“Patriarch, we have already killed that group of demon monkeys, but a spiritual toad that’s smaller than a fist came out of nowhere and devoured the demon monkeys we have killed. At that time, Fourth Brother was a little careless and charged in too close. In the end, he was stabbed through the chest by a surprise attack from the spiritual toad.” explained the cultivator at the peak-level of Qi Refinement Stage.
His name was Huang Tingshan. He belonged to the same generation as the patriarch and was considered the eldest brother among that generation. However, his aptitude was much lower than Huang Tingyuan, still stuck in the Qi Refinement Stage even at his age. It was already impossible for him to reach the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Hearing that, Huang Tingyuan’s expression relaxed a little but still had a look of disappointment on his face. “Fourth Brother is already several decades old. Why is he still acting so rashly? How am I going to inform his wife and my nephew?”
“Patriarch, I have another thing to report.”
Huang Tingshan added, “When we were chasing after that spiritual toad, Tingyu and another were injured and I had Old Six stay back to protect them. However, a cultivator appeared all of a sudden and lured Old Six away. After that, another cultivator came along and knocked the rest out. They even robbed them clean of all their magical tools, items, and those demon monkeys that we had painstakingly killed.”
By that point, his voice was filled with anger. It was unclear whether it was his hatred for the other party hurting his clansmen, or for stealing their prey.
This trip was supposed to get all of them some rewards, but putting aside the clansmen that died, the others were injured as well. In the end, they obtained nothing.
Huang Tingyuan did not mind the hatred in his voice. Instead his expression turned solemn as he frowned while considering the matter.
Apart from being the one and only Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator of the Huang family, he was also the most calculative.
Otherwise, he would not be at the level he was and made it to the seat of the patriarch.
After some thoughts, he finally asked, “Are there anything on those two cultivators that could be identified?”
“I’ve asked them. They couldn’t see anything.”
“What about the spiritual toad?”
Huang Tingyuan then followed up with another question, “Was that spiritual toad a spiritual beast under someone’s control?”
Hearing that, Huang Tingshan’s heart trembled greatly. “Patriarch, you’re saying that this is a plot by the Qin family?”
“Qin family or not, that would depend on whether that demon beast was under someone’s control.”
“This…”
Huang Tingshan hesitated for a moment before shaking his head and replied, “It doesn’t seem like it. We’ve seen the beast taming method of the Qin family. That spiritual beast did not seem to be under someone’s control. Instead, it seemed to be wild. Moreover, regardless of it being Qin Guanpao or Qin Long, it wouldn’t be such an ordinary demon beast if they acted, much less only taking Old Four’s life alone. With their strength, it would not take them much time to kill all of us and would not need to resort to robbing those little things from Tingyu and the others.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”
Huang Tingyuan nodded, “That being said, that demon beast can only be considered as an accident.”
“However, if not the Qin family, who else could do such a thing to steal our prey behind our backs without killing anyone? This matter feels so mysterious.”
Huang Tingshan scratched his head, unable to comprehend the situation.
“Big Brother, don’t forget that this is Kun City. Apart from the Qin family, there’s still the Wang family to the West of the city.”
Huang Tingyuan felt helpless. ‘This cousin of mine is really slow in the head. Why would he need me to remind him of things like this?’
“You’re saying that this is a plot by the Wang family?”
Huang Tingshan was slightly surprised. “They had always been very careful. Since when did they grow the balls to offend our Huang family?”
“It might not be them trying to cross with us. They could just be trying to frame the Qin family and have us fight with the Qin family in order to benefit from it.”
Huang Tingyuan said after some contemplation, “Although the Wang family is careful, they are not without a plan for expansion. Especially with the younger generation of their family having produced two juniors with good talent. I’m afraid in a few decades, the Wang family will have two more Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators. Kun City is only so big. If the Wang family wants to continue their expansion, they could only put their sights on the Qin and Huang family.”
Hearing that, Huang Tingshan’s face immediately took on a vicious expression. “Why don’t we take the initiative and act first to settle the issue in advance?”
“Don’t behave rashly.”
Huang Tingyuan shook his head, “Although the Hidden Mist Sect is behind our Taiyi Grotto in terms of strength, they’re still a sect with several thousand years of inheritance, giving them a decent foundation. Moreover, their sect’s outpost is not too far away from Kun City. If such a plan is exposed, Taiyi Grotto might not be willing to fight the Hidden Mist Sect for the sake of an insignificant family like ours. Just keep an eye on them and don’t let them take advantage of us again. Remember to keep everything on the down low.”
“Are we supposed to just take this loss and act like nothing happened?”
Huang Tingshan was obviously unsatisfied.
“It’s not that we can’t get back at them, but now is not the right time.”
Huang Tingyuan then explained, “The grand elder had just obtained some excellent refining materials and is forging a spiritual sword in seclusion. If it proves successful, the grand elder will truly rise up as a tool refining master capable of forging spiritual tools. At this point, we’ll have to place the grand elder first and avoid creating troubles at a time like this. We don’t want to disturb the grand elder in his spiritual sword forging process.”
“Alright, I understand.”
Although Huang Tingshan was still rather unresigned, he was afraid of going against the patriarch’s orders and could only agree to it.
…
After a few days of the demon beast extermination incident at Qifeng Mountain, the cultivator from the three families of Kun City finally returned back to their own families.
Apart from the unfortunate death of a late-stage Qi Refinement Stage cultivator from the Huang family, the other two families had injured clansmen but were without casualties.
The night they arrived home, Qin Feng told his father about the incident where he worked with Qin Yang to rob the two cultivators from the Huang family.
That incident was not easy to hide and would require his father to help him sell those items in exchange for spirit stones and elixirs.
Qin Long was shocked by his son’s accounts as he did not expect his son to be so brazen.
However, he did not reprimand Qin Feng, but praised him instead.
After all, the world of cultivation was filled with all sorts of dangers. If a chance to obtain resources from a rival arose, there was no need to let it pass.
Qin Long looked at the few items placed before him, then tossed the Clarity Jade and Spirit Binding Net back at Qin Feng, stating, “Don’t bother selling this Clarity Jade. Keep it with you all the time as it’ll help you with your cultivation. Of course, that’s only a low-grade Clarity Jade that would be useless once you’ve reached the Foundation Establishment Stage. You can get rid of it then. As for the Spirit Binding Net, it’s still quite useful despite the relatively low grade. Keep this for yourself. It’ll be fine as long as you don’t use it openly in front of the Huang family members.”
Qin Feng nodded and kept those two items.
After all, he would be heading to the Beastmaster Sect soon. When that time comes, he would have nothing to do with the Huang family anymore. By then, he would be able to use those two magical tools as he wished.
Qin Long then picked up the two storage bags. Under the effects of the true essence of his Foundation Establishment Stage, he broke through the restrictions on the storage bags and emptied their contents.
There were a number of random things such as demon beast materials, refined iron for forging, two bottles of elixirs, and a few dozen spirit stones.
Qin Long passed the spirit stones to his son and then kept the remaining items, saying, “By chance I need to head to the county city’s management to sell the materials obtained from demon beasts. I’ll just sell these items together for you. The rest are fine, but remember not to carelessly take any elixirs.”
He warned solemnly, “Especially if they are unidentified elixirs coming from someone else. It might turn out to be some poisonous elixirs used to harm others. If you lose your life by carelessly consuming them, nobody will pity your demise.”
“It’s that serious?” Qin Feng was taken aback. “Those two cultivators shouldn’t be carrying poisonous elixirs on them, right?”
“Can’t be sure.” Qin Long smacked his lips. “It’s not unprecedented. There were cases of cultivators killing their opponent and obtaining a number of elixirs from them. Feeling wasteful for throwing it away, he consumed them. In the end, he did not expect there to be an extremely poisonous elixir mixed within and die to his own greed. Hehe, ever since then, quite a number of cultivators would do the same and mix in a poisonous elixir within the elixirs they had with them in the hopes that it might help them avenge themselves.”
Qin Feng was stunned. “I never expected there to be such a thing.”
“There are plenty of things beyond your imagination. After you enter the sect, remember to be extra careful and not fall for some plots.”
Qin Long looked at his son, then said, “You’re quite smart, but the treacherous people in the world of cultivation are beyond counting. Observe and think more. Don’t ever be rash. After all, you only have one life. If you died, you’ll lose everything.”