Chapter 38: What Is the Background of These People?

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“What! What is happening?”

Little Li stared around in panic.

The sudden arrival of the gloomy, rainy weather left everyone at a loss.

He checked the weather forecast every day. Today, Qingcheng was supposed to be basking in brilliant sunshine!

Fu Ankang trembled with agitation. “Master Chen! Old Jiang! Has that evil cultivator arrived?”

Chen Fan gave a slight nod, his expression calm.

Jiang Mingyuan frowned faintly, somewhat displeased that Fu Ankang had mentioned him after Chen Fan.

“Beneath this clear and righteous sky!”

“How dare a mere evil cultivator attempt to deceive Heaven and change the natural order!”

With a furious shout, Jiang Mingyuan hurled the Yin-Yang Compass from his hand.

The compass landed ahead of them and began spinning in midair!

Yin and yang energy emerged upon its surface before suddenly shooting toward the sky!

The two energies pierced through the clouds. It looked miraculous, yet in the end, it was like a mud ox plunging into the sea—nothing happened at all.

“W-What?”

Jiang Mingyuan’s expression trembled. He shouted urgently, “Fu Ankang! Run! The farther away, the better!”

“Get out of Liangmian Mountain! Leave Qingcheng! If you survive, never involve yourself in the Liangmian Mountain project again!”

“Old Jiang, how could I be the sort of person who abandons others to save himself?”

Fu Ankang shook his head. “You’ve been dragged into danger because of me. If you give your life for my sake, how could I ever live with myself?”

Chen Fan could not help glancing at Fu Ankang.

This man… was rather interesting. With someone else standing in front of him, he had been given a chance to survive, yet he was still so magnanimous, willing to live or die together.

But if he treated outsiders this way, what had he done to his own daughter?

What could have made Fu Xueyue behave as though she intended never to speak to Fu Ankang again for the rest of their lives?

Chen Fan found himself growing even more curious.

Jiang Mingyuan lowered his head and fell silent for a moment.

Tears welled in his aged eyes as he patted Fu Ankang on the shoulder.

“Little Fu… It is as though I can see your father standing before me.”

“Your father saved my entire family back then. What does it matter if I now give my life for his son?”

“Little Fu, say no more. I offer this life of my own free will!”

“Old Jiang!”

Fu Ankang’s eyes reddened as well.

Seeing the two of them looking as though they were bidding farewell before marching to their deaths, Chen Fan cleared his throat.

“Isn’t this merely the Heavenly Concealment Technique?”

“Is there really any need to make it look like a final parting between life and death?”

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Jiang Mingyuan wiped away his tears, trembling with anger.

He said to Chen Fan, “It is indeed the Heavenly Concealment Technique!”

“But do you know how vast the Dao force behind this technique is?”

“Even the secret arts of my sect cannot break through one-tenth or two-tenths of it!”

“From seeing one spot, one may glimpse the whole leopard!”

“His Dao force alone, merely from using the Heavenly Concealment Technique, is already terrifying to this extent. If he were to appear…”

“I would not dare guarantee that I could withstand three attacks from him!”

Chen Fan raised his brows slightly as he looked at the dark clouds covering the heavens.

Indeed, whoever had cast the Heavenly Concealment Technique was extremely powerful.

He was even stronger than the Bodhisattva of the Seeking Dao.

But he was still somewhat weaker than the Vajra of the Seeking Dao.

After all, if he possessed the strength of the Vajra of the Seeking Dao, he could simply have used the Spirit Void Realm to ambush and kill them.

Why go to the trouble of employing the Heavenly Concealment Technique merely to obscure the truth?

Fu Ankang’s face went deathly pale.

“Even you, Old Jiang, cannot withstand three attacks from it?”

Little Li’s expression stiffened beside them.

Had he only just escaped the tiger’s den, merely to enter the wolf’s lair?

Was he truly destined to die today?

“That damned evil cultivator has altered the feng shui of this place and captured who knows how many people!”

“Who knows to what terrifying level its strength has now risen!”

“Alas!”

Jiang Mingyuan let out a long sigh. “If only I had realized it sooner!”

“If the feng shui masters of Qingcheng had noticed it earlier, everything would have been different!”

“That evil cultivator could never have grown to such a level!”

Fu Ankang suddenly thought of something, and his expression changed dramatically.

“Not good! There is also a construction crew in Liangmian Mountain today, there to develop the area!”

“There are more than a hundred people!”

Chen Fan narrowed his eyes slightly. If another “earthquake” struck Liangmian Mountain…

Then for at least ten years, there would be no possibility of developing the area.

The last earthquake had claimed the lives of the tourists.

This time, the dead would be Fu Ankang and the construction workers.

“Years from now, this evil cultivator will be invincible throughout Great Xia!” Jiang Mingyuan sighed.

Chen Fan glanced at him and smiled without saying anything.

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It was not that Chen Fan had an unusually low threshold for laughter. He genuinely could not hold it in.

The evil cultivator had committed countless atrocities, leaving behind a horrifying trail of blood debt.

But the path of an evil cultivator was not so easy to walk.

There had once been an ancient evil cultivator who cultivated through warfare.

A hundred thousand dead souls had made that cultivator a terrifying force in one region.

But invincible?

That was taking things far too far.

If the old monsters from Mount Kunlun, Mount Maoshan, or Mount Longhu came down, any two of them could beat this evil cultivator so thoroughly that he would not know which way was north.

“Director Fu! I’ll get you out of here right now!”

Little Li’s face flushed with excitement. “Even if I have to sacrifice my life, I will get you out of Liangmian Mountain!”

“Heh heh heh…”

A strange, drifting voice arose, sending gooseflesh over everyone’s skin.

At some point, an old man had appeared not far away. He wore a tattered robe, and his gaunt frame made it obvious that he was severely malnourished.

His sunken eyes fixed upon Chen Fan and the others. Then he gave a soft chuckle.

“Leave?”

“No… None of you is getting away.”

“Heh heh heh… There is actually someone here with a Qilin destiny. My Life-Borrowing Elixir is complete!”

Chen Fan met the strange old man’s gaze and said flatly, “Heh. That depends on whether you can swallow it.”

“Heh heh heh. How would we know without trying?”

The strange old man raised his hand and bowed to the four of them.

Baring yellow teeth, he grinned. “This old man is Soul Swallower of the Ghost Nether Sect.”

“And who might you be?”

Soul Swallower’s gaze swept across Jiang Mingyuan before finally settling on Chen Fan.

He could not sense any Dao force within Chen Fan. Yet as an evil cultivator, his instincts told him one thing:

Chen Fan had killed someone.

And it had happened very recently.

“Evil cultivator! Damn you!”

Jiang Mingyuan roared and immediately raised his hand, summoning the Yin-Yang Compass.

Yin and yang energy instantly thundered toward Soul Swallower.

Soul Swallower grinned, opened his mouth, and swallowed the two energies whole.

He smacked his lips and drawled lazily, “Is that all?”