Chapter 58: Reaction

"Whoa! I didn't expect to find something this good." The man held a translucent, blood-red crystal in his hand, his eyes filled with greed.

The spiritual item he held was called Blood Essence Stone. It was a spiritual substance formed when a demon beast died and was buried deep underground, condensing the essence of its entire bloodline. For cultivators who focused on physical cultivation or sword cultivation—those with high demands on the physical body—it was an extremely precious treasure.

And this man happened to be a physical cultivator.

However, this was a third-order Blood Essence Stone; its grade was too high, and he didn't dare to be greedy.

"Enough. There will be rewards from the sect once we return," the leading elder urged immediately.

The four moved swiftly, clearing out the warehouse in less than fifteen minutes. After sweeping his divine sense across the area to ensure nothing was left behind, the elder casually dropped an incense pill to mask their auras and led the three away composedly.

...

"The market formation has been broken!" The moment the formation shattered, Li Shiren snapped his head up and looked into the distance, his eyes filled with disbelief.

Li Shihua said with a look of panic, "How is this possible! Wasn't the person guarding the market a senior at the late stage of Foundation Establishment? It's impossible for these Qi Refinement rogue cultivators to break the formation in front of him."

"What if it wasn't just rogue cultivators?" Li Shiren said softly. While traveling, he had happened to encounter a group of cultivators dressed in black who were acting suspiciously.

At the time, however, he had wanted to reach Yunshang Tower as quickly as possible to prevent any misfortune from befalling his clansmen, so he had avoided causing trouble.

Thinking back now, it wasn't hard to guess that this attack on the market was a premeditated move by a certain power, and that they had even dispatched Foundation Establishment cultivators.

"The market is unsafe now. Should we leave while we can?" Li Shihua asked anxiously.

Li Shiren thought for a moment and shook his head in refusal. "Let's wait a bit longer. Leaving now would be too conspicuous. Besides, the Yuanming Sect should have realized what happened by now. If they send people and see our family fleeing, they might impose some punishment."

With the market torn to pieces and the stationed cultivators likely fallen, the Yuanming Sect must have received news and would be sending people toward the market.

Just then, four streaks of spiritual light suddenly flew across the sky not far away. Li Shiren thought to himself, *As expected, there really were Foundation Establishment cultivators involved—and four of them at that!*

"That senior has likely perished." Otherwise, how could those four Foundation Establishment cultivators leave so easily? And how could the market formation have been broken so easily?

However, their departure was a good thing for the Foundation Establishment cultivators still alive in the market; otherwise, they would have had to remain on constant, nervous guard.

Shortly after they left, Jiang Tianming, a Golden Core cultivator from the Yuanming Sect, arrived at Yunqing Market.

Looking down at the ruins and the scattered debris—especially seeing some death-defying rogue cultivators still attacking shops and looting everywhere—Jiang Tianming's already furious mood was ignited once more. He released his full Golden Core pressure, causing everyone to feel a surge of terror, their bodies freezing in place, unable to move.

There were no shortage of smart people among the rogue cultivators, but there were also fools. Many rogue cultivators had calmed down and fled the market the moment the formation was broken, but some cultivators, blinded by greed, were still thinking about how to gather more spiritual items and were unwilling to leave.

And now, this was the consequence of their insatiable greed!

With a casual wave of his hand, Jiang Tianming summoned countless wind blades from thin air, slashing toward those rogue cultivators.

"Ah! Spare me! I beg you, senior, spare me! I know I was wrong!" The wails of countless cultivators echoed throughout the entire market, but Jiang Tianming did not stop; instead, he accelerated his slaughter of the rogue cultivators.

Only when the world became quiet and all the lawless rogue cultivators had died under the wind blades did Jiang Tianming dispel his spell.

"All Foundation Establishment cultivators, come to see me immediately!" Jiang Tianming's cold voice resonated throughout the entire market.

Li Shihua looked at Li Shiren with worry. He felt that this Golden Core cultivator was coming to demand accountability. As a subsidiary of the Yuanming Sect, the Li family might be punished for failing to help during the market's chaos.

"Uncle Ren, take that rogue cultivator with you," Li Zhirui said weakly.

Jiang Tianming's unrestrained pressure had long since woken Li Zhirui, but he had been busy refining pills and hadn't woken up until now.

The reason Li Zhirui wanted Li Shiren to bring the cultivator was that he believed they could learn some inside information regarding the attack on the market from this person.

Originally, Li Zhirui wanted to interrogate him himself, but it was better to leave it to the Yuanming Sect to handle; this would also allow them to turn a fault into a merit and avoid punishment for the family.

"Understood. I'll be back shortly," Li Shiren said, grabbing the cultivator and walking away.

...

"Li Shiren of the Li Family from Darong Island greets the Senior," Li Shiren bowed respectfully.

The surrounding Foundation Establishment cultivators looked at Li Shiren in surprise, not understanding why he had brought a Qi Refinement cultivator along.

"What is the meaning of the person behind you?" Jiang Tianming asked in a deep voice.

Li Shiren quickly explained, "This person once led many rogue cultivators to attack our Li family's shops. I thought he might know some of the inside details regarding this market disaster, so I brought him here."

Jiang Tianming nodded noncommittally, reached out to grab the man, pulled him in front of him, and demanded, "If you tell me everything you know, I will give you a quick death."

"Refusing to speak?" Seeing the man gritting his teeth in defiance, Jiang Tianming gave a cold laugh and said, "Then do not blame me for being ruthless."

With that, he performed a Soul Search technique. His incredibly powerful divine sense churned within the man's sea of consciousness, searching for relevant information, completely disregarding the rogue cultivator's life or death.

"Heart-Confusing Bell?"

A moment later, Jiang Tianming threw the rogue cultivator—now looking dazed like a dead dog—onto the ground.

He reached out and took the storage bag from the man's waist, indeed finding a black bell engraved with eerie patterns. "Was it a demonic cultivator?"

The Heart-Confusing Bell was a very famous demonic cultivation tool. Its function was exactly as its name suggested: it could bewitch the human heart and even control cultivators.

Previously, Li Zhirui had suspected that the rogue cultivators were fighting to the death because they were being controlled by the Heart-Confusing Bell.

However, the nearest demonic cultivation power was over a thousand miles away, and no extremely precious spiritual items had appeared in the market recently. How could a demonic cultivator travel across an entire province just to attack Yunqing Market?

"Do you have any other clues?" Jiang Tianming found it unlikely, but he didn't say so aloud, wanting to see if the others knew anything else.

One Foundation Establishment cultivator quickly said, "I saw four Foundation Establishment cultivators flying toward the west."

To earn merit, the others hurriedly shared their findings, though none of them held much value.

The more Jiang Tianming heard, the more certain he became that this was not the work of demonic cultivators. Although a demonic tool like the Heart-Confusing Bell had appeared, no one had actually seen a demonic cultivator.

Then who could it be? The first thought that surfaced in Jiang Tianming's mind was the Yuanming Sect's arch-enemy, the Qingjian Sect.

But he couldn't figure out a reason for the Qingjian Sect to act, nor could he find any clues that they were responsible. He could only suppress the thought for now and leave it to the people assigned by the sect to handle.

"Given that you stood by and watched while the market was severely destroyed, each of your families must clean up the market within three days." Jiang Tianming did not want to be too excessive; a small punishment as a warning would suffice.

With that, Jiang Tianming turned toward the room where Sun Dahai usually resided, checking to see if he could find new clues while waiting for the sect's representatives to arrive.