially collapsed. The bare stone slabs underfoot glowed a dark red; though they were not hot, the pungent smell of the smoldering ground was sharp and acrid, stinging his nostrils.
"Warm yet not searing—it's a fire vein... The Yu Family must have been planning to build an alchemy room, so they had drawn the fire vein here..." Li Xuanxuan murmured thoughtfully.
Although the Li Family did not have an alchemy room, Li Xuanxuan was able to identify the baleful flame used in one. The devil cultivators had likely ransacked the area and stolen the furnaces. Without the furnaces and their suppressing formations, the fire vein had erupted, scorching the ground around it.
Casting a protective spell over his nose and mouth, Li Xuanxuan cautiously advanced, pushing aside the debris of a pillar to reveal the smoldering dark red flames beneath it, confirming his suspicion that the furnaces in two rooms had indeed been stolen. What was left behind was only the fiery veins that were exposed and glowing intensely.
"What a waste..." he sighed.
The Yu Family must have expended many Spirit Stones to harness these fire veins as it required a lot of work.
As he turned to leave, a faint groan caught his ear.
"Hmm..?"
He paused, listening intently. Following the sound, he spotted a furry arm poking out from beneath the rubble. A hand with sharp, black nails was struggling to push aside a boulder.
Li Xuanxuan's first thought was alarm.
Is it a demonic creature?!
How could a demonic survive in Yu Family's marketplace, at the heart of the city?!
Yet as he observed more closely, the creature showed no signs of demonic qi but instead radiated pure mana.
This can't be a demon... It must be one of the Yu Family's spirit beasts! Perhaps one that guarded the storehouse or served them!
Relieved, Li Xuanxuan stepped forward and struck the boulder with his palm, shattering it instantly. The creature pinned beneath flipped over, revealing a monkey's face.
"A spirit monkey..?" Li Xuanxuan wondered aloud.
The monkey appeared exhausted, its eyes red and face deeply wrinkled, yet its gaze was lucid, brimming with worldly wisdom. Tears filled its eyes as it looked at Li Xuanxuan with great emotion in his eyes. Each breath it took was labored, resonating like air wheezing through a broken furnace.
Li Xuanxuan held the monkey's furry hand and was taken aback to discover that this spirit beast was stronger than him. It had reached the fourth heavenly layer of the Qi Cultivation Realm, but despite its strength, the monkey was suffering from fire poisoning and had sustained numerous injuries, teetering on the brink of death.
Li Xuanxuan gazed at its tear-stained face which was filled with gratitude, and felt a tug at his heartstrings. He reached into his sleeve and produced two healing pills, offering them to the monkey.
"Here, take these," he said warmly.
The hunched spirit monkey eagerly accepted the pills and swallowed them. It then began gesturing animatedly, moving its body to generate a clattering din akin to clanking iron.
It was at this moment that Li Xuanxuan finally noticed a cold, heavy collar around the monkey's neck. Nearby, a jade green mortar and pestle lay discarded, its edge chipped but still glinting like a precious treasure.
He picked it up, recognizing it as a Qi Cultivation Realm dharma artifact used for grinding herbs—a rare find which was highly prized among alchemists and worth even more than any elixir.
Overjoyed, Li Xuanxuan exclaimed, "Good monkey, with these treasures, many of Ming'er's problems will be solved!"
Trying to contain his excitement, he carefully stored the dharma artifacts into his storage pouch. The monkey kneeled and parted its charred fur, revealing several puncture wounds of varying sizes. The wounds oozed black blood, presenting a startling and grim sight.
Realization dawned on Li Xuanxuan as he quickly retrieved a bottle of ointment and applied it to the wound, then cast three spells to heal the monkey's wounds. Looking at the creature, he speculated, This spirit beast likely tended to the Yu Family's fires. I wonder where it was hiding during the devil cultivators' attacks... its survival is nothing short of miraculous!
As he tended to the monkey's blistered skin and singed fur, horror struck him at the realization of what it had endured.
It must have hidden itself in the fire vein! Such a smart and resilient monkey... Its mental fortitude is impressive!
The fire vein, fraught with toxic flame and chaotic energy, could disrupt spiritual senses. It was a perilous hideout, yet the monkey had endured the suffering silently...
Still in disbelief, Li Xuanxuan watched as the monkey dug through the debris, retrieving a charred body. From the sleeve pocket of the corpse's robe, it pulled out a shiny jade piece.
Click.
In just the space of two breaths, the monkey had used the jade piece to unlock the spirit iron collar around its neck. It presented both items to Li Xuanxuan, then crouched on the ground and began to meditate.
Li Xuanxuan had only taken a brief look at the items when the monkey's eyes suddenly snapped open. Its ears twitched as fear flickered in its eyes. It began making silent gestures, miming the motions of pounding herbs.
Sensing the urgency, Li Xuanxuan quickly stowed the items and retracted his spiritual sense as much as possible as he huddled in the corner, not daring to move. The monkey anxiously alternated between bowing and miming the action of pounding herbs but did not dare to make any noise.
Li Xuanxuan watched it quietly for a moment before taking out the mortar and pestle from his storage pouch and handing it back to the monkey. In an instant, the creature gratefully grabbed the dharma artifacts and disappeared into the ruins like a wisp of smoke.