Chapter 258: Who Did It?

Jian Chen sat on his bed cross-legged with two Class 4 Monster Cores in each hand as he continued to absorb the energy into his body. After his breakthrough to become a Great Saint Master, the amount of energy he could absorb at once had increased much to Jian Chen’s utter relief. After the azure and violet Sword Spirits had awakened, the amount of energy they were taking from him had decreased significantly. He could now absorb around half of the energy within a monster core in comparison to the lowly ten percent he had when the Sword Spirits had been actively taking it.

Now that the azure and violet Sword Spirits were awake and were capable of self thought, they still didn’t communicate with Jian Chen frequently. They were connected to Jian Chen in a unique way and sometimes communicated to him via a mysterious manner.

Within the Kai clan, after Jian Chen had begun to cultivate, the members of the Flame Mercenaries all took out a few monster cores and began to cultivate themselves. Each one of them had felt a huge pressure on them with the Xia clan and Tianhua Sect coming into the scene. Despite being relatively new to the Flame Mercenaries and knowing Jian Chen for a very small amount of time, his words and actions had already gained everyone’s respect and acknowledgement.

In a flash, a whole day went by and turned to night. Ever since the Tianhua Sect had left, the Kai clan had been extremely peaceful with not a single person making a racket.

Two thousand kilometers away within a dense forest on a mountain, there was a clear patch of grass. A series of pavilions stood tall in the night sky as a group of fireflies floated about and illuminated the night sky.

The Tianhua Sect was located within the borders of the Blue Wind Empire. For over a hundred years, they had been slowly gathering strength, and so after those hundred years, they had finally made it out of the preliminary step. They had a thousand disciples with at least fifty Great Saint Masters, making their sect one of the most powerful ones for kilometers around.

Within one of the private rooms, two uniformed men sat on the opposite sides of each other.

“Senior, with the situation looking like this, I don’t know what the proper course of action should be.” A middle aged man spoke seriously; it was Qing Yun. After returning to the Tianhua Sect, he had reported what he had learned in Wake City to the leader of the sect.

The uniformed man sitting on the opposite side of Qing Yun went silent for a moment. This man was the leader of the sect–Qing Tian. He was five years older than Qing Yun, and while the age difference wasn’t that big, the difference between their cultivation rate simply couldn’t be compared. A few years back, Qing Tian broken through the bottleneck to become an Earth Saint Master. With his talent, his cultivation had been astoundingly fast. Qing Yun on the other hand still remained at the Peak Great Saint Master level.

Qing Tian pondered to himself before speaking lightly, “Although a Class 5 Monster Core is quite precious, it isn’t priceless. They are relatively common in a major city, so even if Jian Chen doesn’t wish to sell it, then that’s that. It would be in our best interest to not bother him regarding this; I’ve a feeling that this Jian Chen is even more complex than what meets the eye. If we were to offend him, then our Tianhua Sect might come across some trouble. “

“Senior, could it be that you are worried about the power standing behind Jian Chen?” Qing Yun spoke with a serious expression.

Qing Tian nodded his head, “Correct, this worries my heart a little. However, no matter if the power standing behind Jian Chen is strong or not, his cultivation talent alone is enough to shock people. The amount of twenty year olds with that type of power on the Tian Yuan Continent can be almost counted on one hand. Given a few more years, then I’m afraid to see what type of expert Jian Chen will become.”

“As of right now, we’ve done nothing wrong to him. We simply cannot afford to offend such a genius like him for the sake of a single Class 5 Monster Core. Junior, tomorrow, you will return to Wake City and if possible, become close friends with Jian Chen.”

Qing Yun nodded his head, “Senior, I didn’t think that our thoughts would be so similar. I was worried about this as well, so that’s why I came back to report it to you.”

Qing Tian smiled before looking at Qing Yun seriously, “Junior, you’ve already reached the level of a Peak Great Saint Master, who knows how fast you will make a breakthrough to become an Earth Saint Master given a Class 5 Monster Core.

With this, Qing Yun let out a breath of air with dejection before shaking his head. “No, even if a Class 5 Monster Core increasing my chances, I still have not yet grasped a guaranteed success. If I shatter my Saint Weapon during this stage, then it would be extremely hard to reform it.” Qing Yun paused for a moment before speaking up again, “Senior, it’s getting quite late so I’ll be returning to my bed first. I’ll have to leave for Wake City first thing in the morning after all.”

With that, Qing Yun left the room quickly.

At the same time in the depths of another mountain a thousand kilometers away, there lay a manor house towering over the forests. This manor house belonged to the Xia clan.

The Xia clan had established this manor house a few dozen years ago. The first clan leader was an Earth Saint Master expert, and because of his existence, the Xia clan became the number one power in the region and grew in power from there.

However, the Xia clan’s headquarters was not in a city. For the sake of conveniency and no restrictions, they had established another general headquarters at a Second Class city a few dozen kilometers away.

At this moment within the Xia clan’s halls. Twenty men sat quietly at the table with a stretcher covered by a white cloth nearby. Underneath the white cloth was the figure of a person and a few traces of blood. Because of this sight, the mood within the halls was quite somber.

Just then, a white robed elderly man with a great beard walked forward. Directly sitting down in front, the elder looked at the group assembled in front of him who looked back at him respectfully.

“We pay our respects to the leader!”

Just as the elder sat down, the twenty men all left their seats to immediately kowtow to the elder.

The elder looked at everyone for a brief moment before looking at the stretcher. There was a complex look on his face for a moment before the elder waved his hand, “You may sit.”

“Yes, leader!”

It was only at this moment that everyone could finally sit back down. Each one of them could see a calm expression on the elder’s faces without a hint of worry. From this, they could all tell that the elder’s mood was rather light.

The elder continued to look at the stretcher in the middle of the hall for a long moment before sighing. Rising from his seat, he slowly walked toward it and began to lift up the cover.

Right in front of his eyes lay a man who’s vacant looking eyes stared blankly up toward the ceiling. From his neck, there was a single wound with some blood still drying.

The elder slowly closed the dead man’s eyes with his hand before covering up his face once more. He then walked back to his seat and sat down before looking at everyone, “Just what exactly happened here. Who was the one that killed Liu Zheng?” The elder’s voice sounded calm, but everyone know in their hearts that the elder’s heart was filled with a furious wrath.