Prehistoric: The female saint Shiji, brilliant and talented

Upon hearing this, Liu Yunfei smiled calmly and said sincerely, "Please don't misunderstand, we have no ulterior motives."

To be honest, the city lord's mansion was attacked last night, and many of the Dragon Tiger Merchant Alliance's businesses in the city were also affected, suffering heavy losses.

We originally wanted to find the mastermind behind this, avenge the murdered cultivators, and protect the peace of Dragon Tiger City.

Having witnessed your actions, I know your cultivation is unfathomable. If we could join forces with you, we would not only be more confident in dealing with those villains, but we could also spare Dragon Tiger City from further trouble.

To be honest, we simply want to get to know a hero like you, and hope that with your help, we can restore peace to this place.

He paused, then added, "We can form a temporary team to share information and resources, and then fight those people together."

I believe that with your strength, coupled with the connections and influence of our Dragon Tiger Merchant Alliance in the city, the two sides working together will surely be able to completely wipe out those thugs!

As Shi Ji listened to Liu Yunfei's words, she gently stroked her sleeve with her fingertips, pondering to herself.

He knew that the forces behind those thugs were not simple; not only were there powerful figures at the level of emperors, but they might also have more hidden trump cards.

If it were up to him alone, it would indeed be quite difficult to completely eliminate the other party.

The Dragon Tiger Merchant Alliance has been operating in Dragon Tiger City for many years and knows the situation in the city like the back of its hand. They also have many elite cultivators. If we can join forces with them, we will undoubtedly have a better chance of winning.

However, Shi Ji did not agree immediately. Instead, she smiled faintly and said with a hint of reminder, "Manager Liu is quite frank."

But I must make it clear to you first that those people are no ordinary individuals. As far as I know, there is not only one Great Emperor-level expert among them, but there may even be beings with higher cultivation levels.

"Our goal of eliminating the enemy will undoubtedly be fraught with peril and will be far from easy."

He changed the subject, glancing at the cultivators behind Liu Yunfei, and continued, "Moreover, I have another concern—when I fight with them, the scene will definitely be chaotic, which may affect you as well."

After all, those thugs' main target was me, not you all.

If helping me results in the needless sacrifice of your Dragon Tiger Merchant Alliance members, I will feel terrible.

Upon hearing Shi Ji's words, Liu Yunfei and the others fell silent, exchanging glances with hesitant expressions.

They were naturally aware of the risks of fighting against powerful individuals, and they were also afraid of being caught in the crossfire, resulting in heavy casualties among their subordinate cultivators.

However, if they give up the opportunity to join forces, they will not only miss a good chance to eliminate the villains, but also make the Dragon Tiger Merchant Alliance look cowardly and lose face in the martial arts world.

Moreover, if a master like Shi Ji is willing to cooperate with them, wouldn't it be a laughing stock if word got out that they backed down out of fear? Liu Yunfei took a deep breath, a resolute glint in his eyes. He looked at the cultivators behind him and saw that although they were still somewhat hesitant, their eyes were filled with determination. He turned around, cupped his fists to Shi Ji, and said, "You need not have such concerns!"
Since our Dragon Tiger Business Alliance dares to establish itself in Dragon Tiger City, we are not afraid of encountering danger.

Those thugs who slaughtered the city lord's mansion and disrupted the city's order were our enemies.

It is our honor to join hands with you today!
it is good!
We agree to cooperate with you!
I hope our cooperation will be fruitful and that those criminals will be brought to justice as soon as possible!

"Haha, of course it's fun!"

When Shi Ji saw that Liu Yunfei had agreed, she laughed heartily, "With Manager Liu's words, I feel much more at ease."

With your help, we have a much better chance of dealing with those thugs.

The two then discussed the specific details of their cooperation—they agreed to meet at Shilipo outside the city gate three days later, where they would formulate a detailed battle plan based on the latest clues and fight against the villains together.

Liu Yunfei also left two cultivators behind, instructing them to relay any information the Dragon Tiger Merchant Alliance found to Shiji at any time, ensuring smooth communication between the two sides.

After reaching an agreement, Liu Yunfei led his cultivators away from the residence to handle the follow-up matters of the City Lord's Mansion, while continuing to track down the culprits.

Shi Ji then walked alone towards the City Lord's Mansion. He planned to personally investigate the depths of the City Lord's Mansion to see if he could find more clues about those villains, and also to find out what exactly happened at the City Lord's Mansion last night.

The city lord's mansion had long lost its former majesty; traces of fighting were everywhere, and the air was thick with the stench of blood, making one want to vomit.

Shi Ji avoided the outer guards and quietly sneaked into the depths of the city lord's mansion along the shadows at the corner of the wall.

He proceeded cautiously, avoiding several groups of monks who were cleaning up the scene, and finally arrived in front of a magnificent hall.

This hall is the council chamber of the city lord's mansion, and normally only the city lord and core stewards can enter.

At this moment, the hall doors were wide open, and the interior was in complete disarray—tables and chairs were overturned, broken teacups and scrolls were scattered on the floor, and there were also many dark red bloodstains.

As Shi Ji entered the hall, the pungent smell of blood became even stronger. He glanced around and saw more than a dozen corpses lying in the corners of the hall and beside the pillars.

The corpses were all wearing the uniforms of the city lord's guards, and their hands were still tightly gripping weapons, indicating that they had been killed in battle.

Shi Ji crouched down and carefully examined the wound on one of the corpses. She found that the edges of the wound were smooth, as if it had been cut off instantly by a sharp weapon, and there was a faint trace of evil aura left at the wound—very similar to the aura of the demonic corpse she had encountered before and the black-clad man from last night.

What puzzled him even more was that, judging from the way the bodies fell and the direction of the wounds, these guards seemed to have been attacked from behind without any warning, and the person who did it was likely someone they knew.

"It seems that something significant has indeed happened in the City Lord's Mansion, and there might even be a traitor among them."

Shi Ji frowned, pondering to herself.

If the other side has people even inside the city lord's mansion, then the situation becomes even more complicated.

Just then, Shi Ji suddenly sensed a powerful fluctuation from a magical artifact coming from the direction of the backyard of the city lord's mansion.

The fluctuations were somewhat violent and chaotic, clearly indicating that someone was using a powerful magical artifact, and a battle was likely taking place.

Shi Ji dared not delay. She immediately stood up and, like a blur, rushed out of the hall, heading towards the direction from which the magical artifact's fluctuations came.

He hurried along the pebble path in the backyard, passing several artificial hills and ponds, and finally arrived at a secluded stone chamber.

The door to the stone chamber had been destroyed, with broken stones scattered at the entrance. The magical energy was emanating from inside the stone chamber.

Shi Ji took a deep breath, gripped her long sword tightly, and carefully entered the stone chamber.

Inside the stone chamber is a vast underground palace, entirely constructed of hard bluestone. The walls are inlaid with numerous luminous pearls, illuminating the underground palace as if it were daytime.

The underground palace was extremely large, with a wide passage in the middle. There were many stone cabinets on both sides of the passage, but most of the stone cabinets had been opened and their contents were scattered all over the ground.

Shi Ji walked along the passage and soon saw hundreds of magical artifacts scattered throughout the underground palace—swords gleaming with cold light, jade pendants radiating spiritual energy, shields engraved with runes, and numerous storage rings and bags, clearly indicating that someone had looted the place. He examined them carefully and found that, apart from a simple, ancient-looking longsword exuding a faint aura of power, most of the other artifacts were storage rings or bags, seemingly containing many items.

"It seems this is the city lord's treasure trove, which those thugs have found."

Shi Ji understood. He didn't immediately touch the long sword, but instead collected the storage rings and storage bags scattered on the ground one by one.

These storage containers still retain faint spiritual energy fluctuations, indicating that they were recently discarded. Perhaps there are still useful clues hidden inside.

Just as Shi Ji was putting away the last storage bag, shouts of battle suddenly came from afar, mixed with the clanging of weapons and the screams of cultivators.

Shi Ji's heart tightened, and she immediately rushed towards the direction from which the shouts of battle were coming.

Turning a corner, Shi Ji's vision suddenly opened up, and in another hall of the underground palace, thousands of cultivators dressed in black were frantically fighting around hundreds of guards from the city lord's mansion.

These black-clad monks all had fierce expressions, brandishing weapons and making ruthless moves; they were clearly vicious bandits.

Although the guards of the city lord's mansion fought back fiercely, the difference in numbers and strength between the two sides was too great. The guards were gradually overwhelmed, and many of them fell in pools of blood, suffering heavy losses.

"Kill them all, leave no one alive!"

The leader, a burly man with a full beard, was wielding a giant axe. He cleaved open the chest of a guard with a single blow, his eyes filled with rage as he coldly shouted.

Upon seeing this, Shi Ji was enraged.

These ruthless bandits not only looted the treasure trove, but also brutally murdered the guards; their cruelty was truly appalling.

Without further hesitation, he flashed into the crowd, drew his longsword, and with a "whoosh," a sharp sword aura slashed out, instantly killing two of the most aggressive men at the front.

"Who is it? How dare you ruin my plans! Show yourself!"

The burly man with the thick beard was furious when he saw someone suddenly break in and kill his men. He brandished his giant axe and roared at Shi Ji.

The other black-clad cultivators also stopped what they were doing, turned around, and glared fiercely at Shi Ji, their eyes filled with murderous intent.

Hundreds of cold gazes converged on Shi Ji. If it were an ordinary cultivator, they would probably have been terrified out of their wits.

But Shi Ji remained indifferent. He took a step forward, emanating a powerful aura that pressed down on all the bandits present like a mountain.

"Clang clang clang—" Accompanied by a dense series of collision sounds, Shi Ji's long sword moved through the crowd like a nimble silver snake.

With each swing, a sword aura was unleashed, which the bandits were utterly unable to withstand. Their bodies were instantly cleaved in two by the sword aura, or even shattered into a cloud of blood mist.

In the blink of an eye, hundreds of bandits fell to Shi Ji's sword, none surviving.

The guards of the city lord's mansion, who were hiding in the corner, were stunned by what they saw, their eyes filled with shock and gratitude.

Liu Yunfei and the others, who had just arrived at the entrance of the underground palace, witnessed Shi Ji displaying her divine power, and their expressions changed drastically.

Liu Yunfei took a deep breath, his eyes flashing with intense light, and whispered to the cultivator beside him, "What terrifying combat power!"

Just who is this guy? He managed to kill hundreds of ruthless bandits in a single move; his strength is probably above the Emperor Realm!

The cultivators around her nodded in agreement, their respect for Shi Ji growing even stronger.

They had initially worried about the risks of cooperating with Shiji, but seeing how powerful Shiji was, most of their concerns vanished, and they were even more eager to join forces.

After dealing with most of the bandits, Shi Ji's gaze fell on the burly man with a thick beard.

The burly man was already terrified, his face pale and his legs weak. He never imagined that the thousands of men he had brought would be so easily killed by the enemy.

He tried to escape, but found that his body was firmly locked by Shi Ji's aura and he couldn't move at all.

Shi Ji walked step by step toward the burly man, her eyes icy: "Speak, who are you? Why did you attack the City Lord's Mansion and loot the treasure trove? Who is behind this?"

The burly man trembled, not daring to hide anything, and hurriedly said, "M-My lord, spare our lives! We are from Black Wind Stronghold. It was our stronghold chief who sent us! He said there were treasures hidden in the city lord's mansion, and he wanted us to come and rob them. He also said he would kill everyone in the city lord's mansion to avenge our brothers who were killed before!"

"Black Wind Village?"

Shi Ji raised an eyebrow. He had heard of this force in the city before. It was a bandit gang in the nearby mountains. It wasn't very strong, but he didn't expect that they would dare to openly attack the city lord's mansion.

"Who is your chieftain? What is his cultivation level?"

Shi Ji continued to ask.

"Our chieftain is the Black Wind Immortal. He has cultivated for tens of millions of years and has reached the quasi-immortal realm. His strength is incomparably powerful!"

The burly man quickly replied, hoping that by mentioning the chieftain's strength, he could make Shi Ji wary and spare his life.

But when Shi Ji heard the words "quasi-immortal realm", his face remained completely calm. He did not take that quasi-immortal seriously.

Although the Quasi-Immortal realm is indeed stronger than the Great Emperor realm, with his current combat power, plus the support of the inherited techniques of his descendants, he is enough to suppress the Black Wind Immortal.

Without another word, Shi Ji raised her hand and with a single sword stroke, ended the burly man's life.

He then walked to the corpses of the bandits, activated his inherited cultivation technique, and began searching their memories.

A moment later, a cold smile crept onto Shi Ji's lips—from the memories of these bandits, he learned that Black Wind Stronghold not only participated in the attack on the city lord's mansion, but also colluded with the mysterious force that had previously controlled the demonic corpses, and even planned to join forces with those mysterious forces to besiege Shi Ji in three days.

"Perfect, saves me the trouble of searching for Black Wind Stronghold."

Shi Ji sneered inwardly. He looted some more wealth and pills from the corpses of those bandits before turning and walking toward the exit of the underground palace.

After leaving the city lord's mansion, Shi Ji went straight back to her own residence.

Upon seeing him return, his junior sister rushed forward and asked with concern, "Senior brother, did you find anything when you went to investigate the city lord's mansion? Did you encounter any danger?" (End of this chapter)