Chapter 5: Tracking Who? Who? Who? Who? Who?
Chu Sheng's face clearly expressed this, and even Ling Fengzhi himself understood it.
The young man didn't know what to say and was at a loss. He searched his body but couldn't find anything to express his gratitude. In the end, he could only say thank you dryly.
"Thank you very much."
Thanks to Chu Sheng's previous wanderings due to his inability to establish his foundation, there was nothing left to take away from this villa in the Canglang Mountains. The only valuable item was the spirit stone used to reinforce the defensive formation.
However, even if these spirit stones were not destroyed in the previous battle, they were completely consumed by the spiritual energy that Chu Sheng absorbed when he broke through to the late stage of foundation building.
Chu Sheng looked at the spirit stones that had lost their power and put them away without saying anything. Ling Fengzhi looked at the mess on the ground in the villa, and saw that Chu Sheng was even taking away the spirit stones that were useless after their power was exhausted. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.
For the first time, he regretted that he had only focused on cultivation and always put other things behind his mind. As a result, he now had nothing and was too embarrassed to help fellow Daoist Chu Sheng. He could only silently accompany her to pack her things, just as a hard labor.
After everything was settled, Chu Sheng and Ling Fengzhi began to figure out where they should go next.
The Canglang Mountains are located in the central part of the continent, clearly separating the living areas of humans and demons like a watershed.
To the north of the Canglang Mountains are the fourteen continents of the Central Plains, where the land is divided and yet interconnected, and to the south are deep forests, vast swamps, and millions of mountains where miasma stretches for thousands of miles.
The location of Canglang Villa is right in the middle of the northern part of the mountain range, facing the three continents of Jingnan, Xihua and Futu among the fourteen continents. Among them, Jingnan Continent is the closest, Xihua Holy Continent is the second, and Futu Continent is the farthest.
Ling Fengzhi wanted to go to Jingnanzhou, but Chu Sheng shook his head.
"You don't have the communication talisman, the flying phoenix, or the positioning jade guide. We don't know when someone from the Sword Palace will find you. Your current physical condition requires medical attention. Why don't we go to Futu Island first, settle down, and then find a way to send a message to the Sword Palace to explain the truth."
"We're going to Futu Island. If we use the teleportation array, we'll need to transit through three major cities, which will take about ten days..."
Before Ling Fengzhi could finish his words, Chu Sheng interrupted him in surprise. "Why do we need to use the teleportation array?"
The penniless swordsman boy was quite shocked to see the girl reach out and press a bead on her wrist, then casually took out a flying boat.
"We can take a flying boat and arrive in three days."
Chu Sheng, a truly wealthy woman who has been taking care of Yun Mengzi's logistics for over a decade and has no idea of the sufferings of the world, invites the poor swordsman Ling Fengzhi to open the door to a new world.
Just a flying boat... No, there actually is a flying boat.
Ling Fengzhi gradually understood everything.
——No wonder such a small sect can attract a sword genius like Fellow Daoist Chu Sheng to stay!
Even though he was deeply shocked by Chu Sheng's ability to make money, Ling Fengzhi was, after all, a knowledgeable disciple of the Sword Palace, and he still calmly boarded the flying boat with Chu Sheng.
Shortly after the flying boat left, two groups of uninvited guests from different camps visited the deserted villa.
"...He actually succeeded." The first group of people who came were wearing gray robes and masks. They did not show much emotion when they saw the bodies of the three people. However, when they found that there was a lingering aura of frost here, the leader scolded them in a cold voice.
"What are you still standing here for? We have to find a way to find him before An Luan has time to report to the Lord!"
"There are obviously people helping him here. Do we need more support?" someone asked in a low voice, but was harshly rebuked by the leader.
"Do you want everyone to know how useless we are? We sent out so many cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Stage and even the Golden Core Stage, but we couldn't even capture a sword cultivator in the late Foundation Establishment Stage!"
"What are you still standing there for? Let's search in the direction they left! He's injured. Even if someone helps him, he won't be able to get far in this remote place. Let's start by searching from Jingnan Island!"
The gray-robed people left without even caring about the bodies of the three demon cultivators. Not long after, another group of cultivators found this place.
"Brother Qi, can we locate Junior Brother Ling?"
In the team, a disciple with a slightly tired face saw the eldest brother leading the team looking at the traces of the battle in the courtyard and the corpses of three demon cultivators whose sects they could not tell from for a long time without saying a word, so he bravely asked.
"The good news is... if nothing unexpected happens, Junior Brother Ling has probably been rescued." Qi An, the first disciple of the Sword Palace, thought for a moment and told everyone the good news first.
"Although they were attacked again here, it seems they escaped unscathed. Various signs indicate they left on their own initiative and didn't allow those pursuing them to stop them."
"That's good! That's good!" A voice of relief suddenly rang out in the team.
This training was led by Qi An, the first disciple of the Sword Palace, a Jindan stage sword cultivator. As a core disciple of the sect, Ling Fengzhi was not a key figure in the traveling team. Who would have thought that he got the Frost Sword by chance, and was attacked and killed by a demon cultivator when he was alone.
Although the demon cultivators present at the time were repelled by Qi An who arrived immediately, it could not change the result that Ling Fengzhi was separated from his fellow disciples and his life or death was unknown.
Qi An and his team had been searching for Ling Fengzhi day and night for a long time. Everyone had been worried about this for many days. Now that they had finally gotten some good news, everyone naturally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Brother Qi, what's the bad news?" The disciple saw that Qi An seemed to be hesitant to speak, so he asked again.
"The bad news is... someone must still be chasing him, but we don't know where the pursuers have gone, nor do we know where the people who saved Junior Brother Ling took him." Qi An sighed, holding the sword and looking at the sky.
Before Chu Sheng left, he cleared out everything from the villa so thoroughly that not only were the people chasing him unable to find their way, but now even the people in the Sword Palace were confused.
Without a communication jade talisman and no magical tool to locate someone, searching for someone in this situation is like looking for a needle in a haystack in the world of cultivation.
The eldest disciple of the Sword Palace, who had suffered a disastrous defeat leading his team, sighed silently. For a moment, he couldn't figure out where Ling Fengzhi might be going, so he had to search the map in his mind and infer based on the geographical location.
Xihua Holy Continent is the territory of Buddhism. The Sword Palace is too murderous and sometimes not well-received there. I think Ling Fengzhi would not take the initiative to cause trouble.
Although Futuzhou had the Liangyi Valley, where doctors could treat injuries, the journey was far. Even if a cultivator in perfect condition used the teleportation array at full speed day and night to travel, it would still take more than eight or nine days...
Junior Brother Ling wouldn't fly directly over here, right?
Qi An laughed for a moment at his own confusing and wild imagination, and then he looked at his disciples and decided on the direction.
"In my opinion, Junior Brother Ling is most likely in Jingnanzhou. Even if he's not in Jingnanzhou, the people chasing him must be thinking the same thing, so..."
"Even if we can't find Senior Brother Ling, as long as we get rid of those people chasing him first, Senior Brother Ling will be safe!"
After hearing this, the Sword Palace disciples, whose thinking was to some extent very simple and crude, suddenly understood.
They weren't worried about losing the initiative when facing those chasing Ling Fengzhi. It was common knowledge that sword cultivators were naturally highly skilled in combat, and the Sword Palace lineage, moreover, advocated for killing. Every disciple was skilled in combat, and the leader, Qi An, had already reached the middle stage of the Golden Core stage...
As long as there is no one in the Nascent Soul stage among the pursuers, facing a large group of people in the middle and late stages of the Foundation Establishment stage and one in the middle stage of the Golden Core stage, no matter who comes, they will only be served as food.
The Nascent Soul stage is already enough to become an elder of a small sect in the world of cultivation. Although Ling Fengzhi has obtained the Frost Sword, he is only a sword cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage and has not yet become famous in the world of cultivation.
From this perspective, it would be unreasonable for the demonic sect to have such a high-level enemy to hunt him down—
In other words, as long as Qi An's team faces the pursuers, they are undoubtedly the Tongtiandai!
Qi An, who was very confident in his own strength, took the disciples of the Sword Palace to rest for a while and hurried to Jingnan Island.
Ling Fengzhi and Chu Sheng, who were actually flying in the sky, obviously had no idea what happened in the villa after they left.
The flying boat was driven by a formation and could travel smoothly even without anyone controlling it. Ling Fengzhi had nothing to do for a while, and he felt that the demon cultivator would catch up with him sooner or later. It would be a bad behavior to hide such a thing. Along the way, he found an opportunity to confess to Chu Sheng the reason why he was being chased.
Ling Fengzhi came out of the Sword Palace this time not just to travel and gain experience, but for an old story from the past.
A long time ago, a sword master was born in the Sword Palace. He was extremely powerful and talented. He was once regarded by the immortal cultivators at that time as the most powerful swordsman who was close to the peak.
But this prodigy suddenly left the Sword Palace after advancing to the Great Perfection stage and disappeared without a trace. Until one day, his name faded completely from the stone tablet in front of the Sword Washing Pool at the Sword Palace Sect...
A brilliant sword master fell in an unknown corner. Only sporadic rumors from nowhere said that his fall might be related to the evil Jile Sect - the conflict between the Sword Palace and Jile Sect began from then on.
A few months ago, the people in the Sword Palace received news that a sword inheritance suspected to be that of the Master of Frost Flower Sword had appeared in a small secret realm in the Canglang Mountains.
At this moment, someone from the Bliss Sect spread the word that they would not give up the Frost Sword unless it was theirs, and that they would use the power of the demonic path to restore the name of the Frost Sword Master...
Although it's not impossible for the Frost Flower Sword Master, a top-tier swordsman in the Mahayana stage, to choose to reincarnate and cultivate again, the Sword Palace, as a giant, cannot survive without the Frost Flower Sword...
However, at a time when the struggle between immortals and demons is in full swing and the demons are so arrogant in expressing their attitude, the Sword Palace is obviously unwilling to take the risk of letting such an iconic sword fall into the hands of evil-minded demon cultivators.
To put it bluntly, if the demons really took the Frost Sword and recognized the demon cultivators as their master, and also publicized their power everywhere, what's the difference between this and running around and causing trouble in the Sword Palace!
The Sword Palace, which was severely provoked by the actions of the demon cultivator, responded quickly. Ling Fengzhi and other disciples of the Sword Palace were led out of the palace by Qi An, and they came here on the orders of their master to retrieve the Frost Sword.
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