Two hours later, before the cave in which Ye Wuji and the others had met, stood a tall figure of imposing stature, flanked by two others.
The cultivator in front appeared young, around the same age as Ye Wuji, but the aura surrounding him was far more powerful.
All three wore identical robes of green and white, clearly showing their shared affiliation.
The leading cultivator spoke as his spiritual sense swept through the cave.
"It's clear. There's no one left inside."
"Are you sure, senior brother Meng Xi? The young master sent three outer disciples with Feng Jun, and all of them were at the late stage of Qi Refining," one of the two behind him asked with a hint of concern.
Meng Xi nodded calmly. "Yes, I'm sure. My spiritual sense may still be only crude, since I've only just stepped into the early Foundation Establishment Realm, but it's still enough to confirm that the cave is empty."
The two cultivators behind him exchanged uneasy looks, then nodded in acknowledgment.
"Still, we should check it out in person. Follow closely," Meng Xi ordered.
The trio stepped into the cave and made their way to its deepest chamber.
But what they found there halted their steps.
Even Meng Xi's expression hardened slightly as he surveyed the scene.
Blood was splattered all across the stone walls. Bones lay scattered across the floor, soaked in dried blood and various bodily fluids. It was a scene of pure carnage.
One of the two cultivators behind Meng Xi staggered backward in horror.
"S-Senior brother… What is this? Who could've done something like this? This isn't just murder—it's complete butchery. There aren't even bodies left!"
Meng Xi's expression didn't change much. "Who else? Obviously, it was the remnants of the Scarlet Soul Sect. Judging by the brutality, it looks like the work of corpse soldiers and relatively powerful ones at that."
The two behind him paled instantly. The words "corpse soldiers" sent chills down their spines.
Creating corpse soldiers was one of the greatest taboos among righteous cultivators. The process required fresh cultivator corpses, and the result was a monstrous, unnatural thing.
Meng Xi continued in a calm tone, "Also, judging by the number of remains, Feng Jun, the three outer disciples from our sect, and three from the Scarlet Soul Sect died here. That is, of course, if those four from our side are really among them, but if any of them survived, they would have already returned to the meeting point by now."
"And if four of the Scarlet Soul Sect's remnants died—including that traitor of theirs, Feng Jun—then at least three others must have survived. And if we include that outer disciple Ye Wuji, who's been missing for months already, then the number goes up to four."
One of the cultivators behind him finally began to recover from the shock and asked, "But how can you be so sure, senior brother?"
"I'm not," Meng Xi replied plainly. "It's just a speculation. But if the intel we've received from the other righteous sects is true, then there should be only two elders and four outer disciples from the Scarlet Soul Sect alive now, after all this carnage here. The rest, except them, have already been reported dead."
The other two nodded slowly, digesting the information.
Meng Xi turned, his tone decisive. "Either way, we need to return to our sect branch. The young master will want to know that his plan failed."
With that, the three took out their flying artifacts and soared off toward the northwest.
|>>======|✦|======<<|
Elsewhere.
Roughly one hundred miles northwest of the Rootspire City, Ye Wuji stood before the entrance of a secluded cave nestled between the roots of a rocky cliff. A massive bear had made this place its den, but as it lunged at him in a rage, Ye Wuji calmly decapitated it with a single swing of his hand.
He didn't let this corpse go to waste either. With a flick of his hand, he stored the bear's corpse inside his Corpse Tower as fresh meat for Si Wei and Xue Sha.
Afterward, he carefully inspected the interior of the cave, ensured it was clear, and then slightly concealed the entrance with rocks and foliage before allowing himself a moment of rest.
Once everything was secured to his satisfaction, he retrieved the black lotus artifact from his storage ring and infused it with his Qi.
In the blink of an eye, space shattered around him, and the world changed once again.
The next moment, Ye Wuji was once again standing within the treasure vault in the apocalyptic world.
He sat cross-legged and began reorganizing his storage bag and storage ring. Everything in his storage bag was reorganized. The items that were too important or secretive were transferred back to his storage ring: the Mother Plant and the two Blood Essence Harvesting Arrays.
Then, after that, he replenished the contents of his storage bag, making sure it held enough spirit and blood essence crystals to serve as emergency and public currency.
With that complete, Ye Wuji took out the seven storage bags he managed to loot from the corpses.
A grin crept across his face as he ran his fingers across them. Opening looted storage bags was similar to gambling. You could hit the jackpot, or walk away with a complete trash, but compared to gambling, you never truly lose anything during their opening.
He methodically erased the spiritual imprints and opened each one with piqued anticipation.
The bags that belonged to Feng Jun and the other three Scarlet Soul Sect disciples were garbage—just three hundred small spirit crystals, five blood essence crystals, and a few minor healing pills.
However, the three bags from the righteous sect disciples were a different story.
All of them together held about one thousand and five hundred small spirit crystals, thirteen medium spirit crystals and three identical small white plaques with two engraved green characters:
"Heavenly Mountain"
Ye Wuji's eyes narrowed as he examined one of the plaques. He poured a strand of his Qi into it, but nothing happened this time.
"Just an identification token," he muttered. "But the name alone tells me everything."
A twisted grin spread across his lips.
"So… Feng Jun planned to defect to the Heavenly Mountain Sect. He even brought three of their disciples to our meeting to kill us all."
He chuckled darkly, his laughter echoing through the quiet vault.
"Too bad he's already dead."