Chapter 218: Going Public |
For Chen An, Liu Roujun was her friend, but the person in front of her was not.
Since they were not friends, if she wanted him to spare her, she had to give something in return.
Since this person's identity was probably prestigious, money was even more necessary.
If she didn't take advantage of this big fat sheep, Chen An felt like she wouldn't be able to sleep well.
"Who are you?"
Right now, Chen An looked at the other person with interest and asked the first question.
Under Chen An's gaze, the girl opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something, but considering the fierceness Chen An showed when fighting Wei Li before, she decided to answer the question honestly: "Ning Wanli."
Ning Wanli?
Ning's surname?
As soon as the words fell, both Liu Roujun and Ning Wanli were surprised. "How did you know?"
"Just a random guess."
Chen An said casually, "It's not hard to guess, considering you can make Wei Li intentionally spare your life and your surname is Ning. It's quite easy to connect the dots within the Hao Mountain Sect."
Wei Li had killed many elders and disciples before. If she wasn't of a special status, how could he let her live? Moreover, the Sect Master of the Hao Mountain Sect happened to be called Ning Ming, so it was easy to make the connection.
But it was good that way.
A smile appeared on Chen An's face.
As the daughter of the Sect Master, her status was prestigious, and her family must be rich, right?
He looked at Ning Wanli with a gaze that resembled a wolf eyeing a fat sheep.
It seemed that his gaze was too intimidating, as Ning Wanli's body trembled, appearing a bit scared. "What do you want?"
"Don't be afraid, I am a good person."
Chen An explained casually, then realized that this explanation seemed to be useless, so he directly got to the point: "Don't worry, I am not interested in you. I am interested in the things on you."
He glanced at Ning Wanli and said, "Your life is in my hands now. Whether you can keep it or not depends on how much you can offer in redemption."
"If the things are not enough, don't blame me."
He said lightly.
"Senior Brother Chen..."
On the side, Liu Roujun looked at Chen An, wanting to say something, but was intimidated by Chen An's cold eyes.
Chen An didn't forget his position.
Wei Li was up to no good, but the people representing the Hao Mountain Sect were not to be underestimated either.
If Wei Li hadn't suddenly appeared earlier, Chen An would have definitely acted against these people.
At that time, if Chen An's strength was not enough and he was caught by them, would they spare him?
Forget about buying life with money, they might directly crush him to pieces.
Compared to that, asking for money now and letting them buy their lives was already quite generous.
If it was someone with a blacker heart, they would directly kill the person, and then all the belongings would be theirs.
Ning Wanli trembled as she took out things from her body.
Compared to the others around her, she didn't have many things on her.
Five special spirit stones, each worth at least a hundred normal spirit stones.
Five stones were equivalent to five hundred spirit stones.
A gourd of elixir containing ten foundational pills, each worth at least fifty spirit stones. Ten of them were worth at least five hundred spirit stones.
In addition, there was one item that caught Chen An's eyes.
It was a very detailed map, recording the surrounding terrain and major cities, with the gathering places of cultivators marked.
Looking at this, Chen An's eyes lit up.
Compared to the previous two items, this map was the most needed thing for him right now.
After leaving the Hao Mountain Sect, he would definitely have to go to other cultivator gathering places.
Having this map at this time would save him a lot of effort.
Otherwise, if he had to find places on his own, who knows how much time he would waste.
Having a map made things much easier, just follow the map to find what he needed.
From other people before, Chen An had also found similar maps, but most of them were incomplete and not detailed, far less useful than the map in front of him.
"Not bad."
Chen An nodded. With this huge gain, his gaze towards Ning Wanli softened.
Aside from the map, just the value of the spirit stones and elixir combined was at least a thousand spirit stones.
This was already considered quite wealthy, making Chen An feel inadequate.
Although he could make money through alchemy, the expenses were high. Learning new alchemy techniques and buying Gold Spirit Stones to replenish his energy source meant he didn't have much spirit stones left.
Finding these items now was a windfall for him.
Thinking about this, his gaze towards Ning Wanli softened even more.
He didn't think much of it, but in front of Ning Wanli, she felt frightened by his gaze and almost cried out, "I really have nothing left."
"I have taken out everything I have."
She thought that Chen An was not satisfied with what she had brought out, so he was preparing to kill her.
"Cough, don't worry."
Chen An realized this and coughed lightly before speaking, "Don't worry, I'm satisfied. I won't take everything from you. These are for you."
After his words, he threw some miscellaneous items over.
Most of these items were random and chaotic, such as some blood pills taken from Wei Li and some maps taken from others before.
These things were of no use to Chen An, and he found it troublesome to sell them, so he decided to leave them for the two women.
It just happened that they had been robbed clean, so they probably wouldn't mind these items.
Holding these miscellaneous items, Ning Wanli's expression immediately softened.
On one hand, she didn't have to die, and on the other hand, she didn't expect to be able to keep some things.
Although they were all miscellaneous items, when calculated, they could still be worth some money, which was better than nothing for her who was currently broke.
At this moment, she unexpectedly had a feeling that Chen An seemed like a decent person.
It was quite strange.
"Let's go."
Chen An's voice came from in front.
Liu Roujun and Ning Wanli looked up and saw that within the range covered by the mountain protection formation, a gap had appeared, allowing them to pass through.
Obviously, this gap was opened by Chen An just now and had not disappeared yet.
Seeing this scene, Liu Roujun and Ning Wanli hurried forward and left through the gap.
In the blink of an eye, they were outside the Hao Mountain Sect.
The desolate spiritual energy of the outside world engulfed them, giving them a feeling of being in a desert, which was quite uncomfortable.
Having been accustomed to the rich spiritual energy environment within the Hao Mountain Sect, experiencing the desolate environment of the outside world felt like being in a desert.
After a while, they finally adapted to this feeling, and Liu Roujun quickly looked around, but couldn't find the familiar figure.
Obviously, Chen An had already left.
Realizing this, Liu Roujun felt a bit lost.
Several days passed quickly.
After leaving the Hao Mountain Sect, Chen An quickly arrived in a distant city.
In this city, he disguised his identity as a cultivator from the Hao Mountain Sect and approached the city lord, getting to know several cultivators in the area through the city lord.
From them, Chen An also learned about the final result of the Hao Mountain Sect.
It had been five days since that night of chaos.
The turmoil within the Hao Mountain Sect had already ended.
The specific changes that occurred were unknown to outsiders.
The only information they knew was that the Hao Mountain Sect had sealed the mountain.
The former Sect Master of the Hao Mountain Sect had fallen, and his death had been announced to the public.
However, strangely, in the external announcement, the Hao Mountain Sect Master did not die in battle but accidentally lost control during seclusion and perished.
Due to this incident, many troublemakers within the Hao Mountain Sect united with external cultivators to commit wrongdoing, resulting in many casualties.
Under the strict control of the Hao Mountain Sect, the attacking external enemies were repelled, and now the sealing of the mountain was just to handle internal matters. After some time, everything should return to normal.
This was the outside world's understanding of the situation within the Hao Mountain Sect.
Listening to this version of the story, Chen An's expression became strange.
To outsiders, the turmoil in the Hao Mountain Sect seemed to be just a rebellion by external cultivators.
Taking advantage of the Hao Mountain Sect Master's loss of control, they rebelled and were eventually suppressed by the Hao Mountain Sect.
It sounded normal.
But as a witness to that night's events, Chen An knew things were not that simple.
The Hao Mountain Sect Master did not die from losing control but was clearly killed by someone.
It wasn't just a simple rebellion, but an attack by demonic cultivators to seize the foundation of the Hao Mountain Sect.
And it seemed like they had succeeded.
The external statement of the Hao Mountain Sect completely failed to mention the existence of demonic cultivators.
It was as if this turmoil was just a normal conflict.
Demonic cultivators? Nonexistent.
Chen An estimated that these demonic cultivators, after seizing the Hao Mountain Sect, would not reveal themselves and would instead use the facade of the Hao Mountain Sect to disguise themselves.
In the Land of Rivers, which was a stronghold of orthodox cultivators, demonic cultivators were rare. In such a place, a group of demonic cultivators would draw too much attention, so it was better to parasitize the Hao Mountain Sect and develop silently.
In a thousand years, they would probably be indistinguishable from orthodox cultivators.
By then, who would know that they were not the original owners of the Hao Mountain Sect but a group of bandits?
Chen An couldn't help but sigh as he mourned his friends he had known in the Hao Mountain Sect.
He hoped that the people from the Medicine Hall would be safe.
Most of Chen An's friends were alchemists, and with their abilities, as long as they remained honest, he believed the demonic cultivators wouldn't harm them.
Chen An could only hope for the best now.
(End of this chapter)