Zhanxian

Chapter 148 – Obtaining Clues

Within the Palace Hall, Mo Qian and her disciples were still cultivating. Because they were cultivating within the palace hall which was rich in spirit power, their cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds in a short time.

The five JieDan stage experts were completely under Yang Chen’s control, only Mo Qian, their master, was left but she was also completely immersed in cultivation after Yang Chen’s simple hypnosis.

Although her cultivation was at the YuanYing stage, she was still a vegetable. This was a great waste. While Yang Chen was still unable to order Mo Qian around, like her disciples, a few simple attack moves were still possible.

The thought of a sudden YuanYing stage expert mounting a sneak attack while the enemy was facing an attack from the Profound Five Women Spell, with the YuanYing expert coming without any warning and without leaving any clues really made him excited, this was definitely be the best way of catching other people off guard.

Even if Mo Qian had a cultivation at the YuanYing stage, because she had lost her mind, a simple hypnosis could be easily accomplished.

Naturally, Yang Chen could not control Mo Qian directly with his spiritual awareness, but he could issue a few simple commands to her to act accordingly. Simple commands like attacking, fleeing, mounting a sneak attack, concealing or cultivation were not very difficult.

Since it was convenient like this, Yang Chen still had to spend one whole day to drill all of these things firmly into the depths of Mo Qian’s spiritual awareness and practice it to become familiar, which made her think Yang Chen was like her owner.

After doing all of this, Yang Chen added even more layers of security on top of it. The appearances of Mo Qian and her disciples still hadn’t been changed however, so they couldn’t be used rashly. For the time being, Yang Chen decided to put veils on their faces, but this was not a long term solution. Afterwards, when he had the time, he would change their appearances too.

In this kind of environment, She Kui and Xie Sha were like dragons who had returned to the sea or like tigers who had come back to their mountains and wished to indulge in pleasure, completely forgetting their sense of duty. But they also knew the severity of the situation and were only taking a stroll in the vicinity of this region, not delaying the major matter regarding Yang Chen in the least.

The demon wolf also didn’t make Yang Chen wait for long. After one day, the demon wolf appeared with another demon beast. Without the Appearance Transforming Secrets, the demon wolf definitely looked like a fierce monster, while the other demon beast was a huge spider.

“My friend’s large spider web covers both the sky and the ground, it’s not there to injure anyone, only to obtain information of people’s activities in the surroundings.”

The demon wolf explained in place of the spider woman, as if also explaining indirectly why the spider woman knew about the hunt.

This reason was indeed acceptable by Yang Chen and he believed that the spider woman may know something. Yang Chen was not stingy for the reward in the least, and in exchange for the information he directly pulled out a thousand year ginseng from the medicine garden and stretching out his hand in front of her, he said:

“Tell me everything that you know and if it is true, this will be yours!”

A thousand year old ginseng was the greatest enticement for the spider woman, who was at the JieDan stage. Even the demon wolf on the side started drooling upon seeing this, but he knew that this was not for him. Earlier their group had surrounded and tried to kill Yang Chen, so leaving the demon wolf alive was already a great favour for him, not to mention that Yang Chen had also given him the qiankun pouches of his companions, so he did not have much hope regarding this ginseng.

Since his demon soul was in Yang Chen’s hand, the demon wolf did not dare to play any tricks. These two days he had been searching for the spider woman to appear, but the spider woman didn’t want to come in contact with Yang Chen, especially after hearing that Yang Chen had killed all of the JieDan experts who had attacked him together. But under the constant begging by the demon wolf, she finally agreed.

But after seeing the thousand year ginseng in Yang Chen’s hands, the spider woman did not have any misapprehensions and immediately started to narrate the events of that day.

Indeed, on that day a few people were hunting a female. The woman had received serious injuries and was fleeing in disarray, as if she had lost her sight, while, behind her, more than ten JieDan stage experts were chasing her. Because of her speed, they didn’t have the ability to overtake that her, however. After that woman had left the huge network of the spider woman, the spider woman did not know what had happened.

“Which direction did they come from?”

Yang Chen didn’t chatter with the spider woman much and directly asked the question he was most interested in.

“From that side.”

The spider woman’s memory was very good, and moreover with the record of the tears in the spiderweb at that time it was absolutely precise.

The direction in which they had passed through precisely lead to the location where Gao Yue was found. Yang Chen again asked about the clothes of that woman at that time, which finally made him sure that this woman was Gao Yue.

“Who was chasing her?”

Forcefully repressing his anger, Yang Chen asked about the identity of the killers.

“That was not very clear, but among them there was someone I’ve seen before.”

The spider woman honestly answered, but her tone was slightly sluggish, as if she was deliberately keeping Yang Chen in suspense. Her gaze also frequently swept over the thousand year ginseng in Yang Chen’s hands.

Yang Chen sensed the situation of the spider woman and without any hesitation he threw the ginseng towards her. As long as he knew the identity of the culprit, what was one ginseng? He could even give her all of the ginsengs he had in the medicine garden.

“So who was he?”

After throwing over the ginseng, Yang Chen subsequently asked.

“He is a person who has been terrorizing everyone at the Greater Mountains for a long time, a peak JieDan stage expert, who is only one step away from the YuanYing stage.”

The spider woman was unable to contain her joy over holding the ginseng and without creating any suspense she directly said:

“I have seen him twice, both times he was doing some kind of shady business.”

“So who is he!”

Yang Chen was interested in his identity, not in his cultivation or his actions.

“He is a guard of some young master.”

The spider woman continued after thinking for a moment:

“I don’t know his name, but he has a long scar on his face, which is said to be deliberately left to make him appear fierce. This person’s cultivation is very high. When I was hiding, I had personally seen him heavily striking that woman once.

“What young master?”

Yang Chen immediately asked. On the surface he was calm, but in his heart, he had already given the death penalty to that scar faced man.

“That young master is the son of the clan chief of some Hao Manor, so his influence is too great. As long as he takes fancy to something, he would forcefully take it.”

Whether the spider woman’s memory was bad or whether she hadn’t come in much contact with it, the things she had told were not complete:

“But those people frequently move around in the vicinity of the Devil Flame Valley, over there half of the murders or robberies are committed by them. The usuals at the Greater Mountain know how to defend against these people, but if there is some newcomer, he will certainly fell into their evil schemes.

“Doesn’t the auction house there have some rules, like they never leak the identity of a seller or buyer? How can these people know?”

Although the spider woman did not tell anything in much detail, Yang Chen had already understood the situation completely. These clues had indeed been greatly useful.

“I have never gone to the auction house.”

The spider woman mocked herself:

“I also don’t have anything worth auctioning.”

Yang Chen was completely satisfied with this information. Only the name of that Hao something manor was unknown to him, but finding it would be very easy. He could casually ask anyone over there to learn it. After Yang Chen would catch the scarred man, even he would honestly spit out the truth.

After obtaining the thousand year ginseng, the spider woman had left happily. But since the demon wolf had tried to kill Yang Chen, he had no other option but to serve as a guide for him. Yang Chen had however promised him that, after reaching the Devil Flame Valley, he would set him free.

Even if he was unwilling, the demon wolf had no other option since his demon soul was in Yang Chen’s hands. Yang Chen could kill him anytime he wished, so he didn’t dare to utter even half a complaint against him and obediently led Yang Chen to the Devil Flame Valley.

On the following day, Yang Chen appeared with a low profile appearance and was not showing off. Even so, with his strength of the initial Foundation stage, he still caught the attention of passersby.

But as soon as they acted with evil intentions, they had assured their doom. Along the journey, Yang Chen had never revealed the existence of She Kui and Xie Sha and just settled everything with the Blood Phantom Vine.

The demon wolf’s heart was even more alarmed during the whole journey, especially when people with an even more profound cultivation than his wanted to deal with Yang Chen. If Yang Chen died, then he would also die, as the lives of both of them were connected. But since he had no other alternative, in the beginning, the demon wolf also went out, sometimes persuading them with kind words, sometimes begging, just with the hope that the enemy would let them off.

Most of them would let these two go after his acts. But in the cases when others attacked, the demon wolf discovered that Yang Chen had something like the blood phantom vine on his body and could summon the blood phantom vine anytime and anywhere, handling one or two JieDan experts was a simple matter.

Despite the fact that anyone would be horrified upon seeing the dried up corpses left behind after the blood phantom vine had absorbed the blood, the demon wolf had gotten used to it after seeing too many of them. He had moreover discovered that this amiable looking person at his side was simply a god of massacre. As long as anyone had the slightest intention to kill him, the only result would be that they would immediately die, there was just no other option.

Especially after hearing Yang Chen’s catchphrase: ‘For every grievance someone is responsible, for every debt there is a debtor’, he also realized one more thing. When Yang Chen would kill anyone, he would always say this, as if it had become his habit. Even when there was not enough time to say it before killing them, he would still say it to them after they had died. He would never forget to say it.

Since the demon wolf still didn’t know Yang Chen’s name, he had set a nickname for him in his heart. That nickname was ‘for every debt there is debtor’, although it was too long, the demon wolf thought it was the closest possible name for him.

After one month, Yang Chen finally arrived at the Devil Flame Valley. He also complied with his promise and returned the demon soul of the demon wolf to him and allowed him to leave. He himself, entered the Devil Flame Valley without any assistance.

Although it had ‘valley’ in its name, the Devil Flame Valley was a hundred times larger than the Cut Cloud Valley. It had the biggest market in the Greater Mountains. Just the number of frequently appearing cultivators alone were already over ten thousand. Every kind of shop could be found there, everything one could think of was here, furthermore the biggest auction house was also there.

While on the journey there, when he was getting rid of people with devious plans, he understood one thing: The attack on Gao Yue was done by the people of the Hao Yi Manor. Many people knew their notorious reputation and nobody would stand in for them to hide the truth.

But he was still not clear about how Gao Yue’s identity was leaked from the auction house. Yang Chen had already became suspicious that the auction house was the main culprit, but since there was no proof, he couldn’t be certain.

But Yang Chen did not want simple retaliation, he still had to find all of the people who were involved in the attack on Gao Yue and make them pay the price. Since they had dared to lay their hands on his master, even someone from the heavens wouldn’t be able to save them.

He found an inn to stay first and then decided to not come out until the next auction. His plan was simple: he would go to the auction and see if he could draw the attention of some people. At that time he could ascertain the auction house’s role based on whether someone looked for him or not.

The extent of the Devil Flame Valley was very large, thus there were many cultivators. But what Yang Chen was seeing was that a majority of the people had a cultivation at the JieDan stage. Apparently the way of doing anything they wanted to also enticed peak JieDan experts. Therefore Yang Chen could see a lot of peak JieDan stage cultivators.

Occasionally Yang Chen would see some YuanYing stage experts, who all just flashed through his vision and then couldn’t be seen anymore. There were not a lot of Foundation stage cultivators in the Greater Mountains. He could see some servants in the city, but the Foundation stage was considered as the younger generation, so they could only enter these shops through the backdoor. After all, everyone was busy entertaining customers there and they couldn’t let a JieDan expert feel wronged.

Yang Chen was very lucky, after he had spent just ten days there, there was news of a large auction taking place soon. This was also one of the customs of the Greater Mountains: every month there would be at least one auction.

The Greater Mountains were a great place to attack the YuanYing stage bottleneck, but there were not many spirit veins here, so if cultivators wanted to cultivate, they could only rely on absorbing the spirit power within spirit stones. Thus the requirement of spirit stones there was very large.

Similarly, the Greater Mountains was rich in natural resources, moreover the quality was also not very bad. Usually, as long as they could find some precious things, cultivators would not be stingy in spending spirit stones to buy it. Moreover the best way to maximize profit was precisely the auction house.

Although common things could be bought at the shops, genuine treasures could only be found in auctions.

Since everyone in the Greater Mountain knew how dangerous this region was, including the organizer of the auction, the auction house only recognized spirit stones and not the reputation of any person. Moreover, the people entering the auction could not see each other. As for who received the treasure, this was kept a secret. This guarantee was the principle of continuous transactions.

But in Yang Chen’s eyes, this rule had already been broken by someone in the auction. Gao Yue being attacked by people clearly showed this point. Following that, Yang Chen just wanted to ascertain this point.

Finally, on the opening day of the auction, Yang Chen entered the public lobby of the auction house in a cloak he had bought in advance to hide his identity. Following the participants of the auction, he reached the door of the auction hall.

The cloak which hid his appearance also blocked all of spiritual awareness probes around him and it also made everyone appear the same, so nobody could tell any difference. The only thing capable of differentiating the buyer’s identity was the license plate which was given at the gate of the auction.

Nine hundred seventeen. That was the number which Yang Chen had received.