Chapter 275: Wanted Again
Supreme Mysterious Sect.
The moment Lü Rufeng’s Life Stone Plate shattered.
The Steward watching over the Life Stone Plates fell into a deathly silence.
Soon after, the news reached the ears of others in the Supreme Mysterious Sect.
Unlike Lang Yun and the other two,
Lü Rufeng was a renowned and outstanding disciple of the Supreme Mysterious Sect.
He had been a shoo-in for the Golden Core Stage, but his cultivation was affected because he had been forced to suppress it to the Qi Refinement Realm to enter the Liuyao Secret Realm back then.
Later, he was injured in the Secret Realm and even lost his Magic Treasure, the Black Demon Seal.
Despite this, the Sect would never have given up on him.
Instead, they gave him the opportunity to retrieve the Feiling Fruit to refine a Heart Firming Pill and heal his injuries.
But no one ever imagined.
That he would die.
Unlike others, Lü Rufeng carried a Protective Dharma Treasure. Should he have suffered a fatal blow, that Magic Treasure was supposed to save his life.
But why?
Why did Lü Rufeng still die?
***
Song Jiulai changed back into her Li Daqiang disguise and didn’t return to look for Shuitan.
Tang Valley was quite large. She encountered other Sect Disciples along the way, but since there was no need to interact, she would use her Divine Sense to spot them and immediately steer clear.
There was only one tricky matter for her to deal with.
Before entering the Secret Realm, she hadn’t expected to run into Lü Rufeng and his group, which was why she had used the Li Daqiang disguise.
But the owner of that little beast from before might have seen Li Daqiang’s face, and once she used her Magic Treasures, her similar identity could be exposed.
And now she had killed Lü Rufeng, who had the Supreme Mysterious Sect backing him.
She wasn’t sure who the master of the Red Snake was, so Song Jiulai planned to change her face again after leaving.
’This time, I’ll change into a woman.’
The mark on her wrist was just an imprint left by the Sea View Sect for sensing the Dragon Breath Spirit. Merely changing her face wouldn’t affect her body.
If nothing happened by then, she could change back to Li Daqiang’s appearance to turn in the quest.
If there was a problem, she would have to abandon the Li Daqiang identity completely, hide in the Dragon Frost Swamp, and return on her own later.
So she had the system send a message to Shuitan, saying she had something to attend to and had left the Secret Realm early.
She wasn’t sure if causing such a huge commotion in the Secret Realm would attract unwanted attention.
After all, Yi Tianhe was still alive.
Of course, she had to hide for now.
This would prevent her from dragging Shuitan down if she went to find him.
She left the Secret Realm, returning to the inn in Xuanwu City where she had been before entering Tang Valley.
She had rented the room for several days at once. After the incident with the Demon Cultivator, no one should bother her.
Fortunately, it was safe for now.
Before she had entered, Xuanwu City was in chaos due to the incident at the number one mine, and it was still in an uproar.
Song Jiulai took advantage of the chaos to check out of the inn and change her appearance.
This time, she became a female cultivator of some beauty and even fashionably went to a shop to buy a veil to cover her face.
Then, with a clear conscience, she spent the afternoon shopping in Xuanwu City, and was even in the mood to buy herself a few beautiful outfits.
Of course, the sales pitches here were quite something, but Song Jiulai didn’t dare buy the clothes made from what they claimed was the snake skin of some demon beast.
As night fell over Xuanwu City, she found a restaurant to eat dinner.
After sitting down, she was even in the mood to ask the system, "Is the jerky the player made for me ready yet?"
System: "..."
However, Song Jiulai hadn’t expected that just after Lü Rufeng croaked in the Secret Realm, the news would spread so quickly.
Communication was difficult for mortals on the Yunzhou Continent, but not for Cultivators.
She was sitting by the window when, a moment later, three people walked in.
A young woman and two male Cultivators whom Song Jiulai found familiar.
They were the two Golden Core Stage male cultivators who had come through the Sea View Sect’s Teleportation Array with her that day.
The other female cultivator had a cold and aloof aura, her face covered by a veil.
But the veil was very strange; it looked thin, yet it blurred the female cultivator’s features.
Even with Song Jiulai’s level of cultivation, she couldn’t make out her specific features, only vaguely discerning her stunning beauty.
’A High-level Treasure, it must be a High-level Treasure!’
Song Jiulai only spared them a quick glance.
After Shen Hai’an sat down, the female cultivator across from him used a mantra to shield her voice and suddenly said softly, "Lü Rufeng is dead."
"What?"
Shen Hai’an, who was about to pour himself some tea, nearly fumbled. "When did you get this news?"
"Just received it," the female cultivator said, her face showing little emotion. She added faintly, "Good riddance."
Just as Lü Rufeng hadn’t cared about the lives of Lang Yun and the others that day, this female cultivator was completely unmoved by the news of his death.
Shen Hai’an and Ye Guancang exchanged a look.
Shen Hai’an waved his folding fan. "Who did it?"
The female cultivator’s eyes shifted, and her tone suddenly turned amused. "Song Abao."
It was clear she was more interested in this Song Abao than in Lü Rufeng’s death.
"The disciple from the Liuyao Secret Realm who snatched Lü Rufeng’s Black Demon Seal?" Shen Hai’an was truly shocked this time. "He’s only in the Qi Refinement Realm. How could he kill a Late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator like Lü Rufeng right in front of Yi Tianhe?"
"The information I received says that Song Abao has a very peculiar Magic Treasure, a pagoda, that he trapped Lü Rufeng inside. Not long after, Lü Rufeng was dead." The female cultivator’s voice held a hint of a smile. "Yi Tianhe saw it with her own eyes. Unfortunately, she was chased off by that Snow Spirit Leopard and had to flee in disgrace. By the time she returned, the Feiling Fruit was gone, Lü Rufeng was dead, and his body was nowhere to be found."
"Lü Rufeng had a Protective Dharma Treasure," Ye Guancang said gravely. "It could have saved his life even from a Golden Core Stage expert."
"Unless," the female cultivator continued, "that Magic Treasure didn’t activate. And there are quite a few pagoda-shaped Magic Treasures on the Yunzhou Continent."
"The Black Demon Seal was stolen, Lü Rufeng was killed, and Yi Tianhe was seriously injured..." Shen Hai’an’s tone was getting a little too excited. "With such a huge grudge, how could the Supreme Mysterious Sect let this go? Won’t they hunt Song Abao to the ends of the earth? So, which sect is this Song Abao from, or is he... a Loose Cultivator?"
The three of them didn’t discuss it for long.
Soon, the Supreme Mysterious Sect’s kill order for Song Abao was issued.
It reached the Dragon Frost Swamp almost instantly.
While Lü Rufeng wasn’t the absolute top prodigy of a super Major Sect, he was still a key figure cultivated by the Supreme Mysterious Sect. Now that he had died so suddenly, Song Abao’s name immediately spread throughout parts of Yunzhou.
How far-reaching was this kill order?
The next day, when Song Jiulai passed by, she saw her own information displayed in Xuanwu City.
The more she looked, the more she had to admit that Song Abao’s face was indeed sleazy.
Song Jiulai wiped her face and turned to leave.
Not long after she left, Shen Hai’an also appeared.
This time, however, he was alone.
He stared at the image in the Water Mirror, and after confirming Song Abao’s appearance, his expression turned strange.
’This is obviously a fake face. The Supreme Mysterious Sect really couldn’t tell?’
Moreover, anyone capable of killing Lü Rufeng couldn’t possibly be a nobody. The Magic Treasure used was strange, but the Palm Thunder Cultivation Technique was common on the Yunzhou Continent.
Shen Hai’an considered himself familiar with most of the outstanding disciples from the various sects, but he had never heard of someone as audacious as this Song Abao.
’Unless—’
’Have those few sects finally let their freakishly talented disciples out to play?’