Chapter 100: A Flash of Steel, and a Head Falls

The case was solved.

If not for the fact that a memory card never lies, Su Jingxing would never have known, or even imagined, that all of this had been driven from behind by the Stone family.

This family was monstrously brazen.

Every three years, each of them took the heart’s blood of a virgin born in a yin year, a yin month, a yin day, and a yin hour.

He had no idea how many people they had killed over the years.

This time, they had gone even further. To refine a vast quantity of blood essence marrow, they had set up a formation beneath Cloudsea Plaza in advance, calculated the timing, and artificially created corpse puppets. Then, during the celebration, they caused the deaths and injuries of more than a thousand people.

The blood that spilled out flowed through secret passageways into the formation, where it gave birth to piles upon piles of blood essence marrow.

The supposed story of Ke Wenji being abandoned by Shi Yanyi, the video she left behind before her suicide, and her helplessness after the incident—those had all been designed and arranged by the Stone family from the very beginning.

As for Nie Renchou going out at night, it was not because he had received orders from the Stone family to continue his killing spree; rather, the three men, including the long-bearded elder, had found the place where he was hiding.

He had then been hunted all the way to his death on the south bank of the Tianwater River.

...

After he finished going through all the memories, Su Jingxing let out a long breath.

Madmen. They were all madmen.

He knew well enough that the rise of these martial clans could not be separated from corpses and blood.

But a family like the Stone clan, taking the hearts’ blood of living people once every three years, manufacturing puppets by hand, and bringing about the deaths of over a thousand people, had gone far beyond anything he had imagined.

A family like this should vanish. It had no right to exist in this world.

Report them to the Martial Suppression Bureau?

Useless.

The Stone clan never left traces when they abducted women born in a yin year, yin month, yin day, and yin hour from various places.

Without direct evidence, there was nothing that could be done to them, and no one would believe it.

The formation beneath Cloudsea Plaza was the same. By now, every trace had long been dug out and cleared away; not a single drop of blood remained.

Even if it were reported to the Martial Suppression Bureau, Li Linzhou would find nothing when he got there.

As for the true motive behind Nie Renchou’s killings in the past few days, few would believe that either.

Because there was no evidence proving that Nie Renchou was a dead soldier of the Stone clan.

After thinking it over and over, Su Jingxing realized there was only one thing he could do.

Rescue Gu Duoduo.

The Stone clan had three secret bases.

The secret base where they kept the women they had captured from all over the land, women born in a yin year, yin month, yin day, and yin hour, happened to be a place Nie Renchou had visited before.

Through Nie Renchou’s memories, Su Jingxing knew the exact location of that base, the defenses inside it, and the experts stationed there.

Gu Duoduo had only been taken away less than two days ago, so there was a very good chance she was still alive.

If Su Jingxing went now, he could certainly bring the little girl back.

If possible, it would be even better to wipe out that base and rescue the others imprisoned there.

Of course, he could ask Li Linzhou to go with him.

The problem was that Su Jingxing did not know where Li Linzhou lived, nor did he know how to contact him. How was he supposed to find him?

As for telling the rest of the Martial Suppression Bureau, forget it.

The bureau had quite a few of the Stone clan’s people planted inside.

...

Having made up his mind, Su Jingxing moved at once.

First, he changed his appearance, becoming Yang Jian, then put on a cloak and mask.

Once dressed, he stepped into the courtyard and activated the Eight-Step Ascendant Dragon technique, rising straight into the air and hurtling through the sky toward Turtle Shell Mountain.

The secret base where Gu Duoduo and the others were held was located inside Turtle Shell Mountain.

Turtle Shell Mountain was a great mountain on the southeastern edge of the Azure Cloud Range. It got its name because its shape resembled a tortoiseshell.

Su Jingxing’s small courtyard at the foot of the mountain was about thirty kilometers from Turtle Shell Mountain.

With true energy driving him onward, Su Jingxing was like a flying dragon, reaching his destination in five minutes.

He descended lightly from above, and the moment his feet touched the ground, he activated the Ghost Python Breath-Concealing Art, suppressing every trace of aura and presence from his body as he silently approached the entrance to the secret base.

Outside the entrance was an ordinary stretch of mountainside, covered in vines and strewn with loose stones.

Hiding in the shadows, Su Jingxing used ventriloquism to imitate the howls of a wild wolf, making it sound as though it was roaring repeatedly right beside the entrance. Annoyed beyond endurance, the guards stationed there opened the mountainside entrance, carrying rifles as they came out to drive it away.

Taking advantage of the moment, Su Jingxing darted inside like a ghost and hid in a dead corner.

Then, after the guards returned and shut the entrance, he slipped back into the guard room, released his throwing knives, and silently killed everyone inside.

Not a single sound was made throughout the process, and Su Jingxing even picked up four cards.

Once the entrance was secured, he left the guard room and locked the door from the outside.

Then he accelerated to his maximum speed, hugging the walls and corners as he sprinted through the camera-lined corridors straight toward the surveillance center.

As long as he was fast enough, the cameras would not capture a clear human figure unless someone looked closely.

With full force unleashed, not even an afterimage of Su Jingxing could be seen.

He rushed all the way to the door of the surveillance center and slipped inside in a flash.

What he saw made him almost laugh.

The guards on duty in the surveillance center were all slumped over, fast asleep.

On reflection, it made sense. It was almost three in the morning, and this secret base had never suffered an incident before, so it was only natural for these guards to become careless.

While Su Jingxing was amused, he sent them all to continue their dreams and picked up three more cards.

After that, he shut down the alarm system, cut off all the cameras, then withdrew and locked the door behind him.

Next, he headed to the guards’ rest quarters.

He still opened the lock without a sound, entered the room, and sent every sleeping guard there to continue dreaming, picking up more than a dozen cards in the process.

Su Jingxing nodded in satisfaction and proceeded to the next step: the several senior members of the Stone clan stationed within the secret base.

The first one he targeted was named Shi Jinchuan, a sixth-rank cultivator.

Tap, tap.

Standing to the side, Su Jingxing knocked on the alloy door where Shi Jinchuan lived.

“What is it?” a low voice came from inside.

Su Jingxing ignored it and kept knocking.

Tap, tap, tap.

Footsteps sounded. Su Jingxing drew out his treasured blade and prepared himself.

With a creak, the alloy door opened. Shi Jinchuan, dressed in training clothes and wearing a gloomy expression, poked his head out and barked, “Didn’t I say not to—”

Whoosh.

Pfft.

A flash of blade light.

A head fell to the ground.

Shi Jinchuan never even had time to react before he went to join his ancestors.

Su Jingxing picked up the card, sheathed his blade, and sent Shi Jinchuan’s body and head back into the room. Then he took a curtain from inside and wiped away the blood on the floor.

But as he wiped, his hands gradually slowed.

He slowly straightened and stared toward the corner at the far end of the corridor ahead, where an additional old man with black hair was standing.

Shi Zhibang.

With only one glance, Su Jingxing recognized who the black-haired elder was.

A senior member of the Stone clan, Shi Zhibang was a fifth-rank cultivator and the leader of this secret base.

The old man’s face was ashen at that moment. His eyes were fixed on Su Jingxing, filled with murderous intent.

“How bold. You actually dared come here!”

The slightly hoarse voice rang through the air.

Shi Zhibang launched his attack at once. His figure shifted rapidly, and in less than a breath he had crossed more than seventy meters, appearing in front of Su Jingxing.

“Hundred-Step King Fist!”

Su Jingxing mobilized thirty years of true energy cultivation, amplified it fivefold, and threw a punch head-on!