Chapter 275: Chapter 244: The Same Person (Part 2)

Word came from the sect. There was one more thing he needed to do.

He was to investigate the current situation at the Feng Family’s ancestral land.

He certainly wasn’t going to investigate alone. He would need to bring at least two of the Foundation Establishment cultivators from Iron Tiger Manor with him.

「Three hours later.」

Di Shanhai appeared at the Feng Family’s ancestral land, accompanied by two Foundation Establishment Demons from Iron Tiger Manor.

"What’s going on?"

The scene before them was not what they had expected.

"It looks like... everyone from the Feng Family is dead," one of the Foundation Establishment Demons from Iron Tiger Manor said.

"It’s rare for a Spirit Refiner to directly attack one of our Foundation Establishment Influences. But even then, they shouldn’t have been so careless... It doesn’t look like the Feng Family’s Grand Array was ever activated."

Di Shanhai inspected the area carefully.

He was now completely certain that in the face of the Spirit Refiner’s assault, the Grand Array of the Feng Family’s ancestral land had truly never been activated.

There was usually only one reason for the Grand Array to remain inactive like this.

The Spirit Refiner had successfully infiltrated the Feng Family, and the Foundation Establishment member holding the Grand Array Plate hadn’t noticed a thing.

Then, they were successfully ambushed by this very same Spirit Refiner.

Based on the information he had gathered, Di Shanhai could already piece together the likely course of events.

’A Foundation Establishment Spirit Refiner with strong infiltration skills, operating within the Celestial Cloud Sect’s territory...’

Di Shanhai began to wonder who could have done this. The information he had so far was enough to significantly narrow down the possibilities.

"You two, go search for any surviving members of the Feng Family."

"Understood."

After acknowledging the order, the two Foundation Establishment Demons from Iron Tiger Manor quickly set off.

「Less than an hour later.」

They reappeared before Di Shanhai and shook their heads.

They hadn’t found a single member of the Feng Family.

"Even if there were some Qi Refining survivors from the Feng Family, they must have fled."

"Should we wait here?"

"There’s no need. If they’ve fled, they’ll either head to the Stone Demon Sect or your Iron Tiger Manor."

"Understood."

「On the way back to Iron Tiger Manor.」

Di Shanhai was still thinking. ’This mysterious Spirit Refiner must be found quickly. Otherwise, I might suffer the same fate as Mo Yuanhai back at Iron Tiger Manor.’

...

「Celestial Cloud Sect Territory.」

Within the domain of the Foundation Establishment Clan, the Xiao Family.

Having made his return, Fang Yun had already appeared here.

The operation had gone smoothly. He had not only killed three Foundation Establishment Demons but had also likely eliminated the vast majority of the Qi Refining Demons within the Feng Family.

In addition to the Foundation Establishment Demons, killing these Qi Refining Demons also yielded a significant amount of Talent Points.

Fang Yun briefly reviewed his gains.

’I think I killed ten Demons at the Peak of Qi Refining, which comes out to twenty-eight thousand base Talent Points.’

’I killed a good number of late-stage Qi Refining Demons, many of whom were at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer. But I killed the most mid-stage ones. In the Feng Family, there were fewer early-stage Qi Refining Demons than there were late-stage ones.’

’The number of early-stage, late-stage, and Peak of Qi Refining Demons combined was still less than the number of mid-stage ones I killed.’

’In total, the base Talent Points from all the Qi Refining Demons I killed this time should be close to eighty thousand.’

’But the bulk of the rewards came from the base Talent Points for killing the Foundation Establishment Demons—a total of two hundred and twenty thousand.’

Fang Yun looked inward at his Qi Sea. He still had plenty of Spiritual Power remaining.

He didn’t linger in the Xiao Family’s territory and quickened his pace.

「Celestial Cloud Sect.」

「Evil Extermination Hall.」

Upon returning to the sect, Fang Yun immediately made his way here.

The Foundation Establishment Demons and Qi Refining Demons he had killed needed to be converted into Sect Contribution Points.

When he arrived at the Evil Extermination Hall, he saw a very familiar face: Yang Yingjie.

Having become an Elder of the Evil Extermination Hall, Yang Yingjie was now quite familiar with its affairs.

"Junior Brother Yang," Fang Yun called out.

Hearing the familiar voice, Yang Yingjie immediately turned his head.

"Senior Brother Fang, what are you doing here..." Yang Yingjie quickly came over. "Quick, let me see! Just how many Demons did you kill this time?"

In the Evil Extermination Hall, the record that had left the deepest impression on Yang Yingjie was Fang Yun’s previous feat of killing four Foundation Establishment Demons—two at the early stage and two at the middle stage.

"They’re all in here." Fang Yun took out the Storage Pouch containing the Demons’ heads and handed it directly to Yang Yingjie. "Go ahead and count them."

"You got it."

This was normally a job for a Steward of the Evil Extermination Hall.

But as an Elder of the hall, Yang Yingjie was temporarily taking over the task.

He was thrilled to be able to personally tally Fang Yun’s battle records.

"Let’s see... I know this guy. An Elder from the Celestial Demon Sect, middle-stage Foundation Establishment." Yang Yingjie’s eyes landed on Mo Yuanhai’s head first. "Senior Brother Fang, you’re the one who killed the first Celestial Demon Sect Elder in this recent conflict. What are the Elders from Battle Peak going to say about that?"

As he said the last part, Yang Yingjie couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

"Exterminating Demons is the duty of all Elders. The Battle Peak Elders will be delighted to hear the news."

"Hahaha, you have a point, Senior Brother Fang."

Yang Yingjie nodded and continued his count.

"Two more Foundation Establishment Demons, both early-stage and from the Feng Family... that’s six thousand Contribution Points. Killing a middle-stage Foundation Establishment Demon from the Celestial Demon Sect is worth eight thousand Contribution Points..."

Yang Yingjie calculated Fang Yun’s Sect Contribution Points as he continued his tally.

"...The count is finished. A total of seventeen thousand, six hundred fifty-three Contribution Points."

Of that grand total, the Foundation Establishment Demons alone accounted for fourteen thousand points.

"Senior Brother Fang, it looks like you’ve annihilated the entire Feng Family of Demons."

"I’m not yet certain if I managed to wipe them all out," Fang Yun replied.

Although he had moved quickly and dealt with the Feng Family’s Qi Refining Demons swiftly, he couldn’t be one hundred percent certain that he had completely eradicated them.

Yang Yingjie said, "Even if you didn’t get every last one, it’s close enough."

Yang Yingjie wasn’t overly surprised as he tallied the Demons Fang Yun had killed.

In his eyes, it was relatively normal for Fang Yun, despite still being in the early Foundation Establishment stage, to be able to infiltrate the Feng Family’s ancestral land and accomplish this.

He was well aware of Fang Yun’s mastery of Artifact Refining.

Powerful Spiritual Artifacts could have helped Fang Yun infiltrate their ancestral land. And as an Elder of the Evil Extermination Hall, Yang Yingjie was naturally aware that the detection capabilities of the Feng Family’s Grand Array were known to be poor.

"By the way, Senior Brother Fang, does the Celestial Demon Sect know it was you?" Yang Yingjie asked.

If the Celestial Demon Sect knew, it would mean that even though Fang Yun’s infiltration was successful, his identity had still been leaked.

"They shouldn’t know yet."

"That’s good."

Yang Yingjie nodded. In that case, the news of Fang Yun annihilating the Feng Family, a Foundation Establishment Clan of Demons, had to be kept under even tighter wraps.

If such news were to be shared at all, it could only be among the upper echelons of their sect.

「After leaving the Evil Extermination Hall.」

Instead of returning to his cave residence on Artifact Casting Peak, Fang Yun first went to Dan Cloud Pavilion on Dan Cloud Peak to accept an Alchemy task.

The task was to refine Purple Essence Pills.

Depending on the cultivation cycle of the main Spirit Medicine, the Purple Essence Pill refining task could become available again in as little as two years or take as long as ten-some years, though it typically never took more than twenty.

This time, the interval was short; only a little over two years had passed since the last one.

’I wonder how many batches of Purple Essence Pills I’ll be able to refine this time?’

Fang Yun wondered to himself after accepting the Alchemy task.

If he could refine six batches of Purple Essence Pills this time, he would usually be able to produce an Upper Grade one.

Refining an Upper Grade Purple Essence Pill was much more difficult than refining an Upper Grade Cyan Clarity Pill.

As long as the Spirit Medicine wasn’t subpar, he could now consistently refine three Middle Grade Purple Essence Pills per batch. However, he still needed to accumulate more experience over several batches before he could produce an Upper Grade one.

After leaving Dan Cloud Pavilion and returning to Artifact Casting Peak, he finally entered his cave residence.

Refining the Purple Essence Pills could wait for now.

First, he needed to check if the Storage Pouches of the three Foundation Establishment Demons contained any Spiritual Materials he could use.

Borrowing the power of a Demon Stone to channel Demon Power, Fang Yun opened the three Storage Pouches.

Opening a Storage Pouch after its owner’s death was usually a simple matter.

After laying out all the Spiritual Materials from the pouches, Fang Yun allowed himself a small smile.

"Not a bad haul at all."