Chapter 57: Pecked in the Eye by a Wild Goose
“Annoying.”
Ying Tong slowly withdrew her hand and spoke to the three people beside her, Ying Xuechen and the others. “The rest is up to you.”
Ying Xuechen nodded and assumed a combat stance.
Although they were all at the Golden Core stage, there was still a gap between Golden Core cultivators.
Ying Xuejian possessed two top-tier innate talents, and slaughtering was in her nature. At that moment, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement. Although their enemies had the advantage in numbers and cultivation, so what?
They could fail countless times, but if these people failed once, they would die for sure. This was the benefit of having a strong backing.
Only Ying Shao’an, looking left and right, pouting, reluctantly joined the fight.
The remaining unnamed Golden Core cultivators, after recovering from their initial shock, immediately realized that they had kicked a steel board this time.
When they saw that the other side had sent one Golden Core cultivator and two Foundation Establishment cultivators to deal with them, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of anger.
Such a move clearly showed that they were being completely disregarded.
The few of them exchanged glances.
This time, they had misjudged their opponent’s strength, which led to the failure of this mission, and their leader had even lost his life because of it.
Now, it was clearly impossible for them to leave safely. The only way out was to take the few people in front of them hostage and threaten them to let them go.
Without hesitation, they moved.
The five of them swiftly surrounded Ying Xuechen and the others.
If they couldn’t handle the one whose cultivation they couldn’t see through, could they not deal with a single Golden Core cultivator and two little Foundation Establishment kids?
However, just as they were about to act, they suddenly felt their bodies go limp.
Bang!
Two of them, floating in mid-air, suddenly fell to the ground. Their faces turned ashen, and they looked in disbelief at their hands. “Spiritual power, my spiritual power… where did it go?”
“Fourth, Fifth, what’s happened to you?” one of the remaining female cultivators asked.
They had originally planned to rely on their cultivation and numerical advantage to subdue the three quickly and then take them as hostages. At such a crucial moment, there could be no mistakes.
However, after hearing the two speak, the remaining three had already sensed something was wrong. They raised their eyes to look at Ying Xuechen and the others. “You don’t follow the rules of combat.”
Upon hearing this, Ying Shao’an immediately sneered. “You bunch of bandits, you still have the nerve to say we don’t follow the rules of combat.”
Two silver needles suddenly appeared in Ying Shao’an’s hands.
He swiftly tossed the silver needles, which pierced directly into the dantian of the two on the ground. In an instant, they shattered their dantian.
Normally, with the cultivation difference between them being nearly a whole realm, Ying Shao’an would not have been able to succeed so easily.
But since these people had tried to surround them…
When the two had just closed in, Ying Shao’an had already crushed a Spirit-Melting Pill.
Although the effects weren’t as immediate as swallowing it directly, it was enough to temporarily deplete their cultivation, rendering them as powerless as ordinary people.
With their dantian shattered, the two on the ground spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed, unconscious and barely alive.
“You actually crippled their dantian!” The three female cultivators looked at Ying Shao’an in disbelief.
They hadn’t expected that this seemingly teenage boy would be so decisive in his actions.
Ying Shao’an sneered. “So what if I crippled them? It’s already merciful of me not to kill them.”
After speaking, he changed his expression and looked at Ying Xuechen and Ying Xuejian. “I’ve taken care of this side, the rest is up to you.”
Implying that he would no longer participate in the remaining battle, and that capturing just two alive would be enough.
On the other side, Ying Tong had already guessed how these people had identified her.
“Spending all day hunting geese, but today the goose pecked my eye,” Ying Tong sighed.
She had warned them earlier, yet ironically, she had fallen into the trap herself.
Ying Tong took out the Nine Curve Golden Lotus and began inspecting it.
Upon careful examination, the original one hundred and eight petals had turned into one hundred and nine. The final petal was hidden within the shadow of two layers of petals, in a very concealed position.
Ying Tong carefully plucked out the problematic petal.
“From their level of skill, it seems this isn’t their first time doing this,” Liu Guang commented.
At this moment, Ying Shao’an walked over.
“Venerable Yunhuang, I’ve already interrogated the mastermind. It’s the seller of the Nine Curve Golden Lotus. They’ve been doing this for a long time.”
“Whenever someone buys the Nine Curve Golden Lotus in the black market, after that person leaves, the six of them follow and kill to rob. After some time, they change their identities and appear in the black market again, repeating the same trick.”
Hearing this, Ying Tong nodded, agreeing with her earlier guess.
“Did you find out where that person is?”
“I did. He’s in a cave about ten kilometers away,” Ying Shao’an replied.
At this moment, Ying Xuechen and Ying Xuejian’s battle had also ended.
After the battle, Ying Xuechen’s body remained completely clean, not a speck of dirt or blood on him. In contrast, Ying Xuejian had bloodstains on her face and hands, and her clothes were likely stained as well, though the black color made it hard to tell.
*
The person who had previously traded with Ying Tong in the black market was named Zhou Xian.
At this moment, he was in a cave, carefully cradling a purple spiritual mushroom in his hands, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
The Sky-Repairing Purple Mushroom, he had actually managed to obtain it.
Now, he only needed those people to bring back the Nine Curve Golden Lotus.
Once the Nine Curve Golden Lotus was in his hands, the cooperation with those people would come to an end.
As he thought this, a cold, ruthless glint flashed in Zhou Xian’s eyes.
Once he disposed of those useless people, he would take both the Sky-Repairing Purple Mushroom and the Nine Curve Golden Lotus, retreat to a secluded place, and go into seclusion. With all the gains from these years, he believed he would surely break through to the Nascent Soul stage.
At that time, he would be a respected Nascent Soul True Monarch—who would still dare to look down on him?
With this thought in mind, Zhou Xian couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Suddenly, a black bird shot out from his shadow, grabbed the Sky-Repairing Purple Mushroom in its beak, and flew outside.
“Damned bird! Stop! Who sent you? Return the Sky-Repairing Purple Mushroom to me immediately!” Zhou Xian shouted angrily.
This spiritual mushroom was crucial to his breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage, and it could not be allowed to go missing.
The bird nimbly dodged and flew out of the cave, and Zhou Xian immediately gave chase.
In the brief moments that followed, he had guessed who might be behind the bird’s actions, but he had no clues. Unless there was an insider.
The number of people who knew that the Sky-Repairing Purple Mushroom was in his hands was very small, and he was well aware of the abilities of the others involved. It was absolutely impossible for them to have taken the mushroom from him without him noticing.
