Chapter 266: An Incident
Most Loose Cultivators wouldn’t dare to kill so casually. She had seen plenty of disciples from the Liuyun Sect and the Taohua Sect lately, but these two were unfamiliar faces. According to the System’s database of people the players had encountered, there was no information on them. Cultivators with such a strong killing intent were likely from out of town.
Local Cultivators more or less understood the way the small sects under the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect operated. Afraid of being exposed, they generally wouldn’t stir up trouble without reason.
Song Jiulai recalled something Senior Sister Shui Ping had mentioned before. "Could it be the Tianyang Sect?"
System: "It’s possible. Wasn’t there word that something happened over at the Tianyang Sect, and that some of their disciples even came here?"
Song Jiulai wasn’t too worried about that. "Did they dispose of the bodies properly?"
System: "They took care of it under my guidance, but there will always be some traces left behind."
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to completely destroy the evidence, but when it came to Cultivators of the same rank, even incinerating the bodies couldn’t erase every trace.
That was how Song Jiulai had been discovered when she dealt with Jin Shu.
However, as long as those two had no identifying information, finding their killer in a place as vast as First Mountain would be quite difficult.
Besides, unlike Song Jiulai’s situation, they didn’t have the major problem of having killed someone from a higher realm. Even if they were discovered, they could just claim it was self-defense. And since they were from the Longevity Sect, no one would be able to question it.
Song Jiulai nodded.
After a moment of thought, she realized this was great news. ’I have seven at Foundation Establishment now, so I only need three more to complete the mission.’ "Who’s currently close to reaching Foundation Establishment?"
The System said, "Zhan Sheng."
Song Jiulai was surprised. "So fast?! Her progress has even surpassed Lin Yuyu’s and Han Tian’s?"
Lin Yuyu had at least made it out of the Secret Realm, after all.
Unfortunately for her, aside from a pile of red cloths left behind by the monsters she killed, she hadn’t gained much.
And there was no telling when that Moonlight Secret Realm would open again.
"The Metal Spirit Root is at the Taixue Sect, her comprehension is strong, and she’s been playing for over a month in game-time. It’s only normal that she’s about to reach Foundation Establishment. She’s not like those two unlucky souls, Qing Guo and Wuming. She has a high degree of freedom."
That was true. With Zhai Xiaotian backing her, Zhan Sheng’s gains were certainly not small.
Four months had passed. With only two months left for the Foundation Establishment mission, the chances of completing it were looking very high.
Song Jiulai once again had something to look forward to.
First, she went to a shop to purchase a large quantity of materials for Second-order Puppets. After all, Second-stage Refining came with a failure rate.
Seeing how much she was buying, the shopkeeper kindly threw in a few corresponding puppet refining formulas for free. They weren’t worth much, anyway.
The Second-rank materials weren’t too expensive. A full set came to fifty Mid-grade Spirit Stones.
Although it pained her a little to spend the money, it was something she had promised, and Song Jiulai intended to follow through.
That night, she rented a room at a Cultivator Inn that had an Artifact Refining Room and began crafting the new puppets inside.
The materials she had collected so far were actually just common materials for Second-order Puppets found on the market.
They could prevent corrosion from the venom of most Second-tier Demon Beasts.
Song Jiulai considered making them in different styles, but since different materials would have different costs and the end result wouldn’t be that different, she decided against it.
’I’ll just compensate the first and second-place winners with some extra points later,’ she thought.
That’s right. She was just that kind of stingy Sect Master.
Her cheapskate persona was here to stay.
Late that night, she was enthusiastically working on the refining process when she was suddenly forced to stop.
Someone was sending a voice transmission from outside the Artifact Refining Room.
She was instantly puzzled.
Normally, a room where a Cultivator was in seclusion was not to be disturbed unless there was an emergency.
She pulled her focus from her work and pressed her hand into the empty air. The scene around her rippled like water, gradually transforming into the appearance of a normal room in a Human Clan inn.
The door opened. Outside stood two Cultivators dressed in identical white robes.
Upon seeing Song Jiulai, one of them spoke in a less-than-courteous tone, flashing a Token. "By order of the Xuanwu City Lord! There was an incident at Xuanwu Tower tonight. An escaped Demon Cultivator has infiltrated the city. We are required to search every location within the city, and your room must be inspected."
Hearing this, Song Jiulai was a little surprised.
’A Demon Cultivator escaped?’
’What Demon Cultivator?’
’Could it be one from that batch I saw earlier?’
Song Jiulai wasn’t flustered, however. She touched the tip of her nose and nodded. "Alright."
’In any case, I don’t have anything in my room that can’t see the light of day. Anything incriminating is back in the Sect warehouse anyway,’ she thought.
Seeing Song Jiulai’s low Level, the two Cultivators before her had only bothered to explain themselves out of patience. It was their way of showing they were from a major power, granting her a sliver of courtesy.
Song Jiulai naturally wouldn’t object.
A mirror appeared out of thin air in the hand of one of them. He held the mirror and shone it around Song Jiulai’s room.
A brilliant light flared, dazzling to the eye.
But it didn’t reveal anything unusual.
After the mirror’s light dimmed, the two left immediately.
Song Jiulai watched their retreating figures and murmured to the System, "So a Demon Cultivator escaped. Was it one from that batch of slaves they captured?"
System: "It seems so. You should go out and see what you can find out."
Both the human and the System enjoyed a good spectacle. Since her work had been interrupted anyway, Song Jiulai left the inn to check it out.
It was late at night, but all of Xuanwu City was in an uproar, filled with the clamor of Cultivators who had been roused from their rooms.
Groups of people in white robes moved ceaselessly through the crowds.
Song Jiulai tutted. ’A Great Power Cultivator could scan the entire city with a single sweep of their Divine Sense. Why go through all this trouble?’
But there must be something in the city that blocks Divine Sense. Her own senses were certainly much duller here than elsewhere.
That was probably why these people were conducting a manual search.
She just didn’t understand why they were even targeting Xuanwu City’s own people.
As she stepped outside, she spotted a Qi Refining cultivator standing by the roadside with his arms crossed, watching the commotion. Song Jiulai could tell he was a kindred spirit and sidled up to him. "Fellow Daoist, what’s with all the people? Did something happen?"
The male Cultivator turned his head. Seeing Song Jiulai’s question, he didn’t seem offended at all and eagerly shared the gossip. "I heard one of the Demon Cultivators from that batch they captured earlier managed to escape."
But he didn’t know much more than that.
He just added, "To escape from a place as heavily guarded as Xuanwu Tower... that Demon Cultivator is no simple character."
No wonder Xuanwu City was so tense.
Song Jiulai put on a worried expression. "Will this affect those outside the city? Is it still safe to go mining?"
The Cultivator shook his head. "Don’t worry, it won’t. That Demon Cultivator wouldn’t dare go outside the city. Divine Sense isn’t blocked out there, so they’d be discovered immediately. They must still be somewhere in the city."
Song Jiulai understood. It seemed this matter had little to do with her, so she went back to continue crafting the puppets.
Fortunately, after failing twice, she got the hang of it. She hadn’t lost too many materials, but the puppets she crafted still weren’t very good-looking.
This time, however, the players would be able to customize the faces themselves.
After she finished crafting the puppet bodies, Song Jiulai handed them over to the players. She stayed in Xuanwu City for another two days, but deciding that mining Dragon Breath Spirit was more important and that she couldn’t waste any more time, she returned to the mining site.
Although the matter of the Demon Cultivator’s escape had occurred in Xuanwu City, leaving the city was unaffected, and it was still bustling with people coming and going.
There wasn’t even a trace of the grand incident from a few days prior.
Her journey was uneventful.
’I’ll move to a new spot next month,’ she thought.
’Can’t stay in one fishing hole for too long.’
But she hadn’t gone far from the mine’s entrance when she realized something was terribly wrong.
The heavy stench of blood.
Carried by the wind, it reached Song Jiulai’s nose.
She didn’t even need to get too close to see a corpse lying at the entrance.
It belonged to one of the Golden Core Stage disciples guarding the mining site.
The body was severed in two, and it was covered in what looked like wounds from a wild beast.
Upon seeing this, Song Jiulai didn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second.
She spun around, burst into high speed, and fled without a second thought!