Ambush

Song Wen's actions appeared perfectly natural, drawing no special attention from the Yan family cultivators aboard the ship.

What none of them noticed was a small gray insect crawling down from Song Wen's hand, which rested upon the ship's railing, to scale down the outer hull.

This was an ordinary Beetle Gu.

After months of nurturing Gu, Song Wen had gleaned a fair amount of experience.

Although the Black-bellied Beetle Gu boasted greater combat prowess, the aura it emitted was correspondingly stronger, making it easier to detect. Ordinary Beetle Gu possessed weaker strength, but their auras were equally faint, rendering them almost indistinguishable from normal insects and incredibly difficult to notice.

With Song Wen's current mental strength at the seventh level of Qi Condensation, his mental sense could only probe a distance of just over a hundred meters. This was far from enough to perceive the spirit fields.

However, by attaching his mental sense to the Beetle Gu, he could extend his perception range to over four hundred meters. This was enough to allow him to sense a portion of the spirit fields.

Song Wen controlled the Beetle Gu, landing it upon the nearest stalk of century-old Seven-Color Grass.

Immediately, through the Beetle Gu, Song Wen's mental sense enveloped the Seven-Color Grass, allowing him to perceive everything about the plant.

The first anomaly was its thin Spiritual Qi.

The aura of this Seven-Color Grass felt abnormally weak to Song Wen. It did not feel like a century-old spirit medicine at all, but rather one that was only a decade old.

Finding this bizarre, Song Wen began to carefully inspect the Seven-Color Grass.

A moment later, Song Wen could definitively conclude that this Seven-Color Grass was indeed only ten years old.

The seven colors on its leaves and the black veins along its edges had actually been painted on with dye. From a distance, this made it look exactly like a century-old spirit medicine.

"To think that even after transmigrating into the cultivation world, I'd still run into counterfeit-peddling merchants."

Song Wen sighed inwardly. If the Yan family had covertly swapped out the spirit medicine on the very edges of the field, then it was highly likely that all the century-old spirit medicine in the fields was already gone. Even the majority of the seventy-year-old spirit medicine had probably been taken by them.

The Yan family was using low-grade spirit medicine disguised as high-grade spirit medicine to pull off a sleight of hand, deceiving the Corpse Demon Sect in order to pass the Sect's audit.

However, Song Wen harbored some doubts. Who had given the Yan family the sheer audacity to embezzle from their own posts and steal Spirit Grass belonging to the Corpse Demon Sect?

Another point Song Wen couldn't figure out was why the Yan family continued to linger in the Poisonous Miasma Swamp if they had already transferred all the high-grade spirit medicine. Were they not afraid of the Corpse Demon Sect discovering the truth and exterminating their entire clan?

Did the Yan family have some compelling reason that forced them to temporarily remain in the Poisonous Miasma Swamp?

"Perhaps there is still a portion of high-grade spirit medicine that hasn't reached the harvestable age yet. Therefore, the Yan family has no choice but to risk staying in the Poisonous Miasma Swamp to continue cultivating the Seven-Color Grass."

Song Wen gazed out at the distant spirit fields, speculating inwardly.

A "century-old" spirit medicine did not strictly mean the plant had been growing for exactly one hundred years.

Factors such as the ambient Spiritual Qi, the climate, the spiritual power of the soil, and so on, all influenced the growth of a spirit medicine.

For example, in mortal lands with sparse Spiritual Qi, the likelihood of wild spirit medicine appearing was miniscule, and finding anything over a century old was practically impossible.

Conversely, in certain secret realms overflowing with Spiritual Qi, exceptionally rare, high-grade spirit medicines could often be found.

This was the result of the natural environment influencing a spirit medicine's growth rate.

Having cultivated Seven-Color Grass for many years, the Yan family had naturally formulated an optimal set of planting methods.

By relying on these optimal planting methods and the naturally suitable environment of the Poisonous Miasma Swamp, they had greatly accelerated the growth rate of the Seven-Color Grass.

Thus, Song Wen surmised that the Yan family was highly likely in the middle of force-maturing a batch of high-grade Seven-Color Grass. Once this batch was fully matured, they would likely flee with their entire clan.

Song Wen pondered silently as he paced back to the bronze mirror, putting on a show of earnestly watching the images within.

He had already uncovered the Yan family's secret embezzlement of the Seven-Color Grass, which technically meant he had fulfilled the Sect's audit assignment. All he needed to do now was make it back to the Sect alive and report the Yan family's actions.

On the other side, Yan Zhengping led the Yan family members and Guo Tao on a hasty, two-hour tour through the high-grade spirit fields before finally returning to the large ship.

The moment they boarded, Guo Tao beamed a wide smile and spoke loudly to Song Wen.

"Junior Brother Jiyin, there are no issues with the spirit medicine. I've just counted each of the high-grade spirit medicines in the fields one by one, and there are absolutely no discrepancies in the numbers. I trust Junior Brother also saw everything clearly through the bronze mirror."

Song Wen nodded and said,

"Senior Brother Guo speaks the truth. Our assignment here has been smoothly completed. When shall we depart and return to the Sect?"

Hearing this, Guo Tao and the group of high-level Yan family cultivators all flashed a hint of secret joy in their eyes.

Yan Zhengping turned to Song Wen.

"Young friend Jiyin, why the rush? Wait until we return to my Yan family residence so we can properly feast and entertain you both. It won't be too late to depart after that. Otherwise, if your fellow Sect disciples find out, they will say my Yan family is stingy and treated you poorly."

Song Wen looked hesitantly at Guo Tao, waiting for him to make the decision.

He knew he couldn't afford to appear overly eager to leave. If the Yan family noticed anything amiss, it would only backfire.

Noting Song Wen's gaze, Guo Tao-acting as the nominal person in charge of this trip-gave him a comforting smile before turning to Yan Zhengping.

"We thank the Yan family's Patriarch for his generous hospitality, but we still have Sect duties to report. I'm afraid we cannot stay long."

Yan Zhengping replied, "Then we shall host a feast for you both tonight, and you may depart first thing tomorrow morning."

"We will follow the Patriarch's arrangements," Guo Tao agreed.

Song Wen silently watched their performance from the sidelines. He had to admit, their acting was quite professional. If he hadn't already figured out the scheme, he would have genuinely thought of Yan Zhengping as a warm, hospitable elder, and Guo Tao as a responsible fellow disciple.

The large ship slowly lurched into motion, sailing toward the Yan family residence.

Right at that moment, an unexpected change occurred.

Over ten figures clad in tight black martial attire vaulted out from the depths of the dense swamp forest.

The instant they appeared, they unleashed a barrage of pre-prepared techniques and Magical Artifacts, hurling them all directly at the ship.

There were massive, searing-red fireballs, dense and invisible wind blades, terrifying vengeful ghosts dripping with Yin energy, and bladed weapons radiating a murderous aura...

Seeing this sudden ambush, everyone aboard the ship suffered a drastic change in expression.

"Not good, an ambush! Raise the defensive barrier!"

Yan Zhengping roared, his face turning ice-cold.

The moment his words fell, a transparent barrier materialized out of thin air, completely enveloping the entire vessel.

Countless attacks rained down upon the barrier. Accompanied by deafening rumbles, intense explosions detonated all across the shield's surface.

The ship's defensive Formation was exceptionally sturdy, actually managing to withstand the sneak attack of the black-clad figures. However, the sheer impact of the combined assault caused the large vessel to shake violently, swaying from side to side as if it might capsize at any moment.

Searing red flames, pitch-black ghostly energy, sickly green miasma...

Various colored energies erupted all around the hull, blotting out the sky and the sun. Combined with the massive plumes of water blasted into the air from all sides, it gave Song Wen the distinct illusion of standing in a doomsday world.

88.181.249.5

ns88.181.249.5da2