"Whether my master can rest in peace depends on whether this revenge succeeds." Wei Tu let out a few sighs, his face showing a fitting trace of sorrow.
"With Brother Wei's wealth, you're bound to succeed this time."
Seeing this, Situ You quickly tried to console him.
He didn't doubt Wei Tu's attitude—after all, Yao Chongshan and his wife weren't easy targets. With Wei Tu's strength, going for revenge was still pushing it.
In fact, if Wei Tu had been overly confident, he might've started worrying whether Wei Tu would even come back alive.
"Drink, drink."
Wei Tu lifted his spirits at those words. He raised his wine cup from the table and clinked it against Situ You's once again.
…
Now that he had the intel on Yao Chongshan and his wife, Wei Tu had no reason to stay at Ancient Sword Mountain. That same day, he used the excuse of hiring an assassin to take his leave from Situ You and departed.
But after leaving Ancient Sword Mountain, Wei Tu didn't rush to the Earth Sword Mountain region to look for a chance to assassinate the couple.
Instead, he camped out along the only route between the two sects. He covered the area with his Nascent Soul divine sense, monitoring every cultivator passing by.
Wei Tu was well aware—intel worked both ways.
If Situ You could find out things about Yao Chongshan inside Earth Sword Mountain…
Then likewise, that old rival sect might've planted spies in Ancient Sword Mountain too—ones who could've reported his plans to assassinate Yao Chongshan at the first opportunity.
So whether to intercept the information or to turn the trap back on them, he had to wait here.
Heaven rewards those with patience.
Half a day later, on the road, Wei Tu spotted a bald man dressed as a Daoist, flying toward Earth Sword Mountain. His expression was cautious.
"Elder Ma of Ancient Sword Mountain?" A golden gleam flashed in Wei Tu's eyes. He recognized the man right away.
With his current level in the "Sun-Gazing Golden Eyes," Wei Tu still couldn't completely see through Elder Ma's disguise. Disguising techniques weren't as simple as putting on a skin mask—they transformed the very appearance with Daoist arts into a new "true form."
But relying on his Nascent Soul divine sense combined with the Sun-Gazing Golden Eyes, it wasn't hard for Wei Tu to see through the cultivation method hidden beneath the disguise.
"A Golden Core cultivator... Altering his memory with illusion arts won't be easy."
After a short pause, Wei Tu made up his mind.
He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a green soft sword, which he tossed forward.
In an instant, the soft sword shone brightly, turning into a streak of green light that soared skyward and vanished.
A moment later—
The green sword reappeared—already within 100 feet of the bald cultivator.
"Who dares ambush this elder?!"
The bald man jumped in shock when he saw the green sword and quickly summoned a black banner to defend himself.
But as soon as he activated his defense, the green sword was already upon him again.
It pierced through the black banner and transformed into a serpent over 10 feet long with green scales. With one flick of its tail, it coiled tightly around the bald man.
"Out-of-body spell power?" Seeing this, the man's face changed drastically. He had no idea which Nascent Soul ancestor he'd offended to be hit like this.
The Nascent Soul's out-of-body projection and the Divine Transformation's Dharma Form were signature abilities of their respective realms.
But under normal conditions, Nascent Soul cultivators rarely used their actual out-of-body projection for combat. Most of the time, they used the technique known as "out-of-body spell power."
This spell power was drawn from the Nascent Soul's true essence. It mimicked the effect of going out-of-body, allowing short-range teleportation and high-speed attacks.
Its raw strength wasn't as overwhelming as a full Nascent Soul projection—but even so, that was all relative.
For a mere Golden Core cultivator like him, this "lesser" technique still felt terrifyingly strong.
He quickly backed away, trying to escape the green-scaled serpent. But as soon as he moved, the snake had already bound his body and sealed off his power.
"Senior, please have mercy! I didn't mean to offend—I beg you to spare my life!"
Knowing he'd been captured alive, the bald man gave up on running. He begged over and over.
After all, in front of a Nascent Soul cultivator, even if he escaped the snake, he couldn't outrun the elder himself.
And besides, he couldn't remember ever offending any Nascent Soul cultivator. So there was still a sliver of hope that this was all a misunderstanding.
But just as he finished begging for his life, his face froze in disbelief.
"You… Wei Tu?!"
He stared at the green-robed cultivator in front of him, dazed for a moment—completely shocked.
After all, even Tian Qiuyun had been stunned to find out that Wei Tu was actually at the peak of the Golden Core stage.
After all, a Golden Core powerhouse under 400 years old was almost unheard of across the entire kingdom. Only the Dao heirs of great sects in the Xiao Kingdom might reach such a realm at that age.
So one could imagine how the bald man felt upon seeing Wei Tu's true cultivation.
"Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!"
He repeated it three times, suppressing the fear in his heart. "There hasn't been any cultivator in the Kang Kingdom advancing to the Nascent Soul realm in recent years. Who are you really, and why are you pretending to be Wei Tu?"
A breakthrough from Golden Core to Nascent Soul would definitely trigger the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation. That was common sense in the cultivation world.
And from what he knew, no cultivator from any force in the Kang Kingdom had experienced that tribulation in recent decades.
So with no heavenly tribulation, how did this Wei Tu reach the Nascent Soul stage? Did it just appear out of nowhere?
"Whether I'm pretending or not, that's none of Elder Ma's concern."
Wei Tu had no interest in clearing up the doubts. After saying that with a faint smile, he flicked his sleeve and knocked the bald man unconscious.
Half a day later—
The bald man, still in Wei Tu's custody, was brought to an underground hollow.
This time, not only was he tightly bound by the green-scaled serpent, but there was also a Soul Binding Talisman stuck to his forehead.
" Hidden Spirit Boat Technique." Wei Tu silently chanted the incantation, and his divine sense turned into a paper boat, drifting from his fingertip into the man's sea of consciousness.
Unlike when he was still in the Golden Core realm, now that he was in the Nascent Soul realm, Wei Tu didn't need to focus on one specific memory when soul-searching a Golden Core cultivator. As long as the soul wasn't destroyed, he could search endlessly.
Moments later, all the memories from the past few decades were stripped clean from the bald man's mind.
"Not much on Yao Chongshan and his wife, but there's something interesting about someone else…" Wei Tu's lips curled into a sly smile.
The person he meant wasn't anyone new. It was Wei Hua—the one who had escaped death decades ago by using the Golden Core Cicada-Shedding Technique to survive through possession.
Normally, after being reborn through possession and suffering a drop in cultivation, Wei Hua wouldn't have dared reveal his whereabouts to anyone familiar. Doing so could be fatal.
After all, people's hearts are hard to predict. Even a wife like Tian Qiuyun remarried immediately after Wei Hua's apparent death.
Let alone Elder Ma, just a friend from the same sect.
But interestingly enough, not long after Wei Hua's possession, Earth Sword Mountain cultivators discovered traces of him in nearby regions.
Because of this, Elder Ma—an informant for Earth Sword Mountain—had been keeping track of Wei Hua's location.
"But this Wei Hua isn't simple… He actually managed to form an alliance with Earth Sword Mountain."
Wei Tu clicked his tongue in admiration, genuinely impressed with Wei Hua's cunning.
If it were him, he would've killed Wei Hua outright. There was no way he'd let someone like that get a second chance to breathe.
After all, even though Wei Hua had once been part of Ancient Sword Mountain's leadership, he wasn't important enough to justify such a risky alliance.
"After I deal with Yao Chongshan and his wife, I'll come for Wei Hua." Wei Tu quietly made up his mind.
Wei Hua might not be a serious threat, but the incident of Situ You killing him was something he was involved in too.
So for Wei Hua—he had to eliminate the problem at the root.
Also, the Golden Core Cicada-Shedding Technique that Wei Hua used was a rare secret art that piqued his interest.
Even if he couldn't use it himself, it would be valuable to pass down to his children one day.
…
According to the information from Situ You—
In two years, Yao Chongshan and his wife would travel with three fellow sect members—Tang Kejing, Gu Jiyang, and Song Wu—to attend a secret market auction at Luoyun Market.
Five Golden Core cultivators moving together…
In Situ You's view, this wasn't a good opportunity to strike at Yao Chongshan and his wife.
So in the jade slip, he warned Wei Tu not to take unnecessary risks and to act within his limits.
But in Wei Tu's opinion, this was actually the perfect chance to make a move.
Among the five, aside from Yao Chongshan and his wife, the other three—though all at the late-stage Golden Core and quite capable—didn't seem like real obstacles to him.
After all, without formation support or terrain advantage, whether it was one Golden Core cultivator or a group, it wouldn't make much difference when facing a Nascent Soul elder.
And so, after temporarily imprisoning the bald man—Elder Ma—in the underground hollow, Wei Tu flew off toward the area near Earth Sword Mountain, ready to lie in wait.
Time passed.
In the blink of an eye, two years had gone by.
Kang Kingdom, Earth Sword Mountain.
Unlike Ancient Sword Mountain, the main peak of Earth Sword Mountain looked like a massive, ancient broad sword lying across the plains. The surrounding sub-peaks all rose like sharp sword blades piercing into the clouds.
On this day, a talisman signal descended from the clouds and landed on a sword peak named Divine Hall Peak.
"Dear, only seven days left until the secret auction at Luoyun Market."
"Senior Brother Tang has been pressing hard for us to hurry."
Inside a cave dwelling on Divine Hall Peak, a young man with sharp brows and bright eyes suddenly opened his eyes from meditation and reached out to catch the falling talisman.
With a sweep of his divine sense, he read it and looked at the red-dressed female cultivator beside him with a warm gaze.
"Seven days? The secret auction?"
Hearing that, the woman in red finally remembered the promise they made to Tang Kejing over ten years ago. Back then, she and her husband agreed to support him by attending the secret auction at Luoyun Market together.
"Now that the war between the two sects has just reached a truce, if we suddenly leave the sect and run into danger out there…"
A trace of worry crossed the red-dressed woman's face.
Unlike other cultivators in their sect, she and her Dao companion Yao Chongshan were sword cultivators, specializing in lethal techniques. Over the past few decades of the two-sect war, they had earned plenty of merit—and along with it, plenty of deadly grudges.
Because of this, compared to other sect members, the two of them had always been especially cautious about leaving the sect, afraid of being targeted by Ancient Sword Mountain cultivators.
"This time, besides Senior Brother Tang, there's also Senior Brother Gu and Junior Brother Song. Add the two of us, and that makes five late-stage Golden Core cultivators."
"With that kind of strength, unless Ancient Sword Mountain sends every Golden Core elder they have, there's no way they could stop us."
Yao Chongshan smiled faintly, trying to ease her worries.
Then, he suddenly recalled the life-or-death crisis he and Guan Yingzhi faced decades ago. He casually said, "Back then, when Wei Tu brought three late-stage Golden Core cultivators to save Che Gongwei, wasn't one of them a Golden Core powerhouse?"
"Yet we came out fine."
"Now that both of us have reached the late stage of the Golden Core realm, even if we faced that same situation again, we wouldn't be afraid!"
Confidence lit up Yao Chongshan's face.
In his mind, with the joint sword technique that he and Guan Yingzhi had mastered, there was no one at the Golden Core level who could match the two of them.
Even if they lost, their sword escape technique could still guarantee a clean getaway.
"That time…" Guan Yingzhi furrowed her brows and sighed. "That time, Wei Tu and the others didn't want to get involved in the two sects' war, so they didn't pursue us. It wasn't because our strength was so impressive."
Back then, she hadn't been confident that she could survive a real pursuit from Wei Tu or Yu Gongshou.
Luckily, Wei Tu and the others weren't part of Ancient Sword Mountain and had no reason to chase them down, which was the only reason she and her husband escaped with their lives.
Thinking of Wei Tu, Guan Yingzhi fell silent for a moment, then said, "Now that we've killed his master, Che Gongwei—even if it was just part of the war—it still means we've made a serious enemy of that alchemist from the Ying Ding Tribe."
"Without his mercy back then, we probably wouldn't even be alive today."
She still held some fear toward Wei Tu.
Back then, he could summon three late-stage Golden Core cultivators to guard him. Now, if he decided to come after them, it wouldn't be surprising if he used lethal force.
"You're overthinking it."
"Even if Wei Tu hadn't let us go back then, our sword escape might still have saved us."
With that, Yao Chongshan waved his hand, cutting her off to stop her from speaking further.
He knew, just like Guan Yingzhi, that they were indeed somewhat at fault for killing Che Gongwei.
But… being in the wrong was nothing compared to the benefits of killing a Golden Core cultivator.
Without Che Gongwei's head, how would they have ever broken through to late-stage Golden Core?
"Alright then."
Guan Yingzhi nodded slightly and didn't say anything more.
Though she was wary of Wei Tu, like Yao Chongshan, she didn't believe that he could pose a real threat to them now.
After all, with the strength they had, they no longer feared any cultivators in the Golden Core realm.