Chapter 395: Engraving Ancestor!
With a casual wave of his hand, Jiang Chen summoned a forceful gust of wind. The five charred, coal-like corpses instantly disintegrated into fine ash, erasing the only evidence of their existence.
*Thud. Thud. Thud.*
Three small Storage Bags dropped to the forest floor.
Jiang Chen reached out, telekinetically snatching them into his grasp. He ruthlessly crushed the lingering spiritual imprints and swept his spiritual sense inside. Instantly, his mouth twitched. “What exactly was I expecting?”
Five people. Three small Storage Bags.
The math alone reeked of poverty. If they had any real wealth, they wouldn’t be slumming it in the Dark Forest as highwaymen.
Sure enough, a quick inventory revealed nothing but a few incomplete cultivation manuals, some shoddy spell techniques, a handful of inferior Pills, and basic daily rations. That was it.
It only cemented Jiang Chen’s deep-seated prejudice against Loose Cultivators. They were broke.
Still, while the contents were garbage, the Storage Bags themselves held some market value. He tucked them away, summoned Shattered Moon Flowing Frost, and launched himself into the sky, streaking back toward the Immortal Sect.
The flight back was entirely uneventful. However, upon landing at his courtyard, he found an unexpected guest waiting at his door.Jiang Chen blinked in surprise. “Senior Brother Chen Tian?”
Chen Tian offered a faint, teasing smile. “Just getting back from the Fragrance Pavilion?”
Jiang Chen stiffened, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward. “You know about that?”
Chen Tian nodded. “It’s hardly a secret. My cousin and Long Ao both mentioned it.”
Jiang Chen decisively pivoted the conversation. “Did you need something from me, Senior Brother?”
“Two things,” Chen Tian said, his tone turning businesslike. “First, the expedition to the Return to Ruins Secret Realm is temporarily suspended. Second, the Immortal Sect is launching a hunting operation in the Canglan Sea.”
Though Jiang Chen already knew the details, he feigned perfect ignorance. “What happened in the Canglan Sea?”
“The undersea dragon vein was…” Chen Tian proceeded to recount the exact same story Shen Peng had delivered earlier. The only new piece of information was that the culprits who severed the dragon vein had finally been identified.
Jiang Chen leaned in, playing the part of the eager listener. “Who was it?”
Chen Tian enunciated each word with grim weight. “The Yellow Springs Alliance.”
Jiang Chen let out a confused “Ah.” He had never heard the name before, and his bewilderment was entirely genuine.
“According to our intelligence,” Chen Tian explained, “this faction has existed in the shadows for over a millennium. They’ve always kept a low profile, but recently, they’ve been stirring up massive waves.”
Rong Long’s betrayal, the severed dragon vein in the Canglan Sea—it was all their handiwork.
The organization operated on a strict three-tier hierarchy. The upper echelon was known as the Five Mountains Blood Contract. The middle tier was the Four Rivers Destiny Lord. The lowest tier was the Ghost Market Hidden Peg.
Jiang Chen’s curiosity piqued. “Which tier did Rong Long belong to?”
“Ghost Market Hidden Peg,” Chen Tian replied flatly.
Jiang Chen stared at him in disbelief. “A high-level Formation Master was only a bottom-tier grunt?”
Chen Tian’s expression darkened. “Exactly. That is why the Immortal Sect is treating this as a critical threat. We will be joining forces with the other two major sects to conduct a joint investigation.”
The other two were the number-one ranked Dragon Tiger Immortal Sect and the third-ranked Inviting Moon Immortal Sect. For the top three sects to mobilize together, the sheer severity of the crisis was undeniable.
It made perfect sense why they were diverting manpower and shifting their focus away from the Return to Ruins Secret Realm to the Canglan Sea.
After all, if the Yellow Earth Essence hadn’t leaked and caused the Spirit Farm’s spirit vein to collapse prematurely, Rong Long and the Yellow Springs Alliance wouldn’t have just destroyed one dragon vein. They would have destroyed two. One was the Spirit Farm’s vein, which had been on the verge of transforming into a dragon. The other was the ancient dragon vein of the Canglan Sea.
The Yellow Springs Alliance had lain dormant for a millennium, only to plunge the entire Azure Realm into turmoil the moment they bared their fangs.
Shaking off his shock, Jiang Chen looked at Chen Tian. “Senior Brother, did you wait for me just to tell me the news?”
Chen Tian waved his hand dismissively. “Long Ao mentioned that you hold the hundred-year fishing rights for the Spirit Gathering Abyss. Given the situation, do you want to head over there together and take a look?”
Realization dawned on Jiang Chen. “Ah. You’re worried that Mystic Heart City might use this chaos as an excuse to forcibly revoke my rights, so you want to use this deployment to go and… remind them of their place.”
A cold, cynical smile touched Chen Tian’s lips. “It wouldn’t be the first time the City Lord’s Mansion pulled a stunt like that.”
Jiang Chen naturally wasn’t going to refuse free muscle. In fact, he was eager for the backup. “Alright. When the time comes, I’ll go with you.”
“It won’t just be me,” Chen Tian corrected. “Senior Brother Qin and Long Ao are coming too. At least a third of the core disciples from the Seven Immortal Peaks are being mobilized for this.”
Jiang Chen sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s an unprecedented scale.”
Seeing that their business was concluded, Chen Tian turned to leave. “I’m off.”
“Wait,” Jiang Chen quickly called out.
Chen Tian paused, casting an inquiring look over his shoulder. “What is it?”
“Senior Brother, I wanted to ask you about the Golden Light Talisman.”
Chen Tian blinked, clearly taken aback. “You’re only at the early Foundation Establishment stage. You’re still a lifetime away from the Golden Core realm. Why are you asking about that?”
Jiang Chen had his excuse locked and loaded. “Senior Brother Sancai and Senior Brother Long Ao have both done a lot for me. I just wanted to do my part and see if I could help gather some materials or resources for their future Tribulations.”
Chen Tian smiled warmly, touched by the sentiment. “It’s good that you have that kind of loyalty. Unfortunately, the materials required for a Golden Light Talisman are absurdly scarce, and the difficulty of inscribing one is astronomical.”
Jiang Chen hesitated, feigning uncertainty. “But aren’t you…”
Chen Tian shrugged. “In the entire Azure Realm, only three people are capable of inscribing a Golden Light Talisman. One is my Master. Another is the Talisman Grandmaster of the Dragon Tiger Immortal Sect. The third was the Engraving Ancestor, but he’s long dead. His tomb has since transformed into a secret realm, but it only opens once every five hundred years. We’re still over four centuries away from the next opening.”
Jiang Chen’s heart sank initially, but at the mention of the tomb, his eyes gleamed. He tentatively asked, “This secret realm you mentioned… it wouldn’t happen to be called the Seal Bone Tomb, would it?”
Chen Tian nodded. “Yes.”
Jiang Chen frowned, playing the part of a disappointed junior. “That does make things difficult.”
Chen Tian patted his shoulder reassuringly. “Just having the intention is enough!”
With a blur of motion, his figure vanished into thin air.
Left alone, Jiang Chen’s eyes narrowed into calculating slits. *Difficult, sure. But I never said it was impossible.* His mind raced with profit margins and risk assessments. *It seems I need to ramp up my exploration of the Seal Bone Tomb. The sooner I find the Engraving Ancestor’s remains or a Golden Light Talisman, the better.*
However, no matter how pressing his secret realm exploration was, practical matters came first. He still needed to boil water and cook.
After thoroughly taking care of his mundane chores and securing the perimeter, he finally sealed the heavy stone door of his house. He descended into the depths of his home, soon arriving at the second basement level—his private cultivation chamber.
The room was pitch black, but Jiang Chen hadn’t come here to meditate. His body vanished like a ghost, slipping seamlessly into his personal pocket dimension.
A day had passed inside his space. The entrance to the Seal Bone Tomb was now littered with an even larger pile of Pattern Bone Puppets.
As for the very first puppet he had sent in, it was technically still “alive,” but its condition was abysmal. It was missing an arm, and a large chunk of its right leg had been sheared off. It looked like it had barely survived a brutal mauling.
Jiang Chen grinned, a ruthless, pragmatic light in his eyes. “The fact that it survived this long is already a fantastic return on investment. Time to cycle in the fresh meat.”
The first Pattern Bone Puppet had served its purpose to the bitter end. Without hesitation, Jiang Chen extracted the thread of spiritual power anchoring it. Deprived of its power source, the battered skeleton collapsed into a heap of lifeless bones.
Next, Jiang Chen ignited the Five Elements spiritual power within his dantian, channeling the vibrant energy outward and injecting it into the dozens of dormant Pattern Bone Puppets lined up before him.
A chorus of sharp *cracks* and *snaps* echoed through the space as bone ground against bone. One by one, the Pattern Bone Puppets hauled themselves up from the dirt, standing at attention like a legion of resurrected soldiers ready for war!