Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

Qu Ye's side.

After Sun Shaoan lost his breath, he still used the Gengjin Sword Technique to cut off his head from a distance.

Once he was sure it was safe, he swallowed a Rejuvenation Pill to restore his nearly depleted magical power, and then slowly stepped forward.

Looking at the storage bag next to Sun Shaoan's body, Qu Ye was about to take it when he suddenly remembered something and stopped.

Instead, control one worker bee and have it carry the storage bag.

The worker bees floated in mid-air without any abnormalities, so he felt relieved and probed them with his divine sense.

The bag contained more items than he had imagined, with various pills neatly arranged together, as well as several low-grade talismans.

Beside a pile of clothes, there were also many spirit stones piled up.

At first glance, it looks like at least eighty yuan!

Before Qu Ye could even feel happy, he saw a token lying quietly on the right side of the pile of spirit stones.

A large character was prominently engraved on it:

Sun.

Qu Ye frowned, withdrew his divine sense, and controlled the worker bees to put down the storage bag without touching any of the items inside.

How did this person come to have the Sun family token?

Could it be that this person robbed and killed a disciple of the Sun family?

Qu Ye shook his head, ruling out that possibility.

This person has an endless array of tricks up their sleeve. Not only do they possess mid-grade magic artifacts, but they also have mid-grade first-tier spirit pets. These are not things that could be obtained through a single ambush. Their identity must be extraordinary.

In other words, the other party is very likely a member of the Sun family.

"This is troublesome."

After figuring this out, Qu Ye quickly took out some dry firewood, piled it next to the corpse, and then lit a spiritual flame to destroy the evidence.

Although he didn't know why the Sun family disciples were disguised and here, based on the special fluctuations he had sensed earlier, he figured it wouldn't be an ordinary exploration.

Since this is not an ordinary exploration, there must be other members of the Sun family present!

The corpse was burned by the spiritual flames and was quickly unrecognizable, leaving no trace of its previous state.

Qu Ye cleaned up the battlefield, collected the bees, and after confirming that nothing was missed, he resolutely killed the worker bee that had touched the storage bag.

Before leaving, he glanced at the storage bag next to the corpse, a moment of hesitation flashing through his mind, but he quickly suppressed his greed and left.

……

Wang Meng seized the opportunity, killed the Red-tailed Scorpion, and was happily collecting materials.

This Crimson-tailed Scorpion is a mid-grade first-tier demonic beast, with its venom sac and stinger being the most valuable. All things considered, it's worth nearly thirty spirit stones!

However, he also knew that the strange behavior of the monster just now should have been caused by the battle on Qu Ye's side, and half of the profits should be shared with Qu Ye.

Even so, there are still fifteen spirit stones!

"Xiao Bao's apprenticeship gifts are finally complete."

Wang Meng peeled off the red-tailed scorpion's shell and put it into his storage bag.

Wang Xiaobao was of average talent, so after discussing it with Aunt Chen, they decided to send Xiaobao to learn a skill of cooking.

However, when asked to become an apprentice, the other party demanded a high price of thirty spirit stones.

He was originally worried about this matter, but now that he has the Crimson-Tailed Scorpion material, plus some spirit stones he has saved, it should be enough.

Having gathered all the materials, Wang Meng was preparing to search for Qu Ye when he sensed an aura rapidly approaching.

This aura belonged to Qu Ye.

After leaving the woods, he followed the trail of the Red-tailed Scorpion to this place, where he happened to see Wang Meng collecting the materials.

When Wang Meng saw Qu Ye, he was about to greet him when he noticed Qu Ye's serious expression, so he also suppressed his smile.

"Uncle Wang, let's go quickly, don't stay here."

Qu Ye spoke urgently.

"OK."

Wang Meng also realized the seriousness of the matter. Without asking any further questions, he nodded and followed closely behind Qu Ye.

The two rode their magical artifacts, heading back along the same route into the night.

This was originally a very dangerous thing, but fortunately Wang Meng had traveled this route before and was familiar with the dangers, so he escaped unharmed.

During the journey, Wang Meng recounted his experience of fighting the Red-tailed Scorpion to Qu Ye, including the Red-tailed Scorpion's sudden drop in energy.

Qu Ye breathed a slight sigh of relief after hearing this.

He originally planned to have Wang Meng find a secluded place to discard all the materials related to the Red-tailed Scorpion.

Judging from the appearance, the Crimson-tailed Scorpion and the Sun family disciple likely only had a normal spirit pet contract.

If the owner dies, the spirit pet will be severely injured, and the spirit contract will naturally dissipate.

There was no way the Sun family could find the two of them through the remains of the Red-tailed Scorpion.

However, Qu Ye still told Wang Meng that the other party's identity was not simple, and if he wanted to sell the materials, he would have to wait a long time or go to another market to sell them.

After hearing this, Wang Meng could not hide his disappointment, but he could also distinguish the importance of the matter and did not object.

Just fifteen minutes after the two left.

Two figures appeared in the sky above the forest where Qu Ye and Sun Shaoan were fighting.

The forest was now ablaze, billowing thick smoke that had swallowed up everything in its path.

One of the figures snorted coldly, his aura revealed, and spiritual light flashed in his hand. Numerous water spheres with a diameter of half a meter appeared out of thin air above the forest.

He actually has the cultivation level of the ninth level of Qi Refining!

Then, the man waved his right hand, and many water spheres connected together, forming a water film large enough to cover the forest, which slowly descended.

Sizzle...

The flames were extinguished by the water film, emitting a piercing hissing sound.

By the time the flames were completely extinguished, large sections of the forest had turned charred black.

The two then descended from the sky and, using their senses, located Sun Shaoan's storage bag.

Next to the storage bag was a clump of bone-white ash.

The cultivator who had cast the water ball stood still, retrieved the storage bag, and after examining it, his face darkened.

"They were so cautious, they didn't take anything."

Another cultivator asked in surprise, "Uncle Han, you didn't take the spirit stones either?"

Sun Yanhan shook her head.

The Sun family will prepare a spirit stone with a special mark for each disciple, which can only be detected by unique means.

This spirit stone is not usually used and is mixed in with a pile of ordinary spirit stones. If a disciple of the Sun family is robbed and killed and the other party takes the spirit stone, the Sun family will find out quickly.

After all, many people are wary of other things, but they have a lucky feeling about the spirit stones they have obtained.

Sun Yanhan turned to the other cultivator and asked, "Are you sure there are only two of you?"

"That's right, I remember it very clearly. And from the time Brother Shao An chased after him until I discovered the fire in the woods, it was no more than a quarter of an hour."

The other person answered truthfully.

Sun Yanhan nodded, took out a communication talisman from her storage bag, said something, and the talisman turned into ashes, merging into the ashes scattered on the ground.

He looked at the pile of bone powder and sighed softly, "Collect Shao An's remains carefully and take them back for a proper burial."

"Yes."

The other person accepted the order and left.

.........

The Sun family.

Sun Shaofeng was sitting cross-legged in meditation when he suddenly noticed that the middle one of the three communication talismans beside him was trembling uncontrollably.

"Has something happened?"

He picked up the communication talisman, held it to his ear and listened carefully. After listening, a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

"Two rogue cultivators... Shao An..."

He did not suspect that the Hou family had discovered the arrangement, because if it were the Hou family, they would not have sent only two people, and only to kill Shao An.

From this perspective, he can only be a rogue cultivator.

Not only that.

He remembered that Shao An had excitedly come to tell him not long ago that his pet had finally broken through to the middle grade of the first rank.

Even if the spirit pet can't defeat the opponent, it can at least restrain one of them.

In other words, Shao An was killed by another person within half a quarter of an hour in a one-on-one battle.

Excluding cultivators of the same level from the other two major families, then…

Sun Shaofeng stood up, walked out of the cultivation room, and quickly went to the clan leader's residence to report the matter.

Once he left his residence, he summoned all the elite disciples of the Sun family and ordered them to search the market for any mid-stage cultivators with a cultivation level of five or above who had recently left the area, under the pretext of the theft of a spiritual object.

Foreign monks who have recently entered the market should also be carefully investigated.

We must find these two people and silence them.

After finishing these tasks, Sun Shaofeng returned to the cultivation room and calmly waited for the others to set up the nodes.

In fact, the appearance of these two people had little impact. The other side did not see the true role of the node and found it difficult to detect their schemes against the Hou family.

"It's just a pity about Shao An..."

Sun Shaoan had a good relationship with him and they often interacted.

He had considered the possibility that it was two Qi Refining Level 4 cultivators, but those who could kill Sun Shaoan at the Qi Refining Level 4 level were most likely elite disciples from the four major sects.

Even if they were to trace such a behemoth, the Sun family couldn't afford to offend it, so they might as well pretend they didn't know anything.

It's a way of saving face for myself.