Gui San Who Fell From the Sky

The night passed without incident.

During the night, Song Wen refined three Qi-replenishing Pills, restoring the majority of the True Essence within his body.

As the first light of dawn broke, Song Wen emerged from the crevice in the cliff. Scaling the peak, he immediately set off in the direction of the Corpse Demon Sect.

The dense forest was choked with tangled undergrowth and thick, twisting vines. Relying solely on his physical strength without the aid of any talismans, Song Wen traveled at a modest pace. It took him over two hours of trekking to traverse three hundred li of rugged mountain paths.

As he was running, Song Wen suddenly sensed a presence in the sky above. He extended his Divine Sense to sweep the area and discovered a familiar face. The newcomer was actually Gui San.

Gui San was in a wretched state. The moment Song Wen noticed him, he plummeted straight from the sky, crashing heavily onto the forest floor barely ten meters ahead.

Gui San snapped several large trees and rolled for over ten meters before a thick trunk abruptly stopped his momentum.

Mouthfuls of fresh blood gushed from his lips, mixed with fragments of pulverized internal organs.

Gui San also noticed Song Wen, though he had no idea who the young cultivator was. Song Wen's cultivation was simply too weak. During the chaotic battle against the Yan family the previous day, Gui San had not spared him a single glance from start to finish.

"Fellow Daoist... save me... I will reward you handsomely..."

Gui San seemed to expend the last of his strength on those words. The moment he finished speaking, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed into unconsciousness, lying completely motionless.

Song Wen was startled by this sudden turn of events. He immediately swept his Divine Sense through the surroundings. Finding no one else in the vicinity, he felt a slight wave of relief.

Even so, he did not lower his guard, let alone rashly approach Gui San.

Instead, he slapped a Swift Movement Talisman onto his body and invoked the Blood Evasion Art. Enshrouded in a dense, crimson mist, his speed erupted several times over. He bolted diagonally into the thickest part of the forest and vanished from sight.

As for the rewards Gui San had promised? What a joke.

Song Wen knew that if he actually stepped forward to tend to Gui San's injuries, the rogue cultivator's very first act upon recovery would likely be to silence him.

Bandit cultivators like Gui San made their living through slaughter and plunder. Expecting such a ruthless predator to suddenly show benevolence was nothing short of wishful thinking.

As for slaying Gui San to seize his belongings-for a fleeting second, the thought had crossed Song Wen's mind.

But he dismissed it just as quickly. Cultivators who spent their lives walking the edge of a blade were inherently dangerous. Though Gui San appeared to be on the brink of death, a lamb waiting for the slaughter, who could say if he had a hidden move up his sleeve? What if he was merely feigning unconsciousness? The moment Song Wen drew close, he might very well be the one who ended up dead.

Seeing Song Wen flee without a shred of hesitation, the unconscious Gui San's lips twitched faintly.

He had barely escaped the relentless pursuit of the Yan family elders, leaving him grievously wounded. To make matters worse, the Yan family specialized in malicious poison arts, and the toxins were already deep in his veins. His stash of healing and detoxifying pills had long since run dry.

He had accepted his imminent demise, but while squeezing the last drops of True Essence from his Dantian to pilot his flying vessel, he spotted a lone cultivator traveling through the canopy below.

He pinned his sole hope of survival on this stranger.

Thus, he stored his flying vessel and attempted to descend.

Yet at that exact moment, the suppressed poison violently flared up, causing him to lose control and plummet blindly from mid-air.

He had intended to trick that low-level Qi Condensation cultivator into helping him, but the boy had simply turned tail and fled.

'You absolute coward... Do you not care for a fated chance at all? A dying cultivator falls right in front of your face, and you aren't even tempted?'

Gui San thought bitterly as his right hand slowly relaxed, releasing its tight grip on a hidden magical artifact.

His consciousness dimmed into darkness, and he truly fainted away.

Two hours later.

The Yan family cultivators scouring the region finally tracked Gui San to this spot.

Yan Gao was the first to land. Glancing down at the barely breathing Gui San, a cruel grin spread across his face.

"To dare oppose my Yan family... how could we possibly let you die so easily?"

"Men! Feed him a detoxifying pill, rupture his Dantian, and bind him. Drag him back to the clan."

"I shall extract his soul and refine it into a soul lantern, ensuring he suffers the agony of blazing flames for eternity. This is the price for offending the Yan family."

Three cultivators behind Yan Gao immediately stepped forward to execute the order.

Yan Gao was in an excellent mood. The other fleeing bandit cultivator had already been struck down by a different detachment of the Yan family.

With Gui San now captured, it meant every single rogue cultivator who dared raid the Yan family had been wiped out.

However, word had reached him that Ji Yin-the Corpse Demon Sect disciple dispatched to oversee the clan's stocktaking-had vanished without a trace. That remained a glaring loose end.

Then again, a minor cultivator at the third layer of Qi Condensation could hardly whip up any significant waves. It was only a matter of time before the clan hunted him down; there was absolutely no way he would make it back to the Corpse Demon Sect alive.

As a female Yan family cultivator was binding Gui San, her gaze swept across the surrounding shattered branches and crushed weeds. She turned to Yan Gao and spoke.

"Third Uncle, there seem to be signs of someone else's presence here."

Yan Gao, possessing a heavily muscled build, was never one for keen observation. His eyes filled with confusion as he asked, "Xiao Qiu, what do you mean?"

The woman, named Yan Qiu, was well-regarded within the family for her meticulous attention to detail. She pointed toward several specific spots.

Although Gui San's descent had left the immediate vegetation in a state of ruin, a careful eye could still discern the distinct markings of another individual.

"Third Uncle, look here and here. The grass has been stepped on and overturned. Someone else was definitely present."

Yan Gao stared along Yan Qiu's finger for a long time but failed to see anything unusual. However, he knew his own limits-his talent lay in body refinement, not intellect.

Since Yan Qiu claimed there were traces, she wasn't speaking without reason.

"What is the meaning of this? Could it be an accomplice of Gui San?" Yan Gao questioned.

Yan Qiu shook her head. "That is hard to say. But if it were an accomplice, there is no reason to abandon him like this. Even if they couldn't rescue him, they should have given him a quick death to end his suffering."

Right then, another figure descended from the sky in a frantic rush.

"Greetings, Third Uncle," the newcomer reported, cupping his fists respectfully.

"Why such haste? What happened?" Yan Gao demanded.

"Yan Feng and his group of five were ordered to hunt down Ji Yin, but they have failed to return. A short while ago, our kinsmen discovered a battlefield. After thorough investigation, the clan believes Yan Feng and the others have been slain. Ji Yin has likely escaped."

"Ji Yin escaped?" Yan Gao uttered, dumbfounded.

"And he killed Yan Feng's party of six? How could Ji Yin possibly possess such capability?"

Yan Qiu was equally stunned. After a brief moment of shock, she whispered, "Third Uncle, could these tracks have been left by Ji Yin? This path leads directly toward the Corpse Demon Sect."

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