He could easily channel his strength to dig a large pit with his bare hands.
Chu Lingguang could even shatter boulders with his fists.
In the eyes of an ordinary person, such destructive power was godlike, enough to leave the common folk speechless with fear. Yet, in front of an expert from Yuanchu Mountain, Chu Lingguang couldn’t even put up a fight.
Once the pit was dug,
Chu Lingguang moved the six corpses into the large pit.
He buried them all together, keeping the family whole.
Having fallen from a bottomless abyss, their bodies were mangled beyond recognition. If they hadn’t been martial artists with the protection of their Dharma Aspects and powerful physiques, they would have been reduced to pulp long ago.
But as Chu Lingguang arranged them, he became stained with a great deal of blood.
CLANG!
Suddenly, a crisp sound rang out.
As Chu Lingguang was handling one of the bodies, a Jade Pendant fell from it, hit the ground, and rolled to the edge of a rock.
Chu Lingguang paid it no mind for the moment. He first placed the body into the large pit. After he had placed all of them inside, the pit quickly became a large mound of earth.
BANG!
Chu Lingguang slammed his palm onto a stone, forcibly carving out a stone tablet.
He didn’t know the names of Yang Lijun’s relatives.
So, on the stone tablet, he carved the words: "Tomb of the Six Relatives of Yang Lijun."
By the time he finished, the sky had grown dark.
Dazed, he lost track of how much time had passed. To avoid delaying his journey to his new post, Chu Lingguang left the cliff that night, following the youth’s directions and heading north.
He soon emerged from the dense forest and entered Dingyuan County. In the county seat, he bought a horse and, using his Consciousness Manipulation Power, rode straight for Mazhou Prefecture.
He figured it was highly likely that Mo Shan and his three companions would be waiting for him at the post station where they had agreed to meet Yang Lijun.
Traveling day and night, after three days and two nights, Chu Lingguang finally reached the post station where Yang Lijun and Mo Shan’s group had agreed to meet.
’Little Red Horse.’
He spotted Little Red Horse in the post station’s stables.
He knew that after the youth had taken him, Mo Shan and the others would never have abandoned Little Red Horse. Still, seeing it again, safe and sound, Chu Lingguang couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief.
He released a Spiritual Sense Fluctuation.
He immediately located Mo Shan and his three companions, who were recuperating inside the station.
He also saw three acquaintances.
Commandery Princess Du Juan.
Mr. Du’s adopted son, Du Wushuang, and Zhuoyi.
It had been some time since he had last seen them, and all three had changed.
Both Du Juan and Du Wushuang had successively entered the Qi Sea Perfection realm.
Du Juan had already opened a six-layered Dharma Aspect but had not yet awakened Primitive Power.
Du Wushuang had also opened a six-layered Dharma Aspect and had mastered Primitive Power. If Chu Lingguang hadn’t suddenly appeared, Du Wushuang would have been the one to train in the Northern Territory Trial Ground. With his considerable talent, he managed to obtain Primitive Power before Du Juan, though being two years her senior gave him an advantage.
Zhuoyi’s cultivation was more ordinary; he was even a bit weaker than Mo Shan’s group. Back when he escorted Chu Lingguang to the Northern Territory Trial Ground, he could still rely on his age as an advantage, but now he had been surpassed by the younger generation.
"Your Highness."
"Zhuo."
"Wushuang."
Chu Lingguang greeted them one by one.
"You’re finally back! Are you okay?"
"Fifth Brother!"
The three of them were overjoyed.
Hearing the commotion, Mo Shan and his three companions all came running out as well.
They surrounded Chu Lingguang, and only after confirming he was unharmed did they breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Chu Lingguang knew the four of them had been injured by the youth.
He used his Spiritual Power to check their condition and found that their injuries were not light; it would take two or three years for them to fully recover. The four of them were approaching the age where their Qi and Blood would begin to decline.
Even Mo Shan had yet to break through the Qi Sea realm.
Now that they were injured, unless they had some Marvelous Elixirs or a sudden stroke of insight, they would likely be stuck at the Qi Sea Perfection realm forever, never able to break through again.
The Great Yuan Dynasty’s system was strict. Most Cultivation and Martial Arts were controlled by the Court. For an ordinary person, simply Opening the Dantian and Qi Sea was enough to be considered a one-in-ten-thousand expert.
Reaching the True Martial Realm made one a regional powerhouse.
Of the thirty-odd Governor’s Mansions, all the Lord Governors were at the True Martial Realm. Some had progressed further, reaching the peak of the realm, while others were slower and still had a short way to go.
But without exception, they would likely never break through the True Martial Realm to become Qi Refining experts in their entire lives.
These figures, whom the world looked up to, also suffered the pain of unattainable desires.
Watching his four sworn brothers, who were about to stall at the Qi Sea Perfection realm, Chu Lingguang sighed for them. At their age, breaking through was no longer a simple matter of Breathing Techniques or Cultivation Techniques.
It was also inextricably linked to their physical condition.
Even if Chu Lingguang taught them the several Cultivation Techniques he had earned through Favors on Black Bear Island, such as the Celestial Profound Technique, his four sworn brothers would still be unable to break through.
Not unless they could practice the Great Cang Heart Method.
But this Heart Method was strictly controlled by the Court and Yuanchu Mountain. Teaching it to them would not only bring them danger but also bring trouble upon himself.
In the past, he had sometimes thought to himself, ’If I secretly cultivate a technique restricted by the Court and don’t reveal it, how would they ever know?’
Now, the stronger he became, the more he understood that some things were as difficult as ascending to heaven for him, yet effortless for others.
For example, it had only taken the youth a few hours to transport him from the Divine Land Mansion and dump him at the bottom of the cliff behind Blood Wolf Cave. Yet, for him to get out of there and rush here, using Consciousness Manipulation Power on his horse and traveling day and night, it had taken three days and two nights.
It was clear how terrifying unknown powers could be.
If Yuanchu Mountain and the Court wanted to track whether someone was cultivating the Great Cang Heart Method, it would be utterly impossible to hide it from them.
They all stayed together at the post station for a day and a night.
Mo Shan’s group had mainly wanted to confirm that Chu Lingguang was safe. Seeing that he was fine, and considering their own serious injuries, the four of them bid farewell to Chu Lingguang the next day.
They had to return and report back.
Chu Lingguang, in turn, had to go to Wolf Valley Pass to assume his post.
Although their general direction was the same, Chaojiang City and Yunchuan City were geographically distinct—one was to the northeast, the other to the northwest.
Moreover, the incident with Yang Lijun was still fresh in everyone’s minds, and they all needed time to process it.
In the end, Chu Lingguang rode Little Red Horse and headed toward Chaojiang City alone.
In the blink of an eye, only five days remained until Chu Lingguang was due to assume his post at Wolf Valley Pass. Tonight, he arrived at a small town near Chaojiang City.
He took a room at the town’s post station.
The conditions here were rather simple, and the standard of hospitality was far below that within the Divine Land Mansion’s territory, but he was able to get a private courtyard.
Chu Lingguang closed his eyes to rest in his room.
The scene of him collecting the bodies of Yang Lijun’s relatives couldn’t help but surface in his mind.
CLANG!
A blood-stained Jade Pendant had fallen from one of the corpses and rolled under a rock.
Chu Lingguang had been busy putting the bodies into the pit, so he hadn’t paid the Jade Pendant any mind at the time. He filled the grave until the pit became a mound, shattered a boulder to make a gravestone, and planted it in the ground. Only then, as he was about to leave, did he remember the blood-stained Jade Pendant that had rolled beside the rock.
Chu Lingguang swept the area with his Spiritual Sense, thinking he could easily find it under the rock, but his Spiritual Sense failed to detect any trace of the Jade Pendant. He only found it after he moved the rock aside.
He held the Jade Pendant in his hand.
Chu Lingguang noticed a crack in it.
After wiping away the bloodstains, Chu Lingguang saw that it was actually a thin Jade Box. He pried it open, expecting to find something inside, but instead, he heard a voice filled with pain.
"Jun, the heart is in the vines."
Chu Lingguang took out the Jade Box.
He opened it again.
"Jun, the heart is in the vines."
The pained voice was already extremely faint. If not for his powerful Sea of Consciousness Power, he might not have been able to perceive the sound waves at all.
The Jade Box was made of a special material.
When his Spiritual Sense swept over it, he couldn’t even feel its existence.
It seemed that even the youth’s powerful Telekinesis couldn’t detect the Jade Box’s presence. If he hadn’t helped prepare the bodies for burial, he never would have obtained it.
CRACK!
Chu Lingguang squeezed it forcefully.
The Jade Box crumbled into dust.
He didn’t know what material the Jade Box was made of, or why it could be ignored by Spiritual Sense Fluctuations and even evade the youth’s terrifying Telekinesis.
But the material wasn’t hard.
It seemed to be just a vessel for concealing sound.
After hesitating for several days, Chu Lingguang still decided to crush it.
He had already listened to the voice inside several times. Each time, it was the same: "Jun, the heart is in the vines."
Now, if he wanted to find the heart that could awaken all responses, he had to figure out where the vines mentioned by the voice’s owner were.
In fact, that very day, Chu Lingguang had searched near the cliff and on top of it, even going to Blood Wolf Cave, but he hadn’t seen any vines at all.
Because the deadline for assuming his post was approaching, and because he was afraid of arousing the youth’s suspicion, Chu Lingguang didn’t dare to linger and could only pretend he hadn’t found anything.