Chapter 1990 - Qi Sitong

For the past two days, countless cultivators had hunted Liu Wuxie, intent on taking his immortal roots. They had searched every outer peak, stopping just short of digging through the ground to find him.

Many had concluded that someone had already killed him and destroyed the corpse to conceal the crime. Who could have expected him to leave the Azure Jade Palace on his first day and make his way to the Cloud Mist Manor? The Ji Clan disciples’ surprise was understandable.

“The elder reprimanded us because of you, Liu Wuxie. Today, I’ll peel your skin off,” Ji Heng said venomously. He was the strongest of the three and was only one step away from the Golden Immortal Realm.

The Cloud Mist Manor disciples shared a glance and stayed out of it. All four belonged to the Azure Jade Palace, and antagonizing either side promised trouble. They shut the gates, refusing to involve themselves.

At Ji Heng's signal, his companions spread out. The three took positions around Liu Wuxie in a triangular formation.

Violence hung a heartbeat away, yet Liu Wuxie did not move. At the sixth-level Profound Immortal Realm, one strike would suffice to kill all three. The difficulty lay in leaving no evidence.

No witnesses had seen him kill the three inner disciples outside the Azure Jade Palace. An investigation would uncover nothing. A killing at the gates of Cloud Mist Manor would be another matter.

Even so, the Law Enforcement Token left him little to fear. Should the sect investigate their deaths, it could not find him guilty.

“Your life ends here, Liu Wuxie!” Ji Heng roared. His sword swung, sending a lethal arc of sword ray toward him.

“Enough!” a voice thundered from below the stone steps. Liu Wuxie’s gaze had already grown cold, and he had been on the verge of summoning the Bloodthirst Blade to meet the attack.

Ji Heng recognized the voice and immediately withdrew his sword. Looking down, he saw a man and a woman approaching with formidable cultivation. The man was at the pinnacle of the Golden Immortal Realm. The woman had reached the Great Golden Immortal Realm.

“Long Yuanxiong!” Liu Wuxie exclaimed in recognition. This was the man who had finished second to him in the assessment. The woman beside him, however, was a stranger.

The pair ascended the remaining steps and arrived at the gates. Long Yuanxiong looked at Liu Wuxie and ignored Ji Heng and his companions.

“You’re all disciples of the Azure Jade Palace. What reason do you have to fight here?” he demanded of the three. He did not attempt to hide whose side he had taken.

Nothing had compelled him to intervene. He could have simply walked away, yet he chose to help despite the burden Liu Wuxie’s lower cultivation appeared to pose.

“Keep out of this, Long Yuanxiong. That brat’s business is with the Ji Clan, not you,” Ji Heng said darkly. They had been mere moments from killing Liu Wuxie and claiming his immortal roots. They could not let their prey slip away now.

“Who gave you permission to address my younger brother that way?” the woman demanded, raising a brow. Boundless dragon aura poured from her, displaying a strength far beyond Long Yuanxiong’s.

Three streams of that aura formed fists and struck the Ji Clan disciples. All three flew backward without being able to put up the slightest resistance.

“You’re... Long Ying?!” Ji Heng exclaimed, fear flashing through his eyes. He had not imagined this beautiful woman was the notorious Long Ying. Her fierce sense of justice was well known; wherever she found wrongdoing, she intervened. Dealing with her afterward was notoriously difficult.

“You know who I am. Now get out of my sight!” Long Ying snapped.

Few things disgusted her more than the strong bullying the weak. Her voice had also alarmed the disciples behind the gates, and they hurried to open them.

The Ji Clan disciples looked at one another, then cast venomous glances at Liu Wuxie before approaching the entrance. Once they explained why they had come, the guards let them pass without objection.

“I’m grateful for your help,” Liu Wuxie said, cupping his fists. Whatever had prompted their intervention, they had assisted him.

“No trouble at all. Are you here because of the Cloud Mist Manor’s call for experts?” Long Yuanxiong asked, returning the gesture.

Long Ying gave Liu Wuxie a curious glance, then turned her attention elsewhere. He interested her a little. Still, he was her younger brother’s friend, and she had no reason to interfere.

“You could say that,” Liu Wuxie replied, rubbing his nose. He didn't wish to disclose his missions yet.

“Come with us, then. I’ll speak to the disciples at the gate,” Long Yuanxiong said. He understood Liu Wuxie’s predicament. The notice required applicants to have reached at least the Divine Immortal Realm.

The guards admitted all three readily. They regarded Liu Wuxie as a companion brought along to broaden his experience.

The Long Clan still maintained a good reputation despite its decline. Its name remained renowned across hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and the Cloud Mist Manor’s disciples would not dare bar its members.

Beyond the gates, an entirely different scene unfolded. Light flooded the manor, bringing beds of colorful flowers into vivid view. It was a striking contrast with the mist-darkened surroundings outside.

“Follow me, please!”

Many cultivators had arrived ahead of them and already assembled in the main hall.

Their guides led the trio across half the estate before they reached its inner grounds.

Liu Wuxie lifted his gaze. Countless Cloud Mist Pearls hung in the air above, with more hidden deeper in the mist.

These remarkable treasures were formed by absorbing the clouds and mist of heaven and earth, together with the essence of the sun and moon. Each held substantial value. A pearl only a few hundred years old could command more than ten million immortal stones.

Sales of those pearls alone had once raised the Cloud Mist Manor into the second tier.

Having refined them in his previous life, Liu Wuxie understood their worth.

The manor’s yearly output amounted to little more than a hundred. Their recent disappearance therefore struck at its livelihood. If the losses continued, its income would be destroyed. Its standing would drop below even a third-tier clan, reducing it to an unranked force.

Zheng Ruhai had described the situation before Liu Wuxie left.

Conversation filled the main hall. Hundreds of cultivators stood there, including several Immortal Kings. Liu Wuxie alone possessed cultivation below the Divine Immortal Realm.

The trio’s entrance turned heads, though Liu Wuxie drew most of the attention.

Examining him with a sharp gaze, a Golden Immortal remarked, “A Profound Immortal, here?”

Liu Wuxie paid no mind to the scrutiny and looked around the hall.

“Apparently, they’ll admit anyone now,” someone muttered. Interest soon faded, and the others returned to their discussion about the manor’s difficulties.

“There’s room over there, Brother Liu,” Long Yuanxiong said, indicating a quieter area to the right.

“Of course,” Liu Wuxie replied. The three threaded through the gathering toward the hall’s western side.

“It’s been some time, Long Ying,” a voice called when they stopped. A young man strode toward them, his attention fixed entirely on her. He ignored both Liu Wuxie and Long Yuanxiong.

A cold glint crossed Long Ying’s eyes. Her dislike was unmistakable.

“Qi Sitong,” Long Yuanxiong whispered to Liu Wuxie. “He’s pursuing my sister, and he doesn’t know when to stop.”

Qi Sitong’s robes identified him as an elite disciple of the Azure Jade Palace. At the fifth level of the Great Golden Immortal Realm, his cultivation exceeded Long Ying’s by one level.

Liu Wuxie had little attention to spare for courtship. In addition to acquiring the Cloud Mist Pearl King, he needed to convince the manor to cut off the Mountain Guardian Sect’s supply of Crimson Cloudstone.

Every lead from Chai Qian’s investigation had pointed to the manor as that supplier.

Liu Wuxie activated the Ghost Pupil and looked into the surrounding mountains. A trace of crimson cloud energy drifted into his view. That settled it. The manor possessed its own Crimson Cloudstone mines.

“What do you want?” Long Ying asked coldly, her face impassive.

“Had I known you were coming, I’d have waited another day. We could have made the journey together,” Qi Sitong said fawningly. His pursuit of Long Ying was common knowledge throughout the Azure Jade Palace.

“Come, Brother. We’ll look somewhere else,” Long Ying said, pulling Long Yuanxiong away and leaving Qi Sitong standing by himself.

“Join us, Brother Liu,” Long Yuanxiong said, drawing Liu Wuxie along. They left the hall and stopped in a long corridor to the west.

“Was brushing him off like that wise, Elder Sister? He’s an elite disciple, and the Qi Clan is a first-tier force,” Long Yuanxiong said, visibly concerned.

“He needs to learn when he isn’t wanted,” Long Ying replied, her lips curling as she sat on a bench.

Liu Wuxie walked to the far end of the corridor and studied the hundreds of Cloud Mist Pearls overhead. Each required a decade to develop. Hundreds might look abundant, but only a portion matured for harvest in any given year. Even at the manor’s height, he remembered, it had held only five thousand pearls.

He activated the Ghost Pupil together with the Divine Tribulation Pupil and sent his mental energy upward. The first pierced the clouds; the second examined the pearls from within.

Employing both divine pupils imposed a considerable strain on his soul sea. Yet opening its ancient depths and giving rise to a wisp of primordial force had set his soul sea apart from those of ordinary cultivators. Whenever he consumed soul energy, those depths released more to replenish it.

“Welcome, everyone, to the Cloud Mist Manor! I’m deeply grateful that you’ve come,” a hearty voice announced. Conversations ceased as everyone turned toward it.

Liu Wuxie lowered his gaze from the sky. A scholarly, middle-aged man had appeared. He was Yun Zhong, the present lord of Cloud Mist Manor.

The cultivators filed out of the hall and assembled on the training ground. Large enough to hold tens of thousands, it offered ample room for the gathering.

“We answered your summons, Manor Lord Yun, so let’s be clear. Will whoever solves the mystery of the missing pearls truly receive the Cloud Mist Pearl King?” a Great Golden Immortal asked, stepping forward.