Chapter Eighty-Nine: You Won't Get Away

The warriors of the Plum Blossom Mountain sect and the others had stood guard outside the restroom for more than ten minutes, yet there was still no sign of Chu Tianfeng.

The first to lose patience was Wang Lichang. He charged into the restroom himself to search for him.

Then a heaven-shaking roar erupted from the men’s room: "Number One Hundred and Nine, I will tear your mother apart!"

When Duan Rui and the others heard it, they knew something was wrong and rushed in to check.

As expected, the restroom contained only the furious Wang Lichang; Number One Hundred and Nine had long since vanished without a trace.

"What now?" Duan Rui asked Ge Huawen after stepping back outside.

"Give chase. He can’t have gone far," Ge Huawen said, his face dark with anger.

"Our two families can work together. Split the spoils fifty-fifty afterward. What do you say?" Duan Rui asked again.

The duck was still flying in the sky, and these two were already discussing how to cook it.

"Fine. We need to move fast. Huang Zonghan and Qian Sifang have already gone after him," Ge Huawen said, and without another word he strode off.

Not far away, Long Fei and the others were also present. Hearing that Chu Tianfeng had escaped, Long Fei could not help laughing aloud again.

"His movement technique truly is bizarre. So many eyes on him, and none could keep track of him," Long Yue said, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.

"Most likely someone was waiting for him in the women’s restroom. They only watched the men’s room and overlooked the women’s," Long Yuanhua said, as if suddenly enlightened.

"Lin Feng. An interesting name," Long Yue murmured. "Uncle Yuanhua, do you think he might be Chu Tianfeng?"

At that moment, Duan Rui and the others sped past them, racing down the mountain.

Long Yuanhua gave a slight nod. "I also agree with the elders’ analysis. When he spoke with us, he was clearly a young man. If he is not Chu Tianfeng, then he must be one of his fellow disciples of the same generation."

"Come on, let’s follow and see the excitement," Long Fei said, cracking his knuckles, eager to join in. "Maybe we can even help Brother Lin later."

"No, Xiaofei. We can follow, but we absolutely must not intervene," Long Yuanhua rejected him firmly.

Although Chu Tianfeng had done the Long family a favor, the mess he had stirred up was far too great. He had offended not one or two sects, and Long Yuanhua did not want to drag the Long family into it.

"All right." Long Fei rolled his eyes and decided to follow first and think later.

On the other side, the three women of the Phoenix family were also baffled by Chu Tianfeng.

That was because when Chu Tianfeng fled, Feng Mingsnow happened to be in the women’s restroom.

"Mingsnow, you really didn’t see him?" Feng Piaopiao asked softly.

"No. I only saw a few women," Feng Mingsnow answered gloomily.

She had truly feared that the fellow had escaped through the women’s restroom. She had been relieving herself at the time and did not want a man peeping on her.

"How strange. Could this person know how to vanish?" Feng Piaopiao looked at the other woman beside her.

"I’ve heard only Japanese ninjas have that sort of ability. The Long family has fought the Japanese for centuries; they shouldn’t have any ties to them," the woman said, shaking her head.

"Mother, they seem to have chased after him down the mountain," Feng Mingsnow said, pointing at Long Fei and the others in the distance.

"Xiugu, let’s go take a look too," Feng Piaopiao said to the woman. "At the very least, let’s ask the Long family who that person really is."

—

After leaving the restroom in stealth, Chu Tianfeng went straight out of the Unfeeling Academy’s mountain gate and headed into the deep mountains.

He intended to pick up Xiyako first, then gather some spirit herbs in the mountains.

However, before he had even reached the place where he had buried the Spirit-Nurturing Wood, his divine sense detected a battle.

In the pitch-dark night, two faint human-shaped wisps of white mist were flying up and down among the trees, fighting fiercely and evenly matched.

One of them was none other than Xiyako, while the other was a male ghost. That ghost’s cultivation was clearly much higher than Xiyako’s, yet its divine sense was weak, and it was instead being pressed back by her.

Chu Tianfeng quietly approached and formed a pincer with Xiyako, surrounding the male ghost in the middle.

The ghost soon discovered Chu Tianfeng as well, and immediately tried to flee.

Chu Tianfeng took out the Soul-Summoning Banner he had seized that day from Tong Hanwen of the Heavenly Master Sect, cast a sealing incantation, and firmly locked it in place.

"Don’t kill me. I’m from the Heavenly Master Sect too!" the ghost urgently sent to Chu Tianfeng through divine sense.

"The Heavenly Master Sect?" Chu Tianfeng was greatly surprised. Of course, he replied by divine sense as well.

He had only heard that the Heavenly Master Sect specialized in exorcising ghosts; he had never heard that they also kept them.

"Yes!" The ghost nodded hastily. "You’re not from the Heavenly Master Sect?"

Chu Tianfeng looked at the Soul-Summoning Banner in his hand and knew the ghost must have mistaken him for a Heavenly Master Sect member because of it.

"Let me make you understand before you die: I am not only not from the Heavenly Master Sect, but I also have a considerable grudge against them," Chu Tianfeng said, once again forming a seal as he prepared to draw the ghost into the banner.

"No! Please don’t kill me. I also have a grudge against the Heavenly Master Sect. I can help you deal with them," the ghost begged repeatedly.

"Ridiculous. You say you have a grudge, so you have a grudge?" Chu Tianfeng shook his head, unwilling to believe it. "Besides, what can a mere ghost at the early stage of the Foundation Realm do for me?"

A ghost at the Golden Core or Foundation Realm could not wander outside for long in daylight.

Though such beings could invade a warrior’s mind with divine sense, the effect was useless against the bold and the fearless. After all, they possessed only divine sense and no true essence; they could not launch direct attacks or inflict physical harm.

Of course, they could also refine certain special objects into weapons, but such objects were exceedingly rare, and their offensive power was limited as well.

"It’s true. My name is Li Yuanfeng. I was once an elder of the Heavenly Master Sect. After the current sect master, Yu Shigui, killed me and ripped my soul out to place me under the sect’s control, how could I possibly have no grievance?" the ghost, Li Yuanfeng, hurriedly defended himself.

"Oh? Such a thing happened?" Chu Tianfeng became interested.

At that moment, Xiyako also came over, crossing her hands before her and silently watching Li Yuanfeng.

"Yes. The current sect master, Yu Shigui, is my junior brother. In order to seize my position as sect master, he poisoned me to death. Later, he even handed my ghost over to his nephew, Yu Xianze, to control," Li Yuanfeng said bitterly.

Chu Tianfeng immediately understood. He guessed that this fellow had probably been brought here by Yu Xianze as well. Like him, Yu Xianze likely did not dare bring the ghost to the Unfeeling Academy, so he had hidden it in the deep mountains instead.

"Does the Heavenly Master Sect keep many ghosts?" Chu Tianfeng asked.

Li Yuanfeng nodded. "Yes. We keep a large number of them, perhaps over a hundred."

"What? Why would the Heavenly Master Sect keep so many ghosts?" Chu Tianfeng was shocked.

Keeping ghosts was no easy matter. Not only did it require rare spiritual treasures and earthly marvels for the ghosts to dwell in, such as Spirit-Nurturing Wood, but it also required a constant supply of nourishment, such as a Spirit-Nourishing Spring or freshly captured ghosts.

"They usually use us against their enemies, or to punish villagers who refuse to obey the rules and offer tribute. In addition, next spring they plan to bring us into Peach Blossom Valley and attack other sects in the mist zone," Li Yuanfeng sighed.

Clearly, he had participated in such things before.

"What is Peach Blossom Valley? Why would they attack other sects?" Chu Tianfeng asked casually.

He could understand using ghosts against enemies, though punishing disobedient villagers was somewhat excessive, and he looked down on such behavior.

Li Yuanfeng glanced at Chu Tianfeng and Xiyako. "The Peach Blossom Valley secret realm is in Peach Blossom Town, An City, in Shaan Province. The spiritual energy there is extremely abundant, and there are many earthly marvels. They want to bring us in so they can rob the other sects."

"Oh? There’s such a good thing?" Chu Tianfeng instantly perked up. "When exactly does this secret realm open, and how does one get in?"

He was troubled by a lack of cultivation resources and by his slow progress. A secret realm rich in spiritual treasures like Peach Blossom Valley was naturally not to be missed.

"The secret realm opens once every thirty years. Each time it opens on the second day of the second lunar month, when the dragon raises its head, and remains open for three months. Warriors from the various sects enter through martial contests and selection, then seek out their own opportunities," Li Yuanfeng reported truthfully.

"Excellent!" Chu Tianfeng rapidly formed seals with both hands, and the Soul-Summoning Banner whooshed over to Li Yuanfeng’s head.

He had already held the Heavenly Master Sect in low regard, and with Li Yuanfeng having fought Xiyako earlier in such vicious and ruthless fashion, he had long wanted to eliminate him.

"You..." Li Yuanfeng had only enough time to say one word before he was drawn into the Soul-Summoning Banner.

Watching the banner flutter in the air, Xiyako frowned slightly.

"Why do you still keep such a thing?" she asked, a trace of disgust flashing in her eyes.

"There is no good or evil in an object; the key lies in who uses it," Chu Tianfeng said unhurriedly as he put the banner away. "By the way, how did you end up colliding with him?"

Xiyako curled her lip, seeming not to agree with him. "After I woke up, I wanted to find you. Who would have thought that after I had barely gone far, I would run into this fellow? I didn’t want to fight him at first, but he was relentless, and even said he wanted to eat me."

Chu Tianfeng chuckled. "Greed really does ruin people. Still, that’s fine. If he had not run into you, I wouldn’t have been able to catch him, and I never would have learned about the Peach Blossom Valley secret realm. Haha!"

Xiyako could not stand Chu Tianfeng’s smug expression and rolled her eyes at him, ignoring him.

Afterward, the one living person and one ghost returned to the original spot. Chu Tianfeng asked Xiyako to help protect him while he took out spirit stones and cultivated by absorbing their energy.

Cultivating with spirit stones was indeed different; Chu Tianfeng advanced at astonishing speed. By the third watch that night, after consuming more than twenty spirit stones and four Foundation-Nourishing Pills, he had successfully broken through to the sixth level of the Qi Refinement stage.

After cultivating the Five Elements Formula, his true essence was indeed domineering, but the side effects were not small either. Its consumption of resources was equally terrifying, nearly four or five times that of ordinary techniques.

The next day, Chu Tianfeng ended his cultivation early. After a brief wash, he ate something simple and left the valley to search everywhere for spirit herbs.

It had to be said that the spirit herbs in the Li family world were truly abundant; almost every mountain yielded one or two.

In just half a day, Chu Tianfeng collected four or five spirit herbs, and his heart was bursting with joy.

At noon, Chu Tianfeng caught a wild rabbit and ran to a mountainside. He set up a fire, sprinkled on all kinds of seasonings, and roasted the rabbit until it sizzled.

However, just as the rabbit finished roasting and he had not yet taken a bite, he saw three figures rushing toward him from afar at great speed.

All three wore gray Taoist robes, clearly from the same sect.

Moreover, two of them were old acquaintances of Chu Tianfeng: one was Yu Xianze, and the other Tong Hanwen. The third, needless to say, was also from the Heavenly Master Sect.

Chu Tianfeng frowned slightly. If this had been before last night, he would have turned and run without hesitation.

But now it was different. He did not think he needed to flee.

Still, killing people before a meal did seem rather eerie.

In moments, Yu Xianze and the others had charged right up to him.

"Haha! Let’s see where you run this time!" Yu Xianze said, seeing the frown on Chu Tianfeng’s face and mistaking it for fear.

"If I were you, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to laugh," Chu Tianfeng said with a shrug, rising leisurely to his feet.

He swept his divine sense over the other middle-aged man and found that his cultivation was slightly higher than Tong Hanwen’s, at the late stage of the Force Refinement realm.

"Hahahaha!" Yu Xianze laughed even more heartily. "I told you last night—you won’t escape!"