Chapter 259 - 258: A Part of the Plan

Chapter 259: Chapter 258: A Part of the Plan

WHOOSH!

With their choice made, the oppressive aura crushing the two of them dissipated completely.

"GASP! GASP!—"

The two men gasped for breath, desperate to inhale every last wisp of air before them.

As the pressure on their bodies vanished, their internal energies began to stir. Their Qi and Blood started to circulate, and their torn skin and shattered bones slowly began to mend.

But even with their freedom restored, they didn’t dare harbor the slightest thought of attacking the young man before them.

"If you’ve had enough rest, start talking."

Seeing the two men get to their feet and catch their breath, Wu Chen spoke up. "I don’t have time to waste here."

His indifferent voice made both men shudder. The one with the higher cultivation level blurted out:

"Refining the Hundred Life Pill! The Blood Palace is abducting commoners to refine the Hundred Life Pill!"

"The Hundred Life Pill?"

Wu Chen frowned. "What’s this pill for?"

The demonic cultivator with the slightly lower cultivation level, knowing he had to contribute if he wanted to live, quickly jumped in.

"My lord, consuming this pill can extend one’s life by twenty years! That’s why it’s called the Hundred Life Pill!"

’Wouldn’t calling it a Lifespan Extension Pill be much easier to understand?’

Wu Chen couldn’t be bothered to make a snide comment. He did, however, spot an issue. He raised an eyebrow and asked,

"Can pills like this even be refined from ordinary people with no cultivation? Shouldn’t the pill be better the higher the person’s cultivation level is?"

When the young man asked another question, the lower-level demonic cultivator quickly bowed and answered,

"In reply to your question, my lord, the pills refined from a Martial Artist with a cultivation base would naturally be better, but the risk of capturing them is high!"

"It’s only safe to abduct commoners, and they don’t dare to fight back!"

"..."

Wu Chen was speechless for a moment. It made too much sense.

’And when it comes to pills, as long as you have enough quantity, a low cultivation level doesn’t matter!’

"Where does the Blood Palace refine these pills?" The young man’s expression was grim. He suppressed the violent urge in his heart to crush the two men before him and continued his questioning.

"Well..."

The two demonic cultivators faltered, hesitation clear on their faces.

"What? You don’t want to say?"

Wu Chen slowly released his aura. A bone-chilling cold once again enveloped the two of them. Their torn flesh, which had just stopped bleeding, started to seep blood anew.

"My lord, it’s not that we’re unwilling to speak!"

As a sharp pain shot through his flesh, the demonic cultivator hastily explained,

"After we implant the mark and collect these people’s flesh and blood, we have no idea who we hand it over to, or where the pills are refined."

"Even if we wanted to tell you, we couldn’t!"

The two demonic cultivators complained endlessly, quickly rolling up their sleeves to reveal an inch-long, crimson Blood Seal on their wrists, desperate to prove they weren’t lying.

Wu Chen glanced down. The Blood Seals on the men’s wrists were a much deeper color than the marks he had seen on Sun Yuting and the beggars.

"In that case, you two..."

Wu Chen had already asked everything he wanted to. He waved his hand impatiently. "Get lost."

Hearing Wu Chen’s indifferent tone, the two demonic cultivators were stunned.

’He’s letting us go?’

’Just like that?’

They subconsciously touched their necks. They had expected him to raise a hand and lop off their heads.

But they never imagined the young man would actually let them go!

"What?"

Wu Chen looked at the two men, still frozen in place. "You don’t want to get lost? So you’d rather die, then?"

"You jest, my lord! We’ll get lost right away!"

Feeling his indifferent gaze on them, the two men shrank back. Not daring to linger a moment longer, they leaped across the nearby river and fled as if on wings. In just over a dozen breaths, they were nothing but blurry silhouettes in the distance.

"You really let them go?"

Sun Yuting watched their shadows recede into the night, her expression full of surprise.

She had thought Wu Chen would casually kill them after getting the information he needed.

They were from the Blood Palace, after all. There was no need to be ethical with their kind.

Even though she didn’t understand, she was sure Wu Chen had his reasons.

Instead of answering her, Wu Chen asked a question of his own. "Do you believe their story about refining the Hundred Life Pill?"

Sun Yuting shook her head. "I can’t say I disbelieve it. It’s certainly something they’re capable of doing."

But then her eyes lit up. "You mean you didn’t believe their story at all? Not a single word? And you let them go so that..."

Sun Yuting leaned in close to him and whispered, "You could follow them?!"

He looked at the delicate face that drew close to his in the moonlight, and at her cautious, almost girlish mannerisms, as if she were afraid of being overheard.

"Exactly."

Wu Chen nodded and smiled. "From start to finish, I never expected them to tell the truth. I never planned on believing a word they said."

"Coaxing them, threatening them, and then letting them go..."

"It was all part of my plan."

Sun Yuting nodded enthusiastically and gave him a thumbs-up. "Definitely! This is way more useful than killing them!"

"And those two are quite strong, so they must know a lot. They just weren’t telling us the truth."

"Even if, like they said, they’re being controlled by the Blood Palace and are in a daze, not knowing who they hand the refined flesh and blood over to... if we follow them secretly and pull on that thread, we’ll eventually uncover what the Blood Palace is plotting!"

"But..."

Sun Yuting’s tone changed as she quickly found a flaw in Wu Chen’s plan.

She glanced at the beggars, still standing motionlessly in a daze nearby, before her eyes finally settled on Wu Chen.

"We completely ruined their assignment. Would they really dare to go back and report? I’m afraid their contact won’t spare them!"

"So it’s very likely they’ll try everything to escape tonight and stay away from the Blood Palace for good. Won’t our lead go cold then?"

Wu Chen shook his head. "Silly. Did you forget they have Blood Palace marks on them?"

"I don’t have the ability to verify if those marks are real or fake. But let’s just assume they’re fake, that the two of them knew this day would come and just carved them on themselves. Let’s assume everything they said was just a pre-planned story to save their own skins."

"But from what I know of people who’ve struggled their way up in the Blood Palace, people accustomed to living on a knife’s edge, there’s no way they would ever leave it!"

"These men are only in their forties or fifties, and both are exceptionally talented. They certainly have ambitions of breaking through to the Leakless Realm. As long as they harbor even a sliver of that desire, they will never leave the Blood Palace!"

’The Blood Palace needs talented people like them. And likewise, people who have fought through countless life-or-death struggles to climb the ranks of the Blood Palace need its support to grow even stronger!’

Wu Chen had spent enough time in the Demon Suppression Bureau to become increasingly certain of this kind of judgment.

’For a Martial Artist from the jianghu with a clean record, joining the Demon Suppression Bureau and becoming a Captain is like reaching a safe harbor. The Blood Palace is the same for these demonic cultivators. Making them leave would be harder than killing them!’

"That... makes sense."

Sun Yuting was starting to understand Wu Chen’s reasoning. She looked at the blurry figures in the distant moonlight. "So, shall we follow them now?"

"No rush. They won’t get away."

Wu Chen wasn’t in a hurry. He first started going through the storage pouches he had taken from the two men.

They weren’t much different from other storage pouches. Each contained eight hundred to a thousand in silver banknotes, some pills, a small bell, and a Martial Arts Manual.

Wu Chen took out the bell and tossed it to Sun Yuting. "Take these beggars back. I’ll wait here for you."

Sun Yuting nodded at once. "Okay!"

Accompanied by the faint ringing of the bell, Sun Yuting led the group of beggars toward the village’s dilapidated temple.

Meanwhile, Wu Chen took out the Martial Arts Manual from the storage pouch.

"Blood and Flesh Cast Armor Body!"

Wu Chen’s gaze sharpened as he read the name of the martial art on the cover.

Just from the name alone, he knew this was no ordinary Martial Arts technique.