Chapter 107 - 79 : The Aftermath (2)

Chapter 107: Chapter 79 : The Aftermath (2)

The figure placed a small pouch on the table.

"Enough."

The cultivator looked at the pouch but didn’t reach for it immediately.

The hooded figure’s voice remained calm.

"Before you take it, understand this. If the information along with the location gave us is false, the payment will be the least of your concerns."

A faint pressure filled the room. It lasted only a moment, but the cultivator’s body stiffened beneath it. His breath caught, and cold sweat appeared along his back.

"I swear it’s true."

The pressure vanished.

The pouch remained on the table. The cultivator opened it and glanced inside. His eyes widened slightly.

Spirit stones.

It wouldn’t replace the bounty he had lost, but it was still enough to make the journey worthwhile. The bitterness of returning empty-handed had already begun to fade. With this money, he could gather more cultivation resources, perhaps even find a better cultivation manual and prepare properly for his breakthrough to Qi-Refining realm, that had always seemed just out of reach.

The bounty may have slipped away, but this trip might still turn into an opportunity for his cultivation.

He closed the pouch.

"Thank you."

"You cam leave."

The cultivator stood and tucked the pouch away. He glanced once toward the covered figure, but there was nothing to read there. He turned and walked back through the corridor.

Behind him, the door closed.

The hooded figure remained seated beside the candle.

A moment later, another person emerged from the darkness at the side of the room.

"The information?"

The figure at the table stood up and pushed his chair aside. "Have someone check the location he gave us. Confirm whether the account is true before anything is passed on."

"And if it isn’t?"

The hooded figure was silent for a moment.

"Then deal with him."

"And if it is?"

"Send the information onward."

The other person nodded, before stepping backwards into the darkness.

By the time the bodies were found along the road to Wailing Mountain, the survivor’s account was no longer just a story told in a dark room. The remains matched his description, and the matter was quickly settled. What had happened there was real, and that made the information worth passing on. Before long, the news had begun to move through the nearby city and the settlements around it, carried by cultivators, merchants, and anyone else with a reason to trade in information.

Blood Demon was hardly an unfamiliar name in the region. Ever since the bounty was posted, information concerning the demonic cultivator had become a favorite subject in the quieter conversations between cultivators.

One hundred and fifty spirit stones was enough to make people pay attention, and every new detail about the bounty seemed to find its way into another conversation. Yet there had always been something difficult to make sense of.

The fact that the groups which had gone after Ethan, following the information available to them, but only to disappear from the roads without anyone knowing what had happened. With no one returning to explain, it was easy enough to blame the dangers of the wilderness or assume they had simply met some other misfortune.

But now, with new information beginning to circulate, some of those old questions were starting to surface again.

The teahouse near the eastern market was already busy by late afternoon. Cultivators occupied most of the tables along the open hall, some resting after a journey, others passing time over tea while the sounds of the market drifted in through the open windows. At one table near the back, three cultivators had been arguing over the price of spirit beast materials when the youngest among them finally shook his head.

"Two spirit stones for a single horn? That’s robbery."

The man across from him snorted. "Then go hunt the beast yourself."

"I would if you weren’t charging me for everything else."

"Because everything else costs money."

The third cultivator, who had been quietly drinking his tea, finally lowered his cup.

"You two have been arguing over the same three spirit stones for half an hour."

The younger man gave him an annoyed look.

"And you have a better use for them?"

"Yes. Drinking my tea."

The other two laughed, and the argument eased.

For a while, they returned to the market and the rising price of materials. Then the conversation drifted toward the roads outside the city, and from there to the recent movements of cultivators in the region.

"I heard Azure Cloud Sect has been sending more people toward the western routes," the older man said.

"Because of the trouble with the Crimson Purge Sect?"

"That’s the word going around."

The younger cultivator frowned. "I thought they were waiting for reinforcements from the Lunar Echo Territory."

"They are. But with the Crimson Purge Sect pressing them, I doubt they’ll have much choice but to move before the reinforcements arrive."

He took another sip of tea.

"Besides, it’s not just the Azure Cloud Sect. The other sects around here have been getting restless lately too. I can’t quite explain it, but I can’t shake the feeling that something else is moving beneath all of this. Like there’s a storm building somewhere, and we’re only starting to feel the wind."

The youngest of them leaned back in his chair.

"Maybe you’re reading too much into it. Sects have their own affairs to deal with. Whatever is coming, it’ll come. Doesn’t mean we need to lose sleep over it."

"Maybe you’re right. Probably nothing."

The older cultivator glanced toward the crowded hall.

"Though there is something else people have been talking about."

"There’s always something."

"No. This one feels different."

The younger man looked over.

"Which one?"

The older cultivator seemed to think for a moment.

"That bounty."

"The demonic cultivator?"

"Which demonic cultivator?"

The older man gave him a look.

"The one with the highest bounty."

The younger cultivator frowned, then remembered.

"Blood Demon?"

"That’s the one."

The name settled naturally into the conversation.

The youngest cultivator rubbed his chin.

"I’ve heard about him. The blood techniques?"

"That’s what he’s known for."

"Any idea what kind?"

"Nothing specific. The notice only says he’s a demonic cultivator who uses blood techniques."

The older cultivator waved a hand.

"Most of what people know about him ends there."

He reached for his cup, then paused.

"But that one has been bothering me."

The other two looked at him.

"What?"

"How long has it been now?"

"Since the bounty was posted?"

"Yeah."

The older man shrugged. "Nearly two weeks."

"And nobody’s claimed it?"

"Not yet."

The youngest cultivator frowned. "That doesn’t make much sense."

"Why not?"

"One hundred and fifty spirit stones." He tapped a finger against the table. "People don’t usually leave a bounty like that sitting around. With that kind of reward, half the rogue cultivators in the region would be willing to take the risk."

The older man slowly lowered his cup.

"People have been trying."

"Exactly. And that’s the strange part."

He leaned forward slightly.

"They go after him, and then nothing. No one comes back with the reward. No one comes back with much of anything."

"Maybe they left the region."

"All of them?"

The question hung there for a moment.

The older cultivator glanced toward the open window, watching the movement of people outside.

"Maybe. But how many cultivators take a bounty like that and then simply disappear?"

The younger man shrugged. "Could still be coincidence."

"Maybe."

The older cultivator turned back to the table, his fingers resting against his cup.

"But after this many people? I’m starting to think there’s more to that bounty than we’re hearing."

The youngest cultivator studied him for a moment. Then he and the other man exchanged a brief look.

"I know that look," the younger cultivator said. "Don’t tell me you’re actually thinking about taking it."

The older man laughed.

"I was only wondering whether someone else would."

"That’s how it starts with you. You get curious, then suddenly you’re involved."

The older man shook his head. "I’m not that reckless."

The younger cultivator smiled.

"With one hundred and fifty spirit stones, someone will be."

"That’s what worries me."

Before anyone could answer, a cultivator at the neighboring table glanced over. Their conversation had grown louder without them noticing, especially once the bounty came up.

"You three are talking about Blood Demon?"

The older man looked over. "You have been listening to us?"

"Hard not to, with the way you were talking."

The newcomer pulled his chair a little closer.

"I heard something yesterday."

The younger cultivator raised an eyebrow. "What?"

The man glanced around before lowering his voice.

"Apparently, someone from one of the groups that went after Blood Demon came back with information."

The three exchanged glances.

"Someone survived?"

The newcomer nodded.

"One survivor."

"What kind of information did he come back with?"

The man took a sip of his tea.

"Enough to make people start taking that bounty a little more seriously."