Chapter 91: The Old Ancestor of Black Cliff, Being Tracked?

An island in the sea.

A spirit vessel rose into the air and headed north.

On deck, Shen Lian stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing through the window at the island below, which shrank smaller and smaller with distance.

After killing three demonic cultivators outside Thousand Kings Island, he had seized fragments of memory from two of them.

The one with a head full of filthy tricks need not be mentioned; his death was no injustice. Killing him had been lenient, even.

As for that fellow, his storage bracelet held no resources at all—only obscene trash.

Disgusting.

From the memory of another, a Foundation Establishment cultivator at the seventh level named Xiang Jingying, he had uncovered a few useful things.

So after traveling in one stretch from Thousand Kings Island to this place, he immediately boarded the nearest departing spirit boat and prepared to put as much distance as possible between himself and the scene.

As for the spoils taken from the three Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators...

The fellow he had killed with a surge of divine sense had a repulsive hobby, and it had made Shen Lian sick to his stomach.

In all, the three of them yielded five second-grade magical implements. Aside from a small shield that seemed decent to Shen Lian and carried little blood aura, the other three were all steeped in a dense stench of blood and were the life-bound implements of the three men. He had cast them into the sea while on the road.

He had also found several bottles of pills, but the pellets were black as pitch and reeked of blood, so those too went into the sea.

After discarding all the rubbish, the spoils were reduced to seventeen second-grade ore stones, nine second-grade spiritual herbs, and among them a single supporting herb for Foundation Establishment Pills: golden essence ginseng.

There were also more than ten jade boxes containing spirit insects, the highest of which was a second-grade spirit insect known as the ancient golden sword grub.

Its aura was somewhat weak, suggesting severe injury.

This kind of spirit insect fed on metal and stone, could refine golden essence to aid in nourishing sword qi, and was highly prized by sword cultivators.

If it were intact and put up for auction in an immortal city full of sword cultivators, it would easily fetch well over a hundred thousand spirit stones.

Besides that, the three of them together had over thirty-six thousand spirit stones on them, worth several years of income for the Xu family back then.

These spirit stones had all been gained through illicit means.

Unlike Shen Lian, who hoarded contraband in his own hands, they sold off their dirty goods every so often and exchanged them for cultivation resources.

Xiang Jingying and the other two were disciples of the Black Cliff Sect, under Black Cliff Patriarch, and had gone specifically to Thousand Kings Island to lie in wait for cultivators of the Azure Sea Sect and rob them of Blood Soul Beads refined from mortal flesh and blood.

The Black Cliff Sect could be considered an underground sect.

It had only a name, and no actual sect grounds.

Its founder, Black Cliff Patriarch, was an early Golden Core demonic cultivator who roamed the many regions of the Myriad Stars Sea year-round.

Because he delighted in causing trouble for the major sects, the Black Cliff Sect had been harshly suppressed by the great sects and clans of the Myriad Stars Sea.

Yet Black Cliff Patriarch was a talented man. Knowing that his deeds drew hatred, he raised a sect banner for show, never even establishing a proper base, and instead fought a guerrilla war everywhere he went.

His method of recruiting disciples was likewise unusual: he did not take geniuses, but only those at the ninth layer of Qi Refinement with no hope of Foundation Establishment.

Those who thought themselves underappreciated, those lacking opportunity, those who suffered discrimination, those whose minds were twisted, those of crooked intent, and those who liked to stir up trouble... all of them were preferred.

He bestowed demonic methods upon them—dual-cultivation arts for harvesting vital essence, venomous gu art, blood-demon techniques, and all manner of crooked paths.

Many disciples had never even seen his face, and even those who had might not have seen his true appearance.

As for loyalty, what need had a demonic cultivator of loyalty? Black Cliff Patriarch trusted only the Black Cliff Heart Devil Art he had placed upon them; the lives of his disciples were all in his hands.

He cared even less whether they lived or died. After all, there were plenty of cultivators stuck at the ninth layer of Qi Refinement.

From itinerant cultivators to disillusioned disciples within sects, Black Cliff Patriarch's followers were scattered throughout the Myriad Stars Sea.

Within any sect, if one shouted that Black Cliff Patriarch might enjoy eternal blessings, one was certain to encounter a fellow disciple—though whether they would acknowledge each other was another matter entirely.

This made the sects and clans of the Myriad Stars Sea so enraged that they would gladly have ground the old fellow to dust and scattered his ashes.

Because he cast a wide net, Black Cliff Patriarch had not raised his banner for long, yet he had already amassed many talents under his command.

Some of the odd, misshapen sorts—cultivators whose minds were already warped—made rapid progress under his demonic arts. Among the known Foundation Establishment disciples, there were more than twenty.

Of course, most of those with names had already perished.

No helping it; they had been too reckless.

Through repeatedly sifting through Xiang Jingying's memories, Shen Lian also discovered that Black Cliff Patriarch usually did not care at all whether his disciples lived or died. He merely issued tasks from time to time.

This robbery of the Azure Sea Sect's Blood Soul Beads had been one such assignment from Black Cliff Patriarch.

The three of them had carried out many missions under his arrangement and were more familiar with one another than with the other members of the Black Cliff Sect.

Thus, they had successfully achieved the ultimate feat of joining hands to stir up trouble and marching together toward the Yellow Springs.

"Blood Soul Beads."

Shen Lian found this somewhat hard to comprehend. In the eyes of cultivators, mortals were no more than ants. Even if a Blood Soul Bead were refined from the flesh and blood of a million mortals, it ought to be of little use to a cultivator, shouldn't it?

The Azure Sea Sect was the foremost righteous sect of the Myriad Stars Sea, yet it had stirred up mortal warfare and caused death on the scale of millions. In essence, what it did was not so different from demonic cultivation.

Unfortunately, Xiang Jingying's memories held no later details, only the recollection of the three of them receiving the mission. There was not even any arrangement for what to do after seizing the Blood Soul Beads.

This only showed how cautious that old demon Black Cliff was. To still be alive and kicking under siege from so many sects, he clearly had some real ability.

"Too troublesome. I've offended another Golden Core."

Shen Lian sighed softly. It seemed he had unwittingly shielded the cultivators of the Azure Sea Sect from calamity.

Those three had lingered outside Thousand Kings Island for several months. The moment he emerged, they mistook him for a member of the Azure Sea Sect.

Thinking back, the soul thought that surfaced when Xiang Jingying died must have been a control measure left behind by Black Cliff Patriarch.

In the cultivation world, after so many years of development, especially within sects and clans, there were many methods for leaving marks behind after death.

Through bloodline or other means, one could mark the enemies who killed their own disciples.

That circle of demonic qi was one such method.

Although he had burned away the demonic qi ring and erased the black mist that had seeped into his body, Shen Lian did not dare let down his guard.

Fortunately, most such marking techniques had time limits and range restrictions. Given enough time and enough distance, they could be evaded entirely.

Xiang Jingying's memories also mentioned that disciples of Black Cliff Patriarch were scattered throughout the major sects of the Myriad Stars Sea and had long occupied the top ranks of the bounty lists issued by those sects.

Whoever killed one of Black Cliff Patriarch's disciples would receive spirit stones once the kill was confirmed.

Xiang Jingying, as a seventh-level Foundation Establishment cultivator, ranked nineteenth on the bounty list set up by the Azure Sea Sect and was worth fifty thousand low-grade spirit stones.

The combined bounty on the three brothers amounted to more than one hundred ten thousand low-grade spirit stones.

Shen Lian sighed. What use was that? He had no way to claim it.

A second-level Foundation Establishment cultivator killing a seventh-level Foundation Establishment cultivator, plus two others at the third and second levels—quite formidable.

If Black Cliff Patriarch set his sights on him, it would be no bargain at all.

Why were the Golden Core and Nascent Soul patriarchs of the cultivation world all so fond of petty schemes, using people as pieces on a chessboard?

By this point, the value of the contraband in Shen Lian's hands had risen to six hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones.

"A single jade talisman probably won't be enough to frighten off a Golden Core cultivator."

He let out a faint sigh, withdrew his gaze from the distance, and sat cross-legged on the cushion.

It seemed things had to be accelerated.

Once seated, Shen Lian drew his divine sense inward and again carefully examined every part of his body, sweeping his entire frame with fire spiritual power.

After confirming once more that there was no problem with his body, he let his divine sense sink into his storage ring and checked over the spoils from the fight yet again.

Black Cliff Patriarch's tracking mark had also served as a warning. From now on, whenever he killed someone, he would need to arrange for bone-crushing ashes and soul-guiding rites as well.

Otherwise, leaving loose ends would make it easy to be watched.

...

On Thousand Kings Island, a figure clad in a blue dao robe and carrying a trace of naturally imposing authority between the brows moved back and forth through every part of the island.

"How can there be nothing?"

A thumb-sized insect flapped its translucent wings, circling about the figure.

"Blood as the guide, the demon spirit shows the way."

With ruthless resolve, Qi Chengzan bit through his fingertip and tucked his hand back into his sleeve, rapidly forming seals.

Threads of blood qi flew out and merged into the tiny insect.

With the boost of blood spiritual power, the insect gave a low buzz, transformed into a streak of light, and shot away.

But not long after, it flew back as if a headless fly had lost its way.

Qi Chengzan tried several more times, but in the end could only give up helplessly.

"Master's Blood Demon Tracking Technique should be able to sense them even from ten thousand miles away. How can there be nothing? Could some secret art be blocking it?"

He lowered his head in thought. His mission was to track Xiang Jingying and the other two.

If they obtained the Blood Soul Beads, he was to appear and take them over.

In order not to be detected, he had deliberately kept his distance.

But he had never imagined the three would be killed by someone, leaving only the battlefield and residual demonic aura behind.

Since his target was gone, he could only capture the cultivator who had killed them in order to explain himself to his master of Black Cliff.

He had followed the trail all the way to Thousand Kings Island, and along the way he even picked up the magical implements and pills sunk in the sea by tracing their lingering aura, which only made him more certain that the man had come to Thousand Kings Island.

Qi Chengzan judged that the cultivator who had killed Xiang Jingying and the others had probably used some other method to temporarily block or weaken the aura of the tracking art.

Rumble!

At the sound, Qi Chengzan looked up into the sky. A spirit vessel was flying through the air, about to vanish into the clouds, and he could not help but frown.

Among all the vessels that had left near the time he arrived at Thousand Kings Island, only this one had flown away.

As for the treasure ship, it was too slow to evade the sensing of the blood beetle insect.

At once, Qi Chengzan's expression changed. He hurried toward the island and determined the vessel's route: it would dock at Immortal Drifting Island half a month later.

"Half a month."

Without lingering, he drove his flying boat out of Thousand Kings Island.