Chapter 75 - 72: Murder for Treasure

Seeing this, the crowd’s hearts pounded with fear. Mo Qianqian indeed possessed a treasure! Even this terrifying armored man wanted to snatch Mo Qianqian’s treasure. Mo Qianqian was doomed! Even those who wanted to help him, like the Yuling Sect Master and the others, were completely powerless to intervene. Against such a terrifying existence, they had absolutely no ability to resist.

"Senior..."

Mo Qianqian was about to speak, but the armored man shook his head and reached straight out to him.

"Useless!"

Saying that, the middle-aged man in armor grabbed Mo Qianqian by the throat without hesitation.

At this moment, Mo Qianqian couldn’t put up the slightest resistance. A thick aura of imminent death loomed over him. Before such a terrifying existence, there was truly nothing he could do.

WHOOSH!

Right at the moment Mo Qianqian was about to die, the armored man’s body suddenly turned ethereal. Then, he vanished into thin air.

"What’s going on?" The crowd was dumbfounded. Had the armored man suddenly disappeared?

"He had an arrow stuck in him. Could it be that he was a dying man with only his last breath remaining?" an elder guessed.

"Then why did his body disappear instead of leaving a corpse behind?"

"For an expert of that level, it’s possible they wouldn’t allow anyone to desecrate their remains after death. Dissolving directly into nothingness is entirely possible. Who knows exactly how he died."

"True! But if he’s dead, why did the Bone-Eroding Spiritual Source disappear as well?"

"Yeah, why did the Bone-Eroding Spiritual Source vanish with him?"

The crowd erupted in shock. The armored man had vanished, and the Bone-Eroding Spiritual Source had vanished along with him. That meant the treasure they had risked their lives to fight for was seemingly destroyed as well.

On the ground, Mo Qianqian was also in a daze. He had thought he was a goner. To his surprise, the armored man’s body had simply faded away.

Mo Qianqian wondered suspiciously, "Is he dead? Or did he return to the Ninefold Coffin?"

He felt it was far more likely that the man hadn’t died, but had returned to the Ninefold Coffin. The man was probably still under some kind of restriction that prevented him from completely leaving it. Of course, under everyone’s watchful eyes, he couldn’t enter the Ninefold Coffin right now. Once he reached a safe, secluded location, he could go in and find out exactly what happened.

Mo Qianqian actually hoped the man was dead. But no matter what, his life was temporarily preserved.

However, at this moment, everyone’s eyes were fixated on him. Aside from the Yuling Sect Master and a few others, everyone else’s eyes gleamed brightly, like starving wolves spotting their prey.

"Everyone, if I told you I didn’t have any treasures on me, would you believe me?" Mo Qianqian asked, spreading his hands in resignation.

The two terrifying beings were gone. However, one of them had claimed he carried a treasure, and the other had directly attacked him for it. Even if he talked until he was blue in the face, no one here would believe his innocence. What he faced now was being hunted down by everyone present.

"Mo Qianqian, why don’t you just hand over the item? The Bone-Eroding Spiritual Source is gone, and the secret is out. You can’t keep it," an elder from the Yuwen Clan said. "As long as you hand it over, we won’t make things difficult for you."

"Why waste breath on him? Just take it by force!" Ling Guang could no longer hold back. He immediately lunged toward Mo Qianqian.

With those words, everyone else charged forward in unison.

"Are you even worthy of possessing the things on him?"

Yet right at this moment, another ancient voice rang out. That voice also echoed from beneath the ground. As soon as the words fell, everyone’s expressions changed drastically. They all skidded to a halt, not daring to advance another inch toward Mo Qianqian.

Mo Qianqian was completely dumbfounded. There was someone else underground? What in the world was going on?

In reality, the others were far more shocked than he was. At least Mo Qianqian knew the armored man had emerged from the Ninefold Coffin. The rest of the crowd believed the armored man had burst out from underground. And now, a second person had appeared. What kind of place was this underground realm, and exactly how many people were sealed beneath it?

SWISH!

Right then, another figure shot out from the earth.

It was a white-haired old man with a disheveled appearance. His clothes were in tatters, and his face was so caked with grime that his features were completely obscured. He looked even more like a beggar than the previous messy-haired elder. As soon as he emerged, he swooped straight toward Mo Qianqian and grabbed him with one hand.

Mo Qianqian’s expression paled. However, the old man’s speed was simply too fast. Before he could even attempt to dodge, his arm was caught in a vice-like grip. He tried to break free, but he lacked the strength to do so.

"Everyone, I’ll be taking this boy with me. I assume none of you have any objections, right?" Saying that, the ragged, unkempt white-haired elder hoisted Mo Qianqian into the air and soared off toward the horizon.

"He isn’t that fast! His strength can’t be that high!" an elder from the Tai Xuan Academy realized, immediately shouting, "Chase them!"

With a flicker of his figure, he pursued the direction the two had flown. The Yuling Sect Master and his group furrowed their brows and followed in pursuit. The masked men in black, Yuan Fu from the Ten Thousand Spirits Pavilion, Ling Guang, and the rest of the Tongyou Realm experts present all mobilized, chasing after them into the distance.

The Yuling Sect Master and his companions wanted to rescue Mo Qianqian, while the others only wanted to seize his treasures. No one knew the background of this old man who had popped up out of nowhere, but he didn’t seem overpoweringly strong right now. However, if the treasure remained in his hands, retrieving it later would likely be extremely difficult.

Unfortunately, reality was cruel. No one present could match the speed of that unkempt, white-haired elder. Before long, the figures of the old man and Mo Qianqian vanished from everyone’s line of sight.

High in the sky.

Mo Qianqian was filled with trepidation. Being dragged by the arm like this, he was currently weighing whether he should take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack against his captor.

"Boy, no need to fret. I won’t kill you," the disheveled white-haired elder suddenly said.

"Senior, I—I really don’t have any treasures on me. If you don’t believe me, you can search me. Search me however you want," Mo Qianqian hastily replied.

"I don’t want your treasures," the old man said.

"You don’t want my treasures? Then, Senior, you..." Mo Qianqian was perplexed.

"Seeing that your talent is decent, I want to take you as my disciple," the old man explained.

"Take me as a disciple?" Mo Qianqian was taken aback. This was somewhat beyond his expectations. The old man had grabbed him just to take him in as a disciple, not to kill him for his loot?

"That’s right. If not for me, do you think you could have made it out alive?" the old man countered.

"Thank you for saving me, Senior!" Regardless of anything else, Mo Qianqian decided to express his gratitude first. On second thought, if it weren’t for this old man, he really might not have survived. With so many Tongyou Realm experts out for his blood and his treasures, even the Yuling Sect Master and Yuan Fu’s group wouldn’t have been able to fend them off for him.

"Who are you, Senior? Why were you in that place?" Mo Qianqian took the opportunity to ask.

The unkempt elder didn’t answer. Instead, he chuckled and asked, "Have you ever heard of the Vast Sect?"