Chapter 64: Chapter 62: Jia Changxun
“Your rest period should have already expired, and it’s likely that you will be assigned to deal with tasks related to the Alien Ghosts. I’m finding it quite difficult to arrange things on my end.”
Upon hearing this, Wu Bin’s face showed a look of difficulty.
Currently, Ghost Ridge Palace faced a threat from the Alien Ghosts, and aside from tasks related to them, most other tasks were put on hold.
Wu Bin thought that Su Jie wanted him to arrange a leisurely and safe task, which was not easy to do.
After all, while the Alien Ghosts posed a threat to the safety of the entire Ghost Ridge Palace, if you were to slack off on other tasks while the others fought life and death battles against the Alien Ghosts, it would surely draw criticism from other disciples.
“That’s not it. I can accept tasks related to the Alien Ghosts, but they must be far away from the vicinity of Ghost Ridge Palace’s mountain gate.”
Su Jie expressed his own needs. With his current strength, as long as he didn’t come across a large-scale attack by Alien Ghosts, a few of them would pose no threat to him, and naturally, Su Jie was not afraid.
The reason for this was that Su Jie wanted to stay away from Ghost Ridge Palace’s mountain gate.
Because he had too many secrets; a low-grade three-refining poisonous insect, the Insect Control Technique, and the Body Worm Focusing Method, which only inner disciples could cultivate. Especially the Body Worm Focusing Method, which caused quite a commotion when practiced. If he were near the mountain gate of Ghost Ridge Palace, a knowledgeable inner disciple or Elder might see through it once he began to perform the technique.
Before advancing to an inner disciple, Su Jie planned to stay away from the vicinity of the mountain gate and find a remote place to properly develop his skills.
“If that’s the case, then it’s easy to handle.”
Wu Bin breathed a sigh of relief, as this request was easy for him to fulfill.
“Then I’ll thank Brother Wu in advance. Please arrange it for me as soon as possible.”
Su Jie wasn’t one to have others work for him without compensation; he took out some Blood Marrow Crystals from his storage bag and handed them over.
“Young brother, what are you doing? There’s no need to stand on ceremony over such a small matter.”
Although he verbally declined, Wu Bin’s hands didn’t hesitate at all as he deftly took the Blood Marrow Crystals, his face showing even greater enthusiasm.
As for Su Jie, he didn’t take it to heart. Their relationship was just that – merely based on mutual benefit.
After exiting the Command Hall, Su Jie returned to his stone cave dwelling to cultivate in peace.
Breaking through from the Fifth Level of Yunling Realm to the Sixth Level was an extremely difficult barrier to cross.
The key to breaking through this step was to compress the gaseous Spiritual Power in the Dantian into liquid.
Once accomplished, the storage capacity for Spiritual Power would multiply by four or five times, but achieving this was by no means easy.
That is also why the inner disciples and Outer Disciples of Ghost Ridge Palace use this as a divide, with only those reaching the Sixth Level of Yunling Realm being able to ascend to become inner disciples.
And most disciples, for their entire lives, are blocked by this difficult barrier, able only to wander around at the Fifth Level of Yunling Realm.
Su Jie himself had very ordinary cultivation aptitude, one might even call it rubbish.
The fact that he had come this far and reached the Fifth Level of the Yunling Realm was not due to his own talent, but more because of the Spiritual Power feedback from the thousand-hand centipede.
Now Su Jie faced the same problem. After several days of cultivation, there was virtually no progress, and breaking through to the Sixth Level seemed far off in the future.
Su Jie could only hope that the thousand-hand centipede would advance to a mid-grade poisonous insect soon, thereby allowing him to advance to the Sixth Level of Yunling Realm.
Several days hastily passed by.
That day, Su Jie was still in his stone cave dwelling at Ghost Ridge Palace practicing cultivation, waiting for a message from Manager Wu when he suddenly heard faint noises of commotion from outside.
Pushing open the stone door of his cave dwelling, Su Jie saw that today Ghost Ridge Palace seemed to have some distinguished guests arriving.
He saw a procession of women dressed in colorful garments, glamorously attired, wearing red and adorned with festive decorations, taking stiff steps and gradually ascending the stone steps of Ghost Ridge Palace’s mountain gate one after another.
Upon closer inspection, one would notice that these young women all wore a numb and mournful expression on their faces, with a red silk ribbon threaded through the waists of all the young women, forcibly controlling their movements.
The one holding this red silk magic artifact was a middle-aged man at the rear of the group of women dressed in floral clothing.
His hair was sparse and greasy, his belly bloated, dressed in silk, with a jade ring on his finger, he epitomized the look of wealthy and luxurious.
He sat atop a sedan carried by a group of servants, his left hand holding the red silk, and in his right, he twirled a pair of dragon-pattern walnuts, bursting into hearty laughter.
“Jia Changxun from Liuyun Manor, under the Manor Master’s orders, has come to visit Ghost Ridge Palace, with a tribute of 36 virgin maidens.”
The young women, one by one, released from control, knelt down before the mountain gate of Ghost Ridge Palace.
Some of the women couldn’t stop weeping, others shouted angrily, and many more looked around in terror, trembling, not knowing what to do.
Su Jie squeezed amongst a crowd of Ghost Ridge Palace Disciples who were there to watch the excitement, and when he heard the name Liuyun Manor, his eyes inevitably narrowed slightly.
The last time he heard that name was when he killed Jia Xin.
As one of Ghost Ridge Palace’s five special merchant teams, Liuyun Manor was a well-known slave owner in the Black Market, dealing in the mass buying and selling of slave populations.
The Jia Xin whom Su Jie had killed came from Liuyun Manor, and fortunately for Su Jie, he had been discreet that time, attracting no suspicion.
“So, it’s a visit from Liuyun Manor, please come in quickly.”
Within Ghost Ridge Palace, an elder whom Su Jie did not recognize, with half-white hair, wearing a wide robe, and with a goatee, walked over and greeted Jia Changxun with a bow.
“Elder Hu, long time no see, this is a little token of appreciation.”
Jia Changxun stepped down from the sedan, seeming well-acquainted with Elder Hu’s preferences, clapped his hands, and at once several servants dragged over a pair of children, around ten years old, and presented them before Elder Hu.
“Much appreciated. The Black Market has been short on goods recently; it’s been a long time since I’ve come across such nice human slaves.”
Elder Hu stroked his goatee, his eyes gleaming green. The bottom of his robe rustled softly, damp and slimy, as slug-like soft-bodied flesh worms wriggled out and in an instant dragged the two children inside his wide robe.
All that was seen were a few bulges on the robe, accompanied by the sound of breaking bones, and then silence.
Elder Hu’s face became particularly rosy, as if rejuvenated.
Su Jie watching felt a chill in his heart; if it were the past, he would not have known what magic skill this was, but now he knew.
Elder Hu was clearly practicing the Human Worm Refining Technique, feeding people to the worms, merging them with his body.
Jia Changxun, as if accustomed to such cruelty, chuckled and said, “Our Manor Master knew that Ghost Ridge Palace was short on supplies, so he ordered me to come help out. We have a lot of human slaves prepared outside the mountain, just waiting to be brought in.”
As he spoke, Jia Changxun whispered in Elder Hu’s ear, “Please speak favorably of us to the Sect Master, and should you have a chance, Elder, you may visit our Liuyun Manor. We have many kids of suitable age.”
“I appreciate your sentiments from Liuyun Manor, but I dare not venture out of the mountain gate lightly. If those lunatics from the Jiuluan Sword Pavilion knew, I fear I wouldn’t make it back.”
Elder Hu shook his head, he who had just swallowed two children whole, now referring to others as lunatics, sounded like a great irony.
“As for the Sect Master, I’ll speak on your behalf. As long as you can bring us human slaves, the price is definitely not an issue.”
“Thank you very much, then. I’ll leave it in the care of Elder Hu.”
Jia Changxun smiled broadly, flicked the red silk, and the group of young women still kneeling on the ground became rigid again, moving their stiff steps like puppets toward the depths of Ghost Ridge Palace.
And no one knew what fate or experiences awaited them, the thought of the two children from before enough to send shudders down one’s spine.