Chapter Eighty-Six: Wang Shan

Chapter Eighty-Six: Wang Shan

“I remember now. That man seemed to be Zhou Jie,” Duan Kun suddenly said.

Chu Jie was stunned. Zhou Jie?

He remembered that man. They had once fled together under the assault of the beast tide. He had been an especially arrogant fellow, and he had even shown killing intent toward both Chu Jie and Duan Kun. Back then, Chu Jie had even wanted to kill Zhou Jie himself, but by some twist of fate, he never made a move.

“Could those people all have been killed by Zhou Jie?” Chu Jie felt a bad premonition. “Come on, let’s go take a look.”

The nine of them arrived before the corpses. Chu Jie examined them and discovered that this group had been the very same one that had fled with him in the beast tide. He also recognized their leader, Du Xuan. Though somewhat domineering, the man was not bad.

At that moment, Du Xuan lay collapsed in a pool of blood. Judging by the wounds on his body, it seemed he had been ambushed. He was already long dead.

Chu Jie drew in a deep breath. He had thought these people were decent enough, so why would Zhou Jie have killed them? What on earth was the reason? He could not make sense of it.

He checked the bodies on the ground. Most of them were from that same group who had once fled the beast tide together. It seemed they had first been poisoned, and then Zhou Jie had finished them off.

After all, Zhou Jie’s strength was limited. To kill so many people at once would not have been easy.

These people had all been murdered by Zhou Jie. For some reason, Chu Jie found himself feeling extremely ill at ease.

Looking at Du Xuan’s gruesome death, Chu Jie suddenly felt an urge to kill Zhou Jie. Back then, Du Xuan had even hoped he and Zhou Jie would not become too impulsive, and had come to persuade them. Yet now, Zhou Jie had actually brought about his death.

Chu Jie took a deep breath and steadied his emotions.

Finding Zhou Jie now would not be easy. In just that short while, Zhou Jie should already have run far away. They could only continue along the road and hope to encounter him. Chu Jie had already made up his mind: if he met Zhou Jie, he would kill him.

A man like that could not be left alive. He was utterly devoid of humanity.

“Boss, do you know these people?” Wu Long asked in great curiosity. In his impression, Chu Jie and Duan Kun, those two peerless fiends, ought to have been the kind to kill anyone they met. But what he had seen so far was rather different, leaving him deeply puzzled.

“Yes, I suppose we knew each other. It’s a pity they’re all dead now,” Chu Jie said with a sigh, then immediately added, “I’ll bury them.”

The Heaven and Earth Treasure Wheel flew out and began digging rapidly into the ground. In no time, a pit appeared. Chu Jie tossed all the corpses into it, then filled it in with soil and erected a tablet.

He picked up a stone from nearby and set it before the grave mound, carving a few words upon it:

Grave of Du Xuan and his brothers.

Chu Jie stood there in silence for a while, feeling that their deaths had been in vain.

The main reason he gave them a grave was that they had once fought the beast tide together. Now that these people were dead, he could not help feeling a stir in his heart.

As for Wu Long and the others, they were somewhat dazed. At first they had thought Chu Jie to be a bloodthirsty monster, but now they saw something entirely different. It diverged somewhat from their impression, yet for them, such a boss was better.

Thus, seeing Chu Jie act this way, they felt that he still had a trace of humanity, rather than being nothing more than a machine of slaughter.

“Let’s go,” Chu Jie said.

Giving these people a grave was already more than enough righteousness. After all, they had not shared much of a bond to begin with. As for Zhou Jie, he had once wanted to kill him, and now he wanted to kill him even more.

But right now, the most important thing was to hurry to the place that the peerless fiend had mentioned. Chu Jie felt it would be better to go there sooner.

There were so many people in the Abyss of Gods and Demons now; the slaughter would probably only grow worse. The warriors from Blood Slaughter City would gradually reveal their true natures.

Moreover, there had been no major upheaval in the Abyss of Gods and Demons for quite some time. It was likely still a while before the wondrous treasure would appear.

After walking for a while longer, Wu Long suddenly pointed to a black dot in the distance and said, “Boss, that looks like a person. He can fly on his own—could he be at the eighth level of Spirit Gathering Realm?”

Chu Jie narrowed his eyes and looked at the warrior. They were far away, so he could not make out the man’s features at all, but the man was indeed flying through the air without relying on any magical treasure.

At present, Chu Jie could at most handle warriors at the seventh level of Spirit Gathering Realm. As for the eighth level, not only had he never encountered one, he had never even witnessed such a battle.

Moreover, that eighth-level Spirit Gathering warrior seemed to be searching for someone. His gaze kept sweeping across the ground, but with no obvious result.

“That Spirit Gathering eighth-level warrior seems to have left,” Wu Long said again.

All of them were watching that black figure. In truth, they all had a feeling that the man might be searching for them.

However, Wu Long and the other seven had not exposed themselves, so the people within the Abyss still believed that the peerless fiends were merely two isolated figures, without any assistance. That increased the chance of slipping through unnoticed.

Once one reached the eighth level of Spirit Gathering Realm, one could fly by one’s own power. Chu Jie was very envious of that, but he was only at the fifth level right now. Though he already possessed the combat strength of the seventh level, he would still need to cultivate to the eighth level before he could fly unaided.

When that man had gone far away, they no longer paid him any mind. Even if he truly was at the eighth level of Spirit Gathering Realm, so what? With all of them working together, even a master of the eighth level would have to weigh his chances carefully.

Chu Jie then thought again of the warrior who had once been blasted into the sky by the pillar of light that emerged from the Abyss of Gods and Demons. That man had also been at the eighth level of Spirit Gathering Realm, yet he had underestimated the danger of this place and ended up perishing here.

“Everyone, be careful and speed up. Don’t get discovered again,” Chu Jie said.

He knew this was a critical time. The best course was to find a place to hide for a while. If not for the appearance of the peerless fiend earlier, he and Wu Long would probably have already found some safe place to hide.

Now, however, they could not avoid going. If they did not go, they would die.

So Chu Jie only hoped that once they reached the place the peerless fiend had described, they could hide there for a while. When the wondrous treasure emerged outside, they would come out again, and then nobody would pay them much attention.

But after walking a while longer, they vaguely saw another black figure flying in the sky.

Chu Jie looked for a moment and realized that the person flying overhead seemed to be the same warrior they had seen before. It was the same person both times.

Chu Jie’s heart tightened. This was bad. If they collided with that person now, a great battle would be inevitable. Then, if they drew in others, it would be extremely disadvantageous for them, and someone might well die.

Besides, he had never fought an eighth-level Spirit Gathering expert before. There was a good chance he would not be able to defeat him at all. Moreover, in a fight like that, with one person in the sky and one on the ground, Chu Jie would be at a severe disadvantage.

“This warrior is searching this area so thoroughly that he might come down to check. He’ll discover us very soon. Let’s go hide in that place ahead,” Chu Jie said.

When dealing with an unknown enemy, it was best to conceal themselves first and observe the situation.

After the eighth-level expert flew past a second time, it seemed he still had found nothing and continued onward.

Meanwhile, Chu Jie and the others had already reached a place ahead where they could conceal themselves. Hiding here should allow them to escape that expert’s search.

Right now, Chu Jie simply did not want to face that expert directly. If more people were drawn in, he was afraid they would not be able to withstand it.

The nine of them hid within the gaps between huge rocks. Here, it was difficult to spot them from above; even if someone in the sky descended, it would still be hard to find them.

Not long after, that expert flew back once more for a third sweep. This time he flew very low, passing even over this jumbled stretch of rocks at low altitude.

Because Chu Jie and the others had prepared in advance, they were not discovered at all.

After the expert flew past, they all finally breathed easier. Though this person’s cultivation was far weaker than that of the peerless fiends, they had still felt tense for a moment.

“Stay a little longer,” Chu Jie said.

They still could not be certain whether that man would return to search again.

Right now, the entire Abyss of Gods and Demons was searching tightly for those two peerless fiends. If this man were to discover them and draw a large crowd, that would be troublesome indeed.

“Boss, I think I’ve seen that man somewhere before!” Wu Long said, looking toward the direction where the black figure had disappeared, as though he had suddenly remembered something.

“Tell me, where did you see him?” Chu Jie asked.

Wu Long had entered Spirit Gathering Realm at the fifth level earlier than Chu Jie. Though he was not as strong as Chu Jie, he was somewhat more experienced.

After thinking for a moment, Wu Long said, “I once saw him during training in some place. At the time, he seemed to be fighting over something and killed quite a few people. I heard those people call him Wang Shan. He seems to be a lone cultivator, attached to no faction.”

“Wang Shan?” Chu Jie frowned.

The name itself was nothing special, but he suddenly remembered that the old man in the Yang family’s dungeon had once told him that within half a year, he had to kill the descendants of the Wang family in Blood Slaughter City, or he would be turned into a pool of blood. He did not know whether this Wang Shan might be connected to the Wang family descendants.

“Boss, do you know him?” Wu Long asked curiously.

“No,” Chu Jie said.

But he understood that if he wanted to determine whether Wang Shan was one of the Wang family descendants mentioned by the old man in the dungeon, perhaps the only way was to ask him face to face.

This matter had always weighed on him. Now some time had already passed. If the six months elapsed and he still failed to kill a Wang family descendant, then he would die.

The group waited a while longer, but Wang Shan never returned. He should have gone elsewhere.

“Let’s go. It’s fine now,” Chu Jie said.

At present, his cultivation was only at the fifth level of Spirit Gathering Realm. If he could reach the sixth level, then dealing with Wang Shan should not be too much of a problem. As things stood, Chu Jie felt he was still lacking somewhat.

To avoid further trouble, the group immediately increased their speed to the limit and rushed madly toward the place the peerless fiend had indicated. The nine of them were like nine streaks of light, racing through the ninth terraced level of the Abyss of Gods and Demons.