Cultivating Immortality from the Book of Life and Death

Chapter 538 Secret Conspiracy. (Second Update!)

A moment later, Zheng Que completed the soul search.

He closed his eyes slightly and quickly sorted through the memories he had just retrieved.

Zhuo Tingchen was a member of the Zhuo family of Yanzhou.

The Zhuo family has been entrenched in Yanzhou for a long time. Their ancestors produced important ministers in the Six Ministries. Although their descendants did not reach the same level, they still produced several local officials. Their family has never declined and can be considered the most powerful family in Yanzhou, which is incomparable to ordinary cultivation families.

This Zhuo Tingchen is the most outstanding disciple of their generation and is highly valued. His current cultivation level is at the late stage of Foundation Establishment, just like Yan Dong and Song Jiaoyin.

The opponent seems to have many trump cards. When the ghost tide broke out, he relied on a magical artifact to hide with his subordinates deep underground, thus escaping the calamity.

Furthermore, Zhuo Tingchen had a great reputation in Yanzhou since childhood due to his family's influence. After entering Xue Tong Pass, in addition to the subordinates sent by his family, he also had many followers among the ordinary examinees. During this period, he had basically integrated the examinees in Yanzhou and had completely established the market town, with shops, resource points, caravans... everything was available.

The location of its market town is not too far from the place chosen by the Old Ancestor of Shiqi, but the location is better and there are more resource points around it.

The fact that Zhuo Tingchen was able to build the market so quickly suggests that he likely had a Core Formation stage cultivator secretly assisting him!

However, Zheng Que found no relevant clues in the yellow-robed cultivator's memories...

"Zhuo Tingchen's strength is about the same as Yan Dong and Song Jiaoyin."

"One-on-one, he is no match for me."

"His subordinates pose no threat to me either."

"The only thing we need to be careful of is the Core Formation stage cultivator hiding around him..."

While pondering, Zheng Que withdrew his five fingers from the yellow-robed monk's head.

As soon as he released his grip, the yellow-robed cultivator collapsed, with faint traces of white foam at the corners of his mouth. His aura was extremely weak, and his expression became dull and blank. His wide-open pupils were slightly unfocused, clearly indicating that his soul had been severely damaged.

This is only because the other party is a Foundation Establishment cultivator. If it were a Qi Refining cultivator, they would probably have lost all their intelligence by now, becoming crazy and confused.

However, once you reach the Foundation Establishment stage, your soul is much stronger than when you reach the Qi Refining stage. Given enough time, you can gradually recover.

Zheng Que ignored the other party and walked to the side of another yellow-robed cultivator. Just as he was about to use the Soul Searching Technique again, Mu Xiangu's voice suddenly entered his ears: "Core Formation cultivators are coming, and there's more than one!"

Ok?
There's more than one Core Formation cultivator?
Zheng Que immediately realized what was happening and said, "Let's go!"

The next moment, Mu Xiangu flicked his sleeve, and a cloud of gray-black wind rose from the ground, instantly sweeping up Zheng Que and Xue Shuangzi, and they disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Shortly after the gloomy wind departed, two figures quietly appeared in the same spot.

The newcomers were a fat man and a thin man. The fat man was like a mountain of flesh, wearing a red robe and a soft turban. He had thin eyebrows, long eyes, and a fair complexion. There was a faint smile on his lips, making him look very kind. He had a water pipe hanging at his waist. His cultivation level was early stage of Core Formation. The thin man was withered and sickly, with a pale face. He wore a brown wide-sleeved robe, which looked like it was wrapped around a bamboo pole. He was light and weak, and his eyes were bright and sharp. His cultivation level was higher. He was in the middle stage of Core Formation.

As soon as the two stood still, they quickly glanced around before their gazes fell on the two unconscious yellow-robed cultivators.

The red-robed cultivator frowned immediately: "Is it the [Iron Tree Prison]?"

The sickly cultivator shook his head slightly and pondered, "I don't know." "The one who broke the formation should only be a Foundation Establishment cultivator."

"With only Foundation Establishment cultivation, there are very few candidates among those participating in this Immortal Examination who can break through the formation uniformly distributed by the imperial court head-on."

The red-robed cultivator nodded thoughtfully and said, "It might be that Heavenly Rank Foundation Establishment cultivator from Qingrao Prefecture in Tuzhou."

"It will block the young master's way."

"If there's an opportunity, take care of it secretly."

The sickly cultivator nodded almost imperceptibly. In Qingrao Prefecture of Tuzhou, a candidate who had reached the Heavenly Rank Foundation Establishment level had emerged.

All the examiners in the imperial court are now aware of this matter.

Before entering Xue Tong Pass, they paid a price by buying a lot of information about the examinees, and this Heavenly Rank Foundation Establishment examinee was one of them.

After looking around and confirming that there were no other valuable clues, the red-robed cultivator walked directly to the two unconscious yellow-robed cultivators, then reached out and grabbed the head of the yellow-robed cultivator on the left, and just like Zheng Que had done before, began to search his soul.

"what!!!"

The shrill screams echoed through the valley for a long time. The Soul Searching Technique personally performed by the Core Formation cultivator was obviously more domineering and tyrannical. The yellow-robed cultivator whose soul was being searched was convulsing violently, foaming at the mouth, and blood was faintly seeping from his seven orifices. He looked horrific.

Soon, the soul search ended, and the yellow-robed cultivator collapsed limply, his eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness.

The red-robed cultivator frowned, but did not speak immediately. Instead, he walked to the side of another yellow-robed cultivator and continued searching the soul.

The yellow-robed cultivator was the one whose soul had just been searched by Zheng Que. He had not yet recovered when the red-robed cultivator searched his soul again. At this moment, he could not even let out a scream. His body convulsed so much that it was almost twisted into a ball, like a bowstring stretched to its limit. After it was taut to a certain point, all the struggles suddenly subsided.

At this moment, the red-robed cultivator completed the soul search. He casually threw the yellow-robed cultivator on the ground, only to see the yellow-robed cultivator collapse like a pile of mud, without making any further movements. In a short while, his body gradually stiffened and cooled, indicating that he was no longer alive.

Seeing this, the red-robed cultivator didn't seem to care. Although these two Foundation Establishment cultivators were also the young master's subordinates, they were of little value at the moment. It would be better to provide them with some useful clues!

Thinking of this, the red-robed cultivator sorted through the memories he had just retrieved and said, "It's not the [Iron Tree Prison]. The three Foundation Establishment stage examinees who came here just now were."

"They are Ren Danzhu, a female cultivator from a small town in Yanzhou; Nie Fangchen, a female cultivator from Bozhou; and the Heavenly Rank Foundation Establishment cultivator from Qingrao Prefecture in Tuzhou."

"However, these two good-for-nothings were too weak. They didn't even see what their attack method was before they passed out."

"It must have been done by that Heavenly Foundation Establishment cultivator."

Upon hearing this, the sickly cultivator nodded and calmly said, "Those two female cultivators are not on the list of those you need to pay attention to in this immortal examination, so they are obviously not important."

"The real focus is that kid who's at the Heavenly Foundation Establishment stage."

"He just left here not long ago, so he shouldn't have gone far."

"Chase!"

(End of this chapter)