Discussing with the arrivants, including this strange fox Spirit Beast, Hanchen couldn't help but feel like something was wrong with the way they were looking at him. Even then, not a single second did he suspect them to be part of a large sect or clan.
To him, instead, they were more likely to be a group that took refuge in the Martial Devouring Mountain to avoid being chased by righteous clans and sects, who often did not particularly appreciate humans and Spirit Beasts colliding together. This kind of intolerance wasn't too common in Zhaoqing Country but, in the lands of Yaoling and the Kingdom of Xuanhe, it was almost normalized for groups like this to be hunted down by both factions, and no one would bat an eye.
After having a relatively pleasant discussion with them, he returned to his room, finally remembering he had not yet set up any defensive formation there. On the surface, after he left, the arrivants simply discussed more with the villagers, and Ye Mu even let a few kids get on his back, giving them a short ride. However, in truth, Zi Moyan and Baotian had started conversing together immediately after the young cultivator's departure, using their spiritual sense to make sure they would not be heard:
"That's problematic, junior brother" Zi Moyan said. "As long as we're in here, we can't use spells without taking large risks, but he can. Ye Mu and I are significantly stronger physically, so if we attack him at the right timing, there is no chance he will be a match, but from what you said about his Earth talent, we won't be able to do much either if he decides to escape, much less if we have to keep him alive for you to refine his talent"
"Tssk, this can't be helped, then" Baotian swore. "Hmm… he was naive when I last met him, maybe after spending some time gaining his trust, I could convince him to go out so I can increase his realm, after all that's technically the truth, so if I explain him some details while keeping the downsides, and show him the artifact given by senior Hanliang, I could gain his trust…"
"Don't have too much faith in this plan, junior brother, naive or not, one is bound to develop a certain level of wariness after being hunted down for so long. It's unlikely you can convince him to agree without explaining at least most of the process and, when he will learn that it implies using a large quantity of blood essence, unless he's dumb, he won't have much trouble tying the nodes and guessing your identity. We can only wait until he reaches Qi building so his spells too will be restricted by the mountains"
"Tssk, it's annoying when you are right, senior sister"
"Then I must be annoying most of the time, is that what you are saying, brat?"
"I'm glad you understand tha- ouch!"
Baotian groaned audibly and grabbed his leg, glancing at Zi Moyan who had just kicked him in the shin. Watching them, Ye Mu shook his head, sighing before transmitting through divine sense:
"If that is the case, then maybe the best option is simply to install ourselves in the outskirts of the Martial Devouring Mountains' range of influence and wait there for him to reach the Qi Building realm, isn't it?" he said. "That way, miss Zi will be able to fully assimilate the Spirit Core to shorten her cultivation, and with all the high-level death fights he went through recently, if he spares with us regularly to keep his cultivation speed up, fellow Zhang has a real chance of reaching the late stage of Qi Building before the young man's advancement. That way, we won't waste our lifespan in the meantime"
At his words, both Zi Moyan and Baotian, the latter being back up, nodded, convinced:
"That seems to be a good idea" Baotian approved. "Since Zi Moyan and I are relatively well-known as demonic cultivators, let's first disguise ourselves to avoid being noticed in the long term, and then find a good place to settle in, where using our cultivation won't make us risk being swallowed by the mountain"
"Should I disguise myself too?" the fox asked.
"Don't take it bad, but what would you disguise yourself into? A human-sized tiger instead of a human-sized fox? But it's alright anyway, since you didn't show yourself with me after the second round, no one would suspect we're together, and you are not renowned enough in our kingdom to risk being recognized, so it should be alright"
"Then, should we leave now?" Zi Moyan asked. "Since there's no reason to stay any longer, I don't think it's worth risking a righteous cultivator noticing us"
Thus, the three of them left, hoping to quickly find a remote place to settle near the limit of the mountains' influence. A week later, an abandoned farm had become their new residence.
What they didn't anticipate was that, only three days after that, a mortal child would come to their farm and, upon seeing the human-sized fox Spirit Beast, exclaimed:
"Excuse me, sirs cultivators… would you happen to be the three cultivators that went to our Red Bean village ten days ago?" he asked, before adding: "I, uh, I was sent here by sir Han to give you a letter"
Saying that, he took out a letter, shyly holding it out for them to take. Baotian frowned:
'Senior Han, senior Han… right, this retard actually chose to use 'Han Chen' instead of Hanchen to disguise himself' he remembered, feeling another surge of contempt in his heart.
Taking the letter, he began reading it, pleasantly surprised by how smooth Hanchen's writing was. As his eyes skimmed through the words, he quickly got the gist of it: Hanchen, recognizing fellow cultivators, had proposed to come to the Red Bean village a few days a month, to spend some time learning from each other and forming relations. For Baotian, that was actually a good opportunity to monitor him and gain his trust, ensuring better chances to capture him when the time would come. That said…
"How did you find us?" Baotian asked.
Ye Mu was hidden most of the time, and Baotian was relatively sure that no one had seen the fox yet.
"Sir Han told me that since you were accompanied by a fox, I should search for large fox footprints. Once I found these, I would just have to search for a slightly tall man and a tall woman living near them, and it would be the ones I should give the letter to"
"..."
That sounded… pretty smart? Baotian frowned, tired of constantly having to lower or raise his esteem of the young cultivator's intelligence.
'More seriously, he made sure to specify that he only wanted to meet in the village. It seems that senior sister was right, he's much more careful than I would have wished for'
Well, it didn't really matter, since they had already settled for the wait. Baotian discussed with Zi Moyan, called Ye Mu to discuss with him too, using spiritual sense not to be heard, and then sent the young man back with a silver coin.
"Alright, we're supposed to meet with him in two days, so let's resume our cultivation in the meantime" Baotian said.
Without waiting, Zi Moyan used earth and wood spells to create herself a small cave, going into seclusion for the day, beginning to assimilate the core. Ye Mu, too, decided to do the same, to consolidate his recently acquired Golden Core cultivation. Thus, Baotian, left alone, decided to do the same. Now alone in his own little cave, he began to focus his spiritual energy on his middle dantian, using it to make the Qi Cube inside stand on its corner.
Compared to before, he had much less trouble: thanks to his two recent fights to the death, which had made his Qi Cube spin on its end dozens of times on both instance, he could now make it stand for a few minutes at once, a result an average cultivator would normally reach only after ten years cultivating the mid stage formula. Not only that, but he also felt like his progress was monstrously fast: after spending merely an hour cultivating, the time for which he could make his Cube stand increased by ten seconds!
"This is insane!" he exclaimed out loud.
To fix the Qi Cube in the right position, one had to make it stand on its corner for an entire day at least. Currently, Baotian could make it stand for around six minutes. At the Qi Building stage, one could cultivate optimally for around ten hours a day. Taking into account the day where he would have something else to do, let's say nine hours on average.
Each hour brought him ten more seconds. A day was worth nine hours of it, which meant one and a half minutes gained per day, and an hour every forty days. With a quick calculation, Baotian deduced that to reach the late stage, it would take him less than three years of cultivation!
"Haha, this is great! Great! Finally, the world is taking my side!" Baotian shouted excitedly.
But, as he was alone in his makeshift cave, nobody replied. Baotian's smile slowly faded from his face, and he simply returned to his cultivation, the joy already gone from his heart.
Meanwhile, in the north of the kingdom, a meeting was currently happening between two high-ranked members of two different clans, both at the Core Formation stage. The man was only at the early stage, but the woman was at the grand perfection stage: they were Liu Jianhong and Xiao Chen, respectively the former masters of Baotian and Hanchen!
"You are saying that… you know where Baoti- my former disciple is?" Liu Jianhong said.
There were many conflicting emotions in his eyes: apprehension, eagerness, rage, determination, melancholy, fear of confrontation… Xiao Chen saw these, but chose to ignore them:
"Yes, indeed, they are currently near the Martial Devouring Mountains" she said. "For now, they are hidden, but in the near future, both our students will undergo an advancement, forcing them to reveal themselves. We will catch them at this moment"
"I see, but why would you ask me in particular?" Liu Jianhong. "Your XIao clan does not lack Core Formation cultivators, and with your usual demeanor, I believe you would have normally chosen to handle it with your clan instead"
"During the events of the Void Hurricane, Baotian mentioned the name of my former disciple, Hanchen. Coincidentally, some time before that, your clan's treasury was robbed, by someone using a power eerily similar to Hanchen's Shadow Embodying True Physic. However, even with his talents, he wouldn't have been able to perform such a feat on his own… unless of course, someone gave him the information he needed"
"So, you believe there is a relation between the two?"
"Yes, I am certain of it. Which is why as their former masters, I believe it is our responsibility to put a stop to their evil acts"
If Liu Jianhong had been his former self, he would've noticed something was wrong. Xiao Chen was famous for putting her clan above everything, and wiping the stain that Hanchen had become went far above some kind of shared sentiment she would have with him. However, his current self, broken and desperate, was blinded by the prospect of finally stopping his former disciple:
"I… I believe you are right, lady Xiao" he said, before turning to the young man behind her. "Will this young man help us?"
Xiao Chen nodded:
"Yes, he is my other disciple, Xiao Fengyu, at the early stage of Qi Building" she said. "He was the main factor in the matter that caused Hanchen to end up this way and so, to fix his mistakes, he volunteered to help"
Even though she said that, Xiao Fengyu clearly did not look like he 'volunteered'. Considering the likelihood that Hanchen was grouped with Zhang Boatian's group, which included him, Zi Moyan and Bai Zisheng, respectively at the level of pseudo-Core Formation, early stage Core Formation, and grand perfection Core Formation or above, it was not much different from asking him to go dance naked and blindfolded in the middle of a battlefield. Clearly, he was about to pay for his schemes the hard way.
"That said, Zhang Baotian has the famous Bai Zisheng as a helper" she added. "With his strength, there's a chance that even together, we won't be his match. Therefore, it is only natural to ask for help from the last person concerned, isn't it?"
"You mean… little Zhenyun?"
Xiao Chen nodded:
"Yes, I believe that with his help, we should be able to-"
"So in the end, what you really wanted was my help, so you wouldn't have to risk your clansmen's lives, am I wrong?"
Xiao Chen quickly went silent as a massive pressure hit her. It wasn't just at the Nascent Soul level, no…
It was a genuine Nascent Soul realm cultivator! Liu Zhenyun had already advanced!
Not even that but, at the early stage, his pressure was already comparable to an above-average late stage Nascent Soul!
'It's simply… ridiculous' she thought.
Zhenyun, completely ignoring her reaction, shook his head and sighed:
"Well, it doesn't matter" he said. "I already swore I would stop him, so I see no problem in helping you"
Xiao Chen silently exhaled, relieved. Zhenyun stopped giving her any attention, his eyes instead turning in the general direction of the Marital Devouring Mountain:
'Baotian, I truly hope that you will enjoy the next few years, before we find you' he thought. 'Because after this, I will come to find you'
And this time, there wouldn't be anything in the way to stop him.