Chapter 404
Between the Lingnan Region and the Tianlan Sea Region, there was still the Demon Region.
And now, the "Yuan Organization," which existed in a remote corner of the Lingnan Region, a Land of Immortal Legacy, had suddenly appeared in a remote corner of the Tianlan Sea Region, the Tianlan Sea Area.
Was this a coincidence, or...
In fact, this was the same organization. Was this an extremely large, terrifying dark organization lurking in the cultivation world, existing by kidnapping alchemists, artificers, and other craftsmen of the cultivation world?
Qin Ran closed his eyes and carefully read the memories of the Red-Clothed Man.
Unsurprisingly, the Red-Clothed Man was a wild alchemist who had been kidnapped by the "Yuan Organization" and, after being brainwashed within the organization, had submitted to the "Yuan Organization." He became one of those lackeys who helped the tiger devour its prey.
His mission in coming to the Tianlan Sea Area was to obtain the Divine Essence Condensation from Divine Essence Mountain for the "Yuan Organization."
The "Yuan Organization" was an organization that existed by controlling alchemists, artificers, and other craftsmen. The Tianlan Sea Region was an area where water-based alchemy was extremely developed.
Therefore, the Divine Essence Condensation, which was viewed as a divine artifact and sacred object by the alchemists of the Tianlan Sea Region, was something the 'Yuan Organization' very much wanted to obtain.
So, the setup in this cave, the so-called arrangement of the Dragon Whale Island's master, was actually the arrangement of the 'Yuan Organization.'It was a method that the 'Yuan Organization' had researched for many years to break the seal of Divine Essence Mountain without needing immortal pills. Then they cooperated with various powers in the Tianlan Sea Region to break the seal, which led to this cave, the night walkers, and the Divine Essence Mountain incident.
Yes, it wasn't just Dragon Whale Island that was cooperating with the 'Yuan Organization.' Dragon Whale Island was just one of the powers involved. In fact, all the major powers in the Tianlan Sea Region had cooperated with the 'Yuan Organization.'
At this time, the arrangements of various forces on Divine Essence Mountain targeting the seal were mostly the arrangements of the 'Yuan Organization.'
As for what exactly the "Yuan Organization's" method of breaking the seal was, the Red-Clothed Man didn't know. He only knew that the arrangement in this cave was for producing something called 'Demon Soul Evil Blood.'
From its name alone, one could tell that "Demon Soul Evil Blood" was aimed at the 'Divine Essence Condensation.'
And its purpose was to break the seal of Divine Essence Mountain. The Red-Clothed Man didn't know the specific operation or effects.
As for its production process, it used a giant pit formation to collect cultivators' spiritual energy, blood, grieving souls, and remains according to the predetermined method of the formation. Then a special magical treasure was used to transform the things collected by the giant pit formation into "Demon Soul Evil Blood."
The difficulty of producing this thing... not to mention other forces, just talking about Dragon Whale Island here. Each Divine Essence Mountain incident only accumulated about ten drops.
As Qin Ran was reading the Red-Clothed Man's memories, the formation masters responsible for the giant pit formation over there noticed something was wrong on their side.
Someone stood up to look this way, some were secretly making hand seals, preparing to set up formations.
Someone tentatively asked, "Alchemist? Are you feeling unwell?"
But the Red-Clothed Man had his back to them, falling onto Tie Ruonan's broad chest. They only sensed something was wrong but hadn't really discovered the problem, so they didn't take action immediately.
So they saw that the moment the question was asked, the night walker captain Tie Ruonan vanished into thin air!
"Enemy attack..." Someone reacted, hurriedly shouting out.
But before he could finish the word "attack," a colorless and formless sword made of water pierced through his throat, silencing him forever.
Alchemists, formation masters, and night walkers were the three professions that existed in this cave.
Among them, alchemists were responsible for the final maintenance of magical treasures and the collection of the product "Demon Soul Evil Blood"; formation masters were responsible for maintaining all the formations in the cave; night walkers were responsible for hunting cultivators and protecting the cave's safety.
However, the night walkers who were supposed to provide protection had all been killed. So, the alchemists and formation masters were actually like lambs waiting for slaughter.
One thing worth noting:
On this Divine Essence Mountain, all the major powers were there to refine "Demon Soul Evil Blood," and there was actually a kind of unspoken rule of harmony, which was that everyone didn't interfere with each other and only focused on hunting the scattered cultivators who came to Divine Essence Mountain.
There had been almost no offensive actions between the major powers. Over thousands of years, there had only been a few incidents in total.
So, although all the night walkers were dead, the people here didn't actually have such a strong sense of crisis. Especially since this Divine Essence Mountain incident had already passed, and the traitor had been killed by Tie Ruonan...
Based on all of the above, Qin Ran, this alchemist with not very high combat power, could now hold a knife in his left hand and a sword in his right hand, using Immortal Seeking the Way to move freely among these formation masters, killing people as easily as killing chickens.
He passed through the crowd like a phantom, and the formation masters didn't even have time to construct basic runes before they lost their lives one by one.
Qin Ran put away his knife and dispersed the water on the Divine Essence Pearl. He turned back to clean up each formation master, especially their formation materials. After cleaning up, he threw all these formation masters into the giant pit.
He stood at the edge of the giant pit, looking at the bodies of the formation masters being swallowed by the giant pit, silently contemplating.
Perhaps it was a bit hypocritical, but he was indeed mourning, mourning for these innocent cultivators he had killed over the past few days.
He had once promised them that he would kill everyone here.
In this world, one must keep their word. If you say you'll kill someone's entire family, then you kill their entire family.
Now, he had fulfilled his promise.
After the moment of silence, Qin Ran went to strip the Red-Clothed Man's clothes and searched him thoroughly.
Remarkably, the Red-Clothed Man had a storage space on him... Perhaps because the artifice development in the Tianlan Sea Region wasn't very good, he had rarely seen anyone use qiankun bags since coming here. Those who could use qiankun bags were truly either rich or noble.
After throwing the Red-Clothed Man into the giant pit as well and putting the formation materials into the storage space, Qin Ran took out the spirit herbs from the Red-Clothed Man's storage space and refined them into Death Notice Pills.
He took more than ten low-quality Death Notice Pills and used the magic "Illusory as Flowers in the Mirror, Moon Reflected in the Water" to condense a water clone in front of him, giving all the Death Notice Pills to the water clone.
The water clone stood up, transformed into the appearance of the Red-Clothed Man, put on the Red-Clothed Man's clothes, and wore the Red-Clothed Man's identity token.
With all preparations complete, it stood straight, gave Qin Ran a military salute as if ready to die, then turned and walked towards the giant pit.
As it walked, the Red-Clothed Man's identity token was activated by the formation, interacting with the formation above the giant pit, causing a staircase leading upwards to appear in front of it. It walked over and climbed the stairs step by step.
Qin Ran stood with his hands behind his back in front of the giant pit, watching the clone disappear above the giant pit. He looked up, silently waiting, waiting for the people hidden in the formation space up there to die.
There were naturally still people in the hidden formation space, responsible for guarding that magical treasure and collecting the "Demon Soul Evil Blood."
So for safety, Qin Ran had to let the clone go and scout first.
After waiting for a day and a night, he felt the time was about right, then he took out the formation materials collected from the formation masters and set up a formation-breaking array in front of the hidden formation space.
He had already calculated the formation-breaking array long ago, now it was just a matter of setting it up. It didn't take much time, and he set up the formation.
The moment the formation took shape, a huge formation covering the entire cave appeared faintly above the giant pit, revealing a grid woven by formation lines.
So it was only then that he discovered that the hidden space above the giant pit was not a space opened up by qiankun formations, but just a space hidden by illusion formations.
What was hidden was the upper half of this cave that originally existed, just concealed by illusion formations.
The cave looked transparent, but in reality, it was two levels, upper and lower.
The formation lines broke, and above the giant pit, a staircase made of earth appeared out of thin air. The staircase led upwards, and at its end was a stone door.
Qin Ran drew his battle knife, his face expressionless as he walked forward, stepped onto the earthen stairs, and climbed up step by step. He came to the stone door, raised his hand to press against it, then pushed hard.
The stone door opened with the force.
The moment the stone door opened, a beam of light shot out from inside, heading straight for Qin Ran.
Faced with this kind of door-opening kill, Qin Ran remained expressionless. He was mentally prepared, and the moment the light beam appeared, he dodged away.
"Sure enough, there are still people who didn't die," he sighed. "The Death Notice Pill is not omnipotent."
The stone door opened wide, revealing the situation inside.
He looked over and saw a giant cauldron stored there. The cauldron was about seven feet tall with a circumference of ten feet, connected to the stone chamber at the bottom and further linked to the massive pit formation below.
It was clear that this giant cauldron was the magical treasure for transforming the "Demon Soul Evil Blood".
Around the cauldron lay fifteen cultivators, alchemists or artifact refiners, sprawled in disarray, evidently killed by the poison of the Death Notice Pill.
Directly in front of the cauldron, facing the stone door, sat a tall, thin middle-aged man with a long beard. He was cross-legged, raising his right palm towards Qin Ran, clearly the one who had just attacked. He too had been poisoned by the Death Notice Pill but hadn't died.
"Elder Zuo..." Qin Ran recognized the man from the Red-Clothed Man's memories. He knew this was the guarantee left here by the Yuan Organization, a top-tier Qi Practitioner of the third rank, equivalent to a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. "I only want the 'Demon Soul Evil Blood'."
"Who are you? Which island are you from?!" Elder Zuo shouted, trying to sound strong despite his weakened state.
"Who I am is not important," Qin Ran said. "I have no grudge against you. Step aside, and I'll take the 'Demon Soul Evil Blood' and leave."
"What if I don't?" Elder Zuo said coldly. "You sneaking, vicious thief!"
Qin Ran's face remained expressionless. He spoke calmly, "My poison is a poison between life and death. You've managed to survive due to your cultivation, but you certainly can't move. If you can't move, I have ten thousand ways to kill you. I'm proficient in formations and alchemy."
Elder Zuo's face changed slightly.
But just then, the sound of footsteps suddenly echoed in the cave.
Now there were only two of them in the cave, and the footsteps were amplified by the silent environment.
Someone was coming. At this critical moment.
Elder Zuo's face brightened with joy. He smiled, "Someone's coming. You're doomed."
Qin Ran took a deep breath and sighed, "So they've come after all."
He knew who it was. The mastermind behind this Divine Essence Mountain incident, who had helped him come here, was a person who hadn't shown up until now.
Mr. Zhai!
The footsteps grew closer, and the person entered the cave. Qin Ran turned to look, and sure enough, it was Mr. Zhai.
"Brother Qin..." The cultured and refined Mr. Zhai stood at the entrance, bowing to Qin Ran. "I trust you've been well!"
"Not bad," Qin Ran smiled faintly.
But as soon as he finished smiling, he suddenly turned, using the Immortal Seeking the Way technique. His entire body vanished instantly, rushing towards Elder Zuo.
"You insolent thief!" Elder Zuo shouted loudly, sword-shaped phantoms appearing around him, firmly protecting him.
However, after flying towards him for a short distance, Qin Ran suddenly changed direction, heading for the giant cauldron in the stone chamber. His goal wasn't Elder Zuo, but the cauldron.
Arriving above the cauldron, he used "Water Births All Things" to draw out the "Demon Soul Evil Blood" stored within. With a reverse point of his finger, all the "Demon Soul Evil Blood" flew out, crashing directly into the cave wall.
"You dare!" Mr. Zhai finally changed his expression. He hurriedly mobilized his true qi, and a flying sword shot out from his waist, killing towards Qin Ran.
Qin Ran allowed the sword to leave holes in his body, focusing on splattering all the "Demon Soul Evil Blood" onto the cave wall.
The next moment, the entire Divine Essence Mountain began to shake.
Inside this cave, that section of the wall seemed to be corroded by something. The hidden seal became faintly visible, with formation lines interweaving. Slowly, where the "Demon Soul Evil Blood" had hit the wall, a dim void appeared.
Qin Ran's body was pierced by over a dozen holes from Mr. Zhai's flying sword, but he paid no attention. He spread his arms, looking at Mr. Zhai with a smile appearing on his face. He said, "Thank you, Mr. Zhai!"
Then, his body fell lifelessly from the cauldron.
However, as he fell, his body slowly dispersed, changing from colored to colorless, from tangible to intangible, becoming a water-like model that splashed onto the stone chamber and Elder Zuo.
"Another fake?" Elder Zuo questioned in surprise.
Mr. Zhai walked over with a grim face. As an alchemist, his perception was keen. He sensed something fly out from Qin Ran's body and enter the void in the cave wall.
He recalled that this alchemist who called himself Li Feiyu had said he practiced both Qi cultivation and Spirit cultivation. Now it seemed he hadn't lied.
"It wasn't fake..." Mr. Zhai said.
He leaped up, heading towards the void.
But he crashed headfirst into the cave wall.
The void that existed on the wall wasn't an actual void, but a formation void!
Mr. Zhai stood in front of the void, his face completely darkened.
"What is this?" Elder Zuo asked.
"He's entered the formation..." Mr. Zhai said, "Fortunately, he didn't directly enter the inheritance ground."
At this moment, Qin Ran stood before a light door, lost in thought...
Watch my daily cultivation life with my muddleheaded female disciple.