Chapter 126 - 94: Traces of Profound Fire, Facing the Scattering Tribulation

BANG!

Xu Guang crushed the man’s chest with a single stomp.

"You came to kill a thief. If I let you leave alive, wouldn’t that make me the real thief?" Xu Guang thought.

Xu Guang skillfully performed Blood Refining and patted the man down, finding various Hidden Weapons, poison, a wax-sealed secret letter, and a delicate porcelain bottle.

With the Cloud Serpent around, Xu Guang was now immune to a hundred poisons. He no longer needed to be so tense when looting a corpse, allowing him to work very quickly.

After taking the items, he leaped into the air, pulled his Big Spear from the tree, and floated away.

Half an hour after his departure.

A middle-aged man darted out from the distant woods. Soon, he discovered the corpse of the man in black inside a tree hollow and carefully observed the abnormalities on the body.

A flash of understanding crossed his eyes, accompanied by a touch of solemnity.

"Did someone else intervene? Could others have learned about the Profound Fire?" he wondered.

The middle-aged man’s expression soured. At the thought of the organization’s punishment, a hint of fear flickered in his eyes.

He memorized the state of the corpse and was about to get up and leave when a sudden bout of dizziness hit him.

"You have thirty breaths. Tell me something interesting, and I might spare your life," an icy voice suddenly rang out from behind him.

"Who’s there?!" Without even turning his head, the middle-aged man hurled a volley of Darts. Simultaneously, he scattered a handful of lime powder into the air to obscure his opponent’s vision.

Seeing the Poison Darts again, Xu Guang couldn’t help but feel a surge of irritation. Who had he offended to be greeted with Darts every single time?

These men were definitely not good people. So much for catching righteous thieves—they were clearly thieves themselves, carrying so many Poison Darts and throwing lime powder. What underhanded tactics!

With a cold harrumph, he reached into his robes, pulled out a Flying Dragon Dart, and flicked his wrist!

SQUELCH!

The sound of the Dart piercing flesh was strangely melodic.

When the lime powder finally settled, the middle-aged man was leaning against a rock. He clutched his chest with an agonized expression, his limbs writhing on the ground.

"Tell me, who exactly are you people?" Xu Guang asked.

"Give me the antidote! I need the antidote!" the middle-aged man gasped, enduring unimaginable agony as he kneeled on the ground, repeating his plea.

"Tell me!"

"It’s... it’s the Profound Fire! Lin Xiu knows of a place in Yuan Mountain where Profound Fire is hidden. We want the Profound Fire!"

"Who are you?"

"The Bifeng Group! The outside world calls us the Bifeng Group!"

The middle-aged man spoke at breakneck speed, seemingly willing to confess everything. The moment he finished, he immediately began begging for the antidote again.

Xu Guang narrowed his eyes, wondering how much of the man’s words were true. This group was clearly strictly trained. Even under torture, whatever they said was likely only one part truth and nine parts lie.

He was just about to continue his interrogation when the middle-aged man suddenly started foaming at the mouth and unexpectedly breathed his last.

Speechless, Xu Guang cast a surprised glance at the Cloud Serpent slithering between his palms, as if it were taking credit for the kill.

"The venom of this little guy is truly potent," he thought.

Ignoring the poison on the middle-aged man, he crouched down, cut open the body, and performed Blood Refining while it was still warm.

A Two Viscera and a Three Viscera Realm member of the Bifeng Group provided Xu Guang with about three hundred drops of Essence Blood. Compared to the spoils he reaped when fighting his way out of Feiyun City that day, it seemed somewhat insignificant.

However, he didn’t complain. After finishing the Blood Refining and looting the corpses, he found a nice scenic spot where wild beasts could easily stumble upon them and buried the two men.

Along the way back, he pondered the middle-aged man’s dying words and seemed to figure a few things out. The Bifeng Group must be the "righteous thieves" Yue Liuchuan had mentioned, while the white-haired youth and his gang were likely the true Righteous Faction. The thieves wanted to smear the Righteous Faction’s name, making it impossible for them to stay in Yuan City and forcing them to search for the Profound Fire.

"This is the scheming of the Martial World," he mused.

He just hoped the Bifeng Group wouldn’t try to pull their righteous thief act on him.

"And what exactly is this Profound Fire?"

Upon returning to Yixuan Manor, Xu Guang didn’t act stubbornly. Instead, he went to the Inner City to rent a courtyard and had Wang Ming and Xu Chun take the disciples there.

Yuan City was different from Feiyun City; there were no canals inside the city. Ji Xiaolu couldn’t stray too far from the Wei River, so she could only stay at Yixuan Manor.

Publicly, he announced that he was going to the Inner City to study for a period of time, but in reality, their family of three remained at the manor.

He was about to enter secluded cultivation to practice Dissipating Skill and undergo the Scattering Tribulation!

Practicing a Cultivation Technique inevitably affected the body. For example, those who practiced the Golden Willow Skill year-round would unconsciously exhibit certain traces in their movements, and leaf-like marks would appear on their waists and legs.

The so-called Dissipating Skill was the process of completely erasing all the marks left by the Cultivation Technique one practiced, while simultaneously exhausting all the Power within the skin, flesh, bones, and viscera without disturbing the meridians.

Naturally, an ordinary person would be reduced to a cripple, as it caused immense damage to the body.

But Xu Guang had the "Nine Calamities Demon-Vanquishing Chaotic Profound Skill". This Profound Skill was incredibly abstruse. After researching the Scattering Tribulation recently, he had finally figured out the knack of it.

At the exact moment his Power was fully dissipated, he would use a massive amount of Essence Blood to wash over his body. This would preserve his body’s vitality to the greatest extent possible while seeking survival amid danger to condense the Blood Seal!

Behind Yixuan Manor, there was a small cliff with a waterside pavilion at the bottom. The family of three had been living here during this time.

The Ghostly Roar acted as their Protector, and there were small fish in the water serving as its eyes and ears.

"Lu, I’ll have to trouble you for a while. Take good care of Zhan’Er and wait for me to come out of seclusion," Xu Guang said.

Right before entering secluded cultivation, it was essential to properly comfort one’s wife.

Ji Xiaolu nodded, raising her arm and clenching her fist. "Good luck, Husband!"

Xu Guang gave a wicked smirk. "You picked that up pretty quickly."

"Hehe."

Being an old married couple, there was no need for excessive pleasantries. Xu Guang turned and walked into the water cave he had prepared beforehand.

He had dug out this water cave using a tamed Exotic Beast, and no one besides Ji Xiaolu knew of its existence. Half of the cave’s floor was covered in water, while the other half was dry land. Placed inside were some yellowing books and the Cultivation Technique Secret Manuals he had looted and purchased over the years.