Chapter 232: The Fall of the Huang Clan

What he meant by the descendant of a senior was naturally the descendant of Venerable Master Shentu.

Venerable Master Shentu had died more than seven hundred years ago.

A hundred years ago, Jing Kingdom had fallen into the hands of the demonic path. The world had changed drastically since then.

After burying Venerable Master Shentu, Wei Tu had searched around Dafeng Slope for several days, looking for any of his descendants, but came up empty.

This time, besides asking about the high-grade auction, another reason he sought out Qian Hong was to use this local thug’s reach to track down any of Venerable Master Shentu’s descendants in Changshan Commandery.

“I’ll do my best to find them,” Qian Hong replied without hesitation.

So far, he had only offered information about the auction, and this Senior Xu had already been so generous. If he really did find this ‘descendant of the Xia family,’ wouldn’t the rewards be even greater?

Qian Hong didn’t think much about whether the senior mentioned by Wei Tu was a righteous cultivator or a demonic one.

After all, the three border nations were only separated from the demonic territory by a single mountain range. Even before Jing Kingdom had fallen, there had already been plenty of demonic cultivators around.

Perhaps that “Xia family senior” was a demonic cultivator a few centuries ago.

Once he finished speaking, Wei Tu flicked his sleeve and lifted the restriction on Qian Hong’s body.

“I’ve placed a divine sense mark on you. As long as you don’t run to the ends of the earth, I’ll be able to sense your location. When that happens, you’ll find your fate... uncertain.”

Wei Tu suddenly changed his tone and coldly threatened Qian Hong.

Before entering the cultivation world, he had been a mundane government official and understood how to control people.

If all you did was reward them, your subordinates would just think you were easy to manipulate and wouldn’t do their jobs wholeheartedly.

A mix of carrot and stick—that was the best approach.

“Yes, Senior Xu. I will carry out your orders with utmost dedication,” Qian Hong’s expression turned solemn. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as he gave another solemn promise.

He knew all too well what happened to people who offended Golden Core demonic cultivators—at best, they’d be crippled and punished; at worst, they’d be skinned alive, bones and soul crushed.

That alone was enough to keep him completely in line.

“Senior Xu, if I do find this descendant of the Xia family, how should I contact you?” Seeing that Wei Tu was about to leave, Qian Hong boldly stepped forward and asked.

Being able to contact him versus not having any means to do so—that was a world of difference. The former meant he could climb the ranks by serving under a Golden Core cultivator.

“You just do your job. If you find the descendant of the Xia family, I’ll show up.”

Wei Tu’s voice was indifferent, and he declined to provide any contact method.

In Jing Kingdom, he had to act with caution.

Giving someone a way to reach him could expose his tracks. If Qian Hong ever harbored ill intentions, things could turn bad fast.

—

After leaving the “Sun Residence,”

Wei Tu planned to stop by a nearby market town. First, to gather some intel on the “Yunyan Merchant Guild,” and second, to sell off some spiritual items and exchange them for spirit stones to prepare for the auction one month later.

Decades ago, in order to prepare for forming his core, he had already spent nearly all his spirit stones.

Pills, cave rental, and so on.

None of those expenses had been small.

Later on, due to the lack of spiritual energy in the stone cave at the Blood Slaughter Sea, he had to burn through his remaining spirit stones just to advance to Tier Three Body Refining.

If it hadn’t been for Gong Shulan handing over thirty high-grade spirit stones, he’d probably only have a few thousand left now.

He had obtained Jia Tianlong’s storage pouch during that time, but that old cultivator had already prepared to die before ambushing Bai Zhi and the others. The pouch was practically empty aside from a few essentials.

Half a day later.

Wei Tu arrived at the closest market town near Changshan Commandery.

“Blood Moon Pavilion.” Wei Tu stood in front of the tallest building in the market town. After thinking for a moment, he walked in.

The righteous and demonic paths had been at war for a hundred years already. He was no stranger to the name Blood Moon Pavilion.

It was a merchant guild run by the Blood God Sect’s officer camp. Its reputation ranked among the top three within demonic territory.

In some ways,

the demonic path was actually more orderly than the righteous path.

Merchant guilds like Blood Moon Pavilion rarely committed crimes like murder or robbery.

Once Wei Tu stated his purpose and revealed his Tier Three Body Refining cultivation, the shopkeeper of Blood Moon Pavilion immediately came to greet him respectfully.

The shopkeeper’s surname was Li, a white-haired old man. He led Wei Tu to a private room on the third floor.

“What would Senior like to sell?” Shopkeeper Li stood nervously to the side, asking with utmost deference.

Though Blood Moon Pavilion was part of the powerful Blood God Sect, this was just a small market town, and Shopkeeper Li himself was only at the Foundation Establishment Realm. Facing a Golden Core senior like Wei Tu, he could only be reverent.

“Some magical artifacts.” Wei Tu patted his storage pouch and took out a few magical tools he currently didn’t use.

Like the Five Elements Ring and Shadow Thread.

Most of these were acquired from killing Alchemist Shu and Sun Yu.

A total of eleven items.

Back in Zheng Kingdom, before forming his core, he hadn’t dared to sell them for fear of revenge from their previous owners. But here in Jing Kingdom, he had no such concerns.

Of course, aside from the magic tools he had gotten from Sun Yu and Alchemist Shu, Wei Tu also had several from the likes of Lü Yuanli, Master Si, Jia Tianlong, and Bai Zhi.

But just like in Zheng Kingdom, he couldn’t easily sell off these items here in demonic territory either, in case they aroused suspicion.

“So many second-tier magic tools?” Shopkeeper Li’s expression changed when he saw what Wei Tu brought out, a bit too surprised to stay seated.

A deal of this scale—he’d only come across a few in his whole life.

“These magic tools from Senior Xu... seem to be taken from righteous cultivators... there’s wear and tear on them, and some have lost their glow...”

After the initial shock, Shopkeeper Li scrutinized the magic tools on the table, instinctively trying to bargain.

But since Wei Tu was a Golden Core cultivator, he didn’t dare press too hard—he just quoted regular market prices.

“The price’s a bit too low.” Wei Tu shook his head and made a move to gather up the magic tools, clearly intending to go sell them elsewhere.

“Please wait, Senior Xu!”

“Maybe I can offer a bit more? Bargaining’s just business, right?”

Shopkeeper Li quickly stepped forward to stop him, smiling obsequiously.

If he could close this deal, his commission would be considerable. Naturally, he didn’t want to let such a big client go.

After a brief negotiation,

Shopkeeper Li raised the price to thirty-seven thousand spirit stones.

Wei Tu considered for a moment and agreed to the offer.

Thirty-seven thousand spirit stones—barely enough to buy six or seven brand-new second-tier magic tools. These were used items taken from kills, some of which were even damaged. Their value was discounted.

To sell them at this price was already quite good.

“Senior Xu, our humble store also has some third-tier magic tools forged by Master Tie Cang from our sect. Perhaps you’d like to take a look?”

After the deal, Shopkeeper Li tried to upsell some third-tier items from Blood Moon Pavilion.

He could tell that Wei Tu had only recently broken into the third-tier in body cultivation. Otherwise, his own second-tier tools wouldn’t be so new.

—As an old hand, he could easily judge how long a magic tool had been used.

If he could sell a third-tier item, he’d earn even more.

“No need.” Wei Tu declined.

After his venture into the Great Void Realm, he had more than enough third-tier tools. No need to buy extra.

“Besides third-tier tools, we also stock third-tier pills, talismans, and intel on Zheng and Liang Kingdoms. Would any of those interest you, Senior?”

Shopkeeper Li politely offered, preparing to see Wei Tu out after being turned down.

“What, intel on Zheng Kingdom?” Wei Tu caught a key word from Shopkeeper Li.

He hadn’t expected Blood Moon Pavilion to offer intelligence services too.

That was different from what he’d heard before.

“Could it be only Golden Core cultivators are allowed to buy intel from places like this?” Wei Tu wondered silently.

Still, he kept a calm expression, as if nothing surprised him.

“Get me the latest intelligence on Zheng Kingdom and Liang Kingdom,” Wei Tu said in a low voice.

“Yes, Senior Xu.” Shopkeeper Li nodded and pulled out two jade slips from his pouch.

One was marked with the character “Zheng,” the other with “Liang.”

“These are the newest intel files. Five hundred spirit stones each. That’s one thousand for both.”

Wei Tu nodded and handed over one thousand spirit stones from his freshly earned stash.

“Do you also have information on the Yunyan Merchant Guild?”

No sense going to multiple sources—Wei Tu decided to ask about Yunyan too.

“Senior Xu, are you planning to attend the Yunyan Merchant Guild’s auction in a month?” Shopkeeper Li immediately guessed his intention from the question.

Wei Tu didn’t answer, but gave him a cold look instead.

Seeing that,

Shopkeeper Li realized he’d overstepped.

He gave a sheepish laugh and took out another jade slip to hand over.

“This isn’t official intel from Blood Moon Pavilion. Just something this old man has heard—consider it a gift, Senior Xu.”

...

Once the transaction was done,

Wei Tu exited Blood Moon Pavilion.

But he didn’t leave the market right away. Instead, he wandered around.

“Seems like their reputation holds up—no tricks.” Half a day later, while walking the streets, Wei Tu patted his spirit insect pouch and recalled a translucent moth into his storage pouch.

After leaving Blood Moon Pavilion, he hadn’t entirely trusted Shopkeeper Li, so he’d set a Seven-Colored Phantom Moth to secretly watch him for a while.

“Hmm? The Huang Clan from Heshan is destroyed?” At that moment, Wei Tu spotted a line in the Zheng Kingdom intel slip.

“Could it be that Qi Chengchu made his move?”

Wei Tu raised an eyebrow.

A few years ago, after breaking into Golden Core, Qi Chengchu had tried to get him to join in wiping out the Huang Clan from Heshan to seize their third-tier formation inheritance.

So that...

They could form Nascent Souls through formation.

He hadn’t expected Qi Chengchu to act so soon—within the two years he and Bao Siyan were exploring the Great Void Realm, the man had already struck the Huang Clan.