Chapter 515: Chapter 453: A Charred Aroma

After tending to the injured Sealed Valley Snake, Liang Song saw that Zhao Lin was still meditating and dragged the four corpses into a pile.

He placed the talismans, incense sticks, magic artifacts, and storage bags he had looted from them to the side, waiting for Zhao Lin to handle them.

Zhao Lin was more experienced in these matters.

Next, he went to the edge of the pool, fetched some water, and wiped down the Spiritual Vessel.

Three people had just died on the Spiritual Vessel, leaving bloodstains everywhere. It took him a good while to wipe them clean.

The few stains that wouldn’t come off didn’t matter. If anyone asked, they could just say it was blood from a Demon Beast.

Two hours later, with the sun high in the sky, Zhao Lin finished his meditation.

"Brother Liang, what kind of magic artifact do you prefer to use?"

Zhao Lin asked as he squatted down and looked over the magic artifacts on the ground.

There were five magic artifacts in total: Tao Huang’s black flying hammer, Li Chong’s Judge’s Brush, Li Chengfu’s silver Long Sword and nine small swords, and the poisoned cultivator’s curved saber.

The best magic artifact was undoubtedly the silver Long Sword. A single glance revealed it was no Mortal Grade item. However, Zhao Lin hadn’t cultivated the Spirit Sword Skill, so he had little interest in it.

He had his eye on the black flying hammer. His Icy Whirlwind Hammer technique was not just an offensive Magic; it could also be used to control magic artifacts, making it similar in nature to the Fire Cloud Spirit Whip.

"I cultivate the Spiritual Needle Skill. My magic artifact is a Crescent Thorn."

Liang Song took a short, crescent-shaped weapon with sharpened tips at both ends from his waist. To Zhao Lin’s eye, the quality of this Crescent Thorn was below average, only slightly better than a common, run-of-the-mill piece.

"These small swords would suit you. They belonged to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, so their quality is unquestionable,"

Zhao Lin said, pointing to the nine small swords.

"However, they have a family crest on them, so you can’t use them directly. I’ll put them away for now and find someone in the marketplace to alter them before I give them to you."

The marketplace had many shops for repairing magic artifacts, and they all offered a service that was an open secret.

They would polish and re-forge existing magic artifacts, making minor alterations. To put it bluntly, they laundered stolen goods.

Zhao Lin put the magic artifacts into his Wuyi Bag.

The Wuyi Bag was impervious to weapons and could block Divine Sense, making it perfectly suited for storing magic artifacts.

They hadn’t found many talismans, and the ones they did find were for communication or escape. They were all printed with family crests, so they couldn’t be kept.

Zhao Lin picked up Li Chengfu’s storage bag and weighed it in his hand. It was quite heavy; there were surely plenty of good things inside. Unfortunately, he couldn’t open it.

Storage bags seized from the Earth Dark Sect could be turned over to the sect, where specialized cultivators would break their restrictive seals. These bags, however, could not be turned in.

Zhao Lin decided to burn everything.

The two retreated to the Spiritual Vessel. Zhao Lin formed a hand seal, cast a spell, and unleashed over a hundred Flame Stream Arrows, incinerating the talismans, corpses, and storage bags.

Instantly, flames soared into the sky, accompanied by a continuous series of explosions.

Liang Song activated the defensive Array to block the flying debris.

About a quarter of an hour later, the fire slowly died down. A large pit was left in the ground, and the corpses and other items had been reduced to a pile of black ash.

The two searched the area but found nothing left behind.

"Everything’s been dealt with."

Zhao Lin dusted off his hands. Suddenly, his brow furrowed, and his gaze fixed on a spot in the woods. "Someone’s coming," he said in a low voice.

"It couldn’t be people from the Li family, could it?"

Liang Song asked nervously.

Zhao Lin listened intently for a moment before shaking his head. "I don’t think so. There are only three people, and they aren’t making any effort to hide their presence."

Though he judged they weren’t enemies, the two still moved back toward the Spiritual Vessel. If things took a wrong turn, they could pilot it and flee.

A few moments later, three cultivators came into view.

The one in the lead was a dark-skinned man in his forties. Behind him were two young cultivators in their early twenties.

Zhao Lin used his Qi Observation Skill to size them up. The dark-skinned cultivator was at the Qi Refining Eighth Layer, while the two younger men were at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer and Sixth Layer, respectively.

All three carried beast-taming pouches on their backs and held Purple-Stripe Bamboo Baskets.

Purple-Stripe Bamboo was a type of Spiritual Bamboo, exceptionally tough and used specifically for containing demonic insects.

Judging by their attire, the three were clearly here to capture demonic insects.

"Were you the ones who started that fire?"

the dark-skinned cultivator asked. As he spoke, he glanced around, his nostrils twitching as he took a deep sniff of the air.

"It smells a little like something’s been roasted,"

said the taller of the two young cultivators standing beside him.

"It seems we’ve run into some colleagues," Zhao Lin said with a smile, deliberately changing the subject. "Are you three here to catch demonic insects as well?"

"Yes, we were. We were in the middle of catching demonic insects when you made that huge racket and scared them all off,"

the other young cultivator, who was of average height, complained.

"My apologies. We didn’t know anyone else was in the area and didn’t mean to disturb you. May I ask what kind of demonic insects you’re catching?"

Zhao Lin asked with a smile, cupping his hands in a polite gesture.

"What else would be in Nine Dragon Pool? Just some Two-tailed Scorpions, Black Water Snails, and the like."

The dark-skinned cultivator’s tone softened when he saw Zhao Lin’s friendly demeanor.

"We’re from the Beast Taming Hall in Yanmen County, and we’re also here to catch demonic insects. How about this? Would you be willing to sell your catch to us?"

Zhao Lin and Liang Song exchanged a glance. An idea struck Zhao Lin.

’Although we’ve silenced all our enemies, it won’t be long before the Li and Tao families discover what happened. We can’t stay here.’

’Since there are demonic insects readily available, it would be much more convenient to just buy them.’

The dark-skinned cultivator thought for a moment, then asked, "What’s your offer?"

"Ten percent above market price. Consider the extra ten percent as compensation for disturbing you. How does that sound?"

"You’ll buy them all?"

"All of them!"

The dark-skinned cultivator was decisive. He placed his Purple-Stripe Bamboo Basket on the ground and said to Zhao Lin and Liang Song, "One of you can come over and inspect the goods."

The two younger cultivators followed his lead and placed their own Purple-Stripe Bamboo Baskets on the ground.

"We have a Hongyan Talisman,"

the dark-skinned cultivator said, holding up a talisman he had pulled from his sleeve after retreating more than thirty yards.

Cultivators possessed Mana, and this was the wilderness; transactions always carried risk. Such caution was not unwarranted.

"Brother Liang, you go,"

Zhao Lin said, taking a couple of steps back. He didn’t know anything about demonic insects.

"Don’t worry, we’re also here to catch demonic insects."

Liang Song unfastened the Crescent Thorn from his waist and tossed it to the ground, signaling he had no hostile intentions before slowly walking forward.

Opening the lids of the Purple-Stripe Bamboo Baskets one by one and seeing them densely packed with demonic insects, he nodded. "Looks good. There are about ninety of them. Market price is nine hundred Spirit Coins, so we’ll call it an even thousand."

The dark-skinned cultivator said, "That’s about right. The Purple-Stripe Bamboo Baskets are fifty Spirit Coins each. Are you taking the baskets, or do you have your own containers?"

"We’ll take the baskets too," Liang Song said.

With that, he took out a handful of Spirit Coins from his storage bag, counted out one thousand and fifty Spirit Coins, and placed them on the ground. Then he carried the Purple-Stripe Bamboo Baskets back to the Spiritual Vessel.

"Are these the right ones?" Zhao Lin asked.

"They’re fine," Liang Song replied. "All things the Stone Rock Turtle loves to eat."

The dark-skinned cultivator led the two young men over. He picked up the Spirit Coins from the ground and counted them, a smile spreading across his face. "Nice."

"It was a chance meeting. We’ll take our leave."

Zhao Lin and Liang Song both cupped their hands in farewell. They steered the Spiritual Vessel high into the air and flew toward Yanmen County.

After the pair had left, the dark-skinned cultivator walked over to the large pit. Staring at the ashes on the ground, he said in a low voice, "Those two are no ordinary men. I fear we just witnessed the aftermath of a robbery and murder."

"Really? Just the two of them? They didn’t seem like it."

"Yeah, they seemed pretty nice to me,"

the two young cultivators exclaimed in surprise.

"Nice, my ass. You two still have a lot to learn..."

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