By the time Long Chen and the others returned to Compass Mountain, the ground was already littered with corpses, and blood still slowly trickled.
Guo Ran, Gu Yang, and Xu Yang were busy cleaning up the battlefield. They were gathering the spatial rings as well as picking out the needles that were stuck in the corpses.
Those were all Guo Ranâs precious treasures that he had to gather back. He had been smart and had long since put his personal spiritual imprint on each of those needles. He could easily sense their locations within a range of three hundred meters.
Those things took a great deal of bitter work for him to create. Losing just one of them filled him with pain. Ever since the previous Righteous and Corrupt battle when he had run out of ammo, he always focused on keeping sufficient weapons around.
So usually, he wasnât even willing to lose a single needle. Currently, the needles that had just been littering the ground had already been gathered. The only ones left were still stuck in peopleâs bodies.
Under normal circumstances, with the power of the needle mechanism he used, those needles would easily pierce through a personâs flesh. These needles that were stuck in bodies had mostly already pierced through a body or even two bodies before getting stuck.
âGuo Ran, letâs just leave them. Itâs too hard to get these things out,â complained Gu Yang.
Extracting these needles from corpses was truly unpleasant. It wasnât that he found touching corpses to be so taboo, but they were all sticky and unpleasant to extract.
âYou and Xu Yang can rest. Iâll just slowly handle it by myself. Hehe, these things are all like my children, and I canât just throw them away,â said Guo Ran.
âTo shoot out this many of your kids in one time, you really are an interesting father.â[1] Gu Yang shook his head.
The speaker said that unintentionally, but the listener heard that other meaning. Guo Ran was trapped between laughter and tears as he said, âGu Yang, you really are getting vulgar.â
âHm?â Gu Yang rubbed his head, not understanding. He was about to say something when a bird cry rang out, and a huge figure descended from the sky.
âBoss has returned! Hehe, sister Ye, brother Mingyuan, brother Luo Cang, brother Zifeng, long time no see!â Seeing that they had returned, Guo Ran hastily called out a greeting.
After seeing everyone together, the previous heavy atmosphere lightened a great deal. Hearing that Guan Wennan and the others had all died, Guo Ran and Gu Yang were all filled with sadness. So many of them had entered, but now only these few people were still alive.
Mentioning Yin Wushuang, not one of them didnât grit their teeth in anger. That slut was too hateful, and they wished to tear her apart.
âAlright, thatâs enough. The path of cultivation is just like that. No one knows just who will fall at one time. The important thing is that we cherish these feelings while weâre alive. From today onwards, our goal is revenge. Us brothers canât be afraid of death, and a blood debt must be repaid with blood,â said Long Chen.
âBoss, weâll listen to you. But just who is our exact enemy?â asked Guo Ran.
He couldnât completely comprehend just what Long Chen meant by revenge. Just what hatred had caused Yin Wushuang to target Long Chen like this?
Long Chenâs conduct had always been open and candid, and he had never offended her. So why would she constantly be forcing Long Chen to this point?
âThe true people behind the scenes are the higher-ups of the first monastery. As for Yin Wushuang, she is just the person executing their scheme.
âBut according to my guess, the first monastery was probably only planning on targeting me. The original plan was probably to kill me as soon as I entered the secret realm.
âAs for Yin Wushuang, she was even more vicious, wanting me to become a stepping stone for Han Tianyu. She constantly smeared my name, turning me into a heinous villain. Then, Han Tianyu, under the banner of justice, would kill me, bringing him another glorious achievement.
âLater, the situation gradually exceeded her control, and she realized that I was a serious problem. Since she couldnât find me, she started to search for all of you. She wanted to kill you to force me out.
âI was in seclusion back then, and so I didnât know what was going on outside. As soon as I exited seclusion, there was that fight on Compass Mountain.â Long Chen gave a simple explanation of what had happened.
According to his analysis, if it was just the higher-ups of the first monastery, they definitely wouldnât have made it so fancy. Keeping it simple and direct was more in line with a cultivatorâs temperament.
If it had been someone else handling this matter, and they were only to target Long Chen, Long Chen wouldnât fear anything. But this matter had landed in Yin Wushuangâs hands, and to target Long Chen, she had targeted the people by his side. That was something Long Chen could not tolerate.
âNo matter what, Yin Wushuang must die,â said Long Chen hatefully.
âOf course that slut has to die, or our brothers will not be able to rest in peace.â Gu Yangâs killing intent also surged.
âHowever, this slut is hiding somewhere right now, and doesnât dare face us head-on. We wonât be able to find her. If we really did just try to randomly look around for her, we would fall for her trap, and probably even be ridiculed by her in secret. So right now, the most important thing for us is to increase our strength. Before Han Tianyu comes out of seclusion, weâll raise our strength to the highest level possible. Then when the time comes, weâll have a fierce battle,â warned Long Chen.
âDonât worry boss, during this battle, none of us brothers will get scared. Weâll all kill as many as possible,â said Guo Ran confidently.
Long Chen nodded. Looking at this battlefield, he said, âAre these your masterpieces?â
âCorrect. These were all done by Guo Ran. Brother Xu and I didnât even have a chance to attack,â praised Gu Yang.
Gu Yang was still slowly recovering from his shock from that previous battle. The armored Guo Ran was just like a slaughter machine.
With a raise of his hand, countless concealed weapons shot out from unexpected places, making it so people couldnât defend. Guo Ran had hunted them down to the last.
Even the final Chosen had been smashed to death with a single one of his metal fists.
Furthermore, that Chosen had definitely been very powerful. But no matter what he tried, he was unable to damage Guo Ranâs armor.
Not only was its defense incredibly high, but Guo Ran had also made it very exquisitely, and he was able to move very nimbly with it on.
So all Guo Ran had to do was attack. He could basically ignore other peopleâs attacks. That Chosenâs powerful attacks had been completely stifled by Guo Ran.
Xu Yang sighed, âTo tell the truth, Iâve experienced countless battles in my life, but this is the first time Iâve seen such a terrifying fight.â
âHehe, thatâs because you havenât seen our boss fight. I guarantee that would make your blood boil,â laughed Guo Ran. After being praised this much, he actually ended up knowing how to be modest and change the subject.
That was definitely something rare for Guo Ran. It seemed that little fellow was finally beginning to change. Long Chen said, âWhat were you doing just now? Was killing them not satisfying enough? Youâre playing with their corpses?â
âCough, no, no, Iâm just gathering back my treasures. I canât just so easily throw away the things I worked so hard to make. Eh? Boss, why are you looking at me like that?â asked Guo Ran. He noticed that Long Chenâs gaze had become very disdainful.
âAre you a pig? Why donât you just gather all those corpses together and burn them? Do you think your needles would burn too?â Long Chen was a bit speechless.
Guo Ran clapped his leg. âAiya, what a simple method! How could I not even have thought of that?â
He had been depressed this whole time about having to take out these needles from flesh. When these needles were stuck deep in a personâs body, the only option was to hack apart the flesh around it. Let alone Gu Yang and Xu Yang, even he found it a bit unbearable. After all, that was human flesh, not pig flesh.
Xu Yang was an outsider, and so he didnât feel right with complaining. He just lowered his head and worked. But Gu Yang hadnât been able to hold back a few grumbles.
Long Chen sighed, âI find you really did use up all your smarts on forging. Just go gather the corpses, and Little Violet can help you incinerate them.â
The Little Violet Long Chen was referring to was Chu Yaoâs Violet Phoenix Sparrow. Currently, the Violet Phoenix Sparrows had all advanced to the fourth rank, and the flame they could spit out was something even Chosen were unable to endure. Burning a few corpses was just playing around.
Guo Ran immediately began to gather the corpses that still had his needles in them.
Everyone else began helping, but Xu Yang was held back by Long Chen. âXu Yang, what do you want to do next? Do you want to stay with us?â
Long Chen was truly grateful to Xu Yang, as he was a person who understood that favors had to be repaid. Ignoring the risk to his own life, he had come here to report the news to him. That was enough to prove he was a loyal and virtuous person.
He wanted to pull Xu Yang over, but for Xu Yang to stay by his side was also too dangerous. Although he had the ability to offer many cultivation resources, compared to that danger, those resources were not so precious. So Long Chen wanted to hear Xu Yangâs thoughts.
As for Xu Yang, being invited over by Long Chen, his eyes reddened. Just who was Long Chen? He was the greatest dark horse within the secret realm, was able to stand shoulder to shoulder with peak experts, and was unrivaled within his realm. The fact that Long Chen was inviting him to become a member meant Long Chen treated him as one of them. Just what kind of glory was that?
But after a brief excitement, he sighed, âThank you, brother Long, for your respect. But I come from a humble origin, and I still havenât paid back my debt to my sect. I canât leave them, so please forgive me for declining.â
Long Chen nodded, understanding Xu Yangâs meaning. He was someone that had come from a small sect, and considering how much kindness his sect had given him, he couldnât betray his sect by leaving to follow him.
According to what he knew about Xu Yang, it was very likely his sect had spent a huge amount of resources to get him a quota for the Jiuli secret realm. For his sect to send him in was a true gamble. So Long Chen truly could understand his difficulties.
âThatâs fine. No matter what, weâre all brothers. I donât have anything good to give you, but here are twenty Bone Tempering Pills and ten wind spirit stones. As brothers, donât decline.â Long Chen pushed a jade bottle as well as ten wind spirit stones to Xu Yang.
âBrother Long, I canât accept thisâŠâ Xu Yang couldn't accept it. He had only ever heard of Bone Tempering Pills. But from what he had heard of, they were unimaginably expensive.
Furthermore, these ten wind spirit stones were at least ten times better than the one he had obtained at the beginning. The wind energy inside it was incredibly pure.
âAs brothers, donât say anything useless. Since Iâm giving them to you, just take it. You risked your life to give me information, which saved my friends from calamity. If you donât take it, it means youâre looking down on me.â Long Chen intentionally turned hostile.
âAlright, then Iâll accept it. I, Xu Yang, will never forget brother Longâs great favor.â Xu Yang respectfully bowed to Long Chen before leaving.
After Long Chen sent off Xu Yang, Li Qi, who had been unconscious this entire time, finally awoke, delighting everyone.
Once that brief celebration was over, Long Chen continued refining pills, while everyone else alternated between guarding and tempering their bones, all in preparation for the upcoming clash.