Chapter 1382: The People in the Squad
“What, you want to stay in the hall?”
Li Yan continued to walk forward without turning his head, but his voice once again echoed in the Golden Core female cultivator’s mind.
The Golden Core female cultivator’s body trembled slightly. She immediately bowed deeply to Li Yan’s back, then turned and walked briskly towards the hall’s entrance.
Li Yan, on the other hand, smiled faintly in his heart.
She had given him some extra information just now, so it was only natural for him to return the favor.
Li Yan didn’t know the other three people in the hall. He glanced over and saw that they had no intention of greeting him, so he naturally wouldn’t take the initiative to talk to them.
The Blood Lantern Sect currently had eleven fourth-rate subordinate sects, and they were basically all wary of each other. It was just that only six families had come this time.
Shangguan Tianque and the Supreme Grand Elder of the Donglin Family were on speaking terms, so these two families were relatively less wary of each other.
“I didn’t expect Fairy Tingyue to be the one to come this time. That was truly unexpected!”
After walking up to Donglin Tingyue, Li Yan clasped his hands and finally spoke.
Among the several Nascent Soul elders in the Donglin Family, Donglin Tingyue’s strength was considered average, neither high nor low. Li Yan had thought the Donglin Family would send a stronger expert, at least someone on the level of the old woman, the Second Elder.
Even if they were just going to play the peacemaker on this trip, at least they would have more means of self-preservation. He hadn’t expected Donglin Tingyue to come.
At the same time as Li Yan greeted Donglin Tingyue, the other three also slowly retracted their gazes, each with their own thoughts.
They all knew that the Broken Army Sect and the Donglin Family had always been on good terms, so it was not surprising that the two of them would get together as soon as they met.
As for Li Yan’s attitude of ignoring them, the three of them were noncommittal and didn’t care.
Which one of them here wasn’t an old monster? It was impossible for them to show dissatisfaction and hostility just because Li Yan ignored them after entering the hall, and then look for an excuse to provoke him.
If that were the case, they wouldn’t have lived to this day. If you didn’t take the initiative to greet them, why should they talk to you? This was the simplest logic.
People who actively looked for trouble everywhere had long since stepped onto the path of reincarnation on their cultivation journey, or even had their souls annihilated.
Anyway, everyone was well aware that in private, their respective sects would want to annex the other’s if they had the chance. There was no need for hypocrisy, and even less need to shout and fight as soon as they met. The dogs that truly bite don’t bark.
“I didn’t expect you to be the one to come either. Tingyue greets Fellow Daoist Li!”
Donglin Tingyue also stood up from her chair, and the beautiful eyes outside her silver mask also lit up.
Her impression of Li Yan was quite good. He was a very calm and low-key person, and he should also be proficient in poison arts.
As for whether Li Yan was a poison cultivator, the Grand Elder of the family had also made a judgment. He should have dabbled in it. He might not be good at refining poison, but he definitely knew how to use it.
From the information they had gathered, it was more likely that he was a powerful body cultivator.
Next, the two sat together and began to converse via voice transmission, completely ignoring the other three. But during their conversation, Li Yan still asked about the situation of the other three.
Later on, they would form a team with these people. Li Yan didn’t expect them to help him at critical moments. It would be good enough if they didn’t stab him in the back.
But he still needed to know in advance the cultivation methods they practiced and the sects they came from. For someone as cautious as Li Yan, this was very important.
Ren Yanyu had, of course, given him information on the other sects, but here, with Donglin Tingyue pointing out each person’s exact identity and giving him an important introduction in secret, it was different.
Li Yan would carefully judge each person’s personality and strength, and then take precautions against them, or even use them, in a targeted manner later on.
And after the other three retracted their gazes, they actually also exchanged a few words via voice transmission in secret, occasionally glancing over at Li Yan.
Everyone was communicating via voice transmission, and soon, a strange silence fell over the hall.
Time passed by, and apart from the five of them, no one else from the Blood Lantern Sect entered the hall, as if they had been forgotten.
Through his conversation with Donglin Tingyue, Li Yan had learned that she had arrived yesterday. After being brought here, she had been waiting ever since. No one else from the Blood Lantern Sect had come to greet them.
Until dusk, when footsteps were heard again at the entrance of the hall. Under the guidance of a Golden Core female cultivator, a stout, balding, large fatty walked in.
As soon as he entered, his small eyes began to scan the surroundings. Then, with a silly smile on his face, he actually greeted everyone, including Li Yan, as if they were very familiar with each other.
Li Yan noticed that his chest was wide open, and the fat on his body jiggled as he walked. If it weren’t for his inner clothes, the fat would have spilled out. He looked like a rich landlord.
Seeing this fatty’s overly familiar manner, Li Yan also smiled and nodded in response, but in his heart, he was even more wary of this person.
This kind of person was the most to be wary of. On the surface, they looked harmless, but once they started plotting against you, they were absolutely ruthless.
Especially with this appearance of being kind to everyone, and to have survived until now, Li Yan didn’t need to think much to know that this person had probably plotted against and killed countless wronged souls.
Because he was the last one to arrive, Li Yan also learned of his sect, a sect with a very strange name.
“Abacus Sect!”
There were three Nascent Soul cultivators in the sect, and the person who came, his name was also so vulgar that it exuded the stench of money.
Jia Fugui, the third elder of the sect!
He was at the Late-stage Nascent Soul Realm, and his cultivation was much stronger than that of the second elder of his sect. He was the second strongest expert in the Abacus Sect.
Jia Fugui chatted with everyone, and he also acted very familiar with Li Yan.
He first threw out a series of compliments, such as long admiration, long-awaited meeting, etc., giving them out like they were free. This made Li Yan have no choice but to smile and respond to him.
After a conversation, Li Yan also learned of his intention. This Jia Fugui was really here to do business, or rather, he would do business with anyone he met.
He advertised which markets his sect had shops in, the addresses of the shops, and so on, telling them everything.
Afterward, he also told Li Yan with great certainty that no matter what magical treasures, medicinal pills, or various raw materials he needed, he could go directly to him, and the price would definitely be reasonable and favorable.
Meeting was fate. The price he gave would be cheaper than what Li Yan could buy in the market alone, and he could even have someone deliver it to his sect, and so on.
Donglin Tingyue, however, secretly sent a voice transmission to Li Yan. The people of the Abacus Sect were neither good nor bad; they only cared about Spirit Stones.
When you traded with him, he could call you “daddy.” If you had no money, and he didn’t like the look of you, he could kill you with a backhand, without showing any mercy.
With Jia Fugui’s arrival, the entire hall suddenly became lively. Even the teenage cultivator who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen actually started trading with him on the spot.
In the end, he bought a bottle of medicinal pills and a section of an unknown grass root from Jia Fugui.
Li Yan watched with a cold eye. He had not expected that Jia Fugui would actually carry so many things with him that he himself had no use for, and he took them all out to display.
The other few people, including even Donglin Tingyue, also went up to chat with him, all looking quite interested. Li Yan just looked at the things Jia Fugui took out, but had no intention of trading with him immediately.
Under such circumstances, time passed quickly. With Jia Fugui’s presence, the strange atmosphere here also eased a lot, and the previous oppression was gone.
Just after nightfall, footsteps were suddenly heard again at the entrance of the hall. Since the other party did not deliberately suppress their footsteps, everyone here heard them from afar.
They could sense that quite a few people were coming this time. Everyone immediately stopped talking and looked over.
Li Yan saw four people walking slowly into the entrance of the hall. This time, there was no Golden Core female cultivator leading the way.
Walking at the very front was a tall, gray-haired old man, about sixty-odd years old. The old man was dressed in a black robe with a scarlet cloak dragging on the ground. His pair of eyes were as sharp as knives.
His gaze also swept over the six people in the distant hall. Although they were far apart, when his gaze swept over the faces of the six people one by one, Li Yan felt a stinging pain in his eyes and quickly averted his gaze.
“A Spirit Transformation cultivator!”
Li Yan’s Divine Sense was powerful, and his senses were also keen. He could judge the other party’s true cultivation level. This person should be at the Mid-stage Spirit Transformation Realm.
As the gray-haired old man walked closer step by step, the entire hall was filled with a thick smell of blood, which made one’s heart feel stuffy and oppressed.
Li Yan was already weighing the other party’s strength in his heart. If he were to compare it with Xue Longzi’s true strength back then, that is, the power of a Spirit Transformation cultivator he had displayed the moment he was repelled from the Wind God Continent.
Li Yan still felt that Xue Longzi was probably stronger than this person. Although Xue Longzi was only at the Initial-stage Spirit Transformation Realm, he was a sword cultivator who was best at attacking.
Behind the tall, gray-haired old man followed three people, two men and one woman. All three were dressed in red. The men wore red robes, and the woman wore a red dress that trailed on the ground.
The woman was also beautiful, appearing to be in her mid-twenties. As she walked in her red dress, she actually had an air of a superior. Her eyes also revealed a sense of arrogance.
The remaining two men were both young, and their appearances were much better than Li Yan’s. When they looked at the people in the hall, there was also a look of superiority in their eyes. All three of them were actually at the Late-stage Nascent Soul Realm.
The six people in the hall had all guessed the identity of the other party at this moment. This should be the Spirit Transformation cultivator leading the team this time, as well as several Nascent Soul cultivators from their own sect.
The tall, gray-haired old man and the others soon arrived at the area where the six people were. As the gray-haired old man finally stopped, a bloody and murderous intent rushed out from him.
“This old man is Chen Xingshan. It’s good that you all arrived on time! Let’s set off then!”
His gaze swept over the six people again, his words very brief.
Everyone knew the ins and outs of this trip, so he didn’t need to explain any further.
However, when he entered the hall, he frowned slightly. Among the six people, only two were Late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, namely Jia Fugui and the teenage-looking youth. The rest were all Mid-stage Nascent Soul.
Obviously, four of the sects or families had not sent their strongest combatants. The strength of such a team could only be considered passable, but fortunately, the combatants sent by his own sect were very strong.
Of course, the Blood Lantern Sect could still produce more Late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, but the sect itself also had many rival forces, and they did not want to consume them like this.
The safe approach was to preserve the foundation of their Late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, in the hope that they could produce more Spirit Transformation cultivators.
Moreover, for subordinate sects like the Broken Army Sect, they only stipulated that the participants had to be Nascent Soul cultivators.
Everyone was tacitly aware that the cultivators sent by each subordinate sect each time had to be at least at the Mid-stage Nascent Soul Realm or higher.
Otherwise, if you sent an Initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, it would most likely be a suicide mission.
Chen Xingshan weighed it for a moment. Such combat strength was not too bad. The key was whether he could suppress the other party’s Spirit Transformation cultivators.
The Spirit Transformation Realm was different from the Nascent Soul Realm. The difference between the Late-stage and Mid-stage Nascent Soul Realm was a fundamental difference in their comprehension of the laws of heaven and earth.
As for the difference between the Late-stage and Mid-stage Spirit Transformation Realm, there was definitely a considerable gap, but it was absolutely not the kind of insurmountable difference. It could be bridged through certain secret techniques, divine abilities, and magical treasures.
The cultivation methods of the Blood Lantern Sect were insidious and vicious. They were often able to fight against those of a higher rank.
After Chen Xingshan finished speaking, without another word, he walked straight towards the back of the hall.
Li Yan and the others exchanged a glance, then immediately followed behind the three arrogant Nascent Soul cultivators from the Blood Lantern Sect, and they all walked off together.