Chapter 298 - 276: News of Elder Li

Chapter 298: Chapter 276: News of Elder Li

The Spiritual Radiance Blessing had descended.

Beneath its transcendent perception, a scene sealed away in his memory surfaced.

It was a fleeting glimpse from many years ago.

It had happened in Nanshan Town, the very place that had once filled him with anxiety and fear.

At that time, a mine riot had broken out, and rivers of blood flowed. The rampaging miners on Forced Labor had stormed Nanshan Town, burning, killing, and looting.

He had not wanted to get involved, but the rioting miners had broken down his door.

After slaughtering those few miners, he noticed a commotion next door at the young lady’s house and went to help.

Then, he glanced toward Mingxin Hall. There, on the second floor, Elder Li stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a strange man.

It was a fleeting glimpse, yet it had left a deep impression.

After all, even before that, he had long harbored suspicions about Elder Li and had also discovered clues of another person’s existence.

And the face from that fleeting glimpse in his memory, when compared to the face of the middle-aged man before him...

Memory and reality merged perfectly.

Chu Mu took a deep breath, trying to suppress the inexplicable emotions stirring within him.

This man didn’t matter to him.

What mattered was Elder Li.

That Alchemy Inheritance, no matter how crude and simple, was a monumental favor in his eyes.

Without that Alchemy Inheritance, without Elder Li’s previous teachings, he had no idea how many more years he would have wasted!

Even though he had the Puppetry Skill inheritance back then, he had poured countless hours of effort into it just to shore up his foundations and enrich his knowledge of Artifact Refining. Only then had he been able to barely touch upon its principles just before he was about to reach Foundation Establishment.

And that was only because he had already opened a path to wealth through his Alchemy Skill. If he hadn’t, the days would have bled into one another, wasted away...

No matter how highly he thought of himself, and no matter how powerful the Spiritual Radiance Effect was, you can’t make bricks without straw. He would have never become the man he was today.

The most likely outcome would have been him still struggling, wasting his life away in some Marketplace.

"Elder..."

Chu Mu stepped forward. The man was slightly startled, then immediately stood up, positioning himself respectfully behind his stall. The appearance of a Foundation Establishment Powerhouse like Chu Mu had clearly made him extremely anxious.

His anxiety became even more palpable when he saw Chu Mu remain silent for a long moment, his gaze carrying an indecipherable meaning.

"Elder... you..."

The man spoke tentatively.

Only then did Chu Mu slowly speak. "Have you been to Nanshan Town?"

"Nanshan Town?"

The man froze. Then, as if he remembered something, his anxiety grew, tinged with a hint of fear.

Chu Mu’s eyes flickered. He waved his hand, and a projected image materialized in the air.

"Do you know this person?"

The image was lifelike, a perfect depiction of Elder Li from Chu Mu’s memory.

Upon seeing the image, the man’s pupils constricted. He immediately shook his head. "This junior doesn’t know him. Elder, you must have the wrong person..."

"You don’t know him?"

Chu Mu frowned, studying the man for a moment before asking again, "Do you remember me?"

The man paused, only then daring to raise his head and look at Chu Mu properly. His eyes were filled with confusion and bewilderment, but slowly, as if a memory was suddenly triggered...

The man’s eyes were now filled with nothing but sheer disbelief...

"You’re... you’re..."

The man began to ramble. "Elder, you are... Old Li, Elder Li’s..."

Chu Mu didn’t interrupt his incoherent speech, merely watching him in silence.

After a good while, the man seemed to have finally calmed his disbelieving heart.

Only then did Chu Mu speak again, his voice steady, yet laced with a touch of apprehension. "Where is Elder Li now?"

"Elder Li... back then, after we took that batch of Ore Materials from the mine and exchanged them for Spirit Stones, we parted ways."

"He said he was getting old and didn’t want to waste his life struggling in the Cultivation Immortal Realm anymore. He was planning to go back to his hometown, get married, have children, and pass on his legacy."

"He had mentioned it many times before..."

Chu Mu pressed, "And where is Elder Li’s hometown?"

"I heard him mention it once. I think it was Changzhou. I don’t know the specifics. After that, I didn’t dare stay around the Li Family’s territory, so I ran over here. We never contacted each other again..."

After speaking, the man looked at Chu Mu nervously. "Elder, are you looking for Elder Li?"

Chu Mu considered this, pondering for a moment before asking, "What was your relationship with Elder Li?"

"Reporting to Elder, this junior met Elder Li at Wangyue Pavilion. Elder Li had been working at Wangyue Pavilion for many years at that time..."

’Wangyue Pavilion...’

Chu Mu’s brow twitched. He had heard of this name before. In the Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World, besides the Clans and Sects, there were all sorts of other powers, large and small.

For example, there were chain stores, but their controllers were usually the local Clans. Only a very small number were founded by Loose Cultivators.

And Wangyue Pavilion was one such chain store.

Its founder was said to be a Fake Pill Cultivator who once held some renown in the Nanshan area.

However, as far as he knew, Wangyue Pavilion had sided with the Longevity Sect at the beginning of the war several years ago and had since vanished from the Nanshan area.

"Was Elder Li ever seriously injured, or did he have some kind of hidden illness?"

As his thoughts raced, Chu Mu asked another question.

"Seriously injured... a hidden illness?"

The man shook his head. "This junior wouldn’t know about that..."

Chu Mu nodded. His guess was probably correct.

Otherwise, with Elder Li’s Alchemy Skill, even if it was limited to just making Grain Avoidance Pills, he could have definitely lived a comfortable life in the Cultivation Immortal Realm. He would never have fallen so far as to be guarding a mere mortal iron ore mine.

The only explanation was that he had suffered a severe injury in the past, one that left him with a hidden ailment, preventing him from practicing the art of alchemy. That was why he had wasted away in the mortal world, and why he eventually became content to retreat from it all, to marry, have children, and pass on his legacy.

’Changzhou...’

Chu Mu silently repeated the name in his mind. After a long silence, he finally looked at the man before him. He waved his hand, and several bottles of Elixirs floated in front of the man.

The Elixirs were merely Tier One. He had almost forgotten which unlucky bastard’s Storage Talisman he had looted them from. They were meaningless to him, but for this man, whose cultivation was only at the Qi Cultivation Eleventh Layer, they were clearly extremely useful.

"Thank you for your gift, Elder! Thank you for your gift!"

The man was ecstatic. He took the Elixirs and bowed repeatedly.

"I do not wish for a second person to know of this matter."

Chu Mu’s voice was faint.

"Don’t you worry, Elder. This junior will not breathe a single word of this to anyone."

"This junior will swear a Dao Heart Oath right now!"

The man promised profusely.

Seeing this, Chu Mu said no more and turned to leave.

The man stood rooted to the spot, watching Chu Mu’s departing figure, unable to snap out of his daze for a long time.

It was only after Chu Mu had vanished from his sight that the man finally awoke from his trance.

"What kind of dog-shit luck does that Old Li have!"

The man cursed, his eyes filled with an envy and jealousy he could barely contain.

The mortal ant he wouldn’t have even glanced at back then had now become a lofty Foundation Establishment Cultivator...

And him? After all these years, he was still stuck, wasting away in the Qi Cultivation Realm.

’Chu Mu... Chu Mu... Could he be the same Chu Mu with a bounty on his head from the Blood Killing Pavilion and the Longevity Sect?’

The man muttered to himself, as if waking from a dream.

"What Chu Mu? Was that Elder just now named Chu Mu?"

At that moment, the stall owner next to him couldn’t help but try to get friendly.

"What? I didn’t say anything!"

The man waved his hands frantically. Disaster comes from a loose tongue; he didn’t dare say more.

"If that Elder just now was Chu Mu, then you, my friend, know a truly big shot!"

The neighboring stall owner ignored his denial and started talking on his own.

"What big shot?"

The man was curious. He wanted to ask, but was a little hesitant.

"You probably haven’t heard yet. The news just started spreading."

"That Chu Mu just took care of the Longevity Sect’s forward encampment—all eight of their Foundation Establishment Powerhouses!"

"What?"

The man’s eyes went wide, and he almost cried out in shock.

"Heh heh, the news just broke. I bet a lot of people still don’t know."

"They say that this Elder Chu, back when he was just a Qi Cultivation Realm Cultivator, was targeted by the Longevity Sect’s Zhao Hong and his son because of his Alchemy Skill."

"Then, who knows what happened, but he was cornered by Zhao Hong’s son, Zhao Tang, right outside the Longevity Sect’s Jade Emperor City."

"But this Elder Chu, he’s decisive and ruthless! He erupted on the spot, slaughtered several Longevity Sect disciples, and was then hunted by Zhao Tang and a bunch of other disciples. In the end, this Elder killed every last one of them!"

"After that, the Longevity Sect issued a wanted notice, and that Zhao Hong even placed a bounty at the Blood Killing Pavilion—a Foundation Establishment Pill! It caused a huge sensation at the time."

"But then, for all these years, there was no trace of this Elder Chu. It wasn’t until recently that he reappeared."

"And by then, this Elder’s cultivation was already at the Foundation Establishment Realm. He even had a mastery of Artifact Refining that had reached the Peak of Perfection, making him a Tier Two Upper Grade Artifact Refining Master."

"This time, Zhao Hong targeted the Elder again. He captured Elder Chu’s brother, planning to trap him."

"And you know the result."

"This Elder Chu gathered nearly twenty Foundation Establishment Elders and directly flattened the forward encampment where Zhao Hong was stationed."

"Including Zhao Hong, a total of eight Longevity Sect Foundation Establishment Cultivators were slaughtered..."

The man was dumbstruck and speechless. After a long while, he managed to stammer out a sentence, "The rumor spreading through the city before, about dozens of Foundation Establishment Powerhouses gathering at Qiuyue Tower... was it because of this?"

"What else did you think it was about?"

"An Artifact Refining Master... that Zhao Hong sure picked the wrong person to mess with. I hear this Elder Chu is incredibly generous, too..."

The stall owner chattered on endlessly, attracting a large crowd of Cultivators who gathered around to listen to his boasting.

And this scene was not an isolated incident in Jingmen City.

Among Cultivators, news often spread with unimaginable speed.

Especially for a major event like dozens of Foundation Establishment Cultivators gathering and eight of them falling...

Here on the front lines, it drew even more attention...

The name Chu Mu, and the title of Artifact Refining Master, spread rapidly throughout Jingmen City and across the front-line battlefield.

Chu Mu, however, paid little attention to all of this.

For him, this trip to the front lines had been a perfect success.

Xu Yuan was rescued, the threat of Zhao Hong was eliminated, and he had gathered all the Spirit Medicine he needed for his alchemy.

All that remained was to fulfill his promise and deliver the payment to his allies. Then he could return to the rear with peace of mind.

He now had a stable source of Contribution Points. There was no need for him to risk his life on the front lines for the Righteous Alliance like other Cultivators.

Of course, there was one more thing he needed to do.

He had to pull out the threat by its roots. He’d had one or two major troubles; he couldn’t allow a third.

Placing a bounty was something he could do as well.

And his financial resources were far more abundant!

「...」