"You all... help clean up the battlefield."

Shen Changchuan retracted the Soul-Attracting Bell. He had also spotted the patriarchs from the various villages who had stopped halfway through their escape, and he called out to them.

His words paused mid-sentence,

and that brief hesitation made the men’s faces turn pale.

Fortunately, his next words allowed them to breathe a sigh of relief.

It was just an order to do something, not a settling of old scores.

The men immediately got to work, personally searching the corpses scattered around and collecting the spoils of war.

Shen Changchuan glanced at them,

but said nothing. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Then again,

these guys had fled without a fight, scattering before the battle had even begun.

It had indeed left him feeling a bit displeased.

But upon further reflection,

they weren’t his, Shen Changchuan’s, subordinates.

On the contrary,

the patriarchs of these villages were, in a sense, his patrons.

Every year, sixty to seventy percent of their harvest was offered up to him.

And since they were his patrons, what was there to criticize?

It was like when a reader pays to subscribe to your novel—so what if they complain about some filler?

The customer is God.

Whoever pays the bills calls the shots.

Thinking this way,

Shen Changchuan’s dissatisfaction naturally vanished.

’It makes sense,’ he thought. ’They’re only at the Qi Introduction Third or Fourth Layer of Cultivation. It’s perfectly normal for them to be afraid in the face of such powerful enemies.’

Considering the substantial annual tribute they paid,

Shen Changchuan took it upon himself to find an excuse for them.

He walked over to the corpse of the leader in black, casually picked up a tree branch, and flicked up the Storage Bag from under the man’s right sleeve.

His luck was good;

the battle hadn’t damaged the Storage Bag.

Shen Changchuan infused it with his Magical Power, breaking the original owner’s imprint.

A space of about seven or eight cubic meters appeared in his perception.

Shen Changchuan carefully searched through the contents.

But soon,

his brow furrowed slightly.

The contents were unexpectedly sparse!

There were only twenty or thirty Spirit Stones.

There was a good eight to nine hundred pounds of Spirit Grain, along with various Demon Beast Materials, Miscellaneous Ore, and so on, which took up a large amount of space.

But all of this added together was probably not even worth a hundred Spirit Stones.

Besides that, there was only a longsword of the Low Level Magical Artifact grade and a bottle of Elixirs.

Poor.

He was just too poor!

Shen Changchuan was a little disappointed.

Having experienced the rich spoils from the He Mountain Four Fierce, he found the current haul thoroughly unimpressive.

’You were at the Qi Introduction Sixth Layer Peak, and so was the leader of the He Mountain Four Fierce.’

’But he was much richer than you!’

Putting everything else aside, the Soul-Attracting Bell Magical Artifact alone was worth more than six or seven times the value of everything in this Storage Bag!

Shen Changchuan couldn’t help but sigh inwardly and shake his head slightly.

With a flip of his palm,

the bottle of Elixirs appeared in his hand.

He uncorked the bottle, examined the color and appearance of the Elixir inside, and then sniffed its scent.

At that moment, his expression changed slightly.

’Alright, maybe I spoke too soon,’

Shen Changchuan grumbled to himself.

He discreetly recorked the Jade Bottle and put the Elixir back into the Storage Bag.

Inwardly,

he had become extremely solemn.

The scent of Cyan Essence Water Grass.

There was no mistaking it!

Not long ago,

he had performed Refinement on a seedling of Cyan Essence Water Grass.

The scent that made his Divine Soul feel so clear was still fresh in his memory!

The soul-clarifying fragrance emanating from this Elixir

was almost identical to his memory!

Shen Changchuan was certain of it.

The main ingredient of this Elixir was definitely Cyan Essence Water Grass.

And it was a mature stalk of Cyan Essence Water Grass, at that!

’Even a seedling of Cyan Essence Water Grass is extraordinarily valuable, to say nothing of a mature one that’s been refined into an Elixir?!’

’I remember there’s an Elixir that uses Cyan Essence Water Grass as its main ingredient, called the Cyan Essence Purifying Spirit Pill.’

’And its value is in no way inferior to that of a Soul Emergence Pill!’

Shen Changchuan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The Soul Emergence Pill.

That was a Realm-breaking Elixir capable of increasing the chances of a Qi Introduction Ninth Layer Peak Cultivator breaking through to the Soul Emergence Realm.

Its value was unimaginable!

And the fact that the Cyan Essence Purifying Spirit Pill was comparable in value spoke volumes about how precious it was!

"Cyan Essence Water Grass..."

Something shifted in Shen Changchuan’s thoughts.

He was reminded of the Cyan Essence Water Grass seedling at the bottom of the Dawan River.

He thought of the case from twenty years ago in Dawan Village, where a side branch of the Shen Clan had died and the Hu Family had been wiped out.

’A Spirit Medicine this precious isn’t something you find just lying around...’

’Could it be that somewhere secret in this Border Desolate Land, there’s a place that produces such a rare Heaven and Earth Spiritual Object?’

Shen Changchuan’s expression was uncertain.

He had long suspected that something was amiss.

Back then, the Patriarch of the Hu Family in Dawan Village was merely at the Qi Introduction Seventh Layer Cultivation Realm.

With that level of strength, sending a single Qi Introduction Ninth Layer cultivator would have been enough to sweep them aside.

Why was it necessary for that True Cultivator from the Shen Family, a master in the Soul Emergence Realm, to come personally?!

It was like using a cannon to shoot a mosquito!

But although he sensed something strange,

Dawan Village was later passed down from Shen Shiyin to him, Shen Changchuan,

and nothing particularly noteworthy had happened in the interim.

Even if he had wanted to investigate,

he had no leads.

Unless he could meet that Soul Emergence Realm True Cultivator from the Shen Family face-to-face and ask him directly, there was no way to understand the reason behind it.

But that was obviously impossible.

’Stop, stop, stop! Don’t overthink this right now!’

The implications were too vast, giving Shen Changchuan a headache. He quickly reined in his thoughts.

These problems were too far-off. He could worry about them later.

’None of that is important for now. The most critical thing is to find out where this Elixir came from and who else knows about it!’

Shen Changchuan hastily pulled his thoughts back,

returning to the immediate priority.

’Right, what happened to the two people who were being chased?’

Thinking of this,

Shen Changchuan finally remembered.

He called out to the people around him.

As the ones being pursued, they might know the identities of the men in black.

But the patriarchs from the villages, who were busy searching for spoils, all looked at each other blankly and shook their heads, indicating they didn’t know.

The battle had broken out too suddenly,

and their decision to flee had been far too decisive.

As a result, no one had paid any attention to the two figures, one large and one small, whose chase had triggered the entire conflict.

"Um... that old Immortal Master just asked about our identities and told us to pass on a message to the Immortal Masters. He said he would reward you generously in the future, and then he left in a hurry with the other person."

Just then,

a few Mortal Martial Artists who had been at the back of the caravan came forward and spoke, their voices trembling slightly.

"Did the man leave any identifying information?"

"No."

Shen Changchuan couldn’t help but frown deeply.

But he didn’t waste any more words.

He immediately gave an order:

"Pack up as quickly as possible! We’re leaving immediately!"

Shen Changchuan had a vague feeling

that he might have gotten embroiled in some serious trouble.

But there was nothing to be done about it.

After all, the men in black had been the ones to attack them. He couldn’t have just dropped his weapons and let them slaughter him without a fight, could he?

It was best to leave first and figure things out later!

Soon,

everyone had efficiently packed up the spoils, and the caravan set off once more.

Shen Changchuan brought up the rear.

After a moment’s thought,

he unleashed more than a dozen Fireballs in succession, burning away all traces of the battle.

Then, he quickly followed the caravan and departed.