Chapter 49

Lu Xiaoding obediently hid behind a rock, crouching in the gap between the tripod and the rock, quietly listening to the surroundings in the darkness of night.

The night was very quiet, with no other sounds except for the wind. After Lu Yaohang and the other left, from time to time, a faint sound could be heard in the wind, but it was too far away to clearly understand what it was.

However, she could guess that it was definitely her senior sister fighting with those evil cultivators. She hoped that the Illusion Pills she gave would help her senior sister. Otherwise, it would be very dangerous for her and Senior Brother Bai to deal with so many evil cultivators.

Lu Xiaoding tightly held the map token in her hand. If anything went wrong, she would crush this token to alert the sect.

Suddenly, a sound of something breaking through the air came, as if someone was flying towards her hurriedly. Lu Xiaoding instinctively crouched further, nervously paying attention to the surroundings.

"Ahh!" At that moment, a sharp and tragic scream came from above. A person fell from the sky and landed on the ground, less than three zhang away from where Lu Xiaoding was.

This person was clearly hit by an Illusion Pill, but he was not in the illusion. His body was already rotten in many places, and his left hand was left with only bones and a few strands of flesh. He struggled to get up on the ground and, upon raising his head, saw Lu Xiaoding hiding in the gap between the rock and the tripod. Due to the darkness, he could only see a little girl hiding there, her appearance somewhat blurry.

Unexpectedly, he did not immediately attack but held a copper token tightly in his hand and, with a mouth full of blood, said, "Please take this and go to Piaoling Prefecture to find the Xiao family. Tell them that the Yunjian Sect destroyed Luhu Village. There will be a great reward..."

He was severely injured, and speaking was already very difficult, but he held the identity token tightly, staring at Lu Xiaoding, wanting her to pass on the message and the token.

Lu Xiaoding didn't understand why this person trusted her. Was it because she was hiding here and looked a bit like an evil cultivator? So she stepped out from the gap, and in the moonlight, her clothes, though not those of a disciple, clearly showed the style of the Yunjian Sect.

The man immediately showed a look of despair and angrily shouted, "You are from the Yunjian Sect, you will get your retribution. Die! I will avenge my clan!" He suddenly jumped up and reached out to strike Lu Xiaoding.

"Die!" Suddenly, a golden light broke through the air, slicing off the man's head. A person then flew down, standing with their back to Lu Xiaoding. The black sword plunged into the man's chest, instantly killing him.

Then a hand reached out in front of Lu Xiaoding, blocking her view. Lu Yaohang's cold voice sounded, "Xiaoding, it's fine now."

"Senior Sister..." Lu Xiaoding turned her head, and Lu Yaohang turned to block her from seeing the decapitated body.

Lu Yaohang suddenly smiled, "I accidentally let one of them run here. Did it scare you? It's fine now. Don't look at the mess here, turn around and let me handle it."

"Senior Sister, I'm fine. You should quickly go check on Senior Brother Bai. He might be in danger alone." Lu Xiaoding looked up at her, stunned. Was killing really so easy? Her senior sister actually smiled.

"Don't worry, that was the last one. Senior Brother Bai is almost done. Turn around, I'll clean up this person." Lu Yaohang patted her head, making Lu Xiaoding turn around, then she started to handle the body on the ground.

She didn't notice that Lu Xiaoding had put a pill back into her sleeve. If no one came to save her, she wouldn't just sit and wait to die. She had been prepared.

Lu Xiaoding obediently faced away from her, listening to her senior sister take out something and then smelling a strange odor, which seemed to be corpse-dissolving water. She looked up at the stars in the sky, and after a moment of silence, said, "Senior Sister, he didn't recognize me as a member of the Yunjian Sect at first and wanted to give me a copper token, asking me to go to Piaoling Prefecture to find the Xiao family and tell them that the Yunjian Sect killed the people here. But when he recognized me, he got angry."

Lu Yaohang glanced at her sideways and said firmly, "Good, that place is probably their hideout or a family that colludes with evil cultivators. After we finish here, we will report this to the sect and eliminate all the evil cultivators."

"Senior Sister, what is Piaoling Prefecture? Is it also in our Nine Provinces?" Lu Xiaoding asked curiously. This was the first time she had heard of it, and she had no idea where it was.

"Yes, it's beyond this desert. Don't tell anyone about this, and absolutely don't let the evil cultivators know in advance." Seeing that the body had completely dissolved into white liquid and been absorbed by the desert, Lu Yaohang picked up the copper token and put it in her sleeve.

Then she looked at where the body had disappeared and asked, "Qiqi, can you break into his sleeve?"

"You're too weak, even breaking into a dead person's sleeve is a bother." A black shadow rose from the Mourning Sword, and Qiqi emerged, crossing his arms and complaining.

Hearing Qiqi, Lu Xiaoding quickly turned around. Indeed, the body was gone.

Lu Yaohang sneered, "Don't forget what you promised. Wasn't that enough for you just now?"

"Fine, I'll do it." Qiqi impatiently interrupted her, then stretched out his hand and fiercely grabbed the spot where the body had disappeared. Golden light flashed on his fingers, and a large black crack appeared in the space. He then stepped aside, making room.

Lu Yaohang used her divine sense to scan inside and reached out to draw things out. Many items immediately flew out of the large crack and fell to the ground. After nothing else flew out, the crack slowly closed, leaving no trace of it being opened.

She picked up all the useful items, even the trash she didn't want, to be dealt with later. No clues, whether objects or people, could be left behind.

After forcibly breaking into the space and clearing out the items in the man's sleeve, Lu Yaohang said to Lu Xiaoding, "Xiaoding, I'll go back to Luhu Village first. After cleaning up with Senior Brother Bai, I'll come back to take you into the village. Wait here."

"Okay." Lu Xiaoding nodded in agreement. With the body gone, Lu Yaohang didn't have to worry about her being scared and hurried off to meet Bai Zhen.

After she left, Lu Xiaoding noticed that the copper token on the ground was also gone. Just as she was about to mutter something, she saw that Qiqi, who had left with Lu Yaohang, had returned. She said speechlessly, "Why are you back? Don't you need to protect the sword master?"

Qiqi stretched and lazily said, "All the living in the village are dead, and the job of destroying evidence doesn't need me. I have nothing to do for now."

"Oh." Lu Xiaoding calmly responded, understanding.

"Damn." Qiqi was very dissatisfied with her reaction, suddenly flying in front of her and poking her forehead hard, scolding, "Do you have anything in your head? Is it all just medicine residue?"

Her forehead hurt from his poking, and Lu Xiaoding quickly covered her head, shouting, "Stop it, you're poking my brain. You're the one with no medicine residue."

"Do you really think they are all evil cultivators?" Qiqi's lips curled, and he said with a wicked smile.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Lu Xiaoding, holding her forehead, looked at him in confusion.

Qiqi laughed, "I found a spirit gathering place in the village called Luhu. It's a place where crystal fruits grow. However, among the people killed, there were no members of any sect. They only had identity tokens of the Xiao family."

"Senior Sister said the Xiao family is probably the backer of the evil cultivators, so it makes sense that these people's identities are from the Xiao family." Lu Xiaoding had no idea what the Xiao family was. She hadn't even met the cultivation families of the Yunjian Sect, let alone those from other provinces.

Seeing how obedient she was to Lu Yaohang, Qiqi huffed in frustration and raised his voice, "You don't know, all spirit gathering places are controlled by the sects. Families are not allowed to privately own them. If a spirit gathering place is discovered, it must be reported to the local sect, and they will arrange for cultivation families to manage it. They get a portion of the benefits, and the crystal fruits and beans are regularly submitted. So, there must be one or two sect disciples guarding the spirit gathering place."

Lu Xiaoding found his words hard to understand. What did this have to do with her?

"And this spirit gathering place has no sect disciples, which means it's privately mined by the Xiao family. These people are not evil cultivators, just ordinary cultivators, and they belong to a significant family." Qiqi continued, based on his years of experience and dark mindset, he believed this was a robbery.

"So what? I don't think Senior Sister and Senior Brother Bai would kill hundreds of people just for some crystal fruits." Lu Xiaoding didn't show much reaction, just looking at him blankly. The crystal fruits wouldn't be shared with her, so why was he saying this?

Qiqi was almost driven mad by her, and he said irritably, "I'm not saying they wanted to rob the crystal fruits, but the Yunjian Sect did. Someone in the Tiantai Sect, where the Xiao family is located, probably knew about this and didn't report it to the sect. Instead, they secretly contacted the Yunjian Sect. By taking advantage of the chaos caused by the evil cultivators, they sent people to kill everyone here, steal the crystal fruits and clusters, and dig out the crystal cores. Then they quietly divided the loot, making a huge profit."

"The Xiao family, having lost people and the spirit gathering place, wouldn't dare to make a fuss, and the Tiantai Sect would have to give up what they had previously obtained. The Yunjian Sect would have no suspicion, and the evil cultivators would take the blame. It's a perfect robbery plan."

"What does this have to do with me, and what does it have to do with you? You only love killing, and I only love playing with Senior Sister. Taking advantage of this opportunity to travel and enjoy the scenery is the main thing." Lu Xiaoding still looked blank. Qiqi's words, which could destroy the image of the Yunjian Sect that had been built up over years in the hearts of the disciples, had no effect on her, like talking to a cow.