Trials of the Abyss

Chapter 8: Zhou Qingchen's Gesture of Goodwill

Ning Yuanshan stroked his long goatee. He gazed at He Ziren's corpse, his eyebrows knitted in contemplation. "Inhabited by a Spirit Devil?"

Pang Jian's face was blank.

Ning Yuanshan had noticed that the members inhabited by the strange creatures Han Duping called Spirit Devils had turned against each other.

Therefore, he believed that this was a logical explanation.

Ning Yao's captivating figure left the stone pile and she remarked, "That's He Ziren's misfortune. Uncle Yuanshan, we can't blame Pang Jian for this."

Ning Yuanshan sighed and lamented, "The young master of the He Clan died while he was with us. How am I supposed to explain this to his clan?"

Surprisingly, Ning Yao took the initiative to help Pang Jian avoid suspicion. "He Ziren is not the only one who died. His high cultivation realm caused the evil woman to take advantage of the situation and control the Spirit Devils to inhabit Pang Jian to harm him. I suspect that the Spirit Devils even entered He Ziren's body and corrupted his mind so that the inhabited Pang Jian could kill him more easily."

"That is indeed possible," Ning Yuanshan agreed.

Pang Jian maintained the same neutral expression on his face. However, there were strange ripples in his heart.

He had thought that He Ziren's death would stir up a storm, and that the Ning Clan would push the blame on him. He had not expected that Ning Yao would voluntarily help him resolve the issue.

On the contrary, Ning Yao appeared to have been relieved of a huge burden.

"Pang Jian..." Ning Yao's eyebrows knitted, glittering eyes fixed firmly on Pang Jian's face.

She had noticed something odd about the situation.

Even if Pang Jian was supposedly inhabited when he killed He Ziren, that still did not explain his calm, composed demeanor.

Pang Jian was surprised. "What?"

"Have you killed anyone before?" Ning Yao asked suddenly.

"Yes," Pang Jian responded in a low tone. He hesitated briefly before continuing, "I've been hunting in the Solitary Mountain Range for many years. When I was younger, some of the older hunters bullied me because my father wasn't around. They tried to take my spoils by force."

"You were able to kill older, more experienced hunters?" Ning Yuanshan asked with a strange expression on his face.

"I was just lucky," Pang Jian replied.

Ning Yao was stunned. Surprise flickered across her eyes, and she could not help but seriously size Pang Jian up. She nodded and said, "I'll have to trouble you in the future then. As for He Ziren's death...don't take it to heart."

Pang Jian tactfully left after hearing this.

In the stone pile, Zhou Qingchen was standing on the corpse of the largest one-horned rhinoceros when Pang Jian saw him suddenly look in his direction.

The thoughtful expression on Zhou Qingchen's face left Pang Jian confused.

Zhou Qingchen loudly instructed the survivors of the Zhou Clan to remove all the artifacts and valuables from the bodies of the dead and move them to an open space in front of the stone pile.

Everyone set to work.

Ning Yao, Ning Yuanshan, and Zhang Heng of the Ning Clan shared the warhorses left outside the stone pile with the survivors of the Zhou Clan. Now that He Ziren was dead, Zhou Qingchen unceremoniously claimed He Ziren's black warhorse as his own.

Soon after, the warhorses could be seen carrying artifacts and valuables scavenged from the dead cultivators and rhinoceros out of the stone pile.

Neither Zhou Qingchen nor Ning Yao seemed particularly sad about the deaths of their clan servants. Perhaps they had long since become accustomed to death, or perhaps it was simply that the lives of servants were too inconsequential to be worthy of their grief.

Soon after, only corpses remained in the stone pile.

The servants of the Zhou Clan had left the stone pile and were grilling meat over a fire to fill their stomachs before continuing on their journey.

Ning Yuanshan waved Pang Jian over. After a moment of hesitation, Pang Jian headed over from the other side of the stone pile. On his way, however, he noticed that the corpses inside the stone pile still contained some Profound Yin energy.

A plan formed in his mind.

"I'm going to look around to see if anything was left behind," Pang Jian called out to Ning Yuanshan from the other side of the stone pile.

Everyone assumed that Pang Jian was just determined to look for valuable artifacts, even though they had already scoured this bloody area. They paid him no mind and left him alone in the stone pile while they grilled meat over the fire and discussed the next part of their journey.

"Miss Ning, what's that young man's name?" Zhou Qingchen asked, turning a meat skewer over the fire. As the meat sizzled, he smiled at Ning Yao and said, "You should thank him for helping you get rid of He Ziren. I heard that He Ziren had a reputation in the He Clan for being licentious and tyrannical. Although his cultivation talent was passable, I don't think he was a good match for you, Miss Ning"

"His name is Pang Jian, and the real mastermind behind He Ziren's death was the evil woman controlling the Spirit Devils," Ning Yao replied.

"That's right," Zhou Qingchen said with a strange smile. He did not dwell on the subject and continued, "The evil woman doesn't have a physical body. She's probably a soul that was sealed by the elders of the Sinister Soul Temple."

Zhou Qingchen frowned. He rubbed his chin and stared at the sizzling meat. "The evil woman just escaped. She's still very weak. That's why she hastily retreated into the mountain range after we broke free of the demonic sound."

"That's true. The next time we encounter her, she'll probably be much stronger." Ning Yuanshan sighed in concern. "We don't know much about the evil woman. She was able to set up an array in the stone pile and even disguised the cultivators of the Sinister Soul Temple as members of the Blood Moon Sect. What could her motive be?"

"If I'd known that the bodies in the stone pile were from the Sinister Soul Temple, I wouldn't have entered so hastily," Han Duping lamented. "The Sinister Soul Temple specializes in using strange creatures like Spirit Devils. I would've been much more cautious if I'd known."

Han Duping felt guilty for the loss of so many lives and for the great losses suffered by Zhou Qingchen.

"Don't blame yourself. No one could've known that those corpses were Sinister Soul Temple cultivators in disguise," Zhou Qingchen comforted. "I think they'd already disguised themselves as members of the Blood Moon Sect even before they died. If I'm right, they likely changed after killing the Blood Moon Sect cultivators."

Ning Yuanshan agreed, "Mn, they were probably setting traps for others."

The group's discussion could be heard from inside the stone pile.

So the formation was set up by the Sinister Soul Temple? In the stone pile, Pang Jian hid himself behind a tall rock so that Zhou Qingchen could not spot him. He touched his bronze pendant with a confused expression on his face.

Originally, he thought that if the yin energy sealing array was man-made, it might have been his father's doing.

However, after listening to their conversation, he was no longer certain.

He lifted his shirt and stared at the still hot bronze pendant. Aside from the heat, the door-shaped bronze pendant was seemingly normal. However, he knew the reason he had not been affected by the ear-piercing whistle and could maintain a clear mind was because the pendant heated up.

The bronze pendant had helped him.

"This pendant isn't normal." Pang Jian vaguely felt that the pendant left by his father contained some kind of divine mystery.

His perception also seemed to sharpen significantly whenever he activated the Qi Nurturing Divine Cauldron Art while his bronze pendant was hot. Even now, when he calmed down and activated the Qi Nurturing Divine Cauldron Art, he could sense that the faint Profound Yin energy in the stone pile seemed to be coming from the same direction.

After a moment of contemplation, Pang Jian used his sharpened perception to search for the source of the Profound Yin energy. Every now and then, he would pause to determine the direction of his target before continuing, and after repeating this process several times, he finally arrived at a secluded corner of the stone pile, far away from the crowd.

Pang Jian found a gray-white rock covered with numerous cracks where Profound Yin energy seemed to be faintly seeping out. The gray-white rock was not very large, and Pang Jian hesitated for a moment before reaching out to touch the cracks on it.

Rich Profound Yin energy erupted from the cracks, causing his body to feel icy cold. The pure and potent Profound Yin energy flooded his body in an instant, causing his flesh and blood to stiffen.

Shocked, he quickly activated the Qi Nurturing Divine Cauldron Art. Instantly, the dark-green Spirit Cauldron visualized in his mind started to absorb the Profound Yin energy permeating his flesh and blood.

In his navel region, the extraordinary Profound Yin energy dissolved the cotton-like impurities.

Pang Jian was surprised. Fighting poison with poison?

He had not expected that the inconspicuous cracked rock would contain a considerable amount of Profound Yin energy, which was beneficial in cleansing the impurities in his navel region.

Outside, Zhou Qingchen and the others were still engaged in a lively discussion.

Inside the stone pile, Pang Jian remained crouched in the same spot, hand pressed against the cracks on the rock as he frantically absorbed the Profound Yin energy.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, the chatter outside slowly subsided and many of the impurities in Pang Jian's navel region had been purged by the Profound Yin energy from the rock.

Suddenly, Pang Jian heard footsteps slowly approaching.

Without hesitation, he placed the small cracked rock into the bamboo basket on his back and covered it with the bamboo lid. He then pretended to search around.

Soon, the tall, boorish young master of the Zhou Clan appeared.

In Zhou Qingchen's hand was a skewer of meat. He smiled and handed it to Pang Jian. "Here, have something to eat. We'll have to trouble you to lead the way from here."

Pang Jian was pleasantly surprised. He did not expect that the person with the highest status in the group would come to personally offer him food. He did not act coy and graciously took the wooden skewer, hungrily tearing into the meat.

However, though the meat was charred and oily on the outside, it was dry and tough like a piece of firewood and required considerable effort to chew. Compared to the meat of the wild beasts he typically hunted and prepared himself, the meat skewer given by Zhou Qingchen tasted rather bland.

"You don't think it's tasty?" Zhou Qingchen could not help but chuckle at Pang Jian's expression. "Cultivators aren't cooks. Just being able to make something edible is already quite the achievement."

Pang Jian shook his head and stayed silent.

Zhou Qingchen pondered briefly, then said, "From what I heard from Miss Ning, you're a local hunter called Pang Jian. If you manage to leave the Solitary Mountain Range alive, would you be interested in joining my Zhou Clan?"

Pang Jian looked at him in surprise. He had not expected that the young master of the Zhou Clan would be interested in recruiting him.

"You can take your time to think about it. There's no need to rush to give me an answer." Zhou Qingchen chuckled. "You can also use this opportunity to get to know me, Zhou Qingchen, and the status of my Zhou Clan in this world."

Pang Jian frowned. "But my cultivation talent is only average."

"Talent is just a stepping stone, not the whole journey," Zhou Qingchen said, waving his hand with a light chuckle. "Besides, the ruthlessness you displayed when you killed He Ziren is something I can appreciate."

Pang Jian's expression changed drastically.

Zhou Qingchen laughed, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Although I was in the stone pile, I still noticed He Ziren causing trouble for you. He even lifted your body high into the air. When the demonic ear-piercing whistle rang out, the evil woman concealed in the white paper fan launched a mental attack on me.

"Her sudden attack immobilized me for a split second, but my senses and consciousness weren't affected. I noticed that none of the Spirit Devils left the stone pile at that time, so you couldn't have been inhabited.

"I don't know how you avoided the effects of the ear-piercing whistle, but regardless, I admire your ability to seize that opportunity to decisively kill He Ziren.

"You're young. You still have a chance to make up for your lack of talent. I, Zhou Qingchen, am willing to accept you." With this show of goodwill, the young master of the Zhou Clan left another skewer of cooked meat before departing in a carefree manner.

Pang Jian silently chewed the meat and stared at the departing Zhou Qingdan's broad back.

It was not until Zhou Qingchen completely disappeared from his sight that Pang Jian breathed a sigh of relief. He was grateful that the young master of the Zhou Clan had neither noticed the strange stone in the bamboo basket nor dwelled on He Ziren's death.