Chapter 24: Something Happened!
“Senior Brother, this flying Dharma Ship really is as rumored. At this speed, probably only a Foundation Establishment True Person could catch up, right?”
Outside the mountain gate of the Chaotian Sect.
A jade-green Dharma Ship carried Lu Qingyang and Yang Yu, speeding through the high skies.
Inside the jade-green Dharma Ship, Lu Qingyang sat with his eyes closed, conserving his energy.
Yang Yu leaned over the side of the ship, gazing at the distant scenery, feeling quite at ease.
“Then in your estimation, how long would it take to reach your home at this speed?”
Lu Qingyang slowly opened his eyes and looked at Yang Yu.
“Mm… my home is in Yang Family Village, in the same Yun Commandery of the Great Zhou as the sect. The distance between them is only seven or eight hundred li.”
“At Senior Brother’s Dharma Ship speed, we can arrive within a day!”
Yang Yu replied with a smile.
“So close?”
“Mm, I was originally just a village boy from Yun Commandery. I only got into the Chaotian Sect by sheer luck.”
Yang Yu nodded.
“I see.”
Lu Qingyang fell silent.
Of the Nine Commanderies of Great Zhou, the Chaotian Sect occupied one entire commandery alone, its sect prestige illustrious.
The disciples it recruited were almost all locals of this commandery, with few outsiders.
Because of this, the Chaotian Sect was like an emperor above the emperor within Yun Commandery.
Even the Great Zhou Imperial Court’s face did not carry as much weight in Yun Commandery as the Chaotian Sect’s!
After all, the Great Zhou was not merely a mortal kingdom; it also had cultivators within it.
The current emperor was even a Golden Core great cultivator!
If not for the Chaotian Sect having even deeper foundations behind it, they would likely have long been suppressed to death by the imperial clan!
Thinking of this, Lu Qingyang could not help but sink into thought.
Could the Chaotian Sect really have a living Nascent Soul ancestor?
If not, the Great Zhou Imperial Court would not be so wary of the sect!
Lu Qingyang speculated inwardly, but he had no evidence whatsoever.
And as time slowly passed, the two finally arrived at Yang Family Village before sunset…
Except, as the jade-green Dharma Ship slowly descended, the smile on Yang Yu’s face instantly froze.
And the scene before their eyes made Lu Qingyang’s brow furrow tightly.
The once picturesque Yang Family Village had now become a stretch of ruins.
Many houses in the village had been utterly destroyed, the ground pitted and scarred.
Blood soaked the entire village, yet not a single corpse was to be seen!
“What’s going on?”
Lu Qingyang’s pupils constricted as he looked at Yang Yu.
Before the Dharma Ship had even steadied, Yang Yu leapt down in a single stride.
Then he sped toward a somewhat grand residence in the village.
“Dad! Mom! Little Sister! Where are you!”
Yang Yu screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice deafening.
His eyes were bloodshot, as if he had suffered an immense shock.
“Bang!”
“Bang bang bang!”
“Bang!”
Yang Yu slammed a spell onto the wooden door of the residence, and the entire door shattered with a boom!
“Dad! Mom!”
Yang Yu roared, stepping inside in one stride.
What came into view were only broken walls and collapsed ruins.
The ground was covered in blood and mangled flesh, yet no corpses were to be seen.
“How can this be…”
Yang Yu stared blankly at this scene, as if struck by lightning, his whole body trembling.
“Who did this!”
Yang Yu roared toward the heavens, his voice deafening!
In this remote mountain village, his cries echoed all around, like crashing waves.
“Junior Brother, do not panic. If there are no corpses, there is still hope.”
Lu Qingyang walked into the residence, scanning the area, his brow furrowed tightly.
“Sen… Senior Brother, help me! Help me find my family!”
Yang Yu looked at Lu Qingyang as if grasping at a lifeline, his eyes filled with hope.
Lu Qingyang gave a slight nod, then said, “Calm yourself for now.”
With that, he lightly stepped on the ground and his entire body shot into the air!
Relying on his sixth-layer body-refining physical cultivation, Lu Qingyang could now briefly suspend himself in the air with his body alone.
And as his figure rose higher, the entire Yang residence gradually revealed itself before his eyes.
The Yang residence was not large, roughly a few mu in size.
But at this moment, all of these places had been reduced to ruins!
Cracks like spiderwebs spread across the entire ground!
The whole residence had collapsed, with only scattered bricks and timber piled in the courtyard.
“No!”
Lu Qingyang’s brow furrowed even deeper.
“Junior Brother, this does not appear to be a mortal military disaster or bandit trouble.”
“Bang!”
Lu Qingyang’s figure plummeted, kicking up a sky-full of dust.
Yang Yu was stunned at these words.
“Senior Brother means…”
“I just examined it carefully. Within the ruins of the entire residence, there are traces of spell fluctuations.”
“And they do not appear to come from a single person.”
Lu Qingyang’s expression was grim.
How was it that the moment he left the sect, he encountered such a matter?
Could it be that he was born with ill fortune, bringing disaster wherever he went?
“Senior Brother, so what should I do now!”
Yang Yu asked anxiously.
“Do not panic. If they are cultivators, it will be easier. Our Chaotian Sect still holds some prestige in Yun Commandery!”
Lu Qingyang pondered for a moment, then took out a talisman from his storage bag.
“Fortunately, I exchanged for some talismans a few days ago. Otherwise, today’s matter would truly be difficult to handle.”
“Hum!”
The talisman flickered with light, transforming into a paper crane.
The paper crane first flew toward the blood and flesh on the ground, then flapped its wings and rose.
“Whoosh!”
The paper crane traced a graceful arc through the air, flying eastward.
“This is?”
Yang Yu was bewildered, not understanding.
“What are you standing there for? Hurry and get on. This is a first-tier tracking talisman. As long as it touches even a trace of breath, it can track the scent.”
Lu Qingyang urged, releasing the jade-green Dharma Ship, carrying Yang Yu toward the direction the paper crane had vanished.
And not long after the paper crane left, two black-robed cultivators emerged from the void, watching the direction Lu Qingyang and the other had departed, their faces a mixture of uncertainty and turmoil.
“There are actually cultivators nearby!”
“And from the Chaotian Sect!”
The two cultivators’ expressions shifted.
“Hmph, so what if they’re from the Chaotian Sect? This is the Great Zhou’s domain. It is not their turn to interfere!”
“Let’s go, report to the Commandant!”
The two cultivators wore ferocious expressions, preparing to leave.
But at that moment, a pitch-black shuttle suddenly emerged from the air, shooting toward the two.
“Not good!”
“We’ve been discovered?!”
The two’s expressions changed drastically and they rapidly retreated.
But who knew that there was more than one black shuttle!
A full five black shuttles came from above, below, left, and right, surrounding the two completely!
“Kill!”
The two cultivators shouted, each offering up their Dharma Artifacts, swinging them out, wanting to cut through the black shuttles.
But in the end, they found that these black shuttles seemed to possess intelligence.
They were actually able to bypass the direction of their attacks.
“Damn it! What a nimble Object-Commanding Art!”
The two cursed inwardly and hurried to dodge.
But at that moment, the five black shuttles suddenly changed direction, stabbing toward one of them with fierce momentum.
“Ah!”
“Pfft!”
Amid a burst of intense pain, a column of blood sprayed out.
The cultivator whose throat had been pierced stared with wide eyes, collapsing in disbelief.
He had never imagined he would fall so easily.
He had not even used his strongest spell.
“Speak, why would mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators harm mortals?”
A cold voice sounded.
Lu Qingyang’s figure slowly emerged from the high skies.
When he had been investigating the Yang residence earlier, he had already discovered these two hidden in the shadows.
But for safety’s sake, he had not alerted them.
Instead, he chose to lure them out, then ambush them from the dark…