Chapter 438 Destroying Heads
Sanlikeng.
As its name suggests, this is a large pit with a diameter of three li and a depth of three li.
The pit is located in a barren mountain range, with almost no vegetation and large areas of exposed rock.
The pit was completely empty, with virtually no flammable materials.
·
Zhong Cai and Wu Shaogan arrived in front of Sanli Pit.
Perhaps because the two of them were traveling directly on the Nine Heavens Cloud Roc, they were not exactly keeping a low profile, which naturally attracted a lot of attention.
Especially since the bounty event had just ended, the two of them deliberately left three days to complete the final head exchange, and had already decided that they would not accept any more mission takers.
So, the first thing they were about to do had already been observed by others.
It's just that the Nine Heavens Cloud Roc's imposing presence has attracted even more interested cultivators.
The Zhong and Wu couple noticed that others were following them, but they did not ask anyone to drive them away.
Before long, they arrived safely.
The other cultivators also came to the nearby mountains and hills.
We'll wait and see what happens next.
The next moment, Zhong Cai's actions caused all the cultivators to gasp in shock.
It turned out that Zhong Cai had actually taken out a mustard seed ring, held it, aimed it at the Sanli Pit, and started throwing human heads into it!
·
Countless heads poured into the Sanli Pit, quickly covering the bottom with a thick layer.
People kept piling up, and in just a few breaths, several small hills formed in the pit!
Numerous cultivators looked down upon these "small hills".
They could see very clearly that no matter how many heads were piled up, if they carefully analyzed their aura, they would find that heads of all realms were piled together, even those in Nirvana and those sent as extras by the Heavenly Guides, they stayed together regardless of size.
That's really... quite uncouth.
Of course, what the righteous people were thinking was: This is really disrespectful to the evil path! But they were very happy to do it.
Some heretical cultivators who had concealed their identities twitched their faces.
Although they have no affection for their fellow comrades, and have even committed many acts of stealth and hunting for resources—they are so audacious that even when the evil sect's higher-ups issue orders to keep their heads down, they will still try every means to harm their fellow comrades—how could they possibly feel any pity for seeing too many of their fellow comrades' heads? They just assess the situation and will not share a common hatred.
However, when they saw the mixed group of people from different realms, they couldn't help but feel a bit complicated.
Some people even couldn't help but touch their necks.
Luckily, they struck first; otherwise, their head might have been among that chaotic pile of heads...
·
Regardless of what the onlookers were thinking, Zhong Cai breathed a slight sigh of relief after putting all the evil cultivators' heads into the pit.
The sight of so many heads clustered together was actually quite ferocious.
Zhong Cai stood at the edge of the pit and looked inside, but her expression was nothing unusual; instead, she had a calm and relaxed smile on her face...
When the onlookers noticed this, they couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts.
This King Zhong Dan... is really different from what they imagined.
Some cultivators were completely blank-minded, their thoughts drifting off to some terrifying place.
The next moment, Zhong produced a flame.
This is not wood fire, but a kind of animal fire with extremely strong heat.
Zhong Cai casually tossed the flames into the ravine. In an instant, the flames transformed into countless tiny sparks, all landing on different piles of heads.
Countless sparks of beast fire all transformed into real flames.
Perhaps those evil heads were too easy to burn, for the beast fire instantly enveloped all the evil heads and began to burn wildly!
Both Tianyin and Xuanzhao were reduced to ashes in a single encounter.
Several massive mountain peaks suddenly collapsed, but many heads, some with wide-open eyes, some with expressions of terror, and others with various other expressions, were all swallowed by the flames, appearing strange and eerie against the backdrop of the raging fire.
However, the power of the flames seemed to have weakened somewhat from the moment they were fused together.
It's impossible to turn it into ashes instantly.
As time passed, the merged heads also turned into dust.
·
The cultivators watching this scene couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.
Throughout history, numerous families have waged war against each other, and large-scale wars have broken out in many major regions. Even now, on this vast continent, peace is not guaranteed everywhere. Whether it's a small incident snowballing into a huge conflict, leading to a battle, or powerful individuals forming feuds that spread to two different regions, all of these are highly possible and ongoing.
Naturally, such a battlefield was like a meat grinder, with not only heads rolling everywhere, but also no place for bodies to rest. Every moment, the number of lives lost was enormous.
That too was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, utterly terrifying.
But there has never been a place where people's heads were piled up together, forming several mountains of heads...
When the flames blazed, even some of the evil cultivators whose faces were exposed were familiar faces, yet they were all thrown here like trash, which was both contemptuous and shocking.
Sometimes, some cultivators feel as if countless eyes of dead evil cultivators are staring at them—this is naturally just an illusion. Experienced righteous cultivators would never ignore the evil nature of evil cultivators, and after killing an evil cultivator, they would naturally grind away their primordial soul.
Because Zhong Caikai wanted human heads when he offered the bounty, even though he said he could accept other tokens, perhaps because this seventh-level alchemy king's reputation was too great, all that was sent were human heads.
Anyway, it's a piece of cake to kill someone, isn't it? If you use other tokens, there's an extra step of identification, which is more troublesome.
Unlike this head, regardless of whether it belongs to a heretical sect or not, the head is still part of the body. The body of a heretical cultivator is imbued with an aura very different from that of a righteous cultivator, making it easily identifiable.
·
The fused heads were burned to ashes, and the mountain of heads collapsed once more.
Next, the heads of the palace builders were also burned.
The "mountains" were originally very high, but after all the heads of the lower and middle levels turned to ash, the remaining heads of the seventh and eighth levels could no longer form a magnificent "scenery".
Black mist also appeared in the valley, seemingly produced by the evil spirits being burned. The higher the level of the person being burned, the more of this mist was contained within their head, which eventually led to this strange phenomenon.
Many of the cultivators watching immediately held their breath and set up various methods around them to either purify or dispel the mist.
Zhong Cai glanced at it, took out a bottle from the ancient city, poured out a ball of medicinal liquid, and activated it with his palm, turning it into a layer of mist that went directly towards the black mist.
The black mist seemed to be absorbed upon encountering the water mist, and gradually dissipated.
There were other alchemists nearby, especially those from the Lingxian Sect who liked to join in the fun; many of them came along with the martial arts cultivators to watch.
Seeing Zhong Cai's action, the alchemists suddenly realized what was happening and each used their own methods to dispel the black mist with medicinal mist.
The numerous martial arts cultivators naturally wouldn't let the alchemists do all the work while they just watched. So they each used some less impressive secret techniques or activated their palm winds to drive away the black mist.
After this happens several times, the black mist usually fails to take shape and dissipates.
A few less advanced cultivators who had come with their masters to "broaden their horizons" all breathed a sigh of relief.
When the black mist first reached their vicinity, it made them feel dizzy, indicating that the energy it contained was extremely detrimental to the righteous path and should be dealt with as soon as possible to avoid future troubles.
·
Gradually, the spirit head also began to make a hissing sound.
It's burning, but obviously burning much slower.
Many heads take quite some time to show signs of burning on the surface, but they are far from being reduced to ashes.
Suddenly, Zhong Cai took out another bottle, turned the liquid inside into mist, and slapped it onto the heads of those people.
As if an accelerant had been added, the flames suddenly surged up, turning into a sea of fire that filled the entire Sanlikeng area!
This display was even more domineering than when the previous mountains of human heads were set ablaze.
Many cultivators sent their souls into it and saw a strange sight—those spirit heads seemed to have burned off more than half of themselves in just a few breaths!
The medicine that was just sprayed easily melted the Spirit Transformation Realm's defenses; it was indeed not to be underestimated!
Once all the spirit heads have been burned, the most difficult ones to deal with are the Nirvana heads.
This is even higher than the level that Zhong Cai himself had achieved in alchemy.
However, this also did not stop Zhong Cai from doing anything.
Because behind Zhong Cai is an eighth-level Pill Emperor!
So long before coming here, Zhong Cai had already visited her master, Sang Yunchu, and retrieved a medicine bottle.
So Zhong Cai did the same thing as before, but the medicine she took out was of a higher grade.
·
However, just as Zhong Cai was about to pour the medicine bottle into the pit, a voice suddenly called out to him.
"Cai'er, wait!"
The voice was slightly rough, but the tone was affectionate.
To the many onlookers, this must be Zhong Danwang's elder.
As a result, many eyes turned toward the direction from which the sound came.
Sure enough, a burly man strode over through the air, holding two long strands of hair in his hands, each with a hideous head hanging from it!
A cultivator with keen eyesight immediately recognized it and exclaimed, "It looks like the heretical Nirvana from the Eastern Maple Domain!"
Others looked familiar, and after being reminded, they all remembered.
These two Nirvana heads did indeed come from two evil forces over there; one was in the early stage of Nirvana, and the other had reached the middle stage of Nirvana.
The burly man rushing towards them was in the early stage of Nirvana.
But this cultivator actually killed two heretical cultivators in succession, one of whom was even a cultivator of a higher level?
It's truly shocking.
I don't know where it came from...
etc.
Many cultivators realized what was happening the moment their doubts arose.
The most likely candidate for a martial arts cultivator who is at the Nirvana Realm and so close to King Zhong Dan is Wu Shaogan's master—Jiang Chongguang!
Moreover, the fact that this person brought the Nirvana head after the bounty mission had ended clearly wasn't for exchanging resources with Zhong Cai...
So……
Many cultivators suddenly understood.
It's definitely because they're protecting their own!
Ten years ago, Wu Shaogan was ambushed, and during the period when countless evil sects were exploited as resources, some information was leaked that the attacker had indeed targeted Wu Shaogan... This confirmed the suspicions of many evil sects, since anyone with a bit of strength would probably covet the body of a prodigy like Wu Shaogan...
Therefore, although Zhong Cai offered the bounty to avenge his Daoist partner and did so with such a grand scale, he was not the only one who cared about Wu Shaogan.
Many people have forgotten that Wu Shaogan became an apprentice a long time ago, and that his master has already come to the top continent!
As a master, one naturally wants to avenge one's disciple.
Therefore, Jiang Chongguang definitely didn't want to interfere with Zhong Cai's work, so he waited until now and couldn't wait to pick two heads to express his feelings for his beloved disciple.
·
A breath later, Jiang Chongguang landed beside Zhong Cai.
Zhong Cai and Wu Shaogan both bowed:
"Master Jiang."
"Master."
Jiang Chongguang laughed twice, then casually tossed the two Nirvana heads into the Sanli Pit. He then said to the Zhong and Wu couple, "Here's some firewood for you!"
Zhong Cai chuckled, then said with feigned seriousness, "I was just worried that the fire wasn't burning bright enough, but now I'm so grateful to Master for adding firewood."
Jiang Chongguang patted Zhong Cai on the shoulder, not wanting to interfere with his subsequent actions.
Sure enough, Zhong Cai continued, directly sending the bottle of medicine into the pit.
...Sang Yunchu is indeed skilled at using medicine to wear down Nirvana bodies. Although he only gave a small bottle, the mist formed by the medicine broke through the defenses of the Nirvana heads as soon as it came into contact with them, melting half of them!
The flames, fueled by some unknown energy, grew even larger, and the sounds of burning became louder and louder.
Finally, all the Nirvana heads were burned to ashes in the raging flames!
The huge pit was filled with a large amount of ashes.
It wasn't the kind of so-called cremated remains that still had some bone fragments; it was all real grayish-white dust.
After a strong gust of wind blew in, all the cultivators protected themselves and those around them.
Wu Shaogan then pulled Zhong Cai into his arms.
Then, countless dust particles spread out, carried away by the strong mountain winds, and were blown to who-knows-where.
·
That concludes the entire process.
Zhong Cai slowly exhaled.
For him, the anger that had been building up inside him all these years, even though he tried his best to ignore it, was finally released completely.
Wu Shaogan smoothed Zhong Cai's long hair, his eyes gentle.
Zhong Cai turned her head and gave him a bright smile.
·
Countless cultivators who were watching witnessed this deeply affectionate scene between Zhong and Wu.
Jiang Chongguang was already used to it, and whenever he saw it, he was merely pleased.
The righteous cultivators also thought it was normal.
Many of them had traded lives for resources, and most of them went to the transactions in person, so they naturally had brief interactions with the couple and many had witnessed their intimacy.
Some cultivators, though they had never witnessed the loving relationship between Zhong and Wu, knew about the interactions between some couples who had very close relationships because they had interacted with disciples of the Lingxian Sect and the War God Hall.
It's nothing unusual anymore.
On the other hand, those who had been hiding in the underworld all wore tight-lipped faces and felt a strange sense of unease.
The Zhong-Wu couple are becoming increasingly difficult to deal with. Not only is Wu Shaogan himself powerful, but Zhong Cai's actions have also made it clear that unless they can take down both of them at once, otherwise…
One can imagine that if Wu Shaogan was so unharmed after being ambushed, then if he were killed, Zhong Cai would probably use all his wealth to hire Tianxia to avenge Wu Shaogan!
If Zhong Cai is killed... Wu Shaogan should have a large amount of resources available for a bounty, and his own talent is also terrifying. He will probably go into seclusion for a while, and when he emerges, he will likely become a nightmare for countless evil cultivators.
After all, given Wu Shaogan's current agility and combat prowess, if he were to truly target the evil Dao Huo Huo, he would be like a ghost, impossible to catch, yet countless evil Daoists would die at his hands.
As a result, almost all the heretics present had the same idea.
Unless you can kill both of them at the same time, don't make any moves again!
This time they were severely plowed; even if it didn't cause them serious injury, it was still a huge loss.
If they come again...
By then, it might not be a ten-year bounty anymore, but a hundred years!
Zhong Cai's success rate and speed in alchemy have been demonstrated to the fullest extent over the years—his talent in alchemy is truly terrifying!
Even if Zhong Cai himself doesn't have enough resources to support a century-long bounty, as long as his alchemy skills remain, and as long as he offers alchemy quotas for trade, countless cultivators will still be willing to charge into battle.
They are not to be trifled with.
·
After the matter was resolved, Zhong and Wu returned home with Jiang Chongguang.
With the parties involved no longer present, the other cultivators naturally dispersed as well.
Only countless ashes remain, still wandering in these mountains.
After that, everything was calm and peaceful, and it seemed that nothing major happened again.
At least within the territory of the Western River Region, nothing major has happened.
·
On Qianyuan Island.
The Zhong-Wu couple are entertaining guests.
Opposite him on the stone seat, the aloof and noble young master of a prominent family held a teacup, took a sip, and smiled, "Brother Zhong and Brother Wu's tea is still the one that suits my taste the best."
Zhong Cai smiled and pushed over a few tea snacks, saying, "Brother Chao, please try the tea snacks; they taste even better."
The noble young master did indeed eat it and even offered a few words of praise.
Zhong Cai then asked, "I heard that Brother Chao obtained a fortuitous opportunity after his Spirit Transformation and has been in seclusion for several years. Now you've come to see the two of us, is it because you're itching to spar with Old Wu?"
This aloof young master—also Chao Hanxiao, whom he hadn't seen for many years—smiled and cupped his hands in greeting, saying, "That's exactly what I was thinking." He then sighed softly and said to Zhong Cai with feigned complaint, "It's a pity that when Brother Zhong offered such a high price to exorcise the evil, I was in some ruins. By the time I went into seclusion and came out afterward, it was too late. Otherwise, how could I have missed the opportunity bestowed upon me by Brother Zhong?"
Zhong Cai raised an eyebrow: "Now that we've vented our anger and burned all the heads of the evil cultivators we obtained, we definitely won't be taking any more."
Chao Hanxiao deliberately feigned regret and sighed, "I'm too late."
Zhong Cai couldn't help but chuckle, and raised her teacup to toast Chao Hanxiao.
Chao Hanxiao also picked up his teacup and clinked glasses with him.
After they finished their toast, Chao Hanxiao mischievously bowed to Wu Shaogan as well, saying, "I almost forgot, Brother Wu should be jealous."
Wu Shaogan raised an eyebrow, clinked glasses with Chao Hanxiao, and said frankly, "That's true."
Upon seeing this, Chao Hanxiao couldn't help but laugh again.
·
The group got along quite well, and after joking around for a while, they also talked about cultivation.
Chao Hanxiao did indeed want to spar with Wu Shaogan, so he quickly set up an array to create a space for martial arts combat.
Wu Shaogan entered and engaged Chao Hanxiao in battle.
Although Chao Hanxiao was far behind Wu Shaogan before, he made great progress after going into seclusion, so he caught up quickly. While Wu Shaogan was steadily honing his strength, Chao Hanxiao's combat power soared.
Therefore, their current sparring match is quite interesting to watch.
After watching for a while, Zhong Cai realized that these two weren't really going all out yet. They were probably going to hone all their combat skills after entering the Spirit Transformation stage, and it would take who knows how long.
He simply took out the alchemy furnace, sat down, and lit a fire.
While refining pills, Zhong Cai watched the battle without disturbing their immersive sparring.
With Zhong Cai's current insight, he could see that Chao Hanxiao's combat power was quite formidable, almost reminding him of the previous battle for the top spot between his old master Wu and him!
But Zhong Cai has great confidence.
This time, Wu will still win.
Zhong Cai knew that as long as a cultivator surpassed his master in the past, even if that cultivator became extremely powerful and progressed very quickly in the future, he would never be able to catch up with his master.
·
And that's exactly what happened.
This exchange was conducted with the aim of maintaining harmony, not a life-or-death battle, and both sides indeed demonstrated their skills.
At least, Chao Hanxiao demonstrated all his skills and also discovered that he was still no match for Wu Shaogan.
Chao Hanxiao could also sense that Wu Shaogan had not yet used his full strength.
However, Chao Hanxiao did not ask Wu Shaogan to reveal all his abilities. Firstly, he himself had also kept a trump card up his sleeve, and secondly, he himself was not capable of forcing the other party to reveal his methods. Would he really force him to do so? That would be somewhat shameless, and he couldn't bear to lose face like that.
So the two fought for three days and three nights, and when their Xuan energy was almost exhausted, they finally stopped.
·
Chao Hanxiao wiped his sweat and walked out of the formation.
In his sight, Wu Shaogan had already slipped out before him and arrived at Zhong Cai's side.
Zhong Cai was wiping Wu Shaogan's sweat.
Chao Hanxiao paused slightly.
After thinking for a moment, he slowed down his pace to avoid disturbing the others too much.
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