Hide in the world of gods and demons

Chapter 104: See the corpse after death
As night deepened, the streets became sparsely populated.

Chen Li walked along the road, his expression shifting between anger and uncertainty.

The Zhou family, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, is one of the six major Foundation Establishment families in Luanluo City. It is not some insignificant gang like Green River Workshop that can be easily wiped out. Once exposed, it will only face death.

He was in disguise when he committed the murder, so the chances of him being discovered were very small.

If there is any flaw, the biggest flaw is these three people.

These individuals have clearly been under surveillance for more than just a day or two. There must be quite a few witnesses and insiders, and no one can guarantee that there haven't been any who escaped being caught.

With just a little effort, the Zhou family could trace these individuals back to their origins by following the leads.

Once these individuals are identified, he is not far from being exposed.

The safest course of action now is to kill all three of them and eliminate any future trouble.

But after struggling for a long time, he finally sighed.

When facing an enemy, he can swing his sword without hesitation, without the slightest ripple in his heart.

But he simply couldn't bring himself to harm his own people.

"I'm definitely not cut out to be that kind of ruthless leader!"

Chen Li walked to a secluded corner and stood still, then activated a silence note, waiting for the faint light of the silence note to envelop the surroundings.

"Thanks to your rescue, elder brother, the three of us are deeply grateful. We are afraid that our abilities are too weak to repay you," Zhao Lin said with gratitude.

"Unfortunately, we arrived too late. Han Zhihao is still dead. If I hadn't asked you to sell the goods for me, you wouldn't have suffered this fate. I'm the one who caused his death," Chen Li sighed.

He himself was unsure how much of his statement was an act and how much was a genuine expression of his feelings.

“How can you blame me, brother? We are just lowly people. Without your help, we might have died in that godforsaken place, Green River Lane, long ago. We wouldn’t have the good life we ​​have now. You can only blame Zhihao for his bad luck,” Gu Mengqing said quickly.

“Yes, brother,” Guo Wu added.

Chen Li's expression turned serious: "It's best if you think this way. Listen carefully to what I'm about to say!"

"Brother, please tell me what you need." Zhao Lin said respectfully, clasping his hands in a fist salute.

"The people who arrested you are the great-grandsons of the Zhou family, who have reached the Foundation Establishment stage. They are not ordinary rogue cultivators. You can't stay in Luanluo City. Go out and lay low for a while. It would be best if you didn't come back for the next five years!" Chen Li said in a deep voice.

Upon hearing this, everyone's expression changed drastically.

Previously, when Zhou Dongbo revealed his identity before his death.

Still shaken by the reprimand, the group hadn't heard anything and thought they'd just slaughtered an ordinary gang. Only now did they realize the magnitude of the trouble they'd gotten themselves into and the danger they were in.

For a moment, everyone felt as if a huge rock was pressing on their hearts, making it hard to breathe.

The three remained silent for a long time, their expressions shifting.

"Do you really have to leave?" Gu Mengqing asked with a hoarse voice, finally managing to calm down.

"You must leave!" Chen Li said in a deep voice, "And it has to be right now, immediately. Pack your bags and leave tonight. You should understand that the longer we delay, the more dangerous it will be for you... and the more dangerous it will be for me."

All three were intelligent people, and everyone understood what they were hearing.

They had no other choice.

Chen Li took out fifteen mid-grade spirit stones from his storage bag: "Take this money and use it for your expenses over the next few years. Don't make things difficult for me since you call me 'Big Brother'."

That's already a bit too blunt.

"Thank you, Brother Xie. We understand. We'll pack our bags and leave right away," Zhao Lin said, taking the spirit stones from the other two.

Chen Li then used a hemostatic treatment on the injured Zhao Lin and Gu Mengqing before turning and disappearing into the darkness.

……

late at night.

outside the city.

The chirping of insects was deafening.

Chen Li stood atop a hill, silently refining the storage bag in his hand while gazing calmly at the city gate.

This storage bag came from the great-great-grandson of the Zhou family.

The style and shape are exactly the same as his; both are square storage bags.

As the saying goes, "Murderers and arsonists wear golden belts."

The storage bag itself is quite valuable; when he bought it from Yu Fanzhen, it cost him eighty mid-grade spirit stones.

The storage bag was quickly and completely refined, and a hazy gray space appeared in his mind.

Four ritual implements.

Sixteen talismans.

Five books in volume.

Forty-five mid-grade spirit stones and over one hundred low-grade spirit stones.

And some other miscellaneous things.

Chen Li recognized three of the four magical artifacts; they were likely the ones he had given to Zhao Lin to sell. However, the flying sword-shaped artifact was completely unfamiliar to him.

He took out his flying sword.

Take a closer look.

It was clearly a top-grade first-tier magic weapon.

"They're really rich!" Chen Li thought to himself.

Including the top-grade robe he took from the corpse of that Zhou family's great-grandson and put into his storage bag, his haul alone was worth nearly two hundred mid-grade spirit stones.

In addition, there were items confiscated from the gang members.

Two high-quality ritual implements.

Eight medium-grade ritual implements.

One medium-grade Dharma robe.

Four low-grade Dharma robes.

And a number of various talismans.

It's estimated to be worth forty or fifty mid-grade spirit stones.

It's like becoming rich overnight.

But he felt little joy. He put the flying sword back into his storage bag and continued to stare into the distance.

It wasn't until they saw Zhao Lin and the others carrying their luggage out of the city gate and hurrying towards the foot of the mountain that they finally saw them.

He then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Finally it's out!"

Otherwise, he would have no choice but to steel himself and do it himself.

More than an hour later.

He released his flying sword, leaped onto it, and then propelled it into the distance.

He flew dozens of miles through the night and landed in a valley. He released Han Zhihao's body from his storage bag and buried him on the spot. Then he flew several miles away and retrieved the body of Zhou's great-grandson.

"Huh, what's this? There's something missing!" At this moment, he noticed a dark gold thin rope hanging around the corpse's neck, which looked like it was woven from some kind of hair. The lower half of it was buried in the chest, and it looked like a pendant.

He reached out and pulled it out.

This is a red jade pendant.

It is covered with dense arrays of runes.

"Looks like something good?"

Chen Li pulled hard.

They discovered that it couldn't be torn apart.

He drew his sword and simply chopped off the corpse's head before taking out the jade pendant hanging around its neck.

Chen Li didn't examine the contents closely. He put all his loot into his storage bag, then used his traction technique to dig a pit and bury the corpse. With a heavy heart, he left behind two exorcism talismans as burial items before rushing back to the city that very night.

In this world, summoning spirits is not some incredible method.

Especially for a Foundation Establishment expert.

He could only be extremely cautious and careful.

In just one night, he extravagantly used up eighteen exorcism talismans.

Most of them were used at murder scenes.

It directly triggered ten cleansing battles, and left four more on site.

I'm afraid these corpses will cause trouble even after they're dead.

……

It was almost midnight when I got home.

"Squeak!" Chen Ligang quietly opened the door, and Zhou Hong came out from the inner room.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" Chen Li asked.

"I can't sleep without you here. Has the matter been resolved?" Zhou Hong asked with concern.

"It's just a small matter, but it's been a bit of a hassle. It's dragged on until now, and it's exhausting," Chen Li said with a smile as he put his arm around Zhou Hong and walked towards the bedroom.

"Hmm!" Zhou Hong immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Silent all night.

The next day was another new day.

Chen Li didn't go anywhere.

I carefully sorted through my finds in the basement.

Of the five books in the storage bag, three were mundane stories for entertainment, one was the Tianhe Gang's account book, and the other was the Huang Chi Technique.

Chen Li picked up the Yellow and Red Techniques and read through it for a while.

"I never thought there really was such an evil technique! Really... spiritual power can be used like this... tsk tsk... this method... people in this world really know how to play."

Even Chen Li, a person from a later era, couldn't help but broaden his horizons.

He quickly put the book aside.

Feeling disappointed.

This is not a cultivation method at all.

Instead, they were evil and secret arts used for sexual intercourse.

What use is this secret technique to him?
Immediately afterwards, Chen Li took out the top-grade first-tier flying sword from his storage bag and quickly refined it.

"go with!"

He wielded his flying sword and pointed with his finger.

In an instant, the flying sword vanished like a streak of light.

The rock wall was pierced several meters in an instant.

Whether in terms of maneuverability, power, or speed, it is far superior to his long-used first-grade flying sword.

"Unfortunately, for safety reasons, it's probably best to keep it out of the light until it reaches the Foundation Establishment stage." He shook his head, retrieved the flying sword, and tossed it into his storage bag.

Next was that piece of red jade.

He looked it over and over again.

Unfortunately, after looking at it for a long time, I still couldn't figure it out.

It wasn't until he infused it with spiritual energy that he began to have a vague idea.

After the refinement, he found that his thinking seemed to have become clearer, and his consciousness and soul seemed to have gained an extra layer of protection, giving him a strange sense of security.

“No wonder…” he muttered to himself.

During the battle last night.

He suddenly unleashed a rebuke, and everyone was affected except for the great-grandson of the Zhou family, who remained unaffected. He had been wondering about this, but now it seemed to be the work of the red jade pendant!

Consciousness protection, or rather, soul protection.

To be honest, he had never even seen this type of magical artifact before.

"Ugh, what a hassle!" He was increasingly alarmed as he thought about it.

Storage bag, a first-tier top-grade magic robe, a first-tier top-grade flying sword, and this extremely precious red jade pendant.

The great-grandson of the Zhou family whom he killed last night was clearly an important figure in the Zhou family, or at least quite favored.

In fact, even now, he still doesn't know the extent of his opponent's strength.

The entire battle was quite short.
At that time, the two were only seven or eight meters apart, practically touching. For Chen Li, it was just a blink of an eye. From the moment he rushed towards the other party until he was defeated and died, the whole process took no more than 0.5 seconds.

After the other party went blind, they fell into extreme panic.

He didn't launch a single attack until his death, and he even left his casually used flying sword in his storage bag without taking it out.

"For now, we can only wait and see how things develop, and take it one step at a time," Chen Li thought to himself.

……

The Zhou family didn't receive the news until noon the next day that the Tianhe Gang had run into trouble and Zhou Dongbo was missing.

Several nearby streets were quickly blocked off.

All the independent cultivators in the vicinity were summoned by the Zhou family, who acted as if they had gone mad, forcing them to reveal clues about the previous night. The few gang members who were lucky enough to escape were given special attention, and anyone who hesitated even slightly was slapped hard across the face.

"Have you seen anyone?"

"You say you weren't there, but who can prove that?"

"Three people have been kidnapped... Which three people? What do they look like? What are their features? Do you recognize them?"

"The ones selling magical artifacts in the market for independent cultivators are very good!"

"People from Green River Lane! Do you know where these people live?"

One by one, the pieces of information were quickly pieced together.

But the trail quickly went cold, and no one knew where these people lived.
As rogue cultivators who rose through the ranks of Green River Village, caution was ingrained in their very bones. If Zhao Lin, Gu Mengqing, and the others could be easily tracked down, they wouldn't be alive today.

……

The murder scene.

Zhou Xutang picked up a talisman that had been placed on the corpse, his face grim as he looked at the bodies lying haphazardly on the ground.

"Damn it!"

He was middle-aged, dressed in a blue robe, with three tufts of beard. He looked dignified and had an air of otherworldly grace, but the fierceness in his eyes completely ruined that image.

He put the four exorcism talismans left at the scene into his storage bag.

He began to silently chant a mantra.

The hall quickly became filled with a chilling wind and ghostly shadows. Although it was still midday, the light became eerily dim, and for a moment the entire hall seemed to have turned into a ghostly realm.

He's using a technique to bring the dead back to life!

This technique is not truly about bringing the dead back to life, but the effect is similar. As long as the person has not been dead for long, the body is intact, and there is still a remnant soul inside, the person can be 'brought back to life' under the power of the technique.

Of course, this will happen once the magical power dissipates.

And so it died completely.

However, this continued until he finished chanting the incantation and the spell ended.

Except for one corpse with its neck twisted and twitching slightly, the other nine decapitated corpses remained completely still and motionless.

The murderer was too meticulous and too cautious.

I wonder how many exorcism talismans they used!

"Ancestor, we've searched everywhere, but we can't find Dongbo!" a member of the Zhou family reported.

"I want to see them alive or dead. Keep searching! We can't let our Zhou family members disappear without a trace!" Zhou Xutang said through gritted teeth, his aura radiating power. He had a vague premonition that Dongbo was gone.

"Didn't they say these people came from Green River Village? Let's follow that lead, find everyone from Green River Village, and interrogate them one by one."

"Yes, ancestor!"

The Zhou family members quickly took their leave.

Zhou Xutang continued searching for clues at the scene.

An ordinary great-grandson.

If you die, you will die.

But Zhou Dongbo is different. At only twenty-eight years old, he has already reached the ninth level of Qi Refining. He is the family's prodigy and a seed for Foundation Establishment.

Although he knew that Zhou Dongbo was not very well-behaved outside.

Rumors of his arrogance, domineering behavior, murder, and robbery frequently reached his ears.

He just hadn't paid much attention to it.

Firstly, Zhou Dongbo is cautious and perceptive, never provoking powerful forces, and his cultivation is not weak; few in the Qi Refining stage can rival him.

It's just a few lowly rogue cultivators dying.

What's the big deal?

In his eyes, it was just children being silly.

Secondly, other Foundation Establishment families, even the Longevity Sect, have to give the Zhou family some face.

But I never expected this time...

"Fine, very well! What a cruel heart! Just wait, I'll find out!" Zhou Xutang gritted his teeth, his eyes blazing with anger.

(End of this chapter)