Hearing Lin Daqiao's words and seeing his strange expression, Li Yan couldn't help but shake his head. "For Seventh Senior Brother to emphasize the words 'Little Junior Brother' so heavily, this is blatant revenge for what I said to them earlier." Seeing that the two of them had walked ahead after speaking and had no intention of explaining further, he followed.
Li Yan walked slowly behind, his thoughts returning to the topic at hand. He carefully thought over the entire sequence of events from when he met the two women, but he still couldn't find anything wrong with the two bewitching women.
However, when he thought again about what the woman had said, as recounted by Lin Daqiao, his heart jolted, and his eyes gradually lit up. Feeling Li Yan's steps suddenly halt behind him, Wen Xinliang, who hadn't spoken, also turned back with a wicked smile. He had long admired this junior brother's intelligence, and today it seemed his assessment was correct. With just a few simple sentences from Lin Daqiao, this little junior brother had figured it out in a moment. If it weren't for his young age and lack of worldly experience, he would probably have guessed eighty or ninety percent of his schemes.
At this moment, however, Li Yan was feeling frustrated. It turned out that from the moment he encountered the other cultivators, he had unwittingly become a pawn in their game. Although he had become suspicious once during that period—when he had just disembarked from the flying artifact and was about to ask a question, Wen Xinliang had covered it up by pretending to be in a hurry to chase after the two women. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly. The treachery of the human heart was nothing more than this. Even Lin Daqiao, he hadn't realized, had been cooperating with Wen Xinliang all along.
Li Yan had already guessed that his two senior brothers had started setting up a scheme from the moment they met the other cultivators. It was just that at the beginning, the scheme was not specifically aimed at these two women; it was for whoever came along. If no one did, then it would be as if nothing had happened. It was only later, when the two women intentionally tried to get close, that they gradually became the target. And all of this was accomplished invisibly.
Lin Daqiao had told him to recall the events from meeting the two women until the end, and with the final hint, Li Yan carefully sorted through it and figured it out. When one of the women said, "Senior Brother, you are too humble. It's clear at a glance that you three are elite disciples of the sect. We will have to rely on you to protect us in the future," the most likely problems were in the phrases "elite disciples," "you three senior brothers," and "protect the two of us."
Initially, Li Yan thought the problem was with the words "elite disciples." Because they had only told the other party that they were ordinary disciples of the sect, for the other party to say this meant that they should have known their identities. But Li Yan quickly semi-refuted this point. The reason it was a semi-refutation was that from the golden bamboo embroidered on their sleeve cuffs, one could tell they were from the Malevolent Spirit Sect and roughly deduce their identities. But this only showed that the two women had done some research on the target they wanted to rely on; it couldn't prove that they were really spies from the enemy.
As for the latter two phrases, Li Yan hadn't thought there was any problem with them at first. But after Lin Daqiao heavily emphasized the words "Little... Junior Brother," Li Yan initially thought it was Lin Daqiao's revenge for what he had said earlier. But then, connecting it with the previous events, he had a flash of insight. The problem was precisely in the phrase "you three senior brothers." Li Yan carefully recalled that since they started meeting other cultivators, whenever Wen Xinliang and Lin Daqiao spoke loudly, they had never called him "Little Junior Brother," but used "you, me, him" to refer to him. This meant that from that moment on, the two of them had set a trap based on Li Yan's own condition, only there was no clear target at the time. Li Yan guessed that if no one had come up to them from beginning to end, then the trap would have been treated as if it never existed.
And when they landed on the altar-like place, the two women clearly began to intentionally or unintentionally try to get close to the three of them. At this point, the trap Wen Xinliang had set was officially put into use. Moreover, Li Yan clearly remembered that after landing, he had wanted to ask his two senior brothers questions several times, but they had always used other matters to cover it up, giving him no chance to speak, for fear that his opening his mouth would ruin things.
Then, after Wen Xinliang and Lin Daqiao made contact with the two women, they began to probe each other. Amidst their scheming, Wen Xinliang's seemingly casual statement that the three of them were just ordinary disciples of the sect was the official casting of the bait. The other party, in a moment of carelessness, replied, "Senior Brother, you are too humble. It's clear at a glance that you three are elite disciples of the sect. We will have to rely on you to protect us in the future." It was precisely this sentence that sent the two women straight to hell.
The biggest loophole in this sentence was, of course, "you three senior brothers." One had to know that even if one could tell from their clothes that they were disciples of Little Bamboo Peak , based on the division of cultivation realms, the three of them could not possibly be senior and junior brothers. Li Yan could only be their junior. Especially since Li Yan had never left the Malevolent Spirit Sect in all these years, even most people on the peak didn't recognize him, let alone outsiders.
For the woman to say this could only mean that the two of them had a significant grasp of information about the Malevolent Spirit Sect. Although it couldn't be ruled out that they had investigated some information in order to find a backer, for someone like Li Yan, who had never even left the mountain, it shouldn't be something people like them could find out just by asking around. There must have been a corresponding informant providing the information.
It was no secret that the four major sects had each other's informants internally. Only this could basically explain how these two women knew the whereabouts of Li Yan's group. It was possible that as soon as the three of them left the mountain this morning, a message was sent out, and these two women had hurried over from behind.
Looked at this way, the possibility of these two women being spies for the enemy was not just fifty percent; it should be at least seventy percent.
After thinking this through, Li Yan broke out in a cold sweat. He hadn't expected to be targeted on his first trip out of the mountain. If his two senior brothers hadn't been with him, even if he had dodged this attempt, there was no guarantee they wouldn't have set up a second or third plot targeting his personality. At that point, he would likely have been reduced to nothing.
Li Yan was drenched in a cold sweat and felt a lingering fear. But thinking of how the two women were killed so directly, he still asked via voice transmission, "What will be the consequences of killing these two just like that?"
"Whether we killed the right ones or the wrong ones, the result is the same. If it was a mistake, they can only blame their bad luck. As long as they're not core disciples of the four major sects, the other sects can only consider themselves unlucky. If we killed the right ones, it's not worth reporting to the Sect. These things happen every day. The Sect's upper echelon probably has their eyes on some families and sects already; it's just that some aren't worth dealing with, and for others, the time to clean them out hasn't come yet. Perhaps the Sect is still constantly using them to send out false information. These are not things we can know. What we need to do is be ten thousand times more careful before we reach the Golden Core realm. Otherwise, the death of a single Foundation Establishment cultivator might not necessarily provoke the Sect's wrath.
"However, killing people here is still a bit troublesome. The Golden Core masters stationed here should have discovered it. If these two dead women are really local cultivators, we will inevitably be reported to the Sect, so that the trading city can give them an explanation."
Wen Xinliang's emotionless voice sounded in Li Yan's mind, but Li Yan couldn't detect any hint of worry, which made him feel the cheapness of human life. But before he could lament, Wen Xinliang spoke directly.
"Let's hurry up. With this delay, it's almost the Hour of the Snake." With that, he quickened his pace and walked forward. Lin Daqiao and Li Yan also looked ahead and followed suit.
On the way, without waiting for Li Yan to ask, Wen Xinliang directly told him about the situation here.
The trading city here was named "Peiyang Town," but it was usually called "Peiyang Trading City" by cultivators. It was the town Li Yan had seen from the sky earlier. In the beginning, this town was jointly built by some nearby cultivation families and cultivation sects. Since this area was under the jurisdiction of the Malevolent Spirit Sect, the shadow of the Malevolent Spirit Sect was inevitably behind it.
Peiyang Trading City was mainly built to meet the trading needs of cultivators within a range of tens of thousands of li. It never closed and was open every day, which made it extremely prosperous. In addition, it was the largest and closest trading city to the Hundred Thousand Mountains in this direction. As such, most cultivators entering or leaving the Hundred Thousand Mountains from this direction would stop here, either to buy magical treasures and medicinal pills needed for the mountains, or to sell the herbs, demonic beasts, or even magical treasures obtained from killing and plundering after coming out. Over the years, this attracted many cultivation sects or families from other places to set up shop here, opening markets to earn more resources and Spirit Stones for their own sects or families. This caused the scale of the place to grow larger and larger, from a small valley of only a few li in circumference to its current size of thirty li.
Three Golden Core cultivators were stationed here every day. These three were sent in rotation by the five major cultivation families and three first-rate cultivation sects that now presided over the area, with the rotation happening once a year.
These eight cultivation forces combined were extremely powerful in this ten-thousand-li radius. Each of their families or sects had two to four Golden Core experts. Compared to the second- and third-rate sects like the one Lin Daqiao came from, where the highest-ranking sect master or elder was only at the Foundation Establishment realm, they were simply incomparable.
These eight forces occupied this ten-thousand-li radius and were a power that no one dared to provoke, aside from the Malevolent Spirit Sect. If any trouble arose in the trading city, it would be like poking a hornet's nest, and one would face the joint pursuit of these eight forces. Under such a siege, there were few survivors. As for the names of these eight forces, Wen Xinliang did not mention them to Li Yan, clearly showing that he didn't care much for them.
A trading city was a place for cultivators to trade, so the amount of Spirit Stones and goods here was naturally immense. To ensure the safety of the shops, every trading city would designate a certain area as a boundary. Within this range, flying and fighting were not allowed; otherwise, offenders would be killed on the spot. The range of Peiyang Trading City was thirty li outside the town. The place where Li Yan and the others had just landed was a demarcation point at the edge of the area. From here inwards, flying and fighting were prohibited. Therefore, that altar-like place was for flying in or out.
Through Wen Xinliang's explanation, Li Yan finally understood the whole story and couldn't help but feel that his knowledge of the common sense of the cultivation world was still lacking. Some things could not be learned from books.
At this point, he also understood the trouble Wen Xinliang had mentioned after the two women were killed. This was already the trading city's area, and the fact that they had killed people should have been detected by the divine sense of those Golden Core cultivators. Although no one had come out to stop them, Li Yan could roughly guess that it was related to their identity as members of the Malevolent Spirit Sect.
A journey of thirty li, even on foot, was much faster for a cultivator than for an ordinary person. Moreover, the path was lined with green pines and cypresses, and a cool breeze blew, so it was not boring. Although they encountered other people on the road, they all kept their distance from each other.
Li Yan looked at the road ahead, like a straight, shaded avenue. The tree canopies, more than ten zhang high on both sides, formed an arched tunnel that led straight to the end of the road.
There, a majestic city wall, its upper half obscured by the dense shade and its lower half revealed, came into view. As Li Yan and the others approached, the city wall grew larger and larger. Finally, at the end of the green, shaded path, a hundred-zhang-high city wall filled Li Yan's vision. Looking up from below, it seemed to pierce the clouds. A person standing at the corner of the wall appeared like an ant. Looking up, one felt a shocking, impactful force.
Looking at the two passages at the city gate, one had a line of about forty or fifty people queuing up outside, being checked one by one by a dozen guards in different uniforms. In the other passage, people were coming out of the city one after another, and each person was also checked by the guards. Looking at the orderly flow of people entering and exiting the passages, Li Yan's eyes seemed to see the scene of him entering Green Mountain Pass for the first time.
'It's been almost four years. I wonder how Uncle Guoxin is doing? He should still be leading the villagers into the mountains to hunt like a fierce tiger. Xiaoyu and Xiaoshan should have long since graduated from their apprenticeships and be able to earn more money for their families...'