Seeing that the other party had escaped, Zhang Xuan stood up and flung his sleeves lightly.
Hula!
The corpses in the courtyard suddenly burst into flames. A moment later, they turned into ashes and flowed down the underground sewer.
It was as if nothing had happened in the courtyard, and all traces had disappeared.
Turning around, Zhang Xuan walked into his room and sat down cross-legged, continuing to recover his zhenqi.
It must be said that the water that he had obtained from boiling the Dongxu Gourd was indeed quite effective. With the recovery of his physical body, he had finally gotten used to the space and spiritual energy in the Azure, allowing him to absorb the spiritual energy much more smoothly.
After cultivating for more than two hours, Zhang Xuan stopped and communicated with his dantian. "Gourd, what in the world are you?"
He was really curious.
He could feel the severity of the injuries on his body, and yet, he was able to recover just by drinking the water from the gourd. This fellow was probably even more frightening than he had imagined.
Otherwise, Ancient Sage Qiu Wu would not have been able to specially set up a Spatial Formation to nurture it for tens of thousands of years, and even Kong Shi had left a sliver of his will in it.
"There are a lot of things here that I can eat. As long as you give me enough to eat, I will be able to come out. You will know when the time comes …"
The gourd wriggled in his Dantian and found a comfortable place to lie down.
After asking a few more questions, Zhang Xuan realized that Zhang Xuan would not let go of the matter until he saw the rabbit. Thus, he could only ignore him and take out the Ethereal Token. After a moment of hesitation, he dived into the Ethereal Token once more.
…
"Why aren't you back yet?"
In the City Lord's Manor, Xue Chen frowned deeply.
Under normal circumstances, the elite troops sent out should have killed that trash and returned long ago. How come there was no movement after more than two hours?
"Go and take a look!"
He instructed one of the guards.
The guard quickly put on his black suit and flew out. Not too long later, he returned with a bizarre look on his face. "Instructor, there's no movement from the Dan Clan. Dan Xiaotian and Dan Yi are perfectly fine!"
Xue Chen was stunned. "How is that possible? Was my order not clear? "
He had specifically instructed them to kill the three of them as quickly as possible, but in the end, nothing happened to them at all. What in the world was going on?
"Go and investigate. Find out where this group of people went!"
Zhang Xuan bellowed furiously.
The guard left again. After a while, he returned. "According to the footprints and traces, all of them entered the Shan Family's residence. However, they never left … My guess is right … They might have been killed and their corpses destroyed!"
"Killed? With just those three people? "
Xue Chen was stunned.
Every single one of them possessed the strength of a Great Sage 1-dan expert, and their leader was a Great Sage 2-dan expert. Working together, they would be able to put up a fight against a Great Sage 3-dan or even a Great Sage 4-dan expert. Yet, they did not return at all …
Were Dan Xiaotian and the injured man really that powerful?
"Could it be … that what he said was true?"
He suddenly recalled Cao Chengli's words.
Dan Xiaotian has a powerful horse in his house, and it seems like he also has a carriage that knows martial arts!
Could it be that this thing really existed?
"Instructor, what should we do now? Should we send more people over? "
Seeing that Zhang Xuan was deep in thought, the guard turned to look at him.
"There's no need for that now … If they were really the ones who killed them, we've already taken precautions against them. Since we've killed so many of them, we don't mind killing more!"
Shaking his head, Xue Chen tossed aside the messy thoughts in his head and frowned. "Besides, it's going to be daybreak soon. If we were to cause a commotion here, it would be detrimental to the reputation of the City Lord Manor!"
"This … don't tell me we're just going to let it go after so many of our brothers died?"
The guard asked anxiously.
Even though the City Lord Manor was wealthy, it had taken a lot of effort to nurture these fifty guards. For them to be killed just like that without even a single bubble popping up, no one would be able to accept it.
A glint flashed across Xue Chen's eyes. "Make a trip to the Hongyan Trading Company and look for any possible ambushes. See if you can find any traces of bandits, corpses, or signs of battle!"
"Alright!" The guard left the room once more, and it didn't take long for him to return to his room. "Instructor, we did find some corpses along with bows and arrows in Loujia Alley. They are the corpses of those bandits."
"Un. Have some men destroy the corpses of those bandits. After that, cover the weapons and armor of the guards with their blood and bring them to the vicinity of the Dan Clan. Bury them discreetly!"
Xue Chen harrumphed coldly as his lips curled up.
"Bury the weapons?"
Seeing the confusion in the guard's eyes, a glint flashed across Xue Chen's eyes. "Dan Xiaotian has always been a wastrel, and Dan Yi's fighting prowess is well known. If we were to find out that many of the soldiers in the City Lord Manor have gone missing, and the weapons and armor of the guards are found in the vicinity of the Dan Clan's residence, what do you think will happen?"
"This … Dan Xiaotian colluded with the bandits to kill the guards of the City Lord Manor …" the guard's eyes lit up in excitement.
If they were to do so, even if they didn't kill Dan Xiaotian, he would still be embroiled in a lawsuit. Losing his reputation would be the least of it, and if things went wrong, he might even be beheaded in public.
Bandits were a scourge of the populace, and they had long been hated by the populace. If they were to find out that Dan Xiaotian had colluded with them, he would surely be despised.
Thus, it was only natural for the engagement to be rescinded.
How could a noble place like the City Lord Manor be tainted by a person with a bad reputation?
"That's right. Tomorrow morning, spread the news that fifty guards of the City Lord Manor have discovered the whereabouts of the bandits, and they went to pursue them, only to lose track of them. Thus, we'll have to search the entire city for them. The bigger the commotion, the better. It'll be best if everyone knows about it!"
Xue Chen said with a smile. "Once the public opinion has been stirred up, we'll head to the Dan Clan to search for the weapons and armor of the bandits. The rest should be easy!"
"Yes!"
Hearing that their instructor was able to come up with such an ingenious plan in such a disadvantageous situation, the guard couldn't help but ask, "What if he refuses to admit to it?"
A cold glint flashed across Xue Chen's eyes. "He has no choice but to admit to it. Once he enters the City Lord Manor, it'll be a walk in the park for us to pin a crime on him! "
"That's true."
The guard nodded. "I'll get it done right now!"
…
"Second Young Mistress, you were looking for me?"
While Xue Chen was busy plotting against Dan Xiaotian, Xue Qin had returned to her room, unable to fall asleep. Some time later, she found a young man who was serving Huo Jianghe of the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion.
This young man was also a member of the Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion. Just like her, he was also a menial disciple, and he was tasked with taking care of the outer disciples' daily needs so that they would not be distracted by the mundane world.
"Here's a small token of my appreciation. I hope that you'll accept it!"
With a wave of her hand, a maid passed a bag of gold coins over. She shook it a little, and there were at least a hundred of them.
"You're too polite, Second Young Mistress …" The young man's eyes lit up as he accepted the bag of gold coins.
Menial disciples like him usually didn't earn much from their work, so he was overjoyed to receive such a huge sum of gold coins.
"Senior Brother Huo, did you say anything when you came back tonight?"
Xue Qin asked.
"Senior Huo didn't say anything …" It was only then that the young man realized what Xue Qin was up to, and he suddenly recalled something. "Right, he said that he should inform him of the appearance of the person known as World's Edge in the Ethereal Hall!"
"World's Edge?"
Xue Qin was perplexed.
"It's like this …" The young man quickly recounted the matter to Xue Qin.
"I see … If World's Edge appears, I'll have to trouble you to inform me in advance. I'll inform Senior Huo personally!" Xue Qin waved her hand and passed another bag of gold coins over.
"That's no problem!"
The young man's eyes lit up in excitement.
To him, this matter was nothing at all. If he could benefit from it, why wouldn't he do it?
But before Xue Qin could finish her words, the young man suddenly lowered his head and took out a jade token. Taking a look at it, his eyes lit up in excitement. "Second Young Mistress, you sure are lucky. World's Edge has entered the Ethereal Hall. Come with me to look for Senior Huo!"
"Alright!"
Xue Qin hurriedly got up and followed the young man to Huo Jianghe's residence.
Not too long later, they arrived at the residence.
"They're here?"
Huo Jianghe narrowed his eyes upon hearing the report of the duo.
"Senior Huo, these are the Ethereal Tokens of the Starlight City's Ethereal Hall!"
Xue Qin quickly passed two jade tokens over.
As valuable as the Ethereal Tokens were, they were nothing to the City Lord Manor.
"Un." Huo Jianghe stood up and said, "Follow me in. I'll let you witness the true swordsmanship of our Ascendant Cloud Sword Pavilion!"
"Thank you, Senior Huo!"
Seeing that Huo Jianghe had no intention of blaming her, Xue Qin heaved a sigh of relief.
Weng! Weng!
The two of them entered the Ethereal Hall simultaneously.
…
"It's still inconvenient. Let's see if I can buy a storage ring!"
Zhang Xuan had gotten used to using storage rings back on the Master Teacher Continent, and there was nothing in the Ethereal Hall. It was simply too troublesome to store items in there. Thus, the reason why he was here was to ask if he could buy storage rings here and how much they cost.
Even though it was midnight outside, the Ethereal Hall was still packed with people. Furthermore, there was no such thing as night in the Ethereal Hall. It didn't take long for him to arrive at the reception and reveal his purpose.
"Storage rings are available for 500,000 Ethereal Coins each!"
The receptionist replied.
"500,000 Ethereal Coins?" Zhang Xuan's eyebrows shot up in astonishment.
That sure was expensive!
It was no wonder even a powerful clan like the Dan Clan did not have a single storage ring!
"I have won eight matches consecutively, so do I have to go through the first match or the ninth match?"
Zhang Xuan looked at Zhang Xuan.
To him, the dueling ring was the fastest way to earn money at the moment. However, he had left halfway through the dueling ring, so if he were to go through the first match, his earnings would be minimal.
If he were to go through the eighth match, it was likely that no one would come.
Starlight City was only so big, and there were only so many experts in the city. Considering how many people he had challenged, it was likely that most of them were unwilling to pay up and intentionally lost.
"Since you have won eight matches consecutively, there shouldn't be too many people who are interested in challenging you in the primary dueling ring. As for the intermediate dueling ring, there aren't any slots for it today. At the earliest, it'll be the day after tomorrow. Besides, your cultivation isn't high enough either!"
The receptionist replied.
"Intermediate dueling ring?"
Zhang Xuan was perplexed.
Primary and intermediate? What was going on?
Were there different tiers to the dueling ring?
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