Longevity Begins with the Seven Injuries Fist-Chapter 274 - 172: The Seven Sects, Eight Gangs, and Nine Clans All in the Bag! Ou Family Branch Patriarch!
The invisible energy exhaled could not withstand Su Que’s palm wind and was scattered by it.
The palm force within the palm wind immediately dispersed the True Qi gathered on the leader’s face, and the lime powder mixed in the wind completely covered the leader’s face.
The leader hadn’t expected Su Que’s palm wind to contain such astonishing power. Although he quickly closed his eyes, some lime still invaded his eyes, making them red and teary.
At this moment, Su Que had already advanced in front of the leader.
With a flick of the leader’s right hand holding the book, a thread of Marriage Robe Divine Skill True Qi was injected.
The leader’s right hand trembled, instantly feeling his entire arm as if struck by lightning, and he immediately released the "Life and Death Talisman" secret manual in his hand.
Su Que, quick as lightning, seized the manual in his hand with a grab.
With a turn, he darted to the side and stood still.
Watching the martial artists who had just crashed into the ceiling, falling to the ground, shaking and getting up.
And the leader whose secret manual had just been snatched by him, his eyes still teary.
"Wu Xingkong is dead, from now on, only I can relieve your ’Life and Death Talisman,’" Su Que said lightly:
"Report the location of your sects, associations, and clans, along with the timing of ’Life and Death Talisman’ activation. When the time comes, I will visit your place to ease your pain."
"The premise is, you must work for me."
The leaders and deputies of each force, because Su Que still needed them, only suffered minor injuries, and now all stood up.
Hearing Su Que’s words, they looked at each other.
"What do you want us to do for you?" a sect leader asked.
Su Que replied, "I won’t make you do anything difficult."
Upon hearing Su Que’s words, almost none of these people believed him.
However, they knew they were now under Su Que’s control, helpless.
So, they took turns reporting their forces’ locations, the timing of the "Life and Death Talisman" activation, and so on.
After Su Que noted everything, he rummaged through Wu Xingkong’s bookshelf to see if there was any valuable secret manual or elixir recipe.
After a search, he found the martial arts secret manuals on Wu Xingkong’s bookshelf had no martial arts with side effects.
Though he could exchange these manuals for money after taking them, he no longer needed money.
However, he took all the elixir recipes without even looking at them.
After all, he hadn’t studied alchemy and couldn’t judge the recipes’ quality, so he had to take them back for Elder Qingxuan to see if there was any suitable elixir for him.
Although the elixir recipes passed down by Li Xuanji’s family were also formidable, the difficulty of collecting the ingredients was high, and some materials had to be gathered and purchased from all over the Central Plains.
Now, Chuyun Prefecture, being in an area of the Central Plains close to the Southern Domain, already had significant strength from noble family branches and imperial forces.
If he ventured deep into the Central Plains, he would likely face the main families of the Nine Great Noble Families, some major sects, and even stronger imperial forces.
Now he was looking for elixirs with relatively simple ingredient collection, preferably buying herbs near the Southern Domain, without needing to delve into the Central Plains; even if the efficacy was slightly inferior, it would be acceptable.
After all, such recipes were the ones supporting his continuous, large-scale consumption.
Wu Xingkong, having been stationed long term in Chuyun Prefecture, might have such recipes.
After neatly folding the recipes and tucking them into his clothing, Su Que planned to leave.
Suddenly, he remembered something, paused, and addressed the leaders and deputies of these forces:
"After I leave, you must not engage in conflict. If I find out who started it, I won’t help him alleviate the ’Life and Death Talisman’ pain."
He recalled those forces’ individuals who killed a sect leader without hesitation to seize the "Life and Death Talisman" secret manual.
And as Wu Xingkong was a Gang Condensing Realm martial artist, his hidden secret manuals undoubtedly stirred their greed.
He did not want these people to fight over the manual again, resulting in unnecessary casualties, so he said this.
Of course, he could also take all the manuals away.
Then these people wouldn’t fight over them.
However, he also wanted these people to cultivate the manuals, strengthening their abilities.
After all, these were people working for him. The stronger they were, the more beneficial it was to him.
With that, Su Que performed a lightweight skill and departed from the place.
Now that he had acquired the method of applying the Life and Death Talisman, his next destination was the Ou Family branches residing in Chuyun Prefecture.
He first planned to implant the Life and Death Talisman in the patriarch of the Ou Family branch. If the Court sent new martial artists to fill Wu Xingkong’s commander position, he would then implant the Life and Death Talisman in the new commander.
In this way, he could control the entire route for transporting medicinal materials.
At least for the foreseeable future, he would not worry about running out of Fire Spirit Pill.
By the time the Fire Spirit Pill’s efficacy waned, his strength should have increased significantly.
Then, he could further venture into the Central Plains and open another route for transporting medicine.
Musing over this, Su Que headed towards the location of the Ou Family branch.
...
The night, with faint starlight cascading down.
Three figures dashed across a flat expanse.
One of them, with jet-black hair but a beard mixed with black and white, was a man.
He was the patriarch of the Ou Family branch, Ou Jing.
Though already in his sixties, due to his high martial arts realm and consumption of some treasures of heaven and earth, he appeared only in his forties.
His second son, Ou Qinghe, who was killed by Su Que, had not returned home for a long time.
Suspecting something amiss, Ou Jing hurried out to search.
He considered that if something happened to his second son, the opponent was likely more powerful than his son.
And his second son, Ou Qinghe, was the second most powerful person in the Ou Family branch.
Only he, the first in the Ou Family branch, could potentially defeat that unknown adversary.
To be prudent, he called his brother, ranked third in strength within the Ou Family.
Besides his brother, the other was his nephew, a martial artist with strength merely in the Meridian Opening Realm but adept in tracking skills.
After all, he and his brother were only skilled in martial arts and knew nothing of tracking techniques.
That night, they first sought out information along the way and learned that Ou Qinghe had gone to a city and got into a conflict with someone.
They speculated that Ou Qinghe’s disappearance stemmed from this incident and, after searching the city, failed to find his body.
They could only leave the city and follow the tracks of a convoy.
However, Su Que had ordered those martial artists to drive the carriages while erasing all trails, including wheel tracks, scents, and so on.
Thus, with no traces left, no matter how skilled Ou Jing’s nephew’s tracking skill was, it was tough to track Su Que’s convoy.
Therefore, they resorted to the most straightforward method: visiting nearby cities and villages, asking people if they saw a convoy with eight carriages.
After all, a large convoy was quite conspicuous, and someone was bound to have seen it.
Having all practiced the Celestial Deformed Foot, their lightweight skills were formidable. After about an hour of inquiry, they finally tracked down the eight carriages at an inn where the Heaven-breaking Martial Artists had stopped.
They sniffed around the eight carriages and immediately knew these were the ones they were searching for.
Then, they woke up the sleeping attendant, inquiring about the owner of the eight carriages and their room number.
The attendant, intimidated by their fierce demeanor, immediately told them.
Subsequently, Ou Jing and his two companions seized all Heaven-breaking Martial Artists.
But they discovered these people were not strong enough to threaten Ou Qinghe.
"The truly formidable person isn’t among them!" Ou Jing said gravely.
They then interrogated these Heaven-breaking Martial Artists, realizing these martial artists weren’t aware of the formidable person’s whereabouts.
"First transport the medicinal materials and these people back to the Ou Family, spread the word, and lure that person here," Ou Jing said:
"Moreover, these people can be used as hostages to make that person apprehensive."
Upon hearing this, Ou Jing’s brother and nephew immediately tied up the Heaven-breaking Martial Artists, putting them into the empty carriage once occupied by Su Que.
Then, they drove the carriage back to the Ou Family.
