Chapter 96 - 75: The Wrong Direction
In the woods.
As the Sacred Girl’s cold voice echoed, the surrounding air seemed to stagnate, and the temperature dropped several degrees instantly.
Eeveryone’s body slightly trembled, holding their breath and not daring to make a sound, fearing the Sacred Girl’s gaze upon them.
Swallowing hard, Elder Qing looked desperate and said hoarsely, “It was me who ruined the Sacred Girl’s plan and the Holy Sect’s plan. To atone for my sins, I am willing to offer my body as food for the insects and use my cultivation and Inner Strength to cultivate a Blood Jade Centipede for the Sacred Girl.
However, I ask that the Sacred Girl leave my clan and family out of this, as I alone bear the responsibility for my actions.”
Hearing this statement, the Sacred Girl’s expression softened somewhat, and she nodded, “Very well, as long as the sacred insect is cultivated successfully, I
will not seek revenge on your family and tribe.”
“Thank you, Sacred Girl,”
Elder Qing bowed in gratitude and then retreated to the side, looking despondent.
After dealing with him, the Sacred Girl turned to the fearful others and said, “The death of the sacred insect cannot go unanswered.
The sacred insect was a carefully cultivated different species within our sect, and ordinary people are incapable of dealing with it.
Those who could slay the sacred insect are no ordinary individuals.
You must immediately investigate the surrounding area and see which martial arts experts above the second-rate level have entered the mountains recently.
When found, immediately kill them and retrieve the sacred insect.
Even in death, the sacred insect cultivated by our Holy Sect cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of others.”
“Yes!”
The people around complied, then hurried away as if they had been granted amnesty.
Only Elder Qing remained, his face ashen, beside the Sacred Girl, motionless.
The Sacred Girl watched her subordinates leave, her eyes still cold.
The Five Sacred Insects were the highest level of insects cultivated by their Five Sacred Sects.
It required the selection of five different insects with unique bloodlines, which were then meticulously nurtured from a young age, fed with countless rare spiritual objects from Heaven and Earth, refined with the world’s poisonous substances, and catalyzed with human essence and blood. After three years, a sacred insect would finally be produced.
The cultivation of each sacred insect consumed a vast amount of financial and material resources, as well as numerous lives. The cost was immense.
More crucially, when the five sacred insects were produced, they could be further refined by catalyzing the insects and forcing them to fight each other to the death. The last one standing would become the Five Sacred Scarabs.
This scarab possessed the bloodlines of five different species, the essence of numerous treasures from Heaven and Earth, the refinement of the world’s poisons, and the essence of a thousand people. It was undoubtedly a peerless treasure.
When consumed by a martial artist, not only would they become impervious to poison and capable of bringing the dead back to life, but they could also enhance their Inner Strength and achieve major success in their cultivation instantly.
In fact, the Five Sacred Sect had refined the Five Sacred Scarabs specifically to
assist the Sacred Girl in her cultivation and prepare her to break through to the
Innate Realm.
Everything had been going smoothly.
After consuming the countless treasures of the sect and even capturing hundreds of Medicine Men from the outside world, several years were spent before they finally cultivated the Five Sacred Insects, all in preparation for the refinent of the Five Sacred Scarabs.
Who could have predicted that at this crucial moment, Elder Qing, who had been entrusted with guarding the sacred insects, would abandon his duty and return to care for his suddenly-ill grandson, allowing the Blood Jade Centipede to escape after killing several disciples. By the time the sect responded and tracked it down, the sacred insect had already been killed by someone else.
Without the Blood Jade Centipede, the Five Sacred Insects were incomplete, and the Five Sacred Scarabs could not be refined.
Even if Elder Qing was willing to sacrifice himself to re-cultivate the sacred insect, it would still take at least a year.
Just thinking about being delayed by a year before breaking through to Innate made the Sacred Girl’s blood boil.
Furthermore, her breakthrough to Innate Realm was connected to a major event that the sect had been planning for more than a decade, making her frustration even greater.
Suppressing her anger, she turned to Elder Qing and said coldly, “Let’s go. We shall return to the sect and cultivate the Blood Jade Centipede again.”
If it hadn’t been for the old man’s willingness to risk his life to cultivate the sacred insect, how could she vent her anger without decimating his entire clan for his grave mistake?
Elder Qing’s body trembled again, but he dared not say anything and could only follow obediently.
In the blink of an eye, the figures of the two disappeared into the vast forest sea.
In the following days, Jianghu of Dongting County was stirred up a little bit.
The local martial arts powers found that the Five Poisons Sect members, who had always hidden in the deep mountains and rarely went out, suddenly emerged and spread across all the big and small towns.
As a major sect among the Miao people, the Five Poisons Sect always claimed to be the Five Holy Sect.
However, because they raised poisonous insects, practiced Gu art, and acted bizarrely and cruelly, they had committed many shocking bloodshed incidents. Therefore, they were commonly recognized as the Demon Sect, and the Jianghu also called them the Five Poisons Sect.
Now the members of this demon sect had reappeared in Jianghu and seemed to be searching for something.
This caused alertness among the martial arts world in Dongting County.
Many forces dispatched special personnel to closely monitor the trail of these Five Poisons Sect members, fearing that they might cause trouble in their own territory.
Of course, they merely watched, and no further action was taken.
As a major sect of the Miao people, the influence of the Five Poisons Sect covered all areas of Dongting County. Wherever there were Miao people, there would be traces of the Five Poisons Sect.
Aside from their reach, the actual strength of the Five Poisons Sect itself was also extremely strong.
It was rumored that the sect leader and their Holy Maiden were both top martial artists in Jianghu. Within the sect, there were also the left and right elders, both of whom were first-rate figures.
Below them, there were dozens of secular elders, all of whom were second-rate martial artists. With tens of thousands of ordinary followers, the strength of the Five Poisons Sect could almost be said to be at the top of Jianghu. Faced with such a behemoth, those local Jianghu forces had no choice but to stay away, let alone provoke it.
They all hoped that the Five Poisons Sect members would quickly find what they were looking for and then leave without causing any turmoil in their territory.
However, what they didn’t know was that this wish was bound to be unfulfilled.
Because the goal of the Five Poisons Sect was wrong from the beginning.
Frankly speaking, the Blood Jade Centipede that Lu Yuan killed had astonishing speed, defense, and possibly even highly poisonous.
A normal third -rate martial artist from Jianghu wouldn’t have been able to deal with the Blood Jade Centipede based solely on their own martial arts. If their luck was even slightly worse, they would fall into the hands of the centipede, let alone kill it.
So it was based on this understanding that the Holy Maiden of the Five Poisons Sect deduced that it was a second-rate Jianghu martial artist who killed the sacred insect.
There was no problem with that, as it was in line with the normal understanding of Jianghu.
But the problem was, Lu Yuan was not an ordinary Jianghu martial artist.
He didn’t engage the centipede in close combat at all. He fought from a distance, even using a sedative.
He killed the centipede from afar, without having to engage it in close combat.
Against Lu Yuan, the Blood Jade Centipede’s greatest advantage could not be used, and it was completely subdued.
However, the Miao people and their Holy Maiden were not aware of this.
Therefore, they did not know that they had made an incorrect estimation and raised the strength of their enemy to a higher level.
Searching for the wrong answer from the wrong angle, they were bound to get no results.
With their current method of searching, even if they turned Dongting County upside down, they would never find the person they were looking for.
It was unknown if they could ever discover this issue and locate their target accurately in the end.
However, all of this no longer had anything to do with Lu Yuan.
At this time, he had already returned to Changning County Town with his spoils of war, humming a tune and walking with a leisurely pace..