Seek Your Own Fortune

The third location was a settlement established by the Pan Family.

The Pan Family was a hereditary clan from northern Qiulu, with an ancestor at the middle stage of Condensed Origin guarding their seat.

Yang Linghu led the vast train of rogue cultivators to this place, but he entered the settlement alone.

The person in charge of the Pan Family was a female cultivator named Pan Yin.

She was at the third level of Qi Gathering, practiced both Water and Wood arts, and carried several Spiritual Treasures. If one did not count Yang Linghu, her combat strength would easily rank among the top three within this Black Snake Hidden Cache.

Pan Yin possessed a clear head. After the two met, they engaged in a brief round of mutual probing.

Once she confirmed that Yang Linghu indeed possessed the strength to negotiate as an equal, her attitude turned polite.

She agreed with Yang Linghu's logic.

The first encirclement attempt had been her initiative.

Unfortunately, the leaders of the remaining two families were too young and hot-headed. After driving the monster back, they felt they had shown enough prowess; they grew arrogant, refused to maintain the alliance with the Pan Family, and turned their attention back to scouring the grounds for treasures.

"Fellow Daoist Zhang speaks the truth. The Pan Family is willing to cooperate."

"My thanks, Fellow Daoist Pan. With your family's joining, this matter is assured. On behalf of all the rogue cultivators, I, Zhang, am deeply grateful."

Yang Linghu had adopted the alias Zhang Chen, claiming to be a rogue cultivator from the Desert Sea.

With the Pan Family's inclusion, the scattered rogue cultivators finally had a place to take root, gathering toward the three main settlements.

Yang Linghu's plan was simple: bind the cultivators together to make the monster's clones find it increasingly difficult to hunt.

Once deprived of a steady supply of flesh and blood, the growth of the monster's main body would be stunted.

It would be forced to choose between starvation or descending into the fray itself.

Whichever result occurred, it would favor the human cultivators.

Holding to a wait-and-see approach, Yang Linghu and Pan Yin traveled to the final two large settlements.

The outcome matched their expectations: both parties flatly rejected the invitation to unite.

"Ridiculous! Does my house require the assistance of those useless rogue cultivators?"

"A mere failed hunter-if that monster dares to return, I shall personally slay it here!"

The cultivators of those two houses remained arrogant, looking down upon the rogue cultivators and dismissing the monster as a mere nuisance unworthy of fear.

Seeing this, Yang Linghu stopped his attempts at persuasion.

Since you believe it is of no consequence, then seek your own fortune.

Two days later, Yang Linghu's strategy bore clear fruit.

Unable to find prey in the wilderness, the monster's clones took the risk of approaching the settlements.

They were promptly hunted down by the prepared cultivators.

After suffering several setbacks, the monster's main body seemed to grow anxious and launched a large-scale assault on Jin Qiang's settlement.

Yang Linghu arrived to support them upon receiving word. With his intervention, the group of clones was quickly repelled.

"Senior Zhang is truly peerless in divine power!"

"My thanks to Senior Zhang for finding us a place of refuge!"

"We are eternally grateful for your life-saving grace!"

The rogue cultivators felt immense gratitude toward Yang Linghu, their hearts filled with respect.

Having come from the same life of struggle, they knew better than anyone how selfish this group could be.

Yang Linghu's combat strength was exceptional, sufficient for him to ensure his own safety within the Hidden Cache, yet he still managed to look after the greater interest. Such a cultivator was as rare as phoenix feathers.

Deep within a hidden cave in the Black Snake Hidden Cache.

"Damn it, why is there no trace of anyone anywhere?"

"Why have even the rogue cultivators retreated into settlements? Do they no longer desire the treasures of the Hidden Cache?"

"And where did this fierce martial cultivator emerge from? I have never seen him before!"

The snake-human main body curled in the corner of the cave, surrounded by several incompletely formed clones.

After being injured during that encirclement, it had become unwilling to take risks.

It began hunting with its clones, dragging them back to nourish the main body.

It had planned to capitalize on the internal strife among the cultivators to its own benefit, but Yang Linghu's arrival had completely shattered its plans.

By now, it had gone two full days without feeding, and the insatiable hunger nearly drove it to madness.

The most pressing problem, however, was that its body was once again approaching its limit.

"What am I to do? No flesh, no fresh flesh... this body of mine..."

It ran a claw over its skin; large patches of scales shed and fell to the floor.

This snake-man was originally a human rogue cultivator named Dou Hong.

Possessing inferior talent, he was already forty years old and only at the first level of Qi Gathering.

Twenty years ago, he entered the Black Snake Hidden Cache to explore with a close friend.

By a stroke of fated chance, they uncovered the most significant legacy of the cache, the "Black Snake Cloud-Swallowing Art."

This was a Condensed Origin-level technique, containing a method centered on the art of transforming into a flood dragon.

Overjoyed, Dou Hong was simultaneously gripped by a murderous intent.

To monopolize the technique, he ambushed and killed his friend.

He discarded his previous cultivation and began to practice this Condensed Origin method.

He had severely underestimated the requirements of the art.

The "Black Snake Cloud-Swallowing Art" was a body-cultivation method that, upon completion, could bolster a cultivator's physical strength to match a Humanoid Strange Beast. However, its demands on the cultivator's vitality and blood were brutal. After only three days, Dou Hong was nearly drained dry, on the verge of sudden death.

Only by devouring his friend's corpse had he managed to save his own life.

After that, he fell into a long coma. By the time he woke, the time for the Hidden Cache to close had long passed.

He was forced to remain, turning to the hunting of Black Snakes to nourish himself through their flesh and blood.

In the process, he gradually veered from the orthodox path into heresy. To expedite his progress, he ceased the arduous work of refining the blood, instead simply forcing any raw flesh he found into his own body.

After several years, his body began to mutate.

Not only did he sprout scales like a serpent, but he became dependent on the constant consumption of flesh and blood to maintain his physical form.

Without it, he would revert to the state he was in when the cave first opened-a puddle of putrid, dying meat.

For the first decade, he survived on the flesh and blood of Black Snakes.

But by the second decade, he realized Black Snake flesh no longer sufficed; only the flesh of human cultivators would do.

Hence, this large-scale assault on those who entered the Hidden Cache.

"No! I cannot wait any longer. There are only a few days left!"

Dou Hong hardened his heart and summoned all his clones to return.

One by one, the small snake-men crawled into the cave, and he devoured them all.

After consuming every clone, his cultivation realm stabilized at the fifth level of Qi Gathering.

"This should suffice. Based on what the clones observed, two of the cultivator settlements are shorthanded. I shall target them."

With his decision made, he crawled quietly out of a different cave exit, waited for night to fall, and moved toward the two settlements under the cover of darkness.

In the eastern region of the Hidden Cache, the Carefree Sect's settlement.

Beneath the night sky, the settlement was brightly lit. Within, cups clinked and cultivators toasted one another, their laughter and celebrations carrying far into the night.

Just yesterday, the senior brother leading the Carefree Sect's expedition had unearthed a former master's cave dwelling.

They had obtained many treasures and were holding a banquet to celebrate.

"Why is this table not fully occupied?"

"Reporting to Senior Brother, these are the junior brothers and sisters on perimeter watch."

"Bah! What trouble could possibly arise here? Call them in. Just leave one person at the gate!"

The senior brother issued his command, and a man received the order and stepped outside.

Reaching the entrance, he saw no one, so he wandered a short distance further into the dark.

"Junior Brother! Why are you dozing off in a place like this? Get up at once."

He saw someone sitting beneath a tree, leaning against the trunk, and reached out to shake him.

But under the touch, the man's head rolled clean off his shoulders.

"Mm-mm-"

Crack.

The man was jolted instantly sober by sheer terror, but before he could let out a cry, a massive force smothered his mouth and nose. With a sharp twist, his head and body were separated, just like his junior brother's.

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