I, the transmigrated villain, please wait, gentle master.

Chapter 189 Observing from the Sidelines and Discussing Cause and Effect (8)

Elder Stutter was an honest man who dared to spill everything.

That's normal. The sect is gone, and the person is going to die. What is there that can't be said? Even if he doesn't say it, Li Tingyun has other ways to dig the truth out of him.

Rather than being tormented by "memory regression" to the point of mental breakdown and a miserable death, it's better to honestly confess everything. That way, everyone will be better off.

He stammered, "Hunting for spiritual roots is nothing unusual..."

Although this behavior is shady and is universally condemned and explicitly prohibited in the cultivation world, it is undeniably a shortcut to rapidly improve one's cultivation level. With such great benefits, there will always be those willing to take the plunge, so it persists despite repeated bans.

In the beginning, those who stole people's spiritual roots were only some extremists acting alone. These people had their heads on the line and lived a life of danger. If their deeds were exposed, they would simply die, but if they succeeded, their future would be bright.

About three or four hundred years ago, a "spiritual official" came forward and gathered all these wandering, desperate warriors together, establishing an organized, disciplined, and premeditated "spiritual root hunter group." From weak and powerless street thugs to a large and powerful criminal force, they became stronger and more rampant.

That spirit official was incredibly bold; he actually went directly to Penglai Island to seek cooperation, promising to split the captured spirit roots as spoils of war three to seven.

As one of the ten major sects, in broad daylight and under the clear sky, how could the immortals of Penglai possibly collude with such treacherous and despicable individuals?!

At that time, the person in charge of Penglai Island stood up straight, his words resounding:

"You have to pay more!"

The spirit official agreed, and after discussion, they split the money equally, half for you and half for me.

Such is the nature of the people of Penglai; they are no pushovers. They do not uphold false justice and only pursue tangible benefits. After all, they have always been known as the "little demon cave" of the cultivation world. What's wrong with colluding with the Spirit Root Hunters to do some business? Everyone looks out for themselves!

They were responsible for providing cover, supplying inside information about the immortal sects, and even trafficking people—by planning cultivation scams, such as forming teams to search for treasure, explore secret realms, or recruit new people, they would lure highly qualified but impatient cultivators to the hideouts of spirit root hunters, dig out their spirit roots, cut off their kidneys, capture them all, and torture them to death.

It was precisely because of the protective umbrella of Penglai Continent, which secretly safeguarded the evil forces, that Lord Lingguan and the hunters he trained were able to remain at large for so long. However, one day, Lord Lingguan suddenly turned around and said that he wanted to retire from the criminal world.

The spirit official cleaned up all his subordinates and sent all the remaining spoils of war to Penglai Island, leaving himself penniless and without taking a single penny.

However, there is a condition.

He hoped that Penglai would allow him to cultivate alone under the Fusang tree for three days.

Just three days, only three days. You won't lose out or be cheated. After three days, he'll leave immediately.

This deal is too good to pass up! The Penglai side readily agreed.

During the Spirit Official's cultivation, a barrier was set up, and no one was allowed to approach.

Although the people of Penglai were very curious, they were also very principled and businessmen who valued "honest business practices".

They can join forces to do the most immoral, shameless, and utterly depraved things in the world, but they can also be very respectful of each other's privacy, refraining from looking at or speaking of anything inappropriate, and never asking questions they shouldn't ask.

That's pretty much it.

After listening, Li Tingyun only asked one question: "Who exactly is that spirit official?"

The stuttering elder said, "I don't know. He's probably a rogue cultivator. He doesn't even have a name."

Li Tingyun didn't need to ask that pointless question.

The sorcerer may not possess extraordinary abilities, but when it comes to concealing his tracks and deceiving others, no one can outwit him. When dealing with people, he can be anyone, whether it's Zhang San, Li Si, Wang Wu, or Zhao Liu. He's slipperier than an eel, and no one can catch him.

Li Tingyun pondered, resting his chin on his hand: Penglai Continent, a place where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is extremely abundant, and the Fusang tree, a place nurtured by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, yet in such a place, a trace of faint chaotic true essence remains. The only explanation is...

The demon once stored the Chaos Spiritual Root within the Divine Tree.

Although it is unknown why he did this, it is certain that the traces of the spiritual root in the divine tree have become very faint, indicating that too much time has passed and the chaotic spiritual root has long been transferred to another place.

Perhaps it is still being nurtured among the other two divine trees, or perhaps it has long since merged with the demonic path and truly become his possession.

Li Tingyun raised his hand and waved it, and in the blink of an eye, the three living people vanished into thin air.

Although they were pragmatic, they were no longer of any value, so they all had to die.

Bloodswamp is a place from which there is no return.

Anyone he brings here shouldn't expect to leave unscathed, except...

Li Tingyun stepped into the blood-soaked swamp.

Walking through the water was like walking on flat ground; it felt as if one was stepping on a blood-red water mirror, with one's reflection clearly visible to the side.

He walked very steadily, each step creating ripples.

Crossing the blood-soaked swamp, he found himself facing a thick fog. The moment he stepped onto the shore, the fog dissipated, and he could faintly hear the cries of several women. Judging from the sound, there were more than a dozen or eight women crying, their cries heart-wrenching and sorrowful.

They are all furnaces or cauldrons.

Apart from these "fair-skinned, beautiful, and long-legged" furnace cauldrons, no one can walk out of the Blood Swamp alive.

Even if they leave the Blood Marsh, they can only enter the alchemy room; whether they die sooner or later, it's all the same.

The girls on the shore, staggering and tearful, fell silent upon seeing Li Tingyun, as if they had seen the King of Hell. They shoved each other and fled in all directions. Two of them bumped into each other and both passed out.

Everyone knows he's here to select people to refine pills.

Alchemy using living people.

You can either throw it directly into the fire or crush it up and throw it in.

No matter the method of death, it is all incredibly tragic!

Everyone feared him, was afraid of him, and tried their best to avoid him. These young women, who were in their late teens and had no one to care for them, might have dared to steal a glance at his handsome appearance when they first arrived, but as time went on, they all wished they could share a room with a blue-faced, fanged, and ferocious demon rather than see his face. It was more terrifying than seeing a ghost in the middle of the night!

Li Tingyun flicked his wrist, randomly picking a fool who was standing there dumbfounded. He flicked out a burst of demonic energy, and the woman thought he was going to grab her. She hurriedly covered her head and squatted down, shouting, "Don't, don't touch me! I'm sick! If you touch me, you'll die too!"

"...What did you say?" Li Tingyun frowned slightly, as if he hadn't heard clearly, but at the same time, it seemed he had heard it very clearly. However, some barely perceptible emotion made him subconsciously ask, "What illness?"

The woman hurriedly knelt down and begged for mercy: "That kind of disease, I came from a brothel... a brothel is, that kind of place... I, I was sold from one brothel to another since I was a child... and that's how I got the disease."

"Sir! Please let me go! No brothel would dare take in a woman who has contracted the disease, even if she's the most beautiful courtesan. They'd just throw her out on the street to fend for herself. Even beggars wouldn't dare touch her!"

“Sir, you look young, so you may not know about this. Let me tell you the truth: this disease is incurable and it’s contagious.”

"If you knew how dangerous this was, and were afraid I'd infect you with the disease, you could just throw me out onto the street!"

"Any street will do, I have no home, I don't care where I live. Please, please spare my life..."

Li Tingyun remained silent for a long time before asking, "Are you a mortal?"

"Yes, it is."

"Who captured you?"

"No, I don't know."

Do you know why you were arrested?

"I...I don't know either."

Li Tingyun's right hand hung down in his sleeve, his palm swirling with demonic energy, ready to strike. Upon hearing this, he raised his hand and swung it out!

The demonic energy transformed into iron chains, rushing towards her like a dragon. The woman's eyes widened in terror, her pupils reflecting sharp hooks. In the blink of an eye, she was tightly bound by the iron chains, and a hazy, chaotic black mist engulfed her entirely.

The black fog dissipated, and the person disappeared.

Li Tingyun then left.

The Blood Marsh returned to a deathly silence. The furnace cauldrons huddled together for warmth, shivering. One of them whispered:

"My God, he's not mute! This is the first time I've ever heard him speak..."

The others chimed in like chickens pecking at rice, "That new woman is really stupid. We tricked her into begging for mercy, and she actually believed us! Sigh, it's always the one who talks the most and shouts the loudest who's the first to die, and this time is no exception."

Yes, without exception.

Li Tingyun still picked the one who talked the most nonsense.

However, he did not take the person to the alchemy room, but instead left the Taiji Hall and headed straight north.

He went to the Underworld Pool outside Xuanwu City.

Xuanwu City has no four seasons, only the dead of winter. For 365 days a year, a biting north wind blows every day, and every few days there is a light snowfall, which is more than half a person high. As long as the houses are not flooded, it is not considered a big deal.

The Nether Pool outside the city is naturally a cold pool, with the surrounding vegetation covered in frost all year round. A thick layer of cold air shrouds the water, making it impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face. Even the howling north wind, day after day, cannot disperse the clouds and reveal the blue sky.

The Nether Pool is as deep as the sea, and the bottom of the pool is the dwelling place of the mermaids.

Some merfolk, unaccustomed to life on land, still retain traditions passed down for millennia, living peacefully underwater. They can quickly detect any movement on the surface, much like spiders on a fine web, precisely capturing the vibrations of every thread to sense prey falling into their trap.

In the Nether Pool grows snow lotuses, which bloom once every hundred years and bear fruit once every hundred years. The fruit of the snow lotus has miraculous effects when used in medicine, and it is naturally also effective when used in alchemy. Although Li Tingyun has never successfully activated its magical effects, what he has in abundance is his perseverance and persistence. He has plucked the snow lotus seeds thoroughly, and now only a few shriveled lotus seeds have been produced.

Li Tingyun searched the Nether Pool thoroughly, leaving no corner unchecked. The once calm surface of the water was now stirred into turbulent waves.

Merfolk surfaced one after another, then silently sank back down. These sea monsters, more ferocious than sharks, followed his footsteps beneath the surface, wagging their tails as they swam around, resembling colorful koi carp kept in an aquarium, a truly spectacular sight.

Li Tingyun didn't even bother to look at them.

Finally, he found a snow lotus that had luckily escaped his ruthless destruction. He peeled off a few snow lotus seeds, and out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a dead fish lying on the shore.

He didn't know what kind of fish it was, but it looked about the length of his forearm, big and fat, so the meat should be good.

Li Tingyun picked up a tree branch and stuck it in.

A strange light flashed in the dead fish's eyes.

In the blink of an eye, the tree branch was grabbed by someone. Li Tingyun looked closely and, lo and behold, it was Xue Rendong.

"Palace Master, so many years have passed, but you still love grilled fish so much."

"Haha, sorry, I didn't recognize you."

Li Tingyun tossed the snow lotus seeds in his hand, his tone as flat as could be, without the slightest emotional fluctuation: "To actually come back alive from the Ruins of Return, congratulations, impressive, impressive."

"Thank you for the compliment, Lord."

Xue Rendong lay on the ground, showing no intention of getting up, because he had lost all will to live.

"I came back alive, but I feel like I would have been better off dead."

He didn't lose his life, but he lost his dream.

He was a pitiful fish without dreams.

Li Tingyun chuckled but said nothing.

He swaggered over his body, which was blocking the road.

How you came, you'll go.

After he left, Xue Rendong slowly sat up, revealing the bloody hole behind his head.

Lin Qiu sighed as he took a taxi.

He couldn't remember the specifics of what happened. His memory was already bad, and then he got such a big, bloody hole, which made it even worse.

He vaguely remembered that he met Lin Qiutan in the East China Sea. The two fought from the surface of the sea to the bottom of the sea, and it seemed that they were swept into the Ruins of Return together, but they may not have gone in. Suddenly, Lin Qiutan hit him on the back with a black stick!

Aiming at the back of the head, he struck with a thud, showing no mercy.

The knocking made his forehead buzz, and he felt his brain bounce around inside his head. After that, he knew nothing more.

The city lord of White Tiger City possessed a strange sword called "Golden Inlay," and it was the hilt of this Golden Inlay sword that knocked Lin Qiutan unconscious.

Xue Rendong hated himself for being so useless. The sea was clearly his home turf, how could he have let this sick tiger, who was not good at naval warfare, outmaneuver him?

When I woke up, I was already in the Underworld Pool.

Lin Qiu sighed and half-knelt beside him, slapping his face with his golden-inlaid knife, saying, "Kid, cough cough, you need to practice more."

Xue Rendong's anger surged, and Lin Qiutan pressed the tip of his knife against his chest again, continuing:

"I've heard that in the realm of the Ten Kings of Hell, there's a treasure pavilion called 'Xiaoxiang Pavilion,' which contains all sorts of treasures. Cough cough, what if it contains something you're looking for?"

Xue Rendong remained skeptical of everything he said. "How can I believe you? Are you trying to play me?"

Lin Qiu sighed, feeling there was no need to answer such a question. "But you must be careful. The Ten Kings of the Underworld, he is a very..."

Xue Rendong: "Cunning and treacherous?"

Lin Qiu sighed, "That's despicable. He needs to be taught a lesson."

After saying that, he picked up his knife, stood up, and his white robe still shone brightly in the sunlight. The gold thread pattern showed his noble air, but his shoulders and back were slightly slumped, and he did not stand up straight.

He turned to leave.

Xue Rendong threw the miniature Cangming Halberd at it like a brick.

With a "smack," it struck him squarely on the back.

Lin Qiu sighed and stumbled, but managed to steady himself by bracing himself against the knife.

He paused for a moment, then without even turning his head, drew his sword and left.

Xue Rendong rolled over and lay on the ground, looking like a dead fish, completely still.

Lin Qiu knew that he was angry and had to express it.

But the methods of revenge... even a three-year-old wouldn't do that.

Extremely childish.