Chapter 38: Li Xingtian's Investigation Journey
The village mentioned in the report wasn't far from Yuzhou City.
At least, it still fell within the Demon Sealing Division's jurisdiction.
For two Foundation Establishment cultivators traveling at full speed, the trip would take very little time.
Li Xingtian followed behind Zhao Wanqing for a while and quickly noticed something odd about her gait.
Her movements were off — she seemed to be favoring her right leg, each step landing with a faint imbalance.
It didn't take much to guess the reason.
"You're injured on your right leg?" Li Xingtian asked bluntly.
Zhao Wanqing turned her head, surprised. "How did you know?"
"When you land, you always shift your weight away at the last moment," Li Xingtian replied calmly. "You're sure you can keep going like that?"
"There's no time to waste…"
Li Xingtian's tone didn't change. "No time even to take healing pills?"
"I did," Zhao Wanqing said, frowning slightly. "But the blood energy won't disperse that easily. It's slowing my recovery."
"Then stop for a moment," Li Xingtian said.
Zhao Wanqing paused, puzzled, turning toward him.
"I can fix it," Li Xingtian explained. "But I'll need you to cooperate. If we're attacked while you're like this, I can't guarantee your safety."
After a brief hesitation, she nodded.
Li Xingtian extended his senses — faint traces of blood qi were still coiled around her wounds, thin but stubborn.
And there were… a lot of them.
"This might be a little invasive. Bear with it."
He raised his hand, his spiritual power flowing like a cool breeze, gently enveloping the wounded areas.
The moment his spiritual energy touched the blood qi, the violent energy instantly stilled — as if recognizing a superior will.
At a flick of his fingers, the blood qi obediently followed his flow, drawn out of Zhao Wanqing's wounds like smoke pulled by the wind.
Zhao Wanqing's eyes widened slightly.
The malignant force that had clung to her like a curse — something even healing elixirs couldn't suppress — was suddenly and effortlessly stripped away.
It was as if an unruly, feral creature she had spent years trying to tame had suddenly knelt before a new master.
She wanted to ask how he did it, but Li Xingtian spoke first, reading her expression.
"It's my cultivation method," he said simply. "There's a reason Master sent me instead of my senior sister."
"…Thank you," Zhao Wanqing said quietly.
The pain that had been gnawing at her for hours was now almost gone. Her steps already felt lighter.
Li Xingtian merely nodded. To him, dragging along an injured partner was nothing but a liability.
His past life had taught him one truth — never team up with idiots.
Right now, Zhao Wanqing was on the verge of being classified as one.
If she didn't prove herself useful soon, he fully intended to take over the investigation himself and handle things his own way.
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"This is where I found traces of the ritual array," Zhao Wanqing said, pointing to an empty patch of earth. "They worked fast. We have to move quickly."
Li Xingtian scanned the ground.
If Zhao Wanqing's words were true, then the cleanup had been done with remarkable precision — not a single fragment of spiritual residue remained.
She nudged the spot where the array's core should have been, but there wasn't even a ripple of energy left.
"They wouldn't risk such a large-scale sacrificial array unless they'd reached a critical stage," she muttered, brows furrowed. "Something must have gone wrong — otherwise, they wouldn't have fled this fast."
"So our next step," Zhao Wanqing continued, "is to predict where they'll strike next."
Li Xingtian nodded. At least she wasn't blindly chasing shadows — she had a plan.
A mind with direction was worth keeping around.
She gestured toward the northern path. "We head that way. Yuzhou's south is all rivers and plains, but the north is mountains — remote, hidden. Since the Demon Sealing Division already disrupted one ritual, they won't dare act openly again."
"They're demonic cultivators," she added coldly. "Not suicidally stupid ones."
They would most likely choose a secluded mountain village as their next target.
Such hidden settlements were difficult to investigate, and with dense forests nearby, even if the Demon Sealing Division managed to locate them, the culprits could easily scatter and escape into the wilderness.
Under the cover of night, Zhao Wanqing led Li Xingtian northward at full speed toward the nearest mountain village.
Before setting out, she had already memorized the terrain maps surrounding Yuzhou.
After about half an hour of swift travel, they were nearing the village she had marked.
"Wait."
Li Xingtian suddenly stopped, his brows knitting tightly as his gaze swept over the forested surroundings.
Zhao Wanqing halted as well. "What's wrong?"
"We're in an illusion array," Li Xingtian said, narrowing his eyes. "We've already circled this place three times."
"Three times?" Zhao Wanqing's expression froze — she hadn't sensed anything at all.
"Breaking out won't be difficult," Li Xingtian continued, "but it means we've already been exposed."
His eyes flickered slightly as he locked onto a faint ripple of spiritual energy nearby.
Though his cultivation had restarted after rebirth, his experience and insight remained intact.
Even at the start of this mission, he had stayed alert to every change in his surroundings.
Li Xingtian had always been cautious when dealing with demonic cultivators — every one of them he'd encountered in both lives shared one thing in common: no moral restraint whatsoever.
He approached the fluctuation quietly, Zhao Wanqing following close behind.
Soon, he parted the tall grass and picked up a small stone from the ground.
After inspecting it carefully, he placed it back in its exact spot.
"A stone bead maze array," he said calmly. "Follow me."
Zhao Wanqing stayed on his heels as he turned left and right through the woods. To her, it seemed like they were just circling endlessly — but after several precise turns, the scene around them shifted.
They had exited the array.
And what lay before them froze Zhao Wanqing in place.
The entire village had been slaughtered.
Every house had been reduced to ashes, the stench of blood drifting through the cold night air.
At the entrance to the village, the trees were hung with headless corpses — swaying gently in the wind.
Li Xingtian's gaze swept the ground. The remnants of a ritual array were still visible, untouched, uncleaned.
"They… how could they dare do this?"
Zhao Wanqing's voice trembled.
To abduct a few villagers for blood sacrifices was one thing. But to slaughter an entire village — men, women, and children alike — was something far worse.
Blood rituals typically used the essence and souls of adult men, as they contained the most energy.
Women, children, and the elderly offered little useful blood qi — often tainted and impure.
Even the most depraved demonic cultivators would avoid such wasteful cruelty.
But here, no one had been spared.
This wasn't ritual sacrifice anymore — it was mass slaughter.
Li Xingtian finally spoke, his tone low and steady.
"They left in a hurry. Even the formation traces are untouched."
He crouched, studying the ground. "I'll record the structure of these arrays for analysis later. You search the area — see if anything useful remains."
He glanced at Zhao Wanqing, seeing how shaken she was, and decided to take charge of the situation himself.
It was clear she was momentarily overwhelmed.
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