After binding with a genius, I became an immortal by exploiting loopholes.

Chapter 113 Continued Investigation

Elder Han lunged forward and struck out with his palm.

The fingertips shone with a brilliant dark gold light, and the entire palm was enveloped in a layer of highly refined, pure gold spiritual energy.

This palm strike was devoid of any fancy moves; it was the purest, withering power. Wherever it passed, the air became stagnant, and even the spiritual energy in the wind lost its vitality in the face of this palm strike.

The man in black also met the attack with a palm strike.

His palm strike was unusually cold, carrying an unsettling, corrosive force.

When the two palms met, there was no deafening roar, only a dull thud as the dark gold and black spiritual forces clashed wildly between their palms.

Elder Han felt that the opponent's palm strike contained a sinister suction force that kept drilling into the depths of his meridians, trying to erode his spiritual power from the inside.

Su Jinling's withering power instinctively retaliated, peeling away the layers of this insidious palm force, but the opponent's palm force was also eroding at an extremely fast speed.

The two exchanged blows several times.

The black-clad man's spiritual path leans towards erosion and sharpness. Every slash and every palm strike carries the power to disintegrate the opponent's spiritual power from within. The cuts are clean and crisp, and the sinister suction force is particularly troublesome.

Elder Han confronted the opposing forces head-on with his Sujin Spiritual Path, withering against erosion, stripping against disintegration. The two completely different spiritual paths clashed fiercely in the clearing of the dense forest.

The surrounding trees could not withstand the aftershocks and withered and collapsed one after another—the leaves swept by the withering gold instantly turned yellow, while those wiped by the black spiritual energy began to rot from the inside.

The man in black remained silent throughout, his moves ruthless, yet he did not linger in the fight.

He had achieved his goal and now only wanted to get away.

He exchanged another palm strike, then used the force to leap backward, disappearing into the shadows of the dense forest.

Elder Han chased after him for dozens of feet, the mirror light illuminating every inch of the land ahead, but he saw only dense shadows of trees; the person had vanished without a trace.

He stopped in his tracks, his face ashen.

Before long, the dense forest behind them quieted down.

The gray mist cultivators also retreated, leaving behind only a patch of residual mist that Elder Zheng had crushed with the living wooden cage.

Elder Zheng rushed to Elder Han's side and saw his grim expression, his heart sank.

The two returned to the open space, where the corpse of the rogue cultivator lay quietly.

Elder Han squatted down to examine the wounds. There was a deep knife wound on the shoulder and neck of the rogue cultivator, revealing the bone, and an even deeper cut on his throat. The two cuts were clean and swift, and the spiritual energy remaining at the cuts was extremely faint, almost imperceptible.

The fact that the man in black could control his spiritual power to such an extent in the instant of killing demonstrates that he has reached a state of perfection in the application of spiritual power.

He stood up, his face so dark it could drip water: "That man in black was ruthless. If his first strike missed, he would follow up with a second, without any hesitation."

"His spiritual path leans towards erosion and sharpness, his palm strikes are insidious, and his cuts are clean. One of them was responsible for stopping us, and the other for silencing us. It was premeditated."

Elder Zheng remained silent for a moment before putting the rogue cultivator's corpse into his storage bag.

The two carefully examined the surrounding traces again, making sure they hadn't missed any clues, before they used their escape light to fly towards the sect.

Two days later, the council hall of the Spirit Plant Palace was brightly lit, and the atmosphere was even more somber than when the Spirit Corrosion Disease broke out.

Hall Master Su Mingyuan sat in the main seat, with the three deputy hall masters and five elders also present.

Elder Han of the Law Enforcement Hall sat beside Elder Zheng, still with that cold and stern expression.

Elder Zheng recounted the entire pursuit in detail, then took the rogue cultivator's body out of his storage bag and laid it flat in the hall.

The clean cut on the corpse's neck was particularly glaring under the light.

There was a moment of silence in the hall.

"Two Foundation Establishment cultivators."

Su Mingyuan's voice was not loud, but every word pierced the ears of everyone present like nails.

"One was responsible for intercepting the two elders, and the other was responsible for killing them to silence them. They acted swiftly and decisively, leaving no survivors. This is not something a rogue cultivator could do."

Elder Han spoke, his voice as cold and hard as iron: "The murderer used a short blade, killing with a single blow. The technique was skillful, and this person's cultivation was profound, definitely not an ordinary rogue cultivator!"

Elder Meng put down his teacup, his face grim: "So, from the moment that rogue cultivator started selling diseased seeds, it was all part of a scheme orchestrated behind the scenes?"

"They deliberately lured Wu Decai with cheap, high-quality seeds. The eggs of the Spirit-Eating Insects were hidden very deep. Their move was aimed at polluting the entire sect's seed supply system. This was not a spur-of-the-moment speculation, but a premeditated attack."

"To be able to mobilize two Foundation Establishment cultivators and have such methods, there must be at least one powerful force behind them."

Su Mingyuan's gaze swept over everyone present. "Those who can think of starting from the source of the seed are definitely not simple."

He looked at Elder Han: "Elder Han, the Law Enforcement Hall needs to cooperate with the Spirit Plant Hall to investigate all the records handled by the seed bank over the years, and investigate the seed transactions in all the markets around the sect, especially the flow of Crimson Ginseng seeds. In addition—"

He paused, then asked, "Did the two elders clearly discern the cultivation techniques of the gray-mist cultivator and the man in black?"

Elder Zheng and Elder Han exchanged a glance.

Elder Han said slowly, "The other party is deliberately concealing their true intentions, and the method of their cultivation is unclear."

This statement made the atmosphere in the council chamber even more somber.

Su Mingyuan remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking: "Keep this matter a secret, don't alert them. The Enforcement Hall and the Spirit Plant Hall will investigate together, and all clues should be reported directly to me."

He looked at Elder Zheng and said, "We need to interrogate Wu Decai again. He has been handling seeds for many years, so it's impossible that he only did it this once. Make him explain all the accounts he handled clearly, without omitting a single one."

Elder Zheng responded in a deep voice.

Over the next few days, Lu Qingchen lived a regular and fulfilling life.

Every morning, he goes to the Spirit Protection Field to check on the condition of the Earth Vein Embryo.

After the spirit was activated, the earth vein spirit embryo quickly returned to normal, and there was no difference between it in the cave and in the stone chamber in the valley.

He squatted down and placed his palms on the ground. Through the sensing of the Dao stele, he could vaguely feel that the roots of the spiritual embryo were slowly adapting to the new environment. Some tiny roots had already sprouted from the stone platform and stretched into the surrounding soil.

.

Fortunately, the bluestone slabs have kept them within the cave's boundaries, and there are no signs of them crossing the line for the time being.

The seeds of the red fruit, jade marrow fungus, and golden orchid have also sprouted one after another.

The first to emerge was the golden orchid, its tender shoots breaking through the soil, the two small leaves edged with pale gold, shimmering slightly in the morning light.

Secondly, there is the chalcedony mushroom, whose milky-white buds emerge from the soil, as thin as a white thread.

The vermilion fruit is the slowest to develop; only today has there been some movement.

Besides working in the fields, he never neglected his cultivation.

With the dual assistance of the Earth Vein Spirit Embryo and the Azure Jade Marrow, my daily cultivation efficiency is indeed a bit faster than before.

The pure energy in his dantian slowly increased. Although it was still far from reaching the fourth level of Qi Refining, at this rate of accumulation, it wouldn't be long before he could reach the threshold of the peak of the third level of Qi Refining.

However, the minor bottleneck between the third and fourth levels of Qi Refining has always been a lingering shadow in Lu Qingchen's mind.