While Qin Wang was leaving Maple Leaf Town, ten feet away in the bamboo grove where Jiang Hanyun and his three companions had ambushed him...
"Jiang Hanyun and his three companions were poisoned before being killed? This poison is quite interesting! If I use it to cultivate my Gu, what kind of powerful poison could it produce?" A black-clad, gloomy figure named Lin Tong stood beside the four corpses, a look of anticipation in his eyes.
After a moment of silence, Lin Tong reached into a bag behind him and pulled out a one-foot-tall, black, double-eared pottery jar. Inside was a finger-thick, three-inch-long, snow-white silkworm. The silkworm had two inch-long antennae that constantly twitched.
Lin Tong placed the silkworm near the bodies of Jiang Hanyun and his companions. It quickly crawled over their corpses, its antennae twitching. Eventually, its antennae pointed in the direction of Maple Leaf Town.
"Maple Leaf Town! You killed my four servants; Lin Tong won't let you get away with this!" Lin Tong put away the tracking silkworm, his eyes flashing with killing intent.
He had taken his master's Three-Corpse Gu King Jar and used the Three-Corpse Control Divine Pill's poison to control ten second-rate martial artists, killing and robbing to gather resources and improve his strength. All this was to avoid his master, Su Tianhai.
Now, with four servants dead, his progression to first-rate was delayed! He had to capture the killer, control them with the Three-Corpse Control Divine Pill, and make up for his loss!
Although he hadn't seen the killer, he knew that anyone who needed poison to kill Jiang Hanyun and his companions couldn't be a first-rate martial artist!
Lin Tong decided to use the tracking silkworm to find the killer and poison them secretly. With the help of his six remaining second-rate servants, he would ensure the killer would suffer and gain the strange poison to cultivate a stronger Gu!
Two days later, at 3 PM...
Yellow Dragon Town.
Level: Second-Rate (839/2000)
"Taking two Dragon Blood Pills and a piece of 300-year-old ginseng root advanced me to mid-second-rate. I need to find more high-grade ginseng in the future!" Qin Wang opened his eyes from meditation, looking at his stats with anticipation.
So far, the Dragon Blood Pill had the best effect. Li Hongfei had spent years refining them and only managed to make three, showing their rarity. High-grade ginseng seemed more accessible in comparison.
In the past two days, Qin Wang and his sister, Qin Xuemei, had rushed to Yellow Dragon Town and found an abandoned temple to rest. During this time, Qin Wang consumed two Dragon Blood Pills, raising his cultivation to mid-second-rate.
In the third-rate stage, one Dragon Blood Pill increased his proficiency by 400 points. At the second-rate stage, it increased by 300 points. The two pills added 600 points, and chewing on pieces of the 300-year-old ginseng brought his progress to 839 points.
"My internal energy has become much more powerful!" Qin Wang felt the increased energy in his dantian and was pleased. With stronger abilities, he felt more confident in facing upcoming challenges.
Information: Yesterday, you monitored Lin Tong, Su Tianhai's apprentice from the Wu Poison Gang. He will track you with the silkworm in five days.
Qin Wang reviewed the new information on his panel.
"Two days ago, it was said Lin Tong would find me in five days. Now, it still says five days. It seems he's maintaining a steady pace while tracking me. Even after burning my clothes and washing up, the silkworm can still trace me!"
Qin Wang frowned deeply. The various tracking methods in the martial world were truly remarkable and should not be underestimated. He wanted to set an ambush to kill Lin Tong but wasn't sure if his poison could affect him. Given Lin Tong's expertise in poison, gambling on this was too risky.
With no certainty of success, Qin Wang decided to head to Jinzhou and think of a way to deal with Lin Tong on the journey.
"How does this look, Wang?" At that moment, Qin Xuemei, dressed in a blue outfit, handed over a small blue cloth bag.
Qin Wang took the bag, finding it neatly stitched with tight seams and a drawstring at the opening. A small embroidered dog, his zodiac sign, adorned it. The mysterious fragment from the black market fit perfectly inside. "Sis, you're so skillful!"
According to the intelligence, the ancient mysterious fragment was a part of a powerful relic, broken into fifty pieces. Keeping it close had benefits like calming the mind and increasing mental strength.
Qin Wang had examined the fragment himself. It was extremely hard and slightly heavy, resistant to knives and fire. Without any holes, he asked his sister to make a bag to carry it.
"It's nothing special. I'm glad you like it," Qin Xuemei smiled.
"Sis, we need to leave now," Qin Wang said, placing the bag with the fragment inside his clothes like a protective charm.
"Alright, I've packed all your things. They're right here," Qin Xuemei pointed to the large bundle next to Qin Wang.
"Okay!" Qin Wang checked the items, slung the Soul Stirring Knife on his back, grabbed the bundle, and left the temple with Qin Xuemei.
While Qin Wang was avoiding Lin Tong's pursuit, in Yanyun County...
"What? The family... How...?" Chen Kun, dressed in brocade and clean-shaven, stood stunned in front of the ruins of the Chen family estate. The once-prosperous residence was now in ruins.
Chen Kun rushed inside, heading first to his mother's courtyard, only to find charred bricks and burnt debris. His heart sank.
"The ancestral hall!"
He flashed to the ancestral hall and trembled at the sight of over a hundred coffins under a makeshift shelter. Each coffin had a name tag, the closest reading 'Clan Elder Chen Baiwen'!
"Uncle Baiwen!" Chen Kun flung the coffin lid off, revealing the charred remains of his uncle.
He frantically opened one coffin after another, seeing familiar faces now lifeless. "They're all dead... This... This isn't real!"
Suddenly, Chen Kun stopped at a coffin labeled 'Madam Chen Zhuo Qiumei' and, after a moment's hesitation, lifted the lid to reveal his mother's charred corpse.
"No! This can't be happening! Who did this? Who!?"
Chen Kun roared in grief, his voice amplified by his first-rate martial skills, echoing far and wide.
Though he had practiced ruthless swordsmanship and was cold-hearted, he still needed a family. Without his clan, the future he envisioned was shattered.
"Cousin! Please accept my condolences!" A man in his early thirties dressed in white, approached with a sorrowful expression. "I arrived too late; the family was already in ruins when I got here..."