The Soul of Yu Tong

"Uncle Yuchi Shan, my mother Yuchi Snow, my father Ji Yichuan!" Ji Ning stared at him, his eyes filled with pain and madness. "Back then, you didn't even take them seriously. Perhaps you'd even forgotten this matter long ago. But now I am here, and I have come to avenge them!"

Every single word emerged from the very depths of Ji Ning's heart.

Yu Tong could feel the hatred radiating from this beast-robed youth. "This youth… he is the child that woman was carrying back then?"

"Twenty years…"

"In just twenty short years, that child was born and has now grown strong enough to casually slay my master, Crippled Moon Realperson. I… who exactly have I offended?" Yu Tong had always been cautious, never daring to offend truly powerful figures. Even when he killed geniuses, he left no loose ends.

But he never imagined that in his eagerness to flatter that young master, 'Dong Qi,' the pregnant woman he had targeted would give birth to such a terrifying youth.

"I… I fell because of this?"

Yu Tong was tormented beyond measure, yet scenes flashed through his mind—the path he had walked from childhood, step by step. To climb higher, he had stopped at nothing! He had even manipulated many powerful figures, turning them into his pawns, all the way until he became a Wanxiang Adept.

"I schemed my entire life, yet I was defeated by this." Yu Tong's eyes were filled with agony. He suddenly let out a hoarse roar. "Heaven does not favor me! I am not willing to accept this! I am not willing!"

As the roar echoed through the courtyard, Yu Tong's charred body suddenly began to emit a hissing sound as flames burst forth, consuming his entire form.

Ji Ning watched silently. A censer-like magic treasure appeared in his palm.

"Collect." Ji Ning willed it.

With his divine sense, Ji Ning could clearly 'see' a soul being drawn directly into the censer.

There were many magic treasures designed specifically for souls, such as the 'Ten Thousand Ghosts Pennant,' which could directly absorb souls… and Ji Ning's censer functioned in a similar manner. However, it only possessed the power to absorb souls and then erode and destroy them. It was a rather useless treasure, incapable of active attack.

"This Yu Tong was quite a formidable figure," Mu Northson said softly, sighing. "To climb from an ordinary mortal all the way to becoming a Wanxiang Adept, even to the point of making Crippled Moon Realperson's own daughter throw away her life for him. Impressive!"

Northson caught himself and glanced at Ji Ning. Yu Tong was his senior apprentice-brother's great enemy, after all.

Ji Ning's gaze was as deep and calm as a lake. He looked silently at the pile of ash on the ground and said coolly, "He was indeed a formidable figure. But he had no bottom line. To climb higher, he would do anything. To ingratiate himself with that young master Dong Qi, he dared to attack my mother when she was still pregnant. To protect her, my uncle died in battle, and my father's path of cultivation was severed."

"Father and mother died in the end as well."

"All to ingratiate himself with young master Dong Qi…" Ji Ning recalled the scene his divine sense had shown him of Yu Tong treating that 'Yue Wei' like a slave girl. "This man stopped at nothing. He who rides a tiger cannot dismount. Even if he hadn't fallen to me today, some other expert would have slain him in the future!"

On the path of immortality, one ultimately relies on oneself!

Schemes, manipulation, borrowing influence, robbing and killing… these methods might bring temporary glory, but in the end, one will take a great fall.

Relying only on one's own strength is the path to eternity.

"Whoosh."

Ji Ning waved his hand, collecting all the treasures scattered across the courtyard.

"Let's leave quickly." Ji Ning turned to his junior apprentice-brother Mu Northson and Uncle White. "That Crippled Moon Realperson left me with a bad feeling. He probably had deep connections. This place isn't safe to stay."

"Yes," Uncle White agreed.

"Right. That Northblood Token looked really sinister," Mu Northson said.

Soon, Ji Ning and his group quietly departed from Crippled Moon Peak. No one discovered them.

High in the sky.

The dragon-headed warship changed its form and color once more, now pitch black, flying slowly.

"Father. Mother. Uncle." Ji Ning silently intoned. "Of my three enemies, I have now slain one. Rest assured, not a single one of them will be left alive! And as for Uncle's only bloodline… I will find a way to locate her in the future."

According to his father, Uncle only had one daughter.

Unfortunately, he had no idea where this older cousin was, what she was called, or what she looked like. Finding her would be incredibly difficult.

But Ji Ning did not give up. The more powerful a cultivator became, the more incredible their methods. He had heard legends of powerful Immortals who, with a mere calculation, could predict future events. If he one day possessed such power, finding his cousin might not be so hard.

The Whitewater Hound watched silently. Having witnessed the slaying of one enemy filled him with immense excitement and even greater comfort. He whispered in his heart, "Big brother, Ning'er is growing stronger and stronger. He can now slay even a peak Wanxiang Adept. He will surely become a name that resounds across the endless lands, a true legend in the boundless territories ruled by the Grand Xia Dynasty."

"Senior apprentice-brother." Mu Northson spoke up.

Ji Ning looked at him.

"Are we going to Snowcloud Wilderness now?" Northson asked.

Snowcloud Wilderness was the foundation of the Dong clan. That Water Yi was a Zifu Disciple within the tribe. To kill him, they would have to go there.

"Yes, we go now," Ji Ning said.

"But it's a powerful tribe as well," Northson pressed. "They have over ten Wanxiang Adepts, and it's the tribe of a Primal Daoist. Although that Primal Daoist is stationed at Snowdragon Mountain, he surely left some clan-protecting measures behind. In an emergency, he might even be able to return."

Ji Ning nodded. "I know. Don't worry, Junior Apprentice-Brother. I'm not arrogant enough to try and fight a Primal Daoist head-on."

"Good, you're still clear-headed." Northson nodded. Watching Ji Ning kill Yu Tong had worried him. He had been through a similar ordeal himself. He knew that when faced with the enemy responsible for one's parents' deaths, a person could easily become red-eyed and reckless. He didn't want Ji Ning to throw his life away.

"Ning'er," Uncle White urged. "First, let's carefully examine the treasures Crippled Moon Realperson left behind. I kept feeling that he was very dangerous."

"Yes." Ji Ning and Mu Northson both agreed.

They immediately began to refine and inspect the treasures and storage artifacts the Realperson had left behind.

Crippled Moon Peak remained as calm as ever.

The servants and retainers had no idea that Crippled Moon Realperson and the others were dead.

Nearly an hour after Ji Ning's group had left.

The surrounding space rippled.

Whoosh!

A pitch-black sword-shaped warship appeared directly in midair. From within the ship, figures in blood-red robes flew out, one after another. In the blink of an eye, thirteen such figures stood in the sky. The leader, a bald man wearing a blood-red robe, had a silver flying-sword emblem on his cuff.

The other twelve blood-robed men all had grey flying-sword emblems on their cuffs.

"Wooom." A powerful divine sense swept down, covering the area below.

The bald leader had strange tattoos on the top of his head. His gaze was cold and sinister as he looked down.

"Captain? Second Brother…?" a blood-robed man beside him asked in a low voice.

"He's dead." The bald man's voice was hoarse, grating like the clash of swords. "Although the murderer has destroyed the corpse, the residual aura of the battle is still here. The scent of Second Brother's blood still lingers in the air. Actually, back when the 'Xuan' Army's heart-lamps went out, Second Brother's lamp was already extinguished. He had died. You just didn't want to believe it."

"How could this be? Second Brother was close to his lifespan's end. He had returned to Crippled Moon Peak to live out his remaining years in peace. He had no enemies. And even if he did, showing them our Northblood Token should have been enough to deter them. Who would insist on killing him?"

"Second Brother's strength was formidable too. He exchanged his military merits for the Crippled Moon Sword Formation. Its power is immense. Among Wanxiang Adepts, there might be some monstrous geniuses who could defeat him, but he should have been able to stall for time. With his escape techniques, fleeing shouldn't have been hard."

"Unless someone knew Second Brother's background and set a trap specifically to kill him in one blow."

They all discussed it.

"Second Brother fought alongside us in the squad for over a century. So many of our old brothers shared life-and-death bonds with him! Now he's been killed in his own home on Crippled Moon Peak. The other old brothers won't be able to swallow this anger. We don't bully others, and we don't let others bully us! This enmity must be avenged!"

"We must avenge him!"

"Whoever killed Second Brother, we will kill him and destroy his soul."

"Our Xuan Army's brothers are not to be trifled with."

Each of the blood-robed men was filled with a murderous aura.

The bald leader said coldly, "Investigate! Investigate thoroughly! Find out who killed Second Brother. He had already returned to live out his days in peace, and they still wouldn't let him go. We must find the killer."

"Yes."

"Right."

They all nodded.

"Let's go. I'll go ask the old captain for help and have the Xuan Army headquarters investigate and find the murderer." The bald man said coldly, "Move out."

Whoosh.

The group of blood-robed figures flew back into the sword-shaped black warship. The space around them rippled once more, and the ship vanished into thin air.

Ji Ning, Mu Northson, Uncle White, and Qingqing were all examining the treasures Crippled Moon Realperson had left behind. Yu Tong's storage treasure, being a Human-ranked artifact, was the first to be refined. The items inside surprised them a little. Yu Tong's collection of treasures was no less impressive than that of Dong Yi or Beihe Zhou.

But their main focus was on refining Crippled Moon Realperson's storage treasure. After painstakingly refining it, they brought out every single item and began to inspect them closely.

The moment they saw the contents, their faces all changed.

"We're in trouble," Qingqing muttered.