Chapter 48
Chapter 48: Bad News
“Han Tian really moves fast,” Song Jiu Lai muttered.
Now that they had internet access, she could follow what he was doing. When she saw his livestream preview, she simply followed his account.
If she was bored, she could watch the stream and see how effective it was.
With the welcome event arranged and the newcomers already introduced, the players were about to start grinding.
Song Jiu Lai couldn’t fall behind.
This time she planned to hunt Second Rank demon beasts.
If she stayed in the First Rank area, there was a chance she’d run into her own people—and that would be awkward.
Before setting out, she went to the pharmacy in Wangan County to sell materials and restock pills. Outside, she ran into Senior Sister Shui Ping from Flying Sparrow Sect.
They’d already met when Song Jiu Lai bought the puppet doll. Compared to Su Huan Li, Shui Ping was more lively, more outgoing—bright as sunlight.
She even greeted first.
“Yo, Sect Master Song.”
Shui Ping looked youthful, almost younger than Song Jiu Lai.
But in this backwater place, she counted as a prodigy: fifteen years old, already Late Qi Refining Stage, on the verge of Foundation Establishment.
The cultivation world respected realms more than age. And she was a disciple of a major sect.
So Song Jiu Lai still had to call her Senior Sister.
Song Jiu Lai raised both hands quickly. “Senior Sister Shui Ping. What are you doing here?”
Shui Ping’s aesthetic was a little different from most of Yun Zhou Continent. Her hair wasn’t elaborately styled—just a thick braid down the back of her head.
She laughed. “Just checking whether the pharmacy has any new herbs. You?”
“I’m selling demon beast materials, stocking pills, then heading to First Mountain to train some more.”
Shui Ping looked surprised. “Again? Didn’t you just come back?”
Song Jiu Lai sighed hard. “I can’t help it, Senior Sister. I’m broke. If I don’t work, I starve.”
Shui Ping’s expression turned strange for a moment, curiosity slipping through.
“I heard your sect got a lot of new disciples recently, right?”
She’d noticed it herself. Longevity Sect sat halfway up the mountain, and Flying Sparrow Sect usually didn’t pay it much mind—but the day she delivered the puppet doll, she’d seen Longevity Sect bustling with people.
The old Longevity Sect had only been a small sect led by a Foundation Establishment Stage Sect Master.
These days, finding dozens of disciples with spiritual roots wasn’t easy.
Song Jiu Lai blinked innocently. “Yeah. We’ve gotten quite a few lately. I’m puzzled too.”
It wasn’t something she could realistically hide. And she didn’t need an elaborate excuse.
Even if people suspected something, they could never guess the truth.
Besides, they were only Early Qi Refining Stage for now. Not exactly a threat.
“Oh,” Shui Ping said, letting it go.
In her eyes, those disciples were always running around in crowds, even doing mortal business. It didn’t match the path cultivators were supposed to follow.
Most cultivators would assume that if you got tangled in mortal affairs, you accumulated worldly dust—bad for cultivation.
But it was another sect’s business.
Song Jiu Lai shifted topics quickly.
“Senior Sister Shui Ping, have you heard anything about Senior Sister Su? Did she succeed in Foundation Establishment?”
Shui Ping frowned. “Not sure. A Foundation Establishment trial can be as fast as half a month, or as slow as a month and a half. Maybe Senior Sister Su is stuck at a bottleneck.”
Breaking into Foundation Establishment wasn’t hard as long as you had some assistance. Most Late Qi Refining disciples could manage it.
But many stopped there forever.
Longevity wasn’t just a mortal dream. Plenty of cultivators chased it too, only to find themselves trapped.
“I see,” Song Jiu Lai said sincerely. “I hope Senior Sister Su comes back soon after succeeding.”
She was still counting on Su Huan Li to take her to Liu Xian City for the Immortal Sacrifice Grand Ceremony—she wanted to see a cultivator gathering with her own eyes.
“If you’re going to First Mountain…” Shui Ping’s expression suddenly sobered. “Be careful lately.”
Song Jiu Lai’s heart lurched. “Why? What happened?”
“Two days ago,” Shui Ping said, “fellow disciples sent news back. They found a cultivator’s corpse inside. It looked like they were killed by another cultivator. No identity. Probably a rogue cultivator. Just… be careful.”
Song Jiu Lai’s heartbeat slammed into her ribs.
Could this be about Jin Shu?
After killing him, she’d felt no lingering backlash. He’d attacked first—tried to take her life. She’d only returned what he owed.
And she’d handled his body before leaving. How had it still been found?
Damn.
High-level cultivators really were terrifying.
Song Jiu Lai let fear rise into her face just enough to look natural. “That’s real? We’re just going to train… and something like that can happen?”
Shui Ping couldn’t read anything wrong in her expression. She only grew more serious.
“Of course. We have people training there, but First Mountain is huge. Not every situation can be noticed in time. Some people have bad intentions. If you run into one and you can’t win—run. Run to where people are.”
Song Jiu Lai understood that too well.
First Mountain was enormous.
Back when she trained with Lin Qian, they’d spent days without meeting anyone. She’d only sensed cultivator auras passing by now and then.
Most disciples stayed deeper in, where things were more dangerous. The outer areas had mostly First Rank demon beasts—low risk.
Even when the Devil-Horned Snake chased her, she hadn’t encountered a single person.
The only one she’d met had been Jin Shu—and he’d been a piece of trash.
“And I heard,” Shui Ping added, voice lower, “that on the other side of Devil Cave Valley, something big happened at Heavenly Sun Sect.”
“Heavenly Sun Sect?”
That name hit like a bell.
Heavenly Sun Sect was one of the great powers—right next to Myriad Immortals Sect. A monster of a sect, far beyond anything Song Jiu Lai could currently imagine.
“What happened?” she asked.
Shui Ping shook her head. “Too far. Even if news reaches us, it’s not for Qi Refining Stage people like us. The fact I heard anything at all means it was huge. Probably something between great expert cultivators.”
Her worry deepened.
“The Immortal Sacrifice Grand Ceremony is coming. It’s best if nothing happens. Otherwise, who knows what it might affect? I’m afraid… there could be another demon beast riot.”