From a country cook to a master chef

On the way to the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range, Long Fei was extremely excited. This was his first time coming to Baiyue Prefecture to do a mission. He had long heard that there were many strange things in the Baiyue Mountains and forests, and he had wanted to see them for a long time. Now he could finally fulfill his wish.

In contrast, Lin Jue's face was full of frustration.

The trip to Baiyue Hanzhou went very smoothly. Lin Jue didn't use any of the ten talismans that his master Zhong Liang had given him. Before he could be happy about this for long, his master arranged for him to carry out a dangerous mission in the Wan Gu Mountains.

Capture the traitor from the inner court of Tianwu Mountain who has defected to the Black Tiger Cult, a disciple in the mid-stage of the Divine Illumination Realm.

On the way here, Lin Jue had already read the intelligence jade slip that Zhong Liang had given him, which clearly recorded the ins and outs of the whole matter.

It turns out that the Zhanbo army was able to invade Baiyue Prefecture not long ago because a traitor in the inner courtyard of Tianwu Mountain provided Zhanbo Shaman with information about the Baiyue army's defenses.

After the incident was exposed, the Tianwu Mountain disciple also stole a confidential intelligence document from the inner courtyard and has now fled into the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range to join the Black Tiger Sect.

Logically speaking, for such an important matter, the inner court should have sent an elder-level expert to handle it. Lin Jue couldn't understand why his master only sent him and his senior brother Long Fei to deal with this matter.

Putting aside other aspects, the Black Tiger Sect alone is said to have seven or eight martial arts protectors at the Divine Power Realm, as well as a sect leader at the peak of the Divine Illumination Realm.

With such strength, sending only the two of them is clearly insufficient.

Lin Jue was filled with worry, while his senior brother Long Fei seemed extremely open-minded and full of confidence in completing the mission.

But whenever Lin Jue asked him why he was so confident, Long Fei's answer was always his intuition, which left Lin Jue feeling extremely helpless.

The Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range is shrouded in a thick layer of blood mist all year round, and the water mist inside is even denser. The two of them had only walked in the mountain for a short while when they felt that their clothes had become wet.

However, there was one thing that surprised Lin Jue: after absorbing the blood mist here, martial artists could accelerate the condensation of their internal blood and qi.

Such a miraculous effect! Walking in this blood mist is equivalent to constantly consuming Qi and Blood Powder.

"Perhaps we can use this place to break through to the Divine Illumination Realm!"

Lin Jue was secretly delighted. If things continued like this, with the blessing of the blood mist here, breaking through the shackles of the Divine Power Realm would no longer be difficult for him.

At this moment, Long Fei was walking not far ahead of Lin Jue. Looking at the blood mist that was gradually thickening around him, he smiled and said, "Junior Brother Lin, you may not know this, but if you absorb too much of this blood mist, there is a high probability that it will condense into a demonic pill in your body. Once the demonic pill is formed, it can cause people to lose their minds at best, and endanger the lives of martial artists at worst."

Therefore, in most cases, few martial artists choose to cultivate using blood mist. This approach has both advantages and disadvantages, and requires individual consideration.

At this point, Long Fei paused, as if he had thought of something. He suddenly turned to look at Lin Jue and said in a deep voice, "However, what makes the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range famous is not the Blood Mist Fiend Pill, nor the Black Tiger Sect formed by various desperados in the mountains, but another extremely strange characteristic of the blood mist here."

That is, once a cultivator absorbs the blood mist here, it will affect their own cultivation progress. In addition, if a cultivator steps into the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range, their magic power will be reduced by one-tenth.

Once, a Core Formation cultivator, defying all superstition, attempted to venture deep into the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range to find the answer. However, the deeper he went, the more severe his loss of magical power became, until he was left with only the strength of the first or second level of Qi Refining, and he died tragically under the claws of the mountain's demonic beasts.

This story was told by a Nascent Soul cultivator. It is said that this Nascent Soul cultivator only had Foundation Establishment cultivation at the time, and after witnessing the tragic death of a Core Formation cultivator, he was so frightened that he hurriedly fled the place.

Since then, the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range has become a forbidden area for cultivators, and it is rare to see cultivators there.

Upon hearing this, Lin Jue was stunned. He found it hard to believe that even a Nascent Soul cultivator dared not venture deep into the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range. If it was so dangerous, then why would anyone dare to establish the Black Tiger Cult here?

Faced with Lin Jue's questions, Long Fei smiled and explained, "The Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range is really too big. It stretches from Baiyue Prefecture of the Great Wu Kingdom all the way to the boundless sea in the far east. Its length alone is tens of thousands of miles. The area where the Black Tiger Sect is located is only the outermost part of the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range."

Even so, this place remains a forbidden cultivation ground that strikes fear into the hearts of cultivators from the outside world. Even the Beast Taming Sect, a major cultivation sect in Baiyue Prefecture and one of the Six Sect Alliances, does not dare to build its mountain gate here. Instead, it is built on Beast Peak, a hundred miles away from the Ten Thousand Bone Mountains.

The Black Tiger Cult's leaders were mostly martial arts practitioners who had violated the laws of the Great Martial World. They were all desperate criminals. After establishing the Black Tiger Cult, they frequently went out to harass the surrounding residents, causing widespread suffering in the area.

The Great Wu Kingdom sent troops to besiege them many times, but all attempts failed. Once the Black Tiger Cult members realized that things were not going well, they would flee into the depths of the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range.

In addition, the mountain beasts here have absorbed the blood mist. Although they have not yet turned into demonic beasts, they are still very troublesome. The deeper you go, the stronger the mountain beasts become. It is said that real demonic beasts have already appeared in the deepest part.

For this reason, the Black Tiger Cult located its headquarters on the steep Black Tiger Cliff, constructing protective fortifications to defend against attacks from mountain beasts.

Long Fei rattled off a long string of words, leaving Lin Jue speechless with astonishment.

"Senior Brother Long, since the Black Tiger Sect is so cunning, is it really possible for Master to capture that traitor by sending us here?" Lin Jue asked with some worry. "What if he escapes into the depths of the Ten Thousand Bones Mountain Range? Won't we be helpless against him then?"

This time, Long Fei didn't rely on his intuition to appease Lin Jue. Instead, after some contemplation, he explained the situation to him in detail:

"My master had already thought of this, so he instructed me to kill him on the spot whenever I had the chance."

As for the classified information about Tianwu Mountain, we don't need to worry about it; someone will handle it properly.

"what?"

Lin Jue was startled. If that was the case, then their coming here would have been superfluous.

Seeing through Lin Jue's thoughts, Long Fei smiled and said in a low voice, "To be honest, Junior Brother Lin, there are spies from Tianwu Mountain within the Black Tiger Sect. Master told me this in secret before I left."

"It seems the Inner Court didn't want their undercover agents to be exposed, which is why they sent us to capture that traitor. Their aim was to distract the Black Tiger Cult and make it easier for their undercover agents to secretly eliminate the traitor."

At this point, Long Fei regained his carefree demeanor from when he was sightseeing and said with a smile, "I've explained it to this extent, doesn't Junior Brother Lin understand?"

This trip to the Ten Thousand Bones Mountains was clearly a vacation given to us by our master. We don't need to worry about dealing with the traitors at all. What we need to do is to cause as much trouble as possible for the Black Tiger Cult, distract them, and create opportunities for the undercover agents to kill the traitors.

Moreover, junior brother can rest assured. The senior brother who infiltrated the Black Tiger Cult is undoubtedly powerful; dealing with a traitor at the Divine Illumination Realm is more than enough for him.

After listening to Long Fei's explanation, Lin Jue understood why Master Zhong Liang had only sent the two of them here. Just as Senior Brother Long had said, the two of them were only here to go through the motions.

No wonder Senior Brother Long wasn't worried at all along the way; it turns out there was this connection.

"But Senior Brother Long, why didn't Master tell me about these things? Why did he insist on having you relay the message?" Lin Jue frowned, extremely puzzled, and asked, "Before I left, Master looked so worried. Was that all an act?"

"Firstly, the reason why Master didn't tell Junior Brother is because he felt that I, Senior Brother, am more mature and stable. Haven't you seen it all along? When have I ever panicked?"

Secondly, the master's worries were not feigned. It was September, and there was a peculiar medicinal herb in this place called Nine-Bend Blood Spirit Ginseng. Once this herb was formed, it would only exist for fifteen days. After fifteen days, it would wither and lose its medicinal effect.

That's why our master told us to set off as soon as possible, with the goal of harvesting the Nine-Bend Blood Spirit Ginseng and returning to Golden Valley within fifteen days.

That's right, this is exactly what the master is worried about!

"what?"

Lin Jue frowned, suddenly feeling that his cheap master was too unreliable.

"May I ask, Senior Brother Long, what exactly are the effects of the Nine-Bend Blood Spirit Ginseng?"

"Assisting martial artists at the Divine Integration Realm to condense their martial arts Dharma Image and achieve the Divine Image Realm!"