Path to Heaven
chapter-125

Chapter 125: Treacherous Preliminaries

“You wish to plot against me? Screw you, if you weren’t a Moonlight sect disciple, I would conspire against you instead.”

After the Moonlight sect youth left, Wei Suo appeared from the forest behind.

He hadn’t fled far previously, what he did was merely activate his concealment robe and hid himself. Thus, whatever words that Moonlight sect disciple had murmured to himself were heard clearly by Wei Suo.

What had triggered the unrest in his heart previously was because a perfect half-spirit class artifact was sticking out of the chest of that scarlet robed cultivator.

Since someone had already plundered all their spiritual stone pouches and items, an artifact loot would definitely not be spared as well. Hence, Wei Suo instantly figured this was a trap……

Thus, the outcome was indeed what Wei Suo expected. If he really approached the two corpses, he would probably instantly encounter the sneak attack by that ambushing Moonlight sect disciple.

Wei Suo had observed that the two cultivators seemed to have been slain by some sort of immensely powerful skill technique and artifact. Therefore, he held slight reservations about the Moonlight sect disciple and didn’t look for additional trouble. If he had attempted to launch a hidden assault against that Moonlight sect disciple, the chances of success would’ve been merely 60-70%.

Except, this Moonlight disciple seemed to have some concealing aura methods. He wasn’t even more than 60 metres away, yet the green gowned old man could not sense his presence….

This encounter deepened Wei Suo’s understanding towards inner sect disciples of the major sects, creating a deep restraining fear especially towards elite disciples.

Moreover, from the manner of conduct he observed from this Moonlight sect disciple, he realized disciples of major sects killing and looting others inside Sky Valley seemed to be their inevitable right. They completely had no reservations in doing so.

……

A blue robed cultivator cautiously pulled away the vines of a vegetation that was covered in poisonous thorns. A piping hot and somewhat red puddle appeared in his vision ahead.

The puddle was boiling vehemently and occasionally released air bubbles the size of bowls and light popping sounds could be heard in the air.

“Decaying Bone Spring, it should be here.”

Holding onto a simple sheepskin map, the blue robed cultivator’s spirit was roused as he surveyed his surroundings for a brief while. Then his gaze congealed towards the northwest corner of the puddle, before a crazed expression of delight formed on his face……

At the fringe of the northwest bank, two peculiar yellow plants were growing there. This short plant had plumpy and delicate leaves, and resembled a mushroom. Instead, its roof was two plumpy leaves that were arched downwards, with tiny yellow berries blooming from it. The berries were also covered in several dark-red spots.

After vigilantly inspecting the area, the blue robed cultivator stealthily tiptoed out while simultaneously casting a cyan light screen around him as he headed towards that peculiar yellow plant.

“Come out. Trying to pull a fast one on me, no? If you don’t show yourself, don’t blame me for turning nasty.”

In this sudden instance, the blue robed cultivator abruptly halted as he released this chilling statement. Consecutively, 6 regiments of Divine Sea glows flashed out from his body…….

Heavenly Circuit stage level 1 cultivator.

However, after this blue robed cultivator rebuked with such severity, his surroundings remained a plain of desolate tranquility. After a brief while, the blue robed cultivator heaved a sigh of relief as he continued heading towards the two plants.

It was obvious this blue robed cultivator was exceedingly prudent. Though he couldn’t sense anything, he still shouted out to probe for any lurking assassins.

Without any mishaps, the blue robed cultivator peacefully reached the edge of the dark red hotspring. Yet right when this blue robed cultivator was about to reach out to extract the two peculiar looking plants, the excited flickers of his eyes suddenly changed drastically. Gurgling sounds erupted from his throat as his entire self turned limp and collapsed by the puddle bank……

After an incense worth of time, two cultivators, one tall and the other stubby clad in refined artifact robes reinforced with the cuticle of an Iron-string Scaled Serpent, surfaced from the forest with great excitement.

“Brother Chen, your idea is indeed too brilliant. Placing Immortal powder near the riverbank and allowing its medicinal energy to be dispersed without a sound or warning through the steaming Decaying Bone Spring. Don’t even mention a Heavenly Circuit stage level 1 cultivator, even a Heavenly Circuit stage level 3 cultivator would have to drink from the water we use to wash our feet.” The short and stubby cultivator had messy hair and appeared rather vile. He stomped condescendingly over the collapsed blue robed cultivator.

The blue robed cultivator had not died yet. Gurgling chokes continued to resonate out from his throat as his body was as flabby as cotton, he was completely incapacitated

The other taller cultivator had a large mouth and similarly looked rather vile. “This bag of Immortal powder is worth 500 low grade spiritual stones. After placing it inside the spring, its medicinal energy would be completely dispersed after an incense worth of time. If nobody had arrived, this would have become a huge deficit to my hard-earned savings. With such a hefty investment, your possessions better not disappoint me.” Conceitedly proclaiming such words, the tall cultivator rolled the blue robe cultivator’s face towards him.

“He he.” Not long later, that tall villainous cultivator snickered with satisfaction after rolling out all the blue robe cultivator’s possession; clearly, he was fully pleased with what he saw.

He then casually stripped off that cultivator’s blue robe, ignoring the cultivator’s gaze of terrified pleading, and directly flung him into the bubbling dark red hotspring…..

Within mere seconds, the blue robe cultivator’s corpse was dissolved cleanly, not even leaving behind his bones.

Such gruesome and cruel disposing of a Heavenly Circuit cultivator was apparently commonplace to the two villainous cultivators already. The stubby cultivator then spoke with delight, “Senior, this Immortal powder was indeed well worth.”

“A pity the immortal powder concoction recipe has long vanished from this world, and is even something that is hard to purchase with spiritual stones. Now, we are just left with a small bag. Let’s hope several others will take the bait and we can reap more fortunes.” The tall cultivator suggested greedily.

After speaking, he produced a tiny black bottle that had thick wax sealing up its mouth. Seemingly like its contents should be that Immortal powder that would disrupt a cultivator’s true energy and cause one’s body to turn limp.

After tossing it into the Decaying Bone Spring, the two villains seized the moment before the thick wax melted to hastily flee to a safe distance from the Immortal powder’s effects. When the next cultivator approaches the spring side, he would unknowingly inhale the Immortal powder toxins.

The stubby cultivator’s attention fell towards the bubbling spring. After that pellet was tossed in, it produced a splendid splash, to him, it was equivalent to the sound of spiritual stones splashing into his pouch.

Yet at this instance, a scene of unimaginable horror occurred.

Without a single warning, the tall cultivator’s eyes suddenly popped open in reaction to a bloody hole spouting out abruptly from his forehead. Only at the instance blood spurted out from his brains, did he catch a glimpse of an artifact already dyed with blood. The artifact was then retracted without a trace…….

The stubby cultivator’s face momentarily turned deathly pale as he retrieved an artifact in an attempt to activate it. However, he jolted up abruptly as though he was scalded by something, before a bloodied hole appeared in his left leg.

In a split second, while he was still trying to activate his artifact, another bloodied hole formed on his forehead. His entire self turned limpid as he slumped to the ground.

Wei Suo then swiftly revealed himself from the left of the forest, still within a 60 metres radius away from the two.

As though he was adept in looting, he scurried through the two cultivators’ bodies and tossed everything out, gathering and storing them into his Treasure Receiving Pocket. In likewise fashion, Wei Suo flung the two villains into the Decaying Bone Spring and hastily extracted the two plants before speeding off into the forest….

After a brief pause, at a gigantic tree that required a dozen to wrap around it; inside that spacious tree hollow that could contain 2-3 persons, Wei Suo once again activated his ‘Secret Concealment Art’ to hide his aura as he joyously rummaged through the items he just acquired.

“Yellow Fungus fruit!”

A spirit medicine with an efficacy that could dispel both cold or poison, strengthen one’s qi and blood, and finally extend several years of longevity energy. Such a spirit medicine was exceedingly invaluable for cultivators who were at the edge of a breakthrough but had their vitality nearly exhausted. Just a stem of it could fetch over a thousand low grade spiritual stones. Yet right here at the fringe of this Decaying Bone Spring, were two stems and both ultimately fell into Wei Suo’s hands.

After Wei Suo had stored these two peculiar yellow plants into his Treasure Receiving Pocket, he proceeded to inspect the next 3 spiritual stones pouch.

The blue robed cultivator and the tall cultivator were both Heavenly Circuit stage level 1 cultivators; while the stubby cultivator was a Divine Sea stage level 5 cultivator. The total amount of spiritual stones they possessed caused ripples of emotions to erupt from within Wei Suo’s heart.

The total valuation of the three had added to roughly 17,000 low grade spiritual stones. Such a lump sum was immensely generous to Wei Suo already.

Moreover, for all cultivators entering Sky Valley, they obviously understood this was a dreadfully treacherous area and brought along various artifacts to aid them.

Wei Suo, who had always fancied accumulating more defensive artifacts, curved his lips mischievously. The three cultivators all possessed a Treasure Receiving Pocket each and produced a total of 5 artifact shields.

Two were Profound Iron shields that Wei Suo was very familiar with by now. One was a Fire Tortoise shield and the other was a Divine Wood shield. Yet, he was the most pleased with another that only had a half-spirit class defensive resistance. It was an artifact shield forged with the crust of a Thunderline beast, and possessed a higher resistance against lightning element and fire element skill techniques; deflecting away half of the incoming damage.

Apart from these artifact shields, Wei Suo managed to obtain another two half-spirit class divine light artifact shields.

As for offensive-type artifacts, all three of them didn’t possess a single true spirit class artifact. However, he found a Jade Coil that could specially discharge icy cold energy, which made Wei Suo exceptionally delighted.

It was a nearly transparent Jade Coil that should’ve been forged with high quality Cold Jade. Once diffusing true energy into and then activating it, it could repeatedly dish out icy cold energy towards the opponent. It wasn’t like an ordinary artifact weapon that would directly pierce towards the opponent. Such an artifact not only resulted in restricting the enemy’s movement, it wasn’t easy to be destroyed either.

Apart from that item, there were even 3 other half-spirit class artifacts!