Chapter 204 - The Plot of the Hundred Tempering Mountain
Chapter 204: The Plot of the Hundred Tempering Mountain
Hundred Tempering Mountain?
As soon as the fellow on the ground said this, the expressions of Jiang Li and the others immediately changed.
Originally, they were just a few arrogant fools who wanted to stir up trouble. When they returned, they would be locked up for a few days. If someone came to apologize, they could still let them off.
However, if this guy called out the Hundred Tempering Mountain, there was really no other way to resolve this.
“Drag him in first.”
He dragged these guys from the Golden Tooth Sect into Prosperous Jiang Hong, found a few utility rooms, and separated them before starting the interrogation.
“Speak! What’s your name? Why did you come to my Scripture Storage Valley to cause trouble? Who instructed you? What’s your relationship with the Hundred Tempering Mountain?”
Jiang Li, Yan Hong, and Qing Lie interrogated the fellow who was obviously the leader.
A series of words easily broke through this person’s psychological defense.
“I-I’m Zhang Zhaoxiong, the son of the Golden Tooth Sect Master.”
As he spoke, he carefully raised his head and observed the expressions of the three people. He really hoped that the name of the Golden Tooth Sect Master could suppress them.
However, to his disappointment, the expressions of the three people did not change at all. What could a sect master of a second-rate sect do?
He helplessly prepared to explain, but Yan Hong, who he had not taken seriously before, interrupted him at this moment.
“Wait, your surname is Zhang?”
“I remember that the Golden Tooth Sect’s sect master’s surname is Jin. You’re the son of the sect master, why would your surname be Zhang?”
This was just the first sentence. Yan Hong, a businessman who had been in Nightless City all year round, immediately discovered that something was wrong.
The Golden Tooth Sect was only an existence at the bottom of the second-rate sects. Jiang Li and Qing Lie were not interested in them, so they naturally did not know much.
However, Yan Hong was a professional businessman. After running the Nightless City for a period of time, he knew very much about the famous experts of the various sects in the Scripture Storage Valley.
Therefore, he acutely sensed that something was wrong with just a name.
Hearing Yan Hong’s doubt, the other party’s gaze clearly avoided it. This was a typical display of guilt.
“Sect… Sect… Sect Master Jin is unwell. My father just took over the sect master position a few days ago.”
This fellow’s words were extremely strange, and Jiang Li and the others immediately realized that there was definitely something fishy going on.
“Now that you mention it, I remember it as well. There was an outstanding disciple in the Golden Tooth Sect who obtained a rather good ranking in the competition two days ago.”
“When Sect Master Jin signed the resource allocation contract, he was clearly fine. How could a Golden Core cultivator suddenly be sick!”
“Tell me who you really are!”
Seeing that this guy still dared to play tricks, Qing Lie stepped on the other party’s broken calf and even forcefully ground it. The broken bones pierced through the flesh, and the ground creaked from the friction with the limestone.
How could an ignorant and incompetent young master endure such abuse? The other party cried in pain for a long time.
If he still did not say it, the Law Enforcement Hall’s methods would be even more ruthless!
“I’m really Zhang Zhaoxiong! I’m really Zhang Zhaoxiong! My father, Zhang Sanhong, is already the sect master! I’m not lying to you! I’m telling the truth!!”
“Please let go! Let go! I’m dying!”
This guy was a Foundation Establishment cultivator after all. He did not faint so easily. He cried out with snot and tears. His feelings were extremely sincere!
“Tell me clearly, what happened?”
Under the interrogation of Jiang Li and the other two, Zhang Zhaoxiong did not know what was called being unyielding.
Soon, he told them everything that had happened to the Golden Tooth Sect during this period of time.
“It’s… it’s the people from the Hundred Tempering Mountain. They helped us.”
Jiang Li and Qing Lie looked at each other, their eyes filled with surprise and bewilderment.
It turned out that a few days after the competition ended, the people from the Hundred Tempering Mountain came to find them.
The people from the Hundred Tempering Mountain promised to help his father ascend to the position of sect master. They soon fulfilled their promise.
With the experts of the Hundred Tempering Mountain acting as demonic cultivators, they would ambush and kill the Golden Tooth Sect’s sect master. Then, they would secretly support the second-in-command, Zhang Sanhong, to rise up.
Under the suppression of a top sect of the Great Mountain Region, the original Golden Tooth Sect Master did not even have the chance to resist before he vanished into thin air.
In a short period of time, they had made a cultivator sect’s master go missing.
This method was really impressive!
“The people from the Hundred Tempering Mountain would not be so kind-hearted as to help you for no reason.”
“What are their conditions!”
Jiang Li and Qing Lie had actually already guessed something, but they still wanted to ask the other party the answer.
He even sent the ghost into the other party’s consciousness to monitor if he was lying.
“My… my father… my father said that the Hundred Tempering Mountain wants… the share of the Medicine Garden Mystic Realm.”
It was precisely because he had betrayed the interests of the sect, betrayed his own sect master, and relied on the Hundred Tempering Mountain that Zhang Sanhong could successfully become the sect master.
However, they were not ashamed, but rather proud of it. Zhang Zhaoxiong even felt that he was part of the Hundred Tempering Mountain and began to act arrogantly and domineeringly in Nightless City.
“As expected! The Hundred Tempering Mountain is really impressive!”
Jiang Li and the others could not help but be furious when they heard the truth. The Hundred Tempering Mountain was really desperate this time.
In the late stages of the Great Mountain Cultivator Competition, the ambitions of the Hundred Tempering Mountain were completely revealed. Because their mannerism was too ugly and they had offended too many people, they were jointly resisted by the other three sects.
In the end, not only did they not obtain the expected share, they were the most pathetic among the four major sects.
The final amount they got was less than 8%.
This was obviously far from their plan to rise up.
How could the Hundred Tempering Mountain, which originally had a huge advantage in alchemy, let go of this opportunity to rise up?
Therefore, after the competition, they did not develop obediently. Instead, they placed their attention on the other small sects who had obtained a share.
If it was a direct transaction, no sect would agree to give up their share.
Therefore, they directly launched a secret operation to overthrow the original sect master and win over the deputy leaders. They used this to control those small sects and obtain their share of the production of the Medicine Garden Mystic Realm.
In the case of the Golden Tooth Sect, the operation of the Hundred Tempering Mountain was very successful. If not for this interrogation, no one would have known that the Golden Tooth Sect had already changed owners.
Jiang Li recalled some of the information he had heard earlier. Now, many sects that had obtained the share of the mystic realm had suffered huge internal unrest. There were even a few sects that had already vanished into the dust of history.
Now that he thought about it, the issue in these sects might also be related to the Hundred Tempering Mountain.
This method was equivalent to directly violating the sect alliance agreement.
If they were allowed to continue like this, the righteous path alliance that had lasted for hundreds of years might collapse due to trust.
At that time, not to mention riding the wind and rising up, it was not impossible for the cultivation world of the Great Mountain Region to fall behind for a hundred years in chaos.
The reaction of the ghost meant that Zhang Zhaoxiong was not lying. The testimony of the other Golden Tooth Sect disciples also indirectly supported this point.
As for the female cultivator who had followed him previously, she was actually the daughter of the Golden Tooth Sect’s original sect master.
When Sect Master Jin was attacked, most of his family and trusted aides were secretly eliminated. This woman was a chess piece left behind by the Zhang father and son in order to officially sit in the position of sect master.
Unfortunately, she did not know the truth and really thought that she owed the Zhang father and son a huge favor.
“Senior Brother Qing Lie, we have to report this to the sect as soon as possible. We have to send these people back as witnesses.”
This matter was of great importance and was not something that the few of them could handle. Even the Scripture Storage Valley alone was not easy to deal with. They probably had to contact Shu Mountain and Benevolent Travel Temple to deal with it together.
After all, the other party’s size was equivalent to the Scripture Storage Valley. This was not an easy opponent.
“Don’t worry, leave it to me. Junior Brother Jiang Li, are you going back to the valley with me?”
Jiang Li pondered for a moment before nodding in the end.
He originally wanted to go to the Immortal Ascension Pavilion alone after reaching the Foundation Establishment realm. However, judging from the current situation, the situation in the cultivation world of the Great Mountain Region was still a little tense.
Even the Hundred Tempering Mountain had done such a thing. The Immortal Ascension Pavilion, which had also suffered a loss in the competition, might not act kindly too.
He now felt that it was very necessary to bring a backer along to collect the debts.
…
He got Qing Lie to bring them away, report to the sect, and prepare the flying ship.
Jiang Li and Yan Hong sat at the side and chatted for a while.
With Prosperous Jiang Hong’s continued profits, he had been living quite well recently.
The Qi Refinement realm medicinal pills were provided for free, causing his cultivation speed to be quite good. He had already reached the sixth-level of the Qi Refinement realm.
If everything went smoothly, it might not be long before he could break through to the late-stage Qi Refinement realm.
His huge belly was not fat. It was an external appearance formed after cultivating a spell.
This stomach was filled with spiritual qi. If he wanted to fight, he could spit at the enemy.
It was hard to say exactly how powerful it was, but it was extremely insulting.
As for the spider lily, it was a spiritual plant he had specially bought for Jiang Li.
This kind of strange flower that should have grown in the netherworld was extremely difficult to grow under normal circumstances. In the past, it was said that there were a few that barely survived in the Great Mountain Region. However, they had disappeared for many years now.
This spider lily was bought by Yan Hong from a foreign cultivator. He really did not expect that there would be one on sale.
He picked up a bit of the black soil in the flower pot and observed it carefully. He discovered that it was a special soil mixed with animal bones and some small particles.
This should be the reason why the spider lily, which was difficult to raise, could still survive until now after being carried for a long time.
To Jiang Li, a cultivator of the Nine Nether Dao Scripture, the value of this flower was absolutely not inferior to a Profound-rank artifact.
As expected, Yan Hong always surprised him.
Now that Immortals and Buddhas were extinct, there were fewer and fewer things recorded in ancient texts that still remained.
Such ancient things had extremely high requirements for their living environment. It was already extremely lucky to be able to leave even a tiny bit behind.
Things like the Netherworld Spider Lily and Ghost Lantern Fish were simply hard to come by.
Jiang Li grabbed an evil ghost from the coffin and brought it close to the flower. This evil ghost immediately became confused and quiet as it stared at the red flower.
This was undoubtedly the real deal.
Jiang Li also leaned close to the flower and sniffed it. A faint and strange fragrance penetrated into his soul.
With this smell, it was as if he had recalled all the things in his previous life. The attraction of those ‘memories’ was extremely easy to make cultivators with weak minds fall into the illusion.
The spider lily was a flower that bloomed on the sides of the Yellow Springs[1]. It was the signature flower of the Netherworld, and it was somewhat abnormally tempting to the soul.
Not to mention ghosts, even if a Qi Refinement cultivator took a sniff of the spider lily, their soul might be directly sucked away and they would sink into this beautiful red flower.
Fortunately, Jiang Li’s current sea of consciousness was practically inhumanly strong. The fragrance of the spider lily was unable to cause any trouble to him.
Jiang Li was naturally very satisfied with this.
He put the spider lily into the coffin. The exquisite flower pot directly fell to the ground and shattered, and the black soil inside scattered all over the ground.
However, it did not wither because of this. Instead, it grew beautifully under the dense spiritual qi environment of the Yin Burial Coffin.
Under the nourishment of the Yin qi and spiritual qi in the Yin Burial Coffin, ordinary plants naturally could not endure this kind of treatment. However, to yin attribute spiritual plants, it was the best thing. Even dead trees could experience new life.
Coupled with the million Soul Burial Ghost Soldiers in the coffin, the death qi and ghost qi released by them was the best nourishment for the spider lily.
This kind of environment, although not the Netherworld, was as good as it could be.
This spider lily quickly divided into two, into four, and into eight. In next to no time, an ocean of flowers stretched out, and it covered a large area of the coffin in an intoxicating dark red.
Even the sword cultivator clone lying motionless on the ground and the asura’s corpse on the skeleton throne had many flowers growing around and on them.
When he broke through to the Foundation Establishment realm, Jiang Li had once sent the first Parallel Mind and third Parallel Mind into the two corpses.
Perhaps because the asura’s corpse had been dead for too long or because its grade was too high, Jiang Li’s Bodhisattva Heart Sutra was unable to revive and occupy its body. It could only stay in its body and absorb some of the remaining chaotic emotions as nutrients.
As for the sword cultivator clone, it was barely usable.
Last time, after the intense modification of the blood of madness that caused the false resurrection of the clone to be broken, this body fell into a strange balance of being half alive, half human, and half asura.
The blood of madness that had been hidden in his heart was unable to continue modifying the clone, allowing the body to retain half of its human nature and not be completely assimilated by the other party.
That force seemed to be afraid of death. After it lay dormant in the heart, it maintained the balance between life and death, causing the heart of the sword cultivator clone to beat at a slow frequency.
After experiencing that period of time and lying in the underground altar of the Black Lotus Divine Sect, this body miraculously gave birth to a strange form of vitality.
That kind of vitality was not resurrection, but more like a new life.
After the first Parallel Mind returned, this vitality began to quickly sprout, as if this body had really revived.
This made Jiang Li feel very curious. If he was able to figure out the changes in his clone, then perhaps he would be able to rely on this to see through the secrets of the asura’s remains.
In fact, the sword cultivator clone had already lost its value to Jiang Li earlier. He planned to find an opportunity to abandon it. He did not expect that his clone would consume the blood of madness due to an accident, causing this body to gain new value.
However, with the monster-like ugly appearance, he clearly could not go out to meet people in a short period of time.
Jiang Li had tried many methods, runes, medicinal pills, and spells, but they were all unable to suppress the monster characteristics of the clone.
The only thing that was effective was the black metal bracelet he had obtained from Wu Shi.
Wearing the bracelet could greatly suppress the blood of madness in the clone’s body, allowing half of his body to return to his human form.
However, it was very likely that he would not be able to explain himself when he returned to Shu Mountain.
[1] Yellow Springs refers to the subterranean realm of the dead, the road into the underworld.